[A.
Destruction of the Jewish existence in Poland
1929-1939]
[5.5. Work of Joint Distribution Committee in
anti-Semitic Poland]
[Factors in anti-Semitic
Poland: Government - population - no economy - no
political resources]
This, then, was the situation facing JDC in Poland - a
mass catastrophe of the largest Jewish community
outside the United States: a hostile government, an
anti-Semitic population, and no local economic or
political resources to draw upon.
JDC could not send to Poland more than it received from
American Jewry. Table 12 shows that from 1934 on -
even in the face of the decline in JDC income and
expenditure in 1935 - the importance of Poland in JDC work
increased steadily, in spite of the German emergency. By
1937/8 fully one-third of all JDC work was done in Poland.
[JDC: Jews in Poland are
not the only case]
This paralleled the attitude of the Jewish Agency, noted
earlier, in granting the majority of Palestine immigration
certificates to immigrants from Poland, despite the German
emergency. The situation described above was constantly
brought to the attention of the JDC Executive Committee
members in New York. They were torn between the needs of
German Jewry, the necessity for supporting German Jewish
refugees in various European countries, the need for
supporting emigration, the urgent needs of Romania,
eastern Czechoslovakia, and Lithuania, the obligation to
wind up the Russian work in an organized fashion and,
finally, the desperate situation in Poland.
Several problems confronted JDC in Poland. A major problem
was whether to enable at least a certain proportion of
Polish Jews
Table 12:
Expenditures by JDC in Poland
|
Year
|
Total JDC expenditure (in $)
|
JDC expenditure in Poland (in $)
|
Percentage of total
|
1933
|
665,754xxxxxxxxxxxxx
|
123,700xxxxxxxxxxxxx |
18.5xxxxx |
1934
|
1,382,326xxxxxxxxxxxxx |
136,280xxxxxxxxxxxxx |
9.8xxxxx |
1935
|
983,343xxxxxxxxxxxxx |
216,532xxxxxxxxxxxxx |
20.7xxxxx |
1936
|
1,904,923xxxxxxxxxxxxx |
464,529xxxxxxxxxxxxx |
23.7xxxxx |
1937
|
2,883,759xxxxxxxxxxxxx |
943,830xxxxxxxxxxxxx |
32.7xxxxx |
1938
|
3,799,709xxxxxxxxxxxxx |
1,245,300xxxxxxxxxxxxx |
32.7xxxxx |
(p.190)
to emigrate and thus partly alleviate the situation for
the rest. In the early 1930s all such ideas were rejected
out of hand. "With the doors of the world closed to
immigration in the largest measure, Jewish life will have
to be reconstituted in the lands in which large Jewish
populations abide", declared Hyman in 1934.
(End note 36: R17-Hyman's draft report to the Executive
Committee, 8/24/34 [24 August 1934])
This was the JDC attitude until 1935/6.
