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Reference
Interview Transcripts | Bibliography | Primary Sources
Jacob Rosenheim, Agudas Israel World Organization, New York, to Henry
Morgenthau, Jr., Secretary of the Treasury, June 18, 1944, asking that
deportation rail lines be bombed
June 18, 1944
Secretary of the Treasury
Mr. Henry Morgenthau Jr.
Leader of War Refugee Board
Washington, D.C.
Dear Mr. Morgenthau:
I beg to approach you in the name of my organization in the following urgent
matter of life and death for thousands of innocent Nazi-victims.
Since April, the deportation of Jews from Hungary to the gas chambers of Poland
is relentlessly going on. About ten thousand to fifteen thousand persons a
day are deported, and up to now, about 300,000 Jews are said to have been
doomed to destruction in this way.
Our Rescue-Committee in Switzerland, which is in permanent close contact with
Hungary by courier, has recently submitted to the American and British
Embassies in Berne the idea of taking measures, to slow down, at
least, the process of annihilation and thus to preserve a greater number of
Jewish lives for the day of liberation.
This slackening of the process of annihilation could be achieved by paralyzing
the rail-road traffic from Hungary to Poland, especially by an aerial
bombardment of the most important railway junctions of Kaschau and Presov,
through which the deportation-trains pass. By such a procedure, precious time
would be won and thousands of human lives preserved.
On the other hand, every day of delay means a very heavy responsibility for the
human lives at stake.
For this reason, we take the liberty of applying to you directly, imploring you
for immediate decisive assistance in this work of life rescue.
I remain,
Yours respectfully,
Jacob Rosenheim
President
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