The Story of 3 Million-A Cold Record of the Nazi Murder of Jews
The Story of 3 Million-A Cold Record of the Nazi Murder of Jews New Study Offers Evidence Of Hitler's 'New Order By WILLIAM E. BOHN I' HAVE just finished reading the SU pages ot...
...The serried columns of Agares st the end of the volnae are cvnaamaat computation* of horror ???* than three million dead...
...The basic difference in approach and outlook would have made the development of- hostility inevitable...
...Victims had died—perhaps one, perhaps a few hundred, possibly thousands...
...In addition countiess uprooted tad hunted Jews from Germany and other lands have died ia horribly indescribable way* in tide unhappy land...
...Frequently he has been right While practical Labor leaders annually voted down unemployment insurance during the 1920's, the Intellectuals were broadcasting the advantages of such a system...
...The cautious tight-flstedness of an international President unwffltng' to risk his membership's substance in qubfeui organizing enterprises only arouse tbi Intellectual's contempt...
...UfITH all of their* faults—and they have many T" —Intellectuals have shown as much insight into the problem of a war economy as any other group in the community...
...when it is made m gnsoJR and with due regard to the reaBtint ?? problems, hostility is unfair and...
...They have been robbed of property, Citisenship, position—even of their place in the world, they are hounded forth from their homes, herded in work squads and force* to labor for enough food to keep them barely «live...
...T1' ' - · .' ·· ' ----- "'?Austria...
...Our report, of course, is strictly limited to one phase of Hitlerism...
...When be gets back aad asm that life at home is dull, and the people aroand him engaged tn petty bickering, his werhl of illusion collapses and be seeks escape...
...fw youth especially war is either a crusade or a crime' If they conclude It was a crhne, onus is real danger ahead...
...Why this tragedy came and what is to be done about it—these are matters left to the reader...
...It eaesjafc***' ioeL be a cause for too much eonoeravT*' j The Coming "Jazz Age" SHORT memories will not recall the Jazz Age of the M's, with prohibition gin and the speakeasy, the bobbed flapper in short skirts and the wild new speed of the automobile...
...Nothing...
...Bat the feeling of hostility would pletely dissolved, for unless en 1?«??*??» lg ready to stultify himself and become a T*» man,'' he would still be resented...
...Others are completely gStf»ea...
...Professor of Economics, Brown University...
...In 1929 Mussolini proclaimed: "The Jews have lived in Rome since the days of the Kings...
...A J Vet it i« well that Intellect...
...France has much to expiate in additioB to defeat...
...Since then there has been one little dirty and decadent anti-Semitic group after another preparing the way for 1940...
...This is part of a war situation, and in England the government acting through a labor man has encroached far more drastically upon labor's prerogatives...
...Greece furnishes the only exception in tint corner of debauched and desolated Europe...
...by the employer...
...The actual destruction of Eu rope's eight mil lion Jewish citizens has taken place since September 1 >t 1939...
...1933 saw the beginning of the ruthless, ofacia...
...The unions, far from being puny huJAjWr resting on rickety foundations, are...
...Portrait of a Labor Intellectual By PHILIP TAFT Author of "History of American Trade Unionism...
...The exigencies of their situation force Labor officials to take a practical view of their activities...
...How numerous wem-the Storm Troopers, Elite Guards, party members and German soldiers who did these men, women and children to death...
...As each new country or section came under Nasi rule- the process was repeated there with accelerated speed...
...And they have been helpful in many other ways...
...in its terror...
...But in the end life returned to normal...
...Frequently he is snobbish, arrogant righteous, smug and Ignorant Puffed up with his own ruperrority, he is likely to be oblivious of the day -to-day problems of the union leader, and unsympathetic to the world of compromise and accommodation in which the trade union officer operates...
...How many Nazis end Nasi collaborators participated in these millions Of murders...
...DY contrast, the part played by the Czecho-Slovakian - people and government stands out by reason of the courageous and persistent refusal to collaborate...
...Government...
...Hate welled up...
...So many thousands bare, so many hundreds of thousands there...
...Strange to say, this'devastating projection of the great shadow that has' eclipsed Europe gives me a clue to the psychology of the Appeasers...
...J as independent critics, eve nif it lends a? ·» f dmapaiuval of Labor leaders...
...They became harsh critics of the trade union movement Some of the · criticism was undoubtedly deserved, but it was frequently stated in the polemical language common to those raised in the Marxian tradition...
...How many of them are equally guilty with Hitter and Goering aad Goebbels...
...In towns sad villages, in camps and far waste places" they dent Their bones lie rotting from the Bay of Biscay «Imnat to the gates of Moscow and Stalingrad, and from the toe of Italy to the top of Norway...
...The former are "free-lancers" in relation to the labor movement, —Uli...
...The end of me wer will bring inevitable cynicism and dimllaaionment not aeceaaarily in the bread objectives tar which the war is being fought bat ia the realm ef simple, hamaa things...
...leader* most share with the Nazis the blame for unspeakable crimes...
...Unfavorable reaction of the Labor leader to such a theoretical attitude must be expected...
...They shall remain undisturbed...
...During the entire life of this little republic the Jews had freely lived as citizens on the same level as all others...
...The government treated its Jewish citizens honorably, despite German pressure, and the Greek people have done their desperate host to alleviate the tragic situation of Jews under the German.rule...
...Bat suspicions are already at large that our new "Jazz Age" at the end of this war weald make the last one seem like a proper Sandaysehool picnic Of con me...
...Relief could be given...
...While the Intellectual is inclined to be righteous and arrogant there is something also to be said in his favor...
...Undoubtedly, much of the antagonism towards the Intellectual ia deserved...
...AH of the experiments had been made...
...What are the youth saying today...
...In the Europe of our time, criminology has tekmi «? the proportions of world politics...
...What the Chamberlains and Hendersons and all of our unconcerned Americans did not understand—perhaps do not even now understand—is that what we see in Europe is something completely different from all this...
...It became a continental funeral pyre...
...Now that I see the Hitler machine as a whole, sense its clanking march over a continent I begin to understand the glacial slowness of response in ordinary folks outside of Eusope, the Chamberlains, the Hendersons, the nice, contented people of our Middle west...
...The murder, fixe and rape vented fay hot hordes of primitive warriors or by equally irrational mobs which gave temporary free rein to the beast within, were a part of our experience...
...Of the five millions who are gone, more than tqree millions have been murdered...
...Bat at least so mach is clear—the poet-war "Jaas Age" will certainly not te eslhsl that aad in all probability will take its tone frem seme aew cultural erase—its impetus wW be something quite different from the discovery ef illicit liquor by aa aoVentaroas generation—its direction of greater historical eeaasqasnct than the mere gaiety ffahy* * the za/s...
...But it has given me a jolt, and 1 must do something about it...
...From the victims one's mind swings inevitably to the criminals...
...They have frequently shewn mere awareaeas ef the dangers that threaten oar society than the baay Uber leader n> ¦ vetved with his owe problems ? AN the hostility to the IntellectiiajH ·*"·1 na ted or minimized ? To some ssnwnt»P*J haps...
...They are not above and shemB ?? above criticism...
...While the head of an international union may not And many areas of agreement with an "aggressive Open Shopper," their mutual detestation of the Intellectuals, or the "Professors" as they are now called, tit the touch of nature that makes them kin.' Although accentuated by circumstances, the hoe til i ty of Labor leaders is neither new nor novel...
...We knew about the Hons, the Tartars, the Russian pogroms and the American lynching...
...But the whole horror has been perpetrated by Germans, Ths Poles bear no part of the blame...
...The feeling of resentment will become acute when professional economists and statisticians, labeled "intellectuals" or "professors," happen to be enforcing a government policy that does not meet with the approval of Labor leaders...
...The animus against Intellectuals is usually not extended to .the latter group who are becoming more essential with the increasing importance of government in industrial relations...
...He is not bedeviled by problems such as maintaining his union or repelling an attack...
...fHEN the war started there were in the parts of Europe now controlled by Germany something over eight million Jews...
...and, being frequently endowed with a great sense of his own importance, is likely to scoff at the narrow and petty objectives of increasing the pay envelope by a few cents a day or the shaving of the working time by an hour or two...
...Shub's book sticks rigidly to a factual tale of what happened to Jews...
...The desolation visited on the Jewish part of the population has been ordered and executed by Germans alone...
...The whole thing started in February, 1920, with the adoption of the Munich program oi the Nasi Party...
...Somehow the world mustern» to a reckoning with these men...
...A few months later a neutral diplomat wrote: "I no longer try to prevent Jews from committing suicide because there is absolutely no hope for them...
...The techniques had been perfected...
...smoothly over Austria, Czecho-Slovakia, Poland, HoEar.a...
...Vi__J V___,„k„ ———————— while the latter are "hired hands" who perform technical services for labor unions...
...We knew that such outbursts came and went They were like earthquakes or volcanic eruptions powered somewhere in the dork interior of the human subconscious...
...Now there are a few more than three million...
...There is nothing at all but this survey of ihn mu rder and rape of a group...
...It is significant that the initial anti-Semitic decree that was to usher ¦ in the Nazi regime was issued by the Austrian government before the Germans had crossed the border...
...J-f In contrast to Ihr trade-union leader, the Intellectual is responsible only to his own ideals and to his own integrity...
...This, is no "wailing wail" affair...
...demonstrated by the inexorable logic dear to the heart of the Intellectual...
...Some town, some section, some group was engulfed in a flood of blood and flame...
...When the "protectorate" was established, except for a minute fraction of collaborationist traitors, the whole population has refused to give even the slightest aid to the German policy of death and detraction...
...In their hostility to Intellectuals, the attitude of Labor leaders is not unique...
...Nevertheless, it most he recorded that Poland has offered no anti-Semftic Quisling...
...It is a pity that we have no correspondingly cool and inclusive account of what happened to the labor movement or to education or to religion...
...Hagatahsd «jamto Iba than to a nation's euitore, ' im ? they had an«seed snore nallsaiaity and more iatenoeiy than anywhere else...
...By Intellectuals we , . usually mean journalists, scholars, economists, statisticians, philosophers, lawyers and sociologists who concern themselves with social and economic problems...
...a ami though here the Jew* had made their most dm...
...it has even entered Into human experience...
...The War Labor Board is an agency where many subordinate posts are held by people trained in economics or statistics...
...a continental ghetto...
...Italy's disgrace in this respect involves only the Fascist Party and its cowardly leader...
...As a result the "Intellectual" became synenomous with "radical," a believer in social reorganization, one who threatened the labor movement In turn, the Intellectuals did not help the situation...
...These bad been a part of our history...
...More than 20,000 German refugees, for the most part Jews, found shelter here and were loyally received, supported and defended up to the end...
...The slow-motion of their minds was the inevitable response to something too new...
...In fact on a number of occasions Ernest Bevin has shown an hostility to "professors" that would gladden the heart of the ex-police reporters turned radio commentators...
...It was not till 1936 that anti-Semitism was introduced ss a Fascist principle This thing never grew out of Italian life...
...They have even at times forced internal reforms within unions, and their occasional exposure of corruption and injustice in the internal affairs of labor organizations have certainly been commendable...
...Among them the Rumanians have the worst record and the Yugoslavians the bast "But everywhere local groups and polities...
...This feeling of rightful resentment against unjust attack is fl'etfffWfly extended to justified criticism...
...The author of this survey makes the flat statement: "The tidal ware of anti-Semitism which has'today engulfed Europe, originated in Vienna...
...Beginning with the doctrine that lows are aliens, the Nazis began forthwith to ~p eroent this doctrine step by stop in proportion to their expanding power...
...Of the 3^09.009 j?g who Bred in Poland ia 1939, no more than 1.200.00· «?, new among the living...
...Young people mpat feel that the government will underwrite their brtsiiaO r opted careers and schooling and their fami Baa' security...
...Bight million people have been tamed into corpses #r eteflsa^ hp long as Hitler rules ?? rope, the living are more -tilfortunate than the dead...
...The Intellectual is likely to be more attracted to the more majestic programs of social reorganisation than the Labor leader...
...If they are not *J"Vt executed or imprisoned, how can they be taken back am a civilized world...
...Denmark, Norway, France and'—in 1M0—over ?, 'the Balkan lands, including Greece...
...there will be aew F. Scott Fitzgerald* ss spasm and perhaps immortalize ••flaming yoath" aad "all the aad young men...
...the practical Labor leader, a better appjMHl of the contribution of the uinons to taemtamP welfare would help...
...the prohibition is probably dead forever, and the ante ia no longer a marvelous new toy...
...The Intellectual and the much-maligned social worker were its chief advocates...
...Somehow I must weld this picture into my thinking about the war, about the Germans, about how the world is to be reorganised after the war...
...for example, can not he regarded as guiltless...
...Within a few days after.the occupation of Austria, G. ?. R Geyde wrote: "In a fortnight the Jews have been brought under an infinitely more severe regime than was reached in Germany after a year...
...It was mere than...
...Poland was used to serve as a hell to which Jews could be banished >as prelude to final destruction...
...It marks the end of four years' of humanity's deepest disgrace...
...It was borrowed from the Germans and forced «a the Italians by the craven Mussolini...
...The methods used in the various countries varied bat slightly with varying conditions and differing degrees in...
...Governments and peoples of some allied and occupied lands are equally guilty with the German Nazis...
...There is no theorizing about origins or motives...
...The Jew-destroying juggernaut...
...groups exercising tremendous influenae *2H society...
...Not only must they compromise frequently with the •employer, but maintenance of internal stability and the solvency of the union are omnipresent problems...
...INTELLECTUALS as a group are neither loved nor admired...
...Geebfeb, on February 18, 1943, described what has happened...
...which the local'governments and populations altere willing to participate in criminality...
...We need to distinguish between the unattached professional and those who are in the employ of labor organizations as economists, statisticians, public relations men, and attorneys...
...One aelaser, retarniag heme far a leave, mionffr canfessed: "There is s 'jazz age' new en the oetsltirts ef every large Army camp whets mesa tution and other forms of vice Bearish despite military sarvcillaaee...
...Polish history offers no similar record of democratic equality...
...The Jewish people of Europe bav* been "ausgerottet" (uprooted, destroyed...
...In the Army, the boy builds up illusions about his home town, his family, his girt...
...None of them, theoretically, are in Germany...
...Once, real war had begun, the whole pulverising process could be speeded up...
...Nor aeed the so-called Intellectuals be ashamed of their position In the present crisis...
...But these millions who remain alive are slaves...
...Yet the situation is such that few Lefastjg*"e| would accept honest and constructriidWB more gracefully than an ill-natured stta*mn| their honor and integrity The drvhuentPJM Intellectuals and Labor leaders hW**HP| merttahle and unbridgeable...
...Can millions of murdereerht executed for their.crimes...
...Hostility to the Intellectual was a prime article of faith with Samuel Gompers...
...I cannot give you here any notion of the shattering march of these pages...
...Germany is supposed to be "free of Jews...
...To him they represented a serious threat because they sought to sednce Labor from the straight and narrow path of trade union effort to chase the mirage of Socialism...
...This book, then, is part ofananruversar) celebration of death and despair...
...In all of mem there were cruel anti-Semitic performances before fat curtain rolled up for the complete program of destruction ushered in by the Germans themselves...
...policies that involve economic affairs are inevitably administered by organizations whiehjamploy many professional economists...
...Forms of justice could be restored...
...From the preface to the final statistical table, this account is as cold and accurate aa the report of a certified accountant...
...Aad however it shapes up...
...Extensive organising drives can be planned and their inevitable success...
...One girl, active in the student movement (which is still barely bickering ?? heSpAhn* college campuses), ventured to predict that the aew Jazz Age woe ? be inevitable, "nahm the new world we are promised is made reality aad salens there is real plaaalag flsrrea employment...
...This feeling will be fortified by the natural hostility of the practical man to the theorist...
...standards by which "careless morals" aad "lax conduct" are jadged have shifted considerably in two decades...
...THE difference in the approach of the Intellectual, who is often attracted to the Labor movement because of an idealistic craving to make the world better and sounder, and the Labor leader, who thinks in less grandiose and more practical terms, accounts for the basic hostility of Labor leaders...
...Though this land had been for nearly a Cites City-by-City Crimes Of Gestapo and Quislings thousand years the amet teaming center ef Jewish Mab...
...This is something tor us and for the Allied administrators to take into account in measuring responsibility and calculating post-war measures of punishment and rehabilitation...
...story of France and Hitierian anti-Semitism is ? * tragic tale...
...Labor leaders who must submit their contracts to the scrutiny of the Board cannot but resent such intrusion cf the theorists...
...In a sense, French collaboration ? re-sated rotier...
...There is no plea for action...
...There was :ae boycott, the withdrawal of citizenship, the destruction ana theft of property, the denial of jobs and food, the establishment of the ghetto, the imprisonment, torture and murder...
...And then, because the horror was a natural psychological phenomenon, the emotional orgy had subsided, the heat had abated, life had leveled off...
...An equal number still remain in the Axis-allied and, occupied lands...
...in which it is axiomatic that one's opponent is either a fool or a knave...
...Anti-Semitism ia Italy is a completely German importation...
...While this approach increased the gulf between the two groups, it is still doubtful whether the Intellectual would have fared better even if he had presented his criticism in friendlier terms...
...As a consequence criticism, regardless of its merits, will"1 be scorned and resented...
...This thing that started in Germany and spread over Europe is completely unprecedented and, therefore, just aa completely unimaginable to the ordinary decent person outside of Europe...
...The Story of 3 Million-A Cold Record of the Nazi Murder of Jews New Study Offers Evidence Of Hitler's 'New Order By WILLIAM E. BOHN I' HAVE just finished reading the SU pages ot Hitler* Ten-year War on the Jeu:» (which has been prepared for the Institute of Jewish Affairs by Boris Shah...
...their writings influenced and brought into the movement many ringers of door-bells and others who braved the club and the blackjack to organise the unorganized...
...So it happened that the Brown House of Paris was an important center of propaganda more than a year before the German tanks rolled down the Champs ffljsoi Since then we have the extension of the German laws nai practices enacted' and implemented directly by Germans in the occupied area and by traitor Frenchmen in the unoccupied section...
...In all of the Balkan countries there were anti-Semitic groups ready to co-operate with the Nazis...
...Perhaps they furnished clothing after the rape of the Sabines...
...Yet will the profound emotional aad phyeical and spiritual crisis of a long, virions bloody War leave millions of American youth untouched and aaehaaged for a return to the old pre-war stabilities...
...Young people mast net *"*·** thst the Four Freedoms were a gilded trap to make them ight a meaningless war...
...extirpation of Jews in Germany...
...Nor is it peculiar to American labor leaders...
...More humility, more sympothethJf**]| standing on his own part of the...
Vol. 26 • September 1943 • No. 38
