Capitalism in Decay

The majority of the Jews, I mean, the overwhelming majority of Jews were absolutely horrified by the rise of [German Fascism]. They saw quite rightly this was not just another antisemitic government, this was a fascist government which had a programme—a programme of disenfranchisement which rejected the position of Jews, and which was determined to do something about it.

So… there was almost an instantaneous boycott that sprang up, which wasn’t organized, but basically, you wouldn’t—you don’t buy German, for example. Businessmen would not order from [the Third Reich]. And this coalesced, by about March, into an organized movement, which had the [Fascists] terrified because [the Third Reich] was an export economy in essence. It needed hard currency to import goods which it then manufactured then exported, and that’s how it made its way in the world, and this movement was threatening to throttle it from the beginning.

So, I think it was March of 25th, Göring called in the leaders of the Jewish community, and at first the Zionists weren’t invited because they were a fringe movement, but they got themselves invited, and Göring… basically […] threatened them and said, ‘You’ve got to go to Europe and America to get’—it was a big demonstration a couple of days later called off in Madison Square Gardens [sic]. Well, it went ahead, but […] the non‐Zionists prevaricated and made excuses.

The leader of the Zionists, Kurt Blumenfeld, volunteered that they would be more than happy to take on board opposition to the boycott, because the Zionists at no stage supported the boycott of [the Third Reich]. They beli—because they saw the rise of [German Fascism]—they were the only ones who welcomed [German Fascism]. I mean… I can give you… some quotes.

Berl Katznelson, who was the deputy to Ben‐Gurion, he was really… I say… he was a very important guy, but he edited Davar—the editor [sic?], which was the Mapai (Israeli Labor Party) daily, and he saw the rise of [German Fascism] as—and I quote—‘an opportunity to build and flourish like none we have ever had or ever will have.’ And Ben‐Gurion himself, the first Prime Minister of [Herzlianism], was even more optimistic: the [NSDAP’s] victory would become “a fertile force” for Zionism.

I mean, some were even more enthusiastic! Emil Ludwig was a famous biographer and also a Zionist [and] said that ‘Hitler will be forgotten in a few years but he will have a beautiful in [occupied] Palestine. You know, the coming of the [Third Reich] was rather a welcome thing. […] Thousands who seemed to be completely lost to Judaism were brought back to the fold by Hitler, and for that I am personally very grateful to him.’

And Nahman Bialik, who is the national Zionist poet, was quoted as saying ‘Hitlerism has perhaps saved German Jewry, which was being assimilated into annihilation.’ Well… I think we know that, uh… although the Jews were assimilated, it wasn’t into annihilation, but that was how the Zionists saw it. Because in peacetime, the Zionists could not move the Jewish masses. It needed a catastrophe, such as the advent of the [Third Reich], and eventually the Holocaust, in order to persuade Jews to emigrate.

And if the Jews were going to emigrate, the Zionists were absolutely determined [that] there was only one place where they should immigrate, because as far as they were concerned, if they immigrated to Europe, other places in Europe, or America or Britain, it would simply take their antisemitism with them. So, if there was to be a solution, they had to go to Palestine. And that was what the Zionists were extremely concerned about: a refugee movement—they called it ‘refugeeism’—would arise, which would try and save Jews anywhere.

They were absolutely… dogmatic about the fact that if Jews were to leave Germany, they had to go to Palestine, and they—they lobbied and pressurised to Gestapo only to allow them to go to [Palestine]. So, I mean, if I quote—say—I mean, and he is a Zionist historian, Noah Lucas. […] ‘As the European holocaust erupted, Ben‐Gurion saw it as a decisive opportunity for Zionism. Ben‐Gurion, above all, sensed the tremendous possibilities inherent in the dynamic of the chaos and carnage in Europe. In conditions of peace, […] Zionism could not move the masses of world Jewry. The forces unleashed by Hitler in all their horror must be harnessed to the advantage of Zionism. […] By the end of 1942 […] the struggle for a Jewish state became the primary concern of the movement.’

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Ben‐Gurion […] was quoted as saying, ‘Disaster is strength if channelled to a productive course. The whole trick of Zionism is that it knows how to channel our disaster, not into despondency or degradation, as is the case in the Diaspora, but into a source of creativity and exploitation.’ And he was quite clear that Jewish Agency funds should only be for rescue by immigration to Palestine, and he said, ‘rescue by assisting Jews to survive elsewhere was to be funded solely by private’ organizations.

And one could go on, but I think probably the quote which I use which is most damning is in respect to the Kinder transport. If you remember, the Kinder transport organized in the wake of Kristallnacht […] and Ben‐Gurion was clear […] this is very widely documented, no‐one challenges it. He said, ‘If I knew that it would be possible to save all the children in Germany by bringing them over to England, and only half of them by transporting them to Eretz Yisrael, then I would opt for the second alternative. For we must weigh not only the life of these children, but also the history of the People of Israel.’

And then just a week later, on the 17th of December, he wrote a memo to the Zionist executive outlining the problems that the Zionists faced, and he said, ‘If the Jews are faced with a choice between the refugee problem and rescuing Jews from concentration camps on the one hand, and aid for the national museum in Palestine on the other, the Jewish sense of pity will prevail and our people's entire strength will be directed at aid for the refugees in the various countries. Zionism will vanish from the agenda and indeed not only world public opinion in England and America but also from Jewish public opinion. We are risking Zionism's very existence if we allow the refugee problem to be separated from the Palestine problem.’

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Leading up to the winter of ’33, the [Third Reich’s] economy was extremely weak. It’s quite possible the [Third Reich] could in that period have been overthrown, but the Zionists had an interest in stabilising the [Third Reich], and that’s the conclusion that Edwin Black draws. It’s not my conclusion. And Cesarani says this in his book that it wasn’t wishful thinking that the [Third Reich] was tottering. This was a fact.̸

And number of others, The Investor’s Review for example, also thought [that] the [Third Reich] could come to an end at the end of 1933, and that was the […] last thing that Zionists wanted, they wanted the [Third Reich] to stabilise because between ’33 and ’39 60% of capital investment in the Yishuv, in the Jewish Palestine economy came from [the Third Reich].