The Role Of Neutrals During The Holocaust, And The Survival Of Jewish Communties In Eastern Europe And The Former Soviet Union

American Jewish Committee
Thursday, 4 June 1998

In testimony today before the U.S. House Committee on Banking and Financial Services on "Neutrality and the Holocaust," an American Jewish Committee leader spoke of the miracle not only of individual Jewish survivors of the Holocaust but of the survival and growth of European Jewish communities brought almost to extinction during World War II.

Rabbi Andrew Baker, AJC Director of European Affairs, took part in a panel discussion following a presentation by U.S. Under Secretary of State Stuart Eizenstat on the just-released U.S. Government report of the trade relationships of neutral nations with Nazi Germany during World War II.

Rabbi Baker noted that it might seem unusual, "even counter-intuitive," that there should be such intense interest in the events of the Holocaust and its aftermath more than 50 years later.

"One might have expected," he said, "that half a century would have relegated this subject to a small circle of historians and archivists, to the academic equivalent of the sepia-toned photos that provide us with documentary evidence. Rather, it is quite the opposite: the attention and urgency today are far greater than they were in the years immediately after the War's end. Perhaps we sense the imminent closing of this century along with the passing of a generation that experienced these horrors firsthand, and we feel the need to bring closure to this sad and awful chapter in human history. Thus, we have undertaken to close the gaps in our knowledge of history, to tally the accounts of stolen goods, and to provide restitution and compensation to those who suffered. In short, we want to complete the unfinished business of the Holocaust."

Speaking of the decades-long efforts to bring to justice the criminals of the Third Reich, Rabbi Baker added that what is equally disturbing today is trying to understand the behavior of the hundreds of thousands of ordinary people -- "neutrals" -- who also bore responsibility for what took place.

"Sadly, the vast majority of ordinary people during the Holocaust were bystanders or beneficiaries, or passive participants -- or even, when pressured, active participants -- in the crimes of the Holocaust. Ironically now, all these decades later, it is their stories which we are examining."

Rabbi Baker further noted that slowly, some governments around the world are beginning to take public responsibility for the actions or inactions of their countries during and after World War II, with a few, most recently the three Baltic nations, seeking to set up historical commissions to investigate the Holocaust and Soviet-era periods.

"The current discussions about the role of neutral countries during the Holocaust demonstrates how difficult it has been even for Western societies to come to terms with their past. This is also evident in the long overdue declarations by the Austrian government admitting its responsibility for the crimes of the Nazis and by the French president acknowledging his nations' obligations for the actions of the Vichy regime. But if this so in the West, it is even more problematic in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, where public discussion was not even possible until the fall of Communism."

In conclusion, Rabbi Baker stated: "It has often been said, and correctly so, that the efforts being undertaken by Under Secretary Eizenstat, by this Committee and by its counterpart in the Senate, are intended to bring some measure of justice and compensation to those needy Holocaust survivors who are still alive today. It is remarkable that they have endured, and we must do all that we can for them while they are still among us and we have this opportunity.

"But travel today through Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union and you will see another survivor, equally remarkable -- not just Jews, but Jewish communities. They may be only a shadow or remnant or distant echo of what was once a large and vibrant center of Jewish life. But while it may not be the same, while it can never be the same, they still have life, too. And like grass between the concrete they are growing against all odds. But these reviving Jewish communities need help. They will benefit from the their societies' critical confrontations with the past. They must benefit from the restitution of at least a portion of the prewar communal properties and assets -- to rebuild and become self-sufficient. More and more buildings will be refurbished and, on at least a few of those newly-renovated door posts, there will be mezuzzot, a living reminder that Jewish life endures."

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