FULL WEIGHT.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 217, 14 September 1939, Page 8

FULL WEIGHT.

JEWS' LOYALTY.

STRIKING SERMON, f

NAZI LEADERS ASSAILED.

"DEEDS CRY OUT TC HEAVEH.I "Every man who cares for the future of civilisation, every man who believet in the ultimate triumph oi right in tie workt. every mail who ha- a spark of the Divine within him, will pledge him. self with all his heart awl to lug country's cause, sure in the knowledge that by so doing he i- serving the mogj sacred cause of mankind." said the Rev Alexander Astor to-day in a striking sermon which he delivered at a Xew Year service in the Auckland Synagogue.

The rabbi spoke for his people in thai words: "Wo Jews have always regarded loyalty and patriotism as a sacrej obligation to our religion. As citizens of the Empire, we affirm to-dw our whole-hearted allegiance to Britain Deeply conscious of the privileges we enjoy under the British flag, we .shag bear our full share of the grave responsibiiities she has undertaken. We shall stand side by side with our fellowcitizens ready to make every ready to answer the call to arms to defend our country, and all that we hold most dear and sacred 111 life." Hitler Unmasked. .Sever in the world's history had there been a conflict in which the issues were more clear, in which the blame could be so definitely placed, as in the present war. Rabbi As tor said. He spoke highly of Britain, whose record had been a shining I! ♦ in the history of the world, sum which had worked mote earnestly and devotedly than any other nation for the ideal of peace and international goodwill. "Hitler stands to-day unmasked before the bar of humau judgment," he said. "He must answer for alfthe humaa distress for which he and the Naxi regime alone are responsible. Under Xaii rule in Germany forces of violence and hatred have been let loose such as hat» never before been recorded in humaa history—not in war, but in peace; not against enemies, but against parti of its own population.

'"The whole people of Germany wera reduced to helots. The Xazis became wild beasts in the undisguised meaning of these words. Ordinary wild beasts CM only kill their prey, but the Xazi *24 beasts thought out and devised devilisk plans how to persecute and torture their victims. And their victims have beea in the first instance hundreds of tho* sands of Jewish men and women who enriched the life of the German people. Xo man with a spark of human feeling could read of the terrible happenings in the concentration camps without a-S shudder, without a sense of shame that'll man could be so degraded, that human beings could sink to such depths of depravity and cruelty. gEa The Xazi leaders are nothing less -\ than cruel, brutal monsters, bent upon finfhcting a terrible punishment, ant I only upon the Jew, but upon all who F - believe in religion, in democracy and f human freedom. They have substituted ; f.3 ■violence for right. They have turned their country into a jungle, and would turn the whole world into a jungle. The deeds of their wickedness cry out to heaven."

For a time Hitler's ambition might have triumphed over and enslaved people, but his might would soon melt away. His name would only remain as a word of shame like that of and other tyrants who had pitted themselves against God and religion.