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APPENDICE 2
Documenti e materiali citati nel testo o utili come riferimento
1) Legge statunitense sull’immigrazione del 1924.
Fonte: http://library.uwb.edu/guides/USimmigration/1924_immigration_act.html
Immigration Act: http://library.uwb.edu/guides/USimmigration/43%20stat%20153.pdf.
A Proclamation
Whereas it is provided in the act of Congress approved May 26, 1924, entitled “An act to limit the immigration of aliens
into the United States, and for other purposes” that “The annual quota of any nationality shall be two per centum of the
number of foreign-born individuals of such nationality resident in continental Untied States as determined by the United
States Census of 1890, but the minimum quota of any nationality shall be 100 (Sec. 11 a). . . .
“The Secretary of State, the Secretary of Commerce, and the Secretary of Labor, jointly, shall, as soon as feasible after
the enactment of this act, prepare a statement showing the number of individuals of the various nationalities resident in
continental United States as determined by the United States Census of 1890, which statement shall be the population
basis for the purposes of subdivision (a) of section 11 (Sec. 12 b).
“Such officials shall, jointly, report annually to the President the quota of each nationality under subdivision (a) of
section 11, together with the statements, estimates, and revisions provided for in this section. The President shall
proclaim and make known the quotas so reported”. (Sec. 12 e).
Now, therefore I, Calvin Coolidge, President of the United States of America acting under and by virtue of the power in
me vested by the aforesaid act of Congress, do hereby proclaim and make known that on and after July 1, 1924, and
throughout the fiscal year 1924-1925, the quota of each nationality provided in said act shall be as follows:
COUNTRY OR AREA OF BIRTH QUOTA 1924-1925
Afghanistan- 100
Albania- 100
Andorra- 100
Arabian peninsula (1, 2)- 100
Armenia- 124
Australia, including Papua, Tasmania, and all islands appertaining to Australia (3, 4)- 121
Austria- 785
Belgium (5)- 512
Bhutan- 100
Bulgaria- 100
Cameroon (proposed British mandate)- 100
Cameroon (French mandate)- 100
China- 100
Czechoslovakia- 3,073
Danzig, Free City of- 228
Denmark (5, 6)- 2,789
Egypt- 100
Estonia- 124
Ethiopia (Abyssinia)- 100
Finland- 170
France (1, 5, 6)- 3,954
Germany- 51,227
Great Britain and Northern Ireland (1, 3, 5, 6)- 34,007
Greece- 100
Hungary- 473
Iceland- 100
India (3)- 100
Iraq (Mesopotamia)- 100
Irish Free State (3)- 28,567
Italy, including Rhodes, Dodecanesia, and Castellorizzo (5)- 3,845
Japan- 100
Latvia-142
Liberia- 100
Liechtenstein- 100
Lithuania- 344
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Luxemburg- 100
Monaco- 100
Morocco (French and Spanish Zones and Tangier)- 100
Muscat (Oman)- 100
Nauru (proposed British mandate) (4)- 100
Nepal- 100
Netherlands (1, 5, 6)- 1648
New Zealand (including appertaining islands (3, 4)- 100
Norway (5)- 6,453
New Guinea, and other Pacific Islands under proposed Australian mandate (4)- 100
Palestine (with Trans-Jordan, proposed British mandate)- 100
Persia (1)- 100
Poland- 5,982
Portugal (1, 5)- 503
Ruanda and Urundi (Belgium mandate)- 100
Rumania- 603
Russia, European and Asiatic (1)- 2,248
Samoa, Western (4) (proposed mandate of New Zealand)- 100
San Marino- 100
Siam- 100
South Africa, Union of (3)- 100
South West Africa (proposed mandate of Union of South Africa)- 100
Spain (5)- 131
Sweden- 9,561
Switzerland- 2,081
Syria and The Lebanon (French mandate)- 100
Tanganyika (proposed British mandate)- 100
Togoland (proposed British mandate)- 100
Togoland (French mandate)- 100
Turkey- 100
Yap and other Pacific islands (under Japanese mandate) (4)- 100
Yugoslavia- 671
GENERAL NOTE - The immigration quotas assigned to the various countries and quota-areas should not be regarded
as having any political significance whatever, or as involving recognition of new governments, or of new boundaries, or
of transfers of territory except as the United States Government has already made such recognition in a formal and
official manner. . . . Calvin Coolidge.
2) Legge 13 giugno 1912, n.555 sulla cittadinanza italiana
Art. 1. – È cittadino per nascita:
1. il figlio di padre cittadino;
2. il figlio di madre cittadina se il padre è ignoto o non ha la cittadinanza italiana, né quella di altro Stato, ovvero
se il figli non segue la cittadinanza del padre straniero secondo la legge dello Stato al quale questi appartiene
(2);
3. chi è nato nel [Regno] se entrambi i genitori o sono ignoti o non hanno la cittadinanza italiana, né quella di
altro Stato, ovvero se il figlio non segue la cittadinanza dei genitori stranieri secondo la legge dello Stato al
quale questi appartengono.
Il figlio di ignoti trovato in Italia si presume fino a prova in contrario nato nel [Regno].
Art.2. – Il riconoscimento o la dichiarazione giudiziale della filiazione durante la minore età del figlio che non sia
emancipato, ne determina la cittadinanza secondo le norme della presente legge.
[E’ a tale effetto prevalente la cittadinanza del padre, anche se la paternità sia riconosciuta o dichiarata posteriormente
alla maternità] (3).
Se il figlio riconosciuto o dichiarato è maggiorenne o emancipato conserva il proprio stato di cittadinanza, ma può entro
l’anno dal riconoscimento o dalla dichiarazione giudiziale, dichiarare di eleggere la cittadinanza determinata dalla
filiazione.
Le disposizioni del presente articolo si applicano anche ai figli la cui paternità o maternità consti in uno dei modi
dell’articolo 279 del codice civile.
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Art. 3 – Lo straniero nato nel [Regno] o figlio di genitori quivi residenti da almeno dieci anni al tempo della sua nascita,
diviene cittadino:
1. se presta servizio militare nel [Regno] o accetta un impiego dello Stato;
2. se, compiuto il [21°] anno, risiede nel [Regno] e dichiara entro il [22°] anno di eleggere la cittadinanza italiana
(4);
3. se risiede nel [Regno] da almeno dieci anni e non dichiara nel termine di cui al n.2 di voler conservare la
cittadinanza straniera.
Le disposizioni del presente articolo si applicano anche allo straniero del quale il padre o la madre o l’avo paterno siano
stati cittadini per nascita.
Art.4. (5) – la cittadinanza italiana, comprendente il godimento dei diritti politici, può essere concessa con decreto reale,
sentito il Consiglio di Stato;
1. allo straniero che abbia prestato servizio per tre anni allo Stato italiano, anche all’estero;
2. allo straniero che risieda da almeno cinque anni nel [Regno];
3. allo straniero che risieda da due anni nel [Regno] ed abbia reso notevoli servigi all’Italia [od abbia contratto
matrimonio con una cittadina italiana] (6);
4. dopo sei mesi di residenza, a chi avrebbe potuto diventare cittadino italiano per beneficio di legge, se non
avesse omesso di farne in tempo utile espressa dichiarazione.
E’ in facoltà del Governo di concedere in casi eccezionali e per speciali circostanze, la cittadinanza italiana a persone
nei cui confronti non ricorrano le condizioni previste nei numeri 1 e 4 del presente articolo.
Art. 5. – Il decreto [ reale] di concessione non avrà effetto se la persona a cui la cittadinanza è conceduta non presti
giuramento di essere fedele al [Re e di osservare lo Statuto] e le altre leggi dello Stato.
Art.6. – [La cittadinanza può essere conceduta con legge speciale a chi abbia reso all’Italia servigi di eccezionale
importanza] (7).
Art. 7. – Salvo speciali disposizioni da stipulare con trattati internazionali il cittadino italiano nato e residente in uno
stato estero, dal quale sia ritenuto proprio cittadino per nascita, conserva la cittadinanza italiana, ma divenuto
maggiorenne o emancipato, può rinunziarvi (8).
Art. 8. – Perde la cittadinanza:
1. chi spontaneamente acquista una cittadinanza straniera e stabilisce o ha stabilito all’estero la propria residenza;
2. chi, avendo acquistata senza concorso di volontà propria una cittadinanza straniera, dichiari di rinunziare alla
cittadinanza italiana e stabilisca o abbia stabilito all’estero la propria residenza.
Può il Governo nei casi indicati ai nn. 1 e 2 dispensare dalla condizione del trasferimento dalla residenza all’estero;
3. chi, avendo accettato impiego da un Governo estero od essendo entrato al servizio militare di potenza estera, vi
persista nonostante l’intimazione del Governo italiano di abbandonare entro un termine fissato l’impiego o il
servizio.
La perdita della cittadinanza nei casi preveduti da questo articolo non esime dagli obblighi del servizio militare, salve le
facilitazioni concesse dalle leggi speciali.
Art. 9. – Chi ha perduto la cittadinanza a norma degli articoli 7 e 8 la riacquista:
1. se presti servizio militare nel [Regno] o accetti un impiego dello Stato;
2. se dichiari di rinunciare alla cittadinanza dello Stato a cui appartiene o provi di aver rinunziato all’impiego o al
servizio militare all’estero esercitati nonostante il divieto del Governo italiano, ed in entrambi i casi abbia
stabilito o stabilisca entro l’anno dalla rinuncia la propria residenza nel [Regno];
3. dopo due anni di residenza nel [Regno] se la perdita della cittadinanza era derivata da acquisto di cittadinanza
straniera.
Tuttavia nei casi indicati ai nn. 2 e 3 sarà inefficace il riacquisto della cittadinanza se il Governo lo inibisca. Tale facoltà
potrà esercitarsi dal Consiglio di Stato entro il termine di tre mesi dal compimento delle condizioni stabilite nei detti
nn.2 e 3 se l’ultima cittadinanza straniera sia di uno Stato europeo, ed altrimenti entro il termine di sei mesi.
È ammesso il riacquisto della cittadinanza senza obbligo di stabilire la residenza nel [Regno], in favore di chi abbia da
oltre due anni abbandonata la residenza nello Stato a cui apparteneva, per trasferirla in altro Stato estero di cui non
assuma la cittadinanza. In tale caso però è necessaria la preventiva permissione del riacquisto da parte del Governo.
Art. 10. (9) – [La donna maritata non può assumere una cittadinanza diversa da quella del marito, anche se esista
separazione personale fra coniugi.
La donna straniera che si marita ad un cittadino acquista la cittadinanza italiana. La conserva anche vedova, salvoché,
ritenendo o trasportando all’estero la sua residenza, riacquisti la cittadinanza di origine].
[La donna cittadina che si marita ad uno straniero perde la cittadinanza italiana, sempreché il marito possieda una
cittadinanza che per il fatto del matrimonio a lei si comunichi (10). In caso di scioglimento del matrimonio ritorna
cittadina se risiede nel [Regno] o vi rientri, e dichiari in ambedue i casi di voler riacquistare la cittadinanza. Alla
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dichiarazione equivarrà il fatto della residenza nel Regno protratta oltre un biennio dallo scioglimento, qualora non vi
siano figli nati dal matrimonio predetto].
Art. 11.- [Se il marito cittadino diviene straniero, la moglie che mantenga comune con lui la residenza perde la
cittadinanza italiana, sempreché acquisti quella del marito; ma può recuperarla secondo le disposizioni dell’articolo
precedente.
Se il marito straniero diviene cittadino, la moglie acquista la cittadinanza quando mantenga comunque con lui la
residenza.
Se però i coniugi siano legalmente separati e non esistano figli del loro matrimonio i quali, a termini dell’articolo
successivo, acquistino la nuova cittadinanza del padre, può la maglie dichiarare di voler conservare la cittadinanza
propria].
Art. 12. (12) – I figli minori no emancipati di chi acquista o ricupera la cittadinanza, divengono cittadini, salvo che
risiedendo all’estero conservino, secondo la legge dello Stato a cui appartengono, la cittadinanza straniera. Il figlio però
dello straniero per nascita divenuto cittadino può entro l’anno dal raggiungimento della maggiore età o dalla conseguita
emancipazione, dichiarare di eleggere la cittadinanza di origine.
I figli minori non emancipati di chi perde la cittadinanza divengono stranieri, quando abbiano comune la residenza col
genitore esercente la patria potestà o la cittadinanza di uno stato straniero. Saranno però loro applicabili le disposizioni
degli articoli 3 e 9.
Le disposizioni del presente articolo si applicano anche nel caso che la madre esercente la patria potestà o la tutela
legale sui figli abbia una cittadinanza diversa da quella del padre premorto. Non si applicano invece al caso in cui la
madre esercente la patria potestà muti cittadinanza in conseguenza del passaggio a nuove nozze, rimanendo allora
inalterata la cittadinanza di tutti i figli di primo letto.
Art. 13. – l’acquisto o il riacquisto della cittadinanza in tutti i casi precedentemente espressi non ha effetto se non dal
giorno successivo a quello in cui furono adempiute le condizioni e le formalità stabilite.
Le domande e dichiarazioni di acquisto o riacquisto sono esenti da qualsiasi tassa e spesa.
Art. 14.
• Chiunque risieda nel [Regno] e non abbia la cittadinanza italiana né quella di un altro Stato, è soggetto alla
legge italiana per quanto si riferisce all’esercizio dei diritti civili e agli obblighi del servizio militare.
Art. 15. – È equiparato al territori del [Regno], per gli effetti della presente legge, il territorio delle colonie italiane,
salvo le disposizioni delle leggi speciali che le riguardano.
Art. 16. – Le dichiarazioni prevedute nella presente legge possono essere fatte all’ufficiale di stato civile del comune
dove il dichiarante ha stabilito o intende stabilire la propria residenza, ad un [regio] agente diplomatico o consolare
all’estero.
La facoltà di ricevere le dichiarazioni potrà essere estesa dal Governo del [Re* ad altri pubblici ufficiali.
Art. 17. – Con l’entrata in vigore della presente legge sono abrogati gli articoli 4 e 15 del codice civile, l’articolo 36
della legge sull’emigrazione 31 gennaio 1901, n.23 la Legge 17 maggio 1906, n.217 e tutte le altre disposizioni
contrarie alla presente legge.
Nulla però è innovato alle leggi esistenti, riguardo alla concessione per decreto reale della cittadinanza comprendente il
pieno godimento dei diritti politici agli italiani che non appartengono al [Regno].
Restano salve le disposizioni delle convenzioni internazionali.
Art. 18. – Coloro che abbiano ottenuto la cittadinanza anteriormente alla presente legge, senza godimento dei diritti
politici, potranno conseguirlo per decreto reale previo parere favorevole del Consiglio di Stato, quando concorrano le
condizioni previste nell’articolo 4.
Art. 19. – Lo stato di cittadinanza acquisito anteriormente alla presente legge non si modifica, se non pei fatti posteriori
all’entrata in vigore di questa.
Ma coloro che al momento dell’entrata in vigore della presente legge, hanno uno stato di cittadinanza diverso da quello
che loro competerebbe secondo le disposizioni degli articoli precedenti, potranno entro l’anno dichiarare di eleggere la
qualità di cittadino o di straniero, che sarebbe loro spettata secondo le disposizioni medesime.
Coloro a cui le disposizioni degli articoli precedenti attribuiscono il diritto di eleggere la qualità di cittadino o di
straniero, potranno farne la dichiarazione entro un anno dal giorno dell’entrata in vigore della presente legge, anche se i
termini siano scaduti, salvo che , potendo fare una dichiarazione analoga in forza della legge anteriore, abbiano omesso
di farla.
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Art. 20. – Il Governo stabilirà con decreto [reale], udito il parere del Consiglio di stato, le norme per l’applicazione
della presente legge, che entrerà in vigore il 1° luglio 1912.
__________________________
NOTE
La legge n.55/1912 è qui riportata nel testo emendato, in vigore al momento della sua abrogazione.
1. Tra parentesi quadra [….] le norme modificate o abrogate, i riferimenti al soppresso ordinamento monarchico e
le sentenze della corte Costituzionale.
2. I nn. 1 e 2 dell’articolo 1 furono modificati dall’articolo 5 della Legge 21 aprile 1983, n.123, riportata di
seguito. Il n.1 fu dichiarato incostituzionale con sentenza n.30 del 28 gennaio 1983, della Corte Costituzionale.
3. Dichiarato incostituzionale con sentenza del 28 gennaio 1983, n.30 della Corte Costituzionale.
4. Modificato in 18° e 19° dalla legge 3 ottobre 1977, n.753.
5. Modificato con R.D.L. 1° dicembre 1934, n..1997 (G.U. 19 dicembre 1934, n.297)
Il testo originario dell’articolo 4 era il seguente:
"La cittadinanza italiana, comprendente il godimento dei diritti politici, può essere concessa per decreto Reale,
previo parere favorevole del Consiglio di Stato:
1) allo straniero che abbia prestato servizio per tre anni allo Stato italiano, anche all’estero;
2) allo straniero che risieda da almeno cinque anni nel Regno;
3) allo straniero che risieda da tre anni nel Regno ed abbia reso notevoli servigi all’Italia od abbia contratto
matrimonio con una cittadina italiana;
4) dopo un anno di residenza a chi avrebbe potuto diventare cittadino italiano per un beneficio di legge, se non
avesse omesso di farne in tempo utile espressa dichiarazione."
6. Il periodo tra parentesi era da ritenersi abrogato dall’articolo 1 e seg, della Legge 21 aprile 1983, n.123.
7. Abrogato con R.D.L. 1° dicembre 1934, n.1997.
8. I doppi cittadini considerati da questa norma non erano tenuti a optare per una sola cittadinanza retta dalla
legge n. 123/1983 articolo 5. Questa norma disciplinava una ipotesi di doppia cittadinanza diversa da quella
retta dall’articolo 7 della Legge n. 555/1912. La prima cittadinanza derivava all’interessato iure sanguinis da
uno dei genitori; la seconda dall’essere nato in uno Stato che gliene l’aveva attribuita iure soli.
9. L’articolo doveva considerarsi abrogato a seguito della legge 19 maggio 1975, n.151, della Legge n. 123/1983
e della sentenza della Corte costituzionale n. 87/1975. Rimaneva in vigore l’ultima parte del terzo comma,
applicabile soltanto alla donna che aveva rinunziato alla cittadinanza italiana avendone acquisito per
matrimonio una straniera.
10. Questa disposizione era stata dichiarata incostituzionale con sentenza n. 87 del 9 aprile 1975 della Corte
costituzionale (G.U. 23 aprile 1975, n.108).
11. L’articolo 11 era abrogato per effetto dell’articolo 143 ter della legge n.151 del 1975 e degli articoli 1 e 4 della
legge n.123/1983.
12. L'articolo 12 era da ritenersi abrogato dall'articolo 5 della legge n 123/1983
3) Cablogramma di Riegner dell’8 agosto 1942 1 .
Si tratta di un appunto in cui Riegner riassumeva le informazioni in suo possesso per Sydney
Silverman, membro del Congresso ebraico mondiale a Londra e deputato del parlamento, e a Wise,
presidente del Congresso ebriaco mondiale a New York.
RICEVUTO RAPPORTO ALLARMANTE SECONDO CUI AL QUARTIER GENERALE DEL FÜHRER È STATO
DISCUSSO E VIENE PRESO IN CONSIDERAZIONE UN PIANO IN BASE AL QUALE TUTTI GLI EBREI NEI
PAESI OCCUPATI CONTROLLATI DALLA GERMANIA CHE AMMONTANO A TRE MILIONI E MEZZOQUATTRO MILIONI DI PERSONE DOPO LA DEPORTAZIONE E IL CONCENTRAMENTO A EST
DOVREBBERO ESSERE STERMINATI IN UN COLPO SOLO IN MODO DA RISOLVERE UNA VOLTA PER
SEMPRE LA QUESTIONE EBRAICA IN EUROPA STOP VIENE RIFERITO CHE L'AZIONE È PIANIFICATA
PER L'AUTUNNO MODI DI ESECUZIONE ANCORA IN DISCUSSIONE STOP SI È PARLATO DI ACIDO
PRUSSICO STOP NEL TRASMETTERE INFORMAZIONE CON TUTTE LE RISERVE NECESSARIE PERCHÉ
L'ESATTEZZA NON PUÒ ESSERE CONTROLLATA DA NOI PREGO SPECIFICARE CHE SI DICE
L'INFORMATORE ABBIA STRETTI RAPPORTI CON MASSIME AUTORITÀ TEDESCHE E CHE IN
GENERALE I SUOI RAPPORTI SONO AFFIDABILI
CONGRESSO EBRAICO MONDIALE
GERHART RIEGNER
1
Hilberg, R., cit., p . 230.
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4) Cablogramma di Riegner del 21 gennaio 1943 (cablo 482) 2 .
Leland Harrison, ambasciatore americano in Svizzera, chiese nuove informazioni a Riegner sullo sterminio degli ebrei.
Il messaggio fu inviato anche a Wise.
Reigner rifersice della terribile situazione degli ebrei in Europa, riportando informazioni sulle esecuzioni di massa degli
ebrei in Polonia, dove, secondo una fonte, 6.000 ebrei venivano uccisi ogni giorno. Informa inoltre che gli ebrei
dovevano, prima dell’esecuzione, spogliarsi di tutti i loro vestiti che venivano poi inviati in Germania. Gli ebrei rimasti
in Polonia erano stati confinati nei ghetti. Dalla Germania c’erano deportazioni continue; molti ebrei furono nascosti e
c’erano stati molti casi di suicidio; gli ebrei venivano privati degli alimenti. Nessun ebreo sarebbe rimasto a Praga o
Berlino entro la fine di marzo. In Romania 130.000 ebrei furono deportati in Transnistria, circa 60.000 erano già morti e
i restanti 70.000 morivano di fame. Le condizioni di vita erano indescrivibili, gli ebrei furono privati di tutti i loro soldi,
di generi alimentari e beni, erano alloggiati in luoghi ristretti non riscaldati dove 20-30 persone dormivano sul
pavimento; molti ebrei si ammalavano. Alla fine Reigner affermava che c’era bisogno urgente di assistenza.
5) RESOLUTION OF THE POLISH NATIONAL COUNCIL, NOVEMBER 27, 1942.
Fonte: The Black Book of Polish Jewry, cit., pp. 239-240.
The Government of the Polish Republic has brought the last news about the mass acres of the Jewish population in
Poland, carried out systematically by the German occupying authorities, to the attention of
the Allied Governments and of the public opinion in Allied countries. The number of Jews who have been murdered by
the Germans in Poland so far, since September, 1939, exceeds 1,000,000. From the beginning of the conquest of the
territories of the Republic, the bestial occupying power has subjected the Polish nation to an appalling policy of
extermination, to such an extent that by now the Polish population has been reduced by several million. Now the
occupying power has reached the summit of its murder-lust and sadism by organizing mass-murders of hundreds of
thousands of Jews in Poland, not only the Polish Jews but the Jews brought from other countries to Poland with the
purpose of exterminating them. The German murderers have sent to their death hundreds of thousands of men, women,
children and old people. Their purpose is to enfeeble the Polish nation and completely to exterminate the Jews in Poland
before the end of this year. In the execution of this plan Adolf Hitler and his henchmen are using the most appaling
tortures. The Polish Government and the Polish National Council, and the Polish nation at home, have often protested
against the German crimes, and announced that a just punishment would be meted out to these offenders against
mankind. Lately the Polish Government has submitted to the Polish National Council the draft of a law providing for
the punishment of the German criminals. In the face of the latest German crimes, unparalleled in the history of
mankind, which have been carried out against the Polish nation, and particularly against the Jewish population of
Poland, the Polish
National Council again raises a strong protest and pronounces an indictment before the whole civilized world.
The Polish National Council solemnly declares:
By its heroic attitude at home the Polish nation is gathering its strength for the day of retribution, amidst unspeakable
sufferings. The Polish National Council appeals to all the Allied Nations and
to all the nations now suffering together with the Polish nation under the German yoke, that they should at once start a
common action against this trampling and profanation of all principles of morality and humanity by the Germans, and
against the extermination of the Polish nation and other nations, an extermination the most appalling expression of it
which is provided by the mass-murders of the Jews in Poland and in the rest of Europe which Hitler has subjected.
To all those who are suffering and undergoing torture in Poland, both to Poles and to Jews, to all those who are taking
part in the struggle for liberation and for the preparation of a just retribution on
the German criminals, the Polish National Council sends words of hope and of unshakeable faith in the recovery of
freedom for all.
The day of victory and punishment is approaching.
2
Gruber R., pp. 18-19. Si vedano anche i siti http://longstreet.typepad.com/thesciencebookstore/2010/11/trying-hardnot-to-see-the-jews-american-immigration-practices-wwii.html
e
http://www.americanbuddha.com/lit.abandonjew.3.5.htm.
D o c u m e n t i | 318
6) EXTRACT FROM AN ADDRESS DELIVERED BY DR. STEPHEN S. WlSE AT THE
AMERICAN JEWISH CONFERENCE IN NEW YORK ON AUGUST 29, 1943 3 .
Fonte: The Black Book of Polish Jewry, cit., pp. 244-245.
This year of our calendar will forever be commemorated because of the attempted extermination of the whole Jewish
people. Attempted and, alas, not in vain; for two-thirds and more of the Axis world’s Jewish population has been
murdered, most foully and unnaturally murdered, by methods of open and devastating terror. The aim was, as recently
reported by a Christian who has just emerged from the Polish Underground, “to wipe out Jews as a people and
individuals, to exterminate them systematically as a race by sheer mass murder without any exceptions”.
The Jewish Underground relates the unbelievably hideous details of the death camps at Treblinka, for example, on the
railway running from Warsaw to Bialystok, the death houses, the special extermination machinery, the liquidating
gasses piped into death cells, the victims dying daily by thousands. A huge poster greets the newcomers to Treblinka:
“You can be confident of your future!” An ironic invitation to death at its cruelest! For the victims, we say to these
bestial executioners: Unlike death with honor you have brought to your victims, death and shame are swiftly becoming
your portion. The United Nations have made us confident of your immediate future and there is and will hereafter be no
future anywhere on earth for such as seek to set race against race and faith against faith. Yours have been ten years of
horror and pillage and rapine. Oblivion were your most merciful fate! We have lived and served throughout millenia.
Your thousand years have ended within a decade. We resume life with gladder hope, because civilization and freedom
are about to extirpate their organized and united enemies--the Axis Powers.
7) Republic of Poland, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, The mass extermination of Jews in German
occupied Poland, note addressed to the Governments of the United Nations on December 10th,
1942, Roy Publishers, NEW YORK.
REPUBLIC OF POLAND, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, London, December 10th, 1942
Your Excellency,
On several occasions the Polish Government have drawn the attention of the civilised world, both in diplomatic
documents and official publications, to the conduct of the German Government and of the German authorities of
occupation, both military and civilian, and to the methods employed by them “in order to reduce the population to
virtual slavery and ultimately to exterminate the Polish Nation”. These methods, first introduced in Poland, were
subsequently, applied in a varying degree, in other countries occupied by the armed forces of the German Reich.
2. At the Conference held at St. James’s Palace on January 18th, 1942, the Governments of the occupied countries
“placed among their principal war aims the punishment, through the channel of organised justice, of those guilty of, or
responsible for, those crimes, whether they have ordered them, perpetrated them, or participated in them”. Despite this
solemn warning and the declarations of President Roosevelt, of the Prime Minister, Mr. Winston Churchill, and of the
People’s Commissar for Foreign Affairs, M. Molotov, the German Government has not ceased to apply its methods of
violence and terror. The Polish Government have received numerous reports from Poland testifying to the constant
intensification of German persecution of the subjected populations.
3. Most recent reports present a horrifying picture of the position to which the Jews in Poland have been reduced. The
new methods of mass slaughter applied during the last few months confirm the fact that the German authorities aim
with systematic deliberation at the total extermination of the Jewish population of Poland and of the many thousands of
Jews whom the German authorities have deported to Poland from Western and Central European countries and from the
German Reich itself.
The Polish Government consider it their duty to bring to the knowledge of the Governments of all civilised countries the
following fully authenticated information received from Poland during recent weeks, which indicates all too plainly the
new methods of extermination adopted by the German authorities.
4. The initial steps leading to the present policy of extermination of the Jews were taken already in October, 1940, when
the German authorities established the Warsaw ghetto. At that time all the Jewish inhabitants of the Capital were
ordered to move into the Jewish quarter assigned to them not later than November 1st, 1940, while all the non-Jews
domiciled within the new boundaries of what was to become the ghetto were ordered to move out of that quarter. The
Jews were allowed to take only personal effects with them, while all their remaining property was confiscated. All
Jewish shops and businesses outside the new ghetto boundaries were closed down and sealed. The original date for
these transfers was subsequently postponed to November 15th, 1940. After that date the ghetto was completely closed
3
Da Le livre noir des juifs de Pologne, cit., p. 360: “La conferenza ebraica americana si tenne a New York, all’hotel
Waldorf-Astoria, dal 29 agosto al 2 settembre 1943, su iniziativa dei sionisti Chaim Weizmann e Stephen Wise e su
invito del presidente del B’nai B’rith, Henry Monsky. In quell’occasione chiesero di abbandonare il Libro bianco
britannico, di non limitare l’immigrazione ebraica in Palestina e di fare della Palestina uno Stato ebraico. L’American
Jewish Committee e il Jewish Labor Committee declinarono l’invito alla conferenza.”
319 | D o n ’ t f e n c e m e i n !
and its entire area was surrounded by a brick wall, the right of entry and exit being restricted to the holders of special
passes, issued by the German authorities. All those who left the ghetto without such a pass became liable to sentence of
death, and it is known that German courts passed such sentences in a large number of cases.
5. After the isolation of the ghetto, official intercourse with the outside world was maintained through a special German
office known as “Transferstelle”. Owing to totally inadequate supplies of food for the inhabitants of the ghetto,
smuggling on a large scale was carried on; the Germans themselves participated in this illicit trading, drawing
considerable incomes from profits and bribes. The food rations for the inhabitants of the ghetto amounted to about a
pound of bread per person weekly, with practically nothing else. As a result, prices in the ghetto were on an average ten
times higher than outside, and mortality due to exhaustion, starvation and disease, particularly during the last two
winters, increased on an unprecedented scale. During the winter 1941-1942 the death rate, calculated on an annual base,
has risen to 18 per cent., and during the first quarter of 1942 increased still further. Scores of corpses were found in the
streets of the ghetto every day.
6. At the time when the ghetto was established the whole population was officially stated to amount to 433,000, and in
spite of the appalling death rate it was being maintained at this figure by the importation of Jews from Germany and
from the occupied countries, as well as from other parts of Poland.
7. The outbreak of war between Germany and Soviet Russia and the occupation of the Eastern areas of Poland by
German troops considerably increased the numbers of Jews in Germany’s power. At the same time the mass murders of
Jews reached such dimensions that, at first, people refused to give credence to the reports reaching Warsaw from the
Eastern provinces. The reports, however, were confirmed again and again by reliable witnesses. During the winter
1941-1942 several tens of thousands of Jews were murdered. In the city of Wilno over 50,000 Jews were reported to
have been massacred and only 12,000 of them remain in the local ghetto. In the city of Lwow 40,000 were reported
murdered; in Rowne 14,000; in Kowel 10,000, and unknown numbers in Stanislawow, Tarnopol, Stryj, Drohobycz and
many other smaller towns. At first the executions were carried out by shooting; subsequently, however, it is reported
that the Germans applied new methods, such as poison gas, by means of which the Jewish population was exterminated
in Chelm, or electrocution, for which a camp was organised in Belzec, where in the course of March and April, 1942,
the Jews from the provinces of Lublin, Lwow and Kielce, amounting to tens of thousands, were exterminated. Of
Lublin’s 30,000 Jewish inhabitants only 2,500 still survive in the city.
8. It has been reliably reported that on the occasion of his visit to the General Gouvernement of Poland in March, 1942,
Himmler issued an order for the extermination of 50 per cent, of the Jews in Poland by the end of that year. After
Himmler’s departure the Germans spread the rumour that the Warsaw ghetto would be liquidated as from April, 1942.
This date was subsequently altered to June. Himmler’s second visit to Warsaw in the middle of July, 1942, became the
signal for the commencement of the process of liquidation, the horror of which surpasses anything known in the annals
of history.
9. The liquidation of the ghetto was preceded, on July 17th, 1942, by the registration of all foreign Jews confined there
who were then removed to the Pawiak prison. As from July 20th, 1942, the guarding of the ghetto was entrusted to
special security battalions, formed from the scum of several Eastern European countries, while large forces of German
police armed with machine guns and commanded by SS officers were posted at all the gates leading into the ghetto.
Mobile German police detachments patrolled all the boundaries of the ghetto day and night.
10. On July 31st, at 11 a.m., German police cars drove up to the building of the Jewish Council of the ghetto, in
Grzybowska Street. The SS officers ordered the chairman of the Jewish Council, Mr. Czerniakow, to summon the
members of the Council, who were all arrested on arrival and removed in police cars to the Pawiak prison. After a few
hours’ detention the majority of them were allowed to return to the ghetto. About the same time flying squads of
German police entered the ghetto, breaking into the houses in search of Jewish intellectuals. The better dressed Jews
found were killed on the spot, without the police troubling even to identify them. Among those who were thus killed
was a non-Jew, Professor Dr. Raszeja, who was visiting the ghetto in the course of his medical duties and was in
possession of an official pass. Hundreds of educated Jews were killed in this way.
11. On the morning of the following day, July 22nd, 1942, the German police again visited the office of the Jewish
Council and summoned all the members, who had been released from the Pawiak prison the previous day. On their
assembly they were informed that an order had been issued for the removal of the entire Jewish population of the
Warsaw ghetto and printed instructions to that effect were issued in the form of posters, the contents of which are
reproduced in Annex 1 to this Note. Additional instructions were issued verbally. The number of people to be removed
was first fixed at 6,000 daily. The persons concerned were to assemble in the hospital wards and grounds in Stawki
Street, the patients of which were evacuated forthwith. The hospital was close to the railway siding. Persons subject to
deportation were to be delivered by the Jewish police not later than 4 p.m. each day. Members of the Council and other
hostages were to answer for the strict fulfilment of the order. In conformity with German orders, all inmates of Jewish
prisons, old-age pensioners and inmates of other charitable institutions were to be included in the first contingent.
12. On July 23rd, 1942, at 7 p.m., two German police officers again visited the offices of the Jewish Council and saw
the chairman, Mr. Czerniakow. After they left him he committed suicide. It is reported that Mr. Czerniakow did so
because the Germans increased the contingent of the first day to 10,000 persons, to be followed by 7,000 persons on
each subsequent day. Mr. Czerniakow was succeeded in his office by Mr. Lichtenbaum, and on the following day
10,000 persons were actually assembled for deportation, followed by 7,000 persons on each subsequent day. The people
affected were either rounded up haphazardly in the streets or were taken from their homes.
D o c u m e n t i | 320
13. According to the German order of July 22nd, 1942, all Jews employed in German-owned undertakings, together
with their families, were to be exempt from deportation. This produced acute competition among the inhabitants of the
ghetto to secure employment in such undertakings, or, failing employment, bogus certificates to that effect. Large sums
of money, running into thousands of Zlotys, were being paid for such certificates to the German owners. They did not,
however, save the purchasers from deportation, which was being carried out without discrimination or identification.
14. The actual process of deportation was carried out with appalling brutality. At the appointed hour on each day the
German police cordoned off a block of houses selected for clearance, entered the back yard and fired their guns at
random, as a signal for all to leave their homes and assemble in the yard. Anyone attempting to escape or to hide was
killed on the spot. No attempt was made by the Germans to keep families together. Wives were torn from their
husbands and children from their parents. Those who appeared frail or infirm were carried straight to the Jewish
cemetery to be killed and buried there. On the average 50-100 people were disposed of in this way daily. After the
contingent was assembled, the people were packed forcibly into cattle trucks to the number of 120 in each truck, which
had room for forty. The trucks were then locked and sealed. The Jews were suffocating for lack of air. The floors of the
trucks were covered with quicklime and chlorine. As far as is known, the trains were despatched to three localities —
Tremblinka, Belzec and Sobibor, to what the reports describe as “Extermination camps”. The very method of transport
was deliberately calculated to cause the largest possible number of casualties among the condemned Jews. It is reported
that on arrival in camp the survivors were stripped naked and killed by various means, including poison gas and
electrocution. The dead were interred in mass graves dug by machinery.
15. According to all available information, of the 250,000 Jews deported from the Warsaw ghetto up to September 1st,
1942, only two small transports, numbering about 4,000 people, are known to have been sent eastwards in the direction
of Brest-Litovsk and Malachowicze, allegedly to be employed on work behind the front line. It has not been possible to
ascertain whether any of the other Jews deported from the Warsaw ghetto still survive, and it must be feared that they
have been all put to death.
16. The Jews deported from the Warsaw ghetto so far included in the first instance all the aged and infirm; a number of
the physically strong have escaped so far, because of their utility as labour power. All the children from Jewish schools,
orphanages and children’s homes were deported, including those from the orphanage in charge of the celebrated
educationist, Dr. Janusz Korczak, who refused to abandon his charges, although he was given the alternative of
remaining behind.
17. According to the most recent reports, 120,000 ration cards were distributed in the Warsaw ghetto for the month of
September, 1942, while the report also mentions that only 40,000 such cards were to be distributed for the month of
October, 1942. The latter figure is corroborated by information emanating from the German Employment Office
(Arbeitsamt), which mentioned the number of 40,000 skilled workmen as those who were to be allowed to remain in a
part of the ghetto, confined to barracks and employed on German war production.
18. The deportations from the Warsaw ghetto were interrupted during five days, between August 20th-25th. The
German machinery for the mass slaughter of the Jews was employed during this interval on the liquidation of other
ghettoes in Central Poland, including the towns of Falenica, Rembertow, Nowy Dwor, Kaluszyn and Minsk
Mazowiecki.
19. It is not possible to estimate the exact numbers of Jews who have been exterminated in Poland since the occupation
of the country by the armed forces of the German Reich. But all the reports agree that the total number of killed runs
into many hundreds of thousands of innocent victims - men, women and children - and that of the 3,180,000 Jews in
Poland before the outbreak of war, over a third have perished during the last three years.
20. The Polish population, which itself is suffering the most grievous afflictions, and of which many millions have been
either deported to Germany as slave labour or evicted from their homes and lands, deprived of so many of their leaders,
who have been cruelly murdered by the Germans, have repeatedly expressed, through the underground organizations,
their horror of and compassion with the terrible fate which has befallen their Jewish fellow-countrymen. The Polish
Government are in possession of information concerning the assistance which the Polish population is rendering to the
Jews. For obvious reasons no details of these activities can be published at present.
21. The Polish Government - as the representatives of the legitimate authority on territories in which the Germans are
carrying out the systematic extermination of Polish citizens and of citizens of Jewish origin of many other European
countries - consider it their duty to address themselves to the Governments of the United Nations, in the confident belief
that they will share their opinion as to the necessity not only of condemning the crimes committed by the Germans and
punishing the criminals, but also of finding means offering the hope that Germany might be effectively restrained from
continuing to apply her methods of mass extermination. I avail myself of this opportunity to renew to Your Excellency
the assurances of my high consideration.
L. s.
EDWARD RACZYNSKI.
321 | D o n ’ t f e n c e m e i n !
8) Report by a young Pole who escaped to London in the early part of 1943.
(From the News Bulletin of the Representation of Polish Jewry, Sept., 1943.)
Fonte: The Black Book of Poland Jewry, cit., p. 333.
“About 1,000 Jews were serving in forced labor in the soft coal works in Izabelin near Warsaw. I saw these Jews at
work for ten days. The work is impossibly hard, especially when cold weather sets in. Living conditions are dangerous.
Jews are packed in the barracks without window-panes, without the most elementary sanitary conveniences. The
barracks are not heated. The rations allow only for starvation existence. It is impossible to eat the watery soup which the
Germans serve once a day. Many took sick eating the soup. After a few weeks of such labor, the Jewish worker
becomes useless and inefficient. There remains only a creature incapable of working or thinking. The Germans singled
out 205 Jews, who had thus become incapable of working and therefore useless, and shot them. The Germans brought
new Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto to replace these. The treatment meted out by the Germans defies any imagination or
understanding. This is more than murder-it is mass bestiality. I spoke to my friends who lived through the German
murderous sadism against the Jews and we have come to the conclusion that the murder of the Jews is not in itself a
goal for the Germans, the Germans aim at training a large personnel of hangmen who will be able to murder millions of
people. The Germans reason that the world will not believe the cries of Polish Jewry, because human beings cannot
believe that men are capable of such sadism. But we must protest until the people of the world will decide to undertake
radical measures to stop the mass murder of Jews and Poles.”
9) Executive Order Creating the War Refugee Board (January 22, 1944).
Caution: The following MUST BE HELD IN CONFIDENCE until released.
Note: Release is for ALL REGULAR EDITIONS OF MORNING NEWSPAPERS of Sunday, January twenty-third,
1944.
Release by radio commentators, newscasters, etc. NOT EARLIER THAN 9:00 P.M., E.W.T., Saturday, January 22,
1944.
STEPHEN EARLY
Secretary to the President
The President today, by Executive Order, set up a War Refugee Board consisting of the Secretary of State, the Secretary
of Treasury and the Secretary of War, to take action for the immediate rescue from the Nazis of as many as possible of
the persecuted minorities of Europe – racial, religious or political – all civilian victims of enemy savagery.
The Executive Order declares that “it is the policy of this Government to take all measures within its power to rescue
the victims of enemy oppression who are in imminent danger of death and otherwise to afford such victims all possible
relief and assistance consistent with the successful prosecution of the war”.
The Board is charged with direct responsibility to the President in seeing that the announced policy is carried out. The
President indicated that while he would look directly to the Board of the successful execution of this policy, the Board,
of course, would cooperate fully with the Intergovernmental Committee, the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation
Administration, and other interested international organizations.
The President stated that he expected to obtain the cooperation of all members of the United Nations and other foreign
governments in carrying out this difficult but important task. He stated that the existing facilities of the State, Treasury
and War Departments would be employed to aid Axis victims to the fullest extent possible. He stressed that it was
urgent that action be taken at once to forestall the plan of the Nazis to exterminate all the Jews and other persecuted
minorities in Europe.
It will be the duty of a full-time Executive Director of the Board to arrange for the prompt execution of the plans and
programs developed and the measures by the Board.
EXECUTIVE ORDER
ESTABLISHING A WAR REFUGEE BOARD
Whereas it is the policy of this Government to take all measures within its power to rescue the victims of enemy
oppression who are in imminent danger of death and otherwise to afford such victims all possible relief and assistance
consistent with the successful prosecution of the war.
Now, therefore, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the statutes of the United States, as
President of the United States and as Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy, and in order to effectuate with all
possible speed the rescue and relief of such victims of enemy oppression, it is hereby ordered as follows:
There is established in the Executive Office of the President a War Refugee Board (hereinafter referred to as the Board).
The Board shall consist of the Secretary of State, the Secretary of Treasury and the Secretary of War. The Board may
request the heads of other agencies or departments to participate in its deliberations whenever matters specially
affecting such agencies or departments are under consideration.
D o c u m e n t i | 322
The Board shall be charged with the responsibility of seeing that the policy of the Government, as stated in the
Preamble, is carried out. The functions of the Board shall include without limitation the development of plans and
programs and the inauguration of effective measures for (a) the rescue, transportation, maintenance and relief of the
victims of enemy oppression, and (b) the establishment of havens of temporary refuge for such victims. To this and the
Board, through appropriate channels, shall take the necessary steps to enlist the cooperation of foreign governments and
obtain their participation in the execution of such plans and programs.
It shall be duty of the State, Treasury and War Departments, within their respective spheres, to execute at the request of
the Board, the plans and programs so developed and the measures so inaugurated. It shall be the duty of the heads of all
agencies and departments to supply or obtain for the Board such information and to extend to the Board such supplies,
shipping and other specified assistance and facilities as the Board may require in carrying out the provisions of this
Order. The State Department shall appoint special attaches with diplomatic status, on the recommendation of the Board,
to be stationed abroad in places where it is likely that the assistance can be rendered to war refugees, the duties and
responsibilities of such attaches to be defined by the Board in consultation with the State Department.
The Board and the State, Treasury and War Departments are authorized to accept the services or contributions of any
private persons, private organizations, State agencies, or agencies of foreign governments in carrying out the purposes
of this Order. The Board shall cooperate with all existing and future international organizations concerned with the
problems of refugee rescue, maintenance, transportation, relief, rehabilitation, and resettlement.
To the extent possible the Board shall utilize the personnel supplies, facilities and services of the State, Treasury and
War Departments. In addition the Board, within the limits of funds which may be available, may employ necessary
personnel without regard for the Civil Service laws and regulations and the Classification Act of 1923, as amended, and
make provisions for supplies, facilities and services necessary to discharge its responsibilities. The Board shall appoint
an Executive Director who shall serve as its principal executive officer. It shall be the duty of the Executive Director to
arrange for the prompt execution of the plans and programs developed and the measures inaugurated by the Board, to
supervise the activities and the special attaches and to submit frequent reports to the Board on the steps taken for the
rescue and relief of war refugees.
The Board shall be directly responsible to the President in carrying out the policy of this Government, as stated in the
Preamble, and the Board shall report to him at frequent intervals concerning the such recommendations as the Board
may seem appropriate for further action to overcome any difficulties encountered in the rescue and relief of war
refugees.
Franklin D. Roosevelt
THE WHITE HOUSE, January 22, 1944.
10) Traduzione del Cablogramma del 9 giugno del 1944 inviato dal Presidente degli Stati Uniti,
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, all’Ambasciatore in Algeria, Robert Murphy.
“Le informazioni in mio possesso indicano che ci sono possibilità reali di salvare vite umane portando un maggior
numero di rifugiati dalla Yugoslavia all’Italia del sud. Inoltre sono informato sul fatto che la fuga dei rifugiati attraverso
questo itinerario di tanto in tanto è stata impedita perché le strutture per i rifugiati nell’Italia del sud sono risultate
sovraccariche. Sono dell’avviso che attualmente la situazione è questa e che di conseguenza possiamo perdere la
possibilità di aumentare il flusso dei rifugiati in Italia. Capisco che molti dei rifugiati in Italia del sud sono stati e si
stanno spostando verso i campi profughi provvisori nelle zone adiacenti al Mediterraneo e che gli sforzi stanno facendo
aumentare le attuali strutture per i rifugiati in queste zone. Desidero che questo sforzo di portare i rifugiati dall’Italia
verso zone relativamente vicine sia intensificato. Allo stesso tempo ritengo che sia importante che gli Stati Uniti
indichino che sono pronti a condividere le difficoltà di occuparsi dei rifugiati durante la guerra. Di conseguenza, ho
deciso che circa 1.000 rifugiati devono immediatamente essere portati dall’Italia in questo paese, per essere
sistemati in un Emergency Refugee Shelter da stabilire a Fort Ontario vicino ad Oswego, New York, dove sotto
appropriate restrizioni di sicurezza rimarranno per la durata della guerra. Questi rifugiati saranno introdotti in
questo paese fuori dalla procedura normale di immigrazione così come sono stati portati qui gli internati civili dai paesi
dell’America Latina e i prigionieri di guerra. L’Emergency Refugee Shelter sarà ben attrezzato per prendersi cura di
questa gente. È contemplato che alla conclusione della guerra dovranno tornare nei loro paesi d’origine. Potete
supporre che l’Emergency Refugee Shelter sarà pronto per ricevere questi rifugiati quando arriveranno. Apprezzerò
quindi se si organizzerà al più presto possibile per la partenza verso gli Stati Uniti, coerentemente con i requisiti
militari, di circa 1.000 rifugiati dell’Italia del sud. Può invitare i rappresentanti del War Refugees Board ad Algeri
affinché l’aiutino. La cooperazione completa delle nostre autorità militari e navali dovrebbe garantire l’appoggio
nell’effettuare rapidamente il trasferimento e il trasporto dei rifugiati. Nella scelta dei rifugiati da portare negli Stati
Uniti, consideri per favore che nella misura possibile dovrebbero essere selezionati quei rifugiati per i quali non sono
immediatamente disponibili altri luoghi di rifugio. Mi piacerebbe, comunque, che il gruppo includesse una proporzione
ragionevole di varie categorie di persone perseguitate e fuggite in Italia. Dovrebbe considerare che poiché questi
rifugiati devono essere portati in un campo negli Stati Uniti sotto adatte limitazioni di sicurezza, la procedura per la
323 | D o n ’ t f e n c e m e i n !
selezione dei rifugiati e le disposizioni per portarli qui dovrebbero essere il più possibile semplici e rapide, non
complicate da nessuna delle usuali formalità nell’ammissione delle persone negli Stati Uniti secondo le leggi
sull’immigrazione. Tuttavia, la prego di essere sicuro che siano effettuati i controlli sanitari necessari per evitare di
portare qui persone afflitte da qualche malattia destabile, pericolosa o contagiosa. Se incontra delle difficoltà
nell’organizzazione della rapida partenza di questi rifugiati per favore me lo faccia sapere.”
11) Traduzione dei passaggi più importanti del messaggio di Roosevelt al Congresso
(12.06.1944).
“Al congresso.
Il Congresso ha manifestato ripetutamente la sua profonda preoccupazione per la pietosa situazione delle minoranze
perseguitate in Europa le cui vite sono ogni giorno offerte in sacrificio sull’altare della tirannia nazista.
Questa nazione è chiamata dalla sistematica persecuzione dei nazisti nei confronti delle minoranze indifese. Per noi
l’ingiustificato omicidio di persone innocenti semplicemente a causa della razza, della religione, o del credo politico è il
più oscuro di tutti i crimini possibili. Da quando i nazisti hanno cominciato questa campagna, molti dei nostri cittadini
in tutti i settori e di tutte le opinioni politiche e religiose hanno espresso il nostro sentimento di repulsione e la nostra
rabbia. È un aspetto riguardo al quale non c’è e non può esserci divisione di opinione fra noi.
Mentre l’ora della sconfitta finale delle forze di Hitler si avvicina, la furia del loro insano desiderio di eliminare la razza
ebrea in Europa continua senza diminuire. (…).
In gennaio di questo anno ho deciso che questo governo avrebbe intensificato i relativi sforzi per combattere il terrore
nazista. Di conseguenza, ho creato il War Refugee Board, composto dal Ministro degli Esteri, del Tesoro e della Guerra.
Il WRB ha la responsabilità di intraprendere tutta le azioni coerentemente con il buon esito della prosecuzione della
guerra per salvare le vittime dell’oppressione nemica in pericolo imminente di morte e per dare a tali vittime tutta
l’assistenza possibile. (…).
Anche prima dello sbarco alleato in Italia c’è stato un notevole movimento di persone perseguitate di varie razze e
nazionalità in quel paese. Questo movimento è stato richiamato indubbiamente dal fatto che, malgrado tutti i tentativi
dei fascisti di mescolarsi con l’intolleranza, la gente italiana dal cuore caldo non potrebbe abbandonare la sua secolare
tradizione di tolleranza e umanitarismo. Gli sbarchi alleati hanno aumentato questo flusso di persone che fuggono e si
nascondono cercando asilo dietro le armi delle Nazioni Unite. Tuttavia, in considerazione della situazione militare in
Italia, il numero di rifugiati che possono essere sistemati lì è relativamente limitato. Le forze militari alleate, in
considerazione della loro responsabilità primaria, non sono state in grado, generalmente parlando, di incoraggiare la
fuga dei rifugiati dal territorio nemico. Questa situazione sfavorevole ha impedito la fuga del più grande numero
possibile di rifugiati. Ancora, mentre il numero di rifugiati che vivono in Italia del sud aumenta, il loro sostentamento
costituisce una difficoltà supplementare e notevole per le autorità militari. (…).
Di conseguenza, sono stati presi accordi per portare immediatamente in questo paese circa 1.000 rifugiati che sono
fuggiti dai loro paesi nell’Italia del sud. Alla fine della guerra saranno rimpatriati nei loro paesi d’origine. Questi
rifugiati sono principalmente donne e bambini. Saranno sistemati al loro arrivo in un campo sgomberato dell’esercito
sul litorale atlantico in cui rimarranno sotto le appropriate restrizioni di sicurezza.”
D o c u m e n t i | 324
12) Copia della dichiarazione (in francese e in italiano) firmata dai rifugiati in Italia.
Fonte: Hendell, David, Pedaling as fast as I can, cit., p. 129.
325 | D o n ’ t f e n c e m e i n !
13) Regole a bordo della Henry Gibbins (da Greenberg, Karen J., cit., pp. 158-160).
D o c u m e n t i | 326
327 | D o n ’ t f e n c e m e i n !
14) Cerimonia di apertura del campo di Fort Ontario – 6 agosto 1944 (da Greenberg, Karen J.,
cit., pp. 173-176; primo di quattro fogli). Saluti di Smart e Meyers.
D o c u m e n t i | 328
15) Articolo di Edith Weiss pubblicato a pag. 4 dell’Ontario Chronicle del 28 giugno 1945.
No, it is not a dream, it is reality that I am sitting here in the
large Robinson Auditorium, dressed in a white cap and gown
and waiting until I am called to receive my diploma. There are
still many others before me, so I have time to think over the
past. In Vienna (Austria), attending the high school I dreamed
often about the “Matura” (Graduating), but later during the
emigration period other things occupied my thoughts. Only
when I was admitted to the High School of Oswego, my old
dream wakened again and a week ago the reality begun with
the… examinations. Five examinations layed before me, how
awful! So, on a Monday morning I walked with some of my
friends to the school with a sick feeling in my stomach. But
strangely and true, when you sit in the examination room, this
feeling passes. Social studies were scheduled for this morning
and during three hours we were squeezed about tricky
historical questions until the clock marked twelve and the
lobbies became full of voices: “How did you answer question
No. 5?”- “Peter the Great of Russia lived from to?”- “That
map was really hard.”- Everyone was glad that one subject
was behind us, but already we felt sick again, thinking of
Tuesday, reserved for English and Business Arithmetic, and
Thursday, reserved for Typing and Shorthand.
But as everything in life, so this week full anxiety and hopes
passed and last Friday evening in the Robinson Auditorium
we, the six students from the Shelter – Anita Baruch, Alfons
Finzi, Lea Hanf, Gordana Milinowic, Steffi Steinberg and
myself – were happy to receive our diplomas together with
181 American boys and girls, among them our friends Donald
Cleveland Smart who belongs in a certain sense also to our community. It was a very nice evening. The band of the school played,
we sung the National Anthem, fine speeches were delivered by Superintendent Charles E. Riley, Herbert David Lyons, Jane L.
Karcher and Principal Ralph M. Faust.
We were very proud and at the same time touched when Mr. Faust presenting the class declared “that
the class is also unique in that it numbered six residents of the Shelter at Fort Ontario who came from far-off lands to complete their
high school education in Oswego”. He expressed the hope “that their work here has been profitable and worthwhile”. And then came
the great moment when President Myron D. Stone of the Board of Education announced my name. Slowly I walked on the stage, I
heard the word “congratulation” and I received my diploma.
I believe I speak in the name of the other five graduates of the Shelter when I say that we are really ery happy to have reached our
first goal and you can be sure, that we will work hard for the second.
329 | D o n ’ t f e n c e m e i n !
16) Articolo del The Oswegonian relativo alla visita di Eleanor Roosevelt a Fort Ontario.
D o c u m e n t i | 330
17) Ubicazione delle abitazioni all’interno di Fort Ontario
Nel video presente in http://www.oswegonian.com/2011/11/17/2322/, si può vedere il plastico del campo di
Fort Ontario situato subito fuori dell’antico forte.
331 | D o n ’ t f e n c e m e i n !
Le frecce rosse indicano il luogo esatto in cui si trovavano gli edifici che ospitavano i rifugiati e le
strutture dell’amministrazione. In altro il lago Ontario.
In basso, una foto delle abitazioni.
Fonte: www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2009/07/65_years_ago_this_summer_osweg.html.
D o c u m e n t i | 332
18) Tales from Many Lands collected at Fort Ontario.
Fonte: Greenberg, Karen J., cit., pp. 217-225.
333 | D o n ’ t f e n c e m e i n !
D o c u m e n t i | 334
335 | D o n ’ t f e n c e m e i n !
D o c u m e n t i | 336
337 | D o n ’ t f e n c e m e i n !
19) Immagini del libretto dell’opera The golden cage, tratte da http://safehavenmuseum.wordpress.com/2012/03/26/the-golden-cage/.
D o c u m e n t i | 338
339 | D o n ’ t f e n c e m e i n !
20) Rapporto di un giornalista del France-Amérique sul campo organizzato dal WRA a Fort Ontario (31 agosto 1944).
Fonte: Abraham J. Peck.(editor), Archives of the Holocaust Vol. VIII, American Jewish Archives, pp. 401-405.
344 | D o n ’ t f e n c e m e i n !
341 | D o n ’ t f e n c e m e i n !
21) President Truman’s Statement and Directive on Displaced Persons (22.12.1945).
The war has brought in its wake an appalling dislocation of populations in Europe. Many humanitarian organizations,
including the United Nations Relief and the Rehabilitation Administration, are doing their utmost to solve the multitude
of problems arising in connection with this dislocation of hundreds of thousands of persons. Every effort is being made
to return the displaced persons and refugees in the various countries of Europe to their former homes. The great
difficulty is that so many of these persons have no homes to which they may return. The immensity of the problem of
displaced persons and refugees is almost beyond comprehension.
A number of countries in Europe, including Switzerland, Sweden, France and England, are working toward its solution.
The United States shares the responsibility to relieve the suffering. To the extent that our present immigration laws
permit, everything possible should be done at once to facilitate the entrance of some of these displaced persons and
refugees into the United States.
In this way we may do something to relieve human misery and set an example to the other countries of the world which
are able to receive some of these war sufferers. I feel that it is essential that we do this ourselves to show our good faith
in requesting other nations to open their doors for this purpose.
Most of these persons are natives of central and eastern Europe and the Balkans. The immigration quotas for all these
countries for one year total approximately 39,000, two-thirds of which are allotted to Germany. Under the law, in any
single month the number of visas issued cannot exceed 10 per cent of the annual quota. This means that from now on
only about 3,900 visas can be issued each month to persons who are natives of these countries.
Very few persons from Europe have migrated to the United States during the war years. In the fiscal year 1942, only 10
per cent of the immigration quotas was used; in 1943, 5 per cent; in 1944, 6 per cent; and in 1945, 7 per cent. As of
Nov. 30, 1945, the end of the fifth month of the present fiscal year, only about 10 per cent of the quotas for the
European countries has been used. These unused quotas, however, do not accumulate through the years, and I do not
intend to ask the Congress to change this rule.
The factors chiefly responsible for these low immigration figures were restraints imposed by the enemy, transportation
difficulties and the absence of consular facilities. Most of those Europeans who have been admitted to the United States
during the last five years were persons who left Europe prior to the war, and thereafter entered here from non-European
countries.
I consider that common decency and the fundamental comradeship of all human beings require us to do what lies within
our power to see that our established immigration quotas are used in order to reduce human suffering. I am taking the
necessary steps to see that this is done as quickly as possible.
Of the displaced persons and refugees whose entrance into the United States we will permit under this plan, it is hoped
that the majority will be orphaned children. The provisions of law prohibiting the entry of persons likely to become
public charges will be strictly observed. Responsible welfare organizations now at work in this field will guarantee that
these children will not become public charges.
Similar guarantees have to be or will be made on behalf of adult persons. The record of these welfare organizations
throughout the past years has been excellent, and I am informed that no persons admitted under their sponsorship have
ever become charges on their communities. Moreover, many of the immigrants will have close family ties in the United
States and will receive the assistance of their relatives until they are in a position to provide for themselves.
These relatives or organizations will also advance the necessary visa fees and travel fare. Where the necessary funds for
travel fare and visa fees have not been advanced by a welfare organization or relative, the individual applicant must
meet these costs. In this way the transportation of these immigrants across the Atlantic will not cost the American
taxpayers a single dollar.
In order to enter the United States it is necessary to obtain a visa from a consular officer of the Department of State. As
everyone knows, a great many of our consular establishments all over the world were disrupted and their operations
suspended when the war came. It is physically impossible to reopen and to restaff all of them overnight. Consequently it
is necessary to choose the area in which to concentrate our immediate efforts. This is a painful necessity because it
requires us to make an almost impossible choice among degrees of misery. But if we refrain from making a choice
because it will necessarily be arbitrary, no choice will ever be made and we shall end by helping no one.
The decision has been made, therefore, to concentrate our immediate efforts in the American zones of occupation in
Europe. This is not intended, however entirely to exclude issuance of visas in other parts of the world.
In our zones in Europe there are citizens of every major European country. Visas issued to displaced persons and
refugees will be charged, according to law, to the countries of their origin. They will be distributed fairly among
persons of all faiths, creeds and nationality.
It is intended. that, as soon as practicable, regular consular facilities will be reestablished in every part of the world, and
the usual, orderly methods of registering and reviewing visa applications will be resumed. The pressing need, however,
is to act now in a way that will produce immediate and tangible results. I hope that by early spring adequate consular
facilities will be in operation in our zones in Europe, so that immigration can begin immediately upon the availability of
ships.
I am informed that there are various measures now pending before the Congress which would either prohibit or severely
reduce further immigration. I hope that such legislation will not be passed. This period of unspeakable human distress is
D o c u m e n t i | 342
not the time for us to close or to narrow our gates. I wish to emphasize, however, that any effort to bring relief to these
displaced persons and refugees must and will be strictly within the limits of the present quotas as imposed by law.
There is one particular matter involving a relatively small number of aliens. President Roosevelt, in an endeavor to
assist in handling displaced persons and refugees during the war and upon the recommendation of the War Refugee
Board, directed that a group of about 1,000 displaced persons be removed from refugee camps in Italy and settled
temporarily in a war relocation camp near Oswego, N. Y. Shortly thereafter, President Roosevelt informed the Congress
that these persons would be returned to their homelands after the war.
Upon the basis of a careful survey by the Department of State and the Immigration and Naturalization Service, it has
been determined that if these persons were now applying for admission to the United States most of them would be
admissible under the immigration laws.
In the circumstances it would be inhumane and wasteful to require these people to go all the way back to Europe merely
for the purpose of applying there for immigration visas and returning to the United States. Many of them have close
relatives, including sons and daughters, who are citizens of the United States and who have served and are serving
honorably in the armed forces of our country.
I am therefore directing the Secretary of State and the Attorney General to adjust the immigration status of the members
of this camp who may wish to remain here, in strict accordance with existing laws and regulations
The number of persons at the Oswego camp is, however, comparatively small. Our major task is to facilitate the entry
into the United States of displaced persons and refugees still in Europe. To meet this larger problem, I am directing the
Secretary of State, the Attorney General, the Secretary of War, the War Shipping Administrator and the Surgeon
General of the Public Health Service to proceed at once to take all appropriate steps to expedite the quota immigration
of displaced persons and refugees from Europe to the United States. Representatives of these officials will depart for
Europe very soon to prepare detailed plans for the prompt execution of this project
The attached directive has been issued by me to the responsible Government agencies to carry out this policy. I wish to
emphasize, above all, that nothing in this directive will deprive a single American soldier or his wife or children of a
berth on a vessel homeward bound, or delay their return.
This is the opportunity for America to set an example for the rest of the world in cooperation toward alleviating human
misery.
The Directive
December 22, 1945
Memorandum to:
Secretary of State, Secretary of War, Attorney General, War Shipping Administrator, Surgeon General of the Public
Health Service, Director General of UNRRA.
The grave dislocation of populations in Europe resulting from the war has produced human suffering that the people of
the United States cannot and will not ignore. This Government should take every possible measure to facilitate full
immigration to the United States under existing quota laws.
The war has most seriously disrupted our normal facilities for handling immigration matters in many parts of the world.
At the same time the demands upon those facilities have increased manifold.
It is, therefore, necessary that immigration under the quotas be resumed initially in the areas of greatest need. I,
therefore, direct the Secretary of State, the Secretary of War, the Attorney General, the Surgeon General of the Public
Health Service, the War Shipping Administrator, and other appropriate officials to take the following action:
The Secretary of State is directed to establish with the utmost dispatch consular facilities at or near displaced person and
refugee assembly center areas in the American zones of occupation. It shall be the responsibility of these consular
officers, in conjunction with the immigrant inspectors, to determine as quickly as possible the eligibility of the
applicants for visas and admission to the United States.
For this purpose the Secretary will, if necessary, divert the personnel and funds of his department from other functions
in order to insure the most expeditious handling of this operation. In cooperation with the Attorney General he shall
appoint as temporary vice consuls, authorized to issue visas, such officers of the Immigration and Naturalization
Service as can be made available for this program
Within the limits of administrative discretion, the officers of the Department of State assigned to this program shall
make every effort to simplify and to hasten the process of issuing visas. If necessary, blocs of visa numbers may be
assigned to each of the emergency consular establishments. Each such bloc may be used to meet the applications filed at
the consular establishment to which the bloc is assigned. It is not intended, however, entirely to exclude the issuance of
visas in other parts of the world.
Visas should be distributed fairly among persons of all faiths, creeds and nationalities. I desire that special attention be
devoted to orphaned children to whom it is hoped the majority of visas will be issued.
With respect to the requirement of law that visas may not be issued to applicants likely to become public charges after
admission to the United States, the Secretary of State shall cooperate with the immigration and naturalization service in
perfecting appropriate arrangements with welfare organizations in the United States which may be prepared to
guarantee financial support to successful applicants. This may be accomplished by corporate affidavit or by any means
deemed appropriate and practicable.
343 | D o n ’ t f e n c e m e i n !
The Secretary of War, subject to limitation imposed by the Congress on War Department appropriations, will give such
help as is practicable in:
(A) Furnishing information to appropriate consular officers and immigrant inspectors to facilitate in the selection of
applicants for visas; and
(B) Assisting until other facilities suffice in:
(1) Transporting immigrants to a European port;
(2) Feeding, housing and providing medical care to such immigrants until embarked; and
(C) Making available office facilities, billets, messes and transportation for Department of State, Department of Justice
and United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration personnel connected with this work, where practicable and
requiring no out-of-pocket expenditure by the War Department and when other suitable facilities are not available.
The Attorney General, through the Immigration and Naturalization Service, will assign personnel on duty in the
American zones of operation to make the immigration inspections, to assist consular officers of the Department of State
in connection with the issuance of visas and to take the necessary steps to settle the cases of those Allies presently
interned at Oswego through appropriate statutory and administrative processes.
The Administration of the War Shipping Administration will make the necessary arrangements for water transportation
from the port of embarkation in Europe to the United States, subject to the provision that the movement of immigrants
will in no way interfere with the scheduled return of service personnel and their spouses and children from the European
Theatre.
The Surgeon General of the Public Health Service will assign to duty in the American zones of occupation the
necessary personnel to conduct the mental and physical examinations of prospective immigrants prescribed in the
immigration laws.
The Director General of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration will be requested to provide all
possible aid to the United States authorities in preparing these people for transportation to the United States and to assist
in their care, particularly in the cases of children in transit and others needing special attention.
In order to insure the effective execution of this program, the Secretary of State, the Secretary of War, the Attorney
General, War Shipping Administrator and the Surgeon General of the Public Health Service shall appoint
representatives to serve as members of an interdepartmental committee under the chairmanship of the Commissioner of
Immigration and Naturalization.
D o c u m e n t i | 344
22) Carta dei campi di internamento francesi
(fonte: http://1942.memorialdelashoah.org/histoire_1942_annee_decisive.htm)
345 | D o n ’ t f e n c e m e i n !
23) Mappa tratta da Susan Zuccotti, Holocaust Odysseys, cit., p. XII.
Il dipartimento francese delle Alpi marittime e la parte della provincia italiana di cuneo dove gli
ebrei di Saint Martin-Vesubie arrivarono dopo aver attraversato le alpi nel settembre 1943.
D o c u m e n t i | 346
24) Intinerario di fuga della famiglia Hendel/Weissman/Kremer.
Fonte: Hendell, David, cit., p. 317.
347 | D o n ’ t f e n c e m e i n !
25) Documenti relativi alla famiglia Strasser. Fonte: documenti appartenenti ad Annamaria Strasser e Stefano Twardzik.
D o c u m e n t i | 348
349 | D o n ’ t f e n c e m e i n !
D o c u m e n t i | 350
351 | D o n ’ t f e n c e m e i n !
26) Brochure informativa presente sul sito turistico www.seawaytrail.com/storytellersigns.