Part 19 (1/2)
[329]
b. Ma.s.s Deportations
On July 16, 1942, ma.s.s raids struck the stateless Jews living in Paris.
In two days 12,884 of them, including 4,051 children, were rounded up by the French police. [330]
Thereupon, the President of the Protestant Federation in the occupied zone, Rev. Bertrand, sent the following letter to Mr. de Brinon, General delegate of the French Government to the Occupation authorities:
”When the German authorities made it inc.u.mbent upon the Jews living in the occupied zone to wear a distinctive badge, the Council of the Protestant Federation of France submitted a letter to the French Chief of State which was well received by him and of which I enclose a copy.
One would have thought that now the anti-Jewish laws have reached their climax with this humiliating measure designed to place the Jews apart from the rest of the nation and to single them out for the kind of malevolence, systematically meted out to them since the beginning of the occupation.
However, the month of July has seen an increase of personal violence on a scale never before attained; and we have noted among the general population of Paris a feeling of distress and disapproval which the present generation undoubtedly will never forget.
The Churches of Jesus Christ to whom G.o.d has entrusted the message of peace, love, and mutual respect among men, cannot keep silent in view of events which for many years have threatened any possibility of a normal relations.h.i.+p between two great nations. Because Frenchmen at present have no means of making their opinions and feelings known, it should not be inferred that they are indifferent onlookers at the extermination of a whole race, and at the undeserved martyrdom of its women and children.
The men who profess to be working towards closer relations between the conqueror and the nations over which he exercises his authority, surely should be able to make the occupying forces understand that declarations of good will during these years cannot efface the effect of the cruelties we have witnessed. <143> A Christian Church would be failing in its vocation were it to let the seeds of hatred be sown in this fas.h.i.+on without raising its voice in the name of Him who gave His life to shatter all barriers between men.
I leave it to Your Excellency to judge whether the appeal I have made to you to-day should be brought to the notice of the occupying authorities, and whether the voices of Christians, who are solely concerned with seeking to alleviate suffering and hatred, ought to be ignored, rather than those of men who know no other response to violence than that of hatred.
Before concluding this letter I wish expressly to state that the message to Marshal Petain was the only subject of the deliberations of the Council of the Protestant Federation, which has just ended its sessions and it is collectively responsible for it. With regard to the present letter, I take upon myself full responsibility for it, not only before the Church and the French nation but also - eventually - before the German authorities.” [331]
Rev. Boegner relates: ”Events succeeded one another precipitately. After the occupied zone came the turn of the so-called 'free zone'. We saw a new wave of horror unleashed in camp, town and village. Our chaplains, together with the 'Cimade' [332] and the parish pastors, in the face of tremendous suffering, accomplished a task of Christian love which was a powerful testimony to Jesus Christ. I supported their efforts to the best of my ability. But renewed appeals became necessary.
I thought that at this tragic juncture the Catholic Church and the Protestant Churches should at least unite in making their appeals.
I spoke of this to Cardinal Gerlier on August 13th. It was agreed that each of us should write an urgent letter to Marshal Petain. Mine was sent on August 20th.” [333]
The letter read as follows:
”When you did me the honour of receiving me on June 27th, I placed in your hands a letter whereby the Council of the Protestant Federation of France entrusted to your soldier's heart the pain and agitation caused in the Protestant Churches by measures taken in the occupied zone against the Jews, and those Christians whom the law has marked as Jews. <144> To-day it is my regrettable duty to write to you in the name of the same Council in order to express the unspeakable sorrow felt in our Church, in face of new measures ordered by the French Government and directed against the foreign Jews (baptised and unbaptised), and the ways and means of their execution. No Frenchman can remain unmoved in view of the events occurring since August 2nd, in concentration and internment camps.
As is known, the reply is that France is only returning to Germany those Jews whom the latter had sent in autumn 1940. In truth, however, man and women who for political and religious reasons fled to France, and who know the terrible fate awaiting them, are now being deported or facing immediate deportation to Germany.
Christianity has. .h.i.therto inspired nations, and especially France, with respect for the hallowed right of sanctuary. The Christian Churches, irrespective of their different confessions, would be disloyal to their original calling if they did not raise a protest against the abandonment of this principle.
I am forced to add that in several places these 'deliveries' have occurred under such inhuman conditions that they shock the most hardened consciences, and brought tears to the eyes of witnesses: herded together in goods trucks, without the slightest hygienic precautions, foreigners intended for deportation were treated like cattle.
The Quakers, who were doing the utmost possible for those who suffer in our country, were refused permission to feed the deportees at Lyons.
The Israelite Consistorium was not allowed to give them foodstuffs.
Respect for the human personality which you intend to maintain in the Const.i.tution and which you want to grant to France has often been trodden underfoot. Here, also, the Churches see themselves obliged to protest against such a grave misunderstanding of undeniable duties.
The Council of the Protestant Federation appeals to your high authority to order the introduction of absolutely different methods in the treatment of foreigners of the Jewish race, whether baptized or not, whose deportation has been admitted. The tenacious fidelity of France, especially during the tragic days which it has lived through in the past two years, towards its traditions of human generosity and n.o.ble-mindedness, remains one of the main grounds of respect which certain nations still have for us.
As Vice President of the World Council of Churches which includes all great Christian Churches, with the exception of the Roman Catholic Church, I am compelled to inform you of the deep emotion felt in Swiss, Swedish, and American Churches, in face of the events now occurring in France, and with which the entire world is acquainted.
I beg you to dictate the indispensable measures in order that France may not inflict upon herself a moral defeat of unfathomable weight.” [334]
Some days later, the letter was broadcast over the American and British radio, and subsequently reproduced in the foreign press. <145> The deportations continued. By September 1, 1942, the Vichy authorities had handed over 5,000 Jews to the Germans and another 7,100 had been arrested. [335]
On August 27, 1942, Rev. Boegner sent the following letter to the Chief of the Government, Laval:
”Authorized to speak on behalf of the Protestant Churches of the entire world, many of which have already asked for my intervention, and aware of the events of the past few days, I beg to urge you to give me your a.s.surance that in no event shall foreigners be convicted in their own countries for political reasons, and those who have sought refuge in France, for similar reasons, be expelled to the occupied zone.” [336]
He then had an interview with Laval, who said that foreign Jews must be handed over to the Germans in order to save the French Jews.
”Would you agree that we save their children?”, asked Rev. Boegner ”The children must remain with their parents”, was the reply. Laval then asked: ”What would you do with the children?” Rev. Boegner. answered: ”French families will adopt them”. Laval retorted: ”NO, not one must remain in France”.
Rev. Boegner than had an interview with the Charge d'Affaires of the United States, who promised him to cable to Was.h.i.+ngton, to be authorized to tell Laval that the United States would accept the children of deported parents. [337]
As the Council of the Federation of Protestant Churches in France could not be convened, Rev. Boegner then urgently called a gathering of the National Council of the Reformed Church. It addressed to the faithful the following Message, dated September 22, 1942, which was read from nearly all the pulpits: <146>
”The National Council of the Reformed Church of France, being convened for the first time since the application of measures against the Jews, among whom are many Christians, was informed of the demarches which its President had made, in writing and verbally, to the highest State authorities in the name of the Federation of French Protestants. The Council a.s.sociated itself fully with the President.
Without ignoring or belittling the extreme complexity of the situation with which the authorities of our country are faced and more than ever determined to exercise loyally - among the people - the spiritual vocation to which G.o.d has called her; although composed of people faithful to the old principle of abstaining from any intrusion into the sphere of politics, the Reformed Church of France cannot keep silent in face of the suffering of thousands of human beings who have received asylum on our soil.
A Christian Church would lose its soul and the very reason for its existence, were it not to maintain - for the safeguard of the whole nation in the midst of which G.o.d has placed it - the Divine law above human contingencies.
That Divine law does not permit families created by G.o.d to be broken up, children to be separated from their mothers, the right of human beings to asylum and pity to be disregarded; nor respect for human rights to be trodden upon, nor defenceless beings to be delivered to a tragic fate.
Whatever the problems may be which are beyond the scope of the Church and which the Church is not called upon to resolve, it is its duty to a.s.sert that they shall not be resolved by means which contravene the law of G.o.d.