History News Network
Arnold Reisman
A Morgenthau Legacy
Nov 23 2009
Mr. Reisman is listed in Who’s Who in America, and is a Fellow of the
American Association for the Advancement of Science. The the latest
of his six books on modern Turkey’s history is SHOAH: Turkey, the US,
and the UK.
A new exhibit opened at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York
City. It is titled: The Morgenthaus: A Legacy of Service and will run
through December 2010. The Morgenthaus are a unique American family
both wealthy and powerful and among them three Morgenthau generations,
Henry Morgenthau, Sr., Henry Morgenthau, Jr., and Robert M.
Morgenthau, have contributed greatly to America’s history. While all
three men were well connected politically, both Henry Morgenthau Sr.
and Henry Morgenthau Jr. were in positions of great influence at
times when the fate of European Jewry hung in the balance. Raised
in Jewish homes, though not particularly observant, both men were
esteemed members of America’s German Jewry1.
As an immigrant himself Henry Morgenthau Sr. was determined to make a
difference as an American. Having achieved success in law and business
by age 55, he was able to devote the remainder of his life to public
service. He became a key player on the world stage during World War
I as Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, under President Woodrow Wilson.
In the first two years of his post, he witnessed the extreme poverty of
Jewish settlers in Palestine and the plight of the Armenians. He called
international attention to the sufferings of minorities in the Empire,
and helped supply direct aid and relief. His work as Ambassador–and
his service to humanitarian causes–had a profound impact on the
course of history in the first half of the twentieth century.2
Morgenthau Sr., had in fact assimilated into the fabric of America
so much so that he became very close to Woodrow Wilson; hence the
appointment as ambassador. The museum site3 tells us that as Ambassador
to the Ottoman Empire, he became greatly concerned about the dire
poverty in which the Jews of Palestine were living. To help them,
he sent a telegram to Jacob Schiff asking for funds.4
Morgenthau Sr. was in the Ottoman Empire when the massacres of
Armenians occurred and was outraged when he learned the details. That
became a cause he championed for the rest of his life.
His son Henry Morgenthau, Jr. was born into a family deeply committed
to public service. Beginning his career on a farm in Dutchess County,
his life’s work would be defined by his passion for agriculture and
his friendship with neighbor Franklin Delano Roosevelt. As Secretary
of the Treasury, Morgenthau worked to strengthen America’s economy
during the Great Depression, and to prepare the Allies for WWII.
During the Holocaust, he urged President Roosevelt to take
action–leading to the creation of the War Refugee Board in 1944.5
As Secretary of the Treasury from 1934 to 1945 he helped to develop
and institute War Bonds.
The first Series ‘E’ U.S. Savings Bond was sold to President Franklin
D. Roosevelt by Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau. The bonds sold at
75 percent of their face value in denominations of $25 up to $10,000,
with some limitations. The war bonds actually were a loan to the
government to help finance the war effort.
The War Finance Committee was in charge of supervising the sale of all
bonds, and the War Advertising Council promoted voluntary compliance
with bond buying. The work of those two organizations produced the
greatest volume of advertising in U.S. history. In the name of defense
of American liberty and democracy, and as safe havens for investment,
the public was continually urged to buy bonds. 6
The Museum of Jewish Heritage, which publicizes itself as "A Living
Memorial to the Holocaust", declares that its mission is to "tell the
story of the Jews before, during and after the Holocaust." While it
has done a masterful job creating a detailed exhibit about this family,
in the case of Henry Sr. and Henry Jr., a great deal has been omitted
about the "role" of both men before and during the Holocaust, a role
that could have saved the majority of the 6,000,000 who perished. A
museum that purports itself to be a memorial to the Holocaust
ought to tell a complete story but perhaps it is understandable
that unflattering information about the Morgenthaus is not part
of this exhibit considering that Robert Morgenthau is listed as the
museum’s Chairman of the Board. The website does provide the following
unexplained insight.
Like his father, Henry Morgenthau, Jr. would be challenged throughout
his career to balance American and Jewish agendas, which often seemed
at odds with each other. 7
Indeed there were many challenges for the Morgenthaus to balance
their American and Jewish agendas. In 1933 E. Finlay Freundlich,
an astronomer and an early collaborator with Albert Einstein,8 was
forced out of his position as Director of the Potsdam, (Germany)
observatory that he had founded, because his wife was Jewish. Soon
thereafter Freundlich was invited to Istanbul to help create Turkey’s
first observatory.9 The Freundlichs had met the Morgenthaus years
earlier and were obviously on friendly terms with the family because
upon their arrival in Istanbul in 1933, Freundlich wrote a three-page
letter to Morgenthau Sr.10 After dispensing with the social niceties,
Freundlich vividly described what was happening to Jewish intellectuals
back home and pleaded for help from his well connected friend in
America. He asked Morgenthau Sr. to become involved not only by
sounding the alarms but by persuading the people in power to act and
do something to help those who were going to be mowed down by the
Nazis. Morgenthau’s reply is disconcerting. See paragraph 2.
A letter dated February 17th 1934 from Henry Morgenthau Sr. to E.
Finlay Freundlich his friend in Istanbul11
Perhaps Freundlich’s pleas presented a challenge to that delicate
"balance between American and Jewish agendas" that is mentioned in the
exhibit. At any rate, it appears that Sr. was not up to the challenge
because he opted out stating in a manner one would call a brush off
that he was just too busy with American matters.
Henry Morgenthau Jr., like other administration officials, was aware
of the plight of European Jews and as a friend of the President’s he
was in a unique position of both influence and assistance. But here
again, the delicate balance between a Jewish agenda and an American
agenda was challenged.
On May 13, 1939 the luxury liner St. Louis left Germany with 900
passengers, most of them German Jews with documents for entry into
their destination, Cuba. When the ship arrived, however, Havana refused
to allow the passengers to disembark. The St. Louis sat in the harbor
for days, running out of fresh food and water for the 900 people who
were terrified that they would be returned to Nazi Germany.
After frantic international negotiations that were meant to allow
all the refugees to disembark, only 29 passengers were permitted to
land in Havana. The ship was then ordered to leave, which it did,
maneuvering slowly and tantalizingly near the coast of Florida hoping
for permission to disembark its passengers somewhere on American soil.
The U.S., led by Secretary of State Hull and President Roosevelt,
ordered the U.S. Coast Guard12 to keep the ship from port. So, it
changed course and sailed for Europe.
In his book, While Six Million Died: A Chronicle of American Apathy,
Arthur D. Morse13 claimed that the U.S. Coast Guard cutter CG-244
"shadowed the St. Louis, with orders to prevent any refugees from
jumping overboard and swimming ashore."
While the Coast Guard has pictures of all of the ships that were
ever in its service and logs of other incidents, all archivists
contacted at the USCG claim to have no logs, nor any other record of
USCG Cutter 244. Nor does the Fort Lauderdale USCG Station have any
archival documents pertaining to the 244, not even a photo, which
would correspond to the transcripts.
Transcripts of two telephone conversations, one initiated at 3:54 PM
on June 6, 1939 by the Secretary of Treasury to Commander Earl G. Rose
at U.S. Coast Guard Headquarters14 followed by another call at 3:59
PM15 show that above all else, Morgenthau wanted to make sure that
"[t]here would be nothing in the papers"16
Morgenthau wanted no publicity about this incident that would make the
United States government appear heartless or unfeeling to the plight
of refugees or cause any backlash among Roosevelt’s Jewish supporters.
Yet according to the New York Times of June 8, 1939,
After extensive negotiations, the St. Louis docked at Antwerp on June
17, 1939: 214 passengers remained in Belgium, 224 went to France and
181 to the Netherlands. Another 288 passengers went ashore in Britain
on June 21.
History tells us that as the years went on and America entered the war,
the United States did nothing to help European Jewry, a fact which
several decades later still boggles the mind. The American Jewish
community, still extremely wary of encouraging widespread anti-Semitic
and anti-alien sentiments, felt their own situations would become more
difficult if a flood of poor, eastern European immigrants came into
their communities. American Jews were ambivalent and timorous when
lobbying for rescue efforts and they were torn by bitter infighting
principally between Zionists and non-Zionists.
Influential and well connected German American Jews consistently
underplayed the perils of their fellow Jews in Europe while wishful
thinking, sloth and business-as-usual attitudes undermined whatever
efforts were made.17
Led by Rabbi Stephen Wise (1874-1949), the American Jewish Congress
encouraged a boycott of German goods in 1933. Later, during the war,
a different group of Jews led by the Warburgs, bankers whose German
branch of the family had helped found the chemical giant I.G. Farben
(makers of Zyklon B gas used in the death camps) in the 1920’s and
members of Roosevelt’s inner circle visited the President and told
him (via German American Jews’ requests) that "things aren’t all that
bad in Germany."18
… "Jews who were close to the President did very little to encourage
rescue action." Samuel Rosenman, Special Counsel to the President and
his principal adviser on Jewish matters, "considered the rescue issue
politically sensitive, so he consistently tried to insulate Roosevelt
from it." Rosenman opposed formation of a rescue agency, deliberately
watered down a war-crimes declaration so as to eliminate what he
considered "excessive emphasis on the Jews" and argued consistently
that "government aid to European Jews might increase anti-Semitism
in the United States."19
As the museum correctly states Morgenthau Jr. "urged President
Roosevelt to take action–leading to the creation of the War Refugee
Board in 1944." Why did this happen at such a late date? Lawyer Josiah
DuBois Jr., a non Jewish junior staffer at Treasury was going through
some State Department documents and happened upon papers that spelled
out virulent anti-Semitic immigration policies including a document
signed by Breckinridge Long, State’s Under Secretary, immigration
Czar and a rabid anti Semite.20
These documents sent to all staff at State and to all US embassies
and consulates gave complete, how-to instructions on keeping Jewish
immigrants out21 especially with such "Catch 22-type" regulations
in place like the "criminal record" prohibition which by definition
considered those who had been released from concentration or labor
camps criminals and therefore excluded them from immigration. The
"LPC" (likely to become a public charge) prohibition excluded many
Jews since they were not allowed to take any wealth with them when
they left Nazi territory and would arrive destitute. Finally the
"contract labor" prohibition cut off those who could not show that
they would become LPC because they did not have a guaranteed job offer
America. There were other rules to obstruct visas. "American consuls
in Germany [were instructed] not to give visas to Germans [Jews]
without passport or without permission to leave the country … not
to issue immigrant visas to anyone without evidence of a booking on a
ship due to sail within four months … have the ability to pay for
passage and affidavits of support from American relatives."22 This
left many Jews stuck in Germany as Hitler rose to power.
Outraged, Du Bois and two of his asssociates wrote their findings in a
report,23 presented it to Morgenthau Jr. and threatened to go public
with the damaging information in an election year unless FDR swiftly
changed matters at the State Department. Within a week FDR issued an
order proclaiming the War Refugee Board mentioned by the Museum.24
Why did it take so long for action? Could this have been yet again
another challenge to the balance between Jewish and American agendas?
Epilogue
About his father’s conversion "to the cause," Henry Morgenthau
III wrote:
In this climate of Jewish evasiveness it is significant that the
initial breakthrough to my father’s conscience [late in 1943] was
achieved by three zealous Christian Treasury lawyers he trusted and
respected. The most senior member of the triumvirate was Randolph
Paul whom my father brought into the Treasury to draft tax reform
legislation. The two junior members were John Pehle, then thirty-five
director of the Foreign Funds Control Board (subsequently director
of the War Refugee Board), and Josiah E. DuBois the thirty-two-year
old assistant to the general Counsel.25
According to the Museum website:
The exhibition explores the fascinating ways in which three generations
of a family raised awareness of tragedy around the world, and in
doing so changed the course of world events, American politics,
and Jewish history.
>From its video transcripts we obtain these insights into the
individuals.
Lazarus Morgenthau (Father of Morgenthau Sr.) was determined to make
it as an American. (narrator.)
Henry Morgenthau Sr. was determined to insure a greater level of
success. (narrator)
And significantly, Joan Morgenthau Hirshborn, daughter of Henry
Morgenthau Jr. stated "My father changed enormously as a result of
what went on during the Holocaust. He got very much interested in
Israel as a sanctuary for Jews. Totally changed our feeling about,
you know, our heritage." (emphasis added) One can understand that
the enormity of the Holocaust would have an impact on Jr. who did
too little much too late. This, too, is part of the Morgenthau Legacy.
1 For at least three generations this community considered itself
at the top of the social strata among American Jews with their own
elite golf clubs and synagogues. Intermarriage with establishment
Protestants was more acceptable than marriage to any east European
Jew no matter how accomplished or wealthy.
2
3 Ibid
4 Ibid
5 Ibid
6
7
8 Anonymous "Einstein to Modify Theory of Relativity As Light Study
Shows Calculations Wrong, Photographic Method Explained."
Special Cable to THE NEW YORK TIMES. June 13, 1931
9 Reisman,A. Turkey’s Modernization: Refugees from Nazism and Ataturk’s
Vision (Washington, DC: New Academia Publishers. 2006) pp191-5 10
Courtesy E. Finlay Freundlich Archives St. Andrews University, St
Andrews Scotland.
11 Courtesy E. Finlay Freundlich archives St. Andrews University, St
Andrews Scotland. For a further explanation see Reisman A. Turkey’s
Modernization: Refugees from Nazism and Ataturk’s Vision (Washington,
DC: New Academia Publishers. 2006) pp 26, 34, 39, 40, 191-7, 227,
232, 233, 235, 266, 284-6, 320, 330, 331, 335-65.
12 The US coast Guard has always been an agency of the Department of
the Treasury.
13 Morse, A.D. While six million died; a chronicle of American apathy
(New York, Random House 1968)
14 Coast Guard History:
15 Ibid
16 Coast Guard History:
an2.asp
17 Sherman, A.J. DOOMED BY THE INDIFFERENCE-AND WORSE, The New York
Times, December 16, 1984.
18 Geidner, Chris "A Question of Integrity: The United States’
Treatment of Jewish Refugees During World War II" 2000,
html
19 Sherman, A.J. DOOMED BY THE INDIFFERENCE-AND WORSE
20 A full transcript of the document appears in Reisman,A. SHOAH:
Turkey, The US and the (Charleston, SC: BookSurge Publishing. 2009),
The actual photocopy of the document will appear in Reisman A.
PERFIDY: Britannia and her all-Jewish army units.
21 There are excellent secondary sources for the reader to consider.
Among them are: Richard Breitman and Alan M. Kraut, American Refugee
Policy. Berenbaum, M. The world must know: the history of the
Holocaust: and Laquer, W. and Baumel, J.T. The Holocaust encyclopedia.
Morse, A.D. While six million died; a chronicle of American apathy;
Feingold, H.L. The politics of rescue; the Roosevelt administration
and the Holocaust, 1938-1945; Gilbert, M. Never again: a history
of the Holocaust; Friedman, S. S. No haven for the oppressed;
United States policy toward Jewish refugees, 1938-1945; Perl,
W. The Holocaust conspiracy: an international policy of genocide;
Wasserstein, B. Britain and the Jews of Europe, 1939-1945; Bolchover,
R. British Jewry and the Holocaust. The list can go on and on.
However, in The Myth of Rescue, William D. Rubenstein provides much
statistical data to support his premise that America and the UK did
do all that could have been done to save Jewish lives, an unorthodox
point of view indeed. Interestingly the word "Turkey" does not appear
in his lengthy and detailed index.
22 Richard Breitman and Alan M. Kraut, American Refugee Policy: p 75
23 Specifically the "Report to the Secretary on the Acquiescence of
this Government in the Murder of the Jews," written by Josiah E.
DuBois, Jr. , (1913-1983) a Treasury Department official, played
a pivotal role in exposing State Department obstruction of efforts
to provide American visa to Jews trying to escape Nazi Europe. In
no uncertain terms the report said that FDR was "guilty not only
of gross procrastination and willful failure to act, but even of
willful attempts to prevent action from being taken to rescue Jews
from Hitler." One of many facts in the report: "By the act of 1924,
we are permitted to admit approximately 150,000 immigrants each
year. During the last fiscal year only 23,725 came as immigrants. Of
these only 4,705 were Jews fleeing Nazi persecution." None of these
facts should surprise the more knowledgeable.
24 For further information on this episode see Reisman, SHOAH: Turkey,
the US and the UK, (BookSurge, 2009)
25 Morgenthau H. III, Mostly Morgenthaus: (New York: Ticknor & Fields,
1991) p 323.
http://hnn.us/articles/120352.html
http://www.mjhnyc.org/morgenthaus/index.html
http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1682.html
http://www.mjhnyc.org/morgenthaus/index.html
http://www.uscg.mil/history/faqs/St_Louis.asp
http://www.uscg.mil/history/faqs/HullMorg
http://www.geocities.com/crgeidner/refugees.