“LIKE HUMAN”

Evening Star, Issue 23371, 14 September 1939, Page 10

“LIKE HUMAN”

" HITLER" A WORD OF SHAME POWERFUL JEWISH NEW YEAR SERMON [Per United Press Association.] AUCKLAND, September 14. “ Every mail who cares for the future of civilisation, every man who believes in the ultimate triumph of right in this world, every raau who has a spark of the Divine within him will pledge himself with all his heart to his cause, sure,in the knowledge that he is serving the most sacred cause of mankind,” said the .Rev. Alexander Astor, in a striking sermon to-day at the .Jewish New Year service at the Auckland synogogue. “ As Jewish citizens of the Empire, we affirm our whole-hearted allegiance to Britain. Deeply conscious of the privileges we enjoy under the British flag, we shall boar our full weight of the grave responsibilities she has undertaken.”

Never in the world’s history had there been a conflict in which the issues were more clear, in which the blame was so definitely placed. Britain’s record had been a shining light working more earnestly and devotedly than any other nation for the ideal of peace and international goodwill. “ Hitler stands to-day unmasked before the bar of human judgment. Ho must answer for all the human distress for which he and the Nazi regime alone are responsible.” Referring to the Nazis’ tn atment of Jews, Mr Astor said that no man with a spark of human feeling could read of the terrible happenings in the concentration camps without a shudder, without a sense of shame that men could be so degraded, that human beings could sink to such depths of depravity and cruelty. “ The Nazi leaders are nothing less than cruel and burtal monsters, bent upon inflicting terrible punishment not only upon the Jew, but upon all who believe in religion, democracy, and human freedom. They have turned their country into a jungle, and would turn the whole world into a jungle. The deeds of their wickedness cry out to heaven.

For a time Hitler’s ambition might have triumphed over an enslaved people, but his minht would soon melt away, and his name would only remain as a word of shame like that of Haman and other tyrants who had pitted themselves against God and religion.