107) NAZI / ZIONIST COLABORATION DURING WORLD WAR 2

In spite of the basic hostilities between the Hitler regime and international Jewry, for several years Jewish Zionist and German National Socialists interests coincided. In collaboration with the Zionists for a mutually and human solution to a complex problem, The Third Reich was willing to make foreign exchange sacrifices, impair relations with Britain and anger the Arabs. Indeed, during the 1930's, no nation did more to substantiate further Jewish-Zionist goals than Hitler Germany.

Under the "Haavara" (Hebrew for Transfer) Agreement, money was transferred from Nazi Germany to Palestine for the Zionist project. This had a major impact on Palestine. The influx of Haavara goods and capital produced an economic explosion in Jewish Palestine and was an indispensable factor in the creation of the State of Israel.

In early January 1941 a small but important organisation submitted a formal proposal to German diplomats for a military-political alliance with wartime Germany. The offer was made by the radical underground"Fighters for the Freedom of Palestine", better known as the Lehi or Stern Gang. Its leader, Avraham Stern, had recently broken with the radical nationalist "National Military Organisation" (Irgun Zvai Leum) over the groups attitude towards Britain, which had effectively banned further Jewish settlement of Palestine. Stern regarded Britain as the main enemy.

An important Lehi member at the time the group made the offer was Yitzak Shamir, who later served as Israel's foreign Minister and then during much of the 1980's and until 1982, as Prime Minister. As Lehi operations chief following Stern's death in 1942, Shamir organized acts of terror, including the November assassination of British Middle East Minister Lord Moyne and the September 1948 slaying of the Swedish UN mediator Count Bernadotte. Years later, when Shamir was asked about the 1941 offer, he confirmed that he was aware of his organization's proposed alliance with war time Germany.

(Terrorist splinter groups such as the Stern Gang and Irgun in 1948 amalgamated with The Haganah to form the Israeli Defence Force IDF.)

See also Post 99) and Google: Zionism and the Third Reich, Institute for Historical Reviews. Also: Klaus Polken: "The Secret Contacts" Zionism and Nazi Germany 1933-194

106) The following three letters are contributions from 'Press' readers in response to letters from Erin Eldridge, a devoted  Zionist apologist and regular contributor to the Press' letter pages, who so it appears enjoys a certain preference by the editors. She invariably gets the last word and her rants are allowed to remain unchallenged.
(additions in Italics are made by "Contraviews')

 The "Gunther Grass" controversy.
"Erin Eldridge (28/4) sees too much in Gunther Grass's juvenile past. The future (Pope) Benedict XVI, same age, was drafted into the Hitler Youth in 1941 at 14, and he was welcomed in Israel, the former was banned. What do you know at 14, in 1941 when adults followed Hitler blindly ? She misses one 'moral equivalence' between Iran and Israel. Both countries are under suspicion (!) of developing or having developed nuclear weapons in secret, against the International Atomic Energy's rulings. "This tiny nation surrounded by those who want to destroy it" as she calls it, dislodged hundreds of thousands of previous inhabitants at the point of a gun. These victims call this sad event The Nakba (The Catastrophe), which this 'tiny nation' does not allow to commemorate anymore. It also invaded more than it ever was invaded, increased its territory by illegal means, ruffled feathers all around. It also benefits from the strongest lobby in Washington, that is AIPEC, getting support of the. so far, most powerful nation on the planet. I know of better ways to make friends with neighbours!"
(Letter not published)

"I fail to see how Erin Eldridge (April 7) can find Martin Griffith' defence of Grasss' advocacy of peaceful solution to Israel and Iran's nuclear stand off (April 13) "ignorant and reprehensible". What I personally find reprehensible is blind support for any violent action Israel wishes to take. Israel has a much murkier past it wants to remain hidden than that of Grass: past Prime Ministers such as Begin and Shamir were willing participants in terrorists atrocities in their youth as leaders of Jewish terrorists groups, much more morally reprehensible than any activities Grass was caught up in by circumstances as a seventeen year old conscript during World War Two. Most Israelis Prime Ministers have been former members of terrorists/guerrilla groups responsible for the death of Arab civilians, British personnel and even a UN mediator in the struggle for their Jewish state, or former military leaders such as Sharon who have also been responsible for large-scale slaughter of Arab civilians."
(Letter rejected by the Press)

I share Erin Eldridge's abhorrence of the Nazi and SS in particular (April 28) as someone whose family suffered under German occupation in World War Two, and indeed whose uncle was hunted by the SS. Gunther Grass' SS Pantzer division even saw action in my father's country, the Netherlands, shortly before Grass joined it. So, far from me to offer any support for the Nazi projector anyone involved in it, including its attempt to annihilate the Jews. However there are some important factual inaccuracies in her (Erin Eldridge's) account: Grass never joined the Nazi Party or the Hitler Youth. He was drafted in to the "Lufwaffenhelfer" (anti-aircraft units composed of school children). Other famous and lauded individuals who served in these units include the current Pope, philosopher Jurgen Habermas and many prominent post-war democratic German politicians including Chanseler Helmut Kohl. These units were under the command of the airforce and received ideological supervision from the Hitler Youth, as did most German children. Grass was then conscripted into the RAD (Reich Labour Service) doing labouring work for the military. Towards the end of the war he was drafted into the 10th SS Pantzer Division and saw service only in Germany for a total of two month before he was wounded and captured by the Americans (who decided he had not been involved in war crimes) Neither were his family hard-core Nazis-one of Grass' uncles was executed by the Nazi regime.
The Historian Tom Segev said on this issue recently:" it's not factually correct to brand Grass an anti-Semitic or Nazi to try and undermine his arguments even if you disagree with them. Grass himself has noted he has only previously been banned from entering East Germany and Burma of all the countries he has criticized before, which places the current right-wing Israeli government in somewhat unwelcome company".
Letter not published by The Press