The hopes of thousands of Polish Jewish refugees in Rumania and the Baltic countries were focused on American Jewry today as their sole salvation as they fought disease, starvation and inclement weather with the totally inadequate assistance afforded by local relief groups.
Many of the refugees were only a month ago comparatively wealthy residents of Poland. They fled before the Nazi armies in their summer clothing and with hardly any of their belongings.
Lacking warm clothes, adequate food and bedding, the refugees are easy prey to disease. While local Jewish communities have organized relief committees in Cernauti, Riga and kaunas, their available funds are hardly sufficient to provide food let alone such necessities as shoes, coats and blankets.
Meanwhile, the Joint distribution Committee has been asked to provide winter clothing for the thousands of refugees from Germany who are in France, Belgium and the Netherlands. The Jewish Refugee Relief Committee here has asked the J.D.C. to provide at least 15,000 blankets for German-Jewish refugees who are being held in isolation centers. While the refugees are well fed in the centers, they lack warm sleeping facilities and have no warm underwear.
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.
