840.48 Refugees/9–2844: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Minister in Switzerland (Harrison)
3435. The following for Harrison and McClelland is WRB 198.
The O.W.I. is informed of situation contained your 6447 of September 28.21
Kindly request Swiss Foreign Office cooperation in conveying to appropriate Hungarian authorities the sense of the message below. Employment of such unofficial channels as may be available to you to the same end is also suggested.
“The plan of the Hungarian authorities to remove to putative work camps in the provinces those Jews still remaining in Budapest has been learned by the United States Government. This Government, in view of fate of Jews removed to similar camps in previous months from other cities, and of the approach of winter, has good reason to regard this plan as a further measure of mass extermination accomplished either by subjecting large numbers of people to undernourishment, hard physical labor and unhygienic living conditions in improvised camps or by the methods employed at camps of final destination in Poland. The Government consequently deems it appropriate to remind Hungarian authorities of its determination, as President Roosevelt expressed on March 24, that ‘those who participate in these acts of savagery shall be punished …22 The punishment shall be shared by all who share the guilt.’ Members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the House of Representatives [Page 1164] Foreign Affairs Committee respectively publicly reaffirmed this determination on May 31 and June 28.
The United States Government recognizes the possibility however that the present plan, as has been claimed by various Hungarian authorities, may have been evolved to achieve genuine humanitarian ends. This Government will recognize the validity of such claims, of course, to the extent that the plan, if put in operation, achieves such ends. Should the removal of Jews from Budapest to provincial camps be, on the other hand, only a prelude to ultimate removal to extermination centers or otherwise result in their deaths, the Hungarian authorities are fully informed of the attitude of the Government of the United States and the people thereof.”
The Department and Board would appreciate information as to any action you may take.
Conveyance of a similar message to Hungarian authorities through such channels as are available to them is being requested of the Embassy at Lisbon and Ampolad at Caserta.23
- Not printed; it concerned anxiety of Jewish organizations in Switzerland regarding the announced intention of the Hungarian Government to move Jews remaining concentrated in Budapest out of the city (840.48 Refugees/9–2844).↩
- Omission indicated in the original message.↩
- This message reached the Hungarian Foreign Office through Swiss channels on October 28; the substance of the message was also transmitted to Budapest through the Hungarian Legation at Lisbon.↩