Also in October, the Archbishop of Canterbury sent the following Message to the Jewish Bulletin:
"The situation of the Jews is unique, and yet has lasted for many centuries. They are a people conscious of close and real unity, and yet they have no motherland. Other people have survived and maintained their identity when there was no national State to which they could be loyal; but there was always a homeland inhabited by the people who remembered their days of independence and hoped for its restoration. For the Jews there has been no such a homeland. Their eyes might turn to Palestine; but though there were Jews among the population there, they did not form the bulk of it. The Jews as a people have been homeless. They have lived among the other peoples of the earth, and they have been loyal citizens of the nations which have made them welcome. But if their hosts turn against them they have no remedy. In earlier periods this has happened from time to time. In our day it has happened on a scale without parallel. Their sufferings are appalling and entirely undeserved. It should be our aim to assist them in all ways in our power; for their need is desperate. <237> But there is more in their claim than a plea for sympathy. One of the tests of a people's civilisation is its capacity to treat well a defined minority. To fail in this is to revert to the ethics of the wolf-pack; and to succeed is the evidence of moral stability. In the case of the Jews our task is the easier because the moral principles which we profess are largely drawn from that sacred literature which we share with them. We should be standing together in loyalty to those principles against all who repudiate or ignore them. Anti-Semitism is evidence of a barbarous outlook and a religious apostasy." [521]
In the same month, the Free Church Federal Council sent a letter to the Chief Rabbi, Dr. Hertz, expressing "the deep feelings of indignation and sympathy with which the Free Churches of this country regard the cruel persecution from which the Jewish race is suffering through the tyranny exercised by the Axis powers". The message continued:
"We assure you of our continued prayers to Almighty God that its sufferings may speedily be brought to an end, and that all peoples may once again enjoy freedom of worship, preaching and teaching according to conviction without incurring civil disability or penalty in any form." [522]
On October 29, 1942, an audience of 10,000 assembled in the Albert Hall to voice their protest against "the ruthless policy of extermination decreed by the Nazis and their satellites against the Jewish population in all territories under their sway". The Archbishop of Canterbury was in the chair.
"Speaking about the deportations from France, the Archbishop mentioned the fact that children from two years upwards are now also being deported. 'There is something familiar about that,' he said, 'but when the earlier Nazis massacred the Innocent of Bethlehem it was on those of two years and less that destruction fell; and that in a smaller number.'…
The Archbishop concluded by saying that:
"he was grateful for this opportunity to share in the effort to express our horror at what has been and is being done, our deep sympathy with the sufferers, our claim that our own Government should do whatever is possible for their relief, and our steadfast resolution to do all and bear all that may be necessary to end this affliction." <238>
Dr. I. S. Whale, Moderator of the Free Church Federal Council, speaking in the name of the Free Church, declared that anti-Semitism in all its forms was "an outrage against that sanctity of law which is one of the most precious gifts of ancient Israel to modern Christianity". Bishop Matthew spoke on behalf of the Roman Catholic Church. The following resolution, moved by the Archbishop of Canterbury, was unanimously adopted:
"This meeting, representative of British public opinion and of the United Nations fighting in the cause of freedom, places on record its profound indignation at the unparallel atrocities which have been and are being committed daily by the German Government and its satellites against the unarmed citizens of countries under the Nazi yoke. It records its horror at the deliberate policy of extermination which the Nazis have declared against the Jews wherever they are to be found, and extends its profound sympathy to the families of the unhappy victims of a systematic terror carried out by wholesale massacre, the murder of innocent hostages, the inhuman separation of children from their parents and other unspeakable cruelties and atrocities. This meeting expresses its heartfelt admiration for the heroism and gallantry of the fighting forces of the United Nations now leading us to victory, and desires to convey its deep sense of gratitude to those people in the occupied territories who, despite the terror, have done so much to help and succour their Jewish fellow-victims." [523]