Jewish charity organisations (among others, JOINT) and the Polish Red Cross quickly organised aid. In early November, the General Committee To Aid Refugees From Germany (headed by Warsaw Rabbi, Dr Mojżesz Schorr), was established to coordinate the activities of numerous local committees. In Warsaw, a Workers' Aid Committee was established with the involvement of the Bund and the so-called class labour unions. In the press, appeals were made urging people to collect donations for the deportees - food, clothing, blankets and money. Accommodation spaces for over 4,500 persons were prepared in Warsaw and Cracow, while smaller communes accepted a few hundred people. Furthermore, PLN 3.5 million ($700,000) was raised, and JOINT assumed responsibility for aid organisation, while at the same time supplementing financial resources by 20 per cent of the entire sum. 3] Polish intellectuals also made donations, including Prof. Tadeusz Kotarbiński, Zofia Nałkowska, Jerzy Andrzejewski, Maria Kuncewiczowa, Józef Czapski and others. The news stirred up fierce attacks from the anti-Semitic press. [4]
Ringelblum wrote: Giterman's phone appeal was answered by Łódź, Warsaw, Będzin, Katowice, Bielsko-Biała, Kalisz and other cities. They collected undergarments, blankets, clothes, money etc. Giterman set up a whole relief movement for refugees from Germany. Within a few weeks in Zbąszyń, Giterman managed to infect everyone with his extraordinary sacrifice. Thousands of unfortunate people were saved from starvation thanks to him; thousands with the help of "Joint" were moved abroad. [5]
The deportees lived in old military stables, schools, mills, former shooting range, a gym at the local stadium. Wealthier refugees rented rooms from the inhabitants of Zbąszyń. Jewish hospital, school, kitchens, post office, clothing depots and emigration department, as well as choir and sports club, which played football matches with the locals, were quickly established in the town. Courses were launched in carpentry and tailoring. A special family search office was set up, as well as a special childcare department, particularly for displaced children without parents.
Emanuel Ringelblum
Emanuel Ringelblum also hurried to Zbąszyń at the orders of Icchak Giterman, who for five weeks coordinated the relief effort on behalf of JOINT. JOINT activists worked 18 hours a day, saving people from starvation and helping them move abroad. The work revealed Ringelblum's organisational skills and his ability to solve problems. He encouraged the refugees to report on the action, which he considered unprecedented in Jewish history, and to speak Yiddish (he even invited Noah Noahbusz, an actor from Warsaw who plays in the language). Ringelblum later applied the experience gained in Zbąszyń to work for the Jewish Social Self-help in the Warsaw Ghetto and to organise the activities of the Oneg Shabbat group.
Ringelblum tried to create conditions for refugees to live in a way that would undermine their dignity. He did not treat them as beggars waiting for almsgiving; he encouraged them to assume many duties in the camp. In his final report, he noted that of the 420 employees of the various camp departments, nearly all were refugees. He wrote to Mahler that the important thing is that in Zbąszyń there is no distinction between “givers” and “takers”, that what prevails in the camp are good relations, unblemished by humiliating philanthropy. [6]