The part about Bergson, aka Hillel Kook, & the rest of the "activists" being Revisionist Z.s, &
Irgunistas.
People & Events
The "Bergson Boys" On the morning of November 25, 1942, a small but shocking article in "The Washington Post" grabbed the attention of Peter Bergson, a young Jewish Palestinian who was staying in Washington, D.C. The headline read "Two Million Jews Slain." The story went on to explain that World Jewish Congress Chairman Rabbi Stephen Wise had confirmation from the State Department that the Nazis were planning to annihilate the entire Jewish population of Europe. The 32-year-old reader was not only dismayed at the content of the article, he was also extremely distressed that it had been buried on page six of the paper. It made such an impact on him that it would drastically change his mission in the United States, making him take a course of action that would ultimately play a decisive role in President Roosevelt's decision to create a government agency devoted to saving Jews.
Bergson and a handful of other young Palestinian Jews associated with the Zionist, right-wing Irgun organization had arrived in the United States in 1940 hoping to create a Jewish Army. This separate Jewish fighting force, made up of Palestinian Jews, stateless Jewish refugees, and Jews from non-belligerent nations, would fight alongside other Allied armies under supreme Allied command. "JEWS FIGHT FOR THE RIGHT TO FIGHT" ran one of their "New York Times" advertisements at the beginning of 1942. But reading about the horrifying news from Europe, Bergson changed his focus: now the rescue of Europe's Jews became his top priority.
Almost immediately, Bergson and his followers' unorthodox methods caught the attention of the public and caused tension within the Jewish community. In response to a report that the Rumanian government was prepared to ship 70,000 Jews to a safe haven as long as the Allies covered the expenses, the Bergson group took out an attention-grabbing advertisement. Under the shocking headline FOR SALE TO HUMANITY 70,000 JEWS, GUARANTEED HUMAN BEINGS AT $50 A PIECE, the group demanded that the Allied countries "immediately appoint an inter-governmental committee" to devise plans to end the Holocaust. The established American Jewish leadership, Zionists included, was horrified: they accused the "Bergson Boys", as the young men were known, of sensationalism and recklessness; and they argued the foreigners had no mandate to speak for American Jews.
Bergson and his followers remained undeterred. On March 9, 1943, with the help of the renowned scriptwriter Ben Hecht, they mounted a huge pageant in New York City's Madison Square Garden called "We Will Never Die." The performance was dedicated to the 2,000,000 European Jews who had already been murdered. Forty thousand people saw the pageant that first night. It went on to play in five other major cities. When the drama came to Washington, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, six Supreme Court Justices and some 300 senators and congressmen watched it.
Despite the number of people who saw the pageant, it failed to make any difference to U.S. policy. At the end of April it became clear that the closed-door Bermuda Conference, called to consider the plight of Jews in Europe, had failed to adopt any concrete measures to help the primary victim's of Nazi atrocities. In response, and in complete disregard of the advice of more mainstream Jewish activists, the Bergson group took out a full-page advertisement in the "New York Times" calling the conference a "cruel mockery" of the millions of Jews caught in the "Nazi death trap." The U.S. government's continuing inaction convinced the group that they needed to step up both their propaganda campaign and their lobbying efforts on Capitol Hill. In July of 1943 they co-sponsored a six-day conference that took place in New York City. Fifteen hundred people took part, some of them influential non-Jews like New York Mayor Fiorello La Guardia. At the conclusion of the meeting, participants formed the Emergency Committee which was charged with launching a national publicity campaign and lobbying Congress to create an independent agency devoted to saving Jews.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/holocaust/peopleevents/pandeAMEX88.html ___________________________
The "Bergson Boys" And the Origins of Contemporary Zionist Militancy
Book Description
Tells the remarkable story of six young men and the organizations they founded between 1939 and 1948 that would set the stage for the militant Zionist activism of today.
During and shortly after the Second World War, six young men-emissaries of the revisionist-Zionist "Irgun" military movement in Palestine - revolutionized the American - Jewish and Zionist scene. Judith Tydor Baumel provides the complete story of the role the Bergson group played in raising American public consciousness of Jewish and Zionist concerns. After founding a series of pro-Zionist and rescue organizations, they initiated a new form of fundraising that used the media to turn the spotlight on their activities, gaining adherents and supporters from both ends of the political and social spectrum. Long before the protest movements of the 1950s and 1960s, members of this group learned the art of courting the media in order to bring word of their existence to every part of the United States.
Having energized politicians, gangsters, Hollywood moguls, and ultra- Orthodox rabbis, the handful of young men taught other Zionist and American- Jewish groups not only how the media was the message but how it could and should be used. A guiding force behind the creation of the War Refugee Board, the group served as a beacon for contemporary Zionist militancy while ultimately laying the groundwork for other organizations to utilize the media in future political campaigns.
http://www.amazon.com/Bergson-Origins-Contemporary-Zionist-Militancy/dp/0815630638
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