Anniversary of Warsaw Ghetto Uprising Commemorated at New York Rally

Against a backdrop of huge photographic reproduction of the granite monument on the site of the former Warsaw Ghetto, the 23rd Anniversary of the uprising by the remnants of the ghetto against the armed might of the Nazis was observed this afternoon at a large open air rally in Times Square.

The famous thoroughfare was renamed “Warsaw Ghetto Square” for the day, which coincides with the Hebrew date of the 27th of Nissan, proclaimed as Annual Day of Remembrance for the ghetto fighters and the 6,000,000 Jews massacred by the Nazis. The rally, attended by thousands of adults and Hebrew school pupils, was held under the auspices of the Zionist Organization of America and co-sponsored by 35 national and metropolitan Jewish organizations.

The resurgence of neo-Nazism in West Germany and the failure of U.S. ratification of the Genocide Convention of the United Nations outlawing the destruction of national, racial or ethnic groups were the themes of most of the addresses delivered at the rally. Strong pleas were also made for equal treatment of the Jewish community in Soviet Russia. Principal speakers were: Senator Jacob K. Javits, Congressman Emanuel E. Celler, chairman of the Judiciary Committee of the House of Representatives, Jacques Torczyner, ZOA president and Rabbi Edward T. Sandrow, president of the New York Board of Rabbis. Abram Salomon, chairman of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising Anniversary Committee presided.

Senator Javits, addressing the rally, said that if Israel had existed as a sovereign Jewish state during the years when the Nazis came to power, many more Jews would have been saved. We must remember, however,” he added, “that there are still millions of Jews in the Soviet Union, and many thousands in the Arab world, who are in the gravest danger.” Jews must continue to fight for Israel, he stressed, and “must not give in to Arab pressure.”

Mr. Torczyner warned that “the grimmest danger facing the world today is the strengthening and reunification of Germany.” He asserted that the “victories scored by the extremist, right-wing, Nazi infiltrated parties in the recent municipal elections in Bavaria and Hamburg are a warning to all those who have been lulled into the belief that Germany is our only faithful ally in continental Europe.” He strongly criticized U.S. failure to ratify the Genocide Convention of the United Nations in spite of the fact “that 69 sovereign nations have already signed this convention adopted by the U.N. which outlaws the destruction ‘in whole or in part of national, racial, religious or ethnic groups.'”