London Paper Urges Observance of “jewish Day” to Mark Resistance in Warsaw Ghetto

April 19, the day when the Jews in the Warsaw ghetto opened battle against the Nazis, should be observed every year as “Jewish Day” in commemoration of the Jewish fight for freedom, the Evening Standard, one of London’s daily newspapers, suggests today.

“April 19, the day when human valor converted the Warsaw ghetto into a fortress of freedom should be an honored day among men cherishing mercy and tolerance,” the paper comments editorially. “Jews are fighting today on all fronts for the cause of humanity, and the Jew will be among the proud participants of common victory.”

The Polish Telegraphic Agency today made public the text of the letter addressed to Polish Premier Gen. Sikorski by Samuel Zygelbojm, Jewish member of the Polish National Council, prior to the latter’s suicide in protest at what he considered the world’s indifference to the Nazi annihilation of the Jews in Poland.

“I cannot be silent – I cannot live – while remnants of the Jewish people of Poland, of whom I am a representative, are perishing,” Zygelbojm’s letter reads in part. “My comrades in the Warsaw ghetto took weapons into their hands on the last heroic impulse. It was not my destiny to die there, together with them, but I belong to them, and in their mass graves. By my death, I wish to express my strongest protest against the inactivity with which the world is looking on and permitting the extermination of my people. I know how little human life is worth today, but as I was unable to do anything during my life, perhaps by my death I shall contribute to breaking down that indifference of those who may not–at the last moment–rescue the few Polish Jews still alive from certain annihilation. My life belongs to the Jewish people of Poland, and I therefore give it to them.”