Lublin (Feb. 11)
The first transport of supplies for Jews in liberated Poland arrived here today from Palestine. The Central Jewish Committee, which will distribute the supplies among Jews freed from German camps in the liberated areas, acknowledged the arrival of the transport by wiring a message of thanks to Jewish leaders in Jerusalem.
Broadcasting over the Lublin radio, a Jewish partisan leader, Avrom Abel Berman, disclosed that Jewish underground groups in Poland fought the Germans for more than three years, with varying success. The first Jewish fighting units, Berman said, were created in March, 1942, by the Jewish Anti-Fascist Bloc consisting of the Loft Poale-Zion, the Jewish section of the Polish Labor Party, the Hechalutz organization, the Eashemer Hazair and the Right Poale-Zion. The organization also assisted victims of the Nazis and gave military training to thousand of workers and youths.
This group disintegrated after its leaders were captured and murdered, but its units formed the basis for a now fighting organization established under the aegis of the Jewish National Committee, which comprised the Democrats, Zionists and Socialists. When it became clear that Hitler planned to exterminate all the Jews, hundreds of recruits flocked to join the partisans. More than 100 units were formed in Warsaw alone, and many in the provincial cities.
The Jewish partisans cooperated closely with the polish workers and with all forces fighting for a new, free and democratic Poland, Berman said. Convinced that eventually they would be freed, the underground fighters based their main hope for liberation on the Red Army, he added.