Jewish Persecution Quotes
Chvalkovsky had just returned from Berlin where he had met with Hitler and German Foreign Minister Ribbentrop. He related the meeting to the French Ambassador who reported it to the French Foreign Minister by letter.
The Nazis and most of the Arabs were allies in WWII. The Jews of Palestine—although they were opposed to many of the British policies regarding Palestine—were active in the Allied cause contributing units to the British Army. Although the Germans were brutal to civilians, murdering millions, they refrained from public pronouncements or exhortations to kill civilians in most cases. The Arabs did not. The Mufti was actually given the rank of General in the Nazi SS and had his own SS unit. In this despicable exhortation he actually uses a concept and wording from the Koran. See {584355}. This quotation is important in that it refutes a common claim by some Palestinians that it was only the Germans who were responsible for the Holocaust and the post war Jewish Refugee problem and that the Palestinians had to bear the price rather than place Israel in Europe. This quotation and the other by the Grand Mufti prove that Palestinians were not only complicit in persecution of Jews but took a leadership and advocacy role.
Ford’s publication had printed a variety of virulent lies about Jews in general and Aaron Sapiro, a prominent Jew in particular. Shapiro sued for libel. Ford who had strong anti-Semitic views (See {586985}) tried to avoid testifying but could not. His attorneys then won a mistrial but Shapiro went to trial again. This time Ford wanted to settle and issued an apology as part of the settlement. In it he claimed that although the his publication had printed the Anti Semitic and libelous material, he knew nothing about the publications day-to-day operations and professed no animosity towards Jews. Most American Jews believed the apology sincere and knew very little of all of Ford’s anti-Semitic and pro-Nazi and fascist history. To this day it is unclear whether Ford knew the details about the virulent publications, or was a part of the writing and editorial policy and selection process, but his entire history indicates that the apology was more out of a desire to settle the lawsuit than to right a wrong.
Churchill was very favorably disposed towards the Jews and admired them greatly throughout his entire career. Before WWII, many British upper class aristocrats were very anti-Semitic.
In his early years, Stalin was a strong opponent of Anti-Semitism ({627514}) but he felt he needed to make a pact with Nazi Germany—the Hitler-Stalin Pact. In meeting with Nazi Foreign Minister Ribbontrop, Stalin as a quid pro quo promised to get rid of “Jewish Domination” (which never existed but there were many Jews in positions) among officials and intellectuals. He then fired his Jewish Foreign Minister Litvonof and replaced him with Vyacheslav Molotov to whom he have this instruction. This was the first major official Anti-Semitism of the Soviet Union but it continued thereafter. See {636526} & {636527}.
It is amazing what explanations religious and biased fanatics can come up with to explain history.
The Iranian President has said publicly that Iran would wipe Israel off the face of the map. Iranian politicians and the public constantly clamor for death to Israelis and for that matter all Jews. Although not all Iranian politicians agree with the desirability or morality of such a policy, the nation was openly trying to enrich uranium and plutonium which are the key ingredients to atomic weapons. Israel is within missile range of Iran and sees Iran as an existential threat which justifies preemption as they did to stop Syrian and Iraqi nuclear development.
Saint Benedicta was born and brought up as a Jew and converted to Catholicism. She and a few other leading German Catholics spoke out forcefully against Nazi crimes and immoralities. She was one of the few German Catholics who wanted the Pope to act more forcefully in Germany. The most controversial aspect of the Pontificate of Pius XI was his relative silence and failure to use the powers of the church and excommunication to condemn and control the Nazi rise to power and their, aggression, discrimination, and atrocities including mass murders. The Pope did occasionally speak out condemning the worst of the German Nazi outrages to morality, but he did not do so very vigorously or order the German Cardinals and other bishops to do so. Supporters of Pius XI point out that the entire Catholic Church in Germany was in peril. The Nazis might have shut down their churches, jailed or murdered priests and seize church property. Many of the German Catholics, including the clergy, were Nazi party members or supporters, and he feared a political schism of German Catholics as well. And Italy, surrounding the Vatican was then under the control of the Italian Fascists who were allies of the Nazis, The Vatican itself and its staff were themselves vulnerable and could have been easily occupied. Apologists for Pius XI observe that the entire Church and its leadership could have been wiped out had they ignored the practicality that the Fascists were in control and would tolerate the Church just so far. Saint Teresa and other Catholics who were outspoken, along with the few Protestant Lutheran Clerics who opposed the Nazis, were indeed arrested and Saint Teresa was finally murdered at the Auschwitz concentration camp. Even that did not galvanize Pope Pius XI to assertive anti Nazi action. The records of the Vatican for that period have not been opened for public study so it is not known for sure that the Pope even saw Saint Teresa’s letter or it was intercepted by the strong pro Nazi faction in the Vatican. That year, Pius signed a Concordat (agreement) with the Nazi Government which many in the Vatican naively believed would control and limit the worst of the Nazi actions. But by 1937, Pius condemned the “violations” of the Concordat and Nazi anti-Semitism as well (encyclical written in German, Mit brennender Sorge (With Burning Anxiety). His critics observe that he went no further, even with the Catholic Nazi clerics and other Catholics. The Carmelite order tried to protect Saint Teresa who was then just a non and leading Catholic intellectual (she had a PhD in philosophy) by sending her to a Carmelite facility in Holland. But the Germans overran the Netherlands, arrested her and sent her to Auschwitz where she was martyred. She was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1987.