The resolve to complete the work of defeating racialism and aggression which was begun with the total defeat of Hitler’s armies ten years ago would be the most fitting way to commemorate the tenth anniversary of V-E Day. Dr. Nahum Goldmann, president of the World Jewish Congress declared in a message issued this week-end.
The price of victory, Dr. Goldmann recalled “was paid not only by the death and maiming of soldiers in all parts of the world but by the massacre of multitudes of innocent and defenseless civilians in every conceivable circumstance of ruthless brutality As Jews, he added, “we remember especially the annihilation of six million of our brethren a third of the total Jewish population of the world. They were as the world tends to forget the first and principal victims of the Nazi horror though they were not alone.”
Hailing the great statesmen and soldiers who “in the teeth of apathy and isolationism” mobilized the resources of the democratic world to insure victory he pointed out that the Nazi terror could never have come to power but for the folly and blindness of politicians who sought to buy immunity by standing aside while Hitlerism worked its will on the defenseless states and minorities alike. When the Nazi regime declared w### on the Jewish people and on other groups, it was all civilization which was threatened in tailing to learn that lesson the world paid a terrible price and has not yet ceased to pay it ” Dr. Goldmann posed the following question. “Have we learned the lesson that emerges from that period#” One of the tragedies of our time, Dr. Goldmann asserted, is that “we cannot answer this question in the affirmative.
“The collaborators of Hitlerism, he warned received again in the chancelleries of many governments. They go about their sinister business in Europe, in the Middle East and in Latin America. Their rehabilitation has been swifter than that of their victims, many of whom still seek justice in vain.”
We would do well to commemorate this solemn anniversary, he concluded, “by the unwearying resolve to complete the work which was begun by the military victory ten years ago Racialism and its offspring, aggressive war### are still the enemies. A great and glorious victory was achieved ten years ago but the struggle for a just international order and the inalienable rights of man still goes on.
In addition to Dr. Goldmann’s message the World Jewish Congress observed the tenth anniversary of V-E Day by issuing the third pamphlet of its” Lest We Forget” series. The pamphlet reviews briefly both “the incredible crimes committed by the Reich and its minions against the Jews, as well as the present state of the forces and ideas which were responsible for these crimes.” Taking stock of what has been left on the “bearers, implementers and ideologies” of the Nazi crimes, the pamphlet says the guilty have not renounced their misdeeds and ideas “Many of those responsible,” it asserts are un repentant and even convinced of the righteousness of their action and ready to do it all over again.”
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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.
