HITLER’S BESTIALITY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 18 December 1942, Page 2

HITLER’S BESTIALITY

ATTEMPT TO EXTERMINATE JEWS DENOUNCED BY UNITED NATIONS ASSURANCE OF RETRIBUTION. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 9.50 a.m.) RUGBY, December 17. The Foreign Secretary (Mr Anthony Eden) told the House of Commons, with regret, that reliable reports have recently reached the Government in regard to the barbarous and inhuman treatment to which Jews are being subjected in German-occupied Europe. The Government had, in particular, received a Note from the Polish Government, which also had been communicated to other members of the United Nations and had received wide publicity. The Government had as a result been in consultation with the United States and Soviet Governments and other Allied governments directly concerned.

Mr Eden communicated to the House the following declaration, which also was made public today in Moscow and Washington: “The attention of the Governments of Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Greece, Luxemburg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, the United States, Britain, Northern Ireland, the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia and of the French National Committee has been drawn to numerous reports from Europe that the Geerman authorities, not content with denying to persons of the Jewish race in all the .territories over which their barbarous rule had been extended the most elementary human rights, are now carrying into effect Hitler’s oft-repeated intention to exterminate the Jewish people in Europe. From all the occupied countries Jews are being transported in conditions of appalling horror and brutality to Eastern Europe. - In Poland, which has been made the principal Nazi slaughterhouse, the ghettos have been established by the German invaders are being systematically emptied of all Jews except a few 1 highly-skilled workers who are required for the war industries. None cf those taken away are ever heard of again. The abie-bcdied are slowly worked to death in labour camps and the infirm are left to die of exposure or starvation or are deliberately massacred in mass executions. The number of victims of these bloody cruelties is reckoned in many hundreds of thousands of entirely innocent men, women and children. The above mentioned Governments and the, French National Committee condemn in the strongest possible terms this bestial policy of cold-blooded extermination. They declare that such events can only strengthen the resolve of all freedom-loving people to overthrow the barbarous Hitlerite tyranny. They reaffirm their solemn resolve to ensure that those responsible for these crimes shall not escape retribution and to press on with the necessary practical measures to this end.” PLEDGE OF PUNISHMENT FOR BOTH PERPETRATORS & RINGLEADERS. AND ALL POSSIBLE HELP FOR VICTIMS. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 10.55 a.m.) RUGBY, December 17. Questioned in the House of Commons about the declaration he had read to the House concerning the German treatment of Jew's, Mr Eden said it was certainly intended that all persons who could properly be held responsible for these crimes, whether as perpetrators or ringleaders, would alike be brought to book. Mr Eden said there were immense difficulties in the way of immediate relief. but the Government was doing all that was possible to alleviate the horrors. He would be glad to explore the possibilities of a migration of Jews to Sweden, 'but the difficulties involved would be understood.

Arrangements had- already been made for making the declaration as widely known as possible, including broadcasting throughout Europe and especially to Germany. The people of Germany would be told that this was not war, but murder, and that they must be held in some measure responsible if they allowed the German Government to carry out its horrible intention. Mr Eden- agreed to consider the advisability of not limiting the broadcasts to the question of punishment, but to an expression of appreciation for acts of courage done all over Europe by persons who took enormous risks to render what help they could to their-fellow Jewish citizens. Mr Eden said persons who escaped from the occupied territories would be welcomed and given every assistance in the territories of the United Nations, though certain security formalities would have to be considered in providing such an asylum.. After the discussion, the House rose and stood in silence<for a minute as a pretest against “this disgusting barbarism.”