American Jewish Joint Destribution Committee (JDC)


Figure 1.--The NAZI Holocaust was beyond the scope of any private humanitarin group to effectively address. The American Jewish Joint Destrubution Committee (JDC) did what they could. Only with the iberation of Europe and the defeat of the NAZIs was the JDC able to relief supplies to the survivors. The JDC played an important role in the DP camps and the resettlment of the survivors. The press ption here read, "Displaced Jews enroute to Palitine. Approximately 450 Jewish children, mostly orphans, arrived in Frankfurt April 12 [1946] from UNRRA centres arounf Munich in the first leg of their journey to Palestine. They will sail aboard the 'S.S. Champillon April 17 fom Marseilles. They are bing sent Palestine under the auspices of the Americn Joint Distribution Committee and the Jewish Agency for Palestine. Associated Press photo shows displaced Jewish youths and children beung carried in [U.S.Army] trucks from the railway station to a hotel on arrival in Frankfurt." Notice that the Jewish youth are mostly teenagers. Younger children had little chance of survival. These young peope are fortunate as entry into Palestine was aproved by the British. Resettlment of many Jews in the DP camps proved difficult because the British restricted entry to Palestine. Put your cursor on the image for an enlargement.

The American Jewish Joint Destrubution Committee (JDC) was estanlihed after the Ottoman Empire entered World War by joining the Central Powers. This isolated Jewish communities in Palistine and the wider Middle East cintrolled by the Ottomans (1914). The JDC was formed by a temporary collective of three existing religious and secular Jewish organizations (the American Jewish Relief Committee, the Central Committee for the Relief of Jews Suffering Through the War, and People’s Relief Committee). (1914). Jewish communities in the Pale also suffered as the Germans n the Eastern Front pushed into Poland (1915). This temporary effort turned into a permnent effort. And with the rise of the NAZIs in Germany (1933), once of the greatest humanitarin crises in history developed. At first it was primrily German Jews that were targeted. With the outbreak of the War and the the NAZI Holocaust (1939), all of European Jewery faced the threat of annihilation. The severity of the crisis was beyond the capability of any privte organization to address. put new, unprecedented demands on the American Jewish community and JDC to respond. And the bility of the JDC to help was severly restricted as NAZI conquests expanded making it imposible for the JDC to operate in the contries where Jews were most threatened. As the NAZIs reverted to mass miurder, relief efforts could do little. ThevJDC did what it could. The managed to get 81,000 out of NAZI-occupied Europe to safety. The JDC managed to smuggled aid to some Jewish prisoners in labor camps and helped finance the Polish Jewish underground in preparations for the Warsaw Ghetto revolt (1943). The JDC proved to be a major channel to get reports on the Holocaust to American Jewish leaders and the internationl media. After the liberation of Europe progresse and especially with the NAZI surrender (May 1945), the JDC was finally able to get relief supplies to the Holocaust victims. The JDC played a major role in the Displaced Persons (DP) camps









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Created: 7:32 PM 12/23/2015
7:32 PM 12/23/20157:26 PM 12/23/2015