The Jews in the Eastern War Zone

by American Jewish Committee

“In the name of what humanity is it forbidden to hand food to starving Jewish refugees cooped up in freight trains? In the name of what brotherhood is one part of the army aroused against the Jewish soldiers who are in the trenches side by side with our own soldiers?

“We accuse the Germans of breaking the laws of warfare, of using poison gases and mutilating prisoners. Such acts can call forth only indignation and protest. Let these acts be a stain upon the ruling classes of Germany. But, gentlemen, in the name of what laws of humanity are orders issued to the Russian army to drive peaceful Jews ahead of the troops and to expose them to fire?

“In the name of what laws of humanity are Jewish-Russian subjects taken as hostages and put into prisons and tortured and shot?

“We denounced the Germans for having destroyed Louvain and the Cathedral of Rheims; but I ask you in the name of what ethical or esthetic principles is a Jewish woman who seeks refuge in the synagogue violated?”

Baron Rosen, former Russian Ambassador to the United States, also protested outspokenly against the continuation of the anti-Jewish policy of the Government in a speech before the Council of the Empire, Aug. 22 (Sept. 4), 1915. (See Appendix, p. [117].)

RESOLUTIONS OF CONSTITUTIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY

The leading political party of Russia—the Constitutional Democratic Party—officially voiced its sentiments on the Jewish question at a national convention of the Party, held at Petrograd on June 19–21 (O. S. June 6–8), 1915, at which the Central Committee of the Party submitted a comprehensive report which was adopted unanimously, and which, summarized in the form of a resolution, was ordered published. This resolution, after citing the loyalty and patriotism of the Jews at the outbreak of the war, continues:

“This intense spirit of patriotism manifested by the Jews in the hour of Russia’s danger seemed for a time to have broken down the rooted prejudices of the Government and to have cleared the way for the recognition in Russia, of that civic equality which is accorded the Jews throughout the civilized world. But this would have deprived our reactionaries, those champions of an outlived past, of their old and well-tested weapon of black demagoguery—anti-Semitism. And so we see that under the direct influence of these notorious Jew-baiters measures were early adopted by the Government to set the army and the people against the Jews. Every advantage was taken of the exigencies of war. Isolated cases of espionage, likely to occur among the border populations of all nations, were seized upon as a basis for universal accusations and furnished the occasion for the invention of incredible myths and rumors circulated exclusively to the injury of the Jews.... The Jews have been held collectively responsible for the acts of individuals among them—a policy which outrages the most elementary sense of justice, a policy which is no longer sanctioned by the laws of any civilized land, a monstrous survival of the remote past.... Needless to mention the spread of discord and hatred, the growth of mutual suspicion and distrust among the races inhabitating Russia which must of necessity follow such a policy....

“Not only in the name of brotherhood; not only in the name of that harmony so necessary where different nationalities are fated to live under the shelter of a common government; not only for the sake of keeping alive among the Jewish people, now being driven to despair, some hope of a brighter future, and some faith in that progress of which they have ever been the valiant champions, but also for the sake of the attainment of that ideal of the Russian people—the elevation of our beloved Fatherland to the status of a truly enlightened empire—must we offer united opposition against the forces of reaction.... Our adversaries hope to continue, even after the war, to use the poisoned weapon of primitive race hatred which they have used until now. It is our task to demonstrate to the masses of the people that they are again being duped, that their base passions are now being aroused in order to distract their attention from their own vital interests. We must continue, as before, to point out, firmly and persistently, that there is only one path to a brighter future for Russia, the same path along which the entire civilized world has traveled, and that along this road there is only one solution of the Jewish question—a solution demanded by the most elementary principles of civilized government—and that is to grant them, as individuals, full civic rights, and as a people, the right to free racial and cultural self-development.”