Israel versus Judaism

Chapter Eight

The criminologist, Lombroso, devoted much of his book to analyzing the psychology of criminals. He notes the existence of an irrational phenomenon: The criminal is magically attracted to the place where he committed the crime, despite the fact that he is liable to fall into the net of the police who await him there —— fully aware of his weakness. A. second phenomenon is also unusual: The criminal possesses a psychological drive to confess his crime to a friend: although here, too, his confessions may lead to his being handed over to the authorities. These drives are not pangs of conscience or feelings of regret, nor do they serve as guarantees that the criminal will leave his sinful ways. Who can comprehend the spirit of man?

After 23 years had passed, a mood of self—accusation began to affect the secular world leaders, and they publicly declared their guilt during the Holocaust period. Their lurid admissions became part of various memorial ceremonies. But these confessions did not obligate these people to step down from their positions of leadership, and it remains unknown why the public had to wait more than 20 years until such declarations resounded in public meeting halls.

Dr. Nachuni Goldmann, bedecked with the presidency of a dozen federations and organizations, repeated this year in Paris, at an assembly of the Warsaw Ghetto rebellion, what he stated last year (1963), in Tel Aviv:

“If there is a place for accusations (and there most certainly is), we must turn to the Jews of the free world — — to all of us. We and our leaders failed the test during the Holocaust period, but the main accusation of standing on the sidelines in the face of the an nihilatión campaign does not rest upon the democratic governments. I shall never forget the day when I was given a telegram from the Warsaw Ghetto addressed to the late Rabbi Stephen Wise and myself. The Jews of the ghetto asked me why leaders of American Jewry were not sitting on the White House steps, day and night, until the U.S. President would give the command to bomb the concentration camps or the railroad tracks leading to them. We hesitated to act then because most of the leaders felt that we must not upset the war effort of the Allies with demonstrations such as these” (“Davar”, April 22, 1964).

In his speech last year, Dr. Goldmann also managed to remember only this same t from Warsaw. We can definitely say that in such forgetfulness lies public deception. In Rav Weissmandel’s book, “Min HaMaitzar”, there are numerous telegrams and letters to Stephen Wise and Dr. Goldmann, whose contents were much more alarming. Nevertheless, they brought about no reactions whatsoever from the addressees. There is much significance in Dr. Goldmann’s final sentence in the above statement, in which he admitted that the disregard of rescue matters stemmed not from negligence, or shortsightedness, or lack of information. Rather, it was the fruit of the principle that, “we must not upset the war effort of the Allies”. In fact, the purpose of this series of articles is to prove that the Zionist leadership a with the concept of European Jewry being sacrificed on the altar of the Allied countries’ war effort, so that they could demand at the peace con ference that in exchange for our spilled Jewish blood, they should be given an independent state. Dr. Goldmann’s words indirectly confirm, as an admission of the plaintiff, the historic sin for which there is no atonement —— the sin intentionally committed by the Zionist leadership.

Instead of repeating the story about that one telegram every year out of habit, as it were, would it not have been better for Dr. Goldmann to il lustrate the crimes of the holocaust in a story about how Dr. Stephen Wise prevented the rescue of the Jews of Romania? The actual story is told in Ben Hecht’s book, “Perfidy”:

During a midnight walk on Fifth Avenue, my friend Kurt Weill paused under a street light and read me a Swiss newspaper clipping. It was the story of an offer made by the Romanian Government to the American and British Governments to allow 70,000 Trans—Dniestria Jews to leave Romania, at the cost of $50 each for transport to the border. The story stressed that the offer would be voided as soon as the Germans entered Romania. They were due any week.

Bergson and Merlin, through underground sources, verified the Swiss story immediately. Such an offer had been made through diplomatic channels. The American State Department had received and pigeonholed it. The British had done the same, naturally.

I wrote a full page ad in the New York papers that announced in heavy type:

FOR SALE
70,000 JEWS
AT
$50 A PIECE
GUARANTEED HUMAN BEINGS

1 — Accompanying this ad in the New York Times of February 16, 1943, was an article which included the following:

“Newspaper reports from London reveal that the Roman/an Government has proposed to the United Nations to transfer 70,000 Roman/an Jews from Trans—Dniestria to any refuge that will be assigned by the Allies.

“This proposal was made through the medium of neutral diplomats. According to the reports, the Roman/an proposal implies that the Roman/an Government is ready to release the Jews from Trans—Dniestria in Romanian ships which would be permitted to display the insignia of the Vatican to insure safe passage.

“The Jews would be first transferred under the supervision of ecclesiastic dignitaries to Bucharest, the capital of Romania, where special accommodations will be made for them until the evacuation.

“It is also reported that the Bishop of Bucharest and the Papal Nuncio will be in charge of the arrangements as well as the supervision of the transfer from Bucharest to the place of destination.
“According to the proposal the Romanian Government would levy a tax of 20,- 000 lei on each refugee to cover travelling expenses...

“The influential Manchester Guardian in discussing the general Jewish situation editorially, on Feb. 9, said:

‘The Jews only symbolize what Hitler might do to the British if he gets the chance. If the refugees were British, American or Russian, the United Nations would be up and doing something despite all difficulties’.”

The ad explained briefly that $3.5 million would rescue the 70,000 Romanian Jews from murder by the Germans.

On the appearance of this news advertising copy, Rabbi Stephen Wise, Zionist chieftain in New York and guiding light for the city’s Jewish respectables, issued the following statement. The date was February 23, 1943:

“The American Jewish Congress, dealing with the matter in conjunction with recognized Jewish organizations, wishes to slate that no confirmation has been received regarding this alleged offer of the Romanian Government to allow 70,000 Jews to leave Romania. Therefore no collection of funds would seem justified.”
The Jewish Agency in London also denied the Romanian offer. This denial was cabled to American newspapers, and carried by them. And reading it, American Jews felt grateful to the Jewish Agency for removing the ugly Romanian problem from their consciences.

Peter Bergson telephoned Undersecretary of State Adolph A. Berle Jr., and asked him to affirm or deny the Romanian offer. Berle said he would call back with the answer. He did, the next day. The story was true, said Berle. The State Department had received such an offer from the Romanian Government.

Years later, Bartley Crum, expert on Middle Eastern affairs, confirmed the facts of the offer. Bartley Crum stated what we knew in 1943, and what the Zionists and Jewish Agency, with their vastly superior organizations, must also have known in 1943. Lawyer Crum revealed that the 70,000 Romanian Jews could have been saved, and transported to Palestine via Turkey — a few days’ ride in a truck; but that because of Jewish pressure the State Department had not given out the news. 2

2 — Ben Hecht continues:
“But in 1943, we, who called out the plight of the Roman/an Jews to the world, were discredited by the Zionist unions, the established Zionist leadership and their associated philanthropies, as scandalmongers. Our attempt to get the Jews out of Romania before the Germans came was scotched.

“The 70,000 Jews who might have been saved were herded into barns by the Germanized Romanians under General Antonescu, hosed with gasoline, ignited, and shot down when they came blazing and screaming out of their cauldrons.

“Was it for this the conspirators of Silence had been holding their high—level meetings, fraternizing with presidents and prime ministers and keeping intact Weizmann’s policy of an "exclusive" (more or less Jew-less) Palestine? This Silence, this wretched business of Jewish leaders lying about the slaughter of Europe’s Jewry —— trying to hide it, soft—pedal it —— for what?

“These organizations, these philanthropists, these timorous Jewish lodge members in Zion, London and America —— these Zionist leaders who let their six million kinsmen burn, choke, hang, without protest, with indifference, and even with a glint of anti—Semitic cunning in their political plannings -- I sum up against them. These factotums, these policymakers, the custodians of the Jewish future in Palestine who hung on to their jobs, who lorded it over their real estate holdings in Palestine...these Zionist men and women —— I haul into the prisoner’s dock of this book.

“What would have happened to the Jews of Europe had these Leaders raised their authoritative voices in their behalf? Who knows what even the British would have done had Saul cried out in Tel Aviv rather than Uriah Heep? Would an unselfish, passionate demand for the lives of the six million (one third of the world’s Jews) by the official Jewish Leaders have awakened the hearts of England and the United States?

“I do not know. I answer only out of my faith in humans. Just as they can be blinded to all goodness by the villainy of leaders, so can they be stirred to noble enterprise by the honor and strength of their leaders. My faith says that nearly all the six million Jews could have been saved, and the honor of our century saved with them —— had the powerful American Jewry alone united in a campaign to save them. And had those Palestine leaders who stayed mum on the slaughter and were garrulous as geese on the needs of Zionism in Palestine —— had they cried out — — would they have survived as leaders? Would the British have ousted them, and gutted the "dream of Zionism"?

“Again, I do not know. / know only that, by my measure, such honorable human behavior would have been of deeper worth to the world than a dozen States of Israel.”

Ben Hecht, author of “Perfidy”, died several years ago. He was among the greatest writers and film producers in the United States. Far from Judaism during most of his life, the holocaust brought him back to his people. Faced with the knowledge of the holocaust, he left off all his private dealings (which .had earned millions of dollars) and immersed himself in rescue work, through the Emergency Committee to Save the Jewish People of Europe, headed by Samuel Merlin and Peter Bergson. One of their greatest accomplishments was organizing a protest march of the Union of Orthodox Rabbis (‘Agudas HaRab bonim”) to the White House ‘in Washington, as a result of which President Roosevelt was forced to form the War Refugee Board. This has been described in detail in Chapter 4, which also documents the attempts made by Stephen Wise to foil and prevent the rabbis’ presentation before Roosevelt. When “Perfidy” appeared in the United States a number of years ago, the Jewish public was shocked. In “Yediot Aharonot” of 8 Teves, 5722, A. Golan writes:

“This week I received a letter from a relative in New York: ‘I am sending you a new book which recently appeared here. I am totally shocked. If even a small part of what is stated in this book is correct, I don’t know how we can continue to live peacefully. Everything I believed in, everything I held sacred, has been placed in question. We are all alarmed, not daring to believe.’ And since I received the letter, I have heard other echoes of the storm that is raging amongst American Jewry over, this book. One acquaintance sent me a postcard he had received in the mail, which apparently was sent to tens of thousands of Jews the world over —— demanding the resignation of Ben Gurion, due to his participation in covering up the news of the Nazi holocaust.”

The author prefaced his book with opening comments which are worthwhile quoting:

In my own time, governments have taken the place of people. They have also taken the place of G—d. Governments speak for people, dream for them, and determine, absurdly, their lives and deaths.

This new worship of government is one of the subjects in this book. It is a worship I lack. I have no reverence for the all—powerful and bewildered face of government. I see it as a lessening of the human being, and a final looting of his birthright -- the survival of his young. I see it as an ogre with despair in its eyes.

I have written chiefly of one government in this book -- that of the new Jewish State of Israel. I wrote of it, partly, because Jam a Jew. I come of a long, never—broken line of Jews. My ancestors were booted out of a score of lands, and libeled and bedeviled since the time of Ahab and Jezebel.

Yet they did well by the world during these centuries. They kept an unfalteringly human light burning amid upheavals that toppled old kingdoms and gave birth to new ones.

The kingdoms were alien ones to my ancestors. In the soul of the Jew, in his tabernacle and kitchen there was only one Kingdom — that of G—d. There was only one set of laws — — the exercise of humanity.

What happened to this fine heritage when the Jews finally fashioned a government of their own in Israel, what happened to Jews when they became Jewish politicians, what happened to a piety, a sense of honor, and a brotherly love that 2,500 years of anti-Semitism were unable to disturb in the Jewish soul? My answers are in this book.

Such a book was not easy for me to write. For the heart of a Jew must be filled with astonishment as well as outrage... that a brother should be so perfidious!

Until 1970, no publisher dared to print “Perfidy” in Hebrew in Eretz Yisroel -- even though it is only a condensed, restrained version of a book which Ben Hecht composed in 1955, and which he, himself, withheld because of its shocking contents. This is a clear indication that the author wrote with a sense of responsibility, and not with a rash outburst of hate. Elie Wiesel writes, from the United States, in Yediot Aharanot, of April 4, 1959, about the unpublished book:

All admit that he is a brave man, who is not afraid of going against the current, of saying things that will be opposed by those who are in the driver’s seat — — famous, influential leaders bedecked with crowns, money and honor. I came to him because I wanted him to tell me not about the dozens of his plays that have been produced, but, rather, about one book that was not yet published. “This is an awesome book,” said Ben Hecht. “It is liable to chill your blood. This is a book which deals with Jewish criminals -- famous ones.” He wrote it several years ago. When the manuscript was ready, he gathered seven Zionist personalities to whom he read it. None of them could control himself and they all burst into tears. The crimes of specific Jews -- though not the suffering of the masses of Jews —— are what tore at the hearts of the listeners. The author said to them: “If there is one among you who will tell me not to publish the book, ii will not be published.” The seven men answered simultaneously, “do not publish it”.  And the book was filed away.

“If it had been published, the world would have learned that the leaders of the Jewish people — — the best known, most respected leaders of Zionism — — were actually criminals,” said Ben Hecht. In his unpublished work, they appear by name, Ben Hecht added: “Weizmann, Ben Gurion, Sharett”.

Ben Hecht, who spoke thus, made an important contribution to the Jewish people: He was the first to tell the American people that extermination camps existed in Germany. “And who blocked our way?” asked Ben Hecht, “Jewish leaders, Jews of name and position, who feared that they would be recognized as Jews, not as Americans. One who fought with all his might against our rescue and publicity campaigns was Rabbi Stephen Wise, president of the various Jewish congresses.”

In his unpublished book, he takes the leaders to task. He adds several corrections to the history of the holocaust He reveals what the leaders were doing at the time he was dealing with rescuing the Jews. He took the material for the book from sources which supplied him with facts, as yet unknown to the public.

In the eyes of Ben Hecht, Mickey Cohen was more Jewish than Weizmann. Who was Mickey Cohen? A well—known Jewish gangster in California. But Mickey loved Jews. He collected money for underground rescue. He helped, and if somebody would insult a Jew in his presence, he would strangle him bare—handed. And Ben Hecht continued expressing to me his opinion of David Ben Gurion and Moshe Sharett. Somehow, my typewriter refuses to write about Weizmann and about the heads of the Jewish Agency, who helped the Germans to destroy European Jewry.

If the typewriter of a secular journalist has difficulty in recording the horrible information, the historic consciousness of Torah abiding Jews is obligated to constantly review the significance of this tragic truth. It must not be forgotten by our children and our children’s children. If, during the entire period of the Exile, the congregation of Israel was compared to one lamb amongst 70 wolves, then, indeed, this last holocaust brought upon us a tragedy seven times harsher. For the supposed shepherds of that lamb betrayed her and, in order to merit her wool, abandoned her to the teeth of beasts of prey.

The piercing, shocking account of what the Zionists did to us was predicted by the rabbis of our people when Zionism was founded. They held urgent and lengthy sessions on how to save the people from the leadership of the secularists. The only solution they saw was to organize the G—d—fearing people to break off the yoke of .these leaders who were rebelling against the Torah. Tragically, the congregation of Israel was not saved in its entirety from the rule of the sinful shepherds.

This series of conscience—arousing chapters is bringing to light for the multitudes the crimes of the Zionists: their image and their misdeeds, to make it known in whose hands the nation’s destiny rested.

We have witnessed the complete fulfillment of the prophecy of Ezekiel, about the sinful shepherds in the days preceding the coming of the Messiah (Chapter 34):

'Ben Adom', prophesy against the shepherds of Israel; prophesy, and say to them, to the shepherds: “Thus says the Almighty:

'Woe to the shepherds of Israel who have fed themselves! Should not the shepherds feed the flocks? You eat the fat, and clothe yourselves with the wool, you kill the fatlings; but you do not feed the sheep. You have not strengthened the weak, nor have you healed the sick, nor have you bound the crippled, nor have you brought back the strayed, nor have you sought that which was lost; but with force and with cruelty have you ruled them. And they were scattered because there was no shepherd; and they became food for all the beasts of the field, when they were scattered. My sheep wandered through all the mountains, and upon every high hill; for My flock was dispersed upon all the face of the earth, and none did search or seek after them.’ Therefore shepherds, hear the word of the L—rd: 'As I live,' says the L—rd, 'surely since My flock has become a prey, and My sheep have become food for every beast of the field, because there was no shepherd, nor did My shepherds search for My flock, but the shepherds fed themselves, and fed not My flock’;” therefore, oh shepherds, hear the word of the L—rd: “Thus says the L—rd, G—d: 'Behold, I am against the shepherds; and I will require My flock at their hand, and I will put an end to their feeding the sheep; nor shall the shepherds feed themselves anymore; for I will deliver My flock from their mouth, that they may not be food for them'.”

We have only to pray that just as the first part about the sins of the shepherds has come to pass, so will the end —— and the people will be redeemed from their hands with eternal salvation.