THE petition signed by a quarter of a million Americans, Gentiles and Jews, addressed to the President of the United States and presented at the White House by Alfred M. Cohen, president of the B’nai B’rith, is an effective expression of public opinion regarding the outrages perpetrated upon the Jewish people in Hitler’s Germany during the past year. Even though this petition is somewhat belated, it will help to crystallize public feeling toward the happenings in Germany which are depicted with restraint, dignity and care.
“Speech and press, wherever free, unite in condemning this blot on the civilization of our time,” declares the petition. “Hope for its removal rests on a quickened public conscience manifesting itself so unmistakably that the German people, themselves grossly wronged, may come to realize the injustice done in their name not alone to Jews but, in their government’s treatment of the Jews, to all mankind.”
And the B’nai B’rith requests that the petitions be presented to President Roosevelt “so that with an accompanying note written in the spirit of fairness and with the vision for which our President is so worthily distinguished, they may be forwarded to the German government.”
When the petition, signed by distinguished American Christian clergymen protesting against the Beilis ritual murder case staged by the Tsarist government, was presented to Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan with a request to have it transmitted to the Tsar, Secretary Bryan suggested that the document be presented direct to the Russian Ambassador. That was done. The memorandum was delivered to the Russian Ambassador, who returned it to Bishop Grier, whose name headed the list of the eminent ## of that powerful protest. The Russian Ambassador refused to accept the petition to be forwarded to the Tzar. But the press of the United States devoted much attention to the protest and denounced the Tsarist attempt to justify its pogrom policy by the Beilis ritual murder affair. The Russian Ambassador undoubtedly cabled the contents of the petition to his government, even though officially he declined to accept it. Our Government did not transmit that protest through diplomatic channels, but Tzarist Russia knew what representative American Christian spiritual leaders thought of its cruel machinations.
The Russian autocracy, resorting to falsehoods and violence, had greater respect for foreign public opinion than Nazi Germany has today. The Cossack, brutal and ruthless at home, nevertheless displayed a certain sense of shame when his acts of violence were exposed and censured abroad. The government of Hitler keeps on defying world public opinion, denying undeniable facts, and keeping the German people in ignorance as to the world’s reaction to the Nazi crimes and blunders.
The Beilis affair, by which the Tsarist government endeavored to discredit the Jews and justify itself in the eyes of the world, was regarded by autocratic Russia as an internal affair. But the civilized world did not treat it merely as an internal Russian affair. Enlightened public opinion everywhere was aroused. The press and the church joined in the vigilous protest against Tsarist Russia.
The Nazi reign of terror directed against Jews, Catholics, Protestants, liberals, radicals and pacifists cannot be viewed merely as a German internal affair. The effects of the Hitler regime are widespread, extending far beyond the borders of the Nazi Reich. The Nazi propaganda in foreign lands is conducted for the purpose of inciting race hatred and undermining democratic institutions. The German government of today is violating international good-will, resenting at the same time any criticism aimed at it in other lands.
In 1908 I met Leonid Andreyev, the great Russian writer, author of “The Seven Who Were Hanged,” and discussed with him the “internal affairs” of Tsarist Russian. He lived in Russia and this is what he said for publication:
“How it is the European and the American press has ceased to interest itself in our struggle for emancipation? Is it possible that the reaction in Russia appeals to them more than our people’s yearnings for freedom, simply because reaction happens to be stronger at the present time? Russia today is a lunatic asylum. The people who are being hanged are not the people who should be hanged. In Russia the honest people are in prison while the criminals are at large. The Russian government is composed of a band of criminals, but I do not hold that the Russian government alone is guilty of the horrors committed in Russia. The European nations are just as much to blame, for they look on in silence while the most despicable crimes are committed. Perhaps I am not speaking as a diplomat. I know that one nation must not interfere with the internal affairs of another nation, according to international law. But why do they interfere with our movement for freedom? France helped the Russian government in its war against the people by loaning money to the Tsar. Germany also helped secretly. When an individual murders, robs, dishonors women, he is thrown into prison. But when the Russian government is murdering or torturing helpless men and women and children, the other governments look on indifferently. And yet they speak of God. If this had happened in the Middle Ages, a crusade would have been started by civilized peoples who would have marched to Russia to liberate the women and the children from the claws of the government.”
This statement by Andreyev was published in America and attracted widespread attention, and yet he was permitted by the Tsarist government to remain in Russia and to continue his literary work. The Russian government dared not imprison him even as it dared not show its anger to Leo Tolstoy. The Tsarist government dared not do what Hitler is doing today.
Is it conceivable that a German writer of the standing of Leonid Andreyev could stay about Germany what Andreyev said about Russia, without being tortured in a concentration camp?
What Andreyev said about Tsarist Russia applies today even more to Nazifled Germany. For the menace of Hitlerism to the rest of the world is more far-reaching than that of Tsarist Russia ever was.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
