THE WILL TO LIVE

[Music] [Applause] e [Music] watch them closely with your heart's attention they might be our children yours and mine but as it is let's say they're just statistics a year ago in Europe their lives were locked inside the Doom which hands like these have started to erase mark this too upon the chart of understanding a crowded Hudson River pier about to birth a load of passengers intent on mouring Fast their future to America and Palestine another entry in the books recording gain and loss involved in rescuing a people and now go back to Desolation such as this to see the progress made since these assembly lines of fascist death were captured from the axis we found that almost a million and a half had somehow managed to sustain that spark which had been taken from 6 million others by those who knew so well the tactics and devices of mass murder Army doctors tried to close the wounds but medicine had been out distanced by the strides in torture those brought back this side of life gathered in yards for services Memorial comrades mourners barely More Alive than those they mourned said Yar and remembered how the dead had died it remained for us here in America to join that service and we did we carved a monument to martyrdom with our labors for the fraction who [Music] survived we heard the cry last year and answered with our contributions to a great United Jewish appeal for brothers overseas we helped provide the transport that carried men across in Desolation back to loved ones still among the living but most of those returned to places left as home found no one to receive them and no shelter left in which to mourn their loss we shipped emergency supplies enough at least to start the job of living the wheels of our relief trucks raced along the still Fresh Tracks Of Tanks we sent food enough to serve a million meal a day clothes enough to outfit cities orders caed from the field were all marked rush and funds supplied through uja made possible delivery in time to stop the flood of hopelessness it's Springs from unabated Hunger nakedness and ailments too long unattended a thousand routine Miracles transformed supplies we sent the food the medicines and needed instruments into progress toward recovery for those whose lives had been particular targets of aggression the most important letters of their alphabet became jdc for joint distribution committee this agency translated your expressed concern into concrete aid for a million Jews and the children who' been [Music] offered it was a thing of Wonder to see how Veterans of disease and hunger and aloneness could rally when provided with these goods and services men liberated from concentration camps were ransomed too from helplessness in shops established with our funds they started manufacturing tomorrows for those whose childhood time was spent in schools where the single C was Butchery and the passing grade Survival by the hour Mastery of crafts and classes organized by jdc helped thousands to attain the coveted diplomas of self-sufficiency for 100 thousands more who can remain in Europe the goal this year is just such self-sufficiency in salvaged ruins of venerated synagogues the chant of ancient prayer each Sabbath again brings highest tonic for the task ahead the banners which Harrow their attack upon the future are simple things men use for building freedom in Adriatic Villages once tenanted by fascists those who cannot stay in Europe learn the ways of Fisher folk preparing in rehearsal to dovetail with the methods used in Palestine in hakara of farming they practice the routines of husbanding the land it takes a deal of doing before those long cramped in concentration camps adopt the free and easy swing of farmers and learn the deaf sure step with which one guides a plow but under spur of hope they manage it and as they do scores of others come to fit themselves for livelihood in [Music] erro last year the jdc and the United Palestine appeal held 26,000 Jews break with a dismal past and lay their roots in the Jewish [Music] homeland 1,500 come each month and preparations of high welcome must be made for thousands more most are marked with illnesses demanding the immediate and prolonged care that's given on arrival by the Jewish agency all of them and all of those yet to come need clothing and relief for the people seeking new beginning in Palestine today are not the stalwart Sons and Daughters who 20 years ago buil settlements of self-reliance they who come today are sick and destitute they are the stripped and beaten whose strength was spent in battling for [Music] survival time with healing the training of the harara pays off techniques rehearsed while waiting immigration are passports to joining and work of Brothers the land that's B by the Jewish National Fund is extended and developed by the karay into potential for a people men like high whitesman and others less well known are fashioning the key to Treasures waiting in Mineral rich soil now being claimed through all the generations this people has honored than one honor through Scholars and Prophets men of wisdom and humanity and today the learning is applied to work and understanding of this native soil universities now Crown the glory that's indigenous to Palestine and in the streets below the busy talk is punctuated with the rhythmic lilt of words once used for Psalms by Solomon but the poet song Today revolves about the building an extension of economy that must be ready for 100 thousands whose arrival is looked for by the clock make no mistake the Pioneers who folded back the desert don't ask financial aid aid that's given by the UPA goes to integrate the thousands now arriving within the loom of reconstruction it goes to Foster Industries for immigrants whose one collateral is eagerness to take a hand in building up the land that's meant to cradle long awaited rebirth of the people in farm cooperatives across the reclaimed land assignment boards like this are used to hand out shares of work in building [Music] [Applause] Sanctuary the people of The Proud yib would see to it that these their own come home at last would soon regain whole stature of humanity they'd see to it that men who'd borne all of the indignities have cataloged by evil would learn to walk head high [Music] again others of our people turned for Sanctuary toward America where respect for human rights has been enshrined as guiding principle since the days of Plymouth Rock and William Penn last year brought arrival of 15,000 refugees whose most precious baggage was the sharp reminder that this nation's greatness has been made by immigrants all of us were represented at the dock by United service for new Americans it's this agency which guides them through the bewilderment of landing and reassures them through the quivering suspense of moments stretching to Eternity before they find their loved ones waiting reassurance also was given by the words of Henry morgant Jr General chairman of the uja the work of human rescue and Rehabilitation which we are witnessing today is just one part of the worldwide humanitarian Endeavors sustained by United Jewish appeal we see here here the working out of a pattern for dealing with the international problem of refugees and displaced persons in our own country and throughout the world which is made possible only because of the private generosity and sacrifice of Americans who support the United Jewish appeal their day of Landing starts a calendar of Hell first a wholesome meal that's spiced with demonstrated friendship temporary shelter in rooms where blessed privacy a sharp relief to dreary years and crowded Barracks a chance to relax and shed The Haunting fears and then sympathetic realistic guidance by social workers trained to help them launch their lives as new Americans to help them find the job that's key Stone to well-being counseling them to enter fields in which America needs new willing hands most of them with years lost in concentration camps need training for crafts they never had a chance to master or retraining in in the skills they lost by this use the major step toward full self support is their resettlement they must be moved to towns and cities across the land where friends enlisted by United service can help them join their life and work with all America it was scenes like this now being lived which one merely hoped for sustained the will to live beyond a decade of Affliction and it scenes like this which sustain our pledge that new Americans shall quickly learn the meaning of his land it's this fulfillment that can force the gates of Entry now a jar to open wider and in so doing illustrate for other lands the Axiom that people are an asset thus have been recorded the accomplishments in 1946 of the agencies of uja attested here by Mrs David M Le working together we have achieved a new stur we have given more than we thought it was possible to give and have found ourselves richer in this year that faces us we must rededicate ourselves to new tasks to new work to a new communal effort that will transend anything that has gone before we cannot at this time leave half completed a task that we have so nobly started nobly started and well done but hardly well enough and certainly not [Music] done in Council Halls of Statesmen their salvation has long been high on the agenda this commissions of distinguished men investigate and make reports but their reports don't make salvation instead with anra out the curve of governmental Aid keeps dropping when the world cares less we must do more remember that and remember to the homeless on the roads that lead with cruel Meandering toward what's still a dream of [Music] Freedom their wandering is whipped by fear and fact of Pon by such proof as that at Kelch last year that hitlerism beaten has yet to sound its Last Retreat for us this moment would be Bleak but for these our people pausing at NAD in bitter flight from fear and death in Poland roadside aers respit from the black aloneness of all their [Music] yesterdays the last station on the way is in somber camps our army has set up in US zones of occupation a name's been coined to label neatly the poison of aloneness that eats away the heart displac persons DPS light and easy on the tongue DPS 85,000 a year ago the latest ulation 250,000 correct the books DPS uh 1/4 million you don't take a minute and the smothering despair closeting their hopes dissolve a dark to nightmares of remembrance even those with sharpest sympathy to weigh against indifference could do no more than [Music] sympathize what can be done what can be done by us listen to Edward warberg chairman of jdc make firsthand report the whole picture is that these survivors this 1,200,000 who survived of the 7 million seem to have in them Consolidated intensified the heritage of those that died it is tremendously important that you who have worked so hard realize that you are not involved in philanthrophy you are involved in the preservation and the dedication of the spirit of a people this people that will not die not die no that core which is their spirit will not die but what shall be their way of life the way of free men alive in Hope and dignity or life in darkness clutching to the fringes of a world that shows so little faith to victims first attack and now the first abandon the world is not replying with command performances when called by need needs so urgent that unless we meet this deadline we'll meet still another line of dead today our brother's courage their will to live depends on you except for you they stand alone [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh