Author: Martin Gilbert
Quotes of Author: Martin Gilbert
Churchill's views on Zionism were well known. A year later, in an article in the Illustrated Sunday Herald, denouncing those Russian Jews who had taken a leading part in the imposition of Communist rule on Russia, he had called Zionism an 'inspiring movement', telling his readers, 'If, as may well happen there should be created in our own lifetime, by the banks of the Jordan, a Jewish State under the protection of the British Crown, which might comprise three or four millions of Jews, an event will have occurred in the history of the world which would from every point of view be beneficial; and would be especially in harmony with the truest interests of the British Empire. book-quoteWith extraordinary prescience, Churchill then made another point, full of foreboding. 'There is a danger,' he warned, 'of the odious conditions now ruling in Germany being extended by conquest to Poland, and another persecution and pogrom of Jews being begun in this new area.'6 There were six hundred thousand Jews in Germany in 1933, and more than three million in Poland. At a time when most British politicians doubted Germany's aggressive intentions, Churchill's forecast seemed far-fetched. Within ten years it had come to pass. The Nazis, who were assiduously courting Western opinion, were angered by Churchill's speech, especially his censure of their anti-Jewish measures. On 19 April a correspondent of the Birmingham Post reported from Berlin: 'Today newspapers are full with "sharp warnings" for England.' One headline referred to 'Mr Winston Churchill's "impudence"'. book-quoteOn 3 September 1937, as the Jewish leaders debated for and against Partition, Churchill wrote an article in the Jewish Chronicle that came down firmly against. He began, however, with a sympathetic account of Weizmann's desire to accept, reluctantly, the truncated Jewish State. He could 'readily understand', he wrote, Dr Weizmann, and others with him who have borne the burden and heat of the day, and without whose personal effort Zionism would perhaps no longer be a reality, being attracted by the idea of a sovereign Jewish State in Palestine, however small, which would set up for the first time, after ages of dispersion and oppression, a coherent Jewish community and rallying point for Jews in every part of the world.' Instead of constant bickering with British Mandate officials, and annual disputes about the quota of immigrants, there would be 'a responsible Government and independent autonomous State, a member of the League of Nations, to play its part not only in the Holy Land but in world affairs. book-quoteHanfstaengel told Churchill that, as Hitler came each afternoon to that same hotel, 'nothing would be easier' than for the two men to meet. Hanfstaengel hoped that Hitler would join Churchill after dinner. 'I turned up at the appointed hour,' Hanfstaengel recalled. 'Mr Churchill taxed me about Hitler's anti-Semitic views. I tried to give as mild an account of the subject as I could, saying that the real problem was the influx of eastern European Jews and the excessive representation of their co-religionaries in the professions, to which Churchill listened very carefully, commenting, "Tell your boss from me that anti-Semitism may be a good starter, but it is a bad sticker."' On the following day Hanfstaengel made one further effort to persuade Hitler to meet Churchill, but in vain. Two days later the Churchills left Munich. Hitler, Hanfstaengel noted, 'kept away until they had gone. book-quoteChurchill had long been fascinated by Jewish history, by the Jewish involvement with the events of the time, and above all by the Jews' monotheism and ethics. These seemed to him a central factor in the evolution and maintenance of modern civilisation. He published his thoughts about this on 8 November 1931, in an article in the Sunday Chronicle about Moses. Noting that the Biblical story had often been portrayed as myth, Churchill declared: 'We reject, however, with scorn all those learned and laboured myths that Moses was but a legendary figure upon whom the priesthood and the people hung their essential social, moral and religious ordinances. We believe that the most scientific view, the most up-to-date and rationalistic conception, will find its fullest satisfaction in taking the Bible story literally, and in identifying one of the greatest of human beings with the most decisive leap-forward ever discernible in the human story. book-quote
