Federal Council of Churches Proclaims “day of Compassion” for Persecuted Jews

The Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America today issued a call to all Christians in the country to observe next Sunday as a “Day of Compassion” for the persecuted Jews in Europe, emphasizing that “the sufferings of the Jewish people in Europe is beyond anything the civilized imagination can picture.”

In its call, the Council urges “all Christian people” to pray “that God, in His mercy, may open the way for the deliverance of the Jewish people; that the hearts of all Christian people may be stirred to active compassion for the suffering of the Jews; that Christians in America may steadfastly oppose all tendencies to anti-Semitism in our own country; that the spirit of racial good-will and justice may be greatly strengthened among all men throughout the world.”

The Council also sent to local churches a prayer written especially for delivery on the “Day of Compassion” which reads: “Almighty God, our Heavenly Father, who hast made of one every nation of men, we plead before Thee the cause of the Jewish people, maligned and harassed, condemned to exile, harried from land to land, subjected to cruel indignities, and slaughtered by the thousands. Hear the prayers that rise to Thee from their extremity, and raise up advocates who shall secure for them justice, tranquility and the common rights of men. In the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.”

NAZI MASS-MURDER OF JEWS DEPICTED; CHRISTIAN AID URGED

A special bulletin entitled “The Mass Murder of Jews in Europe” was prepared by the Council and issued today for the purpose of providing information for the guidance of Christian churches in observing the “Day of Compassion.” The bulletin is a digest of the evidence collected in many quarters concerning the treatment of the Jews in the Nazi-occupied countries of Europe. The material which is presented shows that the Nazi regime has pursued a policy not merely of discrimination against the Jews but of deliberate extermination. The bulletin states that the earlier Nazi policy had been one of subjecting the Jews to various indignities and civic disabilities but that in its larger state the anti-Semitic program has come to include forced labor, deportation and oven massacre.

The research bulletin issued by the Federal Council also contains a statement adopted by the Executive Committee of the Council urging “Christian people throughout the country to give their moral support to whatever measures afford promise of rescuing European Jews whose lives are in jeopardy.” Two specific proposals for help are put forward by the Council. One is “to offer financial assistance for the support of refugees that neutral governments may receive persons fleeing Nazi controlled territory, either by infiltration across their borders or of negotiations with the Axis powers.” The second proposal is that the American and the British governments “provide places of temporary asylum to which refugees whom it may be possible to evacuate may be removed, with the understanding that they will be repatriated after the war or be provided with permanent homes in other ways.”

In commenting upon the significance of the bulletin, Dr. Samuel McCrea Cavert, general secretary of the Federal Council of Churches, said: “The reports about the treatment of the Jews in Europe are so full of horror that many people assume they are merely ‘atrocity stories.’ The Federal Council’s study of the evidence was undertaken for the purpose of finding out whether the reports are authentic and trustworty. Although the censorship imposed upon the Nazi-occupied countries is so rigid that it is impossible to secure anything like complete information, the examination of the evidence by the Council’s Department of Research and Education compels belief in the substantial accuracy of the reports which have come from Europe. It is impossible to dismiss the reports as ‘atrocity stories.’ When the full story is known, the actual facts may turn out to be worse than the fragmentary reports have indicated.”