• Letter to British Labour Leader Clement Attlee about Jewish Persecution from the "Central Leadership" Group in Poland, Date Unknown

    Letter to British Labour Leader Clement Attlee about Jewish Persecution from the "Central Leadership" Group in Poland, Date Unknown

    Letter from the Central Leadership of the Movement of Working Classes in Poland to Attlee regarding the treatment of Jews in Europe.
    Courtesy of The National Archives (United Kingdom), Central Leadership of the Movement of Working Classes in Poland, "Letter to Attlee," Date Unknown

    Description 

    This letter was sent from the Central Leadership of the Movement of Working Classes in Poland to the leader of the British Labour Party, Clement Attlee. The letter focuses on the ill-treatment of the Jewish people in Europe. Attlee would become prime minister of the United Kingdom in 1945. 

    Transcript of the Letter to British Labour Leader Clement Attlee

    Source-Dependent Questions

    • Describe what is happening to Jewish people in Poland. What is the German justification for killing a large number of Poles?
    • What is the author of the letter asking of Clement Attlee?
    • Reread this section, "We ask you, however, to find some means of checking the totalitarian barbarity of the Germans. Warnings of retribution after the war and of punishment to be meted out to war criminals is not enough. They will not break down the criminally passive complicity of the German people, who tolerate these crimes. The German people must understand now, to-day, that they are responsible for the Nazi crimes." Why would the author believe that all Germans are to blame, rather than just the Nazis?

    Citation Information 

    Central Leadership of the Movement of Working Classes in Poland, "Letter to Attlee," Date Unknown. Courtesy of The National Archives (United Kingdom)

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