Deportations of Jews from Hungary have ceased as a result of joint protests by Catholic and Protestant churches there and the world-wide indignation aroused by the reports of the execution of tens of thousands of Hungarian Jews in Polish death camps, the Swiss Telegraphic Agency reports today in a dispatch received here from Berne.
The Swiss agency says that immediately after the introduction of anti-Jewish measures in Hungary, the Protestant Church protested to the government, but was ignored. A short time afterwards a joint appeal by the two Protestant churches in the country – the Evangelical and the Calvinist – was presented to pro-Nazi premier $ztojay, but this was also unsuccessful. Finally, the Protestant churches contacted the Catholic Church and together they called on the government to end the persecutions. This last appeal brought results, the dispatch states.
The London Times reports that the Allied governments are presently studying Regent Horthy’s proposal to allow Jewish children under ten, and also adults with Palestine visas, to emigrate. In spite of the transportation difficulties and the problem of securing havens for the Jews, it is hoped that some rescue scheme may be evolved, the Times writes.
Commenting on the attempt by Hungarian officials to absolve themselves of responsibility for the death of many Jews, the Times diplomatic correspondent points out that although these officials deny that any Jews have been killed on Hungarian soil, they do not deny that large numbers were certainly killed in German camps in Poland.
BRITISH GOVERNMENT SAYS PROTECTIVE CITIZENSHIP WOULD NOT HELP JEWS
In the House of Commons yesterday, George Hall, Under-Secretary of the Foreign Office, declared that the British Government had decided that no purpose would be served by conferring British citizenship on Jews in Hungary or other German-held countries.
Replying to a member’s suggestion that British nationality night be conferred on the remaining Jews of Europe on terms similar to the offer of common nationality made to the French people in 1940, Mr. Hall stated that “the proposal has been carefully considered, but His Majesty’s Government is convinced that to give what in fact would merely be verbal British protection would not bring any advantages to the Jews in German-occupied territories.”
The proposal for protective British or American citizenship had been supported by Jewish groups here in the hope that it might deter the Hungarians from proceeding with the deportation of the Jews still in the country.
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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.
