The Sorrow and the Cynicism

By Steve Rodan

It is January 1939 and everybody with eyes is staring at the beginning of the end.

Germany has begun the Final Solution. Thousands of Jews were rounded up and sent to the Polish border to die -- whether by starvation or cold. Kristallnacht has destroyed the organized Jewish community, particularly its synagogues. The Jews in distant Palestine were not apathetic, and on Jan. 1 tens of thousands heeded the call of the chief rabbis to fast, pray and mourn. Many of the protesters wear the yellow star of David, now required for all Jews in the Third Reich.

Where could the Jews run? Certainly not to Palestine, ruled by Britain and intent to block all immigration to ensure an Arab state over the next few years. Knowing this, Zionist emissaries were ordered to rapidly obtain authorization for hundreds of Zionist leaders, bureaucrats and youth to board German ships for the Land of Israel.

And then Chaim Weizmann spoke.

As head of the Zionist Organization, Weizmann torpedoed every plan to rescue the Jews under Hitler. He railed against efforts to establish safe havens -- whether in Argentina, Cuba, the Dominican Republican or South Africa. In mid-1937, he had told Britain's Peel Commission and later the Zionist Congress that the Jews in the Diaspora were "economic and moral dust in a cruel world..only a remnant shall survive. We have to accept it."

But Weizmann was cautious about repeating this often in public. He and the Zionist leadership felt in direct competition with the Revisionist Movement, particularly its chief, Zev Jabotinsky, who by this time raised a plan for the emigration of one million Jews from Poland. Jabotinsky wanted half of these Jews admitted to Palestine.

Poland went as far as urging Germany for a joint plan to expel their Jews to recognized havens, including Palestine. That effort was supported by Polish Jewish leaders, who met the British government and Weizmann in late January 1939. The Polish delegation also met Myron Taylor, the American vice-chairman of the Intergovernmental Refugee Committee. The first step would be to rescue the 14,000 Jews deported by Germany to Poland, which refused to accept them. Germany invited U.S. officials to discuss the evacuation of the Jewish refugees.

The Zionist leadership was alarmed by Jabotinsky's effort. It was not the plan rather the attention it drew, whether from the British, Americans or Poles. Weizmann and his colleagues believed that adopting the Revisionist agenda would damage the credibility and image of the Zionist leadership, described by Jewish Agency chairman David Ben-Gurion as a "broken disintegrating movement fueled by hatred." Worse, the plan could attract millions of dollars in donations that the Zionist Organization wanted for itself.

On Jan. 31, 1939, Weizmann responded with a message to the Jews in the Reich. By then, Austria had been annexed and Czechoslovakia was well on its way to becoming Hitler's puppet. The Jews were desperate to leave, lining up by the thousands outside Western consulates and the Palestine Office.

The Hitler regime published a summary of Weizmann's remarks in the Judisches Nachrichtenblatt, the last Jewish newspaper in Germany. The newspaper's censor was Adolf Eichmann and he approved the article titled "Weizmann on immigration" for Page One.

"A wealth of suggestions has been put forward as to how best to deal with the problem of Jewish immigrants," Weizmann was attributed as saying. "If over 500,000 are to be resettled from Greater Germany, and millions more in Eastern Europe find themselves in a similar position, no person with a sense of responsibility will dismiss any proposal that even remotely offers a prospect of immigration for these people. But it is equally wrong to treat every conclusive suggestion as a certainty."

The rest of the article discredited any rescue plan that did not come from the Zionist movement. Weizmann nixed proposals that the Jews resettle anywhere from Alaska to Guyana. His objection was not whether the Jews would find a haven, rather would they turn into classic Zionists.

"Within these limits, the problem is not whether immigration is possible," Weizmann said, "but whether it is desired or permitted. In developed countries, even those where the development potential has been demonstrated, the question remains whether the people who are to be settled there are or can be equipped for the task. For while it is possible to be successful in agricultural work in the country of your birth, as was the case with many Jews, it is quite another to try to do so in foreign lands. Only when initial experiments, which are always lengthy and expensive and often entail gross expenditure a fond perdu, have proven to be successful, can mass settlement be attempted."

Weizmann then asserted that Jewish settlement outside Palestine had been a failure. He cited a plan by Baron Maurice de Hirsch to bring Jews to work the land in Argentina, which failed when young Jews decided to move to the cities.

But the crux of Weizmann's message came at the end. Jabotinsky might have created a stir with his plan to evacuate one million Jews over a decade. But Weizmann and the Zionist movement would top this by promising to bring 100,000 Jews to Palestine immediately. He warned that only the Zionist plan was worthy of investment.

"In summary, Dr. Weizmann said that it is necessary that every possible help and relief be given to the immigrants," Judisches Nachrichtenblatt concluded. "However, are the Jews to be expelled from Palestine, in which they have recognized rights in which 100,000 [and eventually many more] can be immediately settled with adequate funds on an economically sound basis, or must all they possess in reserves be put into risk through numerous experiments that cannot give immediate help?"

Why did Hitler allow Weizmann to directly address German Jews and peddle a promise that Berlin knew was a lie? The answer lies in the execution of the Final Solution during World War II. The Germans systematically pretended that the ghettos throughout occupied Europe were a waystation to safety, particularly Palestine. The SS, aided by the Zionist-dominated Judenrats, told Jews in the ghettos to register for British certificates to enter Palestine. Revolt, the nightmare of the Nazis, would then become counter-productive.

In his book Dokumente zur Geschichte des Deutsche Zionimus, or "Documents on the history of German Zionism," historian Francis R. Nicosia, regarded as one of the most scrupulous researchers of the Holocaust, argued that Weizmann and the Zionist movement shared similar goals with Nazi Germany. He cited documents that detail the Zionist cooperation with Berlin, including the exit of 80,000 Jews from the Reich between 1933 and late 1941.

"Making the country Judenrein met with everyone's approval.." Nicosia wrote. "None of the organizations involved in this process since 1933 had served the Zionist goals more consistently than the SS and the Gestapo.

Watch Steve Rodan discuss this issue on a podcast at https://rumble.com/v1wmwzs-r-and-b-monthly-seminar-in-jewish-blood-seminar-episode-six-b-tuesday-novem.html]

Below: Chaim Weizmann

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