Reichsvertretung Reports on Emigration

Warm recognition of the assistance given to German Jewry by Jewish organizations all over the world and particularly by the American Joint Distribution Committee, the Central British Fund for German Jewry and the Jewish Colonisation Association, is expressed in the report for 1935 of the Central Committee for Relief and Reconstruction of the Reichsvertretung der Juden in Deutschland, which has just been issued here.

The report gives a complete survey of the emigration movement of Jews from Germany. It states that up to the present about 30,000 Jews had left Germany for Palestine, and from between 15,000 and 20,000 for other overseas countries. In future particular attention is to be paid to emigration of family groups, especially of families belonging to the middle classes. An attempt is to be made to create a certain co-operation between emigrants possessing capital and those who are without any means.

The number of Jews capable of emigrating annually is given as between 12,000 and 20,000. The report states an attempt to settle at least half of that number in productive employment in Palestine and the other half in overseas countries will be made.

In reference to Palestine, the report points out that it is absolutely necessary that more certificates be at once issued to German emigrants, and particularly certificates for artisans.

During the past year 143 such certificates had been issued, while 2,719 persons left Germany for Palestine on labor certificates during the same period, and 910 left on certificates for relatives. About a thousand children were sent to Palestine by the Youth Aliyah.

In discussing the question of the emigration to European and overseas countries which is being carried out through the Hilfsverein, the report emphasizes the growing number of such emigrants. Stress is also laid on the difficulties facing those who wish to emigrate to European countries. Altogether 927 persons emigrated from Germany in 1935 to European countries and 1,617 to overseas countries. Of these 1,618 were German nationals and 926 were foreigners and stateless. Several hundreds of thousands of marks were spent on assisting these emigrants to leave Germany.

So far as the problem of re-emigration is concerned, the report points out that 9,998 persons had been dealt with in this category as compared with 11,236 during the previous year. Forty-five per cent of these were cases of internal transference.

Between April 1, 1933 and December 31, 1935, a total of 9,669 Jews left Germany for Palestine on labor certificates as well as 827 schoolchildren and students, and 2,185 relatives, making a total of 12,671. During the same period 12,545 persons left for other countries, 8,688 for European and 3,857 for overseas countries. The re-emigration for the same period amounted to 39,928 persons, of whom 32,420 were men. Altogether, therefore, 65,144 Jews had migrated during this period. These figures, the report points out, refer only to persons who had received public assistance.

The report next turns to the relief measures of the various Jewish relief organisations in Germany, and it points out that in Berlin 28,69 marks per head of the Jewish population are spent on relief, in Breslau 11.02 marks, in Hamburg 12.04 marks and in Mayence 19.63 marks. In a large number of Jewish communities about a fourth of the total income of the community is spent on relief. In Berlin the average of relief expenditure has increased from 22.84 marks per head of the Jewish population in 1934 to 28.69 marks in 1935; in Dresden, during the same period, the increase was from 8.50 marks to 13 marks; and in Stettin from 10.78 marks to 11.55 marks.

The report further discusses the position of Jewish education in Germany, particularly in connection with the law segregating Jewish children in elementary schools. The number of Jewish children in Germany between the ages of six and fourteen amounts to 44,000, of whom about 20,000, the report states, are already receiving their education in Jewish schools. At the present time 1,057 Jewish teachers are in employment and about 450 are unemployed. A large number of Jewish teachers will have to undergo a special course of training to enable them to cope with the new conditions.

The report also analyses the economic activities of the Reichsvertretung department for Jewish economic assistance, particularly in regard to the liquidation of Jewish enterprises. Altogether 62,000 persons sought advice from the various Jewish economic advisory organizations in the past few years. Particularly effective were the activities of the Jewish loan banks which number 60 altogether – 36 local banks and 24 district banks, and increase of 15 banks as compared with last year. The total capital of these banks amounts to 1,200,000 marks, about a third of which represents credits of the American Joint Reconstruction Foundation. Altogether about 880,000 marks were loaned out during 1935 to 2,200 persons, and average of 347 marks per person.

The report next considers the special measures taken to assist special professional groups, such as doctors, dentists, veterinary surgeons, chemists, teachers and artists, and it emphasizes the fact that about 35.9 per cent., or 2,145 Jewish medical practitioners in Germany are over 55 years old, and only 9 per cent are under 35. About half of the Jewish doctors in Germany, the report states, must be over 50 years old.