The mass-extermination of Jews in Europe, especially the present anti-Jewish drive in Hungary, has reached a point where not only the Nazis, but the entire German nation and the German General Staff, must be held responsible, it was stated here today by Brendan Bracken, British Minister of information. He emphasized that “when the day of reckoning comes, the German General Staff will be first to be dealt with.”
“Not the ‘flying bombs,’ but the tragedy of the Hungarian Jews has been the main occupation of the government during the last two weeks,” Bracken said. “I cannot exaggerate the brutality of the persecution. Nor can the public in this country forget the atrocities. There is a Quisling government in Hungary which will be held responsible for the crimes against the Jews and for the setting up of abattoirs to exterminate the victims. This is the biggest scandal in the history of human crimes.
“But,” the Minister of Information continued, “the responsibility rests not only on the Nazis, but upon the entire German people and particularly upon the General Staff. When the day of reckoning comes, the German General Staff will be first to be dealt with. These men will pay the price for the bestial cruelty against the Jews.”
ENTIRE LONDON PRESS DEMANDS ACTION TO SAVE HUNGARIAN JEWS
Urgent action by the Allied Governments to save Hungarian Jews from extermination is demanded today in all leading London newspapers. Similar action is demanded in a note drafted here by the Czechoslovak Government-in-Exile which will be transmitted to the governments of the United States, Britain and Russia together with a detailed report on the mass-gassing of about 2,000,000 Jews in only two Nazi “extermination camps” during the last two years.
The London Times, expressing “disgust over the measures carried out by the Hungarian Government,” writes: “Without other active participation in these crimes, the Gestapo would have lacked both the information required for the planning and the capacity for the execution of these mass-murders.” The paper points out that in no other country in Europe were the Jews assimilated to the extent that they were in Hungary.
The Daily Telegraph in an editorial devoted to the annihilation of the Hungarian Jews says that in the annals of persecution during the last century no parallel can be found to the mass-murder of Jews now taking place in Hitler’s Europe. “Outraged humanity can but strive harder to rid the earth of the monstrous wickedness,” the editorial says condemning both Germany and Hungary.
The Daily Herald demands that the United Nations proclaim with more clarity their determination to implement after the war the principles for which they are now fighting. “Hungary’s fascists continue their crimes against the Jews because they are not convinced that they will suffer for these crimes, or that an Allied victory will extinguish fascism,” the paper declares. Recalling Churchill’s defense of Gen. Franco, the editorial says: “If Franco can get away with it, thinks Horthy, then why should not I? And in so thinking, the Regent of Hungary consigns another trainload of Jews to Poland.”
NAMES OF NAZI EXECUTIONER LISTED IN NOTE TO ALLIED GOVERNMENTS
The Czechoslovak Government note lists all the Nazi officials responsible for the mass-gassing of Jews at Birkenau. The list includes also a number of German civilians.
Describing the manner in which the Jews are killed in the Birkenau camp, the Czechoslovakian note says: “The people are assembled in the hall which gives the impression of a swimming bath. They have to undress and are given a piece of soap and a towel as if they were going to take a bath. Then they are crowded into a gas chamber which is hermetically sealed. Several S. S. men in gas masks then pour into the chamber through three openings in the ceiling a poison gas called megacolon, made in Hamburg. At the end of three minutes, all are dead and the bodies are taken to the furnace which has nine chambers, each with four doors. Each door takes three bodies at once. Each crematorium can burn 1500 bodies a day.
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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.
