The Last Jew
Pat, Jacob
The Last Jew By Jacob Pat Executive Secretary, Jewish Labor Committee The heavy, bloody curtain which has been hanging over Europe is riling. W« ace burned cities, doae-* Uted riflagea U well »•...
...We haven't as yet received the customary simultaneous horrify.ng report *f the annihilation of the Jews of Vilno...
...Bet there ia yet something larger and mere important...
...The teller ) oil on s : May 14, 1914...
...The peoples of Asia—and I am supported in Ihe opinion by other diplomatic and military observers— cynically regard this war as one between fascist and imperialist powers...
...Sincerely yours...
...One wants to banish this horrifying picture, one doesn't want to torture his own heart, one wsnts to quiet his own conscience...
...300 Jews...
...I feel strongly, Mr...
...Those who remained alive on blocks of Subatch Street were gradually liquidated...
...Minsk was a center of Jewish life...
...And the colonial people conquered by th Japanese might hopefully feel that they have something belter to look forward to than simply a return to their old masters...
...DEAR Mil PRESIDENT: Assuming thai Indi i is known lo be an important base for our future operations against Burma and Japan, it would seem to be of highest importance that we should have around us a sympathetic India rather than an indifferent and possibly a hostile India...
...If we do nothing and merely accept the British point of view that conditions in India are none of our business, then we must be prepared for varlout serious consequences in the internal situs'ion In India which may develop ss a reault of the despair and misery and anti-white sentiments of hundreds pf millions of subject people...
...In the great panic, Jewish women threw their children into the river and later committed suicide...
...119,000 Jews were murdered ip tares pogroms by means of gas, annihilation and shoot -kg, 0/ the 119,000 murdered, 80,000 were inhabitants af Minsk and 39,000 were deported to Minsk from Hatlaee, France, Belgium, Chechoslovakia, and from amer parts ef Poland...
...We have received a second report about Vilno, »«ying: "The liquidation of the Jewish ghetto in Vilno begun on September 18, 194I5...
...Let me aay: It lea't only a erablaaa of ma reared Jews or Jews who arc ellve, who can still be rear sad...
...William Phillips, former Assistant Secretary of Stale, uas sent tit India by the President to make a political survey of conditions theie...
...Vilno was freed...
...Senator Albert B. (.handler charged that British pressure had forced the recall of Phillips...
...I shall no longer a well on facta...
...ism the mate ess and sUorce of the world...
...Yes, tl u true...
...We know of the gigantic death-camps called Moidanek, Belsahets, Tr mblinka, death can.ps which have conaumed more Jews than Camp Oshventahum, of which the Christian C imittee in Switzerland report...
...I know it is difficult to read these lines...
...all told, •bout 6.000 Jews out of the 16,000 Jews that were still I" Vihto in the Spring of 1943...
...They were completely undressed because the Nasi* spared only the clothing of the people...
...our btise in India become of vital importance...
...Two days later a report concerning the Jews af Minsk arrived, a report that was practically ignored...
...400,000 of them are no longer the v. Every °»y thousands of Jews are deported to Nazi death-eanips, principally to Oshventchim, in Poland, where tn«y are murdered...
...800.000 Jews were in Hungary...
...Now there is lot one left of all of them...
...I myself have dim eelty recording tames tacts...
...It is very ,alrait to present these particulars...
...No language ia the worid haa jot created the weres which can depict what the Nasis Mv* den* to the Jewish people...
...They prefer a collective death with their children to living a few more hours until the Nazis will murder them...
...On the Senate floor...
...They v pic wiped off the face of the earth...
...It is simply frightening to think what these **ies will tell of the Jewish disaster...
...President, will produce not only a tremendous psychological stimulus to flagging morale through Asia and facilitate our military operations in that theatre, but it will also be proof positive to sll peoples—our own and the British included—that this is not a war of power politics, but a war for all we say it is...
...ws beg to be rescued...
...At present, Ihe Indian people are a! war only in a legal sense, as for various reasons the British Government declared India in the conflict without Ihe formality of consulting Indian leaders or even the Indian Legislature...
...XlIE road of the triumphant armies continues forward...
...Mot lon« ago the Jewish Labor Committee •waived a report from the Christian Committee in Switzerland which related in minute detail the slaughter of 1,716,000 in only two death-camps of the Nazis...
...They would rather kill themselves than be killed by the Nazis...
...It isn't only a problem ef pain and misery of a people...
...Mere in front of me lies the large wound, called the ••tighter of the Jews of Hungary...
...There is no evidence that the British intend to do more than give token assistance...
...By October 1st, there were found on the Jewiah blocks of Subatch Street approximately 4,000 Jews...
...If that is mi, then the conditions surrnv'ng...
...All newspapers, aHhost exception, announced this in front-page head gam...
...The number of murdered Jews, however, far exceeds the sum of 1,715,000...
...Police searched the cellars, where they discovered Jews exhausted from "unger, half dead from fright...
...Old men, women, children bep to live...
...India Itaelf might then be expected more positively to support oar war effort against Japan...
...The British Prime Minister, in fsrt, has slated that the provisions of the Atlantic Charter are not applicable to India, and it is not unnatural therefore that Indian leaders are beginning to wonder whether the charier ia only for the benefit of white races...
...President, that in view of uur military position in India, we should have a voice in these matifrs...
...Minsk was a city of Jewish culture, of aynogogues...
...This alone is important and great...
...The present Indian army is purely mercenary and only thai part of it whicit is drawn from the martial races has been tried in actual warfare and these martial soldiers represent only 33 per cent of the army...
...It is not riifht for the British to aay this is none of your business when we alone presumably will have the major part to play in the struggle with Japan...
...This they can 'do by a solemn declaration from the king emperor that India will achieve her independence at a specific date after the war and ss s guarantee of good faith in this respect a provisional representative coalition government will be re-established at the renter and limited powers transferred to it...
...However painful or tragic the picture may be, we must open Wider our eyes and see Jewish mothers of Vilno, first throwing their children into the river and then jumping into the river themselves, for they can live no longer...
...They only aggravate the present situation...
...Instead, they aas herded into ears, poisoned...
...asphyxiated, shot...
...there's a war en...
...If mankind can reconcile themselves te thia, then still larger world wars are possible, mere shocking slaughters...
...We wait impatiently—who knows ? Perhaps Vilno has also been emptied of Jews...
...A generous British gesture to India would change this undesirable political atmosphere...
...Those found were killed an...
...That's the way it happened...
...Howeve , this heartening news report was sccompanied by a tragic Hemr the 12,000 Jews of Baranowitch were murdered by the^Nasis, not one Jev remained in the city For many generations th< vast majority of the popo lation of Baranowitch was Jewish: Jewish factory workers, Jewish lumbermen, Jewish farmers and gardeners...
...Subsequently, Phillips was recalled from India and assigned in London us political adviser to (general Eisenhower...
...While India is broken politically into various parties and groups, all have one object in common— eventual freedom and independence from British domination...
...Indians feel they have no voice In the Government and therefore no responsibility in the conduct of the war...
...Last week Phillips was replaced in London h\ Kobeil Murphy as political adviser on (Germany...
...The new* item »im» elicited great joy...
...For many generation Jewish life thrived there, and now 119,000 Jews tUuthtered—not in battle, nor on the battlefield, but m drath chambers, gas-cars, buried alive Their only trims waa that they were Jews...
...Let's repeat the number: one .million, seven hundred and fifteen thousand Jews suffocated and poisoned...
...Tree, there are re statements, even to the Hungarians, to the Germans, there were resolutions, projects, there •vrra a number of news articles...
...the spot...
...In his report, he sharpl) criticized the British and recommended American aid to India in her struggle for independence...
...The present political conditions do not permit of any improvement in this respect...
...This is the world, humenity...
...The letter printed below is one inch document...
...WILLIAM PHILLIPS...
...Lassitude and indifference nnd bitterness have increased as a result of the famine conditions, the growing high cost of living and continued political deadlock...
...The attitude of the general public toward the war in even worse...
...But afterwards—attar silence...
...I'af art a eatery, people say nothing can he deem...
...There would seem to be only one remedy to thia highly unsatisfactory situation in which we sre unfortunately but nevertheless seriously Involved, and thst is to change the attitude of the people of India toward the war, make them feel that we want them to assume responsibilities to the I'nied Nations and are prepared to give them facilities for doing so and that the voire of India will play an important psrt in the reconstruction of the world...
...General Stilwell has expressed his concern over the situation and in particular in regard to the poor morale of the Indian officers...
...The report stated that twelve Jews had mrrivsd in Minsk...
...in the military hospital...
...Between the irst and tenth of October, 2,000 Jews of Vilno were '•htported.' We, therefore, can expect the usual ^ccom-PKtyisV report along with the good tidings of the victories of the Soviet Army in Vilno...
...It is s matter of the future ef the world...
...On the steps af the demolished University of Minsk, where the l«rel»« Jews bad concealed themselves, they verified tit details to a correspondent...
...It would appear that w« will have the prime responsibility in the conduct of the war against Japan...
...Let us remember that this figure is only from two death-camps...
...A cry rings out from Hungary...
...I, soa entirely omitted in the large newspapers of the pajer cities...
...on the 'Hobanderia,' 700...
...British official in New Delhi, to the Secretary of Slate for India in London, in which Phillips was termed "persona non grata" (hnndl-r also released the text of Phillips' report lit the President...
...At last the Nazis were driven out of the capital of Lithuania...
...You may lie sttsrly shocked and refuse to believe, but the farts, meeuirevertible facts, strike your brain* s« nails...
...China, whirh regards the Anglo-American bloc with misgivings sad mistrust, might then be assured that we are in truth fighting for a better world...
...If mankind ran paas over in silence the murder ef innocent millions of people, if the world can paas ever the alaaghter of a people, of hundreds of thousands of children, women and old men—if this is possible, then there esn be no peace in this world...
...But let me neuter...
...W« ace burned cities, doae-* Uted riflagea U well »• Joyful faces We bear jmfT of joy from thou who have survived and waited (of liberation- **t there ia a horribly tragic exeep-^ tat Jewish cities...
...We read here: "To the most dramatic and trying moment* which the Jewish population of Vilno lived thiourh must be added the moment when on Saturday, September is, 1943, Germans drove thousands of Jews into the missionary gardens on Subatch Street, where they awaited death...
...On September 2, he made public the text of a telegram sent by Sir Olaf Car a...
...It is time for the British to act...
...A Startling Document Rarely while history is being made, can ihe public look behind the diplomatic veil and read the correspondence between diplomats on crucial political issues of the moment...
...They feel that they have nothing to fight for, as they are convinced that the professed war aims of the United Nations do not spply to them...
...Pro.i the accounts of the Jewish survirors we know a** these mass slaughters' were performed...
...Baranowitch is the gateway to Walkovisk, Bialystock and Prussia...
...Meanwhile, we can only cite a report taken from the underground Polish newspaper, whirh appeared%efore Vilno fell...
...It leads to Walkavish, Riga, Sirvalk, Grodno, •kUystok...
...Somewhere in the earth of Baranowitch Uieie are mass grave* of the Jews of Baranowitch...
...L»t a* mention here but few fact* a, revealed by development*- Minsk, the capital ef White tst*i«> was freed by the Soviet Army...
...Words are of no avail...
...Even though the British should fail again, it i* high time that they should make an effort lo improve ronditiona and re-establish confidence among the Indian people that their future independence is to be granted...
...Such a gesture, Mr...
...B ARANOWITCH was freed...
Vol. 27 • September 1944 • No. 37
