Jewish World Review Jan. 3, 2000 / 24 Teves, 5760
YOU SEE THE HEADLINES almost daily: "Swiss
Banks Agree to Settlement," "German
Industry to Compensate Aged Slave
Laborers," "Insurance Firms Face Holocaust
Claims."
But why has justice been so slow? Why has it taken until the end
of the millennium to raise questions about World War II that
should have been asked at the war's end more than 50 years ago?
Questions like, what happened to the billions stolen from Hitler's
Holocaust victims? What was the complicity of the nations
occupied by the Nazis? How truly neutral were the neutrals? Did
the U.S. and other Allies do enough to seek justice for the
survivors?
I've recently been on a cross-country tour to promote my new
book, Pack of Thieves: How Hitler & Europe Plundered the Jews and Committed the Greatest Theft in History and it's the question everyone asks:
"Why now, why has it taken so long?"
As with almost any revisiting of history, there is no single reason.
The enormity of the Holocaust makes it impossible ever to close
this savage chapter of history --- nor should we. And yet the
very passage of time --- and the great political changes in
Eastern Europe --- have opened troves of long-hidden or
long-ignored documents.
This paper trail has provoked questions that no one asked before.
And it has produced an unprecedented transparency, much of it
under harsh international pressure, as happened in Switzerland.
It's also true that for years, no one wanted to raise many of these
questions. No sooner was World War II over than the West was
caught up in the Cold War. Fearful of losing new allies, America
believed it had little time to waste on battles that seemingly were
over. That's how the Swiss managed to pocket almost 75% of the
millions in looted gold they'd fenced for the Nazis.
Many Holocaust survivors were too traumatized to press their
claims --- or feared new anti-Semitism if they did. Those
who tried found themselves stonewalled by banks or faced with
impossible demands from bureaucrats, such as for death
certificates from Auschwitz. Most were more interested in finding
any surviving family members (although few did).
In this country, the majority of Jews just wanted to fit in and not
rock the postwar boat. And the activists were preoccupied
--- first with resettling displaced persons, then with building
Israel, next with freeing Soviet Jews and so on.
All that has changed. A younger, more secure generation is finally
demanding justice and long-overdue, often badly needed,
compensation for the 400,000 aged Holocaust survivors still
among us.
This compensation is one of the century's most important
reckonings --- a lesson to all who believe that ethnic hatred
excuses murder and plunder.
What are the lessons of this episode?
One thing is certain: We must teach future generations that even
under the threat of death, decent people can respond to evil with
bravery and caring.
Recently, the Jewish Foundation for the
Righteous, a New York-based group dedicated to helping those
who sheltered Jews from the Nazis, honored 74-year-old Wanda
Anishkewicz of Belarus, a Pole whose family hid four members of
a local Jewish family, saving them from slaughter.
In an inspiring documentary directed by filmmaker Gaylen Ross,
Anishkewicz explains simply but profoundly why she helped:
"These were our neighbors. These were our friends."
The reason we face issues of belated justice is because too few
were ready to say the same when they could have and should
Sudden Interest in WWII
Justice Has Many Causes
By Richard Z. Chesnoff
JWR contributor and veteran journalist
Richard Z. Chesnoff is a senior correspondent at US News
And World Report and a columnist at the NY Daily News. His latest book is Pack of Thieves: How Hitler & Europe
Plundered the Jews and Committed the Greatest Theft in History.
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