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"Mom's
happiness
is absolutely
priceless."
When dad died a year ago,
I watched helplessly as my
fun-loving, outgoing mom
stayed home most nights.
When she visited The Park
at Trowbridge, she quickly
saw residents interacting
and enjoying activities
together. She leaves for
breakfast at 8:30 and
sometimes doesn't return to
her apartment until evening.
Mom is building new
memories and meeting
new friends. My sister
and I are happy knowing
mom's involved and
enjoying life again.
Arnie S. - son of resident Edith S.
24111 Civic Center Dr.
Southfield, MI 48033
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24
June 7 • 2007
As/
New Holocaust
Perspective
Fresh light cast on the war years'
rescue champion.
Rafael Medoff
Special to the Jewish News
D
Washington
wring the Holocaust, some
American Jewish leaders con-
sidered rescue activist Peter
Bergson "as great an enemy of the Jews
as Hitler" because — they feared —
his criticism of President Roosevelt's
refugee policy might increase anti-
Ssemitism in the United States.
But recent scholarly research, a new
off-Broadway play and a forthcom-
ing conference in New York City are
shedding new light on the Bergson
Group's achievements — and reshap-
ing the public's understanding of how
American Jewry responded to the
Holocaust.
Bergson (whose real name was
Hillel Kook), a resident of Jerusalem,
came to the United States in 1940 at
the behest of Revisionist Zionist leader
Vladimir Ze'ev Jabotinsky. Together
with a small group of fellow activists,
Bergson established the Committee for
a Jewish Army, which used rallies and
full-page newspaper ads to mobilize
support for creating a Jewish military
force to fight alongside the Allies
against the Nazis.
The committee obtained the
endorsement of numerous members
of Congress, Hollywood celebrities,
intellectuals, and other public figures
— including many from Michigan.
Among the prominent Michiganians
who supported the Jewish army cam-
paign were Gov. Murray Van Wagoner;
U.S. Sen. Prentiss Brown; U.S. Reps.
Bartel Jonkman, Fred Bradley and
John Dingell Sr.; Samuel Harrison,
president of Adrian College; Grover
Dillman, president of the Michigan
College of Mining (now Michigan
Tech); Emmet Richards, publisher of
the Alpena News; John Rice, president
of the Houghton Mining Gazette; Carl
Saunders, editor of the Jackson Citizen
Patriot; and Alfred C. Sleight, manag-
ing editor of the Sturgis Journal.
The Jewish Army committee's public
pressure, combined with quiet lobby-
ing by major Jewish groups, eventu-
ally compelled the British to establish
the Jewish Brigade. This 5,000-man
force fought with distinction on the
European battlefield in 1945; many of
its veterans later took part in Israel's
1948 War of Independence.
Shifting Sands
When news of the mass murder
of Europe's Jews reached the West
in 1942-1943, the Bergson Group
changed its focus to pressing for U.S.
action to rescue Jews from Hitler. It
lobbied Congress, sponsored more
than 200 newspaper ads and organized
demonstrations, including a march by
400 rabbis in Washington, D.C.
The Roosevelt administration
claimed nothing could be done to
rescue the Jews except to win the war;
the Bergson Group countered with
an Emergency Conference to Save the
Jewish People of Europe, where 1,500
delegates heard military and diplo-
matic experts outline concrete ways to
rescue refugees.
Michigan Rep. George Sadowski
was a co-sponsor of the Emergency
Conference as were Highland Park
Mayor Walter Klees and Thomas
McAllister, a court of appeals judge in
Grand Rapids.
The Bergson rescue campaign cul-
minated in late 1943 with the intro-
duction of a congressional resolution
urging creation of a government agen-
cy to rescue Jewish refugees. U.S. Sen.
Homer Ferguson of Michigan was one
of the original co-sponsors of the_ bill.
The hearings on the resolution,
combined with pressure from Treasury
Secretary Henry Morgenthau Jr., con-
vinced FDR, in early 1944, to establish
the War Refugee Board. The board
played a major role in the rescue of
more than 200,000 Jews from Hitler.
A Jewish State
After the war, the Bergson Group
turned its attention to the cause of