An appeal to the Jews of the democratic countries to contribute 1,000 tanks and 500 planes to the Soviet Army in order to help Russia defeat Hitler, was broadcast from here today following the conclusion last night of the Jewish Conference to Fight Fascism.
Declaring that “the summer of 1942, which is destined to decide the fate of mankind, will also decide the fate of the Jewish people,” the appeal calls upon the Jews in the democratic countries to give their maximum aid to their governments and “to fight to the last drop of blood, so that fascism will soon be routed.”
The appeal emphasizes the fact that the Jews in Soviet Russia, fighting side by side with the Russian people, are helping break the myth of Nazi invincibility. It points out that the present war is a life and death struggle between the forces of reaction and progress. “On the side of reaction, there is Hitlerite Germany and her allies. On the side of progress, there stand the great democratic powers, the USSR, Great Britain, the United States and the other freedom-loving peoples. Between the two camps there can be no peace, no truce. Hitler and his clique must and will be routed and destroyed,” the appeal says.
ASK AID OF JEWS IN AMERICA, BRITAIN. CANADA, PALESTINE
“Brother Jews of the United States, Great Britain, Canada, Palestine, South Africa and Australia,” the appeal continues, “more airplanes are needed to crush the Nazi murderers; more tanks are needed to liberate the regions overrun by Hitlerites. Great is the grief of the Jewish people. In the towns captured by them, the Hitlerites have put Jewish men and women to cruel deaths. They raped women and murdered children before the eyes of their mothers. They buried people alive and mocked their graves. There are towns and villages where not a single Jew remained alive, either aged nor infant. All had been murdered on Hitler’s orders.”
The appeal was also addressed to the Jews of Nazi-occupied territories, urging them “to join the ranks of the guerrilla fighters; to undermine the Hitlerites wherever possible; to blow up the German stores and railways.” From the Jews of the neutral countries in South and Central America the appeal asks “tanks, fighter planes and bombers” for the Soviet fighting, forces.
“At a time when the Jews of Paris and Rome, of Amsterdam and Salonika, of Warsaw and Riga are being hounded, exterminated, tortured to death by the foul Hitlerites,” the appeal concludes, “we citizens of the Soviet Union, assembled in the capital of our sacred native land, solemnly call upon all Jews throughout the world: Fight to the last drop of blood under the banner of freedom. The hour of victory is nigh.”
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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.
