8 Friday, May 21, 1983 THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS Dr. Goldstein Reconstructs Jewry's Actions Exposing the Holocaust (Continued from Page 64) lished the Joint Emergency Committee on European Af- fairs for the purpose of un- dertaking rescue opera- tions. It comprised spokes- men of the leading national 'Jewish organizations, among whom I represented the Synagogue Council of America. We were spurred on by the knowledge that time was slipping through our fingers and that we must respond immediately to the awesome challenge. The Synagogue Council set up its own committee for emergency intercession, which organized and chan- neled Jewish protests against the apathetic reac- tion of the Allied powers to the Holocaust in Europe. We continued to main- tain our pressure on the U.S. Administration throughout the war. On March 1, 1943, the Ameri- can Jewish Congress staged a huge demon- stration at Madison Square Garden: 22,000 people were packed into the hall and 15,000 more stood outside. , With "Stop Hitler Now!" as its slogan, this rally was held jointly with the Ameri- can Federation of Labor, the Congress of Industrial Organizations and the Church Peace Union. Ad- dresses were deliverd by Dr. Chaim Weizmann, Rabbi Stephen Wise, Governor Thomas E. Dewey of New York, Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia, Senator Robert F. Wagner, William Green, and other leaders. Soon after the demonstra- tion came the announce- ment of an Anglo-American Conference on Refugees, to be held in Bermuda. This remote British island in the Atlantic had presumably been chosen with care as a place where discussions might take place behind closed doors and without the irritating presence of Jewish delegations and lob- byists. Like President Roosevelt's international meeting at Evian in 1938, the Bermuda Conference of April 1943, which (by a grim irony) coincided with the outbreak of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, proved a fiasco and "a facade for inac- tion." The man appointed by the State Department as secretary to the U.S. delegation was Robert B. Reams, an anti-Semite "expert" on Jewish prob- lems who had been doing his best to sabotage and obstruct American ef- forts to save Jewish lives. It was our feeling that the purpose of the Bermuda Conference was not so much to rescue Jews facing death in Europe as to rescue the State Department and the British Foreign Office from possible embarrassment and public censure. By Mid-1943, however, the "conspiracy of silence" had been broken to some ex- tent. In September of that year, the U.S. Office of War Information decided to allo- cate time, in its overseas broadcasts, to information about the Holocaust and to warnings that the Nazi war criminals would be brought to justice. At long last, it seemed, the policy of inertia - was being abandoned. otherwise afford su ch Jews from the gas cham- obstructionism nullified 0 victims all possible re lief bers. proposals of ours that had and assistance consiste nt In Nazi-occupied Hun- with the successful pr os- gary, great heroism was received the green light from Washington. ecution of the war." displayed by a young The British displayed a John Pehlr, Jr., Assist ant Swedish diplomat, Raoul Secretary of the U.S. Tre as- Wallenberg, who went to split personality in the face ury, became the director of extraordinary lengths to of the Holocaust. On the one the board. It signaled a wel- pluck.Jews from the trains hand, men like Anthony come departure from the and death marches bound Eden seemed genuinely horror-stricken by the mass previous attitude of indif- for Auschwitz. ference to the fate of Euro- President Roosevelt's dec- destruction of Jewish lives; pean Jewry. Pehle and his laration on Nazi criminality on the other hand, they colleagues ended the prac- was disseminated by the would not countenance any tice of suppressing unwel- British, but now by the organized rescue campaign come and unpleasant in- Soviets. The latter, obsti- that might prejudice fromation about the nately pursuing their own "higher national interests." Holocaust. ideological aims, argued With callous consistency, * * * Positive aid programs, in- that "all Russians, not only Eden denied the requisite spired by some of the World The U.S. Finally the Jews," faced extermina- documents for French and Begins to Take Action Jewish Congress recom- tion. Romanian Jewish refugees. mendations, were under- Yet when Eichmann's As Arthur D. Morse has Three of Henry Morgen- taken and forceful dip- "trucks for Jews" proposal concluded (in "While Six than's non-Jewish aides, lomatic action was in- was under review in June Million Died"), "the possi- Randolph S. Paul, Josiah E. itiated. 1944, Andrei Vishinsky, bility of mass rescue DuBois, Jr., and John W. The War Refugee Board Pehle, Jr., had succeeded in was mainly financed by the deputy Foreign Minister of threatened England's uncovering irrefutable evi- American Jewish Joint Dis- the Soviet Union, dis- Palestine policies; the dence of State Department tribution Committee, whose patched a secret note to U.S. vision of Jews streaming to machinations against our European staff, headed Ambassador Averell Har- Palestine seemed to upset rescue campaign. They from 1942 by Dr. Joseph J. riman, insisting that all Whitehall more than the urged that the "Jewish is- Schwartz, displayed excep- negotiations be halted. This vision of Jews walking to sue" be taken out of the tional courage and initia- put an end to the desperate their death in the gas mission of Joel Brand and chambers." hands of Breckenridge Long tive in conducting rescue sealed the fate of Hunga- and his subordinates, and and relief work during rian Today, some 40 years Jewry. that a special government World War II. after those dire events, There is also reason to commission be empowered Many of these heroic suspect that Soviet objec- there is a move to re- to implement effective re- JDC officials, while striv- tions may, in part, have examine Jewish re- scue measures. ing to obstruct the Nazi been responsible for the sponses to the Holocaust, murder apparatus, were Allied refusal to destroy particularly as far as the On Jan. 22, 1944, the themselves swept away Auschwitz and Birkenau American Jewish com- War Refugee Board was in the avalanche. The in the precision bombing munity is concerned. established "to rescue JDC operated undei se- attack. Despite talk of the victims of enemy oppres- With the wisdom of sion who are in imminent vere limitations, yet "great technical difficul- hindsight, of course, it is managed to scrape to- ties involved," opera- easy to point an accusing danger of death, and gether nearly $80 million tions of this kind had finger at guilty parties in for various rescue been conducted suc- the U.S. and British war- schemes — smuggling cessfully in Western time administration, but funds to the Warsaw Europe. the question still remains: Ghetto, negotiating the In one instance, Allied Did Jewish and Zionist ransom of two trainloads bombers had attacked a leaders in the Free World do dry cleaning" of Hungarian Jews, and German prison in France enough to make a burning endeavoring to prevent and wiped out the guards issue of the rescue of Hit- further deportations. while the detainees escaped ler's principal victims? - Such measures had fhe unharmed. Where doomed I have an uneasy feeling ultimage effect of saving Jews were concerned, how- that many occupying perhaps as many as 100,000 ever, a sudden paralysis of Jewish leadership positions Jewish lives, even if it was a the will affected the deci- at the time were misled by case of "too, little and too sion makers. hollow assurances "from on late." high" and were lulled into Throughout this time, complacency by eminent Henry Morgenthau, Jr. was World Jewish Congress Jewish colleagues who in- the one member of Tried to Save Lives nocently, but mistakenly, President Roosevelt's believed that they had From its head office in found sympathetic ears in cabinet who consistently pressed for a more vigilant Geneva, and with the coop- Roosevelt's administration. and effective rescue pro- eration of its London and Everyone —including gram. He and Pehle man- New York bureaus, the aged to induce FDR to issue World Jewish Congress con- this writer — who held a a declaration on March 24, tinued to explore ways of position of Jewish leader- 1944, stating categorically saving Jews in Nazi- ship, major or minor, during that those implicated in the occupied Europe. Time and that tragic period of our his- Holocaust would pay for again, the WJC was frus- tory should feel, in retros- their crimes. trated by a reluctance on pect, a sense of his own in- 1 Valid until June 30, 1983 the part of the Allies to di- adequacy and of contribu- not valid with other Unfortunately, this dec- vert attention, even tion in the light of what I laration came too late to momentarily, from "pursuit transpired. leather and suede coupons prevent most of the slaugh- of the war effort." 11, • =3 MI NM NIP MN IMO MN • IND MO • OM Thus, in the end, six ter. Efforts to enlist the Thus, early in 1943, Dr. support of Pope Pius XII Gerhart Riegner learned million Jews perished proved unavailing. Here that about 70,000 Roma- while the United States and there, individual nian Jews deported to dithered and temporized, Catholic prelates, notably Transnistria could be while the British Monsignor Angelo Roncalli, ransomed from Ion An- doggedly sealed off ports the Apostolic Delegate to tonescu's pro-Nazi re- of embarkation, and Turkey (who was to become gime if an advance on the while we Jews in the Free Pope John XXIII), inter- $35 million demanded World naively heeded as- ceded vigorously to halt the would be placed in es- surances that "every- Nazi "resettlement" depor- crow with the Berne lega- thing possible would be done" to save lives. tations from various coun- tion of the U.S. Our protests and pro- tries. President Roosevelt, posals were listened to po- In the International Henry 'Morgenthau and litely, but were ignored. Red Cross, despite the Cordell Hull gave their ap- That the Jewish leadership Men's Business Shirts Only general policy of proc- proval, but the rescue plan of the United States failed rastination and reluc- was sabotaged by State De- to do more, when more Valid until June 30, 1983 tance to "endanger its partment bureaucrats, might have been done to re- I valid with any incoming status," a few determined aided and abetted by British scue the survivors in 1942 Dry-Cleaning Order administrators worked Foreign Office officials. and 1943, is our self- resourcefully to save More than once, such indictment. . PEERLESS DELUXE CLEANERS "the finest in 10 LOCATIONS — Same Day Service Available mas!.echaf. ge PRESENT COUPON WITH INCOMING ORDER Any Any Suede $100 Dry-Cleaning $500 or Order Over Leather OFF OFF $5.95 Coat valid Until June 30, 1983 not valid with other coupons 1•11 Any $200 Dry-Cleaning OFF Order Over $10.95 Valid until June 30, 1983 not valid with other coupons SHIRTS 59c .