(HOLOCAUST).

November 18th

Tel Aviv

1938

Shaul Tchernichovsky. Typed Letter Signed, on headed paper of The Hebrew PEN Club of Palestine, written in English, to his PEN counterpart, Antonio Aita of Buenos Aires, Argentina, requesting the later bring to the attention of his Executive Board the enclosed appeal to help the Jews of Germany.

“The persecution of defenseless Jews in Germany has assumed proportions beyond the range of human experience of past centuries. We call on all writers and educated men to lend their moral and material aid in this dark hour; to reveal what is left of enlightened world opinion… Silence at this hour will go down in history as the spiritual bankruptcy of Twentieth Century Europe and America… Demand the opening of all possible doors of refuge to these suffering victims; and in particular insist on the opening of Palestine.” In 1929, a group of Hebrew-language writers established the Hebrew PEN Club in Palestine - independent of its predecessor, the Jewish PEN Club in Vilna - based on the feeling that the Yiddishists did not represent modern literature in Hebrew.