In August 1942 , Rabbi Wise received a cable from Gerhart Riegner , the WJC representative in Switzerland . Riegner reported that the Nazis had planned , and were implementing , a policy to exterminate all of European Jewry ; the cable also referred specifically to the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp . After the U.S. State Department confirmed the accuracy of the information in the cable , now known as the Riegner Telegram , the AJCongress convened a Joint Emergency Committee . The committee sought to coordinate the major Jewish organizations in the United States to lobby the Roosevelt administration to take increased measures rescuing European Jews . In December 1942 , the American Jewish Congress established a Planning Committee , which sought support for a variety of rescue proposals . The committee was never more than marginally successful in mobilizing American public support for rescue efforts . The most impressive of these projects was another rally at Madison Square Garden . Held on March 1 , 1943 , the rally drew a crowd of 70,000 . Similar rallies were subsequently held in a number of cities throughout the United States
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