The Abandonment Of The Jews

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The Abandonment Of The Jews: America and the Holocaust,, published in 1984, is a book by David S. Wyman, former Josiah DuBois professor of history at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Wyman is currently the chairman of the David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies.

The Abandonment of the Jews alleges that British and American political leaders during the Holocaust, including President Roosevelt, turned down proposals that could have saved hundreds of thousands of European Jews from death in German concentration camps; for example, by refusing asylum to Jewish refugees and by failing to order the bombing of railway lines leading to Auschwitz.

Wyman examines the documents suggesting that the U.S. and British governments turned down numerous proposals to accept European Jews. The issue was raised at a White House conference on March 27, 1943 of top American and British wartime leaders, including President Roosevelt, U.S. Secretary of State Cordell Hull, British Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden, presidential advisor Harry Hopkins, and the British Ambassador to Washington, Lord Halifax. Hull raised the question of having the Allies offer to accept 60,000 to 70,000 Jews from Bulgaria, a German ally.

Wyman writes that, because of a combination of anti-Semitism and an unwillingness to act on any proposal not of direct strategic value, thousands and possibly million of Jews died who might otherwise have been saved.

Wyman's arguments have been challenged by other researchers, most notably by James H. Kitchens III, and by William D. Rubinstein, whose book The Myth of Rescue: Why the Democracies Could Not Have Saved More Jews from the Nazis argues that the Western powers had a creditable record of accepting immigrants and that effective allied action against the Extermination Camps was not possible. The Auschwitz bombing debate remains unresolved.

On the other hand, many historians (e.g. Dr. David Kranzler) show that large number of Jews were and even more could have been saved. For example the Bratislava Working Group's ransom negotiation in 1942 was a key factor in stopping the deportation trains from Slovakia for about two years. Protection papers issued by Jewish rescuer George Mantello, working for El Salvador in Switzerland, saved thousands. Protection papers handed out from Switzerland by Jewish rescuer Recha Sternbuch saved large numbers. Rabbi Solomon Schonfeld was able to single handedly rescue thousands for whom he was able to give refuge in England. He also convinced large numbers of UK churchmen and parliamentarians to pass a law to allow Jews to find temporary refuge in parts of the British Empire until the end of the war. Regretfully this important initiative was sabotaged because England was unwilling to include Palestine as a potential refuge. In the USA persistent pressure on the Roosevelt administration by Hillel Kook and his rescue group led to establishment of the War Refugee Board. One if its actions was support of the Wallenberg mission to Budapest. David Wyman and Rafael Medoff credit Hillel Kook's activism with rescue of over 200,000 - mainly in Hungary, in part because of the Wallenberg mission. Twenty four hours after receipt George Mantello publicized what has now been called the Wetzler-Vrba Report included in the Auschwitz Protocol. This triggered a major grass roots protest in Switzerland, with about 400 glaring headlines protesting against Europe's barbarism and its dark age in the twentieth century. Publication of the report also triggered Sunday sermons in Swiss churches expressing deep concern over the fate of Jews and there were various street protests. This led to Churchill, Roosevelt and other world leaders threatening Hungary's ruler Horthy and then to Horthy stopping the transports, which until then took 12,000 Jews to Auschwitz. The lull in deportations enabled the Wallenberg mission and also rescue by many others in Budapest, such as Carl Lutz, Monsignor Angelo Rotta, Giorgio Perlasca, the Spanish legation, the Zionist Youth Underground in Budapest and "put rescue in the air" empowering ordinary citizens to act on behalf of the remnant of Hungary's Jews. There were many other successful rescue initiatives and also many more which could have succeeded if Churchill and Roosevelt received clear messages and public pressure from their constituents. With ships packed with refugees, such as the St. Louis and refugee ships headed for Palestine were turned back it is difficukltto make a case for the thesis that rescue was not possible. (References to books and views on various Web pages, for example David Kranzler, Hillel Kook, Chaim Michael Dov Weissmandl).

It has been said that Hitler once remarked that no one protested against an early 20th century genocide in Africa and the world was silent during the Armenian massacre. He said the world will also be silent about the mass murder of Jews^{[citation needed]}. Many believe that had Hitler not been right then large numbers of Jews, perhaps on the order of millions, could have been saved^[1].

There are noted Holocaust historians who have a different view, and state that rescue was not possible. Professor Yehuda Bauer represents this school of thought.

[edit] See also

Bermuda conference

[edit] References

Wyman, David S. 'The Abandonment Of The Jews: America and the Holocaust. New York: Pantheon Books, 1984, 444pp.
Wyman, David S., Medoff, Rafael. A Race Against Death: Peter Bergson, America, and the Holocaust. New Press, 2004.

also

"Could The Allies Have Bombed Auschwitz", Jewish Virtual Library.
Abraham Fuch, The Unheeded Cry
Ben Hecht, Perfidy
David Kranzler, The Man Who Stopped the Trains to Auschwitz: George Mantello, El Salvador, and Switzerland's Finest Hour, Forward by Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, Syracuse University Press (March 2001)
David Kranzler, Holocaust Hero: The Untold Story of Solomon Schonfeld, an Orthodox British Rabbi, Ktav Publishing House (December 2003)
David Kranzler, Thy Brothers' Blood: The Orthodox Jewish Response During the Holocaust, Artscroll (December 1987)
David Kranzler, Heroine of Rescue: The Incredible Story of Recha Sternbuch Who Saved Thousands from the Holocaust
Larry Jarvik, Who Shall Live and Who Shall Die (video documentary)
Rapaport, Louis. Shake Heaven & Earth: Peter Bergson and the Struggle to Rescue the Jews of Europe. Gefen Publishing House, Ltd., 1999.
VERAfilm, Among Blind Fools (documentary video)