“eye-for-eye” Law Must Be Invoked Against Nazis for Massacres of Jews, Ickes Says

A demand that “the democracies remind the Nazis that the ancient Biblical law of an ‘eye-for-an-eye and a tooth-for-a-tooth’ will be invoked against them ” for Hitler’s atrocities against Jews, was voiced here last night by Harold L. Ickes, Secretary of the Interior, addressing the Jewish National Fund Council of Boston at a dinner in the Statler Hotel marking the dedication of the establishment in Palestine of Nachlat Massachusetts, a Jewish settlement bearing the name of the State of Massachusetts. More than 1,500 attended the gathering.

“Hitler’s atrocities against the Jews,” Secretary Ickes said, “have been so utterly horrifying, and his threat to exterminate the whole Jewish people so frighteningly real, that it is urgent that something drastic be done to check his savage purpose, I believe that the leaders of the United Nations should come out immediately with a sharp and determined warning to Hitler and his organized murderers. These killers should have it made known to them that every Nazi who slays or tortures or otherwise mistreats a Jew, anywhere, will be hold accountable for his acts. Notice should be served in a no uncertain tone that it will not serve as a justification for a killer to plead that he was merely obeying orders. It is about time that the democracies remind the Nazis that the ancient Biblical law of an ‘eye-for-an-eye and a tooth-for-a-tooth’ will be invoked against them.

“At the same time the United Nations should declare, once and for all, that Palestine shall be a home for those Jews who wish to abide there – not a place of exile, but a respected and self-respecting member of the commonwealth of nations. Other Jews, everywhere, should be treated and regarded as integral and equal members and citizens of the countries in which they live. A civilized world should not tolerate, longer than it will take to mend matters, the principle of the ghetto on either a local or a national scale. The only way to right a horrible wrong, the only way to atone in part for the sufferings and humiliations to which the Jews have been exposed for too long, is to give them the same rights that we assert for ourselves – freedom to live, to work, to worship – on the same basis upon which we have insisted upon this freedom for ourselves. The time to start to do these things is now.”