Evening star., 1925-12-13
VAST, TRAGIC MICRATIONS
OF JEWISH PEOPLE SHOWN
Records of American Committee Reveal
Magnitude of Wanderings
Since Great War.


women and children. enacted in a con-
tinent-wide perilous wandering in
search of hope and haven, Is disclosed
IN report just released from the
archives of the American Jewish joint
distribution committee describing the
activities Of its department on refu-
gees and repatriation. 1t reveals in
It's full historic sweep the poignant
physical tragedy, the grim tornado
wake of broken human life, out of
which the Jews of eastern Europe, by
sheer force Of the will to live and the
primal search for bread, are salvag-
ing the spiritual structure of their
existence amid the changing social
formations of new nationalities and
the pressure of new economic order
The joint distribution committee
was created during the war as the
central disbursing agency of the
great national American Jewish relief
organizations. Its overseas activities
In war relief and reconstruction aid.
ramifying through AZ countries, have
extended through the entire II years
since the great conflict began. Its
operations have been carried through
at total cost to date of more than
1900. 900, the combined gift by
voluntary contributions of Jewish
citizens of every section Of the United
States.
The account shows the tremendous
movements of people propelled from
the nub of war opera tions in eastern
Europe like great tidal inundations
into the adjacent countries. 1t in
cludes a series of geographical charts
or significance like the geological
! maps which show the successive in
curSionS of the ocean waters upon the
| earth. fixing their force for all time
| ON the shapes of the continents.
These chart in terms of place and dis
lance a racial displacement of over
whelming proportions never before
graphically summed up in this way.
Vast Shifting of People.
The historical significance of this
migratory movement" says the re-
port, which has been made public by
David A. Brown, chairman of the sl5,-
OOO,0OO united Jewish campaign, lis
still today not readily apparent. The
world has never before seen such a
vast shifting Of Jewish life as has
followed the events of the past 40
years, and received such sharp re-
newed impetus as a result of the war
The care Of refugees and repa-
triates was a task that challenged
the skill and ability Of every social
body in Europe and America The
League of Nations, the American Red
Cross, the Y. NJ. c. A, the Friends
were among the larger organizations
operating departments for the care
OF the fugitive masses. The fact that
the League of Nations, representing
more than 40 countries, appointed a
special commissioner, DIR. Fridjof
Nansen. for refugee and repatriate
activities, is an indication of the
yyh ha CIT
| regarded.
Many Lands Had Share.
Practically every European land
was faced with it's share of the prob
| lem. To Italy. France. Belgium, Hol-
| land. Germany. and Danzig an arm
| OF the wandering stream stretched
! out from the East, carrying with it
| the thousands for whom the ocean
/, crossing meant deliverance."
! The effect of this current in it's
| postwar phase reached to the West
| ern Hemisphere in the impending
mass migrationS. to which the new
immigration restrictions in all lands
rose as a defensive barrier. Con
versely. the closing of portals every
where has been an added pressure for
readjustment Of these people in their
old homes in Europe.
1t is conservatively estimated that
the number of Jews torn from their
homes during the war and subject
to repatriation in the countries from
which they had fled was from 400, 900
to 100000. OF these perhaps 300, 900
to 350,000 return to their homes.
Army of Exiles.
This army of exiles was made up Of
the people who during the move
ments of the armies had fed or been
evacuated from localities occupied or
threatened by an enemy. Among
them were also prisoners of war who
at the conclusion of hoStilities found
themselves in alien lands, and also
the Eastern European Jews who had
been drafted into compulsory labor
| in Germany during the war. and in
| the final collapse were thrown on
their own resources.
The refugee movement was a flight
| from horrors to any place that might
offer physical safety and means of
! existence for the moment. Hounded
| and driven about in q vast never-rest.
! ing army of misery, when the chance
! of repatriation came they suffered
| equally in the journey back, and from
! the rigors and actual dangers of get.
| ting across the frontiers, especially
where their re-entry was legally pre-.
|
! mer domiciles only to fird themselves
| homeless. Those who had been evacu-
ated knew nothing until their re.
| turn-sometimes after years-of the
| havoc wrought upon their dwellings
( in each advance and retreat. They
| found the sites of their old dwellings
| devastated, shell-holed and overgrown
with weeds. Whole towns and vii
| lagos had been wiped out.
Need of Assistance.
When at last the turmoil of the
war and the subsequent conflicts in
Eastern Europe subsided, and repatri-
| alton efforts began under reciprocal
| treaties among the various govern
ments concerned, the conditions re-
| sulting from this grim pilgrimage of
peril. disorga nization and suffering
made plain the imperative necessity
| for assistance to incoming refugees
and repatriates, and especially to the
Jews among them.
| The tasks that faced the various
governments" the report says, were
manifold. Housing quarters had to
| be provided, medical attention was
| urgently necessary, occupations had
to be found. All this depended on a
! rapid return to normalcy within the
countries, and this was retarded, in
| Poland mainly, by the fact that addi-
tional hundreds of thousands of home
less and helpless individuals in tran.
sit We're thrown upon the shoulders
| of the government as class demand.
| ing special treatment. 1t is not diff
| cult to understand. therefore, that the
native populations were not overcor.
dial to the minority elements who
composed the greater part of those
returning"
| 100000 Deported From Poland.
| 1t is officially estimated that over