Part 36 (1/2)
Concrete proposals should be submitted without delay to the Governments representing Allied interests in Germany by the Governments of the United States and Great Britain.
The International Red Cross Committee may also be approached by the Allied Governments and asked for support in this matter. [593]
Dr. Riegner sent this aide-memoire to the British Amba.s.sador in Switzerland ”on behalf of the Secretariats of the World Council of Churches and of the World Jewish Congress”. Dr. Visser 't Hooft forwarded it to the Amba.s.sador of the United States, requesting in his covering letter, dated March 19, 1943, that the aide-memoire should be forwarded to the American Government, to the Federation of Churches of Christ in the U.S.A., and to the American branch of the World Jewish Congress.
He also stated that he had sent a copy to Mr. Allan Welsh Dulles with whom he had ”quite recently had the pleasure of discussing the matter”. Mr.Dulles was the representative of the ”Office of Strategic Services” of the American Government, at Bern.
The sending of this aide-memoire was, I think, the first time in history that an important organization of Churches officially approached Governments, jointly with an important Jewish organization. <277>
c. Aid to Refugees
In 1938, the Provisional Committee of the World Council of Churches was formed. Its first ordinary session took place at Saint-Germain (near Paris), in January, 1939. It was at this meeting that the Bishop of Chichester, George Bell, unequivocally proposed that the Council create a special department to deal with refugee problems. He himself had been a pioneer in this work.
He felt that ”the time had come to aid the entire ma.s.s of non-Aryans”.
He meant not only the non-Aryan members of the Church but also the others, albeit there being a special responsibility towards members of the Christian Church. [594]
Soon afterwards Dr. Adolf Freudenberg was appointed the first secretary of this new department for aid to refugees.
The Ec.u.menical Commission for Refugees rendered aid to refugees in the camps of France at the end of 1940. It was also engaged in first aid to the people in the camp of Gurs. Later on, France remained the main field of activities.
”The Christian aid included Christians as well as Jews. There was co-operation with Jewish organizations in many respects. Thus, for instance, the Commission for Refugees could act as the intermediary for financial aid to Jewish families and children who were in hiding in Belgium, Holland, Hungary and other countries.” [595]
The Churches in three countries rendered financial aid: first and foremost Switzerland, but also Sweden and the United States.
”Switzerland donated Sw. Fr. 77,000 in 1941; the United States donated only Sw. Fr. 10,000 and Sweden Sw. Fr. 6,000. The United States soon realized the importance of the aid to refugees and in the following year the Churches in the United States donated Sw. Fr. 241,000 and later Sw. Fr. 368,000.
Obviously they really did understand the significance of this work.
I think that this was also due to the fact that Dr. Cavert (the then General Secretary of the Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A.) visited us. Later on I myself went to the United States and was able to explain to them the importance of the matter.” [596] <278>
When, in the summer of 1942, Lava1 began to hand over the Jews of the unoccupied area of France to the Germans, members of the French Protestant Youth Organization Cimade brought many refugees to the Swiss frontier.
Switzerland, however, was not willing to grant asylum to them. The Ec.u.menical Commission for Refugees, ”closely co-operating with other organizations”, succeeded in a.s.suring the admission of ”many hundreds” of these refugees. [597]
Another endeavour to save lives failed. The Committee had, with the help of American Christians, succeeded in obtaining entrance visas into the United States for 1,000 Jewish children from France, but the occupation of Southern France by the Germans foiled this plan. [598]
Dr. Visser 't Hooft was personally active in an ”illegal” organization which helped Dutch Jews to pa.s.s through France to Switzerland. He helped its leader, Jean Weidner, with money from a collection for this purpose amongst Dutchmen living in Switzerland. [599]
The former secretary of the Jewish Committee of Coordination in Switzerland, Mr. H. H. Gans, relates the following incident as regarding to the granting of pa.s.sports and certificates of citizens.h.i.+p granted by South-American Governments to Jews in French concentration camps:
”...We had declared... that the beneficiaries would not try to use their new 'citizens.h.i.+p' after the war. But probably owing to their fear of an invasion of new citizens after the war, some countries dared not postpone the nullification until after the war...
The Spanish Amba.s.sador immediately pa.s.sed on this fatal message (to the Germans) and 300 'South-Americans' were deported from Vitel. The World Congress informed me at night. Consternation was great. <279> I contacted Dr. T. Lewenstein [the then Chief-Rabbi of Zurich and Dr. Visser 't Hooft. Together we sent a telegram to the Queen. There was an immediate reaction: Her Majesty's Amba.s.sador at Buenos Aires was ordered to intervene.
Very shortly after this, an entirely favourable result was obtained.” [600]
Mr. Gans also stated that once he paid a large amount of money on behalf of persons hidden in Holland, through the kind offices of Dr. Visser 't Hooft.
From Holland came the confirmation: ”The organization thanks you very much for the money transferred from Switzerland.” [601]
The testimony of Mr. Gans also speaks of the matter of sending gift parcels to the Jews in concentration camps:
”No parcels could have been sent and no other help could have been rendered, if we had not been supported continuously by Dr. Visser 't Hooft, General Secretary of the World Council of Churches, Geneva...
His contribution to the Dutch resistance movement will certainly be described by others. Suffice it here to point out the general importance of the presence of such a man in Switzerland, and the fact that busy though he was, he never refused to see me whenever I asked for an interview, and that happened almost every day. No detail of our relief work was unimportant to him.” [602]
It appears that neither Dr. Visser 't Hooft nor Dr. Freudenberg were formalistic in their activities. They understood, in contrast to so many in and outside occupied Europe, that ”illegal” acts were, in those special circ.u.mstances, morally justified. Thus money was ”illegally” transmitted to Jews in hiding; and refugees were supported who had entered into Switzerland ”illegally.”
What has been said about Church leaders in Bulgaria, can be applied to Dr.
Visser 't Hooft and Dr. Freudenberg: they were gravely concerned, and thus they were available whenever their help was requested.
In June, 1944, the Ec.u.menical Commission for Aid to Refugees published the following statement: <280> The Fate of the Jews in Hungary
”The Ec.u.menical Commission for Refugees exists in order to give material and spiritual aid to refugees of all faiths. Its main task is therefore to relieve the suffering of the refugees rather than to protest against the treatment meted out to them. But there are situations in which the only aid we can give is in the form of a solemn and public protest. To-day this is the case.
Trustworthy reports state that so far some four hundred thousand Hungarian Jews are deported in inhuman conditions and, in so far as they have not died on the way, brought to the camp of Auschwitz in Upper Silesia where, during the past two years, many hundreds of thousands of Jews have been systematically put to death.