The Jews in the War

., THE JEWS IN THE WAR I S RAE L C 0 HEN FREDERICK MULLER LTD. LONDON ·"*:_\,.-•• .. THE JEWS .IN THE WAR ,· • .By the same Author : JEWISH LIFE IN MODERN TIMES THE JOURNAL OF A Jt:WISH TRAVELLER THE RUHLEBEN PRISON CAMP A GHETTO GALLERY THE PROGRESS OF ZIONISM BRITAIN'S NAMELESS ALLY ' • • THE JEWS IN THE WAR By_ ISRAEL COHEN · • • • • I . • . LONDON FREDERICK MULLER LIMITED 29 Great James Street W.C.I FIRST PUBLISHED BY FREDERICK MULLER LTD. I N I942 PRINTED IN GREAT BRI,TAIN BY • THE CAMELOT PRESS LTD • LONDON AND SOUTHAMPTON ·- • • . CONTENTS CHAP. PAGE PREFACE 7 I. THE JEWISH ISSUE 9 II. HITLER'S FIRST WAR III. THE DESTRUCTION OF EUROPEAN JEWRY IV. THE JEWISH CONTRIBUTION 57 APPENDIX (a) Decorations awarded to B'ritish Jews in the Navy, - Army, _and Air Force - 78 · (b) Honours awarded to British Jews in Civil Defence 8o 5 PREFACE ~ HIS is the first attempt to give an account of what the Jews T are suffering and of what they are doing in the war. It is necessarily incomp!ete, partly because it is intended to be only a sketch of Jewish aspects of the titanic struggle, and partly because fuller information is in many cases still unobtainable. But, such as it is, this account should serve to enlighten public opinion, which unfortunately knows very little of the martyrdom the Jews are enduring under the barbarous Nazi regime on the Continent, and still less of the contributions-military, economic, and technical-that theJ ews of the Allied Democracies are making to the overthrow of Hitlerism. A survey of the persecution of the Jews in the "Greater Reich" during the years 1933-9 is included, as that was the first of Hitler's wars against civilisation: had its true character been recognised in time and apprppriate measures • been taken, it is conceivable that it might have been possible to avert,' or at least to forestall, the greater catastrophe that followep. The information in Chapter III is based upon reports obtained by , the various Governments in exile, upon those published by neutral correspondents, upon those of eye-witnesses who have escaped from the Nazi terror, and also upon those that the German Government itself has shamelessJy issued as proof of its ruthlessness. For some of the information in Chapter IV I am indebted to various friends and national and public bodies that prefer to remain anonymous. For many of the facts in the sections dealing with the military and civil defence services of Anglo-Jewry, and for most of the names in the Appendix, I acknowledge indebtedness to the Jewish Chronicle. The design on the cover is the traditional "Shield of David," which the Nazis, miscalling it the "Star of David," ' have compelled the • Jews in Germany and the occupied territories to wear as a badge of shame, but which Jews will continue· to honour as-a symbol of unwavering loyalty to their ancestral faith. I have refrained from touching on what the Jewish people expects from the Peace that is to follow the war: that important question must be reseryed for separate treatment. I. C. LoNDO¥, June, I942· 7 - . CHAPTER I THE JEWISH ISSUE HE Jews occupy a uniq.ue and unenviable distinction in this war. However much the lives and liberties of other nations mayT be threatened by Hitler in his megalomaniac lust for world · dominion, and however much their lands may be ravaged, they will nevertheless survive the: present 'catastrophe and rebuild their countries anew. But the Jews on the Continent of Europe, who form halfofthe entire Jewish people, are threatened in thei~ very existence. The suppression of freedom and the subjugation of humanity to the whims and behests of a tyrant are only one aspect of the titanic conflict that has now encircled the whole world. Another and -cardinal aspect is the crusade against the Je"YS. These two objectives may seem altogether unequal in gravity and importance, but they are both pursued energetically and methodically, with equal relentlessness, though with different weapons; and they are intimately connected with one another, - for upon the survival of the principles of civilisation depends the future of the Jewish people. Hitler is resolved to exterminate as many Jews as ht< can, and to reduce the rest to a state of slavery worse than that under the ancient Pharaohs. He is bent upon destroying them, not only physi·cally, so that they shall no longer figure in. the racial map of Europe, but also, and even more, spiritually, as the heirs of a religion, the creators of a historic culture, and contributors to ·the progress of mankind . .His hostility to them is no mere passing caprice or momentary craze. It is an overpowering passion, which is just as compelling a motive ip his monstrous mentality as the longing for world supremacy; and throughout his stormy life that passion has not been allowed to be obsGured or assuaged for an instant by the most formidable campaigns he has launched or the most hazardous political decisions he has taken. "Perish Judah!" has been the const.ant and dominatlng thought, the ,idee fixe, in his infuriated brain, which neither his failure to invade Britain nor his frustrated ambitions in Russia, nor his impotent rage against America has tended to weaken even in the slightest degree. For him the fight against the Jews is just as all-important and vital as the war. against the Allied Democracies. He even 9 IO THE JEWS IN THE WAR regards it as a divine mission, for in Mein 1Kampf he blasphem ously wrote: "I believe to-day that I am acting in the sense of the Almighty Creator: in defending myself against the Jew I fight for the work of the Lord." . · There are few more revealing statements about Hitler's · hostility towards the Jews than the following passage in the report which the last French Ambassador in Prague ~ent to the French Foreign Office on his conversation with the Czechoslovak ' Minister of Foreign Affairs, M. Chvalkows,ky, after the latter's return frcfm Berlin:l \ "What appear.s to have impressed him most was the im portance which Herr flitler and Herr von Ribbentrop attach to the Jew_ish question-absolutely out of proportion to the importance given to other questions dealt with. The Foreign Minister of the Reich, as well as the Chancellor, are said to . have stated emphatically that it was not possible to give a German guarantee to a State which does not eliminate the Jews. ., ~ " 'Do not imitate the sentimental and leisurely manner in which we ourselves treated this problem,' the two statesmen .are repqrted to have said. 'Our kindness was nothing but weakness, and we regret it. This vermin must be destroyed. The Jews are our sworn enemies, and at the end of this year there will not be a Jew left in Germany. Neither the French nor the Americans nor the English are responsible for the -difficulties in our r:elations with Paris, London, or Washington. Those responsible are the Jews. We will give similar advice to Rumania, Hungary, etc.... Germany will seek to form a bloc of anti-Semitic States, as she would not be able to treat as friends the States in which the Jews; either through their/ economic activity or through their high positions, could -exercise any kind of influence.' " It is impossible to argue about such an obsession, fo~-it is entirely devoid of the least vestige of a rational basis. But that obsession the product of ignorance, inherited prejudice, and original and unfathomable fanaticism-has unfortunately been the cause of the most cruel sufferings that have befallen millions of Jews in many .. ' lands since Hitler's rise to power. Nor are their afflictions by any means approaching an end, for, as the diabolical Dr. Goebbels -wrote in a recent number· of Das Reich: , 1 Tk French Yellow Book, p. 53· " THE JEWISH ISSUE I I "The Jews are experiencing a fate which is hard, but no more than deserved. Sympathy or pity has no place here. World Jewry is now undergoing a gradual process of annihilation." ~ These foamings of Hitler and his henchmen are supported by the charge: "The Jews are our ruin. They plotted this war and brought it about. They wanted thereby to annihilate the German Reich and the German people."l B~.+t there were similar ravings years before the war began. They are ,all simply expressions of the policy laid down by the N ational• SoGialist Party in. the programme adopted at -its foundation in I92o: .they are echoes ofthe abuse,. calumny, and denunciation :with which }y.[ein Kampf reeks from cover to over. For it is necessary to remember that Hitler began his war against the Jews not in I939, nor when he became ruler of Germany in I 933, but ·as soon as he founded his party in a beer-house in Munich in 1920. It is superfluous at this time of day to reproduce the tissue of gross and baseless accusa tions by which he professed to justifY his crusade, since they have . been repeatedly and effectively refuted. Nor did he rely upon them entirely himself, since he a.ttacked, not only Jews, but also Christians of Jewish descent: he attributed to their Jewish blood a degree of original sin that all the virtues of the saints could not wash away-a thesis that all scientists have dismissed as the figment of a frenzied imagination. Nor is he content t.o persecute Christians with a Jewish ancestor, but reviles all the principles of' Christianity and imprison~ its priests.

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