Two Holocaust scholars, in a book based largely on interviews, give voice to Peter Bergson, a key Holocaust rescue activist in America
By RAYMOND S. SOLOMONA Race Against Death: Peter Bergson, America and the Holocaust. David S. Wyman and Rafael Medoff 288 pages; $26.95 (Hardcover)(photo credit: Courtesy)
Shortly after the beginning of the Second World War, seven young Irgun members from pre-state Israel came to America with the aims of gaining support for an independent Hebrew state in Palestine, raising a Jewish army to fight against Nazi Germany, and above all else, to save the Jews of Europe from the imminent Holocaust. These followers of Vladimir (Ze’ev) Jabotinsky were led by Hillel Kook, who used the name Peter Bergson while in America. Hillel Kook (Peter Bergson) was the nephew of the first Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Palestine, Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook.Rav Kook was a very great person, beloved by both secular and Orthodox people in the Land of Israel. Hillel Kook’s greatness paralleled Rav Kook’s greatness, but in different areas.Bergson’s greatest ability was political. This involved pounding the floors of Congress. At first he concentrated on Senators and Congressmen from states with large Jewish population. Inevitably these Senators and Congressmen told Jewish leaders they met about these young Jewish people from Palestine; and inevitably they were told in effect, “These people are bad. Don’t touch them with a 10 foot poll.” Such was the prejudice against Jabotinsky’s followers. So a big source of possible support dried up.So Bergson changed his tactics. He started going to Congressmen and Senators from states with very small Jewish populations. He was much more successful with them. Among the many Congressional supporters he picked up was future President and Missouri Senator Harry S. Truman and Senator Guy Gillette. In 1943 Reprehensive Rogers and Senator Gillette introduced a joint resolution calling for a Government agency to rescue the Jewish people of Europe. Peter Bergson also had significant success in making contacts in The Navy Department, The War Department and even in The State Department. He gained the support of Adali Stevenson in the Navy Department, and Secretary of the Interior Secretary Harold Ickes. Max Lerner said, as recorded in A Race Against Death, that when he first spoke with Peter Bergson, he had no doubt that he would work with his group, because Bergson was trying to save his European relatives, and other Jews, in Europe. Ben Hecht was harder to convert to Bergson’s group. Ben Hecht’s mentor, H.L. Mencken had years before warned him against joining a cause. Additionally Hecht did not have a Zionist background. Also, he had not been involved in many causes.Ben Hecht was extremely saddened, and outraged, over the ongoing murder of European Jews. This star Hollywood screenwriter criticized the Jewish movie giants for covering up their Jewish grief. In contrast, as recalled in A Child of the Century, Ben Hecht thought about “the locked away Jews,” the Yiddish speaking Jews, who were crying over what was happening to their fellow Jews in Europe, who prayed in small synagogues, who cursed the Nazi murderers, read the Yiddish press, and only had the ears of other Jews and God. Ben Hecht’s wife Rose Caylor Hecht was instrumental in getting him a column in PM, a left-wing afternoon newspaper. He was grateful for that platform. He could write as a Jew, about what was being done to Jews, and he had readers.As recalled in Ben Hecht’s A Child of the Century, in a PM column he wrote about Hollywood type Jews who tried to had behind their carnations, and failed to show their Jewish grief. After Peter Bergson read that column, he contacted Ben Hecht. Once Bergson and three fellow Irgunists Mike Ben-Ami, Miriam Heyman, and Sam Merlin convinced Ben Hecht, he put his name, his writing, his Hollywood contacts, and other assets in their great struggle to save his people. Ben Hecht remained with The Bergson Group until it was disbanded in 1948. He became the most effective person in the Bergson Group, on par with Peter Bergson himself.One of the first things The Bergson Group did, with Ben Hecht aboard, was an effort to create a Jewish Army to fight against Nazi Germany. The first National Chairman of the Committee for a Jewish Army of Palestinian and Stateless Jews was left-wing Calvinist and Dutch born journalist Pierre Van Paassen. An almost full page advertisement in the January 5th, 1942 edition of The New York Times was headlined: “Jews Fight for the Right to Fight”.The Bergson Group used the then controversial tactic of large space advertisements in newspapers. Most of these ads were written by Ben Hecht. A good number of these ads are reprinted in glossy plates in A Race against Death: Peter Bergson, America, and the Holocaust by David S. Wyman and Rafael Medoff. Other features of this great book are interviews with the participants in the events at the time, including Max Lerner, Pierre Van Paassen, Will Rogers, Jr., and Congressman Emanuel Celler. Most of the ads were under the name of “Committee for a Jewish Army of Palestinian and Stateless Jews.”For various reasons the Jewish army was never created. A shadow of it was created by Winston Churchill. Over objections of some other people in the British government, in 1944, Prime Minister Churchill created a limited Jewish Brigade from pre-state Israel. But the contributions from the Hebrew nation from pre-state Israel were very great and largely unknown. Pierre Van Paassen’s book illustrating that is The Forgotten Ally.The Peter Bergson (Hillel Kook) interviews are the core of the book. There are also extensive footnotes, showing far-reaching scholarly research. The several Appendices include Max Lerner’s article “What About the Jews FDR?” and the report by employees of the Treasury Department titled “Report to the Secretary on the Acquiescence of the Government in the Murder of the Jews.” Other features of the book include Max Lerner’s account of being on a national radio hookup with former President Herbert Hoover, Lerner’s account of Bergson’s great abilities, and Peter Bergson’s comments on Max Lerner, and Pierre Van Paassen. This book is a great aid for future Holocaust scholarship. It can be a tool for people who want to stop future genocides.Bergson recounts in an interview in A Race Against Death that November 25, 1942 was the worst day of his life. He read in The Washington Post that Rabbi Stephen Wise confirmed that the Germany state was systematically exterminating Jews; and two million Jews had already been killed by the Nazis and their collaborators. At that point Peter Bergson made a decision to change his focus from creating a Jewish army to saving the Jews of Europe. Ben Hecht’s abilities were different from, yet complimentary to, those of Peter Bergson. His influence among writers, actors, producers, directors, and various types of artists was used to produce his great pageant “We Will Never Die” about the continuing Holocaust, in 1943. It was a massive production. The pageant was first performed on March 9th, 1943 in Madison Square Garden in New York, and was then attended by 40,000 people. It was attended by scores of thousands in several cities. The Washington D.C. performance of We Will Never Die was attended by, among others, six Justices from the United States Supreme Court. The two Jewish Justices did not attend. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt attended the Washington D.C. production of the pageant We Will Never Die, and she wrote about it in her My Day syndicated newspaper column, which appeared in among many others newspapers, The New York Post. By the way, The New York Post supported the Bergson Group’s campaign. The New York Times did not support the Bergson Group, although The New York Times ran many of their ads. Bergson said that the greatest sources of media generated revenue was from their ads were The New York Times, The New York Post, and The New Republic.The many activities of the Bergson Group included organizing the October 6th, 1943 march of about four hundred Orthodox Rabbis to Washington D.C. to seek United States Governmental actions to save the Jews of Europe. President Roosevelt’s Jewish advisor Judge Samuel I. Rosenman advised President Roosevelt not to meet with the Rabbis. Rosenman must have been embarrassed by Jews with black coats and beards. Vice President Henry Wallace met with them, as did Speaker of the House of Representatives Sam Rayburn. I guess Henry Wallace and Sam Rayburn were not embarrassed to be seen with bearded, black coat wearing Orthodox Jewish Rabbis. The Yiddish language socialist Jewish Daily Forward, with a then wide circulation, editorialized that President Roosevelt would not have refused to meet with several hundred Catholic Priests or Protestants Pastures. In the past the Forward had supported Roosevelt, especially in the 1936 election. A big part of the Bergson Group’s activity, as The Emergency Committee to Save the Jewish People of Europe, was an attempt to get a special United States Government agency to work to save the Jewish People of Europe. Because of the efforts of the Bergson Group the Congressional Gillette-Rogers resolution was introduced, with much support. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee unanimously supported it. A public effort included a national day of prayer in hundreds of Churches. All this eventually contributed to the creation of the War Refuge Board. The immediate catalyst for creation of The War Refugee Board was the above mentioned, “Report to the Secretary on the Acquiescence of the Government in the Murder of the Jews” by employees of the Treasury Department, Josiah DuBois, Jr., John Pelhe, and Randolph Paul. Josiah DuBois said Roosevelt seemed genuinely shocked when he read it. The report concerned obstruction of rescue efforts by the State Department.President Franklin D. Roosevelt created The War Refugee Board on January 22nd, 1944. Raoul Wallenberg’s Hungarian mission and Ira Hirschman’s mission based in Turkey were both under the auspices of the War Refugee Board. President Roosevelt was personally involved in recruiting Wallenberg and Hirschman. Scores of thousands of Jews, and others, were saved by the Wallenberg and Hirschmann missions, and other War Refugee Board activities. The Bergson Group maintained close contact with the War Refugee Board, as did the Rabbis of Agudath Yisrael, who were very active in rescue efforts.During World War Two there were over 16,000,000 people serving in the United States Military. Without them I hate to think of what would have happened to the world. We also must note the super human contributions of our Russian, Canadian, Chinese, British and other allies, and the underground movements in Europe, Africa, and Asia during The Second World War.This review tells you a little. If you read only one book this year make it A Race Against Death: Peter Bergson, America, and the Holocaust by David S. Wyman and Rafael Medoff. There have been genocides before and since the Holocaust. Peter Bergson was asked about how to deal with them. Bergson said, “I think the only way to deal with it is to deal with it.”Raymond S. Solomon has worked in science publishing and was instrumental in publishing books by several Israeli scientists in America.
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