A drive “to end the food package racket” and prevent the “feeding of Hitler’s war machine” by sending food parcels to relatives in Nazi-held territories was announced here today by the Joint Boycott Council of the American Jewish Congress and the Jewish Labor Committee.
In announcing this drive, Dr. Josef Tenanbaum, chairman of the Council, declared that while German firms which formerly solicited orders for the delivery of food parcels to the Third Reich have been forced to halt by the President’s proclamation freezing Nazi funds in this country, certain organizations and companies continue to ship food parcels to German-occupied Poland and other European territories under Hitler’s control.
“The Council has definite information that food packages shipped so for to Poland have been rifled of their contents by the occupying military authorities”, Dr. Tenenbaum said. “We are in possession of letters from those who received parcels originally containing butter, egg products, and cereals, the letters stating: ‘I received your gift of a little tea. Thank you very much.’ Some packages were stuffed with paper, and little else, when they arrived at their destination.
“The food goes to feed Hitler’s armies and Gestapo agents, while the money goes by an indirect route to pay Hitler’s expenses outside Europe. The firms engaged in this traffic, whether in the hope of alleviating the misery into which Nazism has plunged the European continent, or out of the desire for profit, will be forced by an informed public opinion to cease their unwitting aid to the Hitler juggernaut.”
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.
