Downplaying the Holocaust — Sulzberger & NY Times: Anna Blech at

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1. This is a wonderful presentation given by Anna. Let us take heed to the warning….

2. My mother fled Austria to survive but her parents stayed with the hope that the Americans would save them before the Nazis got to them.

   This was fruitless hope as my mothers parents died in a concentration camp.

   People knew the danger was real. If you did not succeed in acting to leave you or you did not flee normally you died.

   I had one aunt who survived hidden by a Christian man whom she married. She was actually called into a Nazi police station and walked out after yelling at the police for asking her impolite questions. She got away with it and lived until 102 years old recently dying of old age.

   People in the US knew but did not act to help.

3. A Child of the Century
   by Ben Hecht

   I first became aware that there was annoyance with me among the Jews when Rabbi Stephen Wise, head of the Jews of New York, head of the Zionists and, as I knew from reading the papers, head of almost everything noble in American Jewry, telephoned me at the Algonquin Hotel where I had pitched my Hebrew tent.

   Rabbi Wise said he would like to see me immediately in his rectory. His voice, which was sonorous and impressive, irritated me. I had never known a man with a sonorous and impressive voice who wasn’t either a con man or a bad actor. I explained I was very busy and unable to step out of my hotel.

   “Then I shall tell you now, over the telephone, what I had hoped to tell you in my study,” said Rabbi Wise. “I have read your pageant script and I disapprove of it. I must ask you to cancel this pageant and discontinue all your further activities in behalf of the Jews. If you wish hereafter to work for the Jewish Cause, you will please consult me and let me advise you.”

   At this point I hung up. When I informed Bergson of Rabbi Wise’s fatheadedness, he answered moodily, “We’ll have to get the spies out of our organization. There are obviously people among us carrying information and documents to the enemy.”

   I was confused by the word enemy. I had up to that moment been thinking only of an enemy with a swastika.

   Another hint of the new battle cry hatching among American Jews came to me during one of the pageant rehearsals.

   “We are having a little trouble with the B’nai Brith,” Bergson said. “I think you ought to know about it.”

   “Yes, indeed, Mr. Ben Hecht,” Merlin added, at his side.

   I knew only of the B’nai Brith that my uncles belonged to it, when they were able to pay dues. And I remembered that my father had scorned it–preferring the Loyal Order of Moose, The Modern Redmen, The Knights of Pythias and the all-wise B.P.O.E.–the Elks.

   “The B’nai Brith,” Peter said to my surprise, “demands that we do not place your latest propaganda advertisement in the newspaper–the one attacking the American State Department. They say that if we print such a full page ad in the Times, the American State Department will raise Hell with the Jews of America.”

   The ad under discussion was in rhyme and was called, Ballad of the Doomed Jews of Europe.” Its refrain ran:

   Hang and burn, but be quiet, Jews,
   The world is busy with other news.

   Some further lines stated that by Christmastime all the Christians could enjoy their peace on earth without the Jews, who would all be killed by that time.

   “Judge Proskauer, who is president of the American Jewish Committee and a very educated gentleman,” said Peter, who had learned wisely never to take my knowledge of Jewish affairs for granted, “states that such an anti-Christian attitude could well bring on Jewish pogroms in the U.S.A.”

   “What is your opinion of Justice Proskauer’s theory?” Merlin asked, puffing aloofly on his pipe.

   “You can tell Judge Proskauer for me,” I answered, “to go gazump himself.”

   “Very good,” said Merlin. “I think your approach is correct, Mr. Ben Hecht.”

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4. That was truly shocking. I had no idea the NYT was so bad.