TOLL OF JEWRY.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXV, Issue 212, 7 August 1945, Page 4

TOLL OF JEWRY.

Hitler’s bitter hatred of the Jews led to a vicious effort by the Nazis to exterminate them, and many thousands were brutally murdered in various parts of Europe. Some idea of the widespread attacks on the Jews is given in the statement by Dr Weizmann at the opening of the World Zionist Conference. “Our reunion,” he said, “occurs under the shadow of the greatest Jewish catastrophe since the destruction of the Temple. The great and powerful European Jewry of ten or fifteen years ago is no more. We are now a broken remnant. We have paid the highest toll in lives of any people of this war.” The destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem marked the culmination of four years of revolt by the Jews against their Roman oppressors. Jerusalem was besieged and finally the Romans forced their way into the city on September 7, in the year 70 A.D. They spread through the streets and ruthlessly slew the inhabitants and set fire to the city. According to the historian Josephus 1,100,000 Jews were killed and 97,000 taken prisoner during the siege. The Jews who survived were sent to Egypt to work in the mines or distributed among the provinces as gladiators in the public theatres and in combats against wild beasts. “Thus fell, and forever, the metropolis of the Jewish State,” says the historian. In spite of the hatred, by the Roman Vaspasian, the Nazi Hitler, and others the world owes much to the genius of the Jews. They laid the foundations of law, art, and culture in an uncivilised world, and from Palestine came many gifts for which mankind should be thankful. Recovery from their latest catastrophe will be slow, but Jewry will again exercise an influence in the world and, in the light of their bitter experiences, Jews everywhere will be keen to join those whose aim is the destruction of the forces of oppression.