New Survey Establishes Only 30,000 Jews Survived in Poland; 500 Jewish Children Remain

A survey of the Jewish situation in liberated Poland made public here today reveals that there are only 30,000 Polish Jews in all of Poland About 500 of them are children. Most of the survivors range in ages between 25 and 40

The survey, prepared by Berl Mark. a member of the praesidium of the Central Comittee of Jewish Organizations in Poland, says that the surviving Jews can be classified into four categories: Jews who emerged from their hiding places in caves and in the woods – their health is seriously undermined and they are incapable of physical or mental labor, 2. Jews who have been liberated from concentration camps in Oswiecim, Piotrokow, Czestochowa and East Prussio. These are mostly women who need medical treatment, since their bodies are mutilated from medical experiments made upon them by German doctors; 3. Jews liberated from the Lodz Ghetto. The majority of them are skilled workers; 4. Jews who secured false identity documents. Their nerves are shattered because of the prolonged disguise.

The survey also mentions Jewish partisans and speaks of them as a section of Polish Jewry which is physically and mentally healthy and which "forms the backbone for the restitution of Jewish life in liberated Poland." The surviving Jews are concentrated in Praha, the suburb of Warsaw and in the cities of Lublin, Lodz, Bialystock, Crestochowa, Piotrokew, Raden, Przemysl, Krasne, Ml nsk-Mazowieck and a number of small townships.

Apart from the 30,000 Jews in Poland proper, there are Jews who have returned there from Soviet Russia, the survey discloses. These are primarily specialists and soldiers who served in the polish Army which was formed in the USSR. They are now participating in the rehabilitation of Jewish life in Poland.

URGENT RELIEF IE MAJOR PROBLEM; GOVERNMENT GRANTS 14,000,000 ZLOTYS

The survey shows that the principal problems which the surviving Jews face are the urgent need of relief, the acute shortage of medical aid, and lack of employment. Local Jewish committees are functioning in all cities where Jews are concentrated. These committees are affiliated with the Central Relief Committee for the Jews in Poland, presided over by Dr. Emil Sommerstein. The central committee distributes the relief received from abroad and is also organizing constructive relief through cooperatives and workshops.

The Polich Provisional Government is actively supporting the work of the central Jewish relief committee, and has granted 14,000,000 slotys credit to Jewish organizations. The government also helped in the re-opening of four homes for Jewish children in Lublin. Bialystock, Otwock and Przemysl. It returned a number of Jewish communal buildings to local Jewish committees and secured a Jewish printing plant in Lodz where Jewish infermations bulletins are now being published. This is the only Jewish print shop in Poland.