[I. 6.27. JDC
saving and working for Jewish Children]
One of the main characteristics of the mass emigration of
(p.271)
1938/9, and one intimately connected with Britain, was the
emigration of unaccompanied children. JDC had nothing to
do with the immigration of adults into Britain, but it
played a significant part in the attempts to save as many
children as possible from German-occupied lands before the
war (and it was to play a similar role during the war
itself).
The movement to save the children started in England.
Between March 1936 and November 1938, 471 children from
Germany, 55% of them Jewish (many of the rest were
probably "non-Aryans"), were brought there and cared for
by an Inter-Aid Committee supported by the Council for
German Jewry. The Friends and other Christian groups also
participated in this committee.
After the November 17, 1938, pogrom, Lord Samuel became
chairman of a subcommittee that was to promote the
migration of children. On November 21 a delegation of the
Council for German Jewry and the Inter-Aid Committee was
received by the home secretary, who promised his support
in getting the children into Britain. That same evening he
announced his support in the House of Commons. As a
result, the Movement for the Care of Children from Germany
was organized, which undertook to guarantee that the
children would not become public charges and that they
would reemigrate before they reached the age of 18 or when
their training in Britain was completed.
Two summer camps for youth at Harwich and Lowestoft were
used to provide immediate accommodations. In Germany,
Austria, and the Czech lands, Jewish organizations and
such groups as the Quakers set up procedures to get the
children to Britain. JDC had no direct contact with this
work in Britain, but through its cooperating committees in
Europe it was involved in sending the children to the
safety of England.
[326 children brought to
the "USA"]
A plea by Mrs. van Tijn to accept large numbers of
children into the United States could not be answered
affirmatively. The U.S. organization for placing refugee
children was limited both by the strictness of the quota
laws and by its own limitations. In November 1938 it could
take 326 children, but of these, 177 children in (p.272)
Germany already had their affidavits; so that the U.S.
could at that point consider the immigration of only 149
children.
By contrast other European countries did follow the
British example. Holland accepted 1,850 children, Belgium
took 800, France took 700, and Sweden 250. Of this total
of close to 13,000 children, 2,336 came from Austria,
about 8,000 from Germany, and the rest from Danzig and the
Czech lands.
(End note 132:
-- Germany file, movement for the care of children; and:
-- Movement for the Care of Children; first annual report;
London, no date, pp. 3-9)
[Over 3/8 of the JDC
expenditure for "refugee countries" 1938-1939]
When one looks at the total monetary effort expended by
JDC in aiding refugees in the different countries, the
figures are quite impressive. In 1938 and especially in
1939 there is something of a quantitative jump as compared
with previous years. In 1939 over three-eighths of the JDC
expenditures were devoted to what was known in JDC jargon
as "the refugee countries".
Table 20: JDC
Expenditures in "Refugee Countries"
|
Year
|
1933
|
1934
|
1935
|
1936
|
1937
|
1938
|
1939
|
Total spent (in
thousands of $)
|
182
|
467
|
149*
|
311**
|
428
|
858.2***
|
3,243,[000]***
|
*R14, 1935 report gives $ 205,000
**R13, 1936 report gives $ 239,820
***The figures for 1938 and 1939 are
appropriations, not expenditures.
|
(End note 133: Sources:
-- R21, draft report 1939;
9-27, Kahn report, September 1938;
-- refugee countries were France, Holland,
Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Italy, and
Czechoslovakia).
|
