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Allied Nations Considering Reprisals for Nazi Massacres of Jews in Poland

June 28, 1942
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Immediate reprisals against Germany for the slaughtering of hundreds of thousands of Polish Jews by the Gestapo are now under consideration by the Allied Nations, the Jews in Nazi-held Poland were told today in a broadcast from London. The broadcast, addressed to the Jews of occupied Poland, was repeated by the British radio in all European languages.

At the same time, a group of twenty-three members of the British Parliament, impressed by the reports of the Nazi extermination of 700,000 Polish Jews, today submitted a resolution to the House of Commons, expressing "indignation and horror over the German atrocities" and assuring that "retribution will unfailingly be exacted." The resolution was submitted by Victor Cazalet, a member of the Conservative Party.

An appeal to Jewish organizations in Britain and America "to arouse public opinion and rescue the remaining two-thirds of the Jews in occupied Poland" was directed from here today by Jewish leaders from Poland now in London. A similar appeal was addressed to the British Labor Party by Jewish labor leaders.

Details of the Nazi massacres of Jews will be broadcast over the British radio station in all languages every day next week, it was announced here today. Today’s broadcast to the Jews in occupied Poland was made by Samuel Zygelbaum, one of the two Jewish members of the Polish National Council. "The conscience of the world has been aroused by the coldly planned mass-murder of hundreds of thousands of Jews in Poland," he said. "Every crime, murder and cruelty against Polish Jewry is recorded with the Polish Government, which, together with the governments of the Allied Nations, is considering immediate reprisals in order to stop the wave of murders. You will live to see the day of retribution and liberation."

POLISH GOVERNMENT CONFIRMS REPORT OF EXECUTIONS

The Polish Government, in a German-language broadcast today over the BBC, officially confirmed the report that 700,000 Jews have been massacred by the Nazis in Poland since the summer of last year. It termed the pogroms "probably the greatest mass-slaughter in history."

The execution of 60,000 Jews by the Nazis in Vilna alone was also confirmed by the Polish Government in today’s broadcast. Similarly, the Polish Government confirmed the fact that 35,000 Jews from the Lodz ghetto were suffocated by the Nazis in mobile gas chambers.

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