Representatives of Polish-Jewish organizations in America testified today at the second day of hearings by the House Foreign Affairs Committee on the resolution introduced by Rep. Emanuel Celler proposing the appointment by President Roosevelt of a commission to cooperate with the United Nations War Crimes Commission in preparation of “definite plans” for punishment of Axis criminals.
Dr. Raphael Lemkin, a former public prosecutor of Warsaw, stressed that Nazi destruction of the Jewish people of Poland and other European countries is based not on philosophical and mystical grounds, but on the determination to acquire property. Mr. Joseph Thon, representing the National Organization of Polish Jews, called for punishment of the entire German people and government, as well as the army, for the massacre of several million European Jews, and for the use of poison gas in exterminating civillian populations.
The charge that “the first and possibly the greatest war crimas were committed by the Gestapo and storm troopers against hundreds of thousands of defenseless Jews” in Germany was made by Professor James H. Sheldon, administrative chairman of the Non-Sectarian Anti-Nazi League. Pointing out that these crimes were committed before the war actually began, Sheldon said: “Any program of punishing war crimes which does not comprehend the punishment of those responsible for these mass-murders is unworthy of consideration because it leaves the way open for a repitition of these crimes and will do nothing to remove from the German mind the basic evil for which it has been responsible.
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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.
