An appeal from the Jews of Nazi-held Poland to the Allied Nations urging them to take extraordinary steps” against Germans residing in their countries in order to force the Nazis in Poland to discontinue their extermination of Jews was received here today by the Jewish Labor Committee.
The appeal reveals that “tens of Germans and a few hundred Jews” were killed in a battle in the Warsaw ghetto when Nazi units entered to “liquidate” the remaining Jews in the ghetto. Three Jewish leaders, Marmelstiein, Cholodenke and Giterman were among those killed.
Emphasizing that only a ” few hundred Jews” are now left in Poland, the appeal says that they are threatened with “immediate annihilation” and asks the Jews of America to approach the Pope and the United Nations for action to save them. The appeal, which left Poland on February 7, is signed by two persons well known to the Jewish Labor Committee in New York. It reads:
“In January the Germans started the liquidation of the remnants of the Warsaw ghetto. The Jews resisted, resulting in the killing of tens of Germans and of a few hundred Jews, among them Marmelstein, Cholodenko and Giterman. For three days after this fight, the Germans stopped their action. The liquidation of the Jews is now going on all over Poland. The Germans intend to have all Jews in the Warsaw ghetto liquidated by the middle of February. Alarm the world. Appeal to the Pope for official intervention. Also to the Allies that they take extraordinary steps against Germans residing in the Allied countries. We suffer terribly. The remaining few hundred thousand Jews in Poland are threatened with immediate annihilation. Only you can rescue us. The responsibility is thrown upon you.”
In making public this message, which came out of Poland through underground channels, the Jewish Labor Committee here was not in a position to verify whether the Jewish leader, Giterman, mentioned as among those killed in the clash with the Nazis in the ghetto was Isaac Giterman, the Joint Distribution Committee director in Poland, or a Jewish labor leader by that name.
The office of the Jewish Labor Committee at first believed that the victim was the J.D.C. director who represented the American relief organization in Poland for more than twenty years. Later, however, it expressed the opinion that in all probability the dead man was the labor leader, since the other two victims mentioned Marmelstein and Cholodenko, were also leaders of the Jewish labor movement.
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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.
