“Children like you, tens of thousands, are being executed, convoy after convoy … help us, lend a hand to save our people” – Petition by children of the Land of Israel regarding the spilling of our brothers’ blood, at the height of the Holocaust. Jerusalem, 1943.
Petition by the children in the Land of Israel regarding the spilling of our brothers’ blood, 12 Sivan, 1943 15/6/43, HaVa’ad HaLeumi L’Knesset Yisrael B’Eretz Yisrael. Petition in which children of the Land of Israel appeal to children of nations around the world with a request for assistance in light of the mass murder of children at that time by Nazis in occupied Europe.
‘We, children of the Land of Israel who live a free and quiet life, shudder upon hearing about what is being done on a daily basis, around the clock, to our brothers and sisters in the Diaspora. Every morning, we go out satiated and bathed to our school and our workshops, accompanied by the shadows of the thousands and tens of thousands of our people’s children brought to slaughter – for what? Why? And in the still of the night, while we are in bed, their cries and screams break through to us across seas and countries, of masses of murdered and slaughtered babies – until when will this go on? Why are small children being slaughtered, they have not sinned and done nothing wrong …?
They continue, appealing to the world’s children with a call: ‘Today we turn to you from afar, each and every boy and girl, in every nation and state … You, children of the nations fighting for peace and freedom, stop for a moment, listen! Children like you, tens of thousands, are being executed, convoy after convoy … help us, lend a hand to the rescue of our people. Don’t hesitate!”
Children from the eleventh grade in the Tachkemoni school in Jerusalem signed the petition in pencil.
[1] leaf, 15×31 cm.
Fine condition, ink stain at center.