740.00116 European War 1939/1107a: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in the Soviet Union (Standley)
758. I handed the Soviet Chargé today a copy of the following text of the “Declaration on German Crimes in Poland” which is to be released simultaneously by the British and ourselves on August 30:
“Trustworthy information has reached the United States Government regarding the crimes committed by the German invaders against the population of Poland. Since the autumn of 1942 a belt of territory extending from the province of Bialystok southwards along the line of the River Bug has been systematically emptied of its inhabitants. In July 1943 these measures were extended to practically the whole of the province of Lublin, where hundreds of thousands of persons have been deported from their homes or exterminated.
These measures are being carried out with the utmost brutality. Many of the victims are killed on the spot. The rest are segregated. Men from 14 to 50 are taken away to work for Germany. Some children are killed on the spot, others are separated from their parents and either sent to Germany to be brought up as Germans or sold to German settlers or despatched with the women and old men to concentration camps, where they are now being systematically put to death in gas chambers.
The United States Government reaffirms its resolve to punish the instigators and actual perpetrators of these crimes. It further declares that, so long as such atrocities continue to be committed by the representatives and in the name of Germany, they must be taken into account against the time of the final settlement with Germany. Meanwhile the war against Germany will be prosecuted with the utmost vigor until the barbarous Hitlerite tyranny has been finally overthrown.”
The Embassy in London has informed us that the British Foreign Office conveyed this text to the Soviet Government 3 days ago with the suggestion that the Soviet Government might issue a similar declaration if it saw fit. The foregoing is transmitted for your information, but if you consider it desirable you may transmit a copy of the above text to the Commissariat for Foreign Affairs.