Part 30 (1/2)
”In the name of Christianity and democracy, humanity and justice, we protest against the ma.s.s deportations of Jewish citizens from our nearest neighbour country, not for crimes committed but because of their race.
We do this for the sake or our Northern community, but we are angry and distressed that Northern men have been able to commit this deed of shame.
We protest in the name of international law, for without security in law all human order collapses, whether it be called old or new.” [506]
Svenska Morgonbladet reported that it had received expressions of sorrow and sympathy from the leaders of various Church congregations.
Bishop John Cullberg said at Strangnas:
”After what happened earlier in Norway, the latest telegrams about the persecution of Jews are not surprising. But we are profoundly shocked.
The Norwegian Church has, through its statements, already interpreted the Christian conscience's protest against these atrocities. It must be loudly proclaimed that we in Sweden support this protest. <229> With bleeding hearts, we think of the martyrs. And what should we say of their tormentors? All we can say is: 'Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do'.” [507]
Although leading men within the Swedish Free Churches already at an early stage had separately expressed their feelings in the press regarding the persecution of the Jews in Norway, the Free Churches' Co-operation Committee wished to emphasize their mutual standpoint:
”G.o.d is the Father of all, and all men are called to receive the advantage of the adoption of sons, independent of race and birth. Racial persecution is thus a sin and a rebellion against G.o.d. The Jew is our neighbour, and we wish to love him as ourselves.
Facing what is happening in Norway, we feel grief and distress. We are onlookers at a situation where our neighbour is being treated as something sub-human. We cannot remain silent witnesses to this We wish that our deeds could bring help, to undo what has been done. Our hope is that G.o.d will turn evil to good.
We wish to join in the appeal of the Bishops of the Swedish Church, in the name of G.o.d, for intercessions for our tortured brethren of the race of Israel, and to make daily prayers to our Father in Heaven for the many who are suffering violence and disaster at this time.” [508]
Under the subject heading ”Christian Gathering”, a meeting was held on December 6, 1942 at Hedvig's Church at Norrkoping. This meeting was arranged by clergymen. Speakers were Vicar Thysell, Pastor Einitz Genitz and Vicar Knut Ericson. We quote the following from Vicar Thysell's address:
”The information concerning 1,000 Jews driven from their homes, robbed of their property and transferred to Germany to meet a most cruel fate, has shaken us thoroughly and deeply. Those Jews were loyal Norwegian citizens: they had done nothing wrong. They were punished because they were Jews, without trial or verdict. <230> The people of Norway were the first to speak up and protest through their Church. The brave and strong words from Norwegian Church leaders, themselves oppressed and persecuted, have moved us profoundly. Now we, too, must speak.
There are occasions when it would be denying truth to remain silent.
We bear a special responsibility towards G.o.d and humanity when such things are happening around US. We Swedes are best able to represent the world's conscience in this case, and we feel that we also owe our Norwegian brethren a clear and unequivocal declaration on our stand.
We also have another responsibility in this case, one that lies even nearer to us: our responsibility towards the Jewish brethren, who belong to our own people. The contamination of anti-Semitism has also reached our own country. Infamous and false propaganda is being spread from plague centres within our own borders. We have hitherto belittled this danger. Now we see to where it is leading. It is time for us to wake up!
We must also at this hour think of the ma.s.s persecution of Jews which is taking place in other countries. From available information it appears that the anti-Semitic wave is still rising. The threat now also concerns half-Jews.
Our taking a stand might seem meaningless to all of these. We cannot stop violence. It may, however, in a secret way, bring a ray of consolation and hope into despairing hearts.
We have named our meeting 'Christian Gathering'. That our consciences react to the outrage which is happening, is the result of the spiritual values of life which we have received from Christ and the Prophets of Israel - from the very people who are now being persecuted in so many countries. On those basic values rests our Nordic judicial culture.
We pride ourselves on Sweden being a const.i.tutional state. Here no one can be sentenced and punished except on the basis of justice. Here, right is not equal to might. Above the power of the state stand those eternal truths of our relation to G.o.d and each other, which have been revealed to us and which, in our consciences, appear as indefeasible values of life.
Arnulf Overland says: 'Some things are greater than you. There are mountains with snow. There are dearer things than your life; you shall fight for it'.
The dearest thing we have are those values of life that Christ gives us. The persecution of the Jews is not the only proof - but the most horrible of all - of a denial of these values of life.
We are here to-day to confess our belief in these eternal foundations for human society, which G.o.d himself has laid.
We believe in G.o.d, our Lord Jesus Christ, and our Father, who has called us all, independent of race and all other differences, to receive the adoption of sons and to live in communion with Him and each other. We wish to adhere to this Christian evaluation of man. And we reject as hostile to G.o.d and anti-Christian that brutal conception of man, and that contempt of mankind, which forge the acts of violence in anti-Semitism.
We regard the brotherhood of humanity as holy, and brotherly action as our goal. We feel it our obligation to act towards our Jewish brethren in accordance with Jesus' rule of life: 'All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them'. <231> Do we seriously mean them to be our confession of faith? Do we dare uphold it, as our Norwegian brethren have done, even if our faith should be tried as gold is tried in fire?
Whatever happens, we need not fear, if we follow Jesus Christ, the eternal King. The weapons of iniquity are doomed annihilation. Christ stands on the side of the persecuted. His spirit, the Spirit of Truth, Righteousness and Love, is strongest of all. The day of freedom shall again dawn for the persecuted and oppressed.” [509]
It is remarkable that earlier deportations of Jews in countries such as Germany, France and the Netherlands, did not prompt the Swedish Church leaders to raise their voices, though the number of deportees was much greater than that of the Jews deported from Norway.
It seems likely that what was happening in Western Europe was less known in Sweden than what was happening in Norway. Moreover, human beings generally are more moved by cruelties committed on their doorstep, than by what happens further away. The Proclamation of the Swedish Bishops expressed ”horror and dismay” because ”an un-Christian racial hatred...
has now expressed itself... in our immediate neighbourhood, on our own Scandinavian peninsula”.
As far as we know, the Swedish Church did not issue a Protest against the persecution of the Danish Jews. In fact, events in Denmark took place so rapidly that a Protest would hardly have done any good.
The pressure of the Swedish Archbishop (and others) on the Swedish Government to make public their willingness to receive all Danish Jews, was important. It appears that this step, indirectly, saved many lives.
Dr. Leni Yahil relates the following:
”The Swedish Foreign Office contacted Richert, the Swedish envoy in Berlin, on the same day, September 29 [1943], and again on the next day, September 30, in order to plan with him the appeal to the German Foreign Office. It was decided that Richert would ask the Germans whether there was a basis to the rumours about an impending deportation of the Jews from Denmark, and that he would stress the fact that such a deportation would cause great indignation in Sweden. Moreover, he was to propose that all Danish Jews be transferred to Sweden and concentrated there in a camp and that the Swedish Government would be responsible that 'they would not be able to undertake any activity that might be harmful to Germany'. <232> It became evident that the Swedes did not intend to take any further action.
[Niels] Bohr, Ebbe Munk and their friends, however, were of a different opinion. As we know from entries in Ebbe Munk's diary and from his letters to Christmas Moeller in London, it was the Danish group with the active support of prominent Swedish circles which brought about the publication by the Swedish Government of the appeal to the Germans.
On October 2, the day following on the night of the persecution in Denmark, Bohr had an interview with the Foreign Secretary, Guenther. It seems that already on the preceding day the Danes had tried to persuade the Swedes to publish their appeal to the Germans in the hope that such a publication might prevent the deportation. Since this had not been done, Bohr requested the Swedish Foreign Secretary to repeat his appeal to the Germans and to propose to them that the boats on which the Jews were concentrated, be directed to Sweden instead of to Germany. Guenther proposed this to the German Amba.s.sador Thomsen, who called on him at 9 o'clock in the evening on that day. A reply to this proposal was never received.
Through Kammerherr von Kruse, the Danish Amba.s.sador in Stockholm, and with the active support of Prof. Stefan Hurvitz, an audience with the King of Sweden was arranged for Bohr, in the afternoon of the same day. During this audience Bohr proposed to the King that the Swedish appeal to Germany be published. The King did not reply, but at the end of the audience the Foreign Secretary was called in. That same evening the Swedish radio broadcasted an announcement about the steps taken by Sweden in Berlin. The announcement stressed that the Swedish Amba.s.sador, on behalf of his Government, had declared that Sweden was willing to receive all the Danish Jews. We know that this announcement encouraged the Jews as well as their Danish helpers to organize the ma.s.s escape.