Gottfried Kuhnwald Quotes

This was one of the most hateful of his public speeches. He was one of the American “heroes” in Nazi Germany, receiving assistance from the Nazi government. Between his anti-Semitism and support for Hitler, Fascism and radical socialism, the Vatican ordered him off the air and shut down his political demagoguery.

Chvalkovsky had just returned from Berlin where he had met with Hitler and German Foreign Minister Ribbentrop. He related the meeting to the French Ambassador who reported it to the French Foreign Minister by letter.

Schindler was a very wealthy industrialist who risked his own life and kept over 1000 Jews from being sent to the gas chambers during the Holocaust. Yad Vashem’s, Israel’s Memorial of the Holocaust has a duty to convey the gratitude of the State of Israel and the Jewish people to non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust. This mission was defined by the law establishing Yad Vashem, and in 1963 the Remembrance Authority embarked upon a worldwide project to grant the title of Righteous Among the Nations to the few who helped Jews in the darkest time in their history.

She was a brilliant woman who was well ahead of her time in many respects. But her rigid adherence to socialism and communism distorted her view of a number of things. This was one. Pogroms were occasions where the Czarist Russian Cossacks or other gangs of hooligans were “allowed” and often encouraged to attack Jewish farms, villages and stores. They looted the property, raped and murdered many of the people, and often ethnically cleansed areas. Rosa was thrilled by the Russian Revolution and assumed that something as uncivilized as Pogroms and anti-Semitism would never take place in the coming communist society of Russia. As a German Jew, although there was a terrible history from the Dark and Middle Ages of German Pogroms and ant-Semitism, Germany of 1917 was too civilized and modern to ever have attacks on Jews. She completely underestimated what the politicians of Russia and Germany would do to control their societies and pander to some while scapegoating and murdering Jews and other minorities. She herself was murdered by a German fascist anti-Semite 2 years after this statement.

This classic quote illustrates how rapidly things can change. A decade later most German Jews either emigrated or were murdered.

The historical record that is available shows that while the Pope did not, actively or aggressively oppose Hitler, and he did not discipline Catholic prelates who were Nazi supporters, there is no specific evidence that shows the Pope conspired with Hitler, about the extermination of Jews or anything else. However, most of the relevant documents of the era are in the Vatican and the records have been sealed and have not been visible to historians. Apologists for the Pope’s passivity point out that a large percentage of Germans were Catholic and he had a duty to not antagonize Hitler who would retaliate against German Catholics and the German Catholic clergy and church property. Further, Fascist Italy was under Hitler’s control, and the Vatican itself could have closed and its property seized. The historical record is still very vague.

At the time, most of the world did not believe that the Germans were literally serious in their anti-Semitic rhetoric. It was assumed that this kind of talk was just populist rhetoric to get votes and maintain power. The main lesson of Nazi Germany is when leaders of a country, threaten the existence of another country or a people, they must be taken seriously, and not just as politicians being populists and pandering to an ignorant, biased public.

Robinson who was a Republican from New York was, like the other Negro Republican delegates , when they were cursed, shoved, threatened and spat on. The Southern delegates were part of a general Southern backlash as a result of the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

There were millions of refugees in Europe trying to escape the Nazi’s. When France fell and collaborators established the Vishey government, the French began rounding up Jews, Gypsies, and others for the concentration camps. They could escape France only if they had a transit visa from some nearby country. Salizar, the Portuguese strongman, currying favor with Hitler, prohibited the issuance of transit visas to Jewish refugees. Some unethical diplomats would only issue visas if large bribes were paid. Sousa Mendes, a devout Catholic, had seen all the desperate refugees in the streets of Bordeaux and decided to issue transit visas despite his government’s orders. He issued 30,000 taking no payments at all and saved tens of thousands of lives. Salizar investigated and demanded an explanation. Sousa Mendez was fired and was not even allowed to practice law. He died in poverty. Later he was posthumously awarded his country’s highest medal and a stamp was issued in his honor. See {67378}.

In WWII, under the puppet Vichy Government, the Nazi’s demanded that all the French Banks provide the names, addresses, and holders of all bank accounts that were held by Jews or suspected Jews. Nazi agents visited the French Bank officials and threatened them if they did not comply. There were 5 American Banks doing business in France: J.P. Morgan, Chase Bank, Guarantee Trust, the Bank of the City of New York and American Express. Their bank account information was disgracefully turned over to the Nazis for fear of losing future business. The Nazis, in addition to murdering over 70,000 French Jews looted over $90 million worth of Jewish property including the money in the American banks. The American banks continued to cooperate with the French Vichy Government and the Nazis until American law made it illegal. The American Banks and their accounts in question however may not at the time have been controlled by the American owners. American Express, for example, had liquidated its interests in 1941 and transferred its accounts to French interests who appear to have been in control at the time of the disgraceful turnover or the records.

See Talaat Bey {40621} for a similar twisted logic.

In 1933, there was still a some of anti-Semitism in America. The persecution of Jews in Germany was very clear at the time, just from the statements and writings by Adolf Hitler and other high level government officials and the laws that they were instituting and proposing. McFadden was one of the extreme isolationists in Congress at the time. They knew very little of the rest of the world, and believed the false assurances provided by German officials and American anti-Semitic, Fascist, pro Nazi partisans. McFadden’s statement was not only contrary to fact, but is among the most naïve of Congressional speeches.

Zangwill had been asked to be part of a team to assesses the accusations of pogroms against Jews in the Ukraine.

The reconstruction to which he referred was the rebuilding of Germany after the First World War. Anti-Semitism distracted most of the people from focusing on the terrible policies that guided Germany into WWI and the incompetent government that was operational.

The assassination was attempted in 1944 and after its failure, he was shot be a firing squad.

The non-violent resistance tactics of the White Rose were so threatening to the Nazi German regime that Sophia and other members were executed by guillotine beheading as a particularly harsh example. The graphic is a postage stamp that Germany has issued in her honor.