Rabbi Silver Indicates Need for Reconsidering Palestine Transfer

The suggestion that in view of reported proposals for transferring Jews from Germany with withdrawal of capital in the form of German goods, the Palestine transfer pact should be reconsidered was made by Rabbi Abba Hillel Silver in a statement.

Rabbi Silver, who supported the Germany-Palestine transfer agreement at last Summer’s World Zionist Congress, declared that “in light of the new proposals which are now being made, which if carried into effect, will spell the doom of our concerted economic attack upon the Nazi regime, the Palestine transfer agreement itself night have to be reconsidered.

He vigorously condemned proposals for mass emigration with an export tie-up, warning that “if the Nazis succeed in getting rid of the Jews themselves, if they succeed in strengthening their own regime with money expropriated from their Jewish subjects and with foreign exchange brought into Germany via Jewish deportations, will not their admirers and would-be imitators in the neighboring countries–in Austria, Poland, Hungary and Rumania and elsewhere–be encouraged and inspired to do the same?”

He held that the ultimate solution of the problem of Jewish persecution is the overthrow of the Nazi regime. “The greatest service which can be rendered to the Jewish community in Germany and to Jewry throughout the world,” he stated, “is to concentrate every ounce of energy upon the successful prosecution of our war against Hitlerism, upon the outcome of which the political, economic and social security of fifteen million Jews in the Diaspora depends.

He continued:

“No effort, however, should be made and no institution should be established to facilitate and speed up Jewish emigration from Germany, and no ransom should be paid to their tormentors. The Jewish people should not be maneuvered by Hitler into becoming the sales agents and bankers to recoup the squandered fortunes of Germany and to rehabilitate its broken down domestic economy.”