Trudy Gold
Zionism and the Holocaust, Part 2
Trudy Gold - Zionism and The Holocaust, Part 2
- Welcome everyone. Now, of course, Zionism and the Holocaust. It’s quite a painful subject, because one of my, if you remember what I talked about last week, I said, “What was Zionism?” If you think about it, Zionism has three ingredients. One is the Messianic dream, the spiritual aspect, the connection of the Jew with the land. There’s also a modern nationalism, that as a response to the 19th century and the rise of nationalism, and also what many young, alienated people saw as the failure of acculturation and emancipation. It led to them rethinking what it means to be a Jew. And you may remember, I actually said to the group, “Why on earth don’t you talk about that amongst your own family? What does the word mean to you?” And also, for the majority of Zionist leaders, like Herzl, like Pinsker, but to them it was a response to anti-Semitism. They saw modern anti-Semitism as a continuum of the 2000-year-old disease.
They didn’t believe it would go away, and they believed the only way Jews could have dignity in the world, it was actually Pinsker who said, “You’re ghosts upon the face of the world, only if you have, can you have dignity in the world, if you actually say we are in our own country, our own free country.” So consequently, as events unfolded in Europe, in the interwar period, and remember, it is not just Germany. Important to remember the rise of antisemitism in Poland, in the Baltic states, in Italy, in France, the polarisation of a nation. Is it ever not so? Just think about what’s going on at the moment in France. for the Zionist in Palestine. And they were in the minority. You know, in two, in 1933, only 200,000 Jews out of 18 million wide worldwide had taken the call of Zionism. But they did believe that in the end, the only salvation for the Jew was their own country. And of course, with the rise of Hitler and the notion of a Judenrein Reich, and even more troubling perhaps for today, the number of countries who were totally indifferent and some could say complicit in the, to the plight of the Jews that really led to this appalling situation.
So it was then in May, 1939, the British renege on the Balfour Declaration, according to Winston Churchill, although they said they never really meant much by it anyway, in the first place, and I know you lawyers on board and we’ve always got a lot of lawyers on course, you could actually have a look at that letter, dissect it and work out what you think it means. But the point is, the British changed their minds. They restrict Jewish immigration to 15,000 a year for five years. Whoever has the majority has the state. And as far as the Zionists in Palestine were concerned, it’s, look, what did Jabotinsky say back in 1938, ‘37 to the appeal commission? He said, there are 4 million Jews at threat in the East. He said, it’s not, it’s the difference between appetite and starvation. The Arabs have many states just give us a sliver of land. And what about Weitzman? He actually said there are 6 million at risk, even Trotsky, even Trotsky in Mexico, who had been the great internationalist. He said, “The world is divided into those countries that won’t let the Jews in and those countries that won’t let the Jews live.”
So these are all outsiders, but the point, you cannot predict the show up. We’ve said this many times. But having said that, to close the door at this particular time, and as you’ve already, as we’ve discussed already last week, Bangorian, we will fight the white paper as though there is no, as though there is no Hitler and Hitler, as though there is no white paper. By the time war breaks out, the Haggadah and the Irgun decide to fight with the British. What are the choices? Now, one thing that I think this has made such a mark on the Jewish world is actually, and we’re going to see all these rival factions in the Jewish world trying to work out how to combat this appalling situation. And in the end, I suppose the real tragedy is what on earth could they do? In the end, none of them had the power to save their people. And we’re going to see the bitterness and the tragedy that later spilled into Israeli politics. Because really from 33 onwards, there is going to be bad blood between the various groups within Palestine on how they deal with the outside world, how they deal with saving the Jews.
And in the end, they all failed because they didn’t have the power. And this was a lesson that was learned by the state of Israel. I always remember Golden Mayer’s words. She was an observer at the Evian conference, you will recall at the Evian conference of 1938, 32 countries came together to discuss the plight of European refugees. The Jews. It was really the Jews of Germany and Austria. The Dutch said they’d take a few more. The Dominican Republic offered to take a hundred thousand, but that came to nothing. Gordon Mayor sat there as an observer. She wasn’t a delegate, she didn’t represent a country remember. And she said that the day will come when no one will pity the Jews. And I think the other point, and this came out when David was talking about Ilivicel and something that his son said. It’s fascinating because when Ilivicel was deported in 1944, in April, May, 1944, he said, “In our town, no one knew. We went to our deaths. We didn’t know what was in store for us.”
And as David pointed out, there’d been a minute silence in the House of Commons on December the 17th, 1942, because the killings, we’ve talked about the Warsaw Ghetto, but the killings, don’t forget, they begin with the invasion of Russia, and it’s the Russians who first alert the world. Plus of course the papacy, or I should say rather not the papacy, but various priests, et cetera. Every village in Catholic Poland had a priest. Plus of course, you had the extraordinary Jankowski who smuggled himself into the Warsaw Ghetto. By the end of 41, they knew something terrible was happening. By the end of 42, enough evidence had come through from so many different sources, which we discussed last week, including of course, Gerhard Reider in Switzerland, that he could, they could actually have that minute silence. And yet what was done? What was actually done to save the Jews of Europe? Before I go any further though, I want to pull us back. Before I came on air this evening, I was having a chat with William Tyler about objective history.
And we both agree that it’s almost impossible to teach objective history because of the world we come from. Each of us has our own prism, but what we both try to do is to be as objective as possible. So this is an incredibly emotive subject, particularly dealing with a group such as you, many of whose families tragically were lost as a result of this. So I’m going to quote, first of all, from the great Yehuda Bower and then from the great Lucy Davidowitz. This is what Lord Bower on knowledge. “Knowing usually comes in a number of stages. First, the information has to be disseminated, then it has to be believed. That is some connection has to be established between the new reality and a possible course of action. Finally, there can be an action if and when can action come.
And also, when we talk about the British not opening the doors of Palestine and the British not believing the stories, Bower points out that they were wary of horror stories because of what was said in World War I. There were all, there was all sorts of propaganda in World War I. And this is what else he said, this is important. "The priority was always allied victory”, I’m quoting. The only real remedy for the consistent Nazi policy of racial and religious persecution lies in allied victory. That comes from Clement Atley. And he also said, “When the hour of liberation strikes, it will also be the hour of retribution.” Whatever that word means and we’re going to do quite a lot on that later in the course. And this is Lucy Davidowitz, the great Lucy Davidowitz. It’s important to remind ourselves of the important elementary historical fallacy of hindsight. And to guard against the temptation to be influenced by what we now know concerning the ultimate fate of those unfortunate refugees is excluded from asylum in Great Britain and its empire, including Palestine.
Let me just reread though the speech of Bangorian on November the 29th, 1942. This is when there have been articles in the newspapers. And of course you had what is called the Days of dread in Palestine, those hundred days where they thought that in fact Ronald’s army would break through. And research in 2007 showed that there were already Einstein’s Bruen prepared to destroy the Jewish community in Palestine and of course the Sephardi communities of North Africa and the Arab world. And tomorrow I’m going to be talking about Hajj Amin al-Husayni and his record. He, of course, was the leader of Palestinian Arabs. And now this is what Bangorian wrote, said rather. He made this speech, “We do not know exactly what goes on in the Nazi valley of death or how many Jews have already been slaughtered, murdered, burnt, and buried alive. How many other doomed to annihilation. We are the only people in the world whose blood as a nation is allowed to be shed.
Only our children, our women, our brothers, because the Jews have no state, no army, no independence, no homeland. We demand the right to our homeland and independence. What happened to us in Poland, what God forbid will happen to us in the future. All our innocent victims, all the tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions are the sacrifices of a people without a homeland. Let us tell our dear brothers, martyred and tortured in the Nazi ghettos. Your tragedy is our tragedy. Your blood, our blood. We shall have no rest. And we till we redeem you both from the Nazi hill and from the debilitating exile and bring you to the land we are building and redeeming. So in 1939, as I said before, what happens is the Jews, the both the Irgun and the Haganah do decide to fight with the British. It’s important to remember that when the white paper was first announced, the Irgun did start fighting the British. But once war breaks out, they join in. And it’s only Avram Stern and his group. So I’m going to be talking about him in a minute. So the Arab riots of 1936 to 39, it was during that period that odd wing gates had organised special night squads strained into commando tactics.
What had happened was the Jews of Palestine, when war breaks out, they they offered to join the army. However, at this stage they didn’t, the British didn’t want them in because they realised that they would eventually be fighting a group that eventually would turn against them. And it’s not really until 1943 that there is a sizable number of Jews allowed into the British Army. I’m going to talk a little about some of the heroes, because remember you have the Haganah, the Irgun and then the Stern. They all believed passionately in a Jewish homeland. And the divisions between them, in my humble opinion, had far more to do with external threats of powerlessness than anything else. And what I think is such a tragedy is that, of course all these threads today continue in Israeli politics. So can we see the first slide please? Let’s look at some of the heroes. Let’s look at the first commander of the, the first commander actually of the Irgun. Now Avraham’s Homey. He was, his dates are 1903 to 1990.
He was born Avraham Zilberg in Odessa. His background, he immigrated as a pioneer. He joined the Haganah. The Haganah of force had been founded in 1920 and he joined it. And by 1924, he was the commander in Jerusalem. He, it’s a really… There’s one issue that I am going to bring up because how does one deal with the past? Now, the main commander of the Haganah in Jerusalem, was it Zac Benzivie, who was so close to Bangorian and was also, of course, the second president of Israel. On June the 30th, 1924, homey was accused of assassinating, a Dutch Jewish poet, a man called Jacob Israel Dahan. he’d come to Palestine as an ardent Zionist and become, had, become increasingly critical of the situation. And what he wanted, he’d already met with the Emmy Hussein and he wanted the support of the old Yishuv. He became very religious, became involved with the old Herate community who were in opposition to Zionism. And what he supported was a state in Palestine, really of trans Jordan, where the Jews would be a minority. He actually had made plans to travel to London with an anti-Zionist delegation to talk to the British.
And he was assassinated. The killer was never caught. But later on Tehomi, admitted later on in an interview, Tehomi admitted that he had assassinated him actually. And he said he did it under orders. This was the first political murder in Palestine. And it gives you a notion of really, I suppose the blood that is going to erupt between the two people. So his commander in Jerusalem, and in between 1929 and 31, he is the is the second in command of the whole of the Haganah. After 1929, there is a huge dispute over tactics. It all exploded in the, of course, in the Arab rights of 1929. He breaks away and he with a few others, established the Irgun. However, by 1937, he did try and bring them together, but it wasn’t to work. And he rejoined, he actually does rejoin the Haganah, whereas he the other man who left it with him, let’s see him next, please. Can we see the next slide? This is David Raziel. David Raziel, his dates are 1910 to 1941. These are all heroes of Israel. He was born David Rosenstein near Vilnius in the Russian Empire. When he was three, the family came to Palestine.
His father taught at a religious school in Tel Aviv. In World War I, his family were exiled to Egypt by the Turks because they were Russian subjects. You know, we’ve talked about this before. The number of German Jews who were interned by the British after war breaks out. Well, the same thing happened in Palestine because the settlers, most of the settlers in Palestine were Jews from the Russian empire. Turkey was at war with Russia. So ironically, his family, along with thousands of others were exiled. They come back in 1923. David has a very religious background. He goes to Yeshiva in Jerusalem. He was a very mystical, very spiritual man. And he was a study partner of a man called Rabbis Yehuda Cook, who was the son of the Ro Yeshiva and the Chief Rabbi of Palestine, Avraham Isaac Cook. And we’re going to do a separate session on him. He was a fascinating man. He of course was very pious, a very religious man, but he was not against the settlers.
And he even looked at the settlers of the second aliah. You know, those young people who in the main were atheistic, they were very modern in their outlook. The women wore shorts in the fields. They fought alongside the men. They often didn’t marry. They were so apart from traditional Jewish values. And you know what he said, Ralph Cook? He said, "These people, they are God’s instruments. The problem is they don’t yet know it.” And this was David. His son was David’s study partner. He joins the Haganah because of the, because of the events in 1929. He was actually at that time studying philosophy and mathematics at the Hebrew University. By the way, his sister later who, brilliant woman, she later became a member of the Knesset for the Kerut party. He leaves the Irgun, he leaves the Haganah for the Irgun in 1937. This is after the next set of riots, the 36 37 riots. And he became the first commander in Jerusalem. He worked very closely with another colleague of his, Avraham Stern. They felt now that the, they became very much under the spell of the teachings of Vladimir Jabotinsky. That in the end there has to be a greater or a lesser injustice.
And they had to fight for a state now. Now he was imprisoned at the outbreak of war. Many of them were. And it’s interesting because he was also imprisoned along with some of the Polma. Now it’s fascinating because the Polma, who were in prison, now what do a lot of these people have? They have languages. And it’s at this stage that’s the British, when there is a, the British then realise that these people can be useful to them. There is an uprising in Iraq, and I’ll be talking about that at another time. But also Lynn Julius will be coming in to talk about the Jews of the Arab world at this period, Iraq was allied to Britain. It’s a British, remember it’s a British mandate. The Iraqi mandate is a British mandate. They of course, had done a deal with the British. They were supporting the British. Then there was an uprising. The Hajj Amin al-Husayni had a lot to do with it. And I’m going to talk about it, and I’m going to talk about that tomorrow. There’s an uprising. And the British want to get rid of the, they want to get rid of the man who leads the uprising. And David Raziel also wants to get rid of Hajj Amin al-Husayni who stirred it up. Not only was there a terrible uprising, there was a pogrom. As the uprising was being put down, Jews were murdered by the mob.
And it was very much the instigation of Hajj Amin al-Husayni. David Raziel goes into Iraq, where tragically he is killed by he’s in a jeep and it’s strafed by aircraft, by German aircraft. And of course he dies. So he dies in Iraq. In 1955, his remains were exhumed and returned to Cyprus. And in 1961, he was buried. He was reburied on Mount Hertzel in Jerusalem. So here you have another great hero. Can we see the third of the heroes please? Let’s see Avraham Stern, if you don’t mind. Yes, the dreamy mystical Avraham Stern. His dates, 1907 to 1942. He was born in Suwalki. It’s now in Poland. And during the, so he’s born in 1907. During World War I, his mother and sister, they fled into a Russia. He separated from his family. He survived age 13 as a water carrier in Siberia. He stayed with an Uncle Siberia before walking home to Poland. And at age 18, he emigrates on his own to Palestine. You can see from that dreamy face, he studied at the Hebrew University. What did he study?
He studied classical languages, literature, Greek and Latin. He founded a student organisation called Hulda. It was very much dedicated to what? To the revival of the Hebrew language and literature. He was a passionate Zionist. In 1929, during the Arab, the Arabs, he served with the Haganah. His commander, who had a huge influence on him, was also his friend, Avraham Tehomi. And when Tehomi leads the Haganah for, to create the Irgun, he also, he wanted to break away from the labour dominated Yishuv because the Haganah was really the defence arm of the Yishuv, which was very much the Labour party. There were also these young people coming mainly through Betar, which was Jabotinsky’s organisation. Both politically and economically, they had a different perspective on the kind of society they wanted. And he, when the breakaway occurs, he joins, in 1932, he joins the Irgun Zvai Leumi. He completes an officer’s course. Now it’s fascinating because he was a poet, he was a writer. He was extraordinarily intellectually gifted, as was David Raziel.
It’s fascinating. So many of these young people be they to the left or to be they to the right, they had huge intellectual and physical gifts. It seemed though at a certain time, a group of people came together who were giants. And this is where I’m speaking personally. I look at the world around me and I just wish we had more of those giants. I’m not saying I agree with them, but what I’m saying is they were people of huge dreams and huge principles. He as a poet, he was very much influenced. He spoke fluent Russian. He was influenced by Russian writing Polish writers. He was also fascinated, and it has to be said, by the cult of death. There’s a lot of death eroticism in his poetry. And in fact, his song, the Unknown Soldiers, the words become the anthem of the Irgun, and later on the Lehi. And this is another poem of his, “You are betrothed to me, my homeland, according to the law of Moses in Israel. And with my death, I will bury my head in your lap and will live forever. You will live in my blood.” He was one of the top students at the university. He was awarded a stipend to study in Florence. What a dream. He goes to Florence. Tehomi goes on a trip back to Florence and say, “We need you in Palestine”, and he becomes his deputy. In the thirties, he spends much of his time travelling in Eastern Europe.
He organises cells to really motivate young Polish Jews saying, “You’ve got to get out, you’ve got to get out now.” Do you remember a few weeks ago, I read to you a speech that Jabotinsky made in 1938 at Tisha B'Av, where he said, “You know the, you are on the edge of the abyss. You don’t realise it because of what is happening in your ordinary lives. You have to get on with your ordinary lives, the worries, but the abyss is coming and I beg you.” And under the spell of Jabotinsky, he very much wanted to do everything he could to persuade the young to get out. And he also wanted, this involves smuggling, smuggling Jews into Palestine because particularly if you think about it, it was getting more and more difficult. He also, in defiance of restrictions, he develops a plan to train 40,000 young Jews to sail to Palestine and after the white paper to actually take over the country. This was given sanctioned by Jabotinsky, but Jabotinsky dies in the August.
Now ironically, the polls agreed to help and began training the Irgun. But what happened was, the British put a lot of pressure on them to stop it. Stern was actually arrested the night war began. The whole of the Irgun command was incarcerated in Jerusalem central prison. And whilst in prison, they all argued what to do. And in August, 1940, he created Lehi, Lohamei Herut Israel, fighters for the freedom of Israel. He founded it after the Irgun decided to join the Haganah, in fighting with the British, He organised a new underground army. He published a newspaper. There were radio broadcasts justifying urban gorilla war. He obtained funds either through donations or robbing British banks. He opened with negotiations with foreign powers like the Italians, to try and save Jews. He led military style operations. Many of the projects backfired. Jewish police were killed along with the British. A sting operation actually caught him trying to negotiate with Germans and Italians.
In January 1941, he even attempted an agreement with the Nazis to actively take part in the war on Germany’s side. And of course the Germans didn’t follow it up. There was a price on his head. He was finally captured and in, he was actually shot whilst in police custody. And of course his followers. And I think today it’s accepted by the majority of scholars. He was shot in cold bar blood. The assistant superintendent, Jeffrey Martin, had three attempts on his life. Now Avraham Stern was an absolutely fascinating man, as was David Raziel, as was Marshe Diane, who was Haganah Alma. He also was fighting for the British. He was fighting for the British in Syria. Why Syria? It had been a French protectorate and it was under Vishi France and recognised by the Germans. So you have these young Palestinian Jews all having to make these terrible decisions. As far as Stern was concerned, he said the British were as bad as the Nazis because they are restricting Jewish life. Last week, I mentioned the number of boats that were turned back because, and the British administration in Palestine refused to allow not only to increase the quota, but ironically the quota wasn’t even filled. So out of this powerlessness came desperation. Avraham Stern actually laid out the ideology of Lehi in an essay, the 18 Principles of Birth.
He said this, the nation, the Jewish people, is a covenanted nation. The originator of monotheism, formation of the prophetic teachings, standard bear of human culture, guardian of glorious patrony. The Jewish people is schooled in self-sacrifice. The homeland. The homeland in the land of Israel within the border is designated in the Bible. “To your descendants, I shall give this land from the river of Egypt to the great Euphrates River”, Genesis 15:18. This is the land of the living where the entire nation shall live in safety. I think those of you who study politics will realise that is a real problem. The nation and its land, Israel conquer the land with a sword. There it became a great nation and only there will it be reborn. Hence, Israel alone has a right to that land. There is no accommodation, there is no political nuance with Avraham Stern. The goals: redemption of the land, establishment of sovereignty, revival of the nation. And he said, “We must educate, we must have total unity, the unity of the entire nation. Pacts, make pats with those who will help us consolidate and increase the fighting force in the homeland and in the diaspora, in the underground war.
Make constant war against those who stand in the way of fulfilling the goals. Conquest, the conquest of the homeland from foreign rule and its eternal possessions. Sovereignty, rule of justice, reviving the wilderness.” So it’s an interesting manifest from Avraham Sterns, but it led many who were opposed to his ideas to actually accuse him of going far too far. And remember, Jewish life is also being lost in his war against the British. He dies in police custody in 1942. The Irgun continue, the Irgun, continue the fight with the British until more and more evidence comes through of what is going on in Europe. And this is one of the problems. You have high invites in London. you have all sorts of Jewish organisations all over Europe, all over the world trying to persuade the allies to do something. By the beginning of 1944, even Auschwitz, even the secret of Auschwitz had been revealed. Look, the minutes of the Vansen conference was leaked. I’ve already mentioned Gehold Regna. More and more evidence coming through from neutral Switzerland, from Sweden.
People talk. It was an open secret. Look, we’d already had the minute silence. There were reports in the newspapers and nothing is happening. Now the question, is there anything that the British could do? Is there anything that the allies could do to save the Jewish people? And if they could, why didn’t they do it? These are the questions, but I think in a way they’re dangerous questions to ask because it takes us away from the perpetrators. I want to be very clear here. We know who did it. We are not accusing the allies of being perpetrators. But the question you have to ask yourself, when does bystanding become collaboration? Do we take Lucy Davidowitz’s point that we know because we know what happened, we judge it far more harshly? It’s fascinating, this subject of who knew and what they knew. I’ve taught Jewish history for over 40 years. And when I first started teaching, many of my students, of course, were adults during the war. And many of them, really good people, active in Jewish communal affairs, they swore that they didn’t really know what was going on.
On the other hand, my father, who was a very pragmatic man, he had precap and he was not in the least bit. He never told a story. Let me put it this way. He procured poison for my grandmother. If a Nazi did cross the channel, he was very politically active. So it’s a mixed picture. There are articles in the press, there are broadcasts. Don’t forget Bletchley Park. Don’t forget the breaking of the Enigma code. So much information is coming through. We’ve even had that minute silence in the House of Commons, remember. the Intereli declaration? So is there a case to answer? By February, 1944, a man called Menachem Begin have taken over the Irgun. And it’s at this stage Begin, I will be talking about Begin in much more detail in another session. Here you see him slightly older. He was an extraordinary individual. And I want to give him, of course, the justice as we should with Bangorian. And we must give them the justice of at least a session on their own. But he had come to Palestine in ANDA’s army. He didn’t dessert. He left the army with the permission and he went to join the Irgun. Before the war, he’d always been a great supporter of Jabotinsky.
And I may have told you this story because Felic Schaff was present in a meeting in Crackle in 1937, where Jabotinsky was addressing the revisionist Zionists and Begin made a big speech and Jabotinsky laid his hands on him and said, “You are my future.” Felic almost got very moist when he told that story. Later on, Felic completely disagreed with his politics and became very left wing. But the point is, he always had a great deal of reverence for Jabotinsky in his youth. And this is the Irgun Zvai Leumi. This is their pamphlet when they decide to resume the war against the British. “We are in the last stage of World War. Each and every nation is now conducting its national reckoning. What are its triumphs and what are its losses? What road must it take in order to achieve its goal and fulfil its mission? Who are its friends and who are its enemies? Who is the true ally and who is the traitor?
Sons of Israel, Hebrew youth, we stand at the final stage of war. We face a historic decision on our future destiny. The truth proclaimed where war broke out has been violated by the British. The rulers of the country have taken into account neither loyalty nor concession nor sacrifice. They have continued to implement their aim, the liquidation of sovereign Zionism. We must draw the necessary conclusions. Our nation will fight this regime. Fight to the end. And this is our demand, rule over the land of Israel, must immediately be handed to a provisional Hebrew government. The Hebrew government of Israel, the sole legal representative of the Jewish people must immediately laughter its establishment, begin the implementation of the following principles, establishing a national Hebrew army, conducting negotiations with authorised bodies on the organisation of the mass evacuation of European Jews the establishment of Hebrew governments, and the implementation of its plans. This is the sole way. Jews, our fighting youth, will not be deterred by victim’s, blood and suffering. They will not surrender. We will not rest until they restore our past glory. May God be with us.”
That was the statement of Begin when he began the war again against the British. So what you have, what you see happening is that they begin the fight, and then of course we come to one of the darkest chapters in this terrible chapter of human history, the show up. And that of course is the story of Hungarian jury. Now, I’m going to next week spend at least two sessions on Hungarian jury. But suffice to say, I’m going to be talking about this now because it’s going to lead to a complete rupture with Britain. What happens is this. On March the 19th, 1944, Hungarian jury in the main were still intact under Admiral Horthy. Of course, those who had were in enlarged Hungary, they were, some of them were murdered by the Nazis. But the point is, in the main, the bulk of Hungarian jury had not yet been murdered. And if you look at the situation of Europe in 1940, the beginning of 1944, look, the two of the major death counts had already been eliminated because they’d murdered Polish jury. 95% of Lithuanian jury had been destroyed. Estonia jury wiped off the map.
This is the kind of figures you have this huge community, just under 900,000, still at least the majority alive. And it’s at this stage that Horthy, believing that the Nazis are going to win the war, lose the war, he wants out. He tries to get out. And it’s, that’s when, there’s a meeting at Plesh Heim Castle. And that’s when Hitler sends in the troops and following the troops, of course goes in Adel Figman with his cohorts. And the notion is we are going to prepare for this final solution of the Jewish question. Now, this is one of the most bizarre episodes in the history of the war. And there’s still more evidence to come out. And I’m going to tell the story of Joel Brand. I’m not yet going to tell the story of Casper. Those of you who were online about six months ago will know that we spent quite a bit of time on it. I will be having to deal with it in a different way. But when I deal with Hungarian jury, and I know that there are people online who are very interested, including of course Tommy Kamoley, who is the nephew of Oto Kamoley, who is head of the Relief and Rescue Committee in Budapest, a wonderful man who tragically lost his life.
And I know that Tommy is very anxious to do something with his papers. So, and I hope also there are quite a few people who were on Kasner’s train. And I hope that they will come along when we look at this so that they will be able to, we will work away of them being able to speak. So I want to talk about Joel Brand because there’s a rescue and relief committee in Budapest. And what has happened up until this time is that ironically, Polish and Slovakian Jews were escaping into Hungary, even though it was appalling, it was far better than what was going on in Slovakia and in Poland. So Joel Brand, Oto Kamoley is the head of the committee. Kasner’s on it as well. But I’m going to talk about Joel Brand. He was an extraordinary individual. And I’m going to give you a bit of his biography because you can understand why he’s so important in this story. He was born in Transylvania in 1907. It was then under Hungarian rule. He was one of seven children. Very entrepreneurial family. His father was the founder of the Budapest Telephone Company. His paternal grandfather had owned the post office in Monchevyville. And in 1911, the family moved to Germany.
He’s at school till 1923. He then went to America to stay with an uncle. He really became an adventurer. He worked his way across America. How did he do that? Road building, working in the mines, washing dishes in restaurants. He worked his way through. He became a member of the Communist Party. Then he worked his way on boats to Hawaii, Philippines, South America, China, Japan. as our American colleagues would say, he was a real operator. He knew how to survive and he could. He had many strings to his boat. 1930, he returns to the family in airport and started working for his father. He also was still involved with the Communist Party. February the 27th, 1933. That day should be in your memory. It’s the Reichstag fire. All the communists were arrested. He was released, but of course, Hitler comes to power. In March '33, the Nazi, Hitler was already chancellor, but in March 33, the Nazis take power and everything begins. So he moves to Budapest where he joins, he gets involved with Zion. He’s a real charismatic. He becomes vice president of the Palestine Budapest office and set on the governing body of the JNF. He marries a woman called Hansi Hartman. They, he has to make a living. So he opens a knitwear glove factory and a shop.
And they’re already employing. Within a year, they employed a hundred people. They had plans to immigrate to Palestine, but he had to change his plans when his mother and three sisters fled from Germany, because now he had to support them. And he was up to his neck in smuggling Jews into Budapest, which began really in July '41, which is really when the final solution begins. So he’s smuggling. Remember he’s an operator. He knows how to smuggle Jews. He also knows how to bribe people. The Hungarian government actually sent 18,000 Jews to German occupied Ukraine because they didn’t have pure Hungarian citizenship. Brand’s sister-in-law and our husband’s family were involved in that. 16,000 Jews were shot, but Brand managed to bribe a Hungarian counter espionage officer to bring his wife’s relative back. So the point is, he knows how to operate. He spends much of his time border smuggling. And then of course the have the invasion.
The fifth of eight core Jews over the age of six had to wear a yellow badge. They’re forbidden from using the telephone, owning cars, radios, travelling, moving home. They had to declare the value of their property. All Jewish civil servants, lawyers, journalists, they’re all sacked. Non-Jews couldn’t work for them. The Nazification process. Budapest was 25% Jewish. And when I look at Hungary next week, I’m going to spend quite a lot of time looking at the socioeconomic role of the Jews in Hungary. Any book written by a Jew was removed from the Budapest library. Jewish authors couldn’t be published. And a group of the rescue committee got together. They actually meet at the home of Andreas Bishop. And they wanted, they already knew that the SS could be bribed. In Slovakia, an extraordinary rabbi called Rabbi Viceman, who produced a report on the number of Jews who’d been murdered and been sent to Hungary, been sent to the committee. He had all man, he’d managed to halt deportations through bar bribing some of the SS. His plan was called the Europa Plan.
An extraordinary man. And so he knew that there was venality and what they wanted to do, they wanted to arrange a meeting with Dita, Ms. Liensi, who was one of Eichmann’s aids. Okay. And it’s at this stage that Eichmann calls from and that he calls for a meeting with Brand and Kasner. And Kasner’s, Brand survives and gives evidence at the Eichmann trial. And he later testified to the stark madness of the meeting. And he quotes for, he tells what Eichmann said. “I have already”, he said, “He offered to some sell 1 million Jews, not for money, but for goods. I have already verified your ability to make a deal. Now I am prepared to sell you 1 million Jews. Goods for blood, blood for goods. You can take them from any country you like.” Brand, as I said, testified the insanity of it all. Now, Brand was chosen to relay the deal to the allies. He was actually recommended by a man called Bandy Gross. Now Bandy Gross is a very, very shadowy figure. He was a Jew, I think he’d converted to Catholicism. You get conflicting reports in the books. And he was in the service of anyone who paid him, including the Germans. We know that he did work for Otto Klarges, the head of the SD in Budapest.
Now, what was the real purpose of Brand’s mission? Brand was sent to make contact with Jewish organisations and the allies to sell them, the Jews of Europe, the remaining Jews of Europe and Hungary, in return for concessions. We now know that other things were afoot. Himmler was beginning to put out feelers of negotiation, which are ratcheted up after the failed July plot. Believe it or not, Heinrich Himler hoped to do a deal. He hoped he could persuade the British and the Americans to fight with the Germans against the Russians. Anyway, Brand, of course knew nothing of this. And the question was, were any negotiations possible? Brand goes off first to Vienna, then to Istanbul, and then he, he has an interview with Marce Charette. He is arrested by the British in Eleppo. He’s then transferred to Cairo where he is interrogated again. Now, this is where it becomes very, very complicated. On the 20th of July, this is a foreign office memo to the embassy in Madrid, “We have secret evidence that Nazis are using Jews in order to make contact with British and US authorities as a cover for peace proposals with the obvious motive of dividing his majesties government and US government from the Soviets. It’s at this stage that the British decide that they are not in any way going to make a deal. And whilst Brand is being interrogated, he hears an officer say, "What would we do with a million Jews in Palestine anyway?”
And that led him to believe that the British were themselves deliberately stopping any rescue attempts. Remember already you’d had the issue of the boats that I talked about last week. He goes to Palestine where he joins, not the left, he joins the Lehi. And it’s going to lead to an event that is absolutely going to divide Palestine, divide the mandate and cause really an issue that hasn’t been healed any more than the Lazarov case, the Kasner affair. This is going to be the assassination of Lord Moin. Now as ever, I have mistimed. So what I propose to do tomorrow, I will go along with the assassination of Lord Moin because it’s very important. And then I will continue with Hajj Amin al-Husayni. I’m not very good at timing anymore. I really must. There’s so many things to say to you all that I kind of get carried away in sidetrack. But I think the assassination of Lord Moin is very, very important. He was the senior government minister in the Middle East. He was also a close friend of Churchill’s.
He was related to Churchill’s mother, I beg your pardon, Churchill’s wife. He was also a bit of a hero in England. And ironically, those of you who live in Hamstead in London, Ivy House Ivy, the Ivy Trust Kenwood house was part of his gift to the nation. Those of you who go and look at the Vermeer and the Rembrandt in once it, once we’ve opened up after lockdown, that beautiful Kenwood house that was part of the gift to the nation. He was part of the Guinness family and his son was the first husband of Diana Mosley. So I’ll talk about him tomorrow. Let’s have a look at the questions now.
Q&A and Comments:
I think, Oh, Barry liked it. Thank you for going on about last night. This was, it was wonderful. Yesterday was the hundred first anniversary of the San Remo. Again, everyone’s talking about last night.
Q: Oh, this is from Freda, Freda. “There were only 200,000 Zionists living in Palestine. It would be interesting to know how many of the Jewish people were communist. Do we have the statistics?”
A: That is a brilliant question, Freda. I do not know the answer to it. I know a lot of Jews joined the Communist Party in Russia because if you wanted a career, you had to.
Q: This is from Jillian. “I wonder how many times the meaning of the word Zionist has changed over the years.” “Although Bangorian said the Jews were the only people who were successfully targeted because they didn’t have a homeland, I would’ve had the Gipsies and other people who were successfully targeted and they didn’t have their own homeland. I suggest, I suppose Ben Groin did not know about the Gipsies.”
A: Yes, of course he knew about the gipsies. Let’s call them Roma. Look, the Gypsy story is a tragic story. It’s not the same story as the story of the Jews. It doesn’t make any, even any less tragic. The Roma people live a different world and they are an oral people. That’s why their story is seldom told. If you want to know the bizarreness of Roma, the treatment of the Roma, if their blood was pure at first they were allowed to go free. It’s only if they mixed it with other people, they were murdered. This is the Nazi nightmare.
“No matter how much I learned, I can never understand how such small countries of Germany, Austria, could have so many troops available to dominate and inhabit.” The point was Germany was not a small country. Germany had a very large army and just shows you what you can do by building up a military, having an extraordinarily disciplined military machine.
“What about Yuri Avanari and Affon Berg who speak about Israel? We should also look at Canaanism.” Yes, Monty, Thank you so much.
“Respect the special people being remembered by noting their names.” Yes. What you would like, I’d give you the names. You’d actually like me to put the names on the pictures. Yes, I think we can arrange that.
“It’s fascinating”, says Anna Palco, “that even within the same family in the towns and villages of Eastern Europe in the twenties and thirties, there were political divisions between Betar and . My father, blessed memory followed Jabotinsky in Betar and his younger sister, my aunt was an member.” Sure, that’s the Jews. “And many more divisions. in 19th and 20th century communist born socialist, the pogroms made no distinction.” “So true, many passionate political positions.”
“Is Rabbi Cook the same Rabbi Cook who was the philosophical leader of the settler movement?” I’ve got to check that. I doubt it. I’d have to check that. That’s the son. And this is Jonathan.
“I recommend Begin’s books, "The Revolt and White Knights” to understand him.“ Yes, brilliant books.
his is Marcia. "My husband’s family were very active with Lehi, Avraham Stern, also known as Yair Stern, was killed by the British in the apartment my husband owns in Tel Aviv.” Wow, there is nothing like the lockdown University family is there? Yeah, yeah. Surely the adult allies knew of Hydrick assassination and the frightful Lehi retribution. Yes, of course they did. Yeah.
This is from Bev. “My dad was a personal friend of Begin and a member of Betar. I met Begin as a young girl. He kissed my hand when we met.” Yes, I was told he was very chivalrous.
And this is from Catherine. “You may wish to add another film to your list, the Man with the Iron Heart, The story of Reinhart Hydrick and the Czech Underground.” Yes, it is a brilliant film. It’s on prime. The phrase, the Man with the Iron Heart was actually given to Hydrick, believe it or not, by Hitler. Thank you, Trudy.
Q: What happened to Brand’s family?
A: Well, Brand survived. He went back to Israel. His wife actually had an affair with Kasner. They had two sons. They, as far as I know, they became, they live in Israel.
Q: Why did people change their surnames?
A: Many of them wanted to hyperise them.
Q: Marion, are you going to continue with Brand and what happened regarding Hungarian jury?
A: Let me explain what I’m doing. You see at the moment, it’s almost like putting a jigsaw puzzle together. So tomorrow I’m going to continue with the assassination of Lord Moin. And then I’m going to take Hajj Amin al-Husayni up until 1945. Then I want to divert into Slovakian jury on Thursday. Next week, I’m going to tell the story of Hungarian jury.
Q: I find it hard to understand that Churchill was supportive of the Jewish people, yet during the war, did not change its policy to allow them to Palestine.
A: Okay, there’s a problem here. In 1943, towards the end of 43, they were actually working on a plan to partition Palestine. Back to the 1937 partition plan. I’ll show it to you tomorrow. The only person who was desperately against it was Anthony Eden. By this time, even Lord Moin was beginning to be in favour of it. Churchill was the one who asked the Jews and said that the Jews must be allowed to enter the British army. And they were incredibly useful, by the way, because they had languages they could go behind the scenes. Now, he did give the order to bomb the camps. Martin Gilbert did brilliant research, found the order. It was never received by Bonwick command. You’ve seen the attitudes of the foreign office. The Americans refuges do anything. They said we cannot, because when Hungarian jury were finally attacked, an extraordinary man called Rudy Va Bar had escaped from Auschwitz. He sent back a report that was received on, that said, that listed, it was received by Kasner’s committee, which explained how the Nazis were building the railway lines right up to the crematory to receive Hungarian jury.
Q: And as David told you yesterday, when he was dealing with Elevicel, you know they, do you know how many people were being murdered on a daily basis in Auschwitz?
A: Over 12,000 a day. I don’t know. 12,000 people. Do you? No.
Yes, this book by Judy Baller, a lot of people keep mentioning it to me, “The Light of Days.” Can I just reassure you we’re on it? We’ve been speaking to Jewish Book Week, they fixed it up and we’re doing it as a joint free event for you all.
Yes, this is from Keith. “There was a book by Brand titled, Advocate for the Dead.”
Q: Why did the Nazis allow Hungary to resist deportation until 1942?
A: Because Hungary was nominally independent. It was a good ally.
Q: Elliot, is it true that Bulgaria refused to turn its Jews?
A: To a large extent, yes. And we will look at Bulgaria because we got to look at the good as well as the bad. Begin, of course, would always in Israel wear a shirt and a tie. Yeah.
This is from Michael Block. “In our village, Yair, named after Yair Stern. Jacob Lipitz, a former member of Lehi who was involved in Moin’s assassination. When he was head of Betar in our province in South Africa, begging Meridor and Nandel, came twice to our town and always stayed with us.” Oh, Michael, you must have heard so many stories. You see, I’m going to ask you. I’m don’t know the answer. Who was right and who was wrong? Which, which argument would you have taken? You’ve got to remember Viceman. Viceman wanted to do it through diplomacy. Was it running the boats? Would you have gone with the Irgun? Would you have gone with a Haganah? Would you have gone with Stern? They were all brave people in their own way. Personally, I, yeah, I’m going to say this. I think Stern’s tactics, you know, blowing up Jewish policemen, robbing banks, making deals with anyone he could make a deal with. I think, look, we all have our own positions on this, but it just shows you more than anything else, to me. It shows me more than anything just how powerlessness, how powerless the Jews were. Auschwitz could only be bombed during daytime and only the… Yes, but when bomber command was interviewed, Melvin, this is what was so tragic. Bomber Harris was interviewed by Martin Gilbert and he had in front of him a map of Auschwitz. And he said, “We would have done it. We could have done it.” 'Cause don’t forget, they’d already, they had the bouncing bombs. So this is what I, look, I am not in any way technical, but I’m just quoting what bomber Harris said.
I think that is all the questions, Judy?
[Judi] Yes it is, that’s it.
Okay. Thank you you so much, Trudy. And thank you to the nearly 2000 people that joined us this evening, and we’ll see everybody tomorrow.
Okay, God bless. And Judy, tomorrow maybe we could start with that map again then.
[Judi] Yes, no problem.
[Trudy] Well thank you everybody. Bye. [Judi] Bye-bye.