"The Lesser Evil, a study of
the Democratic Party"
&
"Zionism in
the Age of Dictators "
&
Editor:
"51
Documents: Zionist Collaboration With the Nazis"
"The Star of David side inscription reads:
EIN NAZI
FÄHRTNACHPALÄSTINA
-- A Nazi Travels to Palestine. The Swastika side inscription is
UNDERZÄHLT
DAVON IMAngriff
-- And tells about it in the
Angriff".
Nazis and Zionists were not evenly matched in the nightmare of the 1930s
nor were their motives equally evil. But today's Holocaust revisionism
and denial, whether from
neo-Nazis
or their dupes, has as the other side of its coin, or medal, the way the
Zionist propaganda machine has sought to monopolize and distort this
piece of history for its own ends, leaving out and denying whatever does
not fit its myth. History must be rescued from both sets of foes.
FOR MORE DETAILS SEE "ABOUT COIN " LINK
IMMEDIATELY BELOW;
...was born into an Orthodox Jewish family. He became
an atheist at 10, and a left political activist at 15, in 1952. His
involvement with the Black civil rights movement began on his first day in
the organized left, when he met James Farmer of the Congress of Racial
Equality, later the organizer of the "freedom rides" of the early 60s. He
was active in the mid 50s with Bayard Rustin, later the organizer of Martin
Luther King's 1963 "I had a dream" March on Washington.
He was arrested 3 times during civil rights sit-ins
in the San Francisco Bay Area. He spent 39 months in prison when a court
revoked his probation for marijuana possession, because of his activities
during the Berkeley Free Speech Movement at the University of California in
1964.
Immediately on imprisonment, he spent 4 days in
intense discussion with Huey Newton, later founder of the Black Panther
Party, who he encountered in the court holding tank. Subsequently, upon
release, he worked with Kathy Cleaver. More recently, in the 90s, he and
Panther cofounder Bobby Seale defended their activities during the 60s on
Morton Downey's TV show.
He was an antiwar activist from the 1st days of the
Vietnam war, speaking frequently at rallies in the Bay Area. In 1963 he
organized the Committee for Narcotic Reform in Berkeley. In 1968 he
co-founded the National Association for Irish Justice, the American
affiliate of the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association.
He worked with Kwame Ture (AKA Stokely Carmichael),
the legendary "Black Power" leader of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating
Committee, in the Committee against Zionism and Racism, from 1985 until
Ture's death in 1998.
Brenner is the author of 4 books:
Zionism in the Age of the Dictators
The Iron Wall: Zionist Revisionism from
Jabotinsky to Shamir
Jews in America Today
The Lesser Evil, a study of the Democratic
Party
His books have been favorably reviewed in 11
languages by prominent publications, including the London Times, The London
Review of Books, Moscow's Izvestia and the Jerusalem Post.
He has written over 100 articles for many
publications, including New York's Amsterdam News, the Anderson Valley
Advertiser, The Atlanta Constitution, CounterPunch, The Jewish Guardian, The
Nation, The Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, Middle East Policy,
Middle East International, The Journal of Palestine Studies, The New
Statesman of London, Al-Fajr in Jerusalem and Dublin's United Irishman.
In 2002 he edited 51 Documents: Zionist
Collaboration with the Nazis, which contains complete translations of
many of the documents quoted in Zionism in the Age of the Dictators
and The Iron Wall.
In 2004 he edited Jefferson & Madison On
Separation of Church and State: Writings on Religion and Secularism.
was born into an Orthodox Jewish family. He became an atheist at 10, and a
left political activist at 15, in 1952. His involvement with the Black civil
rights movement began on his first day in the organized left, when he met
James
Farmer of the Congress of Racial Equality, later the organizer of the
"freedom
rides" of the early 60s. He was active in the mid 50s with Bayard Rustin,
later the organizer of Martin Luther King's 1963 "I had a dream" March on
Washington.
He was arrested 3 times during civil rights sit-ins in the San Francisco Bay
Area. He spent 39 months in prison when a court revoked his probation for
marijuana possession, because of his activities during the Berkeley Free
Speech
Movement at the University of California in 1964.
Immediately on imprisonment, he spent 4 days in intense discussion with Huey
Newton, later founder of the Black Panther Party, who he encountered in the
court holding tank. Subsequently, upon release, he worked with Kathy
Cleaver.
More recently, in the 90s, he and Panther cofounder Bobby Seale defended
their
activities during the 60s on Morton Downey's TV show.
He was an antiwar activist from the 1st days of the Vietnam war, speaking
frequently at rallies in the Bay Area. In 1963 he organized the Committee
for
Narcotic Reform in Berkeley. In 1968 he co-founded the National Association
for
Irish Justice, the American affiliate of the Northern Ireland Civil Rights
Association.
He worked with Kwame Ture (AKA Stokely Carmichael), the legendary "Black
Power" leader of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, in the
Committee
against Zionism and Racism, from 1985 until Ture's death in 1998.
Brenner is the author of 4 books:
* Zionism in the Age of the Dictators
* The Iron Wall: Zionist Revisionism from Jabotinsky to Shamir
* Jews in America Today
* The Lesser Evil, a study of the Democratic Party
His books have been favorably reviewed in 11 languages by prominent
publications, including the London Times, The London Review of Books,
Moscow's Izvestia and the Jerusalem Post.
He has written over 100 articles for many publications, including New York's
Amsterdam News, the Anderson Valley Advertiser, The Atlanta Constitution,
CounterPunch, The Jewish Guardian, The Nation, The Washington Report on
Middle
East Affairs, Middle East Policy, Middle East International, The Journal of
Palestine Studies, The New Statesman of London, Al-Fajr in Jerusalem and
Dublin's
United Irishman.
In 2002 he edited 51 Documents: Zionist Collaboration with the Nazis, which
contains complete translations of many of the documents quoted in Zionism in
the Age of the Dictators and The Iron Wall.
In 2004 he edited Jefferson & Madison On Separation of Church and State:
Writings on Religion and Secularism.
Edward Mortimer, "Contradiction, collusion and controversy,"
The Times (London), 2/11/84.
Zionism in the Age of the Dictators
by Lenni Brenner
Who told a Berlin audience in March 1912 that "each country can absorb only
a
limited number of Jews, if she doesn't want disorders in her stomach.
Germany
already has too many Jews"?
No, not Adolf Hitler but Chaim Weizmann, later president of the World
Zionist
Organization and later still the first president of the state of Israel.
And where might you find the following assertion, originally composed in
1917
but republished as late as 1936:
"The Jew is a caricature of a normal, natural human being, both physically
and spiritually. As an individual in society he revolts and throws off the
harness of social obligation, knows no order nor discipline"?
Not in Der Sturmer but in the organ of the Zionist youth organization,
Hashomer Hatzair.
As the above quoted statement reveals, Zionism itself encouraged and
exploited self-hatred in the Diaspora.
It started from the assumption that anti-Semitism was inevitable and even in
a sense justified so long as Jews were outside the land of Israel.
It is true that only an extreme lunatic fringe of Zionism went so far as to
offer to join the war on Germany's side in 1941, in the hope of establishing
"the historical Jewish state on a national and totalitarian basis, and bound
by
a treaty with the German Reich." Unfortunately this was the group which the
present Prime Minister of Israel chose to join.
That fact gives an extra edge of topicality to what would in any case be a
highly controversial study of the Zionist record in the heyday of European
fascism by Lenni Brenner, an American Trotskyist writer who happens also to
be
Jewish. It is short (250 pages), crisp and carefully documented. Mr Brenner
is
able to cite numerous cases where Zionists collaborated with anti-Semitic
regimes, including Hitler's; he is careful also to put on record the
opposition to
such policies within the Zionist movement.
In retrospect these activities have been defended as a distasteful but
necessary expedient to save Jewish lives.
But Brenner shows that most of the time this aim was secondary. The Zionist
leaders wanted to help young, skilled and able-bodied Jews to emigrate to
Palestine. They were never in the forefront of the struggle against fascism
in Europe.
That in no way absolves the wartime Allies for their callous refusal to make
any serious effort to save European Jewry. As Brenner says, "Britain must be
condemned for abandoning the Jews of Europe"; but, "it is not for the
Zionists
to do it."
(Note: Edward Mortimer is now Director of Communications,
Executive Office of the Secretary General, United Nations.)
The Iron Wall, Zionist Revisionism from Jabotinsky to Shamir
Lenni Brenner
This book is a historical document of Zionist revisionism seen in the light
also of the personal vicissitudes of its inventor and major interpreter. The
author, a Jewish-American historian, does not conceal his dislike for
revisionism. Yet he tries to understand and explain its internal dynamics.
The result
is, undoubtedly, satisfactory.
The inclusion in the book, at the side of Jabotinsky and Begin, of Shamir,
whose historical role is decidedly secondary is perplexing. Obviously the
author
felt the need to find a representative and a leader for today's (and
yesterday's) revisionism. Particularly interesting and penetrating appears
the first
part, that devoted to Jabotinsky. The biographical data, apart from
facilitating reading, are warranted by the historic importance which is
attributed to the
character of the personage. In this sense, the socio-cultural humus of his
childhood is of basic importance. But his personal vicissitudes, including
his
family misfortunes, are also useful.
Revisionism ends up by being presented almost as an outcome of Jabotinsky's
anti-communism. And it is precisely from his anti-communism that one has to
start to understand the contradictions of his practical action and of his
ideology. One thinks, for instance, of his open-mindedness in the choice of
alliances, which brought Herzl's noted attitude to paroxysm. Jabotinsky
searched, in
the early twenties, alliances with the white Ukrainians, led by Slavinsky,
namely the slaughterers of tens of thousands of Jews. As to the ideology, it
is
remarked that revisionism did not presuppose the expulsion of the Arabs. If
anything, being deeply reactionary, he intended the relations between Arabs
and
Jews to be according to the colonial scheme, with the former, the natives,
in the
role of the colonized (more or less to be civilized) and the latter in the
role of civilizers.
The iron wall, which appears in the title, is, in fact, a metaphor to
indicate the need to use arms (a wall of bayonets) against the local
population.
David Lan, "Diary," London Review of Books, 4/2/87:
The High Court of Justice in London, 1967. Dr. Miklos Yaron, a Hungarian
gynaecologist, is suing his former assistant Ruth Kaplan for libel. Kaplan
has published a
pamphlet accusing Yaron of collaboration with Nazi leaders in 1944....
Is there anyone in Britain interested in the theatre, in civil liberties or
in Jews who can't identify this as a scene in Jim Allen's play Perdition?
The
successful lobbying by Jews in Britain to have its production cancelled has
made it one of the most famous plays of the decade....
I'll start with a confession: I am the only Jew in England who is not an
expert on Zionist politics, 1939-1945....
When I was growing up in South Africa I was totally uninterested in - not to
say, embarrassed by - Zionism, or accurately, by Zionists. How I feel is
captured
by Lenni Brenner's account, in Jews in America Today, of the callow youth
who are heard to say "I wouldn't be seen dead with those creeps." ....
The most passionate chapter, "Six Million Skeletons in the Closet," is a
return to the themes of Brenner's earlier book, Zionism in the Age of the
Dictators, one of the key sources for Perdition.
Here Brenner reviews the efforts of the Jewish establishment of the war
years
to play down, even to conceal, reports of the camps in Europe for fear of
inciting
anti-semitism at home.
One of his prize quotations is also used by Jim Allen. It is from a letter
sent by Rabbi Steven Wise, leader of the American Jewish Congress, to
Roosevelt in
1942, the first year of the final solution: "I have had cables and
underground
advices for some months, telling of these things. I succeeded, together with
the heads of other Jewish organizations, in keeping them out of the press."
"I wouldn't be seen dead with those creeps." As I watched Shoah, it came to
me that of course in certain circumstances, whether I wished to or not, I
would.
Muckraking is alive, kicking, red-faced with indignation, and unputdownably
readable in this expose of the Democratic Party. Brenner shows that despite
initially
progressive leadership by Founding Fathers Jefferson, Madison and Monroe,
the
aggregation's base of support in the slave-holding South soon dragged it
into immoral
reaction and corruption under Jackson, the patron deity of the spoils system
and, in his
last years, a rabid advocate of slavery. And so it has been ever since, by
Brenner's
accounting, and he documents his case impressively. He reminds us that the
Republicans
began as the progressive alternative party; that up until FDR, progressives
came more
often from the GOP's ranks, despite its own post-Reconstruction depravity;
that the
programs that brought Roosevelt liberal support were balanced by his
virulent racism
against Blacks, Jews, and Japanese-Americans; and that the record of every
major Democrat since reeksof legal and moral turpitude. Brenner's intent is
to finally drive liberals from the party,to make them see that supporting
the Democrats any longer is futile and stupid. If enough of them read him,
he just might succeed. A brilliant polemic, and
is it ever sarcastic!
Washington Report on Middle East Affairs
September 2004
Books
51 Documents: Zionist Collaboration With the Nazis
By Lenni Brenner, ed. Barricade Books, 2002
Reviewed by Sara Powell.
It's no secret that Zionism embraced political expediency to advance the
cause of carving
Eretz-Israel from the land of its native inhabitants. In his 1983 book,
Zionism in the Age of the Dictators,
Lenni Brenner shows that 20th century Zionists observed shockingly few
limits
to that expediency.
Not surprisingly, the book received little coverage in the American media.
Now, in 51 Documents, Brenner has compiled a wide variety of letters,
statements, articles, and judgements -- some of which appeared in his
earlier book -- by a broad array of activists and authors, that documents
Zionist cooperation with the Nazis. On the face of it, the notion seems
absurd. However, Brenner presents the case -- made in many Zionists' own
words -- that the Nazi agenda of expelling the Jews from Germany fit nicely
with the Zionist plan for enticing those Jews into settling in Palestine and
creating a new Jewish nation.
In addition to introductory and concluding chapters, the book is organized
into five sections
which lead the reader through early, pre-Zionist documents; pre-Holocaust
ideological factions; the Holocaust era itself; and a chapter on the Stern
Gang and the Nazis.
Readers should note that a few documents are not indicative of collaboration
in and of themselves, but provide the background to others written in
response. These latter do
indicate levels of collaboration between Zionists and fascists, both the
Nazis in Germany, and those in Mussolini's Italy.
Brenner's brief explanatory notes at the beginning of each document are
helpful, as are the glossary and index. 51 Documents assumes a certain
knowledge of Zionist history, and
requires a close reading and some deconstructive efforts on the part of the
reader. Those willing to commit the time and effort, however, are rewarded
with some stunnin revelations. The reason some Zionists eschewed the boycott
against Hitler's Germany, for instance, is that they had a financial deal --
Ha'avara -- with Germany allowing Jews to exchange their wealth for goods to
be exported to Palestine at less of a loss, as an incentive to emigrate.
Those wondering why Zionists today are so organized and experienced in their
public relations efforts discover that these battles have been fought
before. Moreover, the section on Nazi and Zionist understandings of
"nationality" versus citizenship reveals how
German and Israeli practices are based on the same concept.
51 Documents also sheds a whole new light on the term "Holocaust guilt,"
frequently understood to mean Western, non-Jewish guilt for not acting
against the Holocaust earlier. However, these documents make it clear that
Holocaust guilt began with those Zionists who made the undoubtedly
difficult, but politically expedient choice to place Eretz-Israel at the top
of their priorities, above the lives of their threatened European brethren.
From a Zionist Executive Meeting speech by Yitzhak Gruenbaum on Feb. 18,
1943:
And when some asked me: "Can't you give money from Keren Ha Yesod (Palestine
Foundation Fund) to save Jews in the Diaspora?" I said: "No!" And again I
say no.... And,
because of these things, people called me an anti-Semite, and concluded that
I'm guilty, for the fact that we don't give ourselves completely to rescue
actions. (p. 211)
However difficult it may be, the reader must confront some rather disturbing
conclusions.
The most unsettling realization for this reviewer is that pre-Holocaust
Zionists were able to
politically align themselves with the Nazis because both groups
fundamentally saw race
as an important dividing line -- and, moreover, were determined to keep it
that way. From
Vladimir Jabotinsky to Albert Einstein, "assimilation" of Jews into the
societies in which
they lived was not an acceptable option. Rather, Jewish nationalism required
equality on a national level,not a personal one. As Jabotinsky explained,
"It is impossible for a man to
become assimilated with people whose blood is different from his own" (p.
10); in Einstein's
words, "Palestine is first and foremost not a refuge for East European Jews,
but the incarnation of a reawakening sense of national solidarity" (p. 29).
Finally, David Yisraeli, a member of the Stern Gang, wrote the following in
late 1940, as part of a proposal to Hitler. It was delivered in 1941 to two
German diplomats in Lebanon.
3. The establishment of the historic Jewish state on a national and
totalitarian basis, bound by a treaty with the German Reich, would be in the
interest of a maintained and strengthened future German position of power in
the Near East (p. 301).
Such beliefs, of course, were not limited to Nazis and Zionists. Scientific
and philosophical
constructs of the day considered such differentiation legitimate, and ideas
of racial difference -- and,therefore, racial supremacy -- were practiced
around the world.
Another disturbing conclusion a reader must inevitably face is that Zionists
learned both
tactical and political lessons from the Nazis and that, even today, these
lessons are applied to further the Zionist cause. Although most likely known
to potential readers of this book,
another disturbing element is the cover-up of the less than savory roles of
current Israeli leaders, including former prime ministers, in the terrorist
Irgun and Stern Gang just before, during, and after the Holocaust. Likewise,
the succumbing of various U.S. officials to Zionist pressure is a familiar,
but distressing, story.
51 Documents seems to represent a renewed attempt by Brenner to bring
information
regarding Zionist collaboration with the Nazis to U.S. supporters of Israel,
as well as to Jews and Muslims, in order to expand dialogue with knowledge,
and save lives -- both Palestinian and Israeli -- in the process. Readers of
51 Documents will find it difficult not to remove the rose colored glasses
that so many seem to wear when examining Zionism.
"Bookshelf," Conscience (Catholics for a Free Choice), Spring 2005
Jefferson & Madison On Separation of Church and State:
Writings on Religion and Secularism
Lenni Brenner (Ed.) (Barricade Books, 2004) (456pp.)
Perhaps the most complete recent collection of these two founding fathers'
writings on this issue, and one that bears attention as the protections they
supported between church and state are constantly assailed.
AT the end of 1979 a row broke out in
Britain over the fairly innocent and respectable magazine
History Today, which links
professional historians who write most of its copy to teachers,
students, and the interested general reader.
There were complaints to the publishers, letters to
newspapers, even attempts to remove the magazine from some
newsagents' shelves.
Such publicity must have been a bit of a shock to the magazine's
editors and writers, though it can't have harmed circulation
figures, I imagine. I even invested 60p in a copy of the January
1980 issue myself. (Nowadays I think the magazine costs over
£3.00).
What caused the furore was an article entitled "A Nazi travels
to Palestine", by Jacob Boas. Or rather, it was the publicity
for the article, because people started kicking up a fuss before
they could even have read what Boas had to say in it.
Boas's article described how Baron Leopold
Itzvon
Mildenstein, a member of the Nazi party and of Hitler's
SS, set out in the Spring of 1933, accompanied by his wife and
Kurt
Tuchler, an official of the Zionist Federation of
Germany, also with his wife, on a journey to Palestine.
Hitler had just become Chancellor, and begun his anti-Jewish
policies. Julius
Streicher wanted to drive the Jews out of Germany. But
the Nazis were not clear about how they intended to set about
this without disrupting the already Depression-beset German
economy, and nor did they know what the effects might be on
Germany's relations with the rest of the world.
The Zionists, for their part, were enjoying an upsurge of
support among German Jews after Hitler took office in January
1933. Most had seen little point before in leaving a country
where they were well-established to take their chances in poor
and troubled Palestine. They saw themselves as good Germans
whose future, like so much of their past, was in the Fatherland.
But now Hitler was telling them otherwise.
The
Juedische
Rundschaue, fortnightly paper of the Zionist
Federation, saw its circulation climb from less than 10,000 to
almost 38,500 by the end of 1933. It declared that only those
whose commitment to the Jewish people was beyond reproach could
defend Jewish rights. It also said that only the Zionists were
capable of approaching the Nazis in good faith as "honest
partners".
The Zionists proposed that the status of German Jews be
regulated on a group basis, and asked for government help
towards emigration. Von
Mildenstein, approached to write something favourable
about Zionism and its project in Palestine, agreed on condition
that he could make a visit, accompanied by Kurt
Tuchler.
He was favourably impressed, and saw advantages for Germany, as
well as for the SS as proposers of a policy.
A series of article entitled "Ein
Nazi
faehrtnach
Palestina" began in September 1934 in
Der
Angriff
, Goebbels' newspaper. It ran for twelve parts. Von
Mildenstein saw in the Jewish settlement on the land a
form of rebirth fitting Nazi notions about blood and soil, as
well as a way of ridding Germany of Jews. But life was difficult
in Palestine, and problems were looming, in Palestinian Arab
resistance to Zionist colonisation and British rule.
Though the SS gave privileges to Zionists over other Jewish
groups, assisting their youth movements, and giving them the
right to wear uniform and fly the blue and white flag, Von
Mildenstein's own star faded amid rivalries and policy
failures, while a man he had brought into the Jewish department
came to the fore, one Adolf Eichmann.
Himself a survivor, born in
Westerbork concentration camp, Boas is a noted Holocaust
historian and educator, who did not go out of his way to
sensationalise this episode or demonise those taking part. He
did not go on to consider later responsibilities, the role of
the Evian conference, or Jewish Agency agreements, or whether
more Jews could have been rescued if they could have gone
elsewhere. His part of the story ends there, in 1936.
But while Von
Mildenstein was influencing policy,
Der
Angriff
had a medal struck to commemorate his voyage to Palestine, a
medal with the Nazi
swastka
on one side and the Star of David on the other.
History Today used this
motif in publicity for its January 1980 issue with Jacob Boas
article.
This brought howls of outrage from Zionist student spokespersons
and others convinced it was their duty to protect Zionism from
any suggestion that its leaders ever collaborated with Nazis,
and to denounce History Today's
supposed motives as well as an article they had not yet read.
For some this subject remains taboo, even when broached by an
objective and even fairly sympathetic historian, as Boas was.
When
Lenni Brenner, author of
Zionism in the Age of the Dictators, came to
speak in Britain a few years after this row, all hell broke out,
as I can testify, having been on the receiving end of a few
punches when I tried to stop some Zionist
yobbos breaking up a meeting and throwing furniture
around. Whether or not one likes Brenner, or agrees with his
approach, his opponents were unable to debate the facts in his
books, and had to persuade themselves they were tackling
something else.
Now I am grateful to
Lenni
Brenner for sending a picture of a solid reminder of the past.
He writes that John
Sigler,
an anti-Zionist Jew, has found one of Goebbels' medals, struck
to commemorate Von
Mildenstein's trip.
" John bought his medal from a
respected coin dealer. It's about 1.5" in diameter and was
originally in bronze. It is thicker than a coin. The photo is of
a silvered bronze. (Silvered medals are common.).
"The Star of David side inscription
reads:
EIN NAZI
FÄHRTNACH
PALÄSTINA -- A Nazi Travels to Palestine. The Swastika
side inscription is
UNDERZÄHLT
DAVON
IMAngriff
-- And tells about it in the
Angriff".
Nazis and Zionists were not evenly matched in the nightmare of
the 1930s and nor were their motives equally evil. But today's
Holocaust revisionism and denial, whether from
neo-Nazis
or their dupes, has as the other side of its coin, or medal, the
way the Zionist propaganda machine has sought to monopolise and
distort this piece of history for its own ends, leaving out and
denying whatever does not fit its myth. History must be rescued
from both sets of foes.
