Thousands of Jews crowded the synagogues throughout Britain today and most Jewish shops remained closed as British Jewry fasted and recited prayers of mourning for the hundreds of thousands of Jews murdered by the Nazis in Europe.
Sermons in all the synagogues stressed that immediate steps must be taken to warn the Nazis of reprisals after the war and to rescue as many Jews as possible now. The Lord Mayor of London, high Polish officials and other dignitaries, Jewish and non-Jewish, attended the services. Messages protesting the Nazi decimation of European Jewry were received from Catholic and Protestant church leaders. The London press carried editorials demanding punishment of those responsible for the crimes against the Jews and action to save those who can still be saved.
In crowded Petticoat Lane, heart of the Jewish section in the East End of London, all activity stopped at 11 A.M. when messengers from the Rabbinate announced five minutes of silence in memory of the martyred Jews. Most shops in the Jewish quarter remained shut all day.
In Bevis Marks Synagogue, largest Sephardic congregation in London, Lord Mayor Sir Samuel Joseph and Prof. Selig Brodetsky, president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, participated in the ceremonies. Chief Rabbi Hertz, speaking at Bevis Marks, strongly attacked “high and low circles” for their in difference and silence in face of the Nazi massacres of Jews which, he said, has encouraged the “gorillas of Berlin.” Rabbi Hertz also pleaded for effective rescue measures by the Allies. “Will the United Nations open the gates to refugees?” he asked. “Will they ask neutrals to admit the few who can escape? Will they rescue the children?”
Similar pleas were voiced by the rabbis of other congregations. In Brixton Synagogue the Mayor of Lambeth and members of the borough council attended the services. Synagogues in West London had to close their doors before the services even began and hundreds of persons jammed the streets outside. Polish Foreign Minister Count Raczynski and other members of the Polish Government and of the Polish General Staff attended services in the St. Petersburg Square synagogue, where Major Meltzer, chief Jewish chaplain with the Polish forces, officiated.
A mass meeting in Toynbee Hall, arranged by the Union of Polish Jews in Great Britain, heard a message from Arthur Cardinal Hinsley, head of the Catholic Hierarchy in the British Isles, who declared that: “No human being who has a spark of deceney left in his heart can fail to be horrified by the outrages against the Jews. I unite my voice to that of the Catholic bishops and clergy throughout the world in solemn protest.” A message was also received from Dr. Whale, the Moderator of the Free Churches.
An editorial in the London Sunday Express today urges that all the Allied Nations pledge “adequate punishment” for those guilty of the massacres. The London Observer writes that racial hatred must be made a crime “in the world of tomorrow.” It demands that the British Government do everything possible now to “wrest the victims from the butcher’s grip.” The London Times says that “Jews will be present also in the thoughts of men and women of other creeds, One can be certain that retribution will follow the crime.” A Daily Telegraph editorial said that “the free world will not lay down arms until he that killeth by the sword shall die by the sword.” The Evening Standard stated: “These monstrous tragedies of today have befallen mankind because we did not protest with sufficient anger, nor did we act with sufficient vigor in times long past.”
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.
