[3.8. Joint's money
questions - percentage of the sectors]
[Joint does not want to have
dollars
to change in Germany - payments abroad - payments by the German Jews]
Very soon the problem arose of whether to send dollars into Germany. In
1933 and 1934, and to some extent even in 1935, dollars were sent in;
but JDC was looking for a way to prevent foreign currency from accruing
to the Nazi regime through JDC's support of German Jewry. As early as
July 24, 1933, James N. Rosenberg penned a memo to Paul Baerwald and
Felix M. Warburg saying he was against sending dollars to Germany,
(End note 47: 14-47)
and by (p. 125)
the end of the year a way was found to avoid this. In a letter dated
December 16, 1933, Eric Warburg, son of Max M. Warburg, wrote to James
N. Rosenberg that the German Jewish financial expert and friend of the
Warburg house, Hans Schaeffer, had worked out the so-called educational
transfer plan, which had the approval of the German authorities.
(End note 48:
-- 14-46; and:
-- Warburg archives at Cincinnati (hereafter, WAC), Box 316 (d),
interview of James G. McDonald with Dr. Fritz Dreyser, vice-president
of the Reichsbank. It was apparently at this meeting that the final
details were thrashed out and the Germans consented to the
implementation of the scheme).
Under this scheme well-to-do parents would send their children abroad
to study; they would pay for this in German marks at a somewhat higher
rate than usual, the money to be given to ZA [Central Committee,
Zentral-Ausschuss] or RV [Reichsvertretung]. JDC would then pay all the
children's fees and expenses in hard currency abroad. It took some time
until all the needs of ZA could be covered in this way, but generally
speaking no dollars were sent into Germany by JDC after 1935.
ZA's budget was for the central organizations only. The communities had
their own budgets and raised taxes to meet them. ZA's central budget
was met by local collections, contributions by the communities, and the
grants of foreign organizations. But in actual fact, German Jews were
covering the larger part of their needs themselves, and JDC contributed
only to a part of the German Jewish community's effort, namely, to the
budget of ZA.
[The split of the funds according
to sectors]
The money thus received was then spent on the various ZA activities in
different proportions. For example, in 1935 emigration accounted for
some 20 % of the expenditure, whereas in 1936 this rose to about 40 %.
Economic aid and vocational training remained fairly stable at around
25 % of the budget. All the other items - schools, welfare,
organizations, and the like - took less by percentage, but with the
overall increase in the budget this did not mean a reduction in
absolute figures. On the whole, these were the proportions that
prevailed in subsequent years as well.
Some small sums of money allocated by JDC to Germany did not go through
ZA. Late in 1933 the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) offered
their help in dealing with individual cases in Germany, where
operations through recognized German agencies were impossible or
inconvenient. Much of this work was actually only half legal, and the
Quakers did the job very efficiently. The relationship between the two
agencies, based on a common (p. 126)
Table
5: JDC Expenditures in Germany
(in German marks - about 2.5 marks per $)
|
Year
|
JDC
expenditure
|
Total ZA
budget
|
Total
raised in Germany
|
JDC
percentage of ZA budget
|
1934
|
855,427
|
2,418,146
|
13,000,000
|
35.0 %
|
1935
|
933,000
|
2,863,000
|
21,000,000
|
32.5 %
|
1936
|
1,188,884
|
4,123,125
|
|
28.7 %
|
1937
|
1,610,000
|
4,400,000
|
20,000,000
|
36.3 %
|
(End
note 49:
Based on the following main sources:
-- 28-30 - ZA reports for 1935 and 1936
-- 28-3 for the 1937 RV (ZA) budget;
-- R22-ZA report for 1934
-- R19-annual report for 1933;
-- R16-annual report for 1934, and Kahn's report for 1934, 1/3/35 [3
January 1935]
-- R15-Kahn's Bulletin for I.1936;
-- R13-draft of 1936 report, 5/28/37 [28 May 1937]
-- and Baerwald's letter to F.M. Warburg, 3/3/37 [3 March 1937];
-- Executive Committee meetings of 1/4/34, 3/6/35, 2/10/36, 12/9/37;
-- summary by E.M.M. Morrissey on 3/2/36 in WAC, Box 345 (a).
The figures unfortunately show fairly wide discrepancies, sometimes of
over $ 10,000. The problem of the exchange rates had a great deal to do
with this; we have relied chiefly on summaries made after the close of
each year, for internal purposes, and have disregarded claims made in
public).
|
Footnote:
JDC expenditure: JDC in New York had the following figures
(this included small allocations that did not go through the ZA
budget): 1933: $ 197,000; 1934: $ 440,000; 1935: $ 290,000; 1936: $
546,000; 1937: $ 686,000
(End note 50: Kahn to JDC, September 1938, 9-27)
Footnote: Total raised in Germany: That is, the total sums raised for
public purposes by all Jewish groups, communities, and organizations,
including RV [Reichsvertretung] and ZA [Central Committee,
Zentral-Ausschuss].
Footnote: JDC percentage of ZA budget: Local fund raising brought forth
42.8 % of the funds for the 1935 budget of ZA, 41 % in 1936, and 35.8 %
in 1937. The difference between that and the JDC contribution, on one
hand, and the total required, on the other, was provided largely by ICA
and the Central British Fund for German Jewry (CBF).
|
idea of service without political strings, had been very close ever
since World War I; in the German emergency this relationship prompted
Kahn to say, "I should like to do something for the Quakers, who have
behaved very well, as always."
(End note 51: 22-Gen. & Emerg. Germany, AFSC)
Reports by W.R. Hughes, the Quaker representative in Germany in 1934/5,
gave JDC some insight into the type of work the Quakers did. Apart from
the Quakers, JDC also gave money to other nonsectarian efforts, the
total for the period up to 1936 being $ 116,557.
(End note 52: 29-Gen. & Emerg. Germany, nonsectarian relief)
