Kielce Pogrom Clue Giladi

Ben-Gurion’s Scandals: How the Haganah and the Mossad Eliminated Jews, by Naeim Giladi. 2006

Did David Ben Gurion Ignore Polish Warnings on Doomed Jews? The Kielce Pogrom: Part of a Larger Terrorize-the-Jews Communist-Zionist Program?

Naeim Giladi presents a variety of information on the conduct of David Ben Gurion, and this review focuses on Ben Gurion’s reaction to Nazi Germany. Just before WWII, the Zionists and Nazis were in an unsavory relationship. Ben Gurion is accused of: “Favoring the transfer agreement between the Zionist Organization and the government of Nazi Germany and selling German goods despite the decision by world Jews to boycott these goods.” (p. 15).

EARLY REPORTS–FROM GERMAN-OCCUPIED POLAND–FROM THE POLISH UNDERGROUND

Giladi’s book sheds light on the early news of the systematic murder of Jews by the Germans. He tabulates these reports (pp. 37-39), which begin with October 1941. The first listed report that places the Jewish death toll in the millions comes from a Polish source: “On 19 November 1941 there was a detailed account by the head of the British diplomatic mission in Switzerland, by Alexander Vadus, the Polish diplomatic representative in Bern. The report said that up to that point a million and a half Jews were murdered.” (p. 37).

As a matter of fact, Giladi has high praise of Polish sources for their warnings about the extermination of Jews conducted by Germans in German-occupied Poland: “Most of the information was received from Jewish agencies, but the most up-to-date information came from the Polish government in exile, located in London.” (p. 33).

In contrast, David Engel has criticized the Polish government-in-exile for allegedly being slow and low-keyed in publicizing the extermination of Polish Jews, and then doing so only within the context of other wartime events (all because of ulterior motives). It is therefore interesting to note that, regardless of the merits or otherwise of Engel’s contentions, comparable accusations can be made against Jewish leaders. Giladi charges David Ben Gurion with: “Concealing and covering up information about German atrocities against European Jews.” (p. 15). Giladi elaborates on Ben Gurion’s belated reaction to these events: “But not a single word about the slaughter of European Jews or about plans to save European refugees…Why then was no action taken, no debate on the Holocaust and no rescue operations took place in that conference called BILTMORE?” (pp. 44-45).

JEWISH CRIMES AGAINST THE CIVILIAN PALESTINIAN POPULATION

Soon after the establishment of the State of Israel, Israeli forces engaged in atrocities against local Arabs. The best known of these is the Deir Yassin massacre, which Giladi describes as follows: “On April 9th, the Irgun and Stern Gang forces, with the support and blessing of Hagana carried out a horrendous massacre in the Arab village of Deir Yassin (a small village near Jerusalem, most of whose residents earned a living collecting mountain stones for Jewish contractors and were on good terms with the Jews of Jerusalem. There was a non-aggression agreement between the leader of the village and the Hagana headquarters). The victims were brutalized. The pictures of the massacre of the disemboweled victims were printed in the Egyptian and Iraqi press, and this sufficed for the above sought-after purposes. The atmosphere became highly charged and hostility towards the Jews mounted daily.” (p. 123).

FAKE ZIONIST-MADE SCARES AGAINST JEWS? IMPLICATIONS FOR THE SO-CALLED KIELCE POGROM

Giladi alleges that many post-WWII bomb-plantings, directed at concentrations of Diaspora Jews in the Middle East, were made by Israeli agents; all for the purpose of making the world seem an unsafe place for Jews anywhere but Israel. He quotes an Iraqi Jewish source as follows: “Because the registration to emigrate died down, they want to scare the Jews so they hurry up and register, who could that be? Only members of the Movement, they prod us to leave Iraq no less than anti-Semites and agents of the government. They are in an embarrassing position after the scandal about the registration to emigrate. I am unable to believe that a Jew would toss a bomb at another Jew. But they have a job to do and they must complete it and they may be feeling that failure looms ahead.” (p. 243).

Unfortunately, Giladi does not develop his thesis fully. A similar drive existed to scare the Holocaust-surviving Jews into leaving Soviet-occupied Europe for Palestine. This drive was conducted by the Communists, who at that time were supporting the creation of the State of Israel. One of the Communist tactics was to stage a series of violent acts against eastern European Jews, the best-known of which came to be known as the (so-called) Kielce pogrom.