J.D.C. Allocated $5,208,400 for Overseas Relief Work During First Half of 1943

The sum of $5,208,400 was allocated by the Joint Distribution Committee in the first six months of 1943 for aid to Jewish refugees and to war-ravaged Jewish communities abroad, it was announced today by Joseph C. Hyman, executive vice-chairman of the J.D.C. This represents an increase of $1,582,090 over allocations during a similar period of 1942.

Sharply increased allocations for the maintenance of thousands of refugees now in Spain, Switzerland and Portugal comprise a major portion of the six months appropriations. This refugee emigration, for the most part, commenced in the summer of 1942, when deportations from France were ordered, continued at an accelerated rate after the German occupation of France and, despite tightening of Nazi border patrols, is still proceeding. It is estimated that 8,000 persons have crossed the Pyrenees into Spain and 6,000 have entered Switzerland. In both of these countries, it has been necessary for the Joint Distribution Committee to supply food, clothing, shelter, medical aid, and in the case of Spain, to obtain release from internment camps and prisons, on guarantees of maintenance, of large numbers of women, children and men not subject to military service.

Plans to rescue thousands of Jewish children from occupied Europe, which were initiated last year, have not been abandoned, Mr. Hyman declared. The six months budget, he pointed out, includes, in addition to the maintenance guarantee for the 1,000 French children, in the event that they are brought into Switzerland, an appropriation of $105,000 for the transportation of three groups of 250 persons each from the Balkans to Palestine, through Turkey. These groups are the vanguard of 4,500 children and 500 adults for whom Palestine visas have been issued. Their departure is being delayed pending exist visas from Bulgaria. Included, also, in the six months budget are grants for general emigration purposes, for the transportation requirements of refugees from Turkey and the Balkan states to the Isle of Cyprus and for a group of Yemenites from Aden to Palestine.