Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Pop Quiz: September 25, 1944

The year is 1944. World War II rages in Europe. The atrocities of Nazi Germany's genocide against the Jews is becoming apparent. Columbia University invites Germany's elected leader Adolph Hitler to speak.

The Hindenburg II Zeppelin arrives in NJ...

What do you do?

1. Go to the massive demonstration outside Columbia University, demanding that Hitler not be given a voice.

2. Attend Hitler's speech at Columbia so you can heckle him.

3. Get a group of influential, wealthy people together, and try to secure the safe passage for some Jews through back room negotiating with Hitler and a large payoff.

4. Find a small group of militant activists, and attempt to kill Hitler while on US soil (or give money to such a group).

5. Other Suggestions?




Wherever I am, my blog turns towards Eretz Yisrael

13 comments:

haKiruv said...

Paroh comes to my mind.

haKiruv said...

I'm not sure if anyone reported this, but Holy Hyrax asked Ahmadinejad if he was in the Skull and Bones Society with George Bush, but the microphone was cut-off. HH was then thrown to the ground by security personel and tazed.

Er wait...maybe that was last week. :-P

The back of the hill said...

Does 'heckle' include bullets?

If not, then all of the other options. ALL of the other options.

Anonymous said...

I'm #4 in the group of millitiants! I have the guns too! it sure as heck is worth the jail time... I mean nosair got like 2? years in jail for killing kahane!

Erica said...

Oh, this is easy: Don't give him a voice AND kill him. It's good for the Joos.

Daniel said...

"massive demonstration outside Columbia University"

LOL! I wish, but considering the lack of demonstrations by american Jewry outside of the Bergsonites, maybe only 5 people would show up and half would be righteaous gentiles. American Jewish history so far is not so much to be proud of.

Daniel said...

we could also ask the NYT to condemn him, but they may refuse on the account of not seeming too"jewish " a paper- have to suck up to the gentile machateinim ,you know

Anonymous said...

Daniel,
a NYT condemnation would do nada, its kind of like a UN condemnation...;)

Given the chance, i'd have killed him no problem..

Imagine your grandfather telling you "well boychik, I had this perfect shot at hitler but I got cold feet and was scared of the jail time"

This is when I miss Rav Kahane hy'd..

There would be no demonstrations in front of columbia.. thats because there would be no speech.. in fact there would be no colombia left either!!

Rav Kahane would have taken the streets with JDL guys and instilled the fear of g-d into the iranians...

I think his book "never again" should have started with a fictional acount of hitler visiting new york...

A Simple Jew said...

4

Daniel said...

Elchanan,
I agree with you, but rav Kahane became a force 30 years post Hitler.
American Jew during Hitler were too busy having gentile grandkids and worshipping FDR to have cared.

Kibi said...

Sorry, I know, Ahmadinejad bad, four-legs good etc etc, but he hasn't actually committed any atrocities yet has he?
It's more like (if we must refer to Nazis) Hitler in 1938 coming to visit Columbia. And to be honest, with hindsight people can be very clever, but even the Jews in Germany didn't believe the Holocaust would happen in 1938.
I sincerely doubt that it was done on purpose, but giving the guy a platform to speak did, in fact, show the world what a dangerous loon he is. On the whole I think it was better he spoke than if he arrived and didn't speak, or was something like shot. Ahmadinejad is certainly not the main problem we have with Iran, and killing him would help no-one. What is needed is the US government to work on regime change in Iran, and to push that you need a groundswell of public opinion ....just like the one which came after the Columbian performance.

Ye'he Sh'mey Raba Mevorach said...

Sorry Kibi, I cannot totally agree.
The US cannot truly create a regime change in a islamic country because the US State Department makes the basic assumption that the Arab/Islamic mind has the same value system as the Western one does. The people of Iraq are not happy to the have the US there, despite most of them (perhaps) being thrilled to be rid of Saddam. As long as people are quoting Rav Kahane, I remember him saying that the Arabs could not be happy with the Jews turning the Palestinian (preState) desert into an Israeli garden, because it was THEIR desert, and OUR garden. The Iraqis want Iraq for themselves. They do not want to become another Puerto Rico. A US-based regime in Iran will not be any more successful. The Shah is not coming back.

mnuez said...

Without allowing for any parallels to be drawn to any situation today, I would say that of the four choices offered, the Fourth Choice would likely be the best idea.

Then again, I say that based on the reality of how things actually were at that time which requires that I point out two things:

1) Nothing was "becoming apparant" at the tail end of 1944. The Germans' rampant murder of millions of Jews was a widely reported fact (in articles and advertisements, etc.) in every large paper in the United States as far back as 1942 - and people "in the know" (a.k.a. government officials, Jews, etc.) were well aware of the basic facts of the massacres even earlier.

2) The hypothetical that you offer comes to us out of some parallel universe where Hitler would be allowed into the country to speak at a University. That was not the case at that time. Remotely.

For that to have actually been the case, a whole host of facts would have to have been differenet, some of which would likely have impacted my choice from among the multiple offered.

Dunno the purpose of this thought experiment (and playing dumb with regards to the mention of Columbia) but I answered based on the theoretics provided and my knowledge of the facts at the time.

Cheers ~

mnuez
www.mnuez.blogspot.com

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