Viscount Cecil Scores Nazis in Foreword to Bentwich Book

A scathing attack on Nazi persecution of Jews is made by Viscount Cecil in a foreword to “Refugees from Germany,” book by Prof. Norman Bentwich, first Attorney General of Palestine, which will be published here tomorrow.

Viscount Cecil brands the persecution as “one of the greatest of national crimes.”

Declaring that the Nuremberg laws threaten the extermination of the Reich’s Jewish population, the famous British statesman predicts that “no doubt Germany will suffer from this criminal insanity.”

“She certainly cannot deprive herself of some of the best brains of her citizens,” the foreword continues, “apart from the moral degradation which always accompanies a national disgrace.”

Viscount Cecil concludes by voicing the hope that England, as she once did for the French Huguenots, will open her doors unreservedly to all “non-Aryan” Germans, an act which he predicts would help increase Great Britain’s prosperity.

Prof. Bentwich’s book gives an account of the work which has been done to assist the refugees since the beginning of the exodus in 1933. It describes the outbreak of persecution in Germany, the reception and distribution of the refugees in the European countries, Palestine and America, the work of the League of Nations High Commission for Refugees and of the private philanthropic organizations.

Prof. Bentwich, an instructor in international relations at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, was closely associated with the former League High Commissioner for Refugees, James G. McDonald. He took charge of the work of Mr. McDonald’s office following his resignation and continued it until the liquidation of the office following the appointment of the new High Commissioner, Sir Neill Malcolm.