Language:
Portuguese
Year of publication:
2007
Titel der Quelle:
Israel, ontem e hoje
Angaben zur Quelle:
(2007) 59-70
Keywords:
Zionism History
Abstract:
From 1941 on, after the Balkans were occupied by the Germans, Portugal became the main channel for sending food packages to Jews incarcerated in Vichy camps in France and in Polish ghettos. This was possible due to the facts that the Portuguese government permitted Jewish organizations and individuals to operate within its borders for the benefit of persecuted Jews in occupied countries, and the Portuguese Red Cross was prepared to cooperate in sending parcels. Dwells on the two central figures who organized these consignments: Nathan Schwalb, a representative of Hehalutz in Geneva, and Abraham Silberschein of the World Jewish Congress, who acted through the Jewish organizations RELICO and the Lisbon-based COMASSIS. It was only after the Allies' declaration of December 1942 that many mainstream Jewish organizations in the free world joined these efforts. At a later stage of the occupation (in 1942-44), the German authorities in the Polish ghettos and camps increasingly intercepted and seized these packages.
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