RESISTANCE TO NAZIS

Press, Volume LXXIX, Issue 23971, 11 June 1943, Page 5

RESISTANCE TO NAZIS

FRANCE AND HOLLAND UNREST IN LYONS AND MARSEILLES Rec. 9 pjn.) LONDON, June 9. More reports of resistance to Nazi tyranny are coming in from various parts of Europe. The latest uprising is reported from Lyons, in France, where the Nazis are having considerable • difficulty in smashing the anti-Nazi underground movement. Much resistance is being offered to the Nazis in their drive for French workers for German industries, and early one morning the streets were covered by machine-guns while Nazi officials combed the suburbs for prospective victims. Thousands have been herded into trucks and transported to Germany. According to a report which has reached Fighting French Headquarters in London, patriots in Marseilles assassinated 11 Italian soldiers. The report adds that the Italian authorities immediately ordered largescale arrests and a curfew, but the Germans cancelled the reprisals. Tension is reported to be mounting rapidly in Marseilles, and the underground front elsewhere throughout France is set for action. News has now been received in England of the strike which led to the introduction of martial law in Holland. On April 28 the Nazi decree conscripting Dutch workers for German industries and ordering the reinternment of Dutch former servicemen was issued. Late in the day shops, offices, and factories began to close down, officials left their desks, and farm workers left the fields. Essential services came to a standstill, and when Dutch Nazis tried to work in the factories they were whipped and beaten off. Nazi strike-breaking gangs tried to force Dutch workers back and soldiers fired their, machine-guns indiscriminately. A number of people were killed and thousands were brutally beaten. Not until May 4 was work resumed. Statement by Bishops

A sharply-worded pastoral letter which was read in all Roman Catholic churches in Holland on May 16 deals with the deportation of Dutchmen for work in Germany. It states: “This is deportation on a larger scale than the Christian world ever knew. For such happenings we must go back to the times of the Babylonian exile. Posterity would consider it to our eternal shame if we viewed this injustice silently. Initially it was said that Netherlands workers must work elsewhere because there was neither bread nor work for them here. Now. as has been explicitly stated, they must work for Germany to assure a German victory. “According to the Fourth Commandment we must honour and love our country and make sacrifices for it. Now we may not only do nothing for our country, but we are even forced, under threat of heavy punishment, to help the enemy. Though it is being presented that it is the duty of all Christians to fight against Bolshevism, this is only a catch phrase. He who really desires to fight ‘Godless Bolshevism’ must not suppress Christianity by all manner of means as is done by Nazism.” The letter is signed by Dr. Jong, Archbishop of Utrecht and head of the Romm Catholic Church in Holland, and by Holland’s four bishops.