With refugee Jews and others apparently hopelessly trapped in France, the 1,000,000 Jews in Rumania facing a black future under the new totalitarian regime and Hitler’s domination spreading through Europe, the World Jewish Congress is turning the emphasis of its work to the American continent, Dr. Nahum Goldmann, administrative committee chairman, revealed today at a press conference at the Hotel Astor.
Dr. Goldmann, who arrived here on the United States liner Washington last Friday, said it was planned to call a Pan-American Jewish Conference, tentatively scheduled for the end of Summer and probably to be held in Washington. Purposes of the meeting will be to rally the Jews for defense of the Americas and for increased aid to the victims of Nazism and Fascism in Europe.
As part of the shift in emphasis, Dr. Goldmann said, it is planned to move the world headquarters of the Congress to the United States. The office in Geneva will continue to carry on relief work insofar as it is able, and political activities in Europe will be conducted from recently-opened London headquarters.
“The time has come for the mobilization of the resources of the five-and-a-half million Jews on the American continent in order to safeguard the survival of the Jewish people,” he declared. “A Pan-American Jewish Conference to establish such close cooperation is of the utmost necessity.”
One of the most shameful stipulations of the Franco-German armistice, Dr. Gold-mann said, was the stipulation that France deliver the German subjects demanded by the Reich. “This,” he said, “means torture, imprisonment and death for thousands, especially those who during their years of sojourn in France have been engaged in anti-Nazi activities. The list of those to fall under the Nazi axe includes perhaps the cream of the pre-Hitler intelligentsia and counts among them outstanding scholars, intellectuals and journalists.”
Another immediate consequence of the German victory, he stated, is the creation of a totalitarian pro-Nazi Government in Rumania, “which means the virtual destruction of a million Jews for whom there is no possibility of either escape or emigration.” The new Government, he predicted, would “begin where Goga left off.” Even the 4,000,000 Jews under Soviet rule are not safe in the event of a final Nazi victory, Dr. Goldmann declared, “for it is quite obvious that a victorious Nazi Germany will smash Soviet Russia, too.”
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.
