LETTER: Typed letter signed, Circular Letter signed on behalf of the United Jewish Appeal, to Mrs. Rosencrans, July 8, 1946.
Roosevelt, Eleanor. Circular Letter Signed on Behalf of the United Jewish Appeal. [New York, NY]: To Mrs. Rosencrans, July 8, 1946.
Circular letter personalized and signed in full, "Eleanor Roosevelt" in blue ink; single sheet, 7-1/4 x 10-3/8"; on Mrs. Roosevelt's personal stationery with "MRS. FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT / 29 Washington Square West / New York 11, N.Y." at the upper margin; approx. 300 words; folded twice to fit an envelope; "Mrs. Rosencrans" typed in at the greeting.
Mrs. Roosevelt makes a plea for Jewish refugees and survivors now in displaced persons camps. The letter is deeply felt and worth quoting at length:
In Germany I visited four displaced persons camps, where I saw Jews--men, women and children--crowded together in tiny rooms or in underground shelters, without any privacy, living on a diet based on potato soup, the prey of all kinds of disease. In the short time I was there I became more conscious than ever before of what human misery can be.
Seeing how these people must live today gave me the feeling that we Americans have been saved untold misery, and that we must have been saved for a reason. That reason must be that we were expected to live leadership--spiritual, moral and physical leadership. We have the capacity to see that they get the things they need. We can help them get to Palestine--this uprooted people who have no other home to return to; and we have the added responsibility of helping some of them find a home here among us.
I think that the most important thing for us to realize is that a great responsibility lies upon our shoulders and that we must give beyond what we have ever given in other years. I have attended United Jewish Appeal meetings and seen men and women give as much as ten times what they gave last year, aware that only sacrificial giving can help these unhappy people find a future. If we Americans don't give them that help, I don't know where in the world it is going to come from.
When the Roosevelt administration, particularly the State Department, refused to acknowledge the peril to European Jews by Hitler's regime, Eleanor Roosevelt became a quiet behind-the-scenes advocate on their behalf. In 1946 President Truman appointed her a delegate to the United Nations. As head of the United Nations Human Rights Commission, Roosevelt dealt with the plight of the thousands of refugees. The compassion which marked Roosevelt throughout her public career is reflected in every line of this appeal. How many copies have survived of this circular is impossible to know. We hazard but a few. A remarkable letter which loses none of its impact for being a circular.
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