HERTZ, JOSEPH H. The "Battle of Warsaw." The Chief Rabbi's Sermon at the Service of Mourning and Prayer for the Martyrs of the Warsaw Ghetto. Bevis Marks Synagogue, May 22nd, 1944

(HOLOCAUST)

London

1944

After describing the heroic Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, in which the remaining 40,000 Jews of Warsaw stood up to Nazi might for several weeks before the total destruction of the Ghetto, Chief Rabbi Hertz appeals to England to rescue Europe's surviving Jews: "Is it - we ask - beyond the might of Britain and her Allies to ensure for the surviving Jews of Europe the status of prisoners of war, with facilities for exchange, and the offer of sanctuary somewhere, even Palestine, to those who escape from the Nazi inferno?" (p. 7). The Chief Rabbi goes on to criticize Anglo-Jewry for failing to react to the Nazi slaughter of the Jews. "Although the Nazi killing of thousands daily began early in 1941, it was October 29th, 1942, before the lay leaders of Anglo-Jewry arranged a public protest meeting. Some of these leaders were quite distressed even over the Day of Mourning and Prayer I proclaimed in the December following" (ibid.)