A thwarted plan

How an ardent Zionist, a business mogul and a president all came together in a story of truth and propaganda while millions of Jews faced death.

By JOANNA M. SAIDEL
dr alex 521 (photo credit: courtesy)
dr alex 521
(photo credit: courtesy)
During the tumultuous years of the battle for statehood, economist, publisher, arms purchaser and political negotiator Dr. Alex Raphaeli (a.k.a. Hadani), undertook a little-known mission to establish an offshore radio station to broadcast the plight of the Jews into Nazi Europe.
It all started in late 1937, when Raphaeli volunteered for a full-time position with the Irgun Zva’i Leumi. For the next two years, he was engaged in underground work in Europe organizing the Jews for immigration. He ended up in charge of the Irgun’s western office in Paris.
The Irgun High Command sent Raphaeli to the United States. He left on the last ship out of Italy, the Rex, before that country declared war on the Allies. In America, he worked nationwide to establish relations and to mobilize public opinion in an effort to put the Jewish struggle on the map.
Besides conducting numerous radio and print interviews, he worked with Hollywood notables – Georgie Gessel, Billy Wilder, Ben Hecht and others – to promote the work of the Irgun. In Washington, he befriended senators and congressmen.
Along with a handful of men from the Irgun Delegation to the United States under the leadership of Hillel Kook (a.k.a. Peter Bergson) and the New Zionist Organization of America – headed by Benzion Netanyahu – at the behest of world famous orator, poet and political mover and shaker Vladimir Jabotinsky, Raphaeli affected the national scene through a vigorous advertising campaign that ignited a Zionist lobby in America.
Their goal was to call attention to the plight of the European Jews, to press for the establishment of a Jewish army, to raise funds to promote public awareness, and to assist in the struggle for statehood.
BY 1942, there was no longer any excuse for the government to hide the increasing evidence that millions of Jews were being, and would continue to be, exterminated in Hitler’s “final solution.” However, the failure to consolidate a voice powerful enough to override British objections to a Jewish army led to a change in tactics.
Here began a complicated fight, especially with American authorities, including the president, to get at least some psychological and political, if not actual, help to save the Jews trapped in Nazi hands. It was a difficult proposition.
American public sentiment was in support of the work, but there was little assistance from the US government.
According to Raphaeli, president Franklin Roosevelt, in all his weekly press conferences, did not mention the word “Jew” even once, fearing that by mentioning protection of Jews or saving Jews, the country would accept the Nazi formula that it was a “Jewish war.”
Roosevelt’s failure to take action was based not only on a dislike for the Jews (despite having many in his administration), but on national security concerns which necessitated a close connection between the president and King Ibn Saud. The Saudi king had the power to grant the president oil concessions at Dharan that were needed to fuel the war in the Pacific. Roosevelt’s policy become “rescue through victory,” whereby he overlooked the Jewish slaughter in order to fight the war in total.
Besides being uncooperative concerning rescue, Roosevelt stifled another important pursuit of the Irgun. Raphaeli had attempted to establish an offshore radio station to publish news about the Holocaust to the Jews of Europe. After a few meetings, he had convinced the head of the Office of War Information, Elmer Davis, that it was the duty not only of the Irgun Delegation but of the American people to establish, outside territorial waters of the United States, a radio station that would broadcast to Europe in Yiddish, Russian and Polish, via London.
Once he had secured Davis’s endorsement, Raphaeli sought to provide the immense budget necessary for its success.
He procured the funds from Samuel Zemmuray, the King of the White Fleet. Zemmuray was a poor Ukrainian boy who came to New Orleans at a young age, started dealing in bananas and, after many years, controlled all the banana fields of Central America as well as the White Fleet – all the boats bringing bananas from Central America to North America, Europe and the rest of the world. He and Raphaeli became friendly, and Zemmuray undertook an obligation of $3 million to finance the radio station.
Having established a solid source of income to back the venture, Raphaeli felt confident that with the promised commitment from Davis, he was well on his way to enlightening European Jewry about the situation on the ground there. The Irgun wanted the Jews of Europe to know that the organization was fighting to convince the American government to bomb the roads and railways leading to the concentration camps and to announce that the Nazi criminals would be punished after the war.
It therefore came as an unexpected blow when Raphaeli was told that his efforts had been blocked by none other than the president himself.
Raphaeli then turned to Roosevelt’s wife, Eleanor, for help. Unlike the president, she had been cooperative on previous occasions, particularly when Irgun boats were stuck in the Danube River.
However, in this case she excused herself, saying that it was a political matter in which she could not get involved.
SINCE THE radio station and its broadcasts would in no way impede the president’s “rescue through victory” policy or affect his dealings with the Saudi king, it is unclear why the president refused permission. Perhaps it had to do with an internal battle that was taking place regarding control of propaganda and psychological warfare.
On June 13, 1942, the president had consolidated the Foreign Information Service, the Office of Government Reports, the Office of Facts and Figures, and the Division of Information of the Office of Emergency Management into a single agency. This agency was the OWI – which was given the duty of conducting foreign and domestic informational programs through radio, the press, movies and related sources. The president had chosen Davis to head that office.
On the same day, the president also created the Office of Strategic Services, placing it under the control of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. A quarrel arose over who had jurisdiction over clandestine broadcasting. It was argued that the OWI should have control over informational broadcasting but that the OSS should control psychological broadcasting.
At that time, the OWI controlled most of the available broadcasting transmitters in America.
Perhaps, at the time, Raphaeli was unaware of the intricacies at work behind the scenes. He considered the president’s veto to be a rejection of the possible perception that he was fighting a “Jewish war.” However, on December 23, 1942, the Joint Chiefs gave the OSS responsibility for the propaganda and warfare phases of psychological warfare.
Less than two weeks later, OSS head William Donovan created the Morale Operations branch of his office to utilize propaganda to incite and spread dissension in enemy countries.
Davis was angered by Donovan’s attempt to consolidate control of US government propaganda, and met with Roosevelt to object. He received assurances from the president. However, the matter spilled over into the public arena, and the dilemma expanded.
Meanwhile, Donovan gained the backing of the Joint Chiefs, which resulted in Davis being left on the sidelines.
By September 1943, Davis had been completely stripped of his authority over foreign propaganda. It is possible that as a result, the Irgun plan for an offshore radio station was thwarted.