Millions of Jews Are Being Crushed by German Army in Soviet-nazi War, Troper Reports

Millions of Jews are literally being crushed under the heels of German armies in the new war zone of Eastern Europe, Morris C. Troper, chairman of the European Executive Council of the Joint Distribution Committee, declared here today, following his return from Lisbon by Clipper. Mr. Troper will consult J.D.C. leaders here on relief plans in connection with the vast additional distress which the recent war developments have created.

More than 3,000 refugees will soon arrive in the United States or in Latin American countries, according to Mr. Troper. Those who can emigrate will be here within one month. Some 2,000 of them have already secured their visas to the United States and 1,300 are scheduled to sail from Spain or Portugal. There are no more than 1,500 Jewish refugees left today in Portugal, he revealed.

“In the war zone of Eastern Europe,” Mr. Troper said, “millions of civilians are suffering again as they did in the fall of 1939, but this time to a far more intensive degree because the fighting is more prolonged and bitter. In that area literally millions of Jews are being crushed under the heels of the German armies. Newspaper headlines today are strikingly similar to those of 1914 when German and Russian armies battled over the same regions, when the Jewish population was caught in the cross fire, and the Joint Distribution. Committee was established in the United States as an instrument to relieve their sufferings.

“But there is a factor in the situation which did not exist in 1914. At strategic points in the Eastern European war zone there are Jewish committees and organizations prepared to carry on the work of emergency relief even while the fighting is in progress. These are organizations built up and nurtured through a quarter of a century by the J.D.C. They have at their disposal hospitals, schools, clinics, children homes, nursing organizations, child care centers. They have courageous and experienced personnel. They know that the J.D.C. is behind them that help will be forthcoming. We of the J.D.C. must be prepared, with the support of America Jews, to give that help, over and above the extensive relief program which the J.D.C. has been conducting in German-occupied Poland.”