A call to the Jews in the United States “to save the Jewish people from annihilation” by intensifying their efforts to secure the defeat of Hitlerism, was issued here today by the Jewish delegation from Russia composed of Solomon Mikhoels, noted actor, and Itzik Feffer, famous Yiddish poet.
Speaking over the radio on the occasion of the second anniversary of the Nazi invasion of Russia, the delegation, in its first message to the Jews of America, pointed out that the day of an Allied victory is approaching and that the Russian Army was the first to break the legend of Nazi invincibility. They emphasized that more than 10,000 Jews have been decorated in Russia during the two years of war.
“Our people, the Jewish people, together with all freedom loving nations, will appear at the day of reckoning as an accusing people,” Mr. Mikhoels said. He spoke of the merciless massacres of innocent Jewish civilians and urged that no mercy be shown the Germans after the Nazis are defeated.
Mr. Feffer who is a Colonel in the Red Army, related how the Nazis carried out a three-day pogrom against the Jews in Kiev, machine-gunning more than 50,000 Jews. He also reported Nazi bestialities against Jews in Mariupol, Shklov, Shpola and other cities in the Ukraine where the Nazis buried Jews alive. He was present when Nazi war prisoners were queried by Russian officers as to their reasons for killing innocent civilians in occupied cities. The Nazis cold-blooded reply, Feffer said, was: “We don’t kill people, we kill only Jews!” They were later panic-stricken when they discovered that the officers who were questioning them were Jews.
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.
