The American Jewish Conference today submitted a memorandum to the State Department requesting that Jews be granted a hearing at the United Nations Security Conference at San Francisco and outlining a post-war “security” program for the Jewish people.
The memorandum asked the United Nations to incorporate in the charter to be adopted at San Francisco an International Bill of Rights, and urged them to restore civil and political rights to the Jews of Europe, to speed the reconstitution of Palestine as a Jewish Commonwealth, to undertake measures for the rehabilitation and resettlement of the Jews in liberated European countries and for the restoration of their property confiscated by the Germans and their collaborators, and to punish those responsible for war crimes against Jews.
In requesting the right to present to appropriate committees of the United Nations Conference a program for the restoration of rights and status to the remmants of the surviving Jews in Europe, the American Jewish Conference pointed out in its memorandum that “now, when those who have been so long silenced by the oppressor are to be permitted to speak, it would be gross inequity if this right were to be granted to all, and witheld only from the most oppressed.” Outlawing of Anti-Semitism Demanded; Free Immigration to Palestine Urged
The memorandum emphasized that the International Bill of Rights, which, it suggested, should be incorporated in a universal covenant among the nations participating in the San Francisco Conference, must embody the outlawing of anti-Semitism, uquality of rights in law and in fact for all the citizens of every country, and full and complete protection of life and liberty for the inhabitants of all countries irrespective of their race, religion, birth, language and nationality.
With regard to the Palestine question, the American Jewish Conference emphasized that the gates of Palstine must be opened to free Jewish immigration. It also pointed out that “without the constitution of Palestine as a Jewish Commonwealth, the provisions of the Atlantic Charter remain unflilled.”
The memorandum also dealt with the problem of displaced persons and with the restoration of citizenship to all Jews who have been deprived of it. It requests that the national and international courts which will decide the punishment of war criminals shall recognize Jewish representatives as “amici curiae” and that “the Commission for the Investigation of War Crimes, or a similar body, shall give ‘locus standi’ to a representation of the Jewish people.” The memorandum was submitted to officials of the State Department by a delegation headed by Louis Lipsky, co-chairman of the Interim Committee of the Conference. The other members of the delegation were Maurice Bisgyer and I. L. Kenen.
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