The Duchy of Luxembourg has now embarked upon a novel method of helping Jewish and other refugees from Germany. It has issued a special set of postage stamps bearing a surplus tax, which will be devoted to the assistance of refugees.
The number of refugees from Germany now in Luxembourg is not large. Considering, however, the small size of the country, any influx of foreigners dependent upon charity, is a burden to the government.
As a country which covers the major part of its budget by issuing stamps which are of value to stamp collectors, the administration of Luxembourg hopes that
The special tax levied on the postage stamps this year will be sufficient to provide the necessary relief for the refugees.
INTERNATIONAL RELIEF
In issuing the special set of stamps, the Luxembourg government feels confident that these stamps, because of their purpose, will attract interest, not only in Luxembourg but all over the world. The government believes that the new stamps will be regarded as a means for an international relief action to alleviate the distress of the displaced scientists, artists and other professionals from Germany and to afford them a breathing spell until they can adjust themselves to a new life.
These stamps are of exceptional interest. They display symbolic images of those whom the issue is meant to help. They represent a professor, a painter, journalist, an engineer, a chemist, a lawyer and a physician—all those who have been ousted from their positions by the Nazis in Germany as non-Aryans.
ONE YEAR IN CIRCULATION
The “refugee stamps” now issued by the Luxembourg Government will be in circulation for one year only. They will travel all over the world proclaiming the warm-hearted generosity of a minute country which has given practical expression to its sense of duty toward humanity by helping those to whom humanity owes so much.
There are hundreds of refugees now in danger of actual starvation, not only in Luxembourg but in other countries neighboring Germany. The humanitarian postage stamps issued by the Duchy of Luxembourg will no doubt be of benefit also to those refugees who are not at present in Luxembourg. It is expected that a proportion of the income which the Luxembourg government expects to derive from the “refugee stamps,” will be divided is also why the “refugee stamps” Luxembourg through special committees.
COMBATTING INDIFFERENCE
In these days of political insecurity and economic depression, when innumerable professional workers in Germany, Austria and other countries are deprived of the possibility of carrying on their professional activities and earning a livelihood, the novel method of relief devised by the Luxembourg government will in a measure serve to rouse other nations from the general indifference to the position of the professional in exile. It will make the purchasers of the “refugee stamps” feel that they are directly contributing toward the alleviation of the precarious position of the refugees.
This is why the government of Luxembourg ought to be congratulated for its original idea. This is alsi why the “refugee stamps” of the Luxembourg government will find a ready circulation in many countries outside of Luxembourg.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
