|
|
December 17
US tanks run into trouble at Amonines in Belgium
1944: German counter-attacks in Ardennes
England have
The Germans have mounted a series of counter-attacks on the Western front
allowing them to re-cross the borders of Luxembourg and Belgium.
On the second day of what now appears to be a full-scale counter-offensive,
the Germans are attacking with tanks and aircraft along a 70-mile front guarded
by American forces in the Ardennes region.
The main thrust has been launched from the northern Ardennes near the town
of Monschau. Two further attacks have taken place further south.
German paratroops have been dropped behind Allied lines. Allied army
reports say some of them have been "mopped up", others are still at large.
Reports from the US 9th Army, attacking a line to the north of the Ardennes
region, say the German Luftwaffe also launched a concerted bombing campaign in
support of its ground forces.
The United States Air Force claims to have shot down 97 Luftwaffe planes
overnight, 31 of their own aircraft were lost.
According to the reports, the Luftwaffe put up "what was probably its
greatest tactical air effort since D-Day".
German aircraft appeared in force over the western front. More than 300
German planes were deployed in the Bonn and Cologne areas last night and a
similar number have been active again during the day.
Foreign Minister Anthony Eden attacked the "bestial policy" of persecuting
Jews
1942: Britain condemns massacre of Jews
Artificially 1969:
The The British Foreign Secretary, Anthony Eden, has told the House of
Commons about mass executions of Jews by Germans in occupied Europe.
Mr Eden also read out a United Nations declaration condemning "this bestial
policy".
He said news of German atrocities sent in by the Polish Government and
widely reported in the press this month would only serve to strengthen allied
determination to fight Nazism and punish all those responsible.
After his announcement the House rose and held a one-minute silence in
sympathy for the victims.
A family moved in next door but they had no furniture and put newspaper up
at the window. They were Polish Jews who had come from their homeland in a
hurry.
Mr Eden described how the German authorities, who have already stripped the
Jews of their basic human rights, were now carrying out "Hitler"s oft repeated
intention to exterminate the Jewish people in Europe".
He described how hundreds of thousands of men, women and children were
being transported from all German-occupied territory "in conditions of appalling
horror and brutality" to Eastern Europe.
In Poland, Jewish ghettoes were being "systematically emptied" except for
the able-bodied who were being sent to labour camps.
"None of those taken away are ever heard of again," he said.
Those who are sick or injured are left to die of exposure or starvation or
killed in mass executions.
The House then heard him read out a declaration made by the governments of
Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Greece, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland,
the United States, the UK, the USSR, Yugoslavia and the French National
Committee.
It condemned "in the strongest possible terms this bestial policy of
cold-blooded extermination" and made a "solemn resolution to ensure that those
responsible for these crimes shall not escape retribution".
He said the United Nations would try to give asylum to as many refugees as
possible but that there were "immense geographical difficulties" as well as
security procedures to overcome.
James A De Rothschild, Labour MP for the Isle of Ely, made an emotional
speech on behalf of British Jewry thanking Mr Eden and the United Nations for
their declaration.
He said there were many first-generation Jews living in England who
believed they had had a lucky escape from the concentration camps.
Four days ago, synagogues all over Britain held a day of mourning as a mark
of concern for the massacre of the Jews in Nazi-occupied Europe.
The Chief Rabbi Dr J H Hertz called on all Jews to commemorate "the
numberless victims of the Satanic carnage".
The Archbishop of Canterbury has also expressed his outrage in a letter to
The Times earlier this month condemning "a horror beyond what imagination can
grasp".
Vocabulary:
synagogue: a congregation or assembly of Jews met for the purpose of
worship, or the performance of religious rites(犹太教集会) |
|
发表于 2016-7-9 23:19:47