''The Abandonment of the Jews: America and the Holocaust 1941–1945'' is a 1984 nonfiction book by David S. Wyman, former Josiah DuBois professor of history at the

University of Massachusetts Amherst The University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass Amherst, UMass) is a public research university in Amherst, Massachusetts and the sole public land-grant university in Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Founded in 1863 as an agricultural college, ...

. Wyman was the chairman of the David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies. ''The Abandonment of the Jews'' has been well received by most historians, and has won numerous prizes and widespread recognition, including a

National Jewish Book Award The Jewish Book Council (Hebrew: ), founded in 1944, is an organization encouraging and contributing to Jewish literature.Anisfield-Wolf Award The Anisfield-Wolf Book Award is an American literary award dedicated to honoring written works that make important contributions to the understanding of racism and the appreciation of the rich diversity of human culture. Established in 1935 by Clev ...

, the Present Tense Literary Award, the Stuart Bernath Prize from the

Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations The Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations (SHAFR) was founded in order to “promote excellence in research and teaching of American foreign relations history and to facilitate professional collaboration among scholars and students ...

, and the Theodore Saloutos Award of the Immigration History Society, and was nominated for the

National Book Critics Circle Award The National Book Critics Circle Awards are a set of annual American literary awards by the National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) to promote "the finest books and reviews published in English".

Argument

In response to

Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...

determination and concerted action to remove Jews from Europe by any means necessary, the non-Axis world closed many possibilities for emigration to other countries. For example, legal immigration to safety in Palestine, an area that had been assigned by the

League of Nations The League of Nations (french: link=no, Société des Nations ) was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference that ...

as a

Jewish homeland A homeland for the Jewish people is an idea rooted in Jewish history, religion, and culture. The Jewish aspiration to return to Zion, generally associated with divine redemption, has suffused Jewish religious thought since the destruction ...

for Jews who were not safe in their original countries, was severely limited by the Mandate authorities in 1939; and many nations simply refused to allow

European Jews The history of the Jews in Europe spans a period of over two thousand years. Some Jews, a Judaean tribe from the Levant, Natural History 102:11 (November 1993): 12–19. migrated to Europe just before the rise of the Roman Empire. A notable e ...

entry to their countries. As

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

gained power and inherited larger Jewish populations in conquered territories (such as Poland) the policies in most nations were either to eliminate the Jewish presence (in the case of Axis countries) or to discourage Jewish immigration (in the case of non-Axis countries.) The closing of the immigration possibilities in America is covered by Wyman in his 1968 book ''Paper Walls: America and the Refugee Crisis, 1938-1941''. Wyman continues to document this aspect of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

history in ''The Abandonment of the Jews'', which covers the period of 1941–1945, when America and the Allies fought against Germany and the

Final Solution The Final Solution (german: die Endlösung, ) or the Final Solution to the Jewish Question (german: Endlösung der Judenfrage, ) was a Nazi plan for the genocide of individuals they defined as Jews during World War II. The "Final Solution to th ...

Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; ...

progressed to its most lethal stages. Wyman summarizes his principal findings in the Preface (presented below in edited precis): # The American State Department and the

British Foreign Office The Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) is a department of the Government of the United Kingdom. Equivalent to other countries' ministries of foreign affairs, it was created on 2 September 2020 through the merger of the Foreig ...

had no intention of rescuing large number of European Jews. On the contrary, they continually feared that Germany or other Axis nations might release tens of thousands of Jews into Allied hands. Any such exodus would have placed intense pressure on Britain to open Palestine and the United States to take in more Jewish refugees... Consequently, their policies were aimed at obstructing rescue possibilities.... #Authenticated information that the Nazis were systematically exterminating European Jewry was made public... in November 1942. President Roosevelt did nothing... for fourteen months, then moved only because... political pressures.... #The

War Refugee Board The War Refugee Board, established by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in January 1944, was a U.S. executive agency to aid civilian victims of the Axis powers. The Board was, in the words of historian Rebecca Erbelding, "the only time in American h ...

... received little power, almost no cooperation... and grossly inadequate funding. (Contributions from Jewish organizations.... covered 90 percent of the WRB's costs)... save approximately 200,000 Jews and at least 20,000 non-Jews. #... State Department... policies, only 21,000 refugees were allowed to enter... during... war with Germany... 10 percent of the number who could have been legally admitted.... #.... factors hampered (rescue)... anti-Semitism and anti-immigration attitudes,... entrenched in Congress; the mass media's failure... near silence of the Christian churches and almost all of their leadership (with notable exceptions, such as the Archbishop of Canterbury, or New York's Archbishop

Francis Spellman Francis Joseph Spellman (May 4, 1889 – December 2, 1967) was an American bishop and cardinal of the Catholic Church. From 1939 until his death in 1967, he served as the sixth Archbishop of New York; he had previously served as an auxiliary ...

); indifference... President's failure.... # American Jewish leaders... failure to assign top priority to the rescue issue. # In 1944 the United States... rejected several appeals to bomb the Auschwitz

gas chambers A gas chamber is an apparatus for killing humans or other animals with gas, consisting of a sealed chamber into which a poisonous or asphyxiant gas is introduced. Poisonous agents used include hydrogen cyanide and carbon monoxide. History ...

and railroads... in the very months that... numerous massive American bombing raids were taking place with fifty miles of Auschwitz. Twice... bombers struck... not five miles from the gas chambers. #... much more could have been done to rescue the Jews, if a real effort had been made.... the reasons repeatedly invoked by government official for not being able to rescue Jews could be put aside when it came to other Europeans who needed help. #... Roosevelt's indifference... the worst failure of his presidency. #... the American rescue record was better than that of Great Britain, Russia, or the other Allied nations... because of the work of the War Refugee Board... American Jewish organizations... provide most of the WRB's funding, and the overseas rescue operations of several Jewish organizations. ''The Abandonment of the Jews'' argues that American (and British) 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 camp Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simpl ...

s. Wyman documents, for example, how Roosevelt repeatedly refused asylum to Jewish refugees and failed to order the bombing of railway lines leading to Auschwitz. At the same time, most Jewish leaders in America and in Palestine did little to pressure these governments to change their policy. Some American newspapers, including the

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

, are said to have underreported or buried reports off their front pages because of

anti-Semitism Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism. Antis ...

. The ''Times'' was owned by Jews but may have wanted not to appear as Jewish advocates in their coverage. Wyman examines the documents suggesting that the US and British governments turned down numerous proposals to accept European Jews. The issue was raised at a

White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in ...

conference on March 27, 1943, of top American and British wartime leaders, including Roosevelt,

US Secretary of State The United States secretary of state is a member of the executive branch of the federal government of the United States and the head of the U.S. Department of State. The office holder is one of the highest ranking members of the president's Ca ...

Cordell Hull,

British Foreign Secretary The secretary of state for foreign, Commonwealth and development affairs, known as the foreign secretary, is a minister of the Crown of the Government of the United Kingdom and head of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. Seen ...

Anthony Eden, presidential advisor Harry Hopkins, and the British Ambassador to Washington,

Lord Halifax Edward Frederick Lindley Wood, 1st Earl of Halifax, (16 April 1881 – 23 December 1959), known as The Lord Irwin from 1925 until 1934 and The Viscount Halifax from 1934 until 1944, was a senior British Conservative politician of the 19 ...

. Hull raised the question of having the Allies offer to accept 60,000 to 70,000 Jews from Bulgaria, a German ally. Eden reportedly objected, citing the risk that

Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...

may take up similar offers for the Jews of Germany and Poland, and said that "there simply are not enough ships and means of transportation to handle them." Wyman writes that because of a combination of nativism, anti-Semitism and an unwillingness to act on any proposal not of direct strategic value, thousands and possibly millions of Jews died who might otherwise have been saved. He documents numerous cases where the Allies found resources, such as shipping, to give aid and rescue to tens of thousands of non-Jewish refugees, while at the same time denying similar aid or rescue efforts to Jews. For instance, he documents how the British government turned back endangered Jews from Mandatory Palestine, while at the same time they generously accepted between 9,000 and 12,000 non-Jewish Greek and 1,800 non-Jewish Polish refugees into Palestine. He cites many cases where American and British authorities turned down offers by Nazis to exchange Jews for resources, often with documentation on how the Allies appeared to fear that there would be so many Jews that it could strain the Allies' war effort. He also documents the efforts of the US State Dept. to deny asylum to endangered Jews, and the failure of the American Jewish establishment to put sufficient pressure on US politicians, such as Roosevelt, to engage in effective rescue operations.

Breckinridge Long Samuel Miller Breckinridge Long (May 16, 1881 – September 26, 1958) was an American diplomat and politician. He served in the administrations of Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Delano Roosevelt. He is infamous among Holocaust historians for makin ...

, one of the four assistant secretaries of state, and a clique of other State Department executives, figure prominently in many episodes in this history. Wyman documents how Long and his colleagues repeatedly obstructed measures that would have effectively rescued Jews. Wyman cites several organizations as comparatively effective in rescue efforts, particularly some Orthodox Jewish organizations, the

American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, also known as Joint or JDC, is a Jewish relief organization based in New York City. Since 1914 the organisation has supported Jewish people living in Israel and throughout the world. The organization i ...

, and the

Revisionist Zionist Revisionist Zionism is an ideology developed by Ze'ev Jabotinsky, who advocated a "revision" of the " practical Zionism" of David Ben-Gurion and Chaim Weizmann which was focused on the settling of ''Eretz Yisrael'' ( Land of Israel) by independe ...

faction called the 'Bergsonites,' which took their name from their leader, the so-called "Peter H. Bergson," which was actually the English nom-de-guerre of

Hillel Kook Hillel Kook ( he, הלל קוק, 24 July 1915 –18 August 2001), also known as Peter Bergson (Hebrew: פיטר ברגסון), was a Revisionist Zionist activist and politician. Kook led the Irgun's efforts in the United States during World ...

, a Palestinian Jew and nephew of Rav

Abraham Isaac Kook Abraham Isaac Kook (; 7 September 1865 – 1 September 1935), known as Rav Kook, and also known by the acronym HaRaAYaH (), was an Orthodox rabbi, and the first Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of British Mandatory Palestine. He is considered to be one ...

who was associated with the radical armed underground group Irgun Zvai Leumi. "Bergson" came to the United States to form the 'American Friends of a Jewish Palestine,' the 'Committee for a Jewish Army,' and other efforts to rescue European Jewry. Wyman is particularly critical of the mainstream American Jewish and Zionist leadership, which was ineffective in its rescue efforts and often prioritized the fight against American anti-Semitism and strengthening the Zionist position for a postwar Jewish commonwealth in Palestine (Israel) above the need to rescue Jews from Nazi persecution. In the chapter on 'Responsibility', Wyman has a subsection, 'What Might Have Been Done', in which he acknowledges that the possibilities for rescue were "narrowed by the Nazis' determination to wipe out the Jews" and that "War conditions themselves made rescue difficult... most likely it would not have been possible to rescue millions." He contends, however, that "without impeding the war effort, additional tens of thousands--probably hundreds of thousands--could have been saved." He then presents a selection of twelve programs that were proposed (among others) during the Holocaust that could have been effective if only they had been tried. His selection included (in edited precis):

(1) Most important, the War Refugee Board should have been established in 1942. And it should have received adequate government funding and much broader powers.
(2) The U.S. government, working through neutral governments or the
Vatican Vatican may refer to: Vatican City, the city-state ruled by the pope in Rome, including St. Peter's Basilica, Sistine Chapel, Vatican Museum The Holy See * The Holy See, the governing body of the Catholic Church and sovereign entity recognized ...
, could have pressured Germany to release the Jews....
(3) The United States could have applied constant pressure on Axis satellites to release their Jews....
(4)... Strong pressure needed to be applied to neutral countries near the Axis... to take Jews in....havens of refuge outside of Europe were essential.... Thus the routes would have remained open and a continuing flow of refugees could have left Axis territory.
(5) Locating enough outside havens... presented difficulties.... a camp existence... was still preferable to... death.... other countries used American stinginess as an rebuttal when questioned for not accepting Jews. For instance, in Jerusalem on his 1942 trip around the world,
Wendell Willkie Wendell Lewis Willkie (born Lewis Wendell Willkie; February 18, 1892 – October 8, 1944) was an American lawyer, corporate executive and the 1940 Republican nominee for President. Willkie appealed to many convention delegates as the Republican ...
confronted the British authorities with the need to admit large numbers of Jews into Palestine. The British High Commissioner replied that since the United States was not taking Jews in even up to the quota limits, Americans were hardly in a position to make such criticisms.
(6) Shipping was needed to transport Jews from neutral countries to outside havens.... Early in 1943 the United States turned its back on a Romanian proposal to release 70,000 Jews. It was a pivotal failure....
(7) A campaign to stimulate and assist escape would have led to a sizable outflow of Jews....
(8) Much larger amounts of money should have been transferred to Europe... facilitating escapes,... hiding Jews.... supplying food... strengthening Jewish undergrounds, and... non-Jewish forces.
(9) Much more effort should have gone into finding ways to send in food and medical supplies....
(10)... the United States could have applied much more pressure... on neutral governments, the Vatican, and the
International Red Cross The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC; french: Comité international de la Croix-Rouge) is a humanitarian organization which is based in Geneva, Switzerland, and it is also a three-time Nobel Prize Laureate. State parties (signato ...
to induce them to take earlier and more vigorous action....
(11) Some military assistance was possible....
(12) Much more publicity about the extermination of the Jews should have been disseminated throughout Europe....

Counterarguments

The overwhelming majority of professional historians who specialize in World War II and/or the Holocaust have generally endorsed, supported, or have been influenced by Wyman's arguments. The primary criticisms target Wyman's criticisms of Roosevelt, defend the actions of establishment Jewish organizations, and/or challenge his contention that the Allies could have effectively mitigated the slaughter of Jews by bombing the Auschwitz extermination facilities, a topic often referred to as the Auschwitz bombing debate. Dr James H. Kitchens III, an archivist of the

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Aerial warfare, air military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part ...

Historical Research Center, criticized Wyman for his neglect for the situation of

total war Total war is a type of warfare that includes any and all civilian-associated resources and infrastructure as legitimate military targets, mobilizes all of the resources of society to fight the war, and gives priority to warfare over non-combata ...

in which the Allies were enveloped and for basing his book on sociopolitical sources, without quality references to military history, which he argues is crucial to the bombing debate. Kitchens argued that it would not have been practical to bomb Auschwitz. Kitchens' two principal points are 1) the Allies did not have sufficiently detailed intelligence about the location of these facilities to reasonably target them, and 2) the logistics of bombing would have been too difficult to reasonably expect a successful result. Historian Richard Levy supports Kitchens' position. Other historians have pointed out 1) there were opportunities for the Allies to acquire sufficient military intelligence on potential Auschwitz targets, though it appears that no concerted effort was made gather such information. and 2) there were many successful Allied bombing missions that were just as difficult and were supported by comparably incomplete intelligence. The notion that the Auschwitz mission would have been particularly difficult is strongly challenged; some have speculated that Kitchens may have been influenced by the desire to defend his employer. There are very few historians who disagree with Wyman's position that more could have been done by the Allies and Neutrals to rescue endangered European Jews. One exception is

William D. Rubinstein William D. Rubinstein (born 12 August 1946) is a historian and author. His best-known work, ''Men of Property: The Very Wealthy in Britain Since the Industrial Revolution'', charts the rise of the ' super rich', a class he sees as expanding ex ...

, whose ''The Myth of Rescue: Why the Democracies Could Not Have Saved More Jews from the Nazis'' is explicitly a critical response to "The Abandonment of the Jews" and a host of other works that support Wyman's positions. Rubinstein argues that the Western powers had a creditable record of accepting immigrants, Palestine was not a potential refuge, and effective allied action against the extermination camps was not possible."The Myth of Rescue: Why the Democracies Could Not Have Saved More Jews from the Nazis", by William D. Rubinstein, (NY: Routledge.; 1997) Even Wyman's most strident critics, however, acknowledge that many of Wyman's contentions are valid. Rubinstein, for instance, appears to largely agree with Wyman (and many other historians) that the influence of Palestinian Arab political leadership, led by Grand Mufti of Jerusalem

Haj Amin al-Husseini Mohammed Amin al-Husseini ( ar, محمد أمين الحسيني 1897 – 4 July 1974) was a Palestinian Arab nationalist and Muslim leader in Mandatory Palestine. Al-Husseini was the scion of the al-Husayni family of Jerusalemite Arab notable ...

, and the 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine were factors in causing the British government to abandon their temporary mandate over Palestine, which was primarily to establish a homeland for the Jewish people that would be available to facilitate rescue of endangered Jews in their time of need. Both Wyman and his critics agree that their decision to abandon the mandate was embodied in the

White Paper of 1939 The White Paper of 1939Occasionally also known as the MacDonald White Paper (e.g. Caplan, 2015, p.117) after Malcolm MacDonald, the British Colonial Secretary, who presided over its creation. was a policy paper issued by the British governmen ...

, which reduced Jewish immigration to Palestine to a yearly quota of only 10,000, with a maximum of 75,000 immigrants, and after a five-year period relegated all Jewish immigration to the approval of the Palestinian Arab polity. The long-lasting consequences to the European Jewry during the Holocaust of the abandonment of the mandate is generally recognized by Wyman's critics, though Wyman details the detrimental effects in greater detail than many of his detractors. For instance, the differences of opinion between Rubinstein and Wyman on the issue rest principally on Rubinstein's argument that the Zionist Jews in Palestine (such as David Ben-Gurion) are primarily to blame for not giving refuge to European Jews in Palestine, rather than putting the responsibility on the British authorities or the Palestinian Arabs who violently opposed such rescue efforts. Some historians have taken Rubinstein and other Wyman critics to task for such assertions, and have directly attacked these criticisms of Wyman's positions as unscholarly "polemic."

Examples where Jews were rescued from the Axis countries

Many historians, including Dr. David Kranzler, who specialize in documenting those who rescued Jews note that large number of Jews were saved and argue that even more could have been saved, often using the same historical examples that are covered by Wyman. In most cases, the rescue efforts were not initiated by large established free world Jewish and Zionist organizations, which often obstructed rescue activism; the Allied governments; or by institution like the Vatican nor the Red Cross. Most successful rescue operations were the result of work by non-establishment small maverick Jewish groups and non-Jews, who largely acted outside and often against instructions of their own umbrella groups. Examples include: * The Bratislava Working Group led by Gisi Fleischmann and Rabbi Chaim Michael Dov Weissmandl negotiated in early 1942 an about two year lull in transports from Slovakia for about $50,000 ransom to the SS via Dieter Wisliceny. In late 1942 they negotiated the so-called Europa Plan. Apparently, the Germans offered to stop transports from many areas for about two million dollars and demanded a 10% down payment. No one was willing to risk that sum, and the negotiations terminated. Yad Vashem states that it was only a German trick. * Protection papers handed out from Switzerland by Orthodox Jewish rescuers George Mantello (Mandel - a Salvadorian diplomat from Transylvania) and Recha Sternbuch saved large numbers over the objections of a Swiss Jewish leader and US officials, particularly WRB's Roswell McClelland. *

Wilfrid Israel Wilfrid Berthold Jacob Israel (11 July 1899 – 1 June 1943) was an Anglo-German businessman and philanthropist, born into a wealthy Anglo-German Jewish family, who was active in the rescue of Jews from Nazi Germany, and who played a significan ...

, originally from Berlin, was one of the key people who organized the

Kindertransport The ''Kindertransport'' (German for "children's transport") was an organised rescue effort of children (but not their parents) from Nazi-controlled territory that took place during the nine months prior to the outbreak of the Second World ...

to England, which saved large number of Jewish children. * Recha Sternbuch smuggled into Switzerland large number of Jews at the Swiss-Austria border until someone in Switzerland who should have helped informed on her. She conducted from late 1944 to early 1945 negotiations with

Heinrich Himmler Heinrich Luitpold Himmler (; 7 October 1900 – 23 May 1945) was of the (Protection Squadron; SS), and a leading member of the Nazi Party of Germany. Himmler was one of the most powerful men in Nazi Germany and a main architect of th ...

via Swiss politician Jean-Marie Musy who was Himmler's acquaintance. That led to the release of many Jews from the

Theresienstadt concentration camp Theresienstadt Ghetto was established by the SS during World War II in the fortress town of Terezín, in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia ( German-occupied Czechoslovakia). Theresienstadt served as a waystation to the extermination ca ...

and prevented murder of large number of Jews in some camps as the Allies were approaching, based on a ransom agreement with the Nazis. She was again informed on by the same person as noted earlier. * Yitzchak Sternbuch, Recha Sternbuch's husband, raised and paid the ransom required to release the Jews in the

Bergen-Belsen concentration camp Bergen-Belsen , or Belsen, was a Nazi concentration camp in what is today Lower Saxony in northern Germany, southwest of the town of Bergen near Celle. Originally established as a prisoner of war camp, in 1943, parts of it became a concentra ...

who were on the so-called Kastner Train. * Rabbi

Solomon Schonfeld Rabbi Solomon Schonfeld (21 February 1912 – 6 February 1984) was a British Rabbi who was honoured as a British Hero of the Holocaust for saving the lives of thousands of Jews. Early life and career Schonfeld was the second son of Rabbi Av ...

arranged refuge for thousands of Jews in Britain, including hundreds of children in the

. He also convinced many English Church leaders and Parliamentarians to pass a motion allowing those Jews who could get out from Axis ruled territories to settle at least temporarily in parts of the British Empire. A group successfully lobbied against the motion since it excluded Palestine. * In the US, persistent pressure on the Roosevelt administration by

and his Bergonsonite rescue group, despite considerable and prolonged obstruction by America's liberal Jewish leaders and mainstream Jewish organizations but with crucial support of many in Congress, the Senate, and Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau, Jr. and his team at the Treasury, led to establishment of the

. One if its actions was support of the Wallenberg mission to Budapest. David Wyman credits the

with the rescue of over 200,000 (including 120,000 in Hungary, in part because of the Wallenberg mission). * Twenty four hours after receipt El Salvador embassy Jewish First Secretary George Mantello (Mandel) publicized what has now been called the Wetzler-Vrba Report included in the Auschwitz Protocol. Unfortunately, he received the report with much delay. Other Jews and Jewish/Zionist organizations that received it early did not make effective use of the information and some, like Rudolf Kastner tried to suppress the information. Mantello's action ignited significant large street protests in Switzerland, led to over 400 glaring headlines in Switzerland deploring Europe's barbarism and the sermons in many Swiss churches spoke about their "brothers and sisters": the Jews. Though the International Red Cross hesitated to intervene, others—including Pope Pius XII and King

Gustav V of Sweden Gustaf V (Oscar Gustaf Adolf; 16 June 1858 – 29 October 1950) was King of Sweden from 8 December 1907 until his death in 1950. He was the eldest son of King Oscar II of Sweden and Sophia of Nassau, a half-sister of Adolphe, Grand Duke of Luxe ...

made personal appeals to Hungary's Regent

Miklós Horthy Miklós Horthy de Nagybánya ( hu, Vitéz nagybányai Horthy Miklós; ; English: Nicholas Horthy; german: Nikolaus Horthy Ritter von Nagybánya; 18 June 1868 – 9 February 1957), was a Hungarian admiral and dictator who served as the regent ...

. He received credible threats from Churchill and Roosevelt. Horthy then stopped the transports carrying about 12,000 Jews per day to Auschwitz. "By then, the Hungarian provinces had been cleared. Almost 440,000 Jews were gone, but most of Budapest's 230,000 Jews were still in the capital." Horthy then "offered to permit emigration of all Jewish children under ten who possessed visas to other countries, and all Jews of any age who possessed Palestine certificates." Although Sweden, Switzerland, and the US State Department eventually agreed to issue visas for 28,000 children, none of them was ever brought out of Hungary because of the month-long delay in Allied and neutral negotiations, and in the end, the Nazis took control of the situation. The delay in responding to Horthy's offer proved fatal to the deal he offered and to many Hungarian Jews. Three months after Horthy stopped the deportation trains, he was deposed and replaced by the Nazi puppet regime of Ferenc Szalasi and his fascist and anti-Semitic Arrow Cross, which unleashed a reign of terror against Hungary's remaining Jews, killed tens of thousand in the four months of their reign, and ended only when the Russians army conquered Hungary."Abandonment of the Jews", p. 235-243. * The lull in the Hungarian deportations and the offers made by Horthy enabled the Wallenberg mission and also rescue by many others in Budapest, such as

Carl Lutz Carl Lutz (30 March 1895 – 12 February 1975) was a Swiss diplomat. He served as the Swiss Vice-Consul in Budapest, Hungary, from 1942 until the end of World War II. He is credited with saving over 62,000 Jews during the Second World War in a ...

, Monsignor

Angelo Rotta Angelo Rotta (9 August 1872 – 1 February 1965) was an Italian prelate of the Catholic Church. As the Apostolic Nuncio in Budapest at the end of World War II, he was involved in the rescue of the Jews of Budapest from the Nazi Holocaust. He is ...

Giorgio Perlasca Giorgio Perlasca (31 January 1910 – 15 August 1992) was an Italian businessman and former Fascist who, with the collaboration of official diplomats, posed as the Spanish consul-general to Hungary in the winter of 1944, and saved 5,218 Jews fr ...

, 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.

Raoul Wallenberg Raoul Gustaf Wallenberg (4 August 1912 – disappeared 17 January 1945)He is presumed to have died in 1947, although the circumstances of his death are not clear and this date has been disputed. Some reports claim he was alive years later. 31 J ...

and

each rescued tens of thousands of Jews in Hungary and the Zionist Youth Underground rescued many thousands in not over 10,000 * Many diplomats often broke diplomatic protocol, acted against the directives of their country, and rescued large number of Jews with visas and protection papers. Besides

and

best known among them are Japanese

Chiune Sugihara was a Japanese diplomat who served as vice-consul for the Japanese Empire in Kaunas, Lithuania. During the Second World War, Sugihara helped thousands of Jews flee Europe by issuing transit visas to them so that they could travel through ...

, Chinese

Ho Feng-Shan Ho Feng-Shan ( 10 September 1901 – 28 September 1997) was a Chinese diplomat and writer for the Republic of China. When he was consul-general in Vienna during World War II, he risked his life and career to save "perhaps tens of thousands" of J ...

, Portuguese Aristides de Sousa Mendes and Swedish Count

Folke Bernadotte Folke Bernadotte, Count of Wisborg (2 January 1895 – 17 September 1948) was a Swedish nobleman and diplomat. In World War II he negotiated the release of about 31,000 prisoners from German concentration camps, including 450 Danish Jews fr ...

. * A controversial proposal for rescue came from Adolf Eichmann, who offered Zionist rescuer Joel Brand in May, 1944, a deal to release 1,000,000 Jews in exchange for 10,000 trucks and commodities like coffee, tea, cocoa, and soap. Eichmann and other Nazis made similar offers to other Zionist rescuers (such as Saly Mayer, Sternbuch). Jean-Marie Musy, a former president of Switzerland and pro-Nazi enthusiast in the 1930s, took a prominent role in the negotiations. The Allies, however, rejected these 'ransom' arrangements even though Eichmann had made it very clear that the alternative entailed destroying the Jews. The Russians and Churchill agreed that ransoms should not be paid. The British held Brand as a prisoner to prevent such dealings and the pre-state Zionist leadership of Palestine did not seem overly interested. *

Yad Vashem Yad Vashem ( he, יָד וַשֵׁם; literally, "a memorial and a name") is Israel's official memorial to the victims of the Holocaust. It is dedicated to preserving the memory of the Jews who were murdered; honoring Jews who fought against th ...

states in its museum that the controversial Rudolf Kastner's activities led to the rescue of over 22,000 Jews * After controversial negotiations between Rudolf Kastner, Saly Mayer, and Adolf Eichmann, trains carrying some 1,700 Hungarian Jews were sent to

Bergen-Belsen Bergen-Belsen , or Belsen, was a Nazi concentration camp in what is today Lower Saxony in northern Germany, southwest of the town of Bergen near Celle. Originally established as a prisoner of war camp, in 1943, parts of it became a concentrati ...

concentration camp, where they were kept relatively safely in return for money and gold and were freed at the end of 1944, when Yitzchak Sternbuch, in Switzerland, arranged for their rescue with a large ransom payment."Holocaust Years: The Nazi Destruction of European Jewry, 1933-1945", by Nora Levin (Malabar, FL: Krieger Publishing; 1990) , p. 338 * There were many other successful rescue initiatives and also many more which some argue could have succeeded if Churchill and Roosevelt had received more public pressure. With ships packed with refugees, such as the ''St. Louis'' and refugee ships headed for Palestine were turned back, it is difficult to make a case for the thesis that rescue was not possible. Wyman's views are supported by numerous participants and scholars, such David Kranzler,

, Chaim Michael Dov Weissmandl, to name only a few."Holocaust Years, Levin", pp. 117--128, pp. 324--326, 331-333 pp. 338--340

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 Hillel Kook ( he, הלל קוק, 24 July 1915 –18 August 2001), also known as Peter Bergson (Hebrew: פיטר ברגסון), was a Revisionist Zionist activist and politician. Kook led the Irgun's efforts in the United States during World ...

, 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'', Foreword 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'' *Laurence Jarvik, '' Who Shall Live and Who Shall Die'' (video documentary, distributed by Kino International at: http://www.kino.com/video/item.php?film_id=349) *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)

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Abandonment Of The Jews, The History books about the Holocaust International response to the Holocaust The Holocaust and the United States 1984 non-fiction books

Counterarguments

Examples where Jews were rescued from the Axis countries

See also

References

Notes