Attention was focussed today on the demands by various Jewish organizations here that crimes committed against Jews either in occupied or Axis nations be punished, as a result of reports from Congressmen and newspaper editors touring the Bucherwald and other horror camps in Germany.
These reports were among the major topics of conversation among the delegates because they come from non-Jewish sources and because they disclose that a large, if not the largest, percentage of those exterminated were Jews. The reports have created considerable pro-Jewish sentiment here. One can hear delegates expressing regret over the fact that they hitherto considered news of Nazi mass extermination of Jews to be exaggerated atrocity propaganda.
The question facing the United Nations is whether Jews, not being a member of the United Nations, should have recognized representatives at the national and international courts which will try war criminals, especially when these trials will involve directly those who either organized mass-murders of Jews or participated in carrying out these massacres. The demands for such Jewish representation, as outlined in the briefs of the American Jewish conference, the American Jewish Committee and the Jewish Iabor Committee are almost identical.
TRIBUNALS WILL BE ASKED TO RECOGNIZE JEWS AS “AMICI CURIAC”
The American Jewish Conference, in a memorandum which will be submitted to Secretary of State Stettinius within a few days, advances the demand that the national and international courts which will take up the cases of war criminals shall recognize Jewish representatives as “amici curiac” and that the Commission for Investigation of War Crimes or a similar authority shall give “locus standi” to a representation of the Jewish people.
The memorandum insists that the crimes committed by Axis nations and their associates against the Jews shall be duly specified in the indictment against the war criminals and made punishable. It also asks that “crimes committed against Jews in given territories shall be tried in the respective national courts except those committed in Germany and in the territories of her satellites which shall be tried in international courts.”
URGE COURTS TO HEAR TOSTIMONY BY REPRESENTATIVES OF JEWISH COMMUNITY
In the recommendations submitted to members of the UNCIO, the American Jewish Committee expresses the belief that Axis crimes against the Jews will figure prominently among those for which the Germans will have to answer. The committee, therefore, points out that in these cases it will be advisable to have representatives of the Jewish community appear as witnesses and friends of the court.
Enumerating a number of reasons why representatives of the Jewish community should be asked to participate in trials of men guilty of crimes against Jews, the American Jewish Committee urges that both alien occupants and native collaberationists should be tried for victimizing Jews. “Leniency must not be extended to those whose victims may have been Jews alone, nor should Jewish representatives be overlooked in the international trials of major criminals,” the committee demands, emphasizing that “everything that Hitler has done against the Jews since 1933 should be considered a war crime, for long before 1939 he was preparing the way for Majdanck.”
An appeal to Edon, Molotov and Stettinius asking them to meet now for the setting up of proper machinery for the punishment of the principal war criminals in accordance with the decisions reached at Yalta was made today by Dr. Maurico Porlsweig, head of the political department of the World Jewish Congress.
Speaking at a lunchcon in his honor arranged by the Northern California Division of the American Jewish Congress, Dr. Perlzwoig said: “At Yalta the heads of the principal Allied powers reaffirmed their common determination to punish the criminals, but we know now that it was left to the next meeting of the foreign secretaries to approve the establishment of a common machinery. The foreign secretaries are together now in San Francisco. It is inconceivable that they should sanction further delay on the cve of victory. We address an earnest appeal to Mossrs. Edon, Molotov and Stettinius to act now.”
SECTION OF U. S. DELEGATION REPORTED PRESSING FOR WORLD BILL OF RIGHTS
Meanwhile, the fight for the adoption of a world bill of rights by the UNCIO continues. It is understood that a section of the American delegation is strongly behind the proposal and would faver the creation of a Commission on Human Rights to enforce the bill. In addition, besides the Jewish groups backing the proposal, there are influential church organizations such as the Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America and the Baptist Joint Conference Committee on Public Relations.
A Baptist delegation, including several Senators, is understood to have conferred with Secretary of State Stettinius in Washington before the conference opened, and secured his support for a potition which urges the proposed world security organization to outlaw religious perscoution and to refuse to admit any nation which tolerates restrictions on religious freedom.
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