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THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
You have to remember that what the
Jews did was try to save their own.
You can't accuse the family of a kid-
nap victim of being a collaborator if
they put up ransom. If you're looking
for someone to blame, you can always
say 'they didn't do enough, they did
too much, they were too fast, too
slow.' Everyone involved did as much
as he could in very difficult circum-
stances."
S
till, Black admits, dealing with
agonizing questions like
those has been difficult. "This took
out from me the same blood it took
out from the Jews of the time trying
to make the decision," he said. Black
says he fainted several times while
sitting at his typewriter.
But, he thinks he's done the
right thing by telling the story and
raising those questions. "Those who
say I shouldn't have written the book
at all should remember that the
words 'never forget' don't have a
parantheses after them saying 'never
reveal.' We have to confront it, have
to think about it, have to know the
tragic choices Jews made minute by
minute, day by day.
The May 10, 1933 protest sent a clear message to the Third Reich.
S
transfer; fight or flight. The decision:
Palestine first.
"The price of this new nation
would be the abandonment of the op-
position to Nazi Germany," Black
notes. "Whole branches of Judaism
would wither, but the trunk would
survive. From this crisis of humilia-
tion, agony and expulsion would
come sanctuary, nationhood and a
new Jew, with a new home to call his
own."
After a tense sequence of negoti-
ations full of intrigue and infighting,
the various Zionist parties concluded
an agreement. It called for the Jews
to end their boycotts and, in turn, for
the Nazis to facilitate the emigration
of 60,000 German Jews and the
transfer of $100 million in Jewish as-
sets to Palestine by exempting Jews
from German currency restrictions
that severely limited the amount of
cash or assets they could take out of
the country. The agreement would,
restore to the Germans the market;
)046k4 f1140.9* tt49, A9161.1
with the human and economic found-
atiOn for the State of Israel.
"It was the most controversial
understanding in Jewish history,"
Black said, "But, it made a state."
Of that fact, Black is convinced.
"The money was used to buy land
which expanded the unconnected
Jewish enclaves into a contiguous
region approximating the shape of
modern Israel. Furthermore, the
money created an industrial infras-
tructure in Jewish Palestine that
greatly expanded the job sector. And
when World War II ended, the
framework for a state awaited hun-
dreds of thousands of survivors."at
Black is convinced that the
boycott could have worked with a un-
ified, immediate response. Yet he
also believes that the undermining of
the boycott was not responsible for
'Hitler staying in power and thus the
Holocaust.
'What if are the two most
dangerous words in histprical
4nalysis. 'What'if •is very easy to ask..
Siegfried Moses, president of the German
Zionist Federation, helped make
preparations for an agreement with the
Reich.
Friday, June 8, 1984 15
"Who did not seal pacts of expe-
diency with the Third Reich? The
Catholic Church, the Lutheran
Church and the Supreme Moslem
Council all endorsed the Hitler re-
gime. The United States, England,
France, Italy, Russia, Argentina, Ja-
pan, Ireland, Poland and dozens of
other nations all signed friendship
and trade treaties and knowingly
contributed to German economic and
military recovery. The Zionists were
in the company of all mankind • with
this exception: the Jews were the
only ones with a gun to their heads.
"Some say, 'How should we feel
knowing Jews negotiated with Hit-
ler?"Well, how do you feel knowing
that Hitler was forced to negotiate
with the Jews?"
Still, Black realizes, American
Jews will have trouble accepting the
idea of a deal between • the Zionists
and the Third Reich. And, he says, he
knows why: "Jews in the United
States live in a bubble. They want to
look at anti-Semitism — Nazis
around the corner. We don't live in a
land where on every street you see
under a microscope, see all as black
and white. We don't understand
European anti-Semitism where Jews
are not permitted to walk, see Jewish
ghettos. The Zionists were in a strug-
gle for Jewish sovereignty. The world
is a complex place. That struggle
would not come easily. Zionists were
the government of the Jews. Nations
do not deal squeamishly with their
enemies."
Black says that those Jews who
are squeamish about the reality his
book revealed won't be happy to
know that The Transfer Agreement is
but the first of a trilogy. His next
book is due to be published in about a
year. For now, though, he thinks
people will begin to see that he was
right for writing the book and that it
will have positive, effects.
"I think it will end Vanessa Red-•
graveisms — using headlines or let-
ters, distorting the context to attack
the Zionists. Now the whole story is
out in context and everybody knows
it.
"Also, if there were some who
thought Jews were apathetic, now we
see that they were not; that they did
their damnedest. I'm happy to know
Jews fought back. One of the most
difficult images of the Holocaust is of
the Jew walking into a pit. Isn't it
nice to know we fought back? We we-
ren't apathetic, we did what we could,
some with a picket sign, some with
papers: From the first minute of Hit-
ler, the first minute; Jews were out
there, in Poland burning down Ger-
man institutions, in Palestine, in
France, in the United Staes. This
book tells the truth and truth needs
no justification."
Now that the book is out, Black's
parents, whose $20,000 loan proved
essential to Black's ability to finish
the book, agree.' "Some people" says
his mother, Ethel, "don't want to
know the truth because it's very
Georg Laundauer, director of the German
.Zionist Federation, worked for an
agreement between the Third Reich and
the Zionists.
-
painful." But, she says, she's glad her
son found the truth. -
And,, in doing that, says Black,
he found himself.
"I became a better Jew. Now, I
understand the continuity of Jewish
history, Now, I understand what ties
us to Israel. Now, I uderstand the
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