Fascism, Communism and persecution were denounced by Winston Churchill at last night’s mass-meeting in Albert Hall which launched the “Defense of Freedom and Peace” movement.
To the accompaniment of frequent cheers as he attacked the Nazis, the noted Conservative leader made a plea for tolerance and for “stamping out the disgusting Jew-baiting which some people are trying to import across the North Sea.”
He assailed Sir Oswald Mosley, British Fascist leader, for “groveling” before the Nazi dictatorship in the hope of making England grovel before him and appealed for joint action for collective security.
Turning his guns on the Communists, he declared Communism was identical with Fascism and stressed the duty of protecting the individual and opposing intolerance in every form. The British nation “never bowed in slavish idolatry to one single man,” he said.
Sir Walter Citrine, secretary of the British Trades Union Congress, condemning Nazi persecution of Jews, charged that the Nazis were financing the British Fascists.
“It ill becomes those who have destroyed every vestige of liberty and opportunity at self-expression, who have carried on the war of extermination against the Jews within their own frontiers to plead that other nations treat them unfairly,” Sir Walter declared.
“To what depths have the Nazis descended when people are scorned, driven from public office and from professions, and held up to public ridicule and contumely merely because they happen to belong to the Jewish race.
“Sooner or later the rulers of Germany will discover that in repressing the Jews they have deprived the German nation of one of its greatest assets, not only in the cultural sphere, but in the realm of trade and industry,” said the labor leader.
Referring to the Fascist anti-Semitic campaign in Britain, he said:
“Anti-Semitism has now become an inherent part of the creed of the Fascists in this country. They never lose an opportunity of arousing racial hatred in the East End. They have created a state of something dangerously like terrorism.”
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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.
