Polish-Jewish Relations: 1,300 Keyword-Phrase-Indexed Book Reviews (by Jan Peczkis)

The Ambiguity of Virtue, by Bernard Wasserstein. 2014. Harvard University Press, Massachusetts and London

Jews Ransomed. Nazis Deliberately Let Some Jews Live. These Jews Are Traded for Money or For German Nationals

This book is mainly about the Jews of German-occupied Holland and the activism of Gertrude van Tijn. This work has unstated implications for Holocaust supremacism, particularly the oft-repeated claim that the Nazis sought the death of every possible Jew, and that this justifies giving the Holocaust more attention than that given to any other genocide. The deconstruction of this false claim is my focus.

THE NAZIS NEVER IN FACT INSISTED ON THE DEATH OF EVERY SINGLE JEW

Here is how Francis Nicosia, in his Nazi Germany and the Arab World, summarizes the release of Jews as described in the Wasserstein book:

“In the summer and autumn of 1943 and through the first half of 1944, the SS also approved the transfer of at least several hundred Jews from transit camps in Holland, Belgium, and possibly France, to Palestine. Some were transferred by train via Bergen Belsen and Vienna to Istanbul and from there through Syria and Lebanon to Palestine.” (p. 248).

THE NAZIS MADE JEWISH LIVES AN OBJECT OF BARGAINS: A SUMMARY

The first exchange took place a few months after the Holocaust had gotten underway, and it continued through the peak years of the German-made Holocaust (1942-1944). Wasserstein writes, “Several exchanges of Allied for Axis civilians took place during the war, including a few of Jews (Palestinian citizens and others) for German residents of Palestine. In an initial such transfer in Turkey in December 1941, sixty-seven Germans were exchanged for forty-six Palestinian Jews from Poland.” (p. 157).

At least part of this was the work of legendary Polish diplomat Aleksander Lados, who made fake passports for European Jews. See:

https://www.jewsandpolesdatabase.org/2023/11/15/unheralded-polish-schindler-aleksander-lados-delivered-2000-jews-moorhouse/

EXCHANGING JEWS FOR GERMANS

Author Wasserstein adds that, “A second exchange, on November 12, 1942, again in Turkey, saw 301 Germans and 4 Italians handed over in return for 137 persons, of whom 78 were Jews (69 of them Palestinians). About a dozen of these were from the Netherlands.” (p. 158). For more on this exchange, see:

https://www.jewsandpolesdatabase.org/2022/07/11/jews-released-all-jews-must-die-a-myth-actual-captive-jews-freed-by-the-nazis-the-term-shoah-preceded-the-extermination-of-jews-jewish-holocaust-disbelief-holocaust-blame-game-porat/

HITLER AND HIMMLER PERSONALLY ALLOW SOME JEWS TO BUY THEIR LIVES

The Nazis’ professedly fanatical conviction, of Jews as existential enemies that must be totally destroyed at all costs, actually dissolved in a sea of money. Wasserstein comments, “A memorandum by Himmler in December 1942 recorded that Hitler had ‘approved the release of Jews against a considerable ransom in foreign currency’ and had accorded Himmler full authority to decide on such cases. Holland was not the only country where such transactions were approved by the occupying authorities: in Hungary and Romania too a few very wealthy Jews were able to buy their way to freedom by surrendering money or industrial plants…The proceeds were retained by the SS and the German police ‘for their own purposes'” (p. 166).

For an example of Jews being allowed to save their lives, in accordance with direct top Nazi intervention, by giving up their industrial properties, see:

https://www.jewsandpolesdatabase.org/2022/07/09/jews-freed-all-jews-must-die-a-myth-actual-captive-jews-freed-by-the-nazis-top-hungarian-jewish-industrialist-and-other-jews-alford-and-savas/

OTHER JEW-RELEASE RANSOM PAYMENTS AUTHORIZED BY THE NAZIS

Bernard Wasserstein comments, “Relatives in the United States or a neutral country would transfer money to a Swiss bank, from which it would be deposited in a German-controlled account. A number of shady intermediaries handled these transactions…At least four hundred Jews in the Netherlands escaped from the Nazis by means of payments through such squalid Swiss person-traffickers. The total paid amounted to at least 35 million Swiss francs (about $12 million in 1943, or $170 million in 2014 value). To these sums must be added paintings, precious stones, shares in companies, and other items turned over to the Nazis. By the very nature of the trade, much of it was never documented. These figures must therefore be regarded as conservative estimates.” (pp. 167-168).

ALLIES, RATHER THAN NAZIS, PREVENTED SUBSTANTIALLY MORE JEWS FROM BEING RELEASED

Wasserstein makes this sobering statement, “As time went on, Allied opposition to ransom efforts hardened further. Efforts in 1944 to purchase the release of large numbers of Jews from Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria mostly foundered on the rock of the economic blockade.” (p. 170).

HIMMLER, BERGEN-BELSEN, AND THE EXCHANGE JEWS (AUSTAUSCHJUDEN)

The Nazi use of Jews in exchanges was no one-time fluke. The author comments, “In the spring of 1943, Himmler had ordered that part of the prisoner-of-war section of Bergen-Belsen be converted to a holding area for so-called AUSTAUSCHJUDEN (exchange Jews). Many of those moved there were subsequently deported to death camps, but a residual number were retained for potential use in exchanges.” (p. 201).

Wasserstein adds, “Between January and June 31, 1944, the number of Austauschjuden held at Bergen-Belsen grew from 379 to 4,100, but only 524 actually left Nazi territory before the end of the war.” (p. 206).

Gertrude van Tijn, the protagonist of this book, was part of an exchange group that initially included 99 Dutch citizens and 77 German Jews. (p. 208). They left Bergen-Belsen by train on June 30, 1944, and arrived in Haifa 10 days later. (See map, p. 211). Their journey took them through Nuremberg, Vienna, Budapest, Belgrade, Sofia, Istanbul (where the exchange for 114 Germans took place: p. 210), and Haifa.

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For another example of Jews deliberately released by the Nazis, other than those discussed in the two links embedded earlier, see:

https://www.jewsandpolesdatabase.org/2019/11/04/holocaust-exceptional-all-jews-die-a-myth-shulman/