TREATMENT OF JEWS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 86, Issue 227, 26 September 1942, Page 6

TREATMENT OF JEWS

PROTESTANT PROTEST London, Sept. 22. The anger felt throughout France at Vichy’s treatment of the Jews was voiced by Pastor Boegner, president of the Protestant Federation of France, in a protest to Petain, the full text of which is now available. Pastor Boegner's letter appeared in the Swiss newspaper Volksrecht last week. It expresses the unspeakable sorrow of his Church in the face of measures directed against foreign Jews by the French Government. "No Frenchman,” the letter says, "can remain unmoved in view of the events which have been occurring since August 2 in concentration and internment camps. As is known, it is said that France is only returning to Germany those Jews which Germany had sent in the autumn of 1940. In truth, however, men and women who, for political and religious reasons, fled to France and who know the terrible fate awaiting them are now being deported or faced with immediate deportation to Germany.” After emphasising the importance placed by the French people on the right of sanctuary, the letter states that deliveries of Jews have occurred in several places under inhuman conditions which shock the most hardened consciences. People were herded together in goods trucks at Lyons without the slightest hygienic precautions, foreigners intended for deportation were treated like cattle, and Quakers were even refused permission to feed those being deported. In conclusion, Pastor Boegner begs Petah. to dictate measures “in order that France may not inflict upon herself a moral defeat of unfathomable weight."