More than 20,000 people crowded Madison Square Garden here tonight in the largest demonstration ever held to protest the Nazi massacre of Jews. The meeting addressed an appeal to President Roosevelt and the Government of the United States – and through them to the United Nations and all neutral states – to save the Jews of Europe from extermination by the Nazis through “effective action.”
Speakers at the demonstration included Dr. Chaim Weizmann, president of the Jewish Agency for Palestine; Dr. Stephen S. Wise, president of the American Jewish Congress; Governor Thomas E. Dewey; Mayor LaGuardia; William Green, president of the American Federation of Labor; and representatives of many groups including the Christian Church. A mass recital of Kaddish by the audience commemorated the Jews massacred by the Nazis.
Entitled “Stop Hitler Now,” the demonstration was arranged under the auspices of the American Jewish Congress, the Church Peace Union, the American Federation of Labor, the C.I.O. in collaboration with thirty other organizations. The B’nai B’rith and the Jewish Labor Committee associated themselves with the purposes of the meeting. The American Jewish Committee also commended its purposes. The Archbishop of Canterbury and Cardinal Hinsley cabled messages from London.
PROGRAM OF “DETERMINED ACTION” IS OFFERED TO UNITED NATIONS
A resolution adopted by the demonstration emphasized that the threat of retribution has not served to deflect the intent of the Nazi leaders from their announced policy of mass murder. “As the bearers of the banner of democracy and justice, the United Nations cannot close their eyes to the growing horror of this perceived situation. It becomes their duty not to linger any longer in the field of comment and hesitation, but to turn without further delay from threat to a planned program of determined action,” the resolution said. It urged:
1. Through the intermediation of neutral agencies, the German Government and the Governments of States it now partly dominates or controls – such as Rumania, Bulgaria and Hungary – should be approached with the view to secure their agreement to the release of their Jewish victims and to consent to their emigration to such havens of refuge as will be provided; and that such neutral States as are in a position to enter into direct discussion with the German Government be urged to make similar representations.
2. The United Nations should take steps, without delay, to designate and establish a number of sanctuaries in Allied or neutral States to serve, under agreed conditions, as havens of refuge for those Jews whose release from captivity may be arranged for, or who may find their way to freedom through efforts of their own.
REVISION OF U.S. IMMIGRATION LAWS IS URGED
3. The procedure that now prevails in the administration of existing immigration law in the United States, which acts as deterrent and retardation of legal immigration under the established quotas, should be revised and adjusted to the war conditions and in order that refugees from Nazi-occupied territories may find sanctuaries here within such quotas.
4. Subject to the maintenance of national security, Great Britain should be asked to provide for receiving a reasonable quota of the victims escaping from Nazi-occupied territories and to provide for their accommodation for the duration.
5. The United Nations should urge the republics of Latin America to modify such administrative regulations that now make immigration under the law extremely difficult and to endeavor under existing immigration law to find temporary havens of refuge for an agreed number of refugees.
WANTS PALESTINE’S DOORS OPENED FOR JEWS FROM EUROPE
6. Overiding pre-war political considerations, England should be asked to open the doors of Palestine – the Jewish homeland – for Jewish immigration, and the offer of hospitality by the Jewish community of Palestine should be accepted.
7. The United Nations should provide financial guarantees to all such neutral States as have provided temporary refuge to Jews from Nazi-occupied territories. The transfer of such refugees to the designated sanctuaries should be undertaken without delay. It the same time, however, such neutral States should be encouraged to continue to provide accommodation for such refugees as may come to them over the borders of Nazi-occupied territory, the United Nations giving adequate financial guarantee to such States for the feeding and maintenance and eventual evacuation of such refugees.
DEMANDS FEEDING OF VICTIMS THROUGH NEUTRAL NATIONS
8. In view of the fact that planned mass starvation is the design of the Nazi regime in its inhuman warfare, the United Nations are urged to take steps without delay but with due regard for the economic warfare being waged against the aggressor States, to organize through neutral agencies for the feeding of the unfortunate victims who are doomed to linger under Nazi oppression.
9. It is submitted that the United Nations should undertake to provide the financial guarantees that may be required for the execution of the program of rescue here outlined.
10. The United Nations are urged to establish an appropriate inter-governmental agency to which authority and power shall be given to implement the program of rescue here outlined.
11. It is further urged that steps be taken, without delay, to implement the declared intention of the United Nations to bring the criminals to justice.
(A summary of the principal speeches will appear in tomorrow’s issue.)
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
