Relief Program for Victims of Hitlerism Outlined by United Jewish Appeal

Details of the far-flung relief and rescue program for the victims of Nazism in allied and neutral countries, maintained throughout the present world conflict with the support of the American Jews, were outlined here today at the Biltmore Hotel at an extraordinary Executive Committee meeting of the United Jewish Appeal.

In the report presented to the Executive Committee of the UJA, which is the fund-raising instrument for the Joint Distribution Committee, United Palestine Appeal and National Refugee Service, William Rosenwald, Rabbi Abba Hillel Silver and Rabbi Jonah B. Wise, National Chairmen, emphasized that: “Total effort on the front for human reconstruction must keep pace with total effort on the battlefronts for democracy if the ideals of free civilization are to prevail.” They pointed out that President Roosevelt, Prime Minister Churchill and other United Nations’ leaders had stressed the importance of sustaining the courage and faith of the millions who have been temporarily conquered by the Nazi armies.

The report indicated that the Joint Distribution Committee had extended assistance to 930,000 persons in some 50 countries throughout the world in 1941 and that during 1942 it was confronted with even greater needs. At present the Joint Distribution Committee is required to extend aid to 2,000,000 refugee Poles who are now in Russia in a non-sectarian relief program in collaboration with the Polish Government-in-Exile. Since Pearl Harbor the Joint Distribution Committee has arranged for the emigration of 5,000 refugees from Europe, bringing to a total of 260,000 the number of victims of Hitlerism who have been helped to escape by this agency since the beginning of the Nazi regime in Germany in 1933.

Through the United Palestine Appeal, the report stated, American Jews are now providing the means for the fullest mobilization of the manpower and resources of Palestine for the defense of democracy in the Middle East. In the first three months of 1942 three thousand Jews entered Palestine with the help of the United Palestine Appeal. Altogether, 38,000 Jewish refugees have come into Palestine since the outbreak of hostilities in September, 1939. A total of 266 agricultural colonies established by the United Palestine Appeal are producing large quantities of foodstuffs for the armies of the Middle East.

The report pointed out that on the home front, the National Refugee Service is furthering the war effort and promoting American unity by its programs for retraining, resettling and adjusting loyal aliens to the war economy in order to enable them to share in the nation’s all-out war effort. In view of the need for skilled labor, the National Refugee Service has placed Special emphasis on making available to war industries individuals who can find employment in our production program without displacing American workers. One of the must important new responsibilities of the National Refugee Service is that of guidance and aid to refugees in loyally complying with wartime alien regulations and restrictions, the report said.