This is a chilling account of U.S. indifference to the plight of European Jews during WWII, of how government officials not only failed to act but thwarted the efforts of those who tried. Had Peter Bergson, representing Ze'ev Jabotinsky's Revisionist Zionists in America, received government support for his plans to rescue Hitler's Jewish victims, many more might have been saved and his name might have been as well known as those of Oskar Schindler and Raoul Wallenberg. But as Wyman (The Destruction of the Jews) and Medoff (The Deafening Silence: American Jewish Leaders and the Holocaust) make clear in this simple but potent volume, Bergson's dogged efforts—advertisements in the New York Times,
lobbying in Washington, a star-studded pageant called "We Will Never Die" that toured the country—were crippled in large part not only by Roosevelt's administration but by the leaders of the established American Jewish community. The latter were threatened by the Lithuanian-born, Palestine-raised Bergson's tactics and by his ties to what was considered a radical wing of the Zionist movement. What makes this book an ideal companion to Wyman's seminal Abandonment of the Jews
(1984) is a transcript of a 12-hour interview he conducted with Bergson as part of his research for that volume. Much-needed context is added by interviews with other players, as well as fascinating letters and papers, including a scathing indictment of the Roosevelt administration's inaction by a Treasury Department official. (Nov. 7)
Forecast:Readers interested in America's response to the Holocaust will find this an indispensable addition to their collection.
