Dalia Ofer.pdf - WNLibrary

60 ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION IN THE FIRST YEARS OF WORLD WAR II
goslavian Jewish communities bore the brunt of the effort to assist them. In
this, they demonstrated commendable solidarity with their fellow Jews. The
government, in response to British pressure, continued to demand that the
refugees leave the country; but at the same time, the authorities were sensitive
to the fate of the refugees and to the position of Yugoslavian Jewry. 56 Spitzer
himself was tireless in his efforts to obtain assistance for the refugees.
Concern for the Kladovo group was especially great because of the living
conditions they had to endure. Inadequate hygienic conditions led to disease
both in the cold winter months and during the hot summer. The situation
improved somewhat after July 1940, when the refugees were permitted to set
up camp on shore. In September, they were transferred to the town of Sabac
on the Sava river, 250 kilometers northwest of Kladovo, and farther away
from the Black Sea ports. There the refugees lived in solid buildings and were
able to organize a more orderly social and cultural life. Funds were scarce,
and in reports to the JDC Spitzer noted that the Jewish community had spent
12.5 million dinars ($625,000) from January to December 1940 to maintain
the refugee group. Aid for all the refugees in Yugoslavia totaled 30 million
dinars, half of which had been raised locally. Spitzer wrote to the JDC:
We will need $55,000 per month. We leave it to you to determine how much
a small community can raise on its own for these purposes. In Yugoslavia
there are 70,000 Jews. If we assume that we can raise half of the amount
locally, that means that each family must contribute five dollars a month. This
is a very large sum. S7
The JDC, the prime source of funds for maintenance of the group, demonstrated
a certain ambivalence. 58 Formally, the JDC was opposed to illegal
immigration, but in some sense it was forced to take such a position. It was
an official organization recognized by the United States government, and it
wished to cooperate with the British in refugee aid committees. During the
course of 1939, the attitude of the JDC to aliyah bet developed and led to
direct support of it as a way to save thousands of Jews from the Reich. At
first, the JDC assisted the refugees only through the agency of the Jewish
communities where they found shelter. When the war started, the JDC received
an ever-growing number of appeals for assistance from groups unable
to continue their journey. The host communities wanted the refugees to leave
as soon as possible, for they were a drain on local resources and their prolonged
stay was likely to have adverse effects on the attitude of the governments
concerned.
In this situation, the JDC was called upon to relieve the budgetary and
other pressures on the communities by granting assistance both to the refugee
groups on their way to Palestine and to the aliyah bet organizers. It helped
in the acquisition of ships, and gave aid to the Mossad, the Revisionists, as
well as to Storfer. The JDC determined the level of aid to be given to each
of these groups according to its judgment of the soundness of each one. That
was the instruction it gave to its European representatives, Morris Tropper