The Grey Book Part 34

On Dec. 11, 1942, at the great Biennial a.s.sembly of the Federal Council, the following Resolution on Anti-Semitism was adopted:

"The reports which are reaching us concerning the incredible cruelties towards the Jews in n.a.z.i occupied countries, particularly Poland, stir the Christian people of America to the deepest sympathy and indignation. It is impossible to avoid a conclusion that something like a policy of deliberate extermination of the Jews in Europe is being carried out. The violence and inhumanity which n.a.z.i leaders have publicly avowed toward all Jews are apparently now coming to a climax in a virtual ma.s.sacre. We are resolved to do our full part in establis.h.i.+ng conditions in which such treatment of the Jews shall end.

The feelings of the Jewish community throughout the world have recently been expressed in a period of mourning, fasting and prayer. We a.s.sociate ourselves with our Jewish fellow-citizens in their hour of tragic sorrow, and unite our prayers with theirs.

We confess our own ineffectiveness in combating the influences which beget anti-Semitism in our own country, and urge our const.i.tuencies to intensify their efforts in behalf of friendly relations with the Jews.

We urge that all plans for reconstruction in Europe shall include measures designed to secure full justice for the Jews and a safe and respected place for them in western civilisation. For those who, after the war, will have to emigrate from the war-ridden lands of Europe, immigration opportunities should be created in this and other lands.

We recommend that the officers of the Federal Council transmit this action to the Jewish leaders in person." [563] <261>

On Dec. 31, 1942, the Synagogue Council of America published a New Year message it had addressed to the Rev. Dr. Samuel McCrea Cavert, secretary of the Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America, and to Mgr. Michael J. Ready, general secretary of the National Catholic Welfare Conference. The message was signed by Dr. Israel Goldstein, president of the Council.

"American Jews," the message said, "share with their Christian brothers the sense of having been privileged to bear burdens not only in answering the call of our nation's defence needs, but also in heeding the call of human needs overseas.

"To the Jews of Hitler-ridden Europe the year 1942 has been the most catastrophic in their tragedy-laden history. Helpless women, aged and children, and defenceless men have been slaughtered wholesale and a whole people has been marked for extermination. Among no other people is such a toll being taken. If the executioner's hand is not soon stayed, all the Jews whom it can reach will perish."

The message said the greeting was "preferred to you and to the great body of Christians whom you represent", and expressed hope for an Allied victory and a just peace in 1943. [564]

On January 6, 1943, the heads of the six Jewish organizations which comprised the Synagogue Council of America, under the chairmans.h.i.+p of Rabbi Israel Goldstein, met in conference with official representatives of the Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America. The purpose of the meeting was to afford an opportunity to discuss together what the Christian Churches could do to a.s.sist the Jews of Europe.

Desiring to express its sympathy in something more than resolutions, the Federal Council arranged for the conference with the Jewish leaders. Several fruitful suggestions emerged as to ways in which the Churches might help to develop stronger support for the needs of refugees from Europe, a measure of relief in the form of food for at least some of the Jews in Europe, and a safe and respected place for Jews in the post-war world. [565]

c. Practical Steps Demanded; the Bermuda Conference <262>

"On March 1, 1943, a great demonstration, one of the largest ever held in the United States, took place in Madison Square Garden at the initiative of the Congress and under the joint auspices of the American Jewish Congress, the American Federation of Labour, the CIO, and the Church Peace Union.

Twenty-two thousand people crowded into the great hall, while 15,000 stood outside throughout the evening listening to the proceedings through amplifiers.

The demonstration was addressed by Dr. Chaim Weizmann, Dr. Stephen S. Wise, Governor Thomas E. Dewey, Mayor Fiorello H. LaGuardia, Senator Robert F. Wagner, William Green, and others.

The British Section transmitted cable messages from the Archbishop of Canterbury and the late Cardinal Hinsley, whose last public utterance it was before his death a week later. The meeting laid down a 12-point program for the rescue of European Jewry prepared by World Jewish Congress experts.

The effect was immediate. On the following day, Undersecretary of State Sumner Welles declared that a note had already been sent to Great Britain on February 25 offering the cooperation of the United States in organizing an intergovern- mental meeting for study of methods to save 'political refugees' in Europe.

The meeting came to be known as the Bermuda Refugee Conference..." [566]

On March 1, 1943, the Executive Committee of the Federal Council of Churches of Christ in America appealed to the Governments of the United States and Great Britain "to consider offering financial a.s.sistance to Jewish refugees who have escaped to neutral countries from n.a.z.i held territory, and the possible establishment of temporary places of asylum for those evacuated from Europe".

The committee urged that the proposals be considered at the forthcoming conference in Toronto of representatives of the two governments on the Jewish problem. The suggestion was part of a three-point program calling for a report by the council's department of research and education on the treatment of Jews under the n.a.z.i regime and setting aside May 2 for observance in churches as a "Day of Compa.s.sion" for the Jews in Europe.

The committee's action was a sequel to the adoption at the council's biennial meeting in Cleveland in December of a statement setting forth the organization's determination "to do our full part in establis.h.i.+ng conditions" in which harsh treatment of Jews should end. The proposals outlined by the committee for consideration of the British and American representatives at Toronto were: <263> "To offer financial a.s.sistance for the support of refugees that neutral governments (for example, Switzerland, or Sweden, Spain, Portugal and Turkey) may receive from areas under n.a.z.i control, as a result either of infiltration across their borders or of negotiations with the Axis powers, with the expectation that, after the war, such refugees would be repatriated in their own countries.

"To provide places of temporary asylum to which refugees whom it may be possible to evacuate from European countries may be removed, these refugees to be supported in camps for the duration of the war, with the understanding that they will then be repatriated in their own country or be provided with permanent homes in other ways."

At the same time the committee urged Christians throughout the country "to give their moral support to whatever measures afford promise of rescuing European Jews whose lives are in jeopardy."

The committee invited all Christians to "join in united intercession on May 2 for the victims of racial and religious persecution as a special occasion for the expression of Christian sollicitude." [567]

The practical steps proposed by the Executive Committee of the Federal Council to the Governments of the United States and Great Britain were similar to the steps proposed by the Archbishop of Canterbury in the House of Lords at about the same time, [568] and to the Aide-memoire sent by the Secretariats of the World Council of Churches and of the World Jewish Congress (Geneva), to the American and British Governments. [569] Not withstanding all this, the Bermuda Conference became "a monument of moral callousness and inertia". [570]

d. Different Churches Speaking on Different Occasions

The following is a chronological record of statements made by Churches or Church leaders in the United States from May, 1943, until the end of the second world war.

Henry St. George Tucker, Presiding Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church and president of the Federal Council of Churches, in a statement on the observance by the Council of a "Day of Compa.s.sion" for persecuted European Jews, said that there had been found a "rising tide of concern among Christians" over their fate. <264>

Dr. Tucker said it was the first time Christian churches had set aside a specific day for a "united expression of their sympathy with a suffering and persecuted Jewry".

"What is happening to the Jews on the Continent of Europe is so horrible that we are in danger of a.s.suming that it is exaggerated," he said, and cited a recent survey by the council of evidence that he said indicated that under the n.a.z.is a policy of deliberate extermination of Jews was carried out.

"The survey shows that the actual facts are probably more, rather than less, terrible than the reports," he continued. "The Christian people of America vigorously protest against this brutal and cruel persecution.

But protest is not enough."

Two remedial measures have been set forth by the council: First financial a.s.sistance for support of refugees reaching neutral countries from n.a.z.i- occupied areas, and second, provision of temporary asylum to which refugees evacuated from European countries may be removed. [571]

On October 20, 1943, American religious leaders denounced "the recent acts of terror in Denmark" and expressed sympathy for the Jews in that country.

The Rev. Dr. P.O. Bessel, president of the Augustan Synod, Minneapolis, said that the synod was shocked at the German barbarism in Denmark, but was happy about Sweden's firm stand in offering refuge to the persecuted Jews.

The Rev. Dr. Samuel McCrea Cavert, general secretary of the Federal Council, said that "the American churches have been thrilled by the news that the Danish Church has refused to be cowed into silence in the face of the n.a.z.i attack upon Jews in Denmark". [572]

The following article in "The New York Herald Tribune" shows how strong anti-Semitic influences in the United States were, in 1943:

BISHOP OXNAM a.s.sAILS BEATING OF JEWISH BOYS

Bishop G. Bromley Oxnam, of the Boston area of the Methodist Church, denounced today the alleged beating of Jewish boys as an apparent expression of incipient Fascism and, in a statement, demanded, "who is flooding the nation with anti-Semitic literature, and why?" <265> Declaring that "the beating of Jewish boys is not the work of hoodlums,"

Bishop Oxnam expressed hope that Jews, Catholics and Protestants could unite "in demanding that these beatings stop and that steps be taken to discover and destroy the dangerous forces that lie back of them."

The Bishop's statement followed the placing of charges before Governor Leveratt Saltonstall that Jews had been made the victims of ruffians over a period of months in the Boston area. The Governor, acting upon a pet.i.tion of which Bishop Oxnam was one of the signers, has appointed five prominent citizens of various faiths to an advisory committee on anti-Semitism.

"The beating of Jewish boys must stop," the statement said. "The beaters must be apprehended and punished. The beating of any boys by gangs is bad enough at any time. The beating of boys of a particular race is worse. But the real menace lies in the apparent fact that these beatings are an expression of incipient Fascism, that they follow a similar pattern, and that, in one case, at least, the beaters wore black s.h.i.+rts.

"Who is flooding the nation with anti-Semitic literature, and why? Who finances these movements? Why is it that the anti-Semitic leaders now under Federal indictment have attacked such religious organizations as the Federal Council of Churches of Christ in America, the Methodist Church and other Protestant religious bodies? Why has Franco, the Fascist dictator of Spain, been extolled?

Bishop Oxnam, in an interview with "The Boston Traveller", said that the recent outbreaks of racial violence in the Dorchester, Roxbury and Mattapan districts of Boston follow a pattern. "I was in Germany when these things began there. It is the same pattern in which organized gangs beat up a scapegoat race whether they be Jews or any one else," he a.s.serted.

He a.s.serted that Fascism is prevalent in Brooklyn now, and predicted that it would show itself in Detroit and sections of the Pacific Coast before long. "I think Brooklyn, New York and Boston are currently the most difficult centres, however," he added. [573]

In Dec., 1943, a Senate resolution proposed the creation of a special commission "to bring about the rescue of the surviving Jews of Europe".

Eight Protestant leaders sent "a Christmas Appeal for speedy adoption of the Resolution" to Vice President Henry A. Wallace, Senate majority and minority leaders and members of the House and Senate committees involved.

a.s.serting that "more than 2,000,000 European Jews have been slaughtered by the n.a.z.is, the message added that "we cannot approach Christmastide without declaring that too many of us have been found wanting in the will to rescue these suffering people." <266> "Let no possible sanctuary be closed, whether in America or elsewhere,"

the appeal said. "Let each door of refuge be kept open. This is the Christian way."

The message was signed by Bishop William T. Manning (Protestant Episcopal); Archbishop Athenagoras (Greek Orthodox); Bishop William J. McConnell (Methodist), and others. [574]

On Jan. 15, 1944, fifteen hundred persons attended a rally against anti-Semitism at Carnegie Hall. Dr.Henry Smith Leiper of the Federal Council of Churches of Christ in America, chairman of the meeting, a.s.serted that anti-Semitism was "treason against G.o.d, treason against the country".

"Anybody spreading such slander," he said, "is helping Hitler just as much as if he were a paid agent of the Reich."

Dr. Leiper and several others spoke out against what they said was the desire on the part of many to approach the problem of anti-Semitism with too much caution. Dr. Leiper said that exactly this idea prevailed in Germany in 1932, but did not halt the rise of fascism. [575]

The biennial convention of the United Lutheran Church in America adopted, on Oct. 13, 1944, the following Resolution:

"Recognizing that the Jewish problem has been made one of the central elements in the present a.s.sault on civilization, the United Lutheran Church in America, viewing with concern the manifestations of a rising tide of anti-Semitism in American life, begs its members to consider their Jewish brethren in the spirit of Luther, who spoke kindly things of them as 'blood brothers of our Lord', to use every available means to a.s.sure the Jewish people of their communities of the efforts of our church for the preservation of their rights, and to offer prayers on their behalf." [576]

We do not record all the statements issued by Protestant Churches in the United States over the years 1943-1944.

The Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. and the United Presbyterian Church in North America issued a statement in 1943; the American Baptist Convention, the a.s.sembly of the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. and the General Synod of the United Church of Christ issued a statement in 1944.

Most of these statements condemned anti-Semitic and anti-Negro prejudices.

<267> e. The Churches in the U.S.A. that kept Silent

Three important Protestant denominations in the United States did not speak out unequivocally against anti-Semitism and the persecution and extermination of the Jews: the Southern Baptist Convention, the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod, and the American Lutheran Church. [577]

John G. Mager comments:

"... It might have been felt that since a large proportion of the members.h.i.+p of the Synod was of German origin or descent, it would have made for ecclesiastical suicide if the official organ of the Synod made p.r.o.nouncements against a country to which many were bound by ties of blood, culture and sentiment..." [578]

It must be borne in mind that the Lutheran Churches in Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Slovakia clearly expressed their horror at German anti-semitism, and they did so under much more difficult circ.u.mstances. This should dissuade us from wrong plat.i.tudes such as: "Lutherans tend to be anti-Semitic".

Recently it has been suggested that "the causal chain that links Christian belief and faith to secular anti-Semitism begins with orthodoxy - commitment to a literal interpretation of traditional Christian dogma". [579] My knowledge of the situation of Churches in America is limited. Therefore I would not venture to suggest that there is a causal chain between the orthodoxy of a Church in America and its failure to denounce anti-Semitism.

Moreover, in other countries, like the Netherlands for example, such a connection does not appear to exist. <268> It is noteworthy, however, that the three great Protestant Churches in the United States mentioned above, which failed to issue a clear statement against anti-Semitism, were not members of the Federal Council.

Moreover, the Southern Baptist Convention and the Lutheran Church (Missouri Synod) are not members of the World Council of Churches, to this day.

These Churches apparently did not feel challenged by the protest issued by the a.s.sembly of the Church of England, in 1935, as was the Federal Council; [580] they did not receive the information provided by the General Secretariat of the World Council of Churches, Geneva, during the war. [581]

Ecclesiastical isolationism is very dangerous indeed, especially in a time of crisis.