Citing “a chapter of drama and tragedy that has few parallels in modern history,” Gov. Nelson A. Rockefeller yesterday proclaimed tomorrow Warsaw Ghetto Day throughout the state. The observance commemorates the 29th anniversary of the heroic Jewish uprising during April 19-May 16,1943. “For many months,” Rockefeller pointed out. “Nazi troops had occupied the Polish capital, imposing cruel and brutal treatment upon the Jewish population in the ghetto. In April 1943, unable to endure the persecution, the local populace rose up against their captors.”
Although the “embattled” Jews “had no chance of succeeding,” the Governor noted, “they gave new meaning to the word ‘freedom’ and struck a blow against oppression that lives today in the annals of history.” He added that “In recalling that struggle it is fitting that all New Yorkers also remember the millions of people, many of them of the Jewish faith, massacred by the Nazis during World War II.”
The anniversary was marked yesterday by a memorial service in Temple Emanu-El, arranged by the Warsaw Ghetto Resistance Organization and attended by 4000 persons while others tried unsuccessfully to join the capacity crowd. In messages, President Nixon noted the “heroic and tragic event” of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising, and Israeli Premier Golda Meir declared: “Time could never obliterate the immensity of the tragedy, and the world should never be allowed to forget.”
Demonstrators from Dr. M.T. Mehdi’s Federated Organizations of American-Arab Relations carried signs outside deploring the Deir Yassin incident in 1948, charging that “Zionism Is Neo-Nazism” and demanding “Justice for the Arabs.”
Jewish organizations have asked motorists to keep their headlights on when driving tomorrow, in memory of the martyrs.
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.
