Part 34 (1/2)
On Dec. 11, 1942, at the great Biennial a.s.sembly of the Federal Council, the following Resolution on Anti-Semitism was adopted:
”The reports which are reaching us concerning the incredible cruelties towards the Jews in n.a.z.i occupied countries, particularly Poland, stir the Christian people of America to the deepest sympathy and indignation. It is impossible to avoid a conclusion that something like a policy of deliberate extermination of the Jews in Europe is being carried out. The violence and inhumanity which n.a.z.i leaders have publicly avowed toward all Jews are apparently now coming to a climax in a virtual ma.s.sacre. We are resolved to do our full part in establis.h.i.+ng conditions in which such treatment of the Jews shall end.
The feelings of the Jewish community throughout the world have recently been expressed in a period of mourning, fasting and prayer. We a.s.sociate ourselves with our Jewish fellow-citizens in their hour of tragic sorrow, and unite our prayers with theirs.
We confess our own ineffectiveness in combating the influences which beget anti-Semitism in our own country, and urge our const.i.tuencies to intensify their efforts in behalf of friendly relations with the Jews.
We urge that all plans for reconstruction in Europe shall include measures designed to secure full justice for the Jews and a safe and respected place for them in western civilisation. For those who, after the war, will have to emigrate from the war-ridden lands of Europe, immigration opportunities should be created in this and other lands.
We recommend that the officers of the Federal Council transmit this action to the Jewish leaders in person.” [563] <261>
On Dec. 31, 1942, the Synagogue Council of America published a New Year message it had addressed to the Rev. Dr. Samuel McCrea Cavert, secretary of the Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America, and to Mgr. Michael J. Ready, general secretary of the National Catholic Welfare Conference. The message was signed by Dr. Israel Goldstein, president of the Council.
”American Jews,” the message said, ”share with their Christian brothers the sense of having been privileged to bear burdens not only in answering the call of our nation's defence needs, but also in heeding the call of human needs overseas.
”To the Jews of Hitler-ridden Europe the year 1942 has been the most catastrophic in their tragedy-laden history. Helpless women, aged and children, and defenceless men have been slaughtered wholesale and a whole people has been marked for extermination. Among no other people is such a toll being taken. If the executioner's hand is not soon stayed, all the Jews whom it can reach will perish.”
The message said the greeting was ”preferred to you and to the great body of Christians whom you represent”, and expressed hope for an Allied victory and a just peace in 1943. [564]
On January 6, 1943, the heads of the six Jewish organizations which comprised the Synagogue Council of America, under the chairmans.h.i.+p of Rabbi Israel Goldstein, met in conference with official representatives of the Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America. The purpose of the meeting was to afford an opportunity to discuss together what the Christian Churches could do to a.s.sist the Jews of Europe.
Desiring to express its sympathy in something more than resolutions, the Federal Council arranged for the conference with the Jewish leaders. Several fruitful suggestions emerged as to ways in which the Churches might help to develop stronger support for the needs of refugees from Europe, a measure of relief in the form of food for at least some of the Jews in Europe, and a safe and respected place for Jews in the post-war world. [565]
c. Practical Steps Demanded; the Bermuda Conference <262>
”On March 1, 1943, a great demonstration, one of the largest ever held in the United States, took place in Madison Square Garden at the initiative of the Congress and under the joint auspices of the American Jewish Congress, the American Federation of Labour, the CIO, and the Church Peace Union.
Twenty-two thousand people crowded into the great hall, while 15,000 stood outside throughout the evening listening to the proceedings through amplifiers.
The demonstration was addressed by Dr. Chaim Weizmann, Dr. Stephen S. Wise, Governor Thomas E. Dewey, Mayor Fiorello H. LaGuardia, Senator Robert F. Wagner, William Green, and others.
The British Section transmitted cable messages from the Archbishop of Canterbury and the late Cardinal Hinsley, whose last public utterance it was before his death a week later. The meeting laid down a 12-point program for the rescue of European Jewry prepared by World Jewish Congress experts.
The effect was immediate. On the following day, Undersecretary of State Sumner Welles declared that a note had already been sent to Great Britain on February 25 offering the cooperation of the United States in organizing an intergovern- mental meeting for study of methods to save 'political refugees' in Europe.
The meeting came to be known as the Bermuda Refugee Conference...” [566]
On March 1, 1943, the Executive Committee of the Federal Council of Churches of Christ in America appealed to the Governments of the United States and Great Britain ”to consider offering financial a.s.sistance to Jewish refugees who have escaped to neutral countries from n.a.z.i held territory, and the possible establishment of temporary places of asylum for those evacuated from Europe”.
The committee urged that the proposals be considered at the forthcoming conference in Toronto of representatives of the two governments on the Jewish problem. The suggestion was part of a three-point program calling for a report by the council's department of research and education on the treatment of Jews under the n.a.z.i regime and setting aside May 2 for observance in churches as a ”Day of Compa.s.sion” for the Jews in Europe.
The committee's action was a sequel to the adoption at the council's biennial meeting in Cleveland in December of a statement setting forth the organization's determination ”to do our full part in establis.h.i.+ng conditions” in which harsh treatment of Jews should end. The proposals outlined by the committee for consideration of the British and American representatives at Toronto were: <263> ”To offer financial a.s.sistance for the support of refugees that neutral governments (for example, Switzerland, or Sweden, Spain, Portugal and Turkey) may receive from areas under n.a.z.i control, as a result either of infiltration across their borders or of negotiations with the Axis powers, with the expectation that, after the war, such refugees would be repatriated in their own countries.
”To provide places of temporary asylum to which refugees whom it may be possible to evacuate from European countries may be removed, these refugees to be supported in camps for the duration of the war, with the understanding that they will then be repatriated in their own country or be provided with permanent homes in other ways.”
At the same time the committee urged Christians throughout the country ”to give their moral support to whatever measures afford promise of rescuing European Jews whose lives are in jeopardy.”
The committee invited all Christians to ”join in united intercession on May 2 for the victims of racial and religious persecution as a special occasion for the expression of Christian sollicitude.” [567]
The practical steps proposed by the Executive Committee of the Federal Council to the Governments of the United States and Great Britain were similar to the steps proposed by the Archbishop of Canterbury in the House of Lords at about the same time, [568] and to the Aide-memoire sent by the Secretariats of the World Council of Churches and of the World Jewish Congress (Geneva), to the American and British Governments. [569] Not withstanding all this, the Bermuda Conference became ”a monument of moral callousness and inertia”. [570]
d. Different Churches Speaking on Different Occasions
The following is a chronological record of statements made by Churches or Church leaders in the United States from May, 1943, until the end of the second world war.
Henry St. George Tucker, Presiding Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church and president of the Federal Council of Churches, in a statement on the observance by the Council of a ”Day of Compa.s.sion” for persecuted European Jews, said that there had been found a ”rising tide of concern among Christians” over their fate. <264>
Dr. Tucker said it was the first time Christian churches had set aside a specific day for a ”united expression of their sympathy with a suffering and persecuted Jewry”.
”What is happening to the Jews on the Continent of Europe is so horrible that we are in danger of a.s.suming that it is exaggerated,” he said, and cited a recent survey by the council of evidence that he said indicated that under the n.a.z.is a policy of deliberate extermination of Jews was carried out.
”The survey shows that the actual facts are probably more, rather than less, terrible than the reports,” he continued. ”The Christian people of America vigorously protest against this brutal and cruel persecution.
But protest is not enough.”
Two remedial measures have been set forth by the council: First financial a.s.sistance for support of refugees reaching neutral countries from n.a.z.i- occupied areas, and second, provision of temporary asylum to which refugees evacuated from European countries may be removed. [571]
On October 20, 1943, American religious leaders denounced ”the recent acts of terror in Denmark” and expressed sympathy for the Jews in that country.