1944 by Jay Winik
the tense Molotov responded: This dramatic episode with Molotov is derived from MacGregor Burns, Soldier of Freedom, 95. It highlights how even at the highest levels of government the stress on the leaders was unremitting. The reader may recall that Roosevelt privately panicked after the bombing of Pearl Harbor; further, Stalin himself collapsed when Hitler attacked on the Eastern Front.
the Germans’ assault took place: For the initial assault and details, Doris Kearns Goodwin, No Ordinary Time (Simon & Schuster, 1994), 253; Kershaw, Hitler, 621–22; MacGregor Burns, Soldier of Freedom, 96.
the German march: Kershaw, Hitler, 622. For more on Hitler’s mastery of Europe, and comparisons with other leaders, see for example my treatment of Napoleon seeking to swallow the Middle East: Jay Winik, The Great Upheaval (Harper, 2006). Napoleon of course made comparable mistakes in lunging into the vastness of Russia.
conceived as a territorial: Kershaw, Hitler, 669.
reality was far different: Ibid., 670. Kershaw’s point, too rarely appreciated, is that the initial instructions were ad hoc, often confusing, and anything but systematic; I’ve leaned heavily on his greater explication.
“Vengeance” he wrote: Kershaw, 671.
Lithuanian town of Kovno: There are tapes, or movie reels, of this chilling, seminal episode in Lithuania.
were “vile,” they were “lice”: Kershaw, Hitler, 671–77, on which I have also relied for the lapse in professionalism among the German generals in the conquered territories.
Babi Yar: wrenching account in Martin Gilbert, The Holocaust (Holt, 1985), 202–3; Anatoly Kuznetsov, Babi Yar (Dell, 1970).
“scramble over the ledge”: Gilbert, Holocaust, 204–5.
“like ghosts”: Ibid., 212–17, from which I have drawn extensively.
“None has suffered more”: Jewish Chronicle, November 14, 1941; Gilbert, Holocaust, 232–33. Churchill’s “the mills of God” is from Friedrich von Logau’s poem “Retribution,” translated by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
“whether to Siberia”: Kershaw, Hitler, 677.
“As far as Jews”: For this and related quotes, as well as discussion of the Final Solution, see Kershaw, Hitler, 678, 686; Gilbert, Holocaust, 213; and the very fine work by Anthony Read, The Devil’s Disciples: Hitler’s Inner Circle (Norton, 2004), especially 751.
took a toll on the killers: Letter to Walther Rauff, May 16, 1942, Report of October 30, 1941, to the Commissioner General, Minsk; see also Gilbert, Holocaust, 222. It is a cruel irony that the Nazis wanted clean hands in carrying out their butchery.
“death comes faster”: Letter to Walther Rauff, May 16, 1942.
Chelmno woods: Gilbert, Holocaust, 239, 245; Read, Devil’s Disciples 753. I have leaned on both.
first days of the “final solution”: This episode, helping to inaugurate the final solution, is rendered in detail in Gilbert, Holocaust, 240.
“Do you think”: Gilbert, Holocaust, 245–47.
Wannsee conference: See especially Raul Hilberg, The Destruction of the European Jews, 1967, 262–64; Raul Hilberg, ed., Documents of Destruction: Germany and Jewry, 1933–1945 (W.H. Allen, 1972), 88–99; also Gilbert, Holocaust, 284. On qualms about killing valuable workers, see Read, Devil’s Disciples, 751. The Holocaust History Project also has a very useful discussion. Online, the reader may also see the villa in which the meeting took place; and BBC/HBO dramatized the conference in the compelling movie Conspiracy (2001), which may be watched on YouTube on demand. It strikes me as a largely accurate rendition, at least in the broad brush strokes. At the conference itself, the word “extermination” was never mentioned; instead, taking a cue from Hitler, participants talked of being “firm” and “severe.” Nonetheless, their intentions were unmistakable. The participants spoke with the clinical detachment of doctors.
numbers of all the Jews: See Gilbert, Holocaust, 281.
“bit by bit”: Ibid., 282.
They sipped brandy: Ibid., 283.
“The hour will come”: Text for Hitler’s fateful speech: from Foreign Broadcast Monitoring Service, January 30, 1942, Federal Communications Commission; see also, Gilbert, Holocaust, 285.
new death camps: See Read, Devil’s Disciples, 755; Gilbert, Holocaust, 285–87.
“We’ve got to go”: For this and further quotes, and for Marshall’s and Eisenhower’s strategic thinking, see Goodwin, No Ordinary Time, 342; Mark Perry, Partners in Command: George Marshall and Dwight Eisenhower in War and Peace (Penguin, 2007), 76.
peripheral attack: On Churchill’s thinking, see Goodwin, No Ordinary Time, 345. After the war, Churchill repudiated with great fervor the belief that he had been against an all-out assault against Europe: Winston S. Churchill, The Grand Alliance (Houghton Mifflin, 1950), 581–82.
plans for the great cross-Channel assault: See Goodwin, No Ordinary Time, 342, on which I’ve relied heavily here.
“What Harry and George”: Ibid., 343. I’ve also especially drawn from Perry, Partners in Command, 77–79, which is very strong on the strategic interaction of the generals. See also Forrest C. Pogue, George C. Marshall: Education of a General (Viking, 1963). What comes across is that the American generals, as befitting the democratic process, were far more outspoken than the cowardly Nazi generals. This is an important resource because from August 1956 to April 1957 Pogue conducted a series of five extensive interviews with Marshall; these provide the best and most comprehensive account of Marshall’s outlook. The interviews were taped and involved prearranged questions. It’s important to note that Marshall and Eisenhower had similarities as well as differences; see Forrest C. Pogue, “The Supreme Command,” in US Army in World War II: European Theater of Operations (U.S. Army Center of Military History, 1996), 33–35. See also Dwight D. Eisenhower, Crusade in Europe (Doubleday, 1948), 17; Carlo D’Este, Eisenhower: A Soldier’s Life (Holt, 2002); Ed Cray, General of the Army: George C. Marshall, Soldier and Statesman (Rowman and Littlefield, 1990).
Molotov arrived at the White House: Goodwin, No Ordinary Time, 344; Forrest C. Pogue, George C. Marshall: Ordeal and Hope (Viking, 1966), 328.
Machination now followed: I’ve drawn upon Perry, Partners in Command, 97.
Roosevelt and Churchill . . . at Hyde Park: See Pogue, George C. Marshall: Ordeal and Hope, 323; Perry, Partners in Command, 99, on which I’ve relied.
Tobruk . . . had fallen: For this fascinating episode, when Churchill was despondent—not unlike Roosevelt in private after Pearl Harbor—see Perry, Partners in Command, 100; Goodwin, No Ordinary Time, 347; Jon Meacham, Franklin and Winston (Random House, 2003); Winston S. Churchill, The Hinge of Fate (Houghton Mifflin, 1950), 280–88, 343.
“What can we do to help?”: Roosevelt’s reaction was no doubt instinctive; see Goodwin, No Ordinary Time, 347–48; Consult also Hadley Cantril, “Evaluating the Probable Reactions to the Landing in North Africa in 1942: A Case Study,” Public Opinion Quarterly, Fall 1965, 400–10.
A jubilant Churchill: “Here is the true” and other quotes. Goodwin, No Ordinary Time, 348. For Stalin’s misgivings on political aspects of Torch, see Robert E. Sherwood, Roosevelt and Hopkins (Harper, 1948), 618.
“the blackest day”: Captain Harry Butcher, My Three Years with Eisenhower: The Personal Diary of Captain Harry C. Butcher, 1942–1945 (Simon & Schuster, 1946), 29.
“we had only weeks”: Dwight D. Eisenhower, Crusade in Europe (Doubleday, 1948), 72.
“secret baby”: See Henry Stimson’s diary, June 21, 1942, Yale University. “We failed to see”: Eric Larrabee, Chief Franklin Delano Roosevelt, His Lieutenants, and Their War (Harper and Row, 1987), 9; MacGregor Burns, Soldier of Freedom, 288–89; Goodwin, No Ordinary Time, 349. For more on the background of the invasion, see William L. Langer, Our Vichy Gamble (Knopf, 1947).
“I feel very strongly”: MacGregor Burns, Soldier of Freedom, 289–90. On this issue in 1942, Roosevelt was far ahead of his advisers, who didn’t appreciate the importance of the morale of the American public. Roosevelt knew U.S. troops had to be
“in the night, all cats are gray”: MacGregor Burns, Soldier of Freedom, 289–90.
CHAPTER 9
Eduard Schulte was German: This chapter draws very heavily upon the extremely important but often overlooked book about Eduard Schulte by two extremely important Holocaust scholars: Walter Laqueur and Richard Breitman, Breaking the Silence: The German Who Exposed the Final Solution (Brandeis University Press, 1994), hereafter cited as Breaking the Silence. These authors have gone to great lengths to reconstruct Schulte’s life under the Nazi regime and have produced an outstanding work of scholarship. Biographical material here is from Breaking the Silence, 18–37. There is also a significant article, James M. Markham, “An Unsung Good German: ‘Fame’ Comes at Last,” New York Times, November 9, 1983. Breitman generously read chapter 9 and made detailed comments, for which I am grateful.
alarms were everywhere: Breaking the Silence, 41, for Schulte’s personal views, which provide a rare insight into the thoughts of an opponent of the Nazi regime. For more on the Night of the Long Knives, see Anthony Read, The Devil’s Disciples (Norton, 2004), 345–74; and Kershaw, Hitler, 309–16. For background on Schulte, religion, family life, marriage, early reaction to Hitler, see Breaking the Silence, 18–37.
“gangsters”: Breaking the Silence, 37–51. On Hitler’s foreign policy, to which Schulte was also reacting, see Gerard Weinberg, The Foreign Policy of Hitler’s Germany: Starting World War II, 1937–1939 (University of Chicago Press, 1980), 313–27. For the German military’s surprising attitude toward Hitler in the 1930s, see Peter Hoffman, The History of the German Resistance, 1933–1945 (McGill-Queens University Press, 1996).
invited to . . . an extraordinary meeting: For Schulte’s perspective, see Breaking the Silence, 41. Details of this meeting between Hitler and the industrialists can also be found in William Manchester, Winston Spencer Churchill: The Last Lion, Alone, 1932–1944 (Delta, 1988), 62–65.
with Julius Schloss, an old friend: Here I have relied extensively on Breaking the Silence, 55.
Otto Fitzner: Ibid., 68–69.
talk was still a common currency: For example, ibid., 59, 104.
riffling through a newspaper: Ibid., 12.
visiting “Auschwitz”: For background on Himmler and on Auschwitz, see Read, Devil’s Disciples, 86, 757; also Sybille Steinbacher, Auschwitz: A History (Harper Perennial, 2005), 11.
“be proud of”: See Read, Devil’s Disciples, 179–80.
“hereditary health”: Ibid., 179. See also Martin Gilbert, The Holocaust (Holt, 1985), 387, for Himmler’s July 19 directive to resettle the Jews.
For Himmler, in the early weeks: Gilbert, Holocaust, 373.
Treated like a visiting head of state: The best treatment of Himmler coming to Auschwitz can be found in Rudolf Vrba, I Escaped from Auschwitz (Barricade, 2002), 3, 5.
watched the complete process of gassing: Ibid., 6; for this paragraph I have also relied heavily on Read, Devil’s Disciples, 757–59.
“best sparkling form”: Read, Devil’s Disciples, 758. See also Breaking the Silence.
boarded the train at Breslau: Schulte’s harrowing train ride into Switzerland. For these exquisite details I’ve drawn extensively from Breaking the Silence, 117–18.
“there were problems”: Ibid., 123.
“life and death”: Ibid., 122–24. Here, in miniature, one can see even Jews wrestling with the dimensions and ghastly details of the Final Solution. Schulte’s contact was Isidor Koppelmann, the right-hand man of a close business associate of Schulte’s. For more on Sagalowitz, his papers are at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem.
“I’ve received information”: Breaking the Silence, 129.
“May I quote him”: Ibid.
Was this just propaganda: Ibid., 131. Many people were seduced by the notion that the atrocities were figments of the imagination or wild propaganda, akin to the stories that had been rampant during World War I; see Walter Laqueur, The Terrible Secret: Suppression of the Truth About Hitler’s “Final Solution” (Holt, 1988), especially 171–83.
talked for five hours over lunch: These exquisite details of the extended lunch in Breaking the Silence, 137, on which I’ve heavily relied.
he decided to approach: Ibid., 139.
met with the vice consul: Martin Gilbert, Auschwitz and the Allies (Holt, 1981), 57; Gilbert, like Breitman, had the benefit of directly interviewing Riegner. Details about Schulte in Breslau are found in Breaking the Silence.
“great agitation”: Quotations from Elting’s summary of the meeting, in David S. Wyman, The Abandonment of the Jews: America and the Holocaust, 1941–1945 (New Press, 1984), 43. Wyman’s book, one of the most significant works on this subject, is deeply critical of Roosevelt. Notably, Wyman himself is not Jewish, and no study of the subject can discount the rigor of his scholarship.
“personal opinion”: Breaking the Silence, 148.
“war rumors inspired by fear”: Ibid., 149.
Riegner’s telegram wound up: I have drawn from the assessment in Wyman, Abandonment, 44.
CHAPTER 10
“if the Rabbi”: From David S. Wyman, The Abandonment of the Jews (New Press, 1984), 43–44. For more on this pivotal figure, see Stephen Wise, Challenging Years: The Autobiography of Stephen Wise (East and West Library, 1949); Carl Herman Voss, ed., Stephen S. Wise: Servant of the People (Jewish Society, 1969); Melvin Urofsky, A Voice That Spoke for Justice: The Life and Times of Stephen S. Wise (State University of New York Press, 1982).
“to third parties”: Martin Gilbert, Auschwitz and the Allies (Holt, 1981), 58–59. Beyond ideology and sentiments about the Middle East and Jews, one benign explanation of the State Department’s behavior is bureaucratic politics; see the classic work on the bureaucracy in action, Graham Allison, Essence of Decision: Explaining the Cuban Missile Crisis (Pearson, 1999). Another possible explanation is groupthink; see Irving Janis, Groupthink: Psychological Studies of Foreign-Policy Decisions and Fiascoes (Houghton Mifflin, 1983).
“He re-won my”: Wyman, 69, Abandonment, for quotations, Wise’s background and trust in Roosevelt.
Charlie Chaplin: This paragraph benefits from William Manchester, Winston Spencer Churchill: The Last Lion (Delta, 1988), 63.
deemed Riegner a scholar of “entire reliability”: From Wyman, Abandonment, 45, on which I lean heavily here. See also Benjamin Wells, Sumner Welles: FDR’s Global Strategist (St. Martin’s 1997).
than from Cordell Hull: For more see Cordell Hull, The Memoirs of Cordell Hull (Macmillan 1948); Harold Hinton, Cordell Hull: A Biography (Doubleday, 2008); For their interaction, see Irwin F. Gelman, Secret Affairs: FDR, Cordell Hull and Sumner Welles (Enigma, 2003); Walter Isaacson and Evan Thomas, The Wise Men: Six Friends and the World They Made (Simon & Schuster), 1986.
“great uneasiness and apprehension”: Manchester, The Last Lion, 87.
That same year: This paragraph is drawn from the remarkable story by Erik Larsen, In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler’s Berlin (Crown, 2012), 241, 32, 17.
Fatefully, Wise relented: See Breaking the Silence, 153 for this and the quotation from the State Department.
“I am almost demented”: Voss, Stephen S. Wise: Servant of the People, 248–50; Justine Polier and James W. Wise, eds., The Personal Letters of Stephen Wise: 1933–1949 (Beacon Press 1956), 260–1. This passage also follows Wyman, Abandonment, 45–46. It’s important to emphasize that by this stage virtually all the Jewish leaders in America understood that the extermination of the Jews was under way, a point Wyman makes. By contrast, Walter Laqueur, in The Terrible Secret (Holt, 1988), suggests that American Jewish leaders were very slow to believe systematic extermination was taking place. Both explanations have elements of truth to them, but Wyman is more compelling.
“Only energetical steps”: From Breaking the Silence, 46. It’s imp
The dimensions of the threat: Ibid., 155.
Wise had a full schedule: Ibid., 154–55, for these paragraphs; also Wyman, Abandonment, 48.
“fearful retribution”: See Robert N. Rosen, Saving the Jews: Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Holocaust (Thunder’s Mouth, 2006), 237–38.
The killing and dying continued: For quotations and the meeting with Harrison, see Wyman, Abandonment, 47; Breaking the Silence, 157.
handed Harrison a sealed envelope: The contents of the understated yet traumatic note can be found in Breaking the Silence, 158.
Where were all the Jews: National Jewish Monthly, October 1942, 36–37. See also Wyman, Abandonment, and 48–49; New York Times, October 30, 1942. Clearly, by this stage the pieces of the puzzle about the disappearing Jews and the Holocaust were falling into place.
“My comrades”: From text of the September 30, 1942, Winter Relief Campaign speech. Details on Hitler’s routine can be found throughout Kershaw, Hitler.
“special camps”: Wyman, Abandonment, 52, on which I extensively draw.
“to great crematoriums”: New York Times, November 25, 1942, A10. It is said that nothing was known about Auschwitz, but this dispatch from Jerusalem specifically mentioned it, using the name “Oswiecim.” Government officials had only to read the newspaper. For statistics of Jews killed in the previous twelve months, see Martin Gilbert, The Second World War (Holt Paperbacks, 2004), 386; see also Gerard Weinberg, Germany, Hitler and World War II (Cambridge University, 1966), 218.
“Himmler Program Kills”: New York Times, November 25, 1942, A10.
On December 2: Details from New York Herald Tribune, November 25, 1942, 1. For more on the Day of Mourning and Prayer, see Doris Kearns Goodwin, No Ordinary Time (Simon & Schuster, 1994), 396; and Wyman, Abandonment, 71.
“The question of”: Willi A. Boelcki, ed., Secret Conferences of Doctor Joseph Goebbels: The Nazi Propaganda War, 1939–1943 (Dutton, 1970), 240; see also Goodwin, No Ordinary Time, 397.