THE POLES ARE ALSO PEOPLE WITH HUMAN RIGHTS
THE POLES ARE ALSO PEOPLE WITH HUMAN RIGHTS An Open Letter to the 1,326 Signers of THE INTERNATIONAL BILL OF HUMAN RIGHTS The International Bill of Human Rights, aa drafted and aigned by 1,326...
...No other people have suffered astro, spilled their blood more, fought Naxism and Fascism more implacably *•* the Poles...
...Let this hard-pressed people, too, share the benefits •f *e International Bill of Human Rights...
...Yet, on December 15, 1944 (the 150th anniversary of the Americnn Bill of Rights...
...besmirching th* honor of General Bor...
...the murder of * the Jewish Socialists, Alter and Ehrlicb...
...It was also with a feeling of sincere approval that wc accepted the recent statements on post-war political order and religious freedom made by the Catholic Episcopate of America through the National Catholic Welfare Conference...
...These three all-important statements signify that all Americana, irrespective of creed, class, race or color, are united in their determination t* continue the present struggle for true human freedom everywhere throughout the world...
...But before you can include the people of Poland within the protective circle of the International Bill of Human Rights, it is essential, it seem* te us, to consider the basic principles of a Bill of Right* in the faca of tha following inexorable fact* and tendencies: | Annexation of one-half of Polish territory by Soviet Russia...
...C Moss executions by Soviet authorities of Polish citizens...
...Unless we have a manly and outspoken clarity of word* and deeds, unless we understand the facts and remove those of them which bar our path to real and abiding human freedom, we shall not achieve the sacred purpose for which our sons are dying in this cruel war thrust upon us by totalitarian aggression...
...Poland Not Excepted At sons of Poles, wa appeal to you not to exclude the Polish people hasx the International Bill of Human Right...
...L Open and cynical defiance of international pacts and treaties, to wit: Treaty of Riga...
...Soviet Polish Treaty of July 30, 1941...
...refusal by Soviet Russia of bass* on Polish territory to American, British and Polish airmen to relieve the doomed population of Warsaw...
...Kellogg Pact...
...Earnestly believing that to fight for justice snd to insure a lasting peace in the world is not solely a "Polish problem," we call upon our fellow Americans of all creeds and national origins to join with us in our peaceful efforts to prevent a monstrous wrong from being perpetrated on the helpless Polish people...
...refusal of assistance to th* Warsaw defenders during their 63 day resistance...
...Prime Minister Winston Churchill proposed to destroy the application of its basic principles, as well aa those of the proposed Interaational Bill of Human Rights, by depriving the peoples of Poland, the Baltic States and other lands of their birthright of freedom and liberty...
...It is heartening to recall that on January 6, 1941, President Roosevelt ¦ hit message to the Congress said: "Freedom means the supremacy of taagasj rights everywhere . . ." while in his radio message to the American pstyle and to the world, delivered on December 9, 1941, he atated: "The sources of international brutality, wherever they exist, must be abaolutely and finally broken...
...THE POLES ARE ALSO PEOPLE WITH HUMAN RIGHTS An Open Letter to the 1,326 Signers of THE INTERNATIONAL BILL OF HUMAN RIGHTS The International Bill of Human Rights, aa drafted and aigned by 1,326 distinguished Americana and published December I 5, 1944, ie hailed by many thousands of Americans of Polish ancestry as a ringing expresses, of the sacred American spirit of liberty, true to the nobleet democratic sad humanitarian traditions of Jefferson, Lincoln, Wilson and Franklin Oelano Roosevelt...
...We, Americans whose fathers and mothers coma from Poland, the Wad that has Narad eons who have fought in the cause of freedom in every country in the world during the post 150 years, join with you in ¦sieisog that no fore* of violence, cowardliness or opportunism must stand as the way to...
...O Imposition of totalitarian rule on this Polish territory, ahen to the tradition and economy of its inhabitants i 9 Unlawful deportation of millions of citizens of Poland to Siberia and * other remote regions of Soviet Russia, and the herding of countless men, women and children in concentration camps, continuing to the present day...
...It is impossible to speak of human ideals of freedom and liberty through one corner of the mouth, and at the same time aid and abet human bondage of a whole nation through the other corner by silence, indifference or tacit approval of "spheres of influence" and similar enslavement devices...
...tha Atlantic Charter, signed by Soviet Russia January 1, 1942...
...mass hangings of officers of the Polish Home Army...
...7 The unexplained interruption of the Soviet Army offensive on August 1, * 1944, when the Warsaw Revolt, frequently urged by the Soviets, began...
...A Abolition in annexed Polish territory of freedom of speech, pre**, aeeo* ciation, assembly, collective bargaining—all guaranteed by Polish law...
...q Destroying the basis of Polish independence by the formation of a * puppet government for Poland at Lublin, composed of Soviet agents who wage a relentless war against tha patriotic Polish Underground, though this very Underground has never ceased to resist the Nasi invader, thus materially helping th* Red Army in its westward march to Germany...
...a similar statement of the Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America...
...deter mankind from a full reaJixation of the noble precepts of th* latm*kbu*l Bill of Human Rights...
...Soviet Non-Aggression Treaty with Poland and th* Baltic State...
...and finally climaxed in the International Bill of Human Rights, initiated by the American Jewish Committee...
...We reaped fully submit that the noble principles enunciated in the International Bill of Human Righta can be realized only on the basis of honesty, truth and faith...
...We shall have struggled and suffered in vain again, a* we did in the first World War...
Vol. 28 • January 1945 • No. 1
