Sir Martin Gilbert Responds

Sir Martin Gilbert was kind enough to respond to challenges posed by FailedMessiah.com readers, including DovBear. With his permission, his response:

One of your readers writes to you (entirely erroneously in my view):

"Churchill knew about the dangers the Jewish people
faced, and even gave speeches about it, well before
WWII officially started. However, once the war
started, rescuing Jews was not a priority of his, and he did hardly or nothing to help. His five volume history of the war barely mentions
the Holocaust and does not record any effort by England
to help the Jews.

Your correspondent adds:

"Which is sad, not only for those who may have been
saved and were not, but because Churchill otherwise
has an overwhelmingly favorable WWII resume. Also
note that Churchill was saved from financial
ruin before the war by a Jewish financier who
realized
that Churchill was needed."

Your correspondent ends:

"It is impossible that Churchill did not know what
was going on...."

All the above points are dealt with in detail in my
forthcoming book, Churchill and the Jews, which will, hopefully, be
published during the Fall or Winter of 2007: by Holt
in the USA, and by Simon and Schuster in the Britain, as well as by
McLelland and Stewart in Canada.

Incidentally, Sir Henry Strakosch, Churchill's
financier in 1938 was not Jewish!
…

I feel that my American Spectator review answers the
other questions posed about Pope Pius XII, in so
far as those questions are dealt with in my review - as
most of them are.

You can read Sir Martin Gilbert's review of Rabbi David Dalin's book by puchasing the American Spectator at your local newsstand or by reading it in your local public library.

Comments

I am the commentor to whom Sir Martin Gilbert so graciously took the time to respond. I, of course, am duly flattered.

I will respond in s few days to his comments. I believe that my comments, including the one about Churchill's financier being Jewish, were adequately sourced, even if it turns out I am incorrect about the religion of his financier. I wrote, however, from memory, which can always be tricky; so I will go back to my sources and see how well my memory worked.

This is the followup.

(1) William Manchester, in The Last Lion, Vol II, implies, but does not explicitly state, that Sir Henry Strakosch was Jewish.

(2) Sir Martin Gilbert's book, Auschwitz and the Allies, influenced my view of Churchill. Read it and judge for yourself.

(3) Look at the index of Chuchill's five volume book of WWII and see for yourself how much deals with Jews or what we now know as the Holocaust.