The embers still burn : an eye-witness view of the postwar ferment in Europe and the Middle East and our disastrous get-soft-with-Germany policy.

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The Embers Still Burn AN EYE-WITNESS VIEW OF THE POSTWAR FERMENT IN EUROPE AND THE MIDDLE EAST AND OUR DISASTROUS GET-SOFT-WITH-GERMANY POLICY BY

Ira A. Hirschmann

Simon and Schuster. New y·ork. 1949

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED INCLUDI I

G THE RIGHT OF REPRODUCTION'

WHOLE OR IN PART IN ANY FORM

COPYRIGHT I 949, BY IRA A. HIRSCHMANN PUBLISHED BY SIMON AND SCHUSTER, INC. ROCKEFELLER CENTER, 1230 SIXTH AVENUE NEW YORK 20, N. Y.

Second Printing,

MANUFACTURED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA BY KNICKERBOCKER PRINTING CORP., N. Y.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I owe a debt of gratitude to Miriam Proctor for her untiring and able collaboration; and to Gerold Frank for his assistance in editing. Thanks are due also to Jay Krane, Helen Montgomery, and Eileen Blackey, who have been unselfish in their helpfulness.

I. A. H.

-

To the memory of FIORELLO

H. LA

GUARDIA

CONTENTS

FOREWORD

by Bartley C. Crum

Preface

2.

We Save Then1 First and Argue After Sands of En1pire Running Out

3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.

Turkey Fat with vVar Gravy Hope Deferred in Palestine A Yankee at the C ourt of Arolsen Road to Novvhere "Man's Inhumanity to l\1an" The En1bers Still Burn "This Time the Gern1ans Will Be on

I.

Our Side" 10.

Behind the Steel Curtain

11.

Do Not Abandon The1n

The Crin1e of Funk Caserne 13. We Get Soft with Germany I 2.

14. Paradox of Poland I 5. A Flovver in Europe's Desert 16. Lights Out in Austria 17. A People's Tide Sweeps Italy 18. The Lost Children 19. Toward Peace and _Dignity

IX Xl

I

16

35 45

56

74 84

102

116 129

136 1 55 169 184 207

217

226 244 262

FOREWORD

IN THIS 1nemorable book, The Embers Still Burn, Ira Hirschmann seeks to persuade his country that it can live in peace in the world of the second half of the twentieth century. This is a difficult task. We have not known more than an uneasy peace since 1914-almost thirty-five years. In a major part of that time, we have been either in preparation for war or engaged in titanic conf/,ict. The result has been mass destruction of lives and property, the creation of vast and niiserable areas of starvation and disease, the growth of police states; and even in our own land, the steady whittling away of basic civil liberties. As Fiorello La Guardia's representative on two mis­ sions to Asia and to Europe, Ira Hirschmann saw at first hand the sharp reversal of the late President Roose­ velt's postwar policy-a concept, as he puts it, "of na­ tions united into a great alliance to build the peace and, through collective action, to ensure it in the future." That reversal, made clear by the elimination of UNRRA, is even more evident in the resurgence of a narrow, tragic nationalism· in many areas of the earth; a movement that is at once intensely nationalistic and at the same time tied, by force of circurnstance, to the two major powers, the United States and Russia. The key to the future, to peace or war, is in the hands of . these two giants of the earth. I share, with Mr. Hirschmann, his view that we must strive, as Aniericans, to achieve an honorable underlX

X

Foreword

standing with the Soviet Union, and thus avoid another war. The basic question is how such an understanding can be reached. Many of the policies of which Mr. Hirschmann is critical stem from the fear that, either directly by invasion or covertly by infiltration, the world will be dominated and controlled by Moscow. Precisely the reverse fear is in the minds of the Russian leaders, namely, that under the leadership _of the United States the Western powers seek to destroy the political and economic structure of the Soviet Union. How can this mutual fear and distrust be ended? Mr. Hirschmann suggests that we, for our part, throw ourselves whole­heartedly behind the United Nations, and work within its framework to unite East and West. There is a corresponding responsibility on the part of the Soviet Union, as the other major power of the world, to return to the only highway which can lead to peace-collective security. No other course is possible if the world is to avoid disaster. BARTLEY

C.

CRUM

PREFACE THE DECLARATIONS of social advance which have be­

come historical milestones in our democratic develop­ ment were of ten won on the battlefield. The seeds of progress, trampled on and attacked "underground," irresistibly take root and, struggling upward through the soil of reaction, eventually achieve full flower. For many years after the Declaration of Independ­ ence, the Tories continued their efforts to bring back the King, and in I 8 r 2, thirty-six years later, it took another war to settle that issue. The Emancipation Proclamation was never fully ac­ cepted in spirit or law by the South, and it is not impos­ sible that the continuing undercurrent of opposition to this basic social concept again may divide America against itself. The Bill of Rights is being attacked today -more than ever before-by those who would deny the rights of all. Another document that will be remembered by our children as long as our democracy lasts emerged from the second World War. It expresses the yearnings of people everywhere "to build a foundation for a secure peace." When the United Nations Relief-and Rehabilita­ tion Administration was established on November 9, 1943, it was the first time in history that the nations of the earth agreed on the principle of working together in peace by pooling their resources to rescue and aid all vic­ tims of aggression without political or economic bias. On that date, as Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the agree­ ment of UNRRA, which he conceived, he spoke to the forty-four member nations, saying: "This agreement ... is one more strong link joining the United Nations and their associates in facing prob­ lems of mutual need and interest .... All of the United Xl

•• XU

Preface

. s agree · · · to provide relief and help in reha.. t1on a N or the victims of Germ'1:_n an d J apanese bar. f n io bilitat . win a · be ·supreme irony for us to b .arism. • • • It would wor ld ch aos s1m . p 1 y b ecause victory, and then to 1nher1t w we k. now :Ve sha11 have we were unprepared to meet dhat to meet.•.. We have �cte together w1!h the other United Nations in harnessing our raw materials, our pro.. d ction and our other resources to defeat the common e:emy. '••. W � are n�w abou_t to take an addition�l step in the combined actions wh1�h are necessary to win the war and to build the foundation for a secure peace.* "The sufferings of the little men and women who have been ground under the Axis heel can be relieved only if we utilize the production of ALL the world to balan ce the want of ALL the world. In UNRRA we have de. vised a mechanism based on the processes of true democ­ racy.* ..• The forces of the United Nations march wit . h them.••. " In 1946, as personal representative of the Director General of UNRRA, Fiorello H. La Guardia, I was sent on two missions to inspect the Displaced Persons camps, to try to improve the demoralizing conditions under which the Displaced Persons were forced to live. When I left for Europe, I had no intention of recording the results of my work, for it never occurred to me that the Displaced Persons would exist as such for many more months. What I could do for th�m was little enough; wha t I learn_ed during my trips to Europe, Asia and Africa was too important to keep to myself. Inside the ca mps I found the reason why there were still "DPs"-that con­ venient, dehumanizing laoel given to thousands of ''h. ome1 e�s" peopIe; outside the camps I saw the under. lying political reasons why those Displaced Perso were ns being bottled up in Germany. * Author's italics.

Preface

• •• xiii

,vhen I went into Europe, I believed we were still building

01�e \tVorld-a world fused together by the gign.ntic , un1fied effort that Lad successfully carried the moratic nations de through the greatest war in history. Since I "'as privileged to look behind the scenes, where I saw the first subtle manifestations of the breakdown of that magnificent concept, I felt it my responsibility to th American people to draw aside the veil spread by the same clever, sleight-of-hand politicians and greedy international robber-barons who led us into the last war. UNRRA was assassinated, even while I toured the camps. More than a year has gone by since my return, and the camps, which should never have existed in the first place, are still condoned. This book, then, takes you with me, not to enjoy the scenery of broken and bombed-out countries, not to weep again over the misfortunes of lost children and displaced parents, but to see with me the fundamental departure from unity in our postwar policy to a new division of the world. In these pages are recorded the danger signals so that you cannot say, "I did not know-I was not fore­ warned I"

New York June, 1948

I. A. H.

C H A P T E R

I

We Save Them First and Argue After

"How WOULD you like to go to China, Ira?'' Fiorello H. La Guardia, New Y ark's irrepressible ex-Mayor, was on the phone. In that familiar high­ pitched voice I thought I detected something at once whimsical and intensely serious. "Sure," I said, agreeably. "But not this minute, Fio­ rello. I'm up to my ears here in lawyers." "You can't win," he snapped back. "No innocent guy ever got the best of a deal in _between lawyers. As soon as you get out of there come up to the house for dinner, will you? I've got something to talk over." He hung up. In the depression days of I 932, when I joined in La Guardia's mayoralty campaign which routed Tammany Hall, we had become friends. During his three terms of transf arming a graft-ridden New York from insolvency to a model of honest, sound and progressive municipal government, he had used me as one of his troubleshooters. I

The Embers Still Burn !Although he had offered me any job that I wanted in his administration, I preferred to work with him in an unofficial capacity and accepted only public service appointments as member of New York's Board of Higher Education and War Council. Now it was March 22, 1946. The newspapers had been forecasting the resignation of Herbert H. Lehman ns Director General of UNRRA-the great United Nation Relief and Rehabilitation Administration set up to feed, clothe and shelter the distressed millions of post­war Europe and Asia. Hints had appeared that the position would be offered to La Guardia. My visitors had eavesdropped despite themselves. La Guardia's voice had a penetrating quality, especially when excitement pushed it into the treble key. "China I" one of them exclaimed. ''This is a hell of a time for you to jump off to the East.'' Had he timed it deliberately, La Guardia's offer could not have put me in a greater dilemma. It was only a short while since I had returned from a wartime mission to the Middle East as President Roosevelt's representa­ tive on the War Refugee B oard, helping rescue victims of Fascism. Now that I was back home, picking up loose threads, I wanted to remain for a while. At this very moment, well chaperoned by my legal friends, I was in the act of purchasing a New York FM and television station. That evening at La Guardia's home was, as usual, filled with excitement and charged by his electric p er­ son ality. Quantities of scotch and soda helped release uninhibited humor and conversation ranging in subject

We Sav-e Them First and Argue After

3

from his daughter Jean's piano lessons to the rising cost of living and the political ferment in Europe. After dinner came the calm after the storm, not from choice, but fr�m sheer exhaustion. La Guardia settled in his favorite large chair in the living room, puffing a stubby cigar, while I drank black coffee. "I got a telephone call at ten-thirty this morning half an hour before I telephoned you-from Jimmy Byrnes," he said. "Now, there's another Jimmy Burns, spells his name with a u, an old friend, served in Con­ gress with me. We'd been out together the other night and drunk a few too many. " 'Jimmy,' I blurted over the phone, 'did you get over that bender?'· " La Guardia, a born mimic, assumed his best State De­ partment voice: " 'This is the Secretary of State, I ames F. Byrnes, speaking. We want you to be the Director General of UNRRA.'" Byrnes was calling from President Truman's desk in the White House. They had both agreed that La Guar­ dia was the man. The forty-four nations of UNRRA had been sounded out and enthusiastically asked for him. "I told Byrnes I wanted time to think it over," La Guardia went on, "but he said he'd refuse to take no for an answer." Byrnes confided to him that UNRRA was in a critical state, with possible scandals in the offing; that quick action had to be taken; that La Guardia could not re­ fuse; and that he would call back at two o'clock that afternoon for his decision. La Guardia had got an extension of time since tele-

Tlie Embers Still Burn phoning me , and now he and I were batting the quest ion back and forth. La Gunrdin frankly didn't want the job. He was tired. The dread illness that was to kill him eighteen months Inter hnd yet to reveal itself, but he sorely needed a rest. Less thnn three months before, he had stepped out of public life after forty years of service-including twenty as a n1ember of Congress and twelve as Mayor of the biggest city in the world. Anyone who had worked at the tasks in normal fashion would deserve a respite. La Guardia was in no sense a normal worker. In his fervor he gave the impression of being on a constant crusade. No t·1sk, especially where the people's welfare was involved, was too big or too small for him to tackle personally, and with an intensity as though each thing was the only job he had to do. Figuratively and literally he considered himself the custodian of the 7,500,000 souls who inhabited Greater New York, and I think that, per­haps better than any other man, he symbolized their varied concerns, their energy, their color, humor and striving for a better life. He was speaking reminiscently now. "When I decided not to run again for Mayor, I determined that I would give up public life and devote myself to writing, speak• ing and living with n1y family. Well"-he grinned rue• fully-"here I am, going along nicely, just minding my business for the first time in forty years, and this phon e call has to come I" Truman and Byrnes were right. La Guardia was their man, whether he wanted to be or not. "You can't turn this down," I said, and as persuasively as I could, I began

We Save Them First and Argue After

5

to demonstrate how his entire career had been a school­ ing for this tremendous job. The vast experience he had had in directing complex organizations, in dealing with huge financial problems ( the budget for New York City is second in size only to that of the United States Gov­ ernment), his intimate knowledge of food prices, his drive, his ability to break through political obstruction, his prestige with governments and peoples all over the world-all these ideally equipped him for the task. "You're simply called upon to do on an international scale what you did so supremely in New York," I went on. "And who else has the experience and the grasp to pull this thing out of the hole? People are waiting, starv­ ing, all over the world; this thing is tangled up in red tape and politics. You've got to take it." He sat, thinking. Byrnes had spoken of chaos. The overwhelming problem was food. Food was to be had, for numerous countries possessed surplus stocks, but they were holding them back for higher prices. Winter prom­ ised misery or death for millions unless someone could force the release of these stocks. Yet at that moment UNRRA was so disorganized that emergency food ship­ ments were being lost or stolen en route to their destina­ tions. The thought of having to pull together the loose ends of an organization spread over the world, of having now to throw himself into the biggest job of his life, seemed to fatigue him even as he sat there. "It's not too late," I said. "That they've turned to you is a triumph for you-but even more for the people who are depending upon UNRRA for their lives. You can do what Roosevelt intended-and only you."

()

The Em bers still

burn

UNRRA was one of the magnificent conceptions of Franklin Roosevelt. He foresaw the upheaval an uprooting by the war of mi1lions of men, women and children, and the vast tide of human misery that would result; he anticipated the part which he nations, working together, must play in stabilizing the postwar world. In the midst of war, in November, 1943, UNRRA came into existence . Its charter symbolized an agreement among the forty-four nations then in the United Nations to contribute to UNRRA r per cent of their national income , in commodities or currency; in return, UNRRA pledged itself to give food, shelter and clothing to needy people, to bring assistance to war-torn areas and to help rehabilitate-agriculturally and industrially-entire na­ tions in distress. It was the greatest relief operation in history. Upon its success depended not only countless human lives, but the future of international co-operation as an instrument of peace. Here was a beginning-a test of whether we could co-operate after the war in saving as well as we had during the war in killing. It was the first arm of the United Nations. Roosevelt chose his friend, former Governor Herbert H.Lehman of New York, to head the organization. But from the beginning its path was rocky. With the war on, a welfare agency scheduled for that remote period called "after the war" failed to stir any immediate interest. In addition, the British Foreign and War Offices, and to a lesser degree our own State and War Departments, were hostile to the idea. They looked upon it as an at­tempt to weaken their authority, and as a Presidential invasion of a field tradition ally pre-empted by the diplo­ma tic and the military. Plans to have UNRRA function

We Save Them First and Argue After

7

in Germany independently of the Army had been thwarted, and though UNRRA accomplished great feats in rehabilitation among the Displaced Persons in Germany, it did so under the difficult procedure of having to requisition all its supplies through the Army. Its prestige was gradually whittled down; and when Lehman was ready to resign because of ill health, UNRRA had be­come a sorry stepchild. This was the inheritance La Guardia was asked to take over. "The first job is to get food to the people-and fast," La Guardia was saying. "And we'll have to find a quick answer to the Displaced Persons problem." I broke in. "We need rescue squads, no� committee meetings," I said. "We've got to move in and break every rule known to man, and that goes for the British Foreign Office and State Department too. We've got to improvise, slash red tape into ribbons-we've got to save them first and argue after." My excitement had mounted and my voice rose with it as I paced up and down the room. "What we must do--" La Guardia stopped me. "That's it," he said. "That's our slogan! We save them first and argue after!" He never nothered to say that he had decided to ac­cept the job, but I understood. "Ira," he said, "if necessary, would you go to Ger­many and make a study of the DP camps for me?" "Of course," I said. As he took me to the door he paused and said, "Hold yourself in readiness." A week later, on March 29, he was inducted as Di­rector General of UNRRA. The keynote to his policy

8

The Embers Still Burn

was direct and clear. The people of Europe needed action, not words; relief, not sympathy; fast-mo ving ships, not slow-moving resolutions. Hunger, he said, knew no boundary lines. "The people can't eat resolu.. . " h e sa1. d."An d even t he peop1e 1n tlons, . our country have learned through a period of depression that ticker tape ain't spaghetti .... " He pledged that UNRRA would never approach any people anywhere "with a ballot in one hand and food in the other." He could not know then that in those words was anticipated the great strug­ gle in which our nation and the whole world were to be involved.

*

*

*

Within twenty-four hours the hammer blows of the La Guardia direction were making themselves felt.Ships laden with food for countries where the need was not so pressing were rerouted on the high seas to Greece and Italy.Soon, empty stomachs would begin to fill, fading hopes to revive. The smallest village in the remotest sec­ tion of the globe would know a new Director General was at the helm of UNRRA. More than 23,000 em­ ployees stationed throughout the world felt their or­ ganization tightened and strengthened, the result of the impact of one little man, sitting in his shirt sleeves, issuing directives from an office in Washington. UNRRA had begun to look up.

*

*

*

Four weeks later Cornelius Van H. Engert, former Minister to Afghanistan, telephoned me from UNRRA headquarters, Washington. "When can you come here

We Save Them First and Argue After

9

for a meeting? You know we're leaving in a week for Turkey. We're delighted you're joining us." "Of course," I stuttered, regaining my equilibrium. La Guardia had said nothing about Turkey. And what about Germany? I left at once for Washington, where I found La Guardia seated behind a huge desk mountainous with scattered papers and documents. I-le was literally steam­ ing. His coat was hung on the back of his chair; his broad frame seemed to hold his red suspenders taut; smoke poured from his corncob pipe like a small inferno. He peered over his spectacles at me. There was a twinkle in his eye. "Hello, Ira," he said. "What a job I It's tied in knots all over the world. The minute I loosen one, another one becomes tighter." He puffed vigorously. "I used to get kicked in the pants from Brooklyn to the Bronx. Now I'm getting kicked all th� way from China to Czechoslo­ vakia." Pause. Then, abruptly, "How about going to Turkey?" "I've seen that scenery," I half kidded. "Weren't you saying something about Germany? Or was it China?" I added, seriously. "This isn't a Cook's tour, dammit I" he exclaimed. "The Turks have refused to come across with their con­ tribution. They've been stalling and double-talking like tin-horn politicians." He made a wry face. "You're some­ thing of a Middle East expert. I want you to go as a member of the Turkish Mission and be my eyes and ears over there." "But what about Germany and the camps?" I asked. "Finish the job in Turkey as soon as you can," he con-

I

tinu d. 'Th l\� issL 11 ,vill ·o to Ir 111; you l t 1ch yoi1r.. self fr n1 it in 1 urk ) an l r -\t ·1rn i�l. 1 - rn1nny. I want ou t � int l �rrn in through th 1 a k d )or, with ut �n f -:u1 f lr . . 1 h r , - )u 1 n t k ' a om t. 1 t · ins p , ti on of th DP a111ps. Thr1.t'" th . r n.l and 111ain i: urpo of your trip. He th u�ht for a n1 111 nt. ' I', b n g tting private inforruati n that do "sn't jib ,vith th· fli ial r p rts .on1in� a r s 111 d "sk. I "ant to k n ,;v "a tly what's � ing n th r and ,, hat acti )11 w 've got to tak . That's ) our J. b " H turned back to his lesk. H ontinu d to draw furiousl1 n his pipe. "And Ira," he added, "a1no1ui- other thin 'YS, I'd like Jou to bring me a report-a very full and cotnplete re­ port-on lvlorgan and his '\>vork in the Displa ed P r­ sons can1ps." *

*

*

Five months before, ljeutenant General Sir Frederick C. Morgan, K.C.B., UNRRA Director of Displac i Persons Operations in Germany, and a British n1ilitar' hero, made world headlines overnight. At a 11101n nt when thousands of Jews ,vere strean1ing w st thr ugh Germany and south through Cz choslovakia, fl eino­ anti-Jewish violence in Poland, he told r port .rs that he believed this flight was not really caused by anti-Semitistn but was part of a "well-organized plan to get out of Eu• rope"; that some of the Jews appeared "well dressed, well fed," even with "rosy che ks''; and that he suspected a secret Jewish organization was behind it and Palestine was somehow involved.

We Save Them First and Argue After

II

Later he insisted that he was misquoted, but the reac­ tion was explosive. How could the man chiefly responsible for the rehabilitation of the remaining Jewish survivors of Nazism retain his post if he lacked understanding and sympathy for his charges and saw sinister motives in what they did and in what was being done in their behalf? The political implication behind his words in the eyes of UNRRA spokesmen, leading publications and Washing­ ton observers seemed to make his resignation imperative; and public opinion clamored for it. Finally, word came that he had been dismissed. Confusing repor.ts fallowed. Some said Morgan was remaining at his post "until removed"; others, that Lehman was under pressure from the military to retain him. The reaction of American Jewish leaders was mixed. Some, apparently, had been warned by top British levels that reprisals would be taken against the Jews if American public opinion were to force the discharge of a British military figure of such stature as General Morgan. The issue was suddenly resolved when Lehman an­ nounced, after Morgan made a hurried flight from Ger­ many to see him, that he had reinstated him. Vindicated, General Morgan returned triumphantly to London. "There never was any question of my rein-­ statement," he told reporters before he left for UNRRA. Headquarters in Germany. "I was never out of UNRRA.. Everything is tickety boo." That was the situation on the eve of my departure. La Guardia gave me a letter of introduction to Mor­ gan, and several pungent, last-minute instructions. In­ spect, improvise, make things move. Don't worry about

I2

The Embers Still Burn

diplomacy; get things done. Submit reports directly to him; get them through, somehow. I brought up the question of Palestine, the imminent solution of which was important to the DP problem. Palestine was news at the moment. President Truman had asked Britain to allow 100,000 Jewish DPs into Palestine. Foreign Minister Ernest Bevin instead had sug­ gested the appointment of a joint Anglo-American Com­ mittee of Inquiry to see if this were feasible, stating that he would accept its recommendations.* While I was per­ fecting arr�ngements for my trip, the Committee had issued its report. On the basis of its examination in Germany, it reported that the majority of Jewish DPs wanted to go to Palestine, and from its studies in Pales­ tine it reported that the 100,000 could be admitted with­ out displacing the Arabs or causing them hardship. "Why don't we use UNRRA for this?" I suggested. "If Washington really wants to get the 100,000 into Palestine, and if Britain accepts the recommendations, why can't we expedite it? Will you give me authority to negotiate with the U. S. military in Germany and · ar­ range transportation for the I 00,000 from German ports to Palestine? Let's assume we'll have to feed and house them for about six months after they get there. Give me authority to negotiate with the Jewish Agency in Palestine and promise them six months of food and shelter." La Guardia pulled out a pencil and paper and began to * The full story of this promise and its repudiat ion, as w ell as

what the Committee saw and learned, is told by Bartley C. Crum, one of the American members, in his book, Behin d the Silken Curtain, published by Simon and Schuster, 1947.

We Save Them Fi'rst and Argue After

IJ

calculate. "That would run into the neighborhood of a hundr d million dollars," he said, thoughtfully. "Where are w going to get the money?" Then, with character­ istic affirmativ n ss: "We'll get it. Go ahead. Work out your plan. L t me know how it shapes up. But don't count on it too heavily," he added. "The British haven't ace pted the report yet-and I'm not sure they'll even let you into Palestine. But it's worth a try." For a last-minute discussion on Palestine, I called upon Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter in his chambers in Washington. His mentor had been the late Justice Louis D. Brandeis, who had long been a leader among Zionists. Frankfurter's passion on the subject went as deep as Brandeis', but Frankfurter was an inveterate Anglophile. To him most of the virtues of our American democratic system flowed from the "civilizing processes of the British." I was doubly interested to know how he, of all men, could justify British policy on Palestine, which had been going from bad to worse. He did not attempt to justify it. He emphasized in the course of a careful, circuitous conversation that our future lay with "our Anglo-Saxon brothers." I did not press him. He walked into the next room, put his foot on the window sill, and looked out on the broad stretch of grass that descends toward the Potomac. He said he simply could not understand how the British Labor Party could break its pre-election pledge on· Palestine. I would stop over in London on my way to Europe, I said. Might I not meet Harold Laski, Chairman of the Executive Committee of the British Labor Party, and a long-time friend of Frankfurter, and ask him about it? Laski was one of the Labor Party's most brilliant spokes-

I4

The Embers Still Burn

t men; its coming to power presaged a strong figh for the issues upon which he had based his political plat£orm for a quarter of a century. One of the planks of this plat­ form was his strong support for the Balfour Declara­ tion, and the Jewish National Home in Palestine. "I'll give you a letter to him," said Frankfurter, and wrote one in his own hand. I put it with other letters which La Guardia had handed to me. La Guardia's last letter of credentials read: uDear Mr. Hirschmann: "This is to confirm your appointment as a Special In­ spector General in the United Nations Relief and Re. habilitation Administration. You are to be a member of the mission to Turkey, leaving this country on May 17, and serve as special consultant. From there you are directed by me to proceed to Germany to the UNRRA headquarters as my personal representative for an inves­ tigation with Lt. Gen. Sir Frederick Morgan. "With all good wishes, "Sincerely yours, "F. La Guardia .1rector G eneraI . " "D The day before my flight I joined the La Guardias at the studio from which he was making his regular Sun­ day radio broadcast. He was hammering away at the National Association of Manufacturers, which, fighting to kill the OPA, had just published full-page newspaper _ advertisements predicting that if controls were abolished food prices would drop sharply. With his usual shrewd­ ness and realism, La Guardia warned housewives that the contrary would happen. How well he· called the turn I

We Save Them First and Argue After

15

As I left them, he shook hands and, turning to his wife, said, "We'd better wish him a fond farewell, Marie ,. We'll probably never see him again. So long, Ira I If the Turks don't get you, the British or the Arabs

11!" .

wi

CH APTER

2

Sands of Empire Running Out

UNRRA's European Regional Office in London was set

up in a former residential section facing the bornbe British Broadcasting Corporation; a dozen buildings cov­ ering a square block had been tunneled to make acce� easy from one to the other. General Sir Humfrey Gale, La Guardia's personal representative in Europe, was away when I arrived, n his deputy, Major General Richard G. Lewis, read my letter of introduction. He made a few notes on the fa "e of it, smiled briefly at me and suggested that I consult Dudley Ward, General Counsel of ERO. I could not help feeling that I was b ing shunt d aside cavalierly. Later I learned that nothing p r­ sonal was meant. I was an American and being given the usual treatment accorded Americans in the British­ dominated ERO. I called on Ward, a British public servant of the old school, complete to florid handker­ chiefs, high-winged white collars, and an incessant de16

Sands of Empire

Running Out

I7

votion to his snuffbox. He could have posed for a Dickens illustration,n. He gave me little other than general information; however, among other UNRRA data my eyes lit upon a confidential report. It disclosed the existence of one of the most significant and little-known UNRRA projectsthe search for Europe's stolen children. The report revealed evidence of how the Nazis had abducted thousands of young children from countries of Europe, taken them to Germany and transformed them into German children. It was a fiendish scheme to build a new German popu­lation for the Greater Germany of tomorrow and at the same time to deprive the countries of Europe of an entire generation; to render them virtually impotent as economic and military entities for years to come.

I located the girl who signed the report. She was

Eileen

Blackey, Child Search and Repatriation Consultant for Central UNRRA Headquarters, Germany. With a staff of one hundred trained investigators she was conducting a search through Germany for those stolen children who had been swallowed up almost with­out a trace. I put Miss Blackey's report on the top of my agenda for Germany, determined that I would track down the full story. While our aides were preparing the latest Turkish food statistics for us, I took the opportunity to make a number of personal calls. In addition to Laski, I made an appointment to see our Ambassador in London, W. Averell Harriman, who had earlier been American Ambassador to the USSR. He would be in a position to fore-

18

The Embers Still Burn

cast the British reaction to the Anglo-American Com­mittee report. I hoped he might advise me on my Pales­tine plan, which, as I thought of i t now, might well be named "Operation Exodus." In an anteroom of the American Embassy, a familiar voice suddenly shouted, "Ira I" It was Paul Felix Warburg, Harriman's assistant, and member of the distin­guished American family known for its philanthropy as well as its interest in Zionism. "Paul," I exclaimed. "Let me try something on you." I told him about Operation Exodus. I expected his face to light up. Instead, he looked doubtful. ''I wouldn't be too aggressive about the Zionists. he cautioned. "I wouldn't push it too hard." He could not help feeling that President Truman spoke 'too guickly' when he asked Britain for the admission of the 100.000. It had put our Embassy "in an awkward position.'' H was evidently dubious about the United States tnaking any suggestions on the Palestine issue at this stage, repeated his warning not to push "too hard." I was surprised, for what in the States had appeared simple logic and ordinary humanity (and was now endorsed by a joint British-American jury), seen1eJ here to take on questionable and mysterious r:unifications. But at that moment the An1bassador was r eady for me, and I went in to see him. The dapper, youthful, handsome Harriman had always been a staunch Roosevelt man with an appreciation for Roosevelt's vision and humanity. We discussed the current scene, and particularly the differences that had arisen so swiftly between the Soviets and ourselves since Roosevelt's death.

Sands of Empire Running Out

I9

I had definite views on this subject. I was convinced that world peace depended upon the United States and Russia. A third world war meant suicide for all of us. Both countries, therefore, must find a way out of the growing fog of suspicion toward each other. For the sake of ourselves and future generations, we dared not allow our differences to grow-or to permit anyone else to encourage their growth-to a point where a conflict be­ tween East and West became irreconcilable. In that di­rection lay utter catastrophe, and I was sure that neither Russia nor the United States would survive it. "Of course," Harriman was saying, "I had my trou­ bles with the Russians when I was in Moscow. But Mr. Roosevelt always insisted that we could get along with them, if we met them halfway." He was silent for a moment. "I will say that there were times when my patience wore thin, and I'd report it back to Washington, but he'd always advise me, 'Find a way. Try again.' " Now, Harriman confessed, he had really lost patience with them. "They're a strange people," he said. "They're different, stubborn, intractable. Frankly, I can't under­stand them." He was genuinely unhappy at his failure to have found a way to work with the Russians. He placed the blame on them. They looked upon us and our capitalist system with distrust. They thought us "decadent." They simply would not see things our way. Yet, I reflected, did we not look upon the Russian sys­tem similarly-we distrusted and feared it. It disheartened me to find here another former New Dealer whose growing distrust of the East was help­ ing change a policy of statesmanship, inaugurated by

20

-The Ember.r Still lJurn

Roosevelt, into a policy of suspicion, castigation, and cynicism. In himself, I thought, Harriman symbolized Unitited States policy at this most crititcal state. We were no longer taking the constructive road; upon Roosevelt's death we began veering aways from the course he had steered. The resuluts were ominous. We had succeeded in helping free the peoples everywhere, but now we feared to allow that freedom to express itself; and this ancient, reactionary fear, which Roosevelt's genius had temporarily expelled, was misting over the great vision of unity which W cndcll Willkic had, with equal genius, caught in his cry, "One World!"

I changed the subject.

"What do you think the British will do about Pales­ tine?" I asked. Harriman shook his head. "The British were really shocked by Mr. Truman's original demand. They're not at all happy about the Anglo-American Committee report. They don't like it. My feeling is that they'll put off any decision on it for a while." Public opinion at home was strongly behind opening the doors of Palestine, I remarked.

Harriman looked out the window. "You know," he said, "there is a validity to the British position. Their problem with the Arabs is not so easy to dismiss." "I think that's a pretty trumped-up factor," I said. "The Arabs would play ball. if ''Britain genuinely wanted to solve the Palestine question." Harriman disagreed. I gathered, although Harriman did not say as much, that Britain would not act on the in taking responsibility Palestine issue unless we joined for . sending meant A that merica n what followed, even if

Sands of Empire Running Out

21

troops to Palestine. He hinted that some kind of finan­ cial deal might be worked out. I had no doubt that the British could use our money, but I questioned whether they really wanted American soldiers, even temporarily, marching up and down the sands of the Sinai desert. They might never get out I Harriman and I, however, saw eye to eye on the shame of Britain's colonial treatment of the peoples under her tutelage in the Middle East. "There is where Britain missed her great opportu­ nity," I said. "Why hasn't she tied up with the people, instead of with their masters?· She deliberately supports every undemocratic regime in that part of the world. The people won't be fooled forever." The British must get out of P·alestine, I continued. I wanted the United States to do its part, but I'd fight against allowing American money to be used to entrench colonialism. It should be used constructively to drain swamps, to counter disease, to build up the land, to give both Jews and Arabs the chance for a halfway decent life. I found myself making a minor speech, and Harriman cut in. "Franklin Roosevelt used to say that if we could lift the people's standard of living, it would always pay off through the soil's productivity and through the n w health which would radiate from the people." vVhen finally I spoke of my Operation Exodus, he listened with some interest. "Well, we shall have to see ·what the Brit. ish do." He reflected for a moment. "Perhaps something might be worked out," he said thoughtfully. We shook hands. "At any rate, come back and tell me how you made out in Turkey."

22

The Embers Still Burn

I did not know it then, but he was hinting at something top secret. Apparently a tentative arrangement had been entered into by our State Department and the British Foreign Office, under which the 100,000 would ha e been permitted into Palestine. It was never clearl defined, so far as I could learn; the State Department had second thoughts on the matter and scuttled it. I was on the point of learning what the terms of the "deal" were when La Guardia, some months la er told me of his talk with Prime Minister Clement _-\ttlee in London. "Attlee was boiling," La Guardia said. "It would be a long time before he would forget the hole tha Britain was put into by our State Department. I asked La Guardia for details of that deal. He began to tell me, then stopped himself and said "_-\ll I can ell you is that our State Department bacKed ou at he las minute and let Attlee take the rap. It was a dirty trick, but I promised Attlee I'd keep my mouth shut. '

*

*

*

Harold Laski lived in a tiny house that looKS dov;n on the railroad tracks on the edge of London. I tra eled on there one evening, armed with Frankfurter's le er and was ushered into a small rectagular room lined with books, and filled with people, some of whom we e sitting cross-legged on the floor. Seated in the center, like a tiny bespectacled yogi sur­ rounded by disciples, was Laski himself. He read my note, shook hands cordially and intro­ duced me about. This scholarly man was Aneurin Be an, Britain's Minister of Health. "And," said Laski I sus-­ pect you know this gentleman." He turned to a slim man

Sands of Empire Running Out

23

with black mustache, piercing black eyes and a quick, warming smile. It was Moshe Shertok, Chief of the Political Department of the Jewish Agency, and now Foreign Minister of Israel. I had worked with Shertok in Cairo during the war when we were both trying to outwit Himmler's secret agents and rescue refugees. I was delighted to see him again. Laski resumed his seat. I was reminded of my college days and an exciting session at the home of a favorite professor, for questions were being asked, one at a time, and all of them were directed at Laski. He would allow a deep silence to follow each one. Suddenly, in his high­ pitched, nasal voice, the reply would issue forth as a pro- · nouncement-clear, incisive, final. My time came to ask questions. I led with Palestine. The British Labor Party, before election, had declared that the British Government must remove the "present unjustifiable barriers on immigration," and its Palestine plank had asserted there was "neither hope nor meaning in a Jewish National Home unless we are prepared to let the Jews, if they wish, enter this tiny land in such num­ bers as to become a majority. There was a strong case for this before the war, and there is an irresistible case for 1t . now...." Both statements reportedly came from Laski's pen. What had he to say now? There was the customary moment of silence. "I'm at as much of a loss as, you to know why my Government has taken so ambiguous a position," he said finally. "I believe that Mr. Bevin has been misinformed on the merits of the case. Ultimately, I think, he will give way- in favor of the Anglo-�American report."

24

The Embers Still Burn

Shertok contributed a keen analysis of the situation as it then stood. He did not know whether Britain would accept the Anglo-American Committee recommendations. The British still hedged; nothing official had been stated. But the Jews of Palestine were ready to receive the 100,000; they needed them; they had dignified work for them. And the refugees needed Palestine. In Europe they were the charges of philanthropy; in Palestine they would be self-supporting, normal men and women. "We are in Palestine to stay," he said. "We shall establish a state, even though the Labor Government betray its promises." Laski, who evidently had a deep respect for Shertok's intellect, again indicated that his Labor Government had fumbled and would retriev� its position as soon as Bevin was given all the facts. There did not seem to be too much conviction in Laski' s voice. Others questioned him, and I observed, "Mr. Laski, you who have been ·fighting the British rul­ ing class for over a quarter of a century, you have seen how it almost destroyed the British people and the world by the disastrous game it played with the Nazis--" Laski put his hand up, to stop me, but I went on. "It appears to me that you underestimate the power and the inflexible purposes of your ruling class. It has a strangle hold on this Government as it has had on all the others. I think the British people have become enslaved by th ir own colonial system." Laski held up his hand and said, "Stop, you are push­ ing an open door, Mr. l1irschmann." I gathered that in recent months he had been shunted

'"' I,

t/ l�n,pl'.1 1

Z. .1Hu1i,11J

ut

5

aside and was no longer on the inside of this labor Government. Forces bigger than he were determining policy.

Our· Turkish Mission, headed by Engert, was joined in London by Roscoe Herbert, former Undersecretary of the B ritish Food Ministry, and Stewart Mason of the Canadian Treasury Department. We held several meetings in London to study confidential Turkish reports prepared for us by experts, which revealed that Turkey was now one of the wealthy countries of the world. In the war years alone her gold reserves had soared more than ten times. She had not been devastated by battle. She had fed upon both sides. As a result she held vast surpluses in desperately needed food-in wheat, barley, rye, oats, hemp seed, peas, beans, salt sugar, dry fruits, dairy products, fish, boar meat, coal, sheep, hides and hemp. She was a cornucopia of plenty sitting on the edge of a ravished and starving Europe. After several days we left for Turkey, via Cairo. *

*

The flyspecked therrnon1eter at El Maza Airport on the desert's edge outside Cairo baked in a heat of one hundred and ten degrees as we landed in midafternoon. I found the famous Shepheard's Hotel unchanged with the same bef ezzed and pantalooned guides at the foot of the hotel steps importuning every guest, and its wide terrace still looking out on the same noisy, echoing street of pharmacies, curio shops and tra vel bureaus. But the atmosphere of Cairo itself had changed radically. I had known it as a vastly overcrowded metropolis,

Tl,e Embers Still Burn the temporary home off many governments in exile, such l, the Greek and Yugoslav, and seething with military men in the uniforms of many nations. The city was then emerging from a virtual state of siege following General Rommell's threat at El Alamein, only two hundred miles away. Now a more typical and less concentrated civilian population thronged the streets. The Egyptians were not bashful in showing their hostility towards foreigners. When I had last been in Cairo, during the war, the city was the diplomatic outpost for both the United States and Britain; even then there was powerful desire for in independence from the West, particularly from Britain, whose troops had been in Egypt for decades. Now apparently, it was even stronger. That familiar heavy, unhealthy odor peculiar to Cairo pervaded the air. Again the impression of a people pauperized and diseased filled me with a sense of indignation and contempt: indignation toward the British, who looked upon all this and would not permit it to change, and contempt for the decadent, feudalistic rulers who, through the centuries, had kept their own people half starved and in a state of servitude. In my diary under the heading "Cairo revisited, May, 1946", I wrote: "There are 50,000 unemployed people in Cairo, the same

in Alexandria, as a result of the stoppage of war jobs. These people are becoming restive. They will not take unemployment easily. They have tasted the fruits of wartime salaries. Egypt is now a rich country, a creditor nation (Britain owes Egypt 400,000 pounds sterling), but her wealth does not provide jobs because it remains in the hands of the few landowners. In number they are

Sands of Empire Running Out

27

less than one-half of I per cent of the population, yet they actually own one-half of all the land in E gypt. The people are as sickly as ever; one out of ten blind from trachoma, eight out of ten unable to read or write, and poverty the mark of all but a favored few. Chief among the landowners is the King himself, who at the age of twenty-six seems to be remarkably astute, preda­ tory and selfish. Egy pt has no internal social conscious­ ness and never had; she obviously now could have no external social consciousness. Why should she be con­ cerned with other people? So far as I see, she can only be bludgeoned into an UNRRA contribution." A year earlier Egypt had pledged a contribution of one million pounds ( about four million dollars) to UNRRA, 90 per cent to be received in commodities, 10 per cent in currency. To date UNRRA had received none of it. The problem was a complicated one, and our Mis­ sion decided they would postpone its consideration until after dealing with Turkey. I spent some time visiting two deserted UNRRA camps, Moses Wells and El Shatt, not far from Cairo. During the early days of the war these had housed mainly Yugoslav and Greek refugees. In the months since, the refugees had been repatriated, and now lying unused were enormous quantities of tents, kitchenware, bedding and other furnishings. It took only an afternoon for me to determine that all this could be put to instant use in Palestine and help house the expected 100,000 Jewish refugees. I made plans to have as much of it as possible put aside for purchase and immediate transportation the moment Britain announced her acceptance of the Anglo-Amer­ ican recommendations.

28

The Embers Still Burn

Later, with Brigadier General Thomas I. Wadding­ ton, Chief of UNRRA in Egypt, we called on the Amer­ ican Minister, Pinkney Tuck, who looked a shade olde r but not a whit less pompous than when I had seen him two years before. Tuck was his suave self. He revealed that the sale to the Egy ptians of Payne Field, the gigantic American­ built airport outside Cairo-one of the finest in the world-was progressing satisfactorily. I suggested that he might withhold further negotiations until we reached an agreement with the Egyptian Government on the UNRRA payment. Tuck passed this off with a polite gesture. If we wanted contributions from the Middle East countries, we should consider the Palestine question. That was the key, it seemed. Both Iran and Iraq, I learned, had been reluctant to contribute to UNRRA because they feared that Jews would be brought to Pales­ tine.

I would have been glad to wager that their reluctance stemmed less from the Jewish question than from the same reason that they had never contributed to the assist­ ance of their own people. Both Iran and Iraq, oil-rich though they were, were notorious for the miserable standard of living within their borders. As in Egy pt, any concept of domestic or international social welfare was foreign to them. After the meeting with Tuck, we called upon Sir Ronald Campbell, the British Ambassador. A small, wiry man with sharp eyes, easy movements and facile mind, he looked like a smooth but tough diplomat. His fingers in­ terlaced, he delivered a discourse in an engaging manner on the "untoward difficulties" the British faced in nego-

Sands of Empire Running Out

29

tiating the withdrawal of their troops from Egypt. He feared a revolution in Egypt after the British troops de­ parted. It was too bad; the Egyptian masses were thor­ oughly troublesome. 'Sir Ronald, what in your opinion causes this unrest and strong anti�British attitude?" I asked. Sir Ronald fixed an eye on me. The Communists have organized the opposition here, Mr. Hirschmann," he replied. "I think you'll find Russia at the bottom of most of the trouble." That afternoon, I was interviewed in Shepheard's Hotel for the Associated Press by Zaghloul El Said Aly, who told me he was a member of the Wafdist movement. The ancient style of the overstuffed (literally) lounge offered a striking contrast to the dynamic; restless, mod­ ern-thinking youth who spoke perfect English. The flash of anger in his eyes could not be misunder­ stood as he talked of the statistics of disease and death in E gypt. Those statistics were the key, not only to the physical but to the social and cultural degradation of the E gyp tian people, whose conditions remained as in the days of Cheops. Later, correspondents of the great news services of the world, who joined me for a few drinks at Shep­ heard's Bar, failed to parallel Sir Ronald's analysis. Not one of them-and I consider the1n a1nong the best­ informed observers I know-agreed with him. "Communism? Nuts I" was the expressive if inelegant comment of one American reporter. ''These people are simply waking up out of a long sleep, that's all. They're waking up to the fact that they've been treated like dogs

30

The Embers Still Burn

for generations. And they're getting hep to the fact that they don't have to take it. "Sir Ronald may not realize it, but the hatred of the British doesn't need to be inspired from the outside. Its roots are here in Egypt. The people distrust Britain. She's withdrawing her troops, but only to Malta and Cyprus, and they know it. She's establishing military bases along the southern frontiers of Palestine, and mak­ ing careful deals with various Arab big-shots in neighbor­ ing countries. She's keeping her finger in this pie-she'll still rule the Suez Canal and still have her say in Pales­ tine-but it won't be so obvious." And he concluded: "Haven't you ever wondered why student riots always break out in this country?· It's because the students are beginning to see things. The masses can't read or write, but the students can, and they understand what's going on. They're tired of having fat pashas sell out their country to the British. They want Egypt's independence. And their Wafdist movement is leading what may be­ come a real people's uprising here." Another American correspondent spoke up suddenly: "You see, this is how Sir Ronald adds things up. They look around. 'Hm,' they say, 'looks like trouble here, old boy. Uprising, revolution, and all that,' and they think, 'Well, old boy, uprising and revolution is a Russ ian busi­ ness.' Ergo, Russia's doing it. "Then someone like you comes along and asks a ques­ tion, and the British dismiss it by pointing toward the Volga. Russia, old boy, Russia. "And that, Mr. Hirschmann, my friend, is why the Br itish today are ruling a dying empire."

Sands of Empire Running Out

JI

It might have been instructive had Sir Ronald some­ times dropped in at Shepheard's Bar.

*

*

*

The night before leaving for Ankara I wandered through the fetid streets of Cairo. The oppressive heat of the day still hung like a cloud over the city. Vendors and vagrants were everywhere. Women wove their way through the slow-moving crowds, miraculously balancing baskets on their heads and calling their wares. Every­ thing was for sale, from diamonds to dishes. An aged, half-bent E gyptian carrying a hand organ on his back stopped at the sidewalk cafe where I was having a glass of beer. For a few piasters he ground out a tinny varia­ tion of "Dardanella" and with a flourish presented me with my fortune on a small card which popped from a slot in his machine. I ordered a glass of beer for him. He drank thirstily, uttered what must have been an effusive thanks and moved along. In a flash a dozen skinny, tattered, bare­ foot boys crying "Baksheesh! Baksheesh!" "Altiis ! Alms!" were rushing at me, begging with pathetic eyes and outstretched hands for piasters. They clutched at me as I rose; I satisfied them as best I could and hurried on to escape a further onrush. If I had to describe Cairo's streets in one word, it would be "beggars." They are everywhere. At night the sidewalks, the alleys, the building entrances, the gutters, serve as sleeping quarters for the poor, the homeless, the unemployed. From birth to early death these citizens of Egypt know only the daily uncertainty and misery of

32

The Embers Still Burn

cked me was the alms-seeking as a way of life. What sho ss cruel indifference of the Egyptian ruling cla to this degradation of their own people. I agreed with my friends at Shepheard's Bar. There was no need here for "foreign" influence to encourage resentment and revolt. I walked swiftly, shaking my head at the insistent street vendors who hurried along at my side, their trays open to show their wares, murmuring in my ear the merits of their shoelaces and obscene pictures, their fly­ switches and blackjacks, their leather wallets and aphro­ disiacs. Finally, they fell back. I slowed my pace and tried to sum up this ancient Egypt which for so many centuries had been completely outside the stream of progress. Egypt's misfortune was the fact that hers was a feudal economy, her wealth in land, not industry. With the ex­ ception of the desert and such cities as Cairo and Alex­ andria, Egypt was little more than a collection of huge estates owned by a few enormously wealthy pashas and merchant princes; their lands were sharecropped by the backward and illiterate peasant, who earned the equiva­ lent of ten cents a day, and was in debt from his first day to his last. There was no social conscience in Egypt, no attempt to teach the peasant to read, to write, to improve his lot, because such a change threatened the very foundations of the pasha class. Once sharecroppers realized the ex­ tent of their exploitation, it would be the beginning of the en� of the ancient arrangement by which the rich grew richer and the poor poorer. And since genuine political power in Egypt lay only in the hands of the

Sands of Empire Running Out

•

..

I

I

r'

33

wealthy-who alone could afford to educate their chil­ dren and train them for civil service and government careers-there naturally· existed no economic planning for the people on a national level. I awoke from these musings to find myself standing on one corner of Cairo's great opera house square, a few blocks from my hotel. I was about to cross to the baroque opera house when I s�opped short. I had almost stepped upon an emaciated, half-naked child, a boy, perhaps six years old, who lay before me in the gutter-one of those homeless waifs who live in the streets of Cairo. Flies and the yellow dust of Egypt cov­ ered him from head to foot. One arm outstretched under his head, he lay motionless except for his heavy breath­ ing. The day's struggles seemed for the moment to be immured in the forgetful bliss of sleep. On an impulse, I kneeled down and gently lifted him in my arms. He did not waken then, but, as a sleeping child anywhere in the world might do, he drowsily nestled closer to me. Had he ever known a father's aff ec­ tion? I did not know. But, holding him in my arms, I turned where I stood and carried him to the hotel and up into my room. And while my white-gowned Sudanese waiter stared in astonishment, I ordered food. I could not understand the boy's words, when he spoke, and my waiter's English was not adequate for translation, but it did not matter. That night one Egyp­ tian boy, bathed and clean, slept with a full stomach and between sheets. It was not more than every Egyptian child deserves-and will some day have.

*

*

*

34

The Embers Still Burn

From the air, .en route to Turkey, the lonely island of Cyprus in the Mediterranean looms sudd enly-a lonely volcanic promontory out of nowhere. While wait ing for the plane to refuel, I bought tasteless tea and expensive pipes in a tiny barracks which was a welcome haven from the unrelenting sun and the searching wind that whipped the dry sand into whirling spirals. Standing on this sun-baked forlorn island, how could one imagine, even in his most sinister dreams, that within the next few months it would become the prison of more than 30,000 Jewish refugees, seized by His Majesty's Royal Navy, taken from tiny, leaking ships bound for Palestine, and that the British Government would so soon take over Hitler's role as keeper of the concentra­ tion camps, and immortalize Cyprus along with names like Dachau, Belsen and Maidenek?

C H AP TER

3 Turkey Fat with War Gravy

later, we were seated in the Amer­ ican Embassy in Ankara, chatting with Ambassador Edmund Wilson, a short, dapper fi gu re with graying temples, who vaguely resembled-although there was no relationship-the late President Woodrow Wilson. The Ambassador hastened to make clear at once that he had been active in negotiations for UNRRA; he could assure us that there was a tentative understanding with the Turkish Government that they would contribute six million Turkish pounds ( about $4,650,000) to UNRRA now, and might make an "additional gift" later. Politely but firmly he suggested that we should not ask for more. By the formula calling for each country in UNRRA to contribute 1 per cent of its national income, the United States contributed annually $ I ,3 5 0,000,ooo­ which was actually 7 2 per cent of the total amount re­ ceived from all sources. England's share was $33z,4o o ,­ ooo, or I 7 per cent. This meant that the remaining TWENTY-FOUR HOURS

35

1ne Embers Still Burn forty-two countries, whose peoples would obviously rece ive the lion's share of UNR.RA's food, shelter and social services, were able to contribute together only 11 percent. One would think that no country would attempt to renege 011 such a n agreement. But all efforts to secure Turkey's share ha d failed to da te. We desperately needed the cereals a nd foodstuffs of which Turkey had tren1endous surpluses. The Turks maintained they could not give us I per cent of their national income because they ha d no way of determining their national income. But the figures we had obtained in London, which came from authentic Turkish sources, put Turkey's na• tional income at about 1.2 billion Turkish pounds. We therefore came prepared to insist upon r per cent of it, or I 2 million Turkish pounds. We knew that Turkey urgently wanted to join the nations in UNRRA. She was nervously courting the good will of the West, particularly in light of her position vis-a-vis Russia on the Black Sea, but she wished to pay as little as possible for it. During the war Turkey had deliberately sold out to Franz von Papen, Hitler's Am­bassador to Ankara, and her collaboration with the Nazis had served them well. It was no secret that Turk­ish chrome, shipped steadily and uninterruptedly to Germany, during the war, enabled the German war ma­chine to function as long as it did. Turkey had allowed German troops and armaments to move in camouflaged warships through the Dardanelles while refusing the Allies the same all"important right of way. As a matter of record, Turkey had clung to the Axis until the last possible moment, breaking with it only when the Allies were at the gates of Paris.

Turkey Fat with War Gravy

37

Here was a fair-weather "friend.'' Yet it seemed that Ambassador Wilson was more concerned that we should not antagonize the Turks, however slightly, than he was in helping us to secure a just appropriation.

*

*

*

With flowery courtesy Hasan Saka, the Turkish For­ eign Minister, told us in words similar to those used by Ambassador Wilson ( except that he spoke in French) that Turkey's Assembly had appropriated 6 million pounds which they were happy to contribute towards such a humanitarian cause. But, he went on, Turkey, being a poor country, could not, of course, contribute more now. Later, we met with a Turkish Economic Commission appointed by the Foreign Minister to negotiate with us. When we settled down to figures, we received an un­ ple�sant jolt. The Turkish contribution dwindled before our eyes. The Commission, while ready to give 6 million pounds of foodstuffs, set the costs per ton .of these food­ stuffs as much as 40 per cent above prices everywhere else in the world. We were outraged. This was a double squeeze. Not only had they already cut their required contribution in half, but by upping the cost of their products, their 6 million pounds contribution was actually reduced to 3.6 million pounds. We broke up our conference convinced that we were wasting time. I insisted that we must deal directly and only with Prime Minister Siikrii Saracoglu. I therefore refused flatly to meet again with the Turkish Commis­ sion. Instead, we asked for an appointment with Sara-

38

The Embers Still Burn

cogl u and sent off strong letters to our State Department and to the British Foreign Office, asking them to put pressure on the Turkish Ambassadors in Washington and London. I called again upon Ambassador Wilson, alone this time, to ask him to help us break through the Turkish impasse. "We must impress upon the Turks the life-and­ death importance of these negotiations," I insisted. "If we accept less. than their share, we pass a death sentence on millions of starving people." Wilson gazed intently upon me. "I think you're press­ ing too hard, Mr. Hirschmann," he said gently. "If we'd be satisfied with one big bite now"-he shrugged his sh_oulders-"I think I might manage to get another later. This really is not the time to press the Turks; they're a proud people, you know, and don't like being pushed." He referred to the Lend-Lease negotiations which he was consummating and said he needed help at this time and not the hindrance of aggressive tactics. I offered my assistance for what it might be worth, although I felt our Ambassador's position was to help us. He retreated and we parted affably, but I was rapidly reaching the point where I could not endure hearing another diplomatic "careful, careful I"

*

*

*

While waiting for our appointment with the Prime Minister, I decided to revisit some of the people who had worked with me in Ankara. Among them was the Soviet Ambassador, Sergei A. Vinogradov. When last I had seen him, the Red Armies were plunging through

Turkey Fat with War Gravy

39

Rumania and into Hungary; the Nazis were reeling back. Now I wanted to see the Ambassador when our major preoccupation was not in the war communiques from Moscow, but in reconstruction and world peace. The members of the Mission joined !Ile. The Ambassador, highly respected and well lik-ed, though the youngest in the Ankara diplomatic colony, had now become the veteran in years of service. He still retained the boyish look which belied his experience and astuteness. The conference, which lasted an hour and a half, cov­ ered the subject of UNRRA aid and the need for politi­ cal understanding between all nations during this crucial time of reconstruction. Vinogradov then took us through the large reception room where, on February 23, 1944, I had attended the anniversary celebration of the founding of the Red Army, given to the Ankara diplomats; I missed the giant map which had covered the wall, showing the Red Armies' progress toward the German border. I reminded Vinogradov how his First Secretary, Sergei Mikhailov, had escorted me on a tour of the map and had impressed upon me the urgent necessity for the opening of the too­ long delayed "second front." "Ah, we knew you were from Roosevelt," Vinogradov said, "and were losing no opportuni ty." As we rode back to the Ankara Palas Hotel, Herbert remarked that he would not have missed the visit for anything in the world; that he had had no idea the Rus­ sians could be so approachable and friendly. Before leaving Ankara I had a subsequent meeting alone with Vinogradov. It was heartening to review with

•

I

40

I

The Embers Still Burn

him a few of the operations in which his advice had been helpful in rescuing some of the victims of Fascism from the Balkans. I brought up the new developments in Palestine and asked what he thought could be done to bring peace there. He emphasized that that area was outside his jurisdiction but hinted at what the policy of the Soviet Union would be on that burning issue. Just a week before, the British had installed Abdullah ibn-Husein as king in Trans-Jordan, illegally creating an artificial, buffer state across the Dead Sea that was obviously a puppet state armed with British forces. We found common ground for agreement in the shameful way the British had treated both Arab and Jew. The League of Nations Mandate, like the League itself, was a dead letter, but the British would not give it up unless forced.

*

*

*

We had built ourselves up to a state of tension for our meeting with Saracoglu. Heavy-set and massive, he greeted us in his impressive office with his three words of English: "I love you." This demonstration of affec­tion was more than we had anticipated. His face, rather insensitive and heavy-featured, with a hint of the brutal in his eyes, made me think that he looked less like a Prime Minister than like a Prime Minister's bodyguard. Despite the fact that he loved us, he grew greatly annoyed as he began to realize what we had come for. A hint of color rose in his massive neck, and his French was explosive. At one point he became so red with anger that I thought he would burst. Parliament, he almost

Turkey Fat with War Gravy

4 I,

• snorted, had considered the matter long and, on his assurance that 6 million pounds would be enough to get them into UNRRA, had voted for it. "If you now wish to have that amount increased to I 2 million pounds," he warned, "it will mean reopening the entire matter. It may well be that Turkey will find it too expensive to join UNRRA." We smiled politely. We did not believe the "price of admission" should be haggled over. If Turkey wanted to become a member of UNRRA, we expected 1 per cent of her national income, the same as other members had contributed; and since we had authentic estimates of a 1.2 billion pound national income, we had suggested­ we thought it was equitable, indeed-I 2 millions as her share. The Prime Minister sighed. "It is extremely difficult to determine the national income of any country, and especially of Turkey," he said. His voice took on a note of complaint. "I do not see why wealthy countries such as the United States and others should be required to contribute only I per cent and such poverty-stricken coun­ tries as Turkey should be expected to furnish the same percentage." My anger was growing. Here was a country untouched by war destruction, one that had reaped prodigious profits by engaging in the despicable game of playing with the Nazis un.til they saw the handwriting on the wall , then hastily goi'ng over to the side of the Allies. "Mr. Prime Minister," I broke in, "I come with a personal message from Director General La Guardia, stating that what we request is some of your surplus foodstuffs now to save lives. If the Turkish Government

42

The Embers Still Burn

is sincere in wishing to win her way into the comity of nations, it will do so by showing its good faith immedi­ ately. "Otherwise, the only conclusion to be drawn is that you are attempting to buy your way into UNRRA cheaply. Unless we get some satisfaction at once, I shall be obliged to take that message back to the United States, where the reaction not only in the UNRRA Coun­ cil but among the American people would certainly be unfavorable." Saracoglu was staring at me with an incredulous ex­ pression; my colleagues could see that my blood was rising, and by glances they tried to restrain me, bu� I went on: "I shall leave this country in three days. Unless we have some satisfactory word from your Government by then, I shall recommend that our Mission return home and that Turkey remain outside UNRRA." Saracoglu jumped from his chair like a stuck pig. "There is no basis for your statement!" he exclaimed hotly. "It is unjust I You have no' right to say that. No one, sir, has ever talked to me or to the Turkish Govern­ ment in such a fashion I" He rushed to the telephone. He would prove to us through his Finance Minister that our figures were ridiculous. He screamed at the operator in Turkish. We waited. We smoked his fine cigarettes. He jammed the receiver back on the hook. The Finance Minister was tied up elsewhere, he said, impatiently. He would have the figures verified later, but our data must be incorrect. He began to subside. "We probably would be willing to furnish certain available foodstuffs at lower prices than those already quoted to you," he said, tentatively.

Turkey Fat with War

gravy

43

"For Example, we have 2,500 tones of dried figs." He smiled. I observed simply that we were not greatly interested in figs. Men and women could no live on figs. "The crying need of the world at this moment is cereals, Mr. Prime Minister,' I said. "Turkey has a great surpluses of cereals." Saracoglu grunted. He would take up the matter again, he said. He bid us goodbye, but not lovingly.

*

My time was running out. I was schedu led to arrive soon in Germany. And I must mov e on to Palecstine. I was obliged to leave Ankara for Jerusalem while negotiations were still incomplete, but the up hot was that the Turks finally agreed to furnish cereals at a far lower price, one that increased the value of their contribution by 2 million pounds. They agreed also to contribute sufficient coal and salt to make thei r overall contribution exceed 10 million pounds. Our unrelenting tactics succeeded. Ambassador Wi lson, once he saw that appeasement got nowhere with us, supported the Mission and helped bring the dea l through successfully.

*

*

As with Egypt, I had found it instructive to revisit Turkey a year after the war. The excuse of a war for holding the people under a tight reign for keeping a ragged army of a million peasants mobilized, was no longer valid. None of the prodigious profits that the Government had reaped from playing both the Nazis and the Allies at the same time had flowed to the people.

44

The Embers Still Burn

The Anatolian peasants on their donkeys or trudging along the streets of Ankara were a pitiful and depressing sight against the slick dress and motorcars of diplomatic and military officialdom. I had come away from Turkey more than ever con­ vinced that the word "democracy" had no meaning there. To the millions of downtrodden Turkish people it had a hollow sound. The Turkish Government and military clique so ably headed by President Inonii required few lessons in Fascism from their Nazi war partners; this Government stood as a ready tool for any new action against the rumblings of the people. The Turks had been on sale to both sides during the war. Nothing now would change their business of bargaining for dollars and munitions to the highest bidders again.

CH AP T E R

4 Hope Deferred in Palestine

A SENSE of buoyancy stirred within me · as we wound up the hills from the Lydda Airport to Jerusalem. At a high point on a hairpin turn I looked back and could see the Mediterranean; looking forward, I caught a glimpse of the Dead Sea dropping more than a thousand feet below sea level. Then, from the rolling, rugged sand dunes and stones, green began to appear. Like a miracle, orange groves and olive trees that lined the roads blos­somed from the desert. The morning sun cast a tranquil light upon the eternal hills. Suddenly, I became aware of a sound that I had not heard since the war-the unmistakable clank and rumble of tanks. From the mountainous road I could soon see the lines of rolling military vehicles. So the reports that the British had transformed Palestine into a police state were not exaggerated. Soon my Scottish chauffeur was winding his way between tanks, machine guns and mili­ tary trucks bristling with armed men. This ominous scene contrasted sharply with the Pales45

46 The Embers Still Burn tine I knew during the most convulsive day or the war, Palestine was then a harbor in a storm-the only arsenal of democracy in the Middle East, helping to make the tools of war for the Allied armies, and yet a haven where peaceful construction was the order of the day. Now, little more than a year after the war, the Promised Land was experiencing the first impact of peacetime conflict brought about not by the Nazis and Fascists, but by the, British "victors." Was the stage being set here by absentee powers for a civil war? The contrast was particularly shocking after Egypt,.There one sensed a coming explosion, but it represented the people pushing their Government and the British interlopers to the defensive. Here in Palestine a once great empire was using its last military resources to push the people back; to forestall the right of a handful of cruelly treated men and women to call a tiny strip of sandy, uncultivated land along the Mediterranean "home." I had long been convinced that British rule was a major cause of friction between Jew and Arab s. No one who has been to Palestine can fail to see he how this came about. As one small example, by maintaining separate wage scales for Jewish and Arab workers, the British kept a constant wedge between the two peoples. London desired no change in Palestine or elsewhere in the Middle East. It had found it could work its colonial design best with the wealthy pashas; neither wanted change, for any change would affect their selfish interests, and both co-operated in perpetuating. the economic bondage in which the peoples of the Middle East had suffered for centuries.

Hope Deferred in Palestine

47 What shamed me, as an American, was that we allowed private oil interests to influence our State Department policy. From an economic standpoint it was not illogical for the United States to seek some political avenue into the Middle East. Oil, which is fundamental to air and naval power, must be protected. And so Great Britain and America vie for military control of the region, openly to guard the pipelines and indirectly to fortify their position vis-a-vis the Soviet Union and the Eastern European countries. \Vith a militarized, friendly Turkey, such a position could be achieved. Many "crocodile tears," as Hitler had pointed out during the war, were still being shed for the Jewish people, who had no place to turn, not because of an "iron curtain" but because of the ''steel trap" which had closed against them. Thus, the insidious partnership between U. S.-British interests and feudal landowners in Trans­ Jordan, in Iraq, in Egypt, in Saudi Arabia, goes on with Palestine caught between. Such were the bitter thoughts milling through my mind as the great stone tower of Jerusalem's YMCA building came 1.nto sight, and I was once more riding over the cobblestoned streets of the ancient City of Peace. I was surprised to find Lowell C. Pinkerton, our newly appointed Minister to Lebanon, still occupying his office as American Consul General here. Pinkerton, who looks more like a sedate schoolteacher than the skilled diplo­ mat who has been in Palestine these last hectic years, laughed. "My family and I have been living in suitcases. waiting for Loy Henderson ·and the State Department to make up their mind as to my successor," he explained.

The Embers Still Burn With the Palestine issue nearing crisis stage, Henderson apparently wa� not eager to move quickly.* Because Pinkerton's official tenure here was virtually over, he was able to speak with a greater degree of frankness to me than ever before. We discussed the "illegal" Jewish immigrants making the dangerous cross­ ing from Europe in a desperate attempt to slip through the British blockade of the Palestine coast and reach a haven here. "They're coming in and they'll continue to come in, in greater and_ greater numbers," Pinkerton said em­ phatically. "Nothing will stop them. They will get here one way or another." He adjusted his glasses and added, "The British might as well let them come in legally." We knew this would be unlikely so long as Britain held the Mandate for Palestine and continued her policy of appeasing the Arab rulers. Yet the British had to bow to reality, and so, Pinkerton revealed, they had invoked a legal fiction. Under the British White Paper of 1939, only r,500 Jewish immigrants were legally permitted to enter Palestine each month. Since far more were coming in, despite British sea patrols, the British, with a straight face, charged the January excess against the February quota, and the February excess against the March and April quotas, if necessary, and so on. "My contention," Pinkerton said, "is that these immi­ grants are either legal, and should be charged to the quota, or illegal, and not charged against it. But even • Loy Hen derson , former chief of the N ar East Divi ion of the State Department, now Ambassador to India, had long been under fire for his machinations behind the scenes to upset the traditi onal pro-Zionist policy of the United States.

Hope Deferred in Palestine

49.

that is academic, I suppose. Legal or not, they're com­ ing in." I thought this the moment to bring up Operation Exodus. "An excellent idea I" he said. "But it will mean a large fund." I knew that there were now in Palestine several thou­ sand non-Jewish Polish DPs, whom the Polish Govern­ ment-in-Exile in London was paying a subsistence dole of $40 monthly-which was insufficient. "We would need to plan on $ I 0,000,000 a month," he said. "I've gone over the figures with Mr. La Guardia," I said. "It doesn't scare him. We're spending sums of money now to support the Jewish people in Germany, a country they detest and in which they can only remain unproductive charges. This would give them completely new lives and turn them ultimately into self-supporting men and women." "The British will undoubtedly have something em­ phatic to say about it," Pinkerton commented. He then disclosed that one of his final recommendations to Wash­ ington, before giving up his post in Palestine, was that any basic decision taken on the Palestine issue without consultation with Russia would fail. Here, on the strategic crossroads of three continents, he had come to the inescapable conclusion that the fu­ ture, whether we liked it or not, lay in international co­ operation.

*

*

*

The man with whom to discuss the practical aspects of my plan was Eleazer Kaplan, Treasurer of the Jewish

50

The Embers Still Burn

Agency, and now Israel's Minister of Finance, upon whose shoulders lay the responsibility for keeping Pales­ tine's economy sound while absorbing into it countless numbers of immigrants. Kaplan, with a sense of humor and a rough burr of an accent retained from his Russian origin, is a baldish, heavy-set, slow-spoken man, whose practical wisdom and down-to-earth simplicity have won him respect everywhere. He was, of course, familiar with the two deserted camps outside Cairo, for Egypt is less than two hours by plane from Palestine. But when I outlined the full details of what I hoped to do-that, in addition to ar­ ranging for ships, food and army transportation of the I 00,000, I would recommend the sale to him of the camp equipment at a nominal figure-his elation knew no bounds. His broad face beamed. "Wonderful, wonderful!" he exclaimed. "You know our situation here. We have a housing shortage, as does the whole world; with UNRRA and La Guardia's support, you will furnish the bridge we need. Let us try to work it out. You know what success will mean to our people." We worked out a tentative estimate of costs and a plan of procedure. Some of the newcomers would be absorbed into the many collective and co-operative Jew­ ish agricultural settlem·ents, where, in an atmosphere of warmth and understanding, plowing the earth and work­ ing with their hands in field and orchard under the heal­ ing sun, men and women would be able to forget, perhaps, the horrors of the past. Others would be taken into the homes of Palestinians who were ready to welcome them with open arms. ( During my several stays in Palestine

Hope Deferred in Palestine

SI

I did not meet a single family who had not lost a relative or friend among the 6 million Jews massacred in Eu­ rope.) But there was no housing for the vast majority of the newcomers, and here the camp and army equip­ ment of Moses Wells and El Shatt would prove invalu­ able. It was Friday evening when we spoke. As I had en­ tered the modest apartment house in which Kaplan lives, dusk was falling. From the window I could see the Jew­ ish people hurrying home to greet the Sabbath in a tra­ dition almost six thousand years old. The sun had set over Mt. Scopus and, our talk com­ pleted, Kaplan and I, with glasses of sweet Palestine wine made from the grapes that grew in vineyards dadng back to Solomon's time, drank to peace-the "shalom" of the ancient Hebrews-on this holy day; peace, I thought, not only for this troubled land, but for all the troubled world. Throughout Palestine the attitude of the Jewish lead­ ers was one of apprehension. Many British committees had investigated Palestine before, and their labors had come to nought. One of the best-informed men in the Middle East, Gershon Agronsky, editor of the English-language Palestine Post, invited me to his house in Jerusalem shortly before I left. There, in his two-story living room, with its book-lined balcony, we tried to anticipate the course of events. N'either Agronsky nor another guest of the evening, Dr. Bernard Joseph, legal adviser to the Jewish Agency, now Military Governor of Jerusalem, was optimistic. They spoke of portentous and ominous days ahead.

52

The Embers Still Burn

"We're being kicked around and double-crossed on every possible political front," said Agronsky, who began his newspaper career in the United States and speaks with the directness of an American. "But I'm still sure we'll work it out somehow." "How long will you continue your vain efforts to make some deal with the British?" I asked. "You are riding up a blind alley." Dr. Joseph, who was born in Canada, traced the course of current political negotiations between London and Jerusalem, but did not appear sanguine about the possibility of Britain lifting her ban on Jewish immigra­tion and free land settlement. Under the White Paper, he pointed out, the British had forbidden Arabs to sell land to Jews in 94 per cent of the country. "It's an interesting item for historians," he said, "that this Brit­ish Mandate is one of the few places left in the world where such racial land laws exist." Two months later Dr. Joseph was a victim of an incident which strikingly illustrates the type of British conduct that has so outraged the people of Palestine, and others. Dr. Joseph, together with other Jewish Agency leaders, including Moshe Shertok, were suddenly ar­rested and thrown into an internment camp on charge bitterly denied, that the Agency was implicated in terror­istic activities. The night before their arrest, British officials had attended a reception at Dr. J os ph's home. Full of smiles, amiable and courteous, they had left Dr. and Mrs. Joseph at midnight, thanking them for their hospitality, and imparting not the slightest hint that at sunrise their police, under instructions they had already

Hope Deferred in Palestine

53

given, would knock at the same door to arrest their host

and put him behind barbed wire. After I left Agronsky' s, and was walking along Prin­ cess Mary Avenue in the heart of Jerusalem, I witnessed a scene which made a strong impression on me. There had been a scuffle; two men had been beaten and thrown into the gutter. As spectators gathered, they picked themselves up and hurried away. I pushed through the crowd. Near me stood a Palestinian youth, about nine­ teen, wearing khaki shorts, and staring after the retreat­ ing men with unmistakable scorn. I questioned him. "Poles," he said, briefly. "They were making anti­ Semitic remarks." He looked hard at me. "You are American?" I nodded. "So, now you have seen some­ thing," he said grimly. "You have seen that these Polish Fascists now understand clearly that they cannot say such things here. This is how we treat anti-Semitism in Palestine.'' The incident was instructive. I underlined the fact that among ·the Polish refugees mentioned by Pinkerton were an unknown number of Polish ex-soldiers who gave their allegiance to General Wladyslaw Anders, Polish ex­ patriot and anti-Semite, whose orders, in turn, come from the London Poles. Although the British Administration in Palestine for­ mally recognized the legal Polish Government in War­ saw, the London Poles held political power here because they distributed the $40-a-month dole. I learned that when the Polish DPs here called for their relief checks, they were asked to sign a declaration in favor of the defunct Polish Government-in-Exile. The British conven­ iently looked the other way.

It was shocking to learn that General Anders' forces controlled the Polish transmissions of the British Forces Broadcasting Service, the publication of GHQ periodicals, the YMCA's social-cultural fund, and other propaganda weapons; that their goal was to build up a rightist coalition from the Baltic to the Black Sea, and restore again the old feudal Poland of prewar Europe.

>le

>fc

Instead of going directly to Germany, I made a quick one-day flight to London. I arranged to see Ambassador Harriman again to discuss the formula Kaplan and I had worked out together. I wanted to know how quickly we could arrange for the departure of the DPs, and I wanted to arrangefor La Guardia to cable me official authority to carry throu rh the plan. It was a different Harriman who greeted me this time. Far from being warm and communicative as when I last talked to him, he was the aloof, detached Ambassador to the Court of St. James. He said, as he looked out the window, that he had had conversations with the British; that they were not ready to proceed at this time; that I had apparently under estimated the explosive possibilities of Arab resentment; and that too much should not be expected of th British in such a difficult dilemma. I did not make an issue of it. The unspoken words were clear enough. The British Government obviously intended to reject the Anglo-American Committee's report; they had never intended to accept it; its conclusions were disagreeable to them; and Washington had not seen fit to press the British into honoring their pledge.

Hope Deferred in Palestine

55

I was en route to Germany the following day when Foreign Secretary Bevin, in a vulgar, anti-Semitic and anti-American attack, officially rejected the Committee's recommendations and, with a venom reminiscent of Goebbels at his worst, declared: "Regarding the agitation in the United States, and particularly in New York, for 100,000 J e:ws to be put into Palestine, I hope it will not be misunderstood in America if I say, with the purest of motives, that that was because they do not want too many of them in New York." Again the British had slammed the door in the faces of the Jews, with the Americans not far behind.

C H A P T E R

5 A Yankee at the Court of Arolsen

I had known in the r 93o's had been a n10IJ ring olcano. On the night of July 31, 1932, I st d aghast in Berlin as hysterical crowds, in a frenzy f d li ·ht, c lebrated the election to the German Reich­ tag of two hundred and thirty members of the Nazi I arty. Few noted then that Hitler and Nazism were b ing brought to power on the issue of the Master Race versus the trumped-up threat of Bolshevism. Since then, the Nazis had conquered most of Europe, ·made slaves of its stunned peoples and come within an ace of destroy­ ing an entire civilization. Now that the awful tyranny, the long nightmare, was over, I wanted to see the Master State which Hitler boasted would live a thousand years. I had no morbid curiosity to witness blood-drenched soil, or to see cities in rubble or to stare at sickening crematoriums. I wanted to return to Germany and see this people in whose bo som twice in one generation, there had been nourished th; 'THE GERl VIANY

56

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,it

ti,

d)ltrl of

Aral

,,

57

dreadful monster of racist militarism which had brought the world so near disaster. I wanted to observe the German spirit, to appraise for myself whether their military defeat, the rout of their strutting heroes, had changed them fundamentally. Would this second overthrow of German imperialism succeed in ending German aggression? A kaleidoscopic history of modern Germany flashed through my find as my plane flew over the English Channel eastward into Europe. Paupers in the 1920's, how had the Germans by 1938 so miraculously risen from the abject defeat to world military supremacy? This metamorphosis took place before the very eyes of the great powers. Why did they allow it? More, why did they encourage this German revival? The Allies, chagrined and frightened by their inability to prevent the rise of the new social orders, to halt to growth of the people's movements which always follow wars, had rebuilt Germany as a bulwark against Bolshevism. All the arts of propaganda had com into play; overnight the "murderous Hun" was forgotten; what had been a burning sense of outrage against him had transformed into an allembracing pity for the downtrodden German suffering under an unfair Versailles Treaty. The bogey was now Russia and Bolshevism. Behind this and part of this were those American bankers and industrialists who saw an opportunity to make enormous profits through German cartels and German production for war. No matter how much a spellbinder, no matter how ruthless, Hitler could not operate without money. Would the big-money boys back thous foul degenerates? I could

The Embers Still Burn still see them in my mind's eye as I had seen them in the c·afes of Berlin in the r93o's. History shows that the answer was yes. Money poured into the Nazi Treasury from wealthy industrialists inside Germany, who in turn were being bolstered by foreign capital. Indus try and the munitions cartels boomed, and the people beca1ne more regimented, more arrogant, more savage. Now, less than fourteen months after Gern1any's second defeat, there was growing evidence that she was being built back, a second time, to ''economic soundness." If this continued it must lead to a resurgence of nationalistic, militaristic forces as undemocratic, as aggressive as those which produced Hitler and the mass mentality which found in him its natural leader. Was Germany really being put back on her feet for anot her t ry at Russia? Were we party t o t he program? We had begun to learn how to work together to buil