A Man and His Three Friends .. .
Dr. Jacob Robinson's Thorough Research
Exposes Hannah Arendt's Misleading Charges
During the Eichmann trial in
Jerusalem in 1961, the man who sat
next to the prosecutor, Gideon
Hausner, was the research genius
who gathered the historic facts
about the holocaust and helped re-
veal the immensity of the horrors
for which the chief Nazi culprit was
being tried.
Much has been published about
Adolph Eichmann and his trial
which led to his execution. The
most sensational of all comments
Jews from one country to an-
other . . ."
This, in his data, Dr. Robinson
shows how Miss Arendt's views
conflict with facts and he declares:
"Even more enigmatic is Miss
Arendt's image of Eichmann's
relation to Nazism. The man she
holds to have been without con-
victions, to have been a party
member who had never read the
party program or Hitler's 'Mein
Kampf'—this is the man who re-
gretted that along with the Jews
100,000 German non-Jews, 'en-
emies' of the Nazi regime, had
not also been exterminated, and
who, in his Argentine hideout,
wanted to flay an author of a
book critical of Hitler."
Dr. Robinson adds that no less
bizarre is Miss Arendt's image of
Eichmann's attitude towards the
Jews, whom she
considered free
of "fanatical
anti - Semitism,"
although he was
the same man
who said to Wil-
1 i a m Antonius
Maria Sassen, a
farmer Dutch
Eichmann
National Social-
ist newspaperman who now lives
in Buenos Aires: "To be frank with
you, had we killed all of them, the
10,300, I would be happy and say:
all right, we have destroyed an
enemy."
Dr. Robinson went into great de-
tail in describing war crime trials,
in pointing to international law in
contradiction to Miss Arendt's con-
tentions, challenging her for having
undertaken to attack the work of
competent judges. He states:
"In all discussions that touch
on legal problems, Miss Arendt
displays unfamiliarity with her
subject. She knows neither the
present status of international
criminal law nor its history and
development. She is unaware of
the criteria for jurisdiction and
for solving conflicts of jurisdic-
tion . .. She misreads and mis-
interprets the Israel law under
which Eichmann was tried, and
she fails to comprehend the basis
for, and factual history of, the
war crimes in general."
Dr. Robinson's study then an-
alyzes the purposes of the Eich-
mann trial, the court's jurisdiction,
the evidence that was offered, and
he shows how the Eichmann trial
"was entirely correct," proceedings
having taken place "in full accord-
ance with the rules and practices
of national and international law."
Especially valuable in Dr. Robin-
son's book is the Jewish behavior
in the face of the disaster, the
functions of the Jewish councils
that were organized under the
Nazis, the origins of such councils
and their activities. Referring to
Miss Arendt's charge of "the sub-
missive meakness with which Jews
went to their death," he declares
that the actual occurences con-
trasted radically with the picture
she painted. He quotes the evidence
that_ was presented at the Jeru-
salem trial, raises the question of
how and by whom Jews could have
been rescued, lists evidence of the
Jewish will to live and the resist-
ance that functioned, and he de-
scribes traditional methods used
by Jews in survival efforts. Such
philosophy, he indicates, is based
on preservation of life, on stress-
ing the time factor in human af-
fairs. To illustrate the latter he
relates a story:
"This attitude is expressed
with simplicity in the story about
a Jewish tenant of a Polish land-
owner. In order to have his lease
renewed he had to agree to teach
7.7
DR. JACOB ROBINSON
on the case were those by Hannah
Arendt whose charges, whose ac-
cusations against Zionist and Zion-
ism aroused resentment.
The Arendt position is demo-
lished in a powerful "new look at
the Eichmann trial," in Dr. Robin-
son's "The Crooked Shall Be Made
Straight," published jointly by Mac-
millan and the Jewish Publication
Society.
Dr. Robinson makes a thorough
study of the Arendt narrative,
exposing its errors, reviewing
the Eichmann trial by offering
historical data relating to the
Jewish catastrophe.
The charge in "And the Crooked
Shall. Be Made Straight" is that
Miss Arendt has not conveyed reli-
able information, that there are
historical falsities in her narrative.
In his presentation of the evidence,
Dr. Robinson resorts to the steno-
graphic record of the Eichmann
trial, probes the man Eichmann and
his work and he declares, pointing
to her contradictions, that "one
stands baffled before Hannah
Arendt's image of Eichmann: a
trustworthy man, who often lied;
a man without education, who
learned Hebrew, could read (`halt-
ingly') a Yiddish newspaper . . . ;
a man without intelligence, who
was expert in negotiation, in organ-
ization, and in reading documents;
a receiver of orders, who defied
Himmler (in fact, also Hitler); a
man without initiative, who made
the first experiment in removal of
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THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
10—Friday, October 1, 1965
PEININ
A certain man had three friends,
two of whom he loved dearly, but
the other he lightly esteemed. It
happened one day that the king
commanded his presence at court,
at which he was greatly alarmed,
and wished to procure an advocate.
Accordingly he went to the two
friends whom he loved; one flatly
refused to accompany him, the
other offered to go with him as far
as the king's gate, but no farther.
In his extremity he called upon
the third friend, whom he least
esteemed, and he not only went
willingly with him, but so ably de-
fended him before the king that he
was acquitted.
In like manner, every man has
three friends when Death summons
him to appear before his Creator.
His first friend, whom he loves
most, namely, his money, cannot
go with him a single step; his sec-
ond, relations and neighbors, can
only accompany him to the grave,
but cannot defend him before the
Judge; while his third friend,
the landowner's dog to speak
within one month. When his wife
vehemently protested he replied:
`During this month, who knows?
The landowner may die .. . the
dog may die . .
The means resorted to in an ef-
fort to advise the world of what
was happening is pointed to by Dr.
Robinson as follows:
"Unutterably tragic was the posi-
tion of the Jewish leaders. The
cunning of the Nazis. their skill
in the arts of psychological war-
fare, had thrown off balance even
experienced politicans. Once Jew-
ish leaders began to suspect the
awful truth, they found themselves
in a desperate race against time.
Through bribery and procrastina-
tion, they invoked the traditional
ways which had enabled their fath-
ers and forefathers to survive the
hostility of surrounding populations.
They were convinced that the
scales of war would soon turn, and
in their heart of hearts they still
believed that should the outside
world only become aware of the
atrocities it would somehow stop
them. Hence the frantic efforts to
send out the news to let the world
know that murder of a people was
being committed."
Concluding his analytical study
with a chapter on "The Fate of
Jews in Specific Areas and Peri-
ods," Dr. Robinson takes up other
items resorted to by Miss Arendt.
In reply to her assertion that in
1935 the Nazi regime 'had not yet
shifted entirely to the persecution
of Jews qua Jews," Dr. Robinson
asks: "Were the murders and physi-
cal violence directed against Jew-
ish judges and attorneys in March
1933 not directed against Jews qua
Jews? Was the boycott of April 1,
1933, anything but an act of per-
secution of Jews qua Jews? And
the removal of Jews from civil
service, an action she herself men-
tions . . . was that, too, not directed
against Jews as Jews?"
To Miss Arendt's implied ref-
erence to "criminal cooperation"
between Zionist and Nazi author-
itiees, Dr. Robinson repliees that
the Ha'avara (transfer) agree-
ment enabled 50,000 German
Jews to emigrate and to save
their lives'in Palestine, that non-
Zionists worked with Zionists to
effect life-saving transfers, that
there was no Zionist domination
in negotiations which had to be
carried on in the early years
with Germans. He also shows
that the functioning councils
were not, as Miss Arendt main-
tained, controlled by Zionists,
and he lists names to prove the
contrary.
This is a 406-page book. Of these,
281 pages are the text proper, there
are 92 pages of notes, a six-page
bibliography and the rest is an
index. Which points to the scholarly
approach of Dr. Robinson whose
annotations make this a complete
refutation of Miss Arendt's charges.
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ian basis. Construction is. sched-
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will be completed in 16 months.
whom he does not highly esteem
—his good works—goes with him
before the King, and obtains his
aequittal.—Jewish Digest.
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