THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

22 Friday, May 1, 1981

Laqueur, Sachar Write Novels on Holocatist, Israel Developments

Two eminent historians,
Walter Laqueur and How-
ard Sachar, have new roles
in currently published
novels.
Dr. Howard Sachar,
whose "History. of Israel"
and a series of related books
dealing with the world situ-
ation affecting Jewry and
Israel, is the author of "The
Man on the Camel" (Times
Books).

Laqueur's
Walter
analyses of the Nazi hor-
rors, "The Terrible Secret"
(Little, Brown), is among
his latest works on world
crises. Laqueur is attract-
ing wide attention as the
author of the novel
"Farewell to Europe" (Lit-
tle, Brown).
Both authors are histo-
rians, and both deal with
the challenges to Israel,

the Middle East, prob-
lems, the Holocaust and
the terror that has be-
come a matter of chief
concern for Israel, Jewry
and, therefore, de-
veloped into a world
problem.
Dr. Sachar's "The Man on
the Camel" deals with the
Yom Kippur War, with a
case of treason. The hero of
the dramatic story unravels

the present and the pioneer-
ing past.
The cast of characters in
this story of internal con-
flicts emerges into the
loyalties inherent in strug-
gles for survival. Also
taught are the lessons
learned from Israel's battle
for continuity.
In his volume, the son
of the surviving family
goes to a kibutz in Israel.
Another son goes to
California. Out of it de-
velops the theme that is
the experience of a gen-
eration divided yet aspir-
ing to the freedom that
was denied under the
Nazi terror.
The Laqueur novel is an
echo of an entire genera-
tion's life amidst many ter-
rors. The Israel experience
is the confrontation with
many realities.
Life in the United States
is not exactly a parallel, yet
it is another rising up to

an espionage plot.
Conflicts in the Israeli of-
ficial financial system, the
social problems affecting
the populace composed of
the many incoming nation-
ality backgrounds, are
drawn upon by the
novelist-historian. Dr. Sac-'
har refers to the teachings
and prophecies of the
Zionist pioneers to em-
phasize the links between

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conditions under freedom,
contrasted by the horrors
left behind.
The Dr. Sachar story is an
account of pioneering, of
love for country, of acclaim
for the freedom that has
subdued the memories of
the fears.
"Farewell tor-
In
Europe" there is the echo
of the spirit of the student
of international affairs,
giving power to fiction
that reads like realism.
Dr. Laqueur is perhaps
among the most informed
scholars on the Holocaust,
the Nazi terror, the threats
to German Jewry, the
search for security and the
roles of the victims in the
era of challenge from the
Hitler terror.
Was news about Hitler's
extermination of the Jews
suppressed by the U.S. and
its allies as early as 1942?
Walter Laqueur states: "In
London and Washington
the facts about the 'final so-
lution' were known from an
early date and it reached
the chiefs of intelligence,
the secretaries of foreign af-
fairs and defense. But the
facts were not considered to
be of great interest or im-
portance . . . Churchill
showed more interest in the
Jewish tragedy than
Roosevelt and also more
compassion but even he was
not willing to devote much
thought to the subject . ."

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"The Terrible Secret"
focuses on the period be-
tween June 1941, the
German invasion of the
Soviet Union, and the end
of 1942. Laqueur writes,

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411 ■
HOWARD SACHAR
"Would (it) have made
any difference if the in-
formation about the mass
murder had been be-
lieved right from the be-
ginning? It seems quite
likely that only a few
people might have been
saved as a result and
even this is not absolutely
certain.
"But this is hardly the
right way of posing the
question, for the misjudg-
ment of Hitler and Nazism
did not begin in June 1941
nor did it end in December
1942. The ideal 'time to stop
Hitler was not when he waS\
at the height of his strength.
If the democracies had
shown greater foresight,
solidarity and resolution,
Nazism could have been
stopped at the beginning of
its campaign of aggression.

"No power could have
saved the majority of the
Jews of the Reich and of
Eastern Europe in the
summer of 1942 . . . but
many Jews could certainly
have been saved in 1944 by
bombing the railway lines
leading to the extermina-
tion centers . . . This could
have been done without de-
flecting any major resources
from the general war effort.
"It has been argued
that the Jews could not
have escaped in any case
but this is not correct: the
Russians were no longer
far away, the German
forces in Poland were
concentrated in some
bigger towns, and even
there their sway ran only
in daytime — they no
longer had the man-
power to round up es-
caped Jews. In short,
hundreds of thousands
could have been saved."
Laqueur came to write
"The Terrible Secret" al-
most by accident. He was
searching the British and
Swiss archives for material
on a different subject when
he came across hitherto in-
accessible files dealing with
knowledge about Hitler's
decision to destroy Euro-
pean Jewry.

From these files it
emerged beyond any
shadow of doubt that many
more people knew about it
much earlier than was
commonly assumed until
now. He then decided to
engage in a systematic
search to discover how in-
formation that was meant
to be top secret nit- - ed out.

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