"ARMAGEDDON"
Rabasseire, Henri & Donat, Alexander
Mr. Donat's moving defense of the Jewish underground in Poland ["Armageddon," DISSENT, Spring 1963] comes as a timely answer to the attacks which have been levelled at the political and moral...
...asks Mr...
...If I chose to be pathetic I could answer that - the six million victims annihilated by that nation gave me the right and the message to do it...
...For a socialist magazine to have printed a defense of German nationalism would be a disgrace...
...All I can do is to suggest that he read Bettelheim's book...
...Donat's moving defense of the Jewish underground in Poland ["Armageddon," DISSENT, Spring 1963] comes as a timely answer to the attacks which have been levelled at the political and moral stance of European Jews during the Hitler period...
...For one, there was real danger in the former case, whereas the American people cringed under an imaginary danger...
...He wondered why people unjustly condemned to die, nevertheless do not offer resistance...
...All these misconceptions can be laid at the Jews' door, but then, political debates always consists in disagreements about precisely this point: where the "main enemy" is, and whether action should be taken against the imminent or against the ultimate danger...
...To say that "the Chancellor has attempted morally to disarm the victims by bribery" is both an insult and an untruth—and what gives Mr...
...Now they are fighting back, and lo, "the world" is taking an interest in them...
...Unfortunately he mixes truth with assumptions, and both with an emotionalism which leads him from defense to attack...
...William Shirer in his Rise and Fall of the Third Reich states very candidly: "No class or group or party in Germany could escape its share of responsibility for the abandonment of the democratic Republic and the advent of Adolf Hitler...
...Rabasseire indignantly...
...Bettelheim a common Jewish fear to admit the virtues of cowardice...
...Also: where do I assume that in an "extreme situation" one gives up...
...As a contributor to DISSENT, Mr...
...For Jews, resistance was not a matter of conscience, but the most rational response to an extreme provocation...
...No group...
...to judge entire nations morally is downright fascist...
...Heroism never belongs to a people, but is a per...
...Would he, as a Jew, like to be held responsible for the extermination of Arab villages in Palestine, for the expulsion of an entire population from home and property, for the degradation of the original population to second grade citizens, for the Suez war of 1956...
...Donat's article in order to recognize its importance: which leads me to conclude that my friend Henri Rabasseire is being somewhat too inclusive when he takes upon himself atonement for our "collective guilt...
...Why does Mr...
...We are a race which did not survive by natural selection of the bravest, but by evasive action, as most oppressed minorities do...
...It only shows that DISSENT has the honesty and courage to print non-conformist articles...
...Why were there no more Grynspans...
...I think it is a disgrace for a socialist magazine to publish such prejudiced outbursts which it ought to fight...
...Bettelheim's answer...
...Rabasseire I am, however, willing to modify the wording: instead of "the Germans" I agree to use the formulation: "the Nazi murderers, followed blindly by 99.99 per cent of the German nation...
...They could not escape persecution, and therefore their resistance was not heroism...
...Most Jews had no choice, and therefore, it is legitimate to ask why they did not resist...
...Now, it is a mere trick to put into your opponent's mouth words he never used and then to destroy them...
...There were heroes among the Jews, both passive and active heroes...
...Whether Jewish resistance was heroism or plain performance of duty was at no time an issue in my article...
...It is not unsocialistic honestly to state the facts no matter how bitter and deplorable...
...I can't help having the impression that, carried away by his anger, Mr...
...As a writer, I am ashamed that this happened in our magazine and I hope that this letter of one will atone for the collective guilt of all...
...To point an accusing finger at "the world" and ask it to justify itself morally, is a childish game...
...Rabasseire's orthodox ears...
...Donat makes a number of highly pertinent observations, but they are contradictory...
...This is not a question of condemning or exculpating any number of Jew, ish leaders...
...to print, that is, an outcry of Jewish feeling—even, if you wish, of Jewish national feeling—seems to me both a necessity and an honor...
...They did not assume this burden of their own will...
...I never expected to see the day when a socialist magazine, least of all DISSENT, publishes a wholesale indictment of a nation...
...Partisans in other nations were heroes when they took up arms against the oppressor...
...His torrent of abuse virtually relieves me of the duty of answering...
...Bettelheim has asked the simple question: Why do people not act rationally in extreme situations...
...it is rather unsocialistic to make a taboo of what doesn't fit into the dogma...
...It is not true that Jews "collaborated in their destruction," for there was resistance, such as the Warsaw uprising...
...Rabasseire can only be proud that it published the article, especially if he is right in saying that it does not agree with the magazine's "line" (which, in my humble opinion, is not the case...
...And last not least: "What gives Mr...
...Service is rendered by it neither to the Jews nor to the cause of a new Germany (let's hope) for which the handful of real German democrats fight...
...no one ever suggested that they should repay the loss of life and happiness, or that they could restore criminals to honor...
...It is incredible that a Jew and a socialist, in a travesty of "objectivity," chooses to absolve a nation of murderers and soapmakers...
...Rabasseire should certainly know better than that...
...No party...
...Donat shares with Dr...
...Donat is wrong in "excusing" the Jews on grounds of attenuating circumstances, and he is doubly wrong in comparing their performance under the Nazis with the American performance under McCarthy...
...According to the book a socialist's mortal sin is to accuse "a whole nation," including the precious proletariat which is taboo...
...It is a basic question of political behavior...
...Bettelheim "a common Jewish fear to admit the virtues of cowardice"—except that I call it "responsibility...
...What gives Mr...
...Thousand years of Jewish memories gave the victims that same council: wiggle through and survive, like your forefathers...
...Some youthful delusions and cliches get fossilized, they don't change no matter what happens...
...Donat's article I wish to say a word about the charge that it is a "disgrace" to print such an article...
...They were not persecuted for what they believe but for what they are...
...No class...
...Which means the entire nation...
...The reparations which Germany pays to Israel have always been understood to be restitution of material losses...
...But it is true that in the most extreme situations very few people fight back...
...onal act of choice...
...Secondly, the liberal coward or ex-communist turncoat hoped to save his skin—a contemptible but rational action, not unlike that of German opportunists who served the Nazis...
...Also: where do I "excuse" the Jews on grounds of attenuating circumstances...
...But the case of the Jews is quite different...
...but his question is not only legitimate, it is vital if we are ever to understand the meaning of liberty, or of its opposite...
...Rabasseire omitted to read or consider entire sections of my article...
...Donat, however, is unfair not only to nations but to individuals, too...
...They did so in obedience to their conscience, rejecting the alternative of knuckling under or of collaborating...
...The tragic truth is, of course, that the German proletariat didn't behave according to the book...
...Such uprisings, however, only saved the honor of the condemned, not their lives...
...For a hundred years the Negroes in the United States have suffered and evaded, and vainly waited for "the world" to have pity on them...
...Rabasseire knows it as well as anybody else...
...But to print a polemic against those who now pass judgment on the victims of German nationalism...
...Some of his attacks are deplorable, and some gratuitous...
...It seems to me that Mr...
...And that applies to the gladiators in ancient Rome as well as to the Frank family...
...I was there, Mr...
...Many Germans were heroes because they incurred danger to themselves by helping Jewish citizens...
...He attacks Bruno Bettelheim with these words: "from the safety of America, he chose to start a war against Anne Frank...
...To do so is "collective slander," "phobia of other nations," "nationalism," "outright fascism," and "intellectual genocide...
...Donat assume that in an "extreme situation" one gives up...
...The majority of "the" Germans whom Mr...
...many who went to join the transport train to Auschwitz hoped to find their relatives or expected to be placed in a ghetto to survive the war...
...One need not agree with every opinion in Mr...
...To please Mr...
...He will certainly change his opinion...
...Donat the right to sit in "moral judgment" over a whole nation...
...but as psychologists know, we often flee from danger by merely closing our eyes to it, or substitute a momentary, or even imaginary danger for a permanent and real one...
...Bettelheim is a graduate from a concentration camp, and he did not make war against Ann Frank...
...the phobia of another nation is poison to any democracy...
...Those who did not choose this course are heroes and martyrs, i.e., they suffered deliberately, of their own will...
...Resistance against evil always is politically the better course of action...
...This is common knowledge, every decent German admits it, and Mr...
...Nature has endowed man with anxiety, i.e., the ability to anticipate danger and the urge to flee from it...
...However, I have decided to answer him lest readers be misled by his well-worn stock phrases...
...Rabasseire, and everybody who was there (and only who was there) has the right to pass moral judgment...
...On the substance of the dispute, Mr...
...In speaking of "the Germans" Mr...
...Would it not be more natural for a desperate man to decide that if he has to perish, his tormentor too should perish...
...Nationalism and socialism are enemies...
...Donat the right to sit in 'moral judgment' over a whole nation...
...As a Jew, I have suffered enough from anti-Semitism to be wary of any collective slander...
...One may quarrel with Dr...
...The gist of my article was just to state in all candor that whenever the possibility existed, the Jews did put up a resistance...
...The much maligned Leo Baeck was a martyr and a hero, because he went to the concentration camp after he had been abroad...
...Otherwise he wouldn't accuse me of sharing with Dr...
...they may even have precipitated a slaughter worse than that which they opposed, as witnessed by the wholesale murder of Dutch Jews in reprisal for the resistance put up by some...
...This behavior was unrealistic but it was not foolish, nor necessarily a sign of cravenness...
...Rabasseire's uncontrolled and not too courteous outburst is disturbing but not totally surprising...
...As the editor responsible for printing Mr...
...Does that sound better to Mr...
...Rabasseire finds me also unfair to Bruno Bettelheim who, as it turns out, didn't start a war against Anne Frank...
...Rabasseire this right...
...Donat is committing intellectual genocide...
...On the other hand, those who did not resist may have been misled by their own misconceptions and the deliberate deception of their murderers...
...the German (and many other) "comrades" destroyed the myth of international class solidarity as a political factor...
...Donat accuses of Hitler's crimes were minors or unborn when he came to power...
Vol. 10 • July 1963 • No. 3
