Heroes, Antiheroes and the Holocaust: American Jewry and Historical Choice [Hardcover]

David Morrison (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Gefen Books; 2nd edition (April 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 9652292109
• ISBN-13: 978-9652292100
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,531,745 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Uncovering the Terrible Truth, May 23, 2000

By 

esar shvartz - See all my reviews

This review is from: Heroes, Antiheroes and the Holocaust: American Jewry and Historical Choice (Hardcover)

David Morrison has made a very important contribution to the history of the Holocaust. As in a few similar historical studies, he exposes the shameful betrayal of the European Jews by most of the American Jewish leaders, mainly by Stephen wise. Although still not widely recognized, war time records of activities of the Jewish leaders in America have been described, such as in David Wyman's THE ABANDONMENT OF THE JEWS. David Morrison has added a few important revelations about the silence of the labor Zionists when the terrible news of the Nazi extermination activities were already common knowledge in America. He shows that a combination of timidity, self rightousness, the worship of FDR, and their fanatic devotion to Zionism were important factors in the Jewish leadership tragic abandonment of the European Jews. A very important contribution in this book is the description of the pre- war Holocaust against the German Jews, which was not less brutal than the one that followed. The labor Zionists Jewish leaders put their idiologies (socialism, Zionism)and their love affair with FDR above the life of friends and relatives. And the catalists for this inaction was no doubt their ghetto mentality. Also, Morrison gives ample description of the activities of Peter Bergson and his small band of Palestinian Jews who, against all odds and hostile treatment by the "established" Jewish leaders, managed to enlist the support of many Americans, mostly gentiles, to the cause of rescue. This heroic enterprise resulted in the creation of the War Refugee Board (WRB)in 1944 by a reluctant FDR (for political reasons)who is credited for saving of 200,000 Jews. American Jewery has not yet come to terms with the shameful behavior of most of its leaders during the darkest period in Jewish history. And to this day, Ben Gurion, Moshe Sharett, Chaim Weizmann, Nachum Goldman, and other Jewish leaders of the 1940's are remembered as heroes where in fact they were collaborators in the extermination of their own people. Despite the recent wide interest in the Holocaust and the repetition of "never again", I don't see much hope for the future. As long as humanity insists on electing leaders, they'll always put political expediency and self interest before the welfare of their fellow men. And when such leaders turn out to be cowards, as was FDR and his Jewish contemporaries, there is no hope at all.