symbiotics zionism antisemitism from center for policy research cpr subject symbiotics zionism antisemitism zionism and the holocaust by haim bresheeth the first point to note regarding the appropriation of the history of the holocaust by zionist propaganda is that zionism without anti semitism is impossible zionism agrees with the basic tenet of anti semitism namely that jews cannot live with non jews the history and roots of the holocaust go back a long way while the industru of death and destruction did not operate before its roots were firmly placed in the th century jewish aspirations for emancipation emerged out of the national struggles in europe when the hopes for liberation through bourgeois democratic change were dashed other alternatives for improving the lot of the jews of europe achieved prominence the socialist bund a mass movement with enormous following had to contend with opposition from a new and small almost insignificant opponent the political zionists in outline these two offered diametrically opposed options for jews in europe while the bund was suggesting joining forces with the rest of europe s workers the zionists were proposing a new programme aimed at ridding europe of its jews by setting up some form of a jewish state historically nothing is inevitable all depends on the balance of forces involved in the struggle history can be seen as an option tree every time a certain option is chosen other routes become barred because of that choice movement backwards to the point before that choice was made is impossible while zionism as an option was taken by many young jews it remained a minority position until the first days of the rd reich the zionist federation of germany zvfd an organisation representing a tiny minority of german jews was selected by the nazis as the body to represent the jews of the reich its was the only flag of an interantional organisation allowed to fly in berlin and this was the only international organisation allowed to operate during this period from a marginal position the leaders of the zionist federation were propelled to a prominence and centrality that surprised even them all of a sudden they attained political power power based not on representation but from being selected as the choice of the nazi regime for dealing with the the jewish problem their position in negotiating with the nazis agreements that affected the lives of many tens of thousands of the jews in germany transformed them from a utopian marginal organisation in germany and some other countries in europe into a real option to be considered by german jews the best example of this was the transfer agreement of immediately after the nazi takeover in jews all over the world supported or were organising a world wide boycott of german goods this campaign hurt the nazi regime and the german authorities searched frantically for a way disabling the boycott it was clear that if jews and jewish organisations were to pull out the campaign would collapse this problem was solved by the zvfd a letter sent to the nazi party as early as june outlined the degree of agreement that existed between the two organisations on the question of race nation and the nature of the jewish problem and it offered to collaborate with the new regime the realisation of zionism could only be hurt by resentment of jews abroad against the german development boycott propaganda such as is currently being carried out against germany in many ways is in essence unzionist because zionism wants not to do battle but to convince and build in their eagerness to gain credence and the backing of the new regime the zionist organisation managed to undermine the boycott the main public act was the signature of the transfer agreement with the nazi authorities during the zionist congress of in essence the agreement was designed to get germany s jews out of the country and into mandate palestine it provided a possibility for jews to take a sizeable part of their property out of the country through a transfer of german goods to palestine this right was denied to jews leaving to any other destination the zionist organisation was the acting agent through its financial organisations this agreement operated on a number of fronts helping jews to leave the country breaking the ring of the boycott exporting german goods in large quantities to palestine and last but not least enabling the regime to be seen as humane and reasonable even towards its avowed enemies the jews after all they argued the jews do not belong in europe and now the jews come and agree with them after news of the agreement broke the boycott was doomed if the zionist organization found it possible and necessary to deal with the nazis and import their goods who could argue for a boycott this was not the first time that the interests of both movements were presented to the german public as complementary baron von mildenstein the first head of the jewish department of the ss later followed by eichmann was invited to travel to palestine this he did in early in the company of a zionist leader kurt tuchler having spent six months in palestine he wrote a series of favourable articles in der sturmer describing the new jew of zionism a jew nazis could accept and understand this little known episode established quite clearly the relationship during the early days of nazism between the new regime and the zvfd a relationship that was echoed later in a number of key instances even after the nature of the final solution became clear in many cases this meant a silencing of reports about the horrors of the exterminations a book concentrating on this aspect of the zionist reaction to the holocaust is post ugandan zionism in the crucible of the holocaust by s b beth zvi in the case of the kastner episode around which jim allen s play perdition is based even the normal excuse of lack of knowledge of the real nature of events does not exist it occured near the end of the war the ussr had advanced almost up to germany italy and the african bases had been lost the nazis were on the run with a number of key countries such as rumania leaving the axis a second front was a matter of months away as the western allies prepared their forces in the midst of all this we find eichmann the master bureaucrat of industrial murder setting up his hz in occupied budapest after the german takeover of the country in april his first act was to have a conference with the jewish leadership and to appoint zionist federation members headed by kastner as the agent and clearing house for all jews and their relationship with the ss and the nazr authorities why they did this is not difficult to see as opposed to poland where its three and a half million jews lived in ghettoes and were visibly different from the rest of the polish population the hungarian jews were an integrated part of the community the middle class was mainly jewish the jews were mainly middle class they enjoyed freedom of travel served in the hungarian fascist army in fronline units as officers and soldiers their names were hungarian how was eichmann to find them if they were to be exterminated the task was not easy there were a million jews in hungary most of them resident the rest being refugees from other countries many had heard about the fate of jews elsewhere and were unlikely to believe any statements by nazi officials like elsewhere the only people who had the information and the ear of the frightened jewish population were the judenrat in this case the judenrat comprsied mainly the zionist federation members without their help the ss with officers and less than men plus a few hundred hungarian police could not have collected and controlled a million jews when they did not even know their whereabouts kastner and the others were left under no illusions eichmann told joel brand one of the members of kastner s committee that he intended to send all hungary s jews to auschwitz before he even started the expulsions he told them clearly that all these jews will die a day unless certain conditions were met the committee faced a simple choice to tell the jews of hungary about their fate with neutral rumania where many could escape being in most cases a few hours away or to collaborate with the nazis by assisting in the concentration process what would not have been believed when coming from the ss sounded quite plausible when coming from the mouths of the zionist leadership thus it is that most of the hungarian jews went quietly to their death assured by their leadership that they were to be sent to work camps to be sure there are thirty pieces of silver in this narrative of destruction the trains of prominents which eichmann promised to kastner a promise he kept to the last detail for eichmann it was a bargain allowing jews to survive as the price paid for the silent collaboration over the death of almost a million jews there was no way in which the jews of hungary could even be located not to say murdered without the full collaboration of kastner and his few friends no doubt the ss would hunt a few jews here and there but the scale of the operation would have been miniscule compared to the half million who died in auschwitz it is important to realise that kastner was not an aberration like say rumkovsky in lodz kastner acted as a result of his strongly held zionist convictions his actions were a logical outcome of earlier positions this is instanced when he exposed to the gestapo the existence of a british cell of saboteurs palgi and senesh and persuaded them to give themselves up so as not to disrupt his operations at no point during his trial or elsewhere did kastner deny that he knew exactly what was to happen to those jews to conclude the role played by zionists in this period was connected to another role they could and should have played that of alarming the whole world to what was happening in europe they had the information but politically it was contrary to their priorities the priorities were and still are quite simple all that furthers the zionist enterprise in palestine is followed whatever the price the lives of individuals jews and non jews are secondary if this process requires dealing with fascists nazis and other assorted dictatorial regimes across the world so be it
