“We recognize the right of the Jews to return to their place among the free peoples of the earth, so that the remnant of the tortured Jews, those who went through the fiery furnace of this war may take up life as a free people and raise their voice with the voices of other nations on earth in a new and supreme harmony, the harmony of mankind, which is that “genuine world civilization” for which President Roosevelt calls.
“We recognize the right of the dispersed, disinherited Jews of Europe and the proud Jewish people of Palestine, to fight as fellow-partners in this war against our common foe, we recognize their right to fight in their own army, under their own insignia, on every battlefield of the world to which the United Nations’ High Command will assign them.
“Thus, in a new regenerated humanity which will arise from the ruins of a world of blood and hatred, an end will be put to the scandal of history, of a great and ancient people compelled to haunt the corriders of time as ghosts and beggars and waife of every storm that rages. Thus our war-torn world will witness the Army of the Fighting Jew, arising from “blood, sweat, toil and tears,” marching shoulder to shoulder with the Legions of the United Nations to ultimate victory. And to that end we, the undersigned, place our names on this proclamation.”
Secretary Knox, in commenting upon the Proclamation stated: “I am confident that the public enunciation of the Proclamation on the Moral Rights of the Stateless and Palestinian Jews will be an historical occasion, and I should like to express my strong conviction that the sufferings of the Jews in Europe, the first victims of Nazism, must not and will not be forgotten.”
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.
