Churchill’s reaction

Churchill’s letter to Lord Melchett on the topic of the reported massacre of Hungarian Jews (catalogue reference FO 371/42809)

Transcript

COPY     10 Downing Street, Whitehall, S.W.1.

PRIVATE               13 July, 1944

My dear Henry,

You wrote to me on 1 July about the German plans for the massacre of the Hungarian Jews.

I have forwarded your letter to the Foreign Secretary and fear that I can add nothing to the statement he made in the House on 5 July in replying to Silverman’s Question.

There is no doubt in my mind that we are in the presence of one of the greatest and most horrible crimes ever committed. It has been done by scientific machinery by nominally civilized men in the name of a great state and one of the leading races of Europe. I need not assure you that the situation has received and will receive the most earnest consideration from my colleagues and myself but, as the Foreign Secretary said, the principal hope of terminating it must remain the speedy victory of the Allied Nations.

Yours sincerely,

(sd) WINSTON S. CHURCHILL

The Lord Melchett.

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