The Record of the Conscientious Objectors

...We have to go to the Germans begging for help...

...when we, here in the United States, realize that it is our duty to feed and clothe the hungry and the naked and when we are able lo hammer home that it is a shortsighted policy to abandon rationing before we are certain that we can fulfill this task, then, and only then, will European Jewry be able to properly start its process of rehabilitation and reconstruction...

...About a month ago -a delegation came from the Joint Distribution Committee, to investigate...

...Valuable weeks and months elapse before the licenses are approved...

...Here exists • white famine...

...However, it is essential that these groups coordinate their efforts so that they can exchange their opinions, report regarding their experiences and work out a common plan lor relief work...

...Hundreds of thousands will perish in fte coming winter...

...On the contrary, the tier mans are better off...

...This mysterious procedure on the other side is amplified with no leas mysterious hindrances in our own country...

...From all parts of Germany and Austria, alarming reports arrive...

...Jewish, (lunch, and political, are entitled to help their respective people...

...Why aren't all voluntary agencies members of the American Council for Voluntary Agencies, Inc., which was created to coordinate all relief efforts...

...When the stage is dually set and relief supplies will flow In sufficient amounts, smoothly, to the other side...

...Any criticism, any suggestion should be a welcomed means of improving and accelerating the process of relief which is an indispensable provision in any reconstruction work...

...Why don't we get help from America...

...About 2.:.0,<MH) polish Jews are still in Soviet Russia wd *« know comparatively little or Pithing about them...

...2—An open-door policy for Paten-tine, abandoning the White Paper policy of 1939...

...Our GIs are wondering why American Jewish organizations are doing so little...

...Private linns announce they are able lo ship relief goods to Austria, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia but only restricted parcel-post facilities have been set up between thees countries so far...

...The transportation certainly will take another two months...

...Most of Ihein have houses or share them with others, but most of the Jews remain in camps aader terrible conditions...

...Now that Ihe war is over, the Veterans League of America is convinced that these men have earned the right to discharge from service on a scale nearer the rate at which the men in the armed forces are being released...

...Palestine has proved to be the homeland for more than 5011.090 Jews whe distinguished themselves ss ardent stalwarts of the Allies before the turn of battle at El Alemein, while the Araks, at the aame time, were lukewarm, if not pro-Nazi...

...So far, it takes months and more months to get shipping facilities from the Russian Occupation Armies...

...This process calls for men and measures, alike...

...This state of affairs is certainly not alone a Jewish problem but in view of the desiitiiiu.ii of the small percentage of Jews who were able to survive, alt Jewish organizations are most anxious to reduce the dangerous and disturbing red-tape and we feel that the appeals from the other side are justified...

...Vk must understand the bitterness which is expressed in all communications reaching the United States...

...These victims proved to be a lot more resentful when their human dignity was hurt than some social workers, at that time, were able to understand...

...This mistake should not be made again...

...They served bravely and unselfishly on numerous bsttlefrorils throughout the world, driv ing ambulances and giving medical as sistance wherever needed...

...What the displaced Jews cannot know are the sometimes insurmountable barriers which are elected agai"st realizing any effective relief scheme...

...They received recently clothing marked 'Gift from the Jews of Brazil,' but none has been received from the USA...

...We are aware of the unselfish aid they gave to hundreds of thousands of patients in mental hospitals throughout the country while working as hospital attendants...

...State aa-sistanre for the eventual rebuilding of Jewish community life in Europe...

...but you Americans seem to do nothing...

...From any pjint ot human consideration, the Jews in living in their home countries have wbe classified as a group in special need jnd they deserve, certainly, in any pro* ft%m ot i chef and rehabilitation, a first-class priority...

...The problem is of such tremendous magnitude that private agencies will be unable lo solve it.- CNRKA, fai more often cursed than commended, is not able to cope with all the pressing needs at Ihe right time and in the right place...

...The Record of the Conscientious Objectors By LEO JOHNSON Secretary, Veteran* League of America Dl'KfNi...

...To imigrste to Palestine is one of Ihe moat often expressed wishes of the liberated Jews...

...Jews in Germany have no opportunity to communicate through regular postal channels with their relatives abroad...

...At the present time, with no apparent justification, it appears that only 15 percent of the Civilian Public Service men will he discharged by (he end of the year compared with 37 percent of the men in the Army ami 32 percent of the men in the Navy...

...We know that the Jews in Hungary, Rumania, and Bulgaria need clothing badly...

...They are still investigating in Iaxndsberg and Kel.l sing...

...Our rations are: dailv, I lb...

...the course of this war, there were innumerable instances of heroism arid self sari in-e, and not all of them took place on the battlefroril...

...They have suffered as soldiers have suffered...

...5—The outlaw lag ef anti-Semitism ss on* aspect of the realisation ef the philosophy of humanity embodied in the Atlantic Charier...

...i\l.L groups...

...or would be objects of snti Semitic persecution...

...They are not allowed to receive any food parcels...

...Thousands of pounds of clothing collected by private organizations are ready to he shipped...

...3—The restoration of Jewish-owned property, including restoration of Jewish community property, such as schools, hospitals, homes for the aged, libraries, synagogues, etc...

...I'NRRA's partial failure has very much to do with political questions as shown at their last London conference...

...Consequently, in the relief program, the private agencies have lo play a tar greater role than they had contemplated...

...Sickening reports of their suffering could till1 volumes...

...They need no longer fear being- burned alive...

...The Germans pity us...

...The criticism published in many newspapers has succeeded in iniproving ths l»t of the Jews slightly...

...We are not their good fathers but their servants...

...The Jews HS being treated as Germans, which ¦nana that in the allocation of foodstuffs they are in the category of the •nderprjvileged...

...Let us hope that these delayed measures will be of some help...

...A few days ago a group of 200 children arrived, almost naked, without shoes...

...o.OOO.OOO food parcels, which were stored by the American Red Cross for American prisoners-of-war, have been slated to displaced persons...

...Jewish chaplains have started a self help program which can !>e only "a drop in the bucket" of sorrow, despair and tears...

...We are considered as Germans, Poles, Hungarians, etc., by the U. B. Army, not as Jews, and get no preference...

...It took, for instance, the Committee for Overseas Relief Supplies (affiliated with the World Jewish Congress and the American Jewish Congress) two months to gel permissio" to ship 20,000 lbs...

...Their condition is, in the main, worse than that of the Ger-mans who are able to supplement their rations with the products of their little gardens or by contacts with relatives...

...However, cables keep arriving requesting the shipment of the clothing in view of the coming winter...

...ei . e • Js Germany and Austria, there are ^griy 300,000 Jews...

...As veterans, we recognize the importance of the improvements in the standard of mental rare which resulted from their efforts...

...The lot of the displaced Jews in Germany is the moot vivid expression of the "Perpetual Tragedy of European Jewry...

...of •read k ilogram of peas and, per month, W of a quart of oil...

...Not even potatoes are available...

...They have a moral right to our help...

...In the last few weeks, the Jews, regardless of their former rislionality in *•* US Zone, have been treated as United Nations displaced persons snd in "*lMn, finally, the Jews were recognised as victims of Nazism...

...As veterans, we are grateful to the many TO's who voluntarily served as human guinea pigs and (hereby helped to control wartime epidemics...

...However, a» serious attempt has been made to give i beni the basis to rehabilitate themselves...

...For months, we haven't bad •ay vegetables, fruits, milk, eggs, fat or ¦eat...

...There is a small committee here concerned with aid for Polish Jaws...

...We, however, are faced with the fact that this coordination work meets with unbelievable difficulties...

...While, for example, commercial goods already have been shipped 'to many comers of the world and private businessmen boast that they get any shipping space within eight days, relief goods are waiting for weeks in the warehouses because no such shipping space is available...

...To discriminate against these men at this time is both, ungenerous and unjust...

...His-action in this matter was affirmed ss right and proper by General Lewis B. Ilershey, Director of Selective Service: "It Ik part of those larger and human conceptions of human lilierly and human personality which are at stake in this war, that the judgments of individual conscience opposed to the national will, should be given consideration and allowed a form of cooperation consistent with its judgments, if they are the result* of religious training and belief...

...What happens to the millions of dollars American Jews contribute yearly to alleviate suffering of Jews?'' they ask...

...The relief worker—Jew or non-Jew—who administers public funds has a sacred duty to see to it that these funds are not being wasted and that they are distributed by a trustworthy and understanding representative...

...After the first World War, the American relief worker was widely disliked by the war-sufferers because he went to Europe to distribute doles but didn't show the sympathetic respect which the war victims craved more than bread...

...Concerning the goods which can be shipped, there is a form of machinery set up which slows up the process considerably...

...The Mayor of Munich ordered a collection of old clothing, for former internees of concentration camps, and our share was 1,500 articles of clothing...

...Of the latter, I only want to mention a few: I—An open-door policy of the Western Hemisphere for Immigration of European Jews, especially to further the re-uniting of Jewish families...

...There is the President's Wsr Relief Control Board through which export licenses, with the now dissolved Federal Economic Administration, have to be applied for...

...In the meantime, many more Jews perish...

...The Veterans League of America recognizes that the Conscientious Objector* was exercising his right as an individual arid as a citizen when he enlisted under the Civilian Public Service provisions of Selective Service, as an alternative lo military service...

...of clothing to convalescents of Bergen-Belsen...

...Further, w* realize that ihsy served in the most hazardous capacities voluntarily, without compensation of any kind Snd with great profit both to ths government and directly to the nation...

...Prom Vienna, an Austrian Jew •ss writes, "We feel terrible since the occupation by the Russians...

...The "form of cooperation" chosen by Conscientious Objectors in Civilian Public Service more thsn justified the faith of the government in recognizing thsir religious scruples...

...in the countryside, to say nothing of Ihe •wit that the so-called 'illegsl' Jews have the added problem of recovering from the serious malnutrition of the last •Vi years...

...I quote only a few sentences from one recent report by a distin-gsished Jewish social worker, which describe* the situation, not alone in Bavaria, but in many areas where displaced Jews have to live...

...The victims of Nazism are not beggars...

...From Berlin an American officer writes at the end of August, "At present, the condition of *«*»e Jews is very difficult...

...Jews here get no relief from UNRRA...

...One example: relief supplies can only be shipped, to displaced persons camps in Germany with the explicit approval of Ihe allied commander of the respective area...

...4—Punishment of crimes committed against Jews since Hitler's rise te power...