By Gerard Leval
As the armies of Nazi Germany swept across Europe, they frequently sought to organize local Jewish communities, setting up councils led by Jewish elders to oversee those communities.
Jews, often acting in good faith, took positions with these organizations, sometimes referred to as Judenrats. They did so in the bona fide belief that they could help their co-religionists in a time of extreme difficulty.
As I was growing up in France a mere decade after the end of the German occupation of France, I heard a great deal about the Judenrat set up in France — the UGIF (the General Union of Israelites in France). I heard about it firsthand. My grandfather, a highly decorated veteran of both World Wars I and II, had joined the UGIF in 1941 upon his return from 13 months in an oflag, a prisoner of war camp in Germany.
Despite his powerful dislike of the German occupier, my grandfather came to believe that, in light of the difficult straits in which the French-Jewish community found itself following France’s military defeat at the hands of the Germans, he could best serve his fellow Jews by working with an organization that seemed intended to provide services to the community.
The fact that the organization had been created by French collaborators of the German occupiers and was taking actions that were increasingly unacceptable and discriminatory did not cause my grandfather to shy away from a service he believed was his duty. An individual of extraordinary rectitude and a powerful sense of honor for whom I have always had the both the highest regard and great affection, he saw his work with the UGIF as a means of providing assistance to his fellow Jews in their moment of desperate need.
Among other things, he, at considerable personal risk, brought food and medical supplies to Jews incarcerated in Drancy, the transit camp outside of Paris that served as an antechamber to Auschwitz.
It is now obvious that the UGIF was hardly a benign organization. Although it did alleviate the suffering of some Jews, regrettably, it also made it easier for the Nazis to round up other Jews and ship them to their deaths. With hindsight and had they had the information about the UGIF that emerged after the end of the war, I know that my grandfather and other French Jews of good will would never have engaged with the UGIF.
The important question is why so many well-intentioned Jews made this error. The answer will likely be found in a fundamental misconception. My grandfather assumed that the Nazis who occupied France were cultured individuals — descendants of Bach and Beethoven, of Goethe and Schiller; that the German military who had defeated the French army were honorable soldiers who would respect the rules of war just as they did. They disregarded the rantings of Hitler, Goebbels and their like as being aberrational.
Effectively, these Jews assumed that the Nazis were nationalists, mistaken in their political philosophy and loyalty, but in all other respects decent people. This miscalculation was made in good faith, but it was a truly unfortunate error of judgment.
I am well aware that historical analogies can be dangerous. However, I also believe that the lessons of history can help us to better understand our own time.
The error that my grandfather and others like him made was a common error. It reflected the very human belief, but a naive and mistaken belief, that the people around us are just like we are, with the same values and concerns that we have.
Today, there are Jews who seem not to have learned the lessons that those who participated with the UGIF and the various Judenrats installed by the Nazis across Europe learned too late. They too believe that, by being generous to the enemies of the Jewish people and extending a conciliatory hand, they might be able placate those enemies and cause them to become more reasonable. Jews, such as those who adhere to J Street, Peace
Now or others of their ilk or even those who choose to publicly proclaim their personal criticism of Israel and its government, may be individuals of goodwill, but they are sadly mistaken in their approach, just as those who worked for or with the UGIF made a well-intentioned, but dreadful error.
Associating, whether by word or deed, with enemies of the Jews, enemies whose ideas on the surface may sometimes appear to coincide with some of our own more liberal American beliefs, can never result in a betterment of the condition of the Jewish people. It can only, as history has so amply demonstrated, provide encouragement to those enemies, who never tire of seeking to harm and even destroy Jews, and who will use every tool at their disposal, including the very words of Jews, to achieve their goal.
In a world of increasing antisemitism, often shrouded in opposition to Israel and its policies, providing any sort of aid and comfort to the enemies of the Jewish community, including in the form of criticism of the policies of the current Israeli government, must be eschewed. The outcome of such actions, which may sometimes seem reasonable from the relative safety of our homes in the United States, may very well look dramatically different in the future, especially, if, as a result, great harm befalls Israel.
Hopefully, the J Street-Peace Now crowd will awaken and cease to assume that those opponents of Israel to whom they provide succor are rational, compassionate and thoughtful people as they may perceive themselves to be. Hopefully, they will awaken in time to avoid being complicit in actions whose consequences they would certainly come
to regret.
Gerard Leval is a partner in the Washington, D.C., office of a national law firm.
