A moving message to the Jews of Europe suffering under Nazi occupation, bidding them steel themselves against despair, “for the mighty forces of freedom are on the march and the day of European liberty is dawning,” was broadcast from London in behalf of British Jewry at a meeting of the Palestine Victory Campaign conducted by the Jewish National Fund in England.
The message was directed “to all of you who are in concentration camps, dungeons of torture, prisons and slave camps and those imprisoned behind the grim walls of ghettos,” as well as “to the untold thousands who have been driven from their homes and families along the highways and bypaths of Europe.” The message reads:
“We Jews of Great Britain assembled in London, capital of the free British Commonwealth of Nations today proclaim a message of hope and courage to you, our five million brethren bowed down and afflicted under the crushing yoke of tyrannical oppression in all lands of Europe, overrun by Nazi taskmasters.
“At this moment of the fast onrushing climax in the death struggle with your Nazi oppressors and persecutors, we have begun a great Palestine Victory Campaign that is the symbol of liberation that will inevitably come for you and of inexorable justice that will wreak its full vengeance on the evil men who have enslaved, tortured and humiliated you and the once free peoples of Europe among whom you were born, lived and who now are trampled under the ruthless heal of Hitler.
We Jews of Great Britain make our solemn declaration of faith in victory of the cause which is the cause of Britain and her Allies and of all free men and women. This is our message to you: Have courage amidst your sufferings and have faith amidst your trials and bitter affliction.
“We send this message to all of you who are in concentration camps, dungeons of torture, prisons and slave camps, and to those of you who are imprisoned behind the grim walled ghettos into which the evil, inhuman savagery of Nazi Germany have thrust you.
“We send this message to the untold thousands of our brothers and sisters who have been driven from their homes and families along the highways and bypaths of Europe, who serve as slaves for the Nazi beasts of the field. We send this message so you may not despair but steel yourselves against it even in the darkness of your present miseries. The mighty forces of freedom are on the march, strong and with unbounded faith. The day of European liberty is dawning.
“In Britain and the British Empire, Jewish man and women are united with their fellow citizens in determination to crush the Nazi oppressors and are sure in their conviction that the hour of victory is at hand.”
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.
