The World Jewish Congress today issued a statement calling Upon the German people “to express in deeds” their repudiation of Nazism and anti-Semitism instead of issuing verbal assurances to Jews.
“The world generally and the Jewish people particularly will not believe that the German people have begun to discharge their responsibility for the cold and calculated destruction of the Jewish people until they solemnly and collectively affirm their guilt through their parliamentary institutions and later through a peace settlement or comparable international instrument unequivocally accepted by the German people,” the statement said.
The Congress statement was issued in reply to recent conciliatory remarks by President Theodor Heuss and Chancellor Konrad Adenauer of the West German Republic, in which tribute was paid to the contributions made by Jews to Germany in the arts, sciences and literature. President Heuss also referred to the “collective shame” of the Germans for the extermination of the Jews, but has never accepted the charge of collective guilt.
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