Part 28 (2/2)
This development led the Department of Police to propose to the Federal Council that new decrees, more stringent than the preceding ones, be issued for the whole of the Swiss border. Apparently the order of Sept. 26, 1942, that being a Jew was no reason for admittance, mostly was not observed. [480] <217> The decree of Dec. 29, 1942, ordered that foreigners arrested whilst crossing the border or in the region of the border (up till 10 kilometres) must be turned back immediately. Exemption would be granted to the categories a, b and c mentioned in the decree of Sept. 26, 1942. [481]
”Further, parents with children not over six years old; or if at least one of their children is not older than six; refugees who can prove that they have a spouse, parents or children in Switzerland; or when at least one of a married couple has been born in Switzerland. [482]
The ”Report of the Swiss Protestant Relief Society” comments:
”We are grateful that a Delegation of the Federation of Churches also remonstrated with the Federal Government in the matter. No substantial amendments to the decree were obtained, but in practice the att.i.tude of the authorities was more obliging than the wording of the decree leads one to a.s.sume.
The possibilities of providing asylum, and the readiness of the authorities to grant it, are in no small measure dependent on the willingness of the Swiss people to make sacrifices for the refugees.
We therefore emphatically insisted that the congregations of the Evangelical Church should take upon themselves the financial responsibility for the upkeep of as many refugees as possible, and so to fulfil towards individual refugees Christ's commandment of love. [483]
In the first seven months of 1943, 1,821 refugees were sent back and 4,733 admitted. ”Its is impossible to determine, how many Jews were among those admitted; apparently they made up the vast majority.” [484]
On May 9, 1943, the Synod of the Evangelical-Reformed Church of the City of Basel adopted the following Resolution:
”The Synod, deeply concerned by the information received regarding instruction given by the authorities to the border guards and the dreadful horrors still being undergone by refugees wanting to cross our borders, charges the Church council to urge the Executive Committee of the Federation of Churches to remonstrate afresh with the responsible authorities on behalf of the refugees according to the Church's responsibility to be a Protector, and desires that the congregation, through the 'Church Messenger', be kept suitably informed of the Synod's negotiations concerning the refugee and asylum problem. [485]
<218> In October, 1943, the Church Council of Zurich addressed the following message ”To the Reformed People of Zurich”:
”... We are able only through rumours to gain a vague impression of the dreadful reality. And because it is beyond the powers of our imagination, we are in danger of closing our hearts and trying to suppress any awareness of the fact that daily, hourly, indeed every single moment, thousands suffer, bleed, starve, despair, die.
We also let ourselves be misled by a falsely understood neutrality, which freezes our feelings towards the distress of foreigners, or causes in us a moral apathy towards injustice and inhumanity, sometimes even making us adopt the catchwords and evil slogans of anti-Semitism and racial hatred, and persuading us to accept ideals which are hostile to the Gospel of love to G.o.d and to ones neighbour...
All humane people are haunted by descriptions of the sufferings to which members of the Jewish people have been exposed during these past four years of war, this following centuries of being slandered, ridiculed, beaten and persecuted throughout the Christian era!
Expelled from home and work, forcibly separated, children tom from the arms of their mothers, mothers from the arms of their children, anew they are uprooted just when they had supposed they had found a protecting refuge.
They have been tossed towards an uncertain destiny, which all too often only spelled destruction, misery, starvation, beatings, despair and death.
Indeed, no other nation has been so overwhelmed by storms of persecution and deluged by sufferings, as has been the people of Israel.
Who as a Christian, or as a Swiss, can fail to be oppressed by the distress of the Jewish people, or to be confronted by questions unsolvable by the words guilt and atonement, because we have certainly sufficient cause to ask questions about our own guilt in this matter and to apply to ourselves Christ's word: 'Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.'
Such an admission can result only in one thing: the emergence of a deep sympathy and a desire to help wherever and however we can, to grant refuge to the homeless, to shelter the exposed, to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, to visit the imprisoned, to support the weak, to comfort the mourning; in accordance with the example of the good Samaritan and the teaching and promise of our Master: 'In as much as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me'...” [486]
In November, 1943, the ”Social Study Committee of the Swiss Union of Reformed Pastors” published the following Statement: <219> ”... With shame and sorrow we see this purposeful turning away from Christ in a monstrous effort to exterminate entire races and peoples.
The Christian conscience cries out against this. We therefore appeal to all those in responsible positions in the world, to save what still may be saved.
We demand that the Swiss Government which maintains diplomatic relations with all governments in the world, devise with them and with the International Red Cross, a plan of rescue.
In the name of Jesus we demand that our authorities put a stop to the driving back of refugees to their death, until final measures are taken, and to grant them a safe, Christian asylum. Our thanks go to the people of Switzerland for their cordial hospitality, even though it is hampered by authority!...” [487]
In my opinion this is the sharpest protest against the official refugee policy of the Swiss government that was ever published during the second world war.
At the end of 1943, it was ordered not to send Jewish refugees back if they objected. Thus Jews who fled Italy after its occupation by the Germans, were to be admitted; however, in the case of a real 'run' one might have to stop admitting them for some time. [488]
It is, in my opinion, undeniable that the protests of the Churches and Church”
leaders contributed to alleviating the measures against the refugees and their ultimate cancellation in practice. In the meantime, unspeakable sufferings had been inflicted on refugees who had been sent back and fell into the hands of their mortal enemies.
d. Aid to Refugees
We already mentioned some of the activities of the ”Swiss Protestant Relief Society for the Confessing Church in Germany”, [489] for instance the Annual Conference held on November 17, 1941, and its partic.i.p.ation in the general collection for Aid to Refugees, held during October-November, 1942. In order to show the spirit in which this refugee work was done, we record the following letter which was sent by the Executive Council of the Society to the Swiss-Israelite Union of Congregations, on June 22, 1943: <220>
”You have ordered a call to an a.s.sembly of Mourning, for next Sunday, 27th June, 1943. You will then recall the horrible decrees to which Jews in Europe are subjected, and the unspeakable hards.h.i.+p and oppression under which people nowadays suffer and die.
Together with you we are deeply shocked at the ma.s.s murder that has engulfed European Jewry. Only with dread and horror can one read of the number deported from Germany, France, the Netherlands, Rumania and Greece.
We fight against allowing suffering to become a familiar routine, and against blunting of concern on the part of our people of Switzerland at such distress.
To us these dry figures represent human beings, who have lived, suffered and died. Their ma.s.s graves and their ashes will, till the coming Day of the Lord, be a shocking accusation against a Europe which forgot G.o.d.
As Christians we cannot let the a.s.sembly of Mourning of the Swiss-Israelite Union of Congregations pa.s.s without a cordial word of sympathy and partic.i.p.ation. Deeply moved, we shall join our thoughts with yours in intercession.
We know that each murder and every act of violence is rooted in the G.o.dless thinking of G.o.dless minds. The unkind word and the unappreciative gesture are signs of poisoning of the minds.
The fact that this poisoning could a.s.sume such terrible proportions in 'Christian' Europe, where especially the Jewish people are victimised, shames us and gives us cause for severe self-accusation. So little have we Christians understood Jesus Christ and so far apart from him have we lived, that G.o.dless thinking was able to create this insane racial hatred and merciless cruelty in our midst, raging as a demon against the Jews.
On your day of mourning we join hands with you in sympathy and sorrow. At the same time we confess our guilt before G.o.d and mankind. We regret every word of contempt, we Christians ever uttered against Jews.
We regret that we have shamed Jesus Christ by our self-righteousness and our hardness of heart. We regret that we Christians were not more loyal to our Master and thus failed courageously to struggle, in time, against every expression of anti-Semitism.
On this day of your mourning we implore the Almighty for his mercy, for the sake of Jesus Christ, with the publican's prayer of penitence: 'G.o.d be merciful to us sinners'.
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