The hope that the governments of the United Nations will make every effort to save the Jews who are in danger of destruction in a final Nazi massacre, was expressed tonight at a mass-meeting arranged by the American Jewish Conference at the Hotel Commodore at which Herbert C. Pell, former U.S. member of the United Nations War Crimes Commission, was the principal speaker.
The meeting also urged the United Nations to remove the barriers to Jewish immigration into Palestine, to act decisively in outlawing all vestiges of Nazi discrimination and to punish through international tribunals all those who committed war crimes against Jews in Axis territory, wherever and whenever committed.
Pointing out that the persecution of a minority is an almost necessary foundation of any government based on negation of liberty, Mr. Pell declared: “It is absolutely necessary to punish those who took part in these outrages. It will not do to hang the leaders and then take the vast mass of the smaller men in the Gestapo, pat them on the head, give them a hot dog and tell them not to do it again. There will always be men ready to take a chance for the great prizes of leadership and notoriety. Such men in the future must not be allowed to say that ‘we take all the risks and you, our recruits, will get the fun and the profits. Remember that although Hitler was hanged, your Uncle Fritz lived to a comfortable old age to tell you of the fun that he had in Poland, in Norway or in France.’ This will sound rather good to the boy of 1960 but he will be much less likely to be taken in if he remembers Uncle Fritz hanging on a tree in the neighborhood.”
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.
