Yankelevitch, Argentine Jew Who Translated Message of Hitler’s Aide, Apologizes

Chaim Yankelevitch, the Argentinian radio manufacturer and radio station owner who created a storm of protest by transmitting over his station a Spanish translation of a speech delivered by Alfred Rosenberg, one of Hitler’s most vindictive Jew-baiting assistants, has made a strong public bid for forgiveness on the ground that at the time he was not aware of Rosenberg’s anti-Jewish sentiments.

Yankelevitch, who went to Germany on a German ship and to buy German supplies for his radio station, acted as translator to Rosenberg at the Berlin Argentine embassy on July 9, the Argentine national holiday. The speech was relayed to the Argentine over Yankelevitch’s station.

The storm of protest which the incident aroused was augmented by the fact that Yankelevitch’s name was widely featured in the Spanish newspapers and led to his suspension from several Jewish organizations here. This expression of the attitude of the community towards Yankelevitch greatly affected his wife and other members of his family, as well as the radio entrepeneur himself upon his return from Germany.

Yankelevitch’s first step was to ask reinstatement into the groups which had suspended him, and to offer to give as much as 25,000 pesos to the committee in charge of the fund to establish German Jews in Palestine.

However, the committee felt that Yankelevitch’s punishment would be greater if his gift were refused, and demanded instead that he publicly acknowledge his guilt. As a result, Yankelevitch prepared a statement which appeared in the local press and which, in a voice showing great emotion, he read over his station in Spanish and Yiddish. The statement, which created a deep impression, follows:

“To the President of the Committee Against the Persecution of Jews in Germany,

Mr. N. Gesang:

“Sir: I have the honor to address you, and, through your efforts, the Jewish community of the Republic, to declare that I recognize that I have made a great mistake, unwillingly, in transmitting from Berlin, by a hook-up with my broadcasting station, the speech of Rosenberg, who is—as I learned several days after the transmission—one of the worst persecutors of the Jewish nation. I formally declare that I was unaware of the anti-Semitic tendencies of the individual, on which ground I ask forgiveness of my brothers, and I assure them that I am a conscientious Jew and that I am sorry for all that occurred in connection with that incident.

“I beg of you, Mr. President, to accept my true assertions, and take this opportunity to send you my most respectful greetings.

“Chaim Yankelevitch.”