poverished, constricting, perilous and
tragic, and from which so many im-
migrants sought relief in America
Who exactly were those "unfinished"
people? Most of them, Ms. Gay writes,
"were young, single, unskilled, uned-
ucated, and boundlessly optimistic.
Many of them were no more than chil-
dren ... [but] with the thoughts and
cares of adults. [They suffered from]
"a double incompetence ... because they
had not been able to master either of
the cultures in which they lived."
Yet to their great credit, they
worked hard, created communities,
and gave their children — Ms. Gay's
generation — the opportunity for a bet-
ter life, often with remarkable results.
They may have been unfinished, but
not unsuccessful. America, and read-
ers of this revealing, meticulous, some-
times melancholy book, are also their
beneficiaries.
`Nazi Gold'
By Tom Bower
HarperCollins, 381 pgs., $25.
RICHARD SHEVITZ SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS
lthough its title refers only to Germany, Nazi Gold
reveals the profits that Switzerland reaped by
serving as the banker to the Third Reich. Dur
ing the war years, Switzerland willingly accept-
ed, invested and exchanged assets looted from Hitler's
victims. The story is generating headlines today thanks,
in part, to the efforts of the World Jewish Congress, Sen.
Alfonse D'Arnato (R-N.Y.), and others.
O o
After the war, Switzerland not only denied receiving
0 O
the Nazis' plunder, they also refused to restore those as-
sets to their rightful owners. Switzerland has now cre-
O 0
ated a humanitarian fund to benefit Holocaust victims.
o
The money —between $120 million and $190 million —
o 0 ,
has yet to be distributed. Two independent historical
commissions—one led by former Federal Reserve Chair-
o 0
man Paul Volcker, and one conducted under Swiss aus-
0 0
pices —have begun to examine the role of Swiss banks
before and during the Holocaust.
In a detailed historical study, Tom Bower injects hard
Alan Schwartz is the director of
0
research for the Anti-Defamation
'fact into the illusion of Swiss neutrality during World
League in New York.
War II.
The story begins in the 1930s, when Switzerland first
enacted its cherished bank secrecy laws to attract the
capital of German Jews, who were seeking to transfer
The Harlot by the Side
their wealth beyond the reach of the Nazi government.
of the Road'
German Jewish capital was welcomed in Switzerland,
By Jonathan Kirsch
but German Jews were not.
In 1938, Swiss diplomats pressured Germany to des -
Ballantine Books, 378 pgs., $27.
t seems everyone has an opinion about the Bible. Po- ignate the passports of German Jews with a "J" in order
ets and novelists freely interpret what was once the to block their entry to Switzerland. As the Nazi invasions
`Unfinished People: Eastern European
sacred terrain of clergy and theologians. In the last broke out, Jews throughout Europe rushed to deposit
decade the history as well as the translation of the their stocks, bonds, cash and jewelry in the perceived se=
Jews Encounter America
curity of Swiss bank vaults, never suspecting that those
Good Book have been rethought.
By Ruth Gay
David
Rosenberg,
a
poet
and
translator,
teamed
up
banks
would later invoke Swiss secrecy laws to frustrate
W.W. Norton & Co., 310 pgs., $27.50.
with • rary critic Harold Bloom "to restore and trans- post-war efforts to reclaim those assets.
Swiss profits were not limited to the unclaimed de-
late a lost version of the Hebrew Bible" they called The
ALAN M. SCHWARTZ SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS
a
portion
of
the
Bible
they
claimed
was
corn-
posits
made by Holocaust victims. The Nazis systemat-
Book of J —
he noted essayist and writing stylist E.B. White posed by a woman. Everett Fox composed a translation ically looted the assets of Holocaust victims as well as
once advised: "Don't write about man: write about of the Torah, which injected the spirit and the syntax gold bullion from the banks of conquered nations, and
a man." Avoid thegrandiose
generalization, which of ancient Hebrew into English. The novelist Norma immediately transferred all that wealth to Swiss banks
gran
y
and
pretentious,
in favor of a Rosen used fictional techniques to cull imaginative in- in exchange for the foreign currency needed to finance
often turns preac
Germany's war machine. These same banks accepted
perceptively drawn portrait of the individual, evoking in terpretations of biblical stones about women.
Jonathan
Kirsch
is
a
notable
standout
in
this
ongoing
resmelted
gold ingots, including stolen bullion, wedding
the reader that sense of identification born of shared ex-
enterprise. One of the strengths of this impressive col- bands, and even dental gold torn from the mouths of
penence.
.
.
Gay, culture,
a talented,
discriminating
writer
on Jew- lection of essays on Bible stories that your Sunday-school • corpses .
ish Ruth
life and
has followed
White's
prescription
In
exploding
the
myth
of
Swiss neutrality, Mr. Bow-
teacher never told you is the depth of scholarship. A read-
er
also
exposes
the
moral
lapses
in America's post-war
,
with skill and grace in this latest book.
er can immediately detect Mr. Kirsch's commitment to
foreign policy, which enabled Switzerland to retain its
Ms. Gay wisely has not tried to rewrite The • World of his material as well as his expertise on the subject.
- ill-gotten wealth to the present
Our Fathers, Irving Howe's monumental chronicle of the
The "harlot" of the title is the
day. Treasury Department of-
late 19th- to early 20th-century mass Jewish immigra- irrepressible Tamar. Twice wid-
ficials actively pursued the
tions to America (one of the many sources she cites in a
THE HARLOT BY THE
question of "heirless assets."
helpful bibliography). Rather, she has effectively re-cre- owed
by
sons
of
Judah,
Tamar
decides to take matters into her
The State Department, howev-
SIDE,
OF
THE
LOAD
ated the world of her father, mother and extended fam- own hands in order to becOme a
er, preferred to ignore the prob-
FORBIDDEN
TALES'
OF
THE
BIBLE
ily in the Bronx,
ro three and four generations ago.
mother. She dresses as a pros=
77-
4
lem in favor of restoring
Memoirs seem to be everywhere these days, and t,here titute and seduces her unwitting
economic normalcy to Switzer-
is no shortage of such narratives of Jewish life. So why father-in-law. Her ploy works.
land and Western Europe in or-
is this memoir different from all others? The key is its
Shegives birth to twin sons, from
der to resist communist
author's skill in focusing on vivid details of family and one of whom the Messiah will de-
expansion.
immigrant life, and her sophistication in placing them scend.
Switierland easily exploited
in historical perspective.
Perhaps t it s i no coincidence
these divisions to stonewall
Ms. Gay has a keen eye for the symbolic, a sharp ear
diplomatic efforts to recover the
for true-to-life dialogue (and supportive Yiddish folk wis- the
that Bible
these are
lesser-known
tales sto-
of
mostly tragic
assets looted by the Nazis, re- ,....
dom), and a clear analytic voice that for the most part ries about women. Mr. Kirsch
agreeing in the 1946 a,
rings true. She supplements her own insights with il- has creatively retold them in ac-
Washington Accord to con- `,19
lustrative general and statistical information. ("By 1915,
tribute $12.5 million to the ,..:
there were 1,400,000 Jews in New York City, half of the terrible
language context
and provided
an enlightening
in which
cause of rebuilding Europe. 1--
Jews in the United States.")
to remember them.
However, through subsequent ;)
Ms. Gay is sometimes overly harsh in her treatment
diplomatic maneuvering, c.
of a largely restrictive, but also protective religious tra-
—Judith Bolton-Fasman
Switzerland never advanced all cr
dition, and its effects and demands on the daily lives of
of these.
"ordinary" Jews. She rightly rejects efforts to romanti-
cize shtetl life, which was (as she recounts) generally im-
°NATHAN' KIRSCH
T