The Southern Jewish weekly. [volume] (Jacksonville, Fla.) 1939-1992, 1940-09-27

called forth a strenuous protest
from Zionists, but which were
modified in execution, were pushed
into the background as the Jewish
homeland rallied it's forces to fight
for it's life and the life of Britain.
Actual war first came in the form
of an Italian air raid on Haifa
on July Is, followed by another
on July "a which took 46 lives,
and still more raids. italian
bombs were backed by a propa-
ganda barrage which made it
clear Italy was seeking control of
Palestine in the form of a "protec-
torate."
An increasingly important part
in continental affairs was played
by Soviet Russia. Following the
partition of Poland, which brought
100000 Polish Jews under the
Soviet regime, Moscow seized, in
rapid succession, the Rumanian
provinces of Bessarabia and North
Bukowina, then the Baltic states
of Lithuania, Latvia and EStonia
(not to mention part of Finland,
taken earlier after a brief but
bitter war;. These territorial ac-
QUESTIONS gave Soviet Russia a
Jewish population Of more than
5,500,000-largest of any country
in the world. While Jews were far
better off in Soviet Russia than in
German territories, there were ar
rests of Zionists and others re-
garded as unfriendly to the Com
munist regime, suppression of
Jewish nationalist nd religious
groups, and Jews, being predomi-
nantly middle class, were hardest
hit by the Soviet declassing pro-
cess.
The pace of events in Europe
during the past year was so
breathless that one could hardly
take the time out to Judge trends,
but from the perspective of the
year-end one can see what has
been happening. A gigantic force
of fanaticiSm which has gripped
almost an entire nation has been
marching across the continent,
backed by the advantage of a pro-
gram and a brutal fervOr. 1t is
force of the kind that has been
seen before in history, marching
on to what may sometime seem to
the despairing to be endless VIC
tory, but somewhere it is halted
and t h n it is crushed and the
world tries to return to nOrmalcy.
Wherever Nazi influence has ex-
tended, there has been an anti
Jewish drive. Germany gained vir-
tual control over Rumania and
Hungary. In Rumania, there were
anti-Jewish riots following the So
Wet annexation of Bessarabia and
North BukoWina, then a pro-Nazi
government under Premier Ion
Gigurtu launched a sweeping anti
Jewish campaign. In Hungary, an
ti-JeWish legislation was extended
to tighten up "loopholes" and to
bring the measures closer to the
Nazi pattern.
One thing has become clear be-
yond question, beyond hope, even
beyond wishful thinking = there
will be no place for the Jews in
a Hitlerized Europe. The early
Hltlerian statements that the an
ti-Jewish program was aimed on
ly at breaking Jewish "domin-
ance," which some tried to accept
at face value, have now given way
to the avoWed doctrine that the
Jews will be pushed off the CONT
nent, forced to settle in some re-
mote part of the world. And what
is now Hitler's program for Eu-
rope will become his program for
the rest of the world. Thus there
is at stake-in a brutally literal
sense = Jewish survival in the
world.
Meanwhile, this Nazi program
has made hundreds of thousands
of Jews into disinherited refugees.
turned millions into potential re-
fugeeS. The war that haS oroo+od