Four Million Jews Annihilated by Germans in Europe, Moscow Conference Hears

Estimating that more than 4,000,000 Jews have been killed by the Germans in Europe, including hundreds of thousands in the parts of Russia which were temporarily occupied by the Nazi Army, Prof. Solomon Mikhoels, President of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee, called upon the Jews in the U.S.S.R. and throughout the world “to take revenge for our massacred brothers and sisters who constitute one-quarter of the entire Jewish nation.”

Prof. Mikhoals spoke to the third annual all-Jewish conference here at which was from all parts of the U.S.S.R. are represented. The conference is also being attended by Jewish delegates from the Russian fighting forces, from the navy and from the artisan units.

Emphasizing that the Russian Army “with its victorious advance is bringing nearer the great hour of retribution and reckoning,” Prof. Mikhoels, who together with Lieut. Col. Itsik Feffer recently visited many Jewish communities in the United States, said: “We are aware of the misery and the tragic fate of those of our brothers who have been carried off by the Germans into slavery, or are languishing in concentration camps, or are held in the ghettos which are nothing but cemeteries for living corpses. But today we don’t bewail our dead, because tears are not adequate tribute for those who have tragically fallen. These victims cry out for vengeance, and we are proud of the fact that hand in hand with Ukrainians, Byelorussians, Georgians, Uzbeks and sons of other nations, the sons of the Jewish people are fighting for our motherland.”

JEWS IN FIFTH PLACE AMONG UKRAINIAN ARMIES ROUTING GERMANS

Prof. Mikhosls revealed that among the men of the Red Army who have been decorated for bravery on the Ukrainian front, in the rout of the Nazis on the roads to Odessa, to Rumania and to the Carpatho-Ukraine, Jews hold fifth place. “We are proud to know,” he said, “that many Jewish man and women under German occupation refused to be meek and dumb victims of the German butchers and went off to join partisan detachments, or raised revolts in their ghettos with incredible heroism and courage.”

Although in fifth place among the various nationalities on the Ukrainian front, the Jews are in fourth place among all nationalities in the USSR with regard to the number of persons decorated for heroism on the battlefields, Prof. Mikhoels told the conference. He appealed to the Jews throughout the world, especially to Jews in the United States, England and Canada, to actively aid in the fight “against the infamous enemy of all mankind.”

JEWISH PEOPLE WILL EMERGE STRONGER THAN EVER BEFORE, COL. FEFFER SAYS

Lieut. Col. Feffer, addressing the conference, lauded the efforts of American Jews. “During my visit abroad,” he stated, “I saw the fruitful activity for the asked of our common victory which is being conducted by Jews in the United States, England and Canada. We also know of the work done by the Jews in Palestine, Australia and South Africa. The Jews throughout the world must remember that the valley full of bones which our great prophet Ezaldel saw in his vision pales into insignificance compared with the valleys and ravines full of bones of Jewish martyrs which we see at present.”

“The Jewish people,” Col. Feffer predicted, “will emerge from this war stronger and more integrated than ever before. The U.S.S.R. is playing and will yet play a decisive part in this direction. Our people, like others, have sustained many casualties in this war. We have lost much blood. But we have gained courage. We are confident in our strength. We respect our present and look with confidence towards our future.”