WE, the undersigned Americans, are deeply disturbed by the policy of mass deportations now practiced in Europe and by the comparative silence of our press and the total silence of public opinion on this vital issue. We therefore wish to bring to the attention of our fellow-citizens the particularly flagrant application of this policy to the inhabitants of Eastern Germany. We are singling out this group now not because of any political or emotional preference, but because they form the largest single bloc of expelled persons and therefore present the greatest problem.. The plight of the second largest group, the Sudeten-Germans and Hungarians of Czechoslovakia, has already been brought to the attention of the world by a pamphlet recently issued by the American Friends of Democratic Sudetens, of which some of us were sponsors.
We are offering the present pamphlet to the American public not in any spirit of recrimination, but in the belief that only knowledge of the truth can guide us to a lasting and democratic peace. We are prompted by concern for those standards of justice and humanity which used to be the pride and armor of American policy. We are convinced that to the extent to which these standards are betrayed, the coming peace will be built on quicksand.