A Race Against Death: Peter Bergson, America, and the Holocaust [Hardcover]

David S. Wyman (Author), Rafael Medoff (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 7, 2002

The unknown story of the man who led America's most effective campaign to rescue victims of the Holocaust, from the bestselling historian.

In his landmark bestseller, The Abandonment of the Jews, David Wyman exhaustively detailed America's failure to help rescue the victims of Nazi genocide. But one man, Peter Bergson, led a tireless battle against that tide of indifference, making it impossible for American leaders to plead ignorance of the German atrocities. Now, Wyman, along with Rafael Medoff, tells for the first time the story of the man who led America's most effective campaign to rescue victims of the Holocaust.

A Race Against Death utilizes extensive firsthand interviews to present Peter Bergson's own account of his remarkable life and struggles. Facing deportation from America and threats on his life, Bergson employed every conceivable method to influence policy and public opinion: he personally hounded Congressmen to support a rescue; placed controversial full-page ads in major newspapers demanding action; and drew a record crowd of 40,000 to a rally and memorial pageant at Madison Square Garden.

Award-winning historian David Wyman is the definitive authority on America's action—and inaction—during the Holocaust. In A Race Against Death, he and Rafael Medoff return to this tragic era in American history and chronicle one of its few heroes.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This is a chilling account of U.S. indifference to the plight of European Jews during WWII, of how government officials not only failed to act but thwarted the efforts of those who tried. Had Peter Bergson, representing Ze'ev Jabotinsky's Revisionist Zionists in America, received government support for his plans to rescue Hitler's Jewish victims, many more might have been saved and his name might have been as well known as those of Oskar Schindler and Raoul Wallenberg. But as Wyman (The Destruction of the Jews) and Medoff (The Deafening Silence: American Jewish Leaders and the Holocaust) make clear in this simple but potent volume, Bergson's dogged efforts-advertisements in the New York Times, lobbying in Washington, a star-studded pageant called "We Will Never Die" that toured the country-were crippled in large part not only by Roosevelt's administration but by the leaders of the established American Jewish community. The latter were threatened by the Lithuanian-born, Palestine-raised Bergson's tactics and by his ties to what was considered a radical wing of the Zionist movement. What makes this book an ideal companion to Wyman's seminal Abandonment of the Jews (1984) is a transcript of a 12-hour interview he conducted with Bergson as part of his research for that volume. Much-needed context is added by interviews with other players, as well as fascinating letters and papers, including a scathing indictment of the Roosevelt administration's inaction by a Treasury Department official.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

A superb book....should be read by those who would be armed with truth to fight repeating the infamous past. -- Edward I. Koch, former mayor of New York

All students, scholars, and activists committed to averting another century of war and terror will benefit...remarkable and steadfast research. -- Blanche Wiesen Cook, author of Eleanor Roosevelt

Bergson's remarkable story has been told by historians and memoirists but never by Bergson himself. That silence has now ended. -- Michael Oren, The New Republic --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: New Press, The (November 7, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 156584761X
• ISBN-13: 978-1565847613
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,235,609 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating, informative, profound lessons., December 3, 2002

By 

Robert P Shechter (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Race Against Death: Peter Bergson, America, and the Holocaust (Hardcover)

This is a powerful, moving, and very readable book. I saw one of the authors recently on a television talk show, "The Leon Charney Report," and was fascinated to learn that Jewish activists had campaigned --with some success-- to pressure the Roosevelt administration to rescue Jews from Hitler. In contrast with most other Holocaust-related books, "A Race Against Death" shows how some people did try to stir the world's conscience
regarding the Nazi massacres. It's the kind of book that gives you hope and shows how a handful of people can really make a difference. I strongly recommend it.

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Important book about a forgotten hero., May 1, 2004

By 

Laurence Jarvik "laurencejarvikonline" (Washington, DC USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Race Against Death: Peter Bergson, America, and the Holocaust (Hardcover)

Peter Bergson (pen-name of Hillel Kook, nephew of Israel's chief rabbi during WWII) was one of the heroes of the Second World War. His efforts to rescue European Jews were instrumental in changing American policies; they led to the saving of hundreds of thousands of lives--and possibly to the establishment of Israel (there were only some 700,000 Palestinian Jews in 1948, many of them camp survivors). More famous rescuers, such as Raoul Wallenberg, were able to act in Europe because Bergson had conviced the Roosevelt administration to set up the War Refugee Board in 1944. Before Bergson's work, saving Jews was simply not a priority for the US government. After Bergson succeeded in persuading FDR and Congress, it became a war aim. American agents were active in Sweden, Switzerland, and Turkey, among other places, making serious efforts to save lives. David Wyman deserves great praise for putting together previously unpublished documentation in a fascinating book. I only wish the cover had Bergson's photo on it. A must-read for anyone interested in the history of America and the Holocaust.