Obama at USHMM: America needs repentance, not accolades

Today I watched the carefully choreographed presentation of a number of rescuers, statesmen, military liberators, survivors and Museum folk on streaming video from USHMM, speaking as they should, upholding the dignity of persons in a world gone mad with violence and a complex and schizoid way of dealing with conflict. Eli Wiesel spoke, as well as some others, preceding the address of the President, who invoked the examples of LeChambon and American liberators of the concentration camps, here, some 64 years after most of the liberations were complete in 1945, and the war at least officially came to an end.

Amidst the hush of a respectful crowd in a cool semi-lit conference room at USHMM, a military guard marched in bearing their ensign banners and flags and much of the talk was of the great things Americans and the US Military had done in the Shoah, along with the selfless deeds of some rescuers who now reside here. Mention was made as expected of the horror of marching into the Killing and Atrocity Centers and finding the depths to which humankind can sink, and Wiesel remarked poignantly on the day his father was told they would be going to an unknown location called Auschwitz, not knowning what awaited, after they turned down a offer to escape. A very moving rendition of the Kaddish, the prayer of mourning and praise was cantored.

Though there was certainly nothing wrong with the ceremony, and in fact much quite right, I could not help but wonder though, if here in the United States of America, we should be canonizing our efforts in the Shoah, just as the Vatican is considering canonizing PiusXII, with self-congratulations over the marginal efforts of a Oswego, or Military liberations of the German camps, or give ourselves credit for the real selfless acts of rescuers and liberators who emigrated here after the war. One walked away feeling like were it not for the US, the Jews and the other poor souls who were victimized would never have been rescued and the world would not have been safe for Democracy. On the surface, it is invigorating and nationalistic, with warm feelings all around.

Accolades or Repentance? Which is Closer to Reality?

While the tender music played though, and while the testimonies were given, with the great and critical call for understanding and education, I felt a great sense of alarm at what was not being said, and for what in this day and time will probably never be said openly: that while we should indeed laud the liberators and rescuers, America has a far greater need to repent for their role in the Holocaust than to congratulate itself for its 'honorable' stance. Part of the latter is myth, archetype and even fairy tale, and it does not aid a world in need of self-assessment and contemplation, instead of self-given awards.

And it is with great concern, or perhaps 'burning concern', that we should consider that Germany also, at the end of WWII, did not feel any need to repent for its actions during the Shoah, nor did even many of its Church leaders, and it was only by the Call in the Stuttgart Confession by Neimoller and others in the inception of the WCC, that even the clergy were begged to consider whether the church had given in to the Spirit of force and retaliation or the Spirit of God. We look back now and wonder how could they not see the need for repentance, with millions of innocents dead and wounded, with their own nation, people and churches ruined and bombed, having followed a lunatic into hell with no redeeming end, how could they not have repented, and yet many would not. Years later, finally, a move of true hearts of Jews and Christians, for the past several years have yearly, solemnly walked the paths of the death marches from a number of camps, praying and repenting for Germany and humankind's role in the Shoah.

Why Does America Need to Repent? (of its role in the Shoah)

Most in the United States on the surface will find it untenable that one should even suggest that the US needs to repent of anything during the Shoah: we were the good guys, right? We were the ones who liberated Mittelbau Dora and Nordhausen, Buchewald and Dachau with many others, who brought down top level Nazis, and sieged Berlin. We were the ones who sacked Nazi technology and stolen loot returning much to owners: We brought the war criminals to speedy and just trials, and with Britain, we aided and supported Israel in its bid for statehood and homeland. What on earth do we have to repent for? The question of why repent comes because so much of US involvement in the Shoah is still not known to its citizens or to much of the world. However as scholars uncover more and more of the dynamics in 'world systems' behind and during the Shoah, one can no longer deny the outright complicity of the US in aiding in the rise of the Third Reich, the start of the War, the reluctance to enter on either side, the funding of the war, the technology of the war , use of slave labor, and the prolonging of the war: our efforts at a few rescues seem paltry in light of that complicity.

The Sins of America in the Shoah

Below are a number of reasons, the US needs to serious repent of its actions during the Shoah.

1. We drew up the bridges of Immigration at the onset of the War.
In the legislature, even when we began to hear of immigration problems for the Jews, there was a great reluctance to receive Jewish citizens. While German and polish police made it impossible for many Jews to immigrate, our Congress did even worse by severely limiting quotas, and some senators even suggested stopping all immigration both to keep us out of the war and because anti-semitic feeling was widespread. Claude Pepper tirelessly lobbied for Jewish immigration as a benevolent act, but did not prevail.

2. We turned away the St. Louis, a rescue ship

Related to #1, when a ship of several hundred Jews escaped from Nazi persecution, we left them in Havana bay on the St. Louis, refusing to allow them refuge. The ship was turned back to Europe where most onboard were sent to Auschwitz.

3. We gave only token support and maybe worse at the Evian Conference
FDR did not send a 'legal' emissary to the Evian Conference, the conference which was to decide where Jewish persons escaping the Third Reich could find refuge, but instead sent his friend, Myron Taylor, a former CEO of US Steel. US Steel was affiliated with Silesian Steel and Mines, using slave labor in the Auschwitz-Birkenau-Monowitz-Furstengrube complex. The US took none at the conference although later through the nonstop lobbying of Ruth Gruber about 965 were allowed to live in a detainment camp in Oswego, NY. (out of 12 million needing asylum)

4. Many Eminent Americans Openly supported the Third Reich
There has always been a large contingent of German heritage in the US and at the time of the war, about 35-40 million claim all or half German heritage. Swastikas, before they took on their sinister symbology graced many signs the way Christian 'fish' signs or crosses grace Christian owned businesses. German bunds were by in large anti-Semitic, even holding large marches and rallies. Open air speeches even in Madison Square Garden were given by the Nazi, Fritz Kuhn, and Father Coughlin, an American priest gave virulent broadcasts condemning the Jews and support thereof. Charles Lindbergh, the great American hero of flight, lobbied for the Third Reich and received awards from Hitler, as did George Miller, a novelist whose book, I found No Peace propagandized the US.
Henry Ford was openly complicit with the Third Reich and outspoken in their defense. These were but a few of the eminent citizens who supported Hitler.

5. American Capitalists consorted with Ruhr Industrialists in the prewar era to fund the rise of Hitler and the NSDAP.

At the end of WWI, Germany was impoverished because of the war debt incurred on them by the War Guilt Clause of the Versailles Treaty. Wall Street Capitalists colluded with Industrial giants in Bavaria to rebuild Germany and help fund the NSDAP or Nazi Party.

6. Wall Street Tycoons and American Business Poured Millions Into Nazi Germany even in violation of Wartime acts.
The famous 'Bush-Dulles' controversy had to do with the great grandfather of George W. Bush and John Foster Dulles (his brother the Cardinal Avery Dulles), W. Harriman and their link, Fritz Thyssen, the primary financier of Hitler. Many Wall Street businessmen believed Hitler would be good also for the US economy and recovery from the devastation of WWI and the Great Depression. Millions of dollars poured over seas and the extremely complex net of US support for industry, business and the war effort in Germany prospered, including later in the war, hand in hand use of slave labor.

7. American Businesses Which Aided and Abetted the Death of 11.5 million Innocents.
Ford not only supported Hitler and the Third Reich, but provided technology and streamlined production of Ford products and concepts which eventually contributed to the development of mini-tanks used against American soldiers! We said, 'buy American' and then supported a company who aided and abetted the enemy. Speer was put on trial and imprisoned for prolonging the war, and received a hefty sentence, but Ford who had taught the concept of a production line, received accolades not a war crimes trial. IBM developed the "Hollerith Machine" a tabulation machine without which the massive genocide would not have been possible for it allowed the streamlining of processing victims to deportation, slavery and the camps. DuPont, Standard Oil (Exxon), and other companies held the vast number of shares in a company called DeGussa, which was a subsidiary of I.G. Farben, which was the main thrust behind the use of slaves in Auschwitz for mining, chemical manufacturing, coal and oil, including the production of Zyklon-B which caused the deaths of millions in the gas chambers. Bayer Co, the aspirin folks, solicited and used hundreds of women for experiments killing them when through. These are only a few examples.



8. Slavery

While we have already mentioned the use of slaves at the Auschwitz complex and others, US companies also availed themselves of free slave labor or the purchase of slaves in collusion. So did the Catholic Church, who recently had to pay restitution.

9. We helped keep the Luftwaffe flying
Recently a fellow from MIT produced a report that showed that Standard Oil sold a component chemical to the Luftwaffe near the end of the war. Had they not sold the chemical, it is estimated that the war might have ended by 1.5 years earlier.

The quote is as follows:

This was the company enthusiastically embraced by Standard Oil as well as other major American corporations like Du Pont and General Motors. I do not, however, state that Standard Oil collaborated with the Nazis simply because I.G. Farben was its second largest shareholder. In fact, without the explicit help of Standard Oil, the Nazi air force would never have gotten off the ground in the first place. The planes that made up the Luftwaffe needed tetraethyl lead gasoline in order to fly. At the time, only Standard Oil, Du Pont, and General Motors had the ability to produce this vital substance. In 1938, Walter C. Teagle, then president of Standard Oil, helped Hermann Schmitz of I.G. Farben to acquire 500 tons of tetraethyl lead from Ethyl, a British Standard subsidiary. A year later, Schmitz returned to London and obtained an additional 15 million dollars worth of tetraethyl lead which was to be turned into aviation gasoline back in Germany.


From: "A People's History of the United States", The Thistle
http://web.mit.edu/thistle/www/v13/3/oil.html

9. While in the end in the Truman administration we strongly on paper supported an Israeli Homeland, the support was circumvent and possibly not there for real at all during the FDR administration. The Holy See had the constant ear of FDR during those years, and a man mentioned before, FDR's friend and confidant Myron Taylor, was representative to the Vatican, securing an "Honorary Rome Citizenship" for FDR during the height of the deaths in Auschwitz when we well knew. September 1943 the Jews of Rome were deported: November 1944, FDR was awarded an honorary citizenship. Further, the apostolic delegate Cicagniano lobbied consistently in the US under the auspices of Pacelli and Maglione in Rome, for the US not to support a homeland for Israel! This is not speculation but is clearly stated in the letters of the Pro Nuncio. They argued that the Jews had no inherent right to Palestine, albeit they saw themselves having Eminent Domain to Jerusalem and surrounds. Several key Catholic figures figured here and in Germany and Rome regarding the 'slow code' back to Israel including Pacelli, Maglione, Cicagniano, Von Papen and Myron Taylor with a host of others. Pacelli during the Shoah appointed ultraconservative Bishops and Cardinals in the US during that time, aiding the Roman Catholic position of no homeland for Israel. (Myron Taylor's letters are available online)

10. At the end of the war, we immediately gave refuge to over 10.000 Nazis including war criminals, carte blanche and even Eichmann was reported in South Florida in the 1950s. Jewish immigration though remained difficult, and while we ended up endorsing Statehood for Israel, Jews were continuously 'watched' here and within less than 10 years the same rhetoric of Jews being Communists emerged resulting in the McCarthy era and again hurting Jews in the US. Further there is some evidence of 'modernized' Jews being given far more leeway in immigration and citizenship that more Orthodox and 'Old world' Jews, and yet the latter were far greater in number.

11. While we deported and tried known war criminals, the efforts were less than stellar, and many lived their lives out comfortably in the US under assumed names well into the elderly years, often being tried or jailed in their 80s. Many records were sealed, and after some years, searches ceased. Nazi influence and technology though grew and affected the US greatly, and through certain financiers such as Ahmed Huber, Nazi, Neo-Nazi groups and Islamic groups were joined in a mutal effort of a new 'final solution. We are Israel's best friend (?) and worst nightmare.

Streaming Video and Streaming Repentance

As I watched President Obama speak of the refuge of LeChambon, a French Huguenot refuge, and listened to Wiesel talk about what might have been in a world which has closed its eyes but stayed at the edge of that Abyss called the Shoah, as we all sat in the cool comfort and quiet in different chairs and stands, watching 'streaming video' live events 1000 miles away, at first I reacted impulsively with a reaction of "isn't that good---Rescuers, Survivors, Liberators and a President remarking we must not forget, and that in the words of one speaker, we must strive to live in a world where we do not have to light candles of remembrance. That is a dream, and a vision, isn't it? It will not come true on this earth. I am a pacifist of the first order, the kind who fears God, yet I also know that all people will never change and we have had genocide after genocide on this earth AFTER the Shoah, never learning, and never changing our hearts. We are beginning to look foolish and falter crying 'Never Again', for the 20th or 30th time in 65 years, with the deaths in the Killing fields of Cambodia, the Karen of Burma, Armenia, Croatia, Sudan, Somalia, Eritrea, Bangladesh, Uganda, and many with significant but lesser numbers. After a few million deaths beyond when we said 'Never Again', we start the words but they fall in our mouths. "Repentance" means to 'turn away' or 'to turn around' as in 'to go another way'. We have to admit we have done wrong, and 'go another way', or all our beautiful, gracious words, will only fall on more deaf ears, from all nations, all with a sword in their hand, waiting for the reason they must kill another people. Love doesn't mean never having to say you're sorry, Love means BEING sorry, and so changing that we would lay down our lives that the next genocide would truly meet the great cry of 'never again'. ekbest.