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Voi. XVII No. 6 June, 1962 INFORMATION ISSUED BY THE ASSOCIATION OF JEWISH REFUGEES IN GREAT BRITAIN t FAIRFAX MANSIONS, FINCHLEY RD, (corner Fairfax Rd). London, N.W.S 0//ict and CoMuiting Hourt: Telephone: MAIda Vale 9096-7 (General OUice and Welfare tor the Aged) Monday to Thuriday IOa.m-1 Bin 3-6 B m MAIda Vale 4449 (Emplovment Agency, annually licensed bv the L.CC.. , , .' '""""'»'""'•'"• ' P""-•> » P-m and Social Services Dept,) Friday W a.m.—I p.m. H. C. Reissner " co-operation" than they actually did ? In this regard, too, it behoves all survivors to remain very modest. Who knows how we would have acted in the perverted circumstances of JEWISH RESISTANCE UNDER THE NAZIS temporary existence in the ghettoes of the East under Nazi control ? Opportunities and Limitations One specific word only in vindication of the attitude of the German Jews. Admittedly we were overtly optimistic in our early expectations Most readers of " AJR Information" have prehensive evidence submitted by the author relative to intemal mitigating forces such as the themselves witnessed some phase of the destruc­ himself seems to challenge his contention that the Reichswehr and the Conservatives, as well as to tion of Jewish individuals and institutions on the European Jews were, on the whole, a frightened the external impact of Western public opinion and European Continent ; but our own experiences herd of hypnotised humanity incapable of offering political pressure. On the other hand, what little and recollections have, necessarily, been restricted active resistance. There was, at least on Russian we could, then, try to achieve on a day-to-day in terms of time and region. The sense of territory, enough of Jewish participation in partisan basis betrayed a genuine sense of constructive bewilderment, shock and loss will not leave us as warfare, in conjunction with that of other resistance. We—non-Zionists and Zionists alike— long as we live, though much has happened since nationalities, to have given the Nazis formal justi­ did not '• sell out ", nor did we run away so as for which we must be grateful. To assess the fication for the installation of " mobile killing to please the " Corporal from Austria ". Even whole breadth and depth of the tragedy a certain units ". The participation of Jews in the French after it had become obvious—latest since the degree of detachment would seem necessary. Resistance as well as the last-ditch fight of the annexation of Austria—that matters were heading both in terms of personal involvement and time. Warsaw Ghetto are also matters of record. To for a catastrophe of global dimensions, and in the This is true of the learned author of the book call this " the exception that proves the rule " (as face of mounting obstacles in countries of poten­ under review.* He is now on the faculty of the Prof. Hugh Trevor-Roper did in the New tial immigration, we tried to conduct an orderly, University of Vermont (where he has specialised Statesman of March 2nd, 1962) sounds like a dignified process of liquidation. in international relations and American foreign sort of negative exaggeration. policy). He was born in Central Europe, but was It remains, all the same, true that "Aggression " obviously too young to have retained more than The Record of German Jewry a haunting memory of events presented in his had a year's headstart over " Resistance", and book. He gained insight when he returned to that a significant early phase of the latter was There was just one instance of an elected Europe with^ the U.S. forces, amplifying it later dubbed the " Phoney War", to say nothing of Jewish spokesman—Kareski—who thought he on by professional work, as a member of the the phoney, perverted temporary political alliance could "sup with the devil", i,e,, come to terms U.S. War Documentation Project. All told, he between Nazis and Russians. In spite of ample with the Nazis, by giving away Jews who were spent ten years on the compilation and evaluation warnings, neither the Jews nor the nations at active Socialists or alleged s) mpathisers. Of this of his material. His sources are German as well large, whose citizens the Jews were, had been episode (whose victims were Adler-Rudel and the as Allied, including those now located behind the prepared to anticipate, appraise and prevent the late Wilfrid Israel) Hilberg does not seem to politically dividing line. culmination of the Wagnerian " Goetterdaem- have been aware. He is, however, unexception­ merung " psychology. Nor must it be overlooked able in quoting the late Dr. Baeck relative to the From the outset it must be appreciated that that most observers abroad regarded the victimisa­ " co-operation " of the " Reichsvereinigung der Hilberg's review encompasses the fate of all tion of the German Jews by the Nazis from 1933 Juden in Deutschland", on the eve of the European Jews, from Norway to Greece, not just to 1939 as a regrettable domestic affair, beyond deportations: of the former German Jews who were the first outside jurisdiction. In their own lack of pre­ I made it a principle to accept no appoint­ objects of victimisation. Moreover, his focus is paredness, therefore, Jews reflected the lack of ments from the Nazis and to do nothing which not so much on the victims but rather on the foresight of the governments and nations involved. might help them. But later, when the question perpetrators, i,e.. the people who destroyed The most that can be admitted is that it was arose whether Jewish orderlies should help pick the Jews. His restrained narrative covers the perhaps a little more diflficult for Jews to sense up Jews for deportation, I took the position attempted, nearly successful Nazi policy of impending doom because religious disposition had that it would be better for them to do it, annihilation, from its " philosophical" roots to them ill-prepared to face the possibility of the because they could at least be more gentle and its administrative implementation, with the worst realistically. helpful than the Gestapo and make the ordeal emohasis on the latter. Some authorities, including Prof. Hilberg and easier. It was scarcely in our power to oppose Hilberg divides his report in stages, as the Prof. Trevor-Roper, seem inclined to blame this the order effectively (our italics). squeeze became gradually more thorough and rather on a meek defensive psychology developed What Dr. Baeck did not say in the context, and more deadly, viz. expropriation ; concentration ; during the centuries of the "Dispersion" of the what Hilberg omits to stress, is the fact that each tnobile killing operations ; deportations (with sub­ Jewish people. They have toand an unsolicited of the leaders of the Jews then remain'ng in paragraphs for each country involved); killing ally also in the American-Jewish writer Ben Hecht, Germany—Dr. Baeck, Dr. Hirsch, Dr. Seligsohn, centre operations. Thus, the reader is informed whose book, "Perfidy" (New York, 1961). Director Stahl—could have saved their own skins 'or reminded, as the case may be) how the pro­ happened to appear simultaneously with Hilberg's, by emigration long before deportation, but that cedure and the tools of destruction were, step by Ben Hecht. an active supporter of political they stood by their flock in its hour of doom step, more boldlv devised and more systematically extremism of the Jabotinsky brand of Zionism, and that they sacrificed their lives in the service perfected. He also learns how the "philo­ accuses Weizmann, Ben-Gurion and Sharett of of the community. They truly "hallowed the sophical ". destructive impulse eventually prevailed betrayal of the Jewish masses in that he says Name ". over rational assessments. Not having lived the Jewish Agency for Palestine acted as a mere These notes of dissent, rather than meant to through the period of war in Europe himself, this lackey of the British and did not come to the detract from Prof. Hilberg's scholarly merits, reviewer was amazed at the extent of the contri­ rescue of remaining milhons of doomed Jewish reflect the " agonising reappraisal " invoked at the bution to the industrial war eflfort which was victims of Nazi extermination policy, in Hungary beginning of the present review. In his concluding extorted from millions (family members included) and elsewhere. words, Hilberg does not shirk the issue which °t potential and eventual victims. They, of course, presents itself to all who ever, and whenever and ^?'^cd in the elementary, but futile hope of bare We who happened to survive individually— including author Hilberg—ought to restrain any wherever, ponder over the meaning of the events Physical survival. The nihilistic approach— described and analysed: can history repeat itself, Judjeam esse delendam—at the " brain " centre of tendency towards self-righteousness from hind­ sight. But it seems to this writer, as must be and is such an occurrence conceivable in another operations was stronger than utilitarian evalua­ country ? Basing himself mainly on American tions at the periphery. It must, forever, remain stressed repeatedly, that the Nazi offer of release of sizeable numbers of Jews was not made in experiences, Hilberg contrasts the process of ° debatable point whether Jews in sizeable destruction of a minority with that of its absorp­ "Umbers would have been released if trucks had good faith and that it would have been repudiated tion. He rightly observes: "The destruction °*cn made available in exchange. had the impossible been achieved, i.e., had com­ process had a tendency to accelerate in final modities been put up for exchange, had transport steps : absorption slows down as it reaches toward rhis is as far as the thoroughly documented been made available and had territory been set its goal." At the same time, how comparatively eport^ goes " about the people who destroyed the aside to receive the released masses.

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