Commission to Study Attitudes and Actions of U.S. Jews During the Holocaust is Dissolved

The failure of promised financing to materialize forced a commission of distinguished American Jews to abandon its study of what the organized American Jewish community did or might have done to save European Jews from the Holocaust during the years 1939-1945, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency was informed by two leading members of the panel today.

Former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Arthur Goldberg, who headed the project, the American Jewish Commission on the Holocaust, which was privately undertaken in September, 1981 and Prof. Seymour Finger, of the City University of New York Graduate School, who was its research chief, confirmed that the sponsor, businessman and concentration camp survivor Jack Eisner, failed to meet his financial obligations. Eisner was not immediately available for comment.

Goldberg, reached by the JTA’s Washington Bureau, and Finger, who spoke to the JTA by telephone in New York, were commenting on a report in The New York Times by Bernard Weinraub, that the project was aborted because of dissension among the various participants over the nature and content of the commission’s report.

The Times quoted Eisner as saying he withheld funds because the Jewish establishment was exerting heavy pressure to protect the good name of many mainstream American Jewish organizations which had not acted as forcefully as they could have on behalf of European Jews in the years under review.

But Finger, a professor of political science and former deputy chief of the U.S. Mission to the United Nations, told the JTA, “The commission was dis- solved for one simple, all-compelling reason. The sponsor did not come up with the money promised.” He denied Eisner’s remarks to the Times but would not speculate as to whether business reverses may have been responsible. According to the Times, Eisner had pledged $138,000 but supplied only $40,000.

DIFFERENCES HAD BEEN EXPECTED

Finger conceded that “there had been some dissension” within the commission when it met last June to consider various drafts. He stressed, however, that differences had been expected from the outset and “not all criticisms were wrong.” He himself edited and revised five separate draft reports.

“I had every expectation that we would come up with a (final) report,” up to the time Goldberg informed the commission members, last August 17, that the project had to be abandoned for lack of funds, Finger told the JTA.

Goldberg told the JTA the sponsor “wouldn’t put up the money to complete our work” and that he himself could not afford to finance it. He said he would however, pay for a research assistant so that he and Finger could complete a book on the subject by the end of this year.

Goldberg denied emphatically that he succumbed to pressure from establishment organizations. He recalled that when he undertook to head the project over two years ago, he said “let the chips fall where they may” and that determination will guide the book he intends to write. “I have not lost belief that the truth will out. At this stage of my life no one could scare me,” the former Supreme Court Justice and former U.S. Ambassador to the UN told the JTA.

The Times reported that one draft singled out for criticism Rabbi Stephen Wise, a towering figure in American Jewish life at the time of the Holocaust, for allegedly rejecting a plan for saving European Jews because it failed to demand that the British open Palestine to them.

AREAS TO HAVE BEEN EXPLORED

When the American Jewish Commission on the Holocaust was formed in New York it was announced that it would undertake a two-year study that would explore the following:

*When did the American Jewish leadership learn about the Nazi plan to exterminate all European Jews and when did they become alarmed about it?

* Which Jewish groups were active on the American scene and what did they do or fail to do?

* Why were so many American Jews passive or relatively unconcerned about the plight of European Jews? Regarding this point, the Commission will seek to explore whether it was the lack of information, interest, the inability to fathom the dimensions of the Holocaust or a preoccupation with other concerns.

* Did prominent Jews try to influence U.S. policy, and if so, what impact did they have?

* Was the Holocaust preordained by a cruel destiny so that nothing could have been done to prevent, stop, alleviate or limit it? Or, if the Jews in this country had shown greater concern and exerted their influence and power on the political body, could the tragedy have been prevented?

* In retrospect, with the abundance of documentary material at the Commission’s disposal, what is the truth about the possibility of saving great numbers of Jews? Why were these opportunities not fully explored, or neglected?

Goldberg said at the time that the conclusions of the report might be “unpleasant” to some Jewish organizations, but added that whatever “good, solid research” is uncovered will in the end be published.