A call for action to save the Jews in Nazi-held Europe is voiced today in almost the entire British press in editorials commenting on the detailed statement on “persecution of Jews” released yesterday by the United Nations Information Office, which is featured this morning in all the London papers.
Presenting accounts of the atrocities committed upon Jews in Poland, Belgium, Holland, Czechoslovakia, France, Greece, Yugoslavia, Luxemburg and Norway, the statement said :
“The Allied Governments have just made a declaration of solemn protest against the crimes that are being committed against the Jews. In their protest they warn the criminals responsible that punishment will be inevitable and severe. The reasons for that protest and earning are in the pages of this document.”
Emphasizing that “the Nazi destruction of Jews by shootings, lethal gas and other methods is not isolated, to one country but is continent-wide,” the statement points out that “the Jews are being exterminated for no other reason than that they are Jews.” It reviews all anti-Jewish measures taken by the Nazis in each of the occupied countries and draws attention to the fact that according to information in Washington, “the number of Jewish victims deported or “perished” since 1939 in Axis-controlled Europe now reaches the appaling figure of 2,000,000 while 5,000,000 are in danger of extermination.”
The statement says that the plan of Jewish, extermination “which transcends anything in history” was prepared by Alfred Rosenberg and the Nazi Labor Minister, Dr. Ley. According to this plan, announced by Dr. Ley on December 4 of this year, the Nazis have decided to ” go on waging war until the Jews have been wiped off the face of the earth.”
Based on reliable reports which have reached the Allied Governments from Nazi-occupied countries, the statement dwells at great length on the methods of torture which the Nazis are using on their Jewish victims, the mass-deportation of Jews, the Nazi measures of extermination, the barbaric separation of Jewish children from their mothers and wives from their husbands, the forced labor to which Jews are driven and the various forms which the Nazis use in slaughtering thousands of Jews.
“We have made no attempt to present a complete historical record,” the statement declares. “That would not be possible because many details have been shrouded in death itself. But sufficient is shown to reveal the continentwide consistency of the persecution that is now taking place. The statement thus presents but a summary of evidence. It is also a terrible indictment.”
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