The Holocaust Diaries: Book V
The Innocence of the Just
by
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"I can't begin to tell you how much this angers me, Stephen."
Roosevelt waved the Protocols and a cable from Geneva, from McClelland, in front of his face. It contained a situation report on Hungary and a letter from Moshe Krausz, the executive secretary for the Jewish Agency in Palestine. He manned the Budapest office.
"Horthy is in for the blast of his life."
"Do it soon, Franklin," Morgenthau cried. "These Protocols -- I've never read anything more horrific. And Krausz's letter and Mac's report -- how much more verification do we need?"
"Is later tonight soon enough?" Roosevelt smiled.
"Perfect.
"We'll send them right to Berne, right to Dulles. He'll then forward them on to Charlie Lutz at the Swiss embassy in Budapest. Our new channel. He and Krausz will make certain that Horthy receives them first thing in the morning, if he hasn't already."
"Tittmann should also get a copy of Krausz's letter and deliver it to Pius and Maglione," said John Pehle. "It's time for the both of them to act as well."
"Agreed. Of all the items and reports and stories we've received from McClelland and Dulles," Morgenthau declared, "or from Gisi and Weissmandel, or from Riegner or the Vatican, these Protocols and this letter hit home. It hurts so much that it tears at my heart."
"It'll do more than that when I'm through with it tomorrow," Roosevelt said coldly.
"The bombing proposals, Franklin?" Stettinius asked, though he already knew the answer.
"Yes. You're damn right! Now that we're able to reach them -- the rail lines, the rail yards, oil refineries, factories, the neighborhoods in and around Budapest -- the suburbs. We'll saturate them all."
"Good. Horthy's got to exert himself. He's got to put his foot down. Motivate his loyalists and his military. They could make a real difference," offered Morgenthau. "There's too much to lose in Budapest. So many of our people that can still be saved, and saved only by him."
"And by us, Henry," Rabbi Wise added. "By Franklin. This -- "
Morgenthau held up Krausz's letter. "This -- is criminal." He began to read aloud. "'Between May 15 and June 19, 430,000 Hungarian Jews have been deported from the eastern sectors of Hungary to Birkenau, to Auschwitz. Another 350,000 are now assembled in Budapest awaiting a similar fate. They're next.' Four crematoriums, he says, can handle up to eight thousand persons a day. This letter, these Protocols -- what an indictment -- what a goddamn -- "
"Read Mac's report, too, Henry," snapped Wise.
Morgenthau took the cable from Roosevelt.
"'Now, there is no doubt that the majority of the Jewish population east of the Danube especially in eastern, northern, and north eastern Hungary has been deported to Poland.' He cites a Swiss official who just returned from Budapest, Czech railway workers, and other secret sources as confirming this information.
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About the Book
Book Five
THE INNOCENCE OF THE JUST
The Holocaust in Hungary and Slovakia during World
War II
In 1944, Hitler refuses to abandon his plans to deport the last remaining, huge concentration of Jews in Europe. Over one million Jews live relatively untouched in Hungary. He calls for the renovation and enlargement of the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland. It's only at this time that Roosevelt and the rest of the world learn the truth about Auschwitz and the extermination camps of Poland. To bomb the camps then becomes a grave issue.
Discovering also from these covert reports that Heinrich Himmler, Hitler’s second-in-command and head of the SS, is willing to secretly negotiate with Roosevelt to end the war, Roosevelt sees the opportunity to preserve even more of the Jews in Europe. He decides to use them as his bargaining chip and sole condition for opening negotiations with Himmler.
In the meantime, under the guise of needing a hundred thousand able-bodied Hungarian laborers and their families for the war effort back in Germany, Hitler hoodwinks the elderly Regent of Hungary, Miklos Horthy, and overseas a swift occupation of Hungary in March of 1944 by his Wehrmacht. Over four hundred thousand Jews are deported to Auschwitz in less than two months time by Adolf Eichmann's SS and the newly-installed, pro-Nazi and pro-German quisling Hungarian government and its thousands of rightist police. When Horthy learns the truth about Auschwitz and receives pressure from Roosevelt and the Vatican, he re-exerts his authority and halts the deportations.
After an assassination attempt on Hitler in July of 1944, Himmler is encouraged by his associates to also exert his authority and approach Roosevelt's representatives in Switzerland to initiate serious negotiations to bring about a separate peace and an end to the persecution of the Jews.
; Leo V. Kanawada, Jr.
About the Author
Dr. Leo V. Kanawada, Jr. was born in 1941 in Flushing, Long Island, New York, and educated at Bucknell University, where he received his Bachelor of Science Degree in Secondary Education. His Masters of Arts Degree in American History was awarded by The Maxwell School at Syracuse University, and his Ph.D. in History by St. John's University, Jamaica, New York.
After serving as a decorated captain of Infantry, United States Army, with the Second Infantry Division in 1966 in South Korea and in the Vietnam War in 1967 with the 71st Assault Helicopter Company and as a platoon leader with the 196th Light Infantry Brigade, Americal Division, Kanawada returned to his hometown and taught in the Hicksville Public Schools for thirty years. In the Department of History at Hicksville High School, he created and taught a Humanities Honors Program for the Gifted and Talented and was later honored and inducted into the Hicksville Hall of Fame. He was also cited in Who's Who in New York, in Who's Who Among America's Teachers, and in the Directory of American Scholars.
His first book, authored in 1982, was a scholarly work on the presidency and American foreign policy entitled FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT'S DIPLOMACY and American Catholics, Italians, and Jews (UMI Research Press/Pro Quest). And later as an elder and president of his Church, he published SOMETHING WORTHWHILE: The Life and Times of The Parkway Community Church, 1628-1981 (Exposition Press). The five volumes in THE HOLOCAUST DIARIES (AuthorHouse) were a labor of love, realized after more than a decade of research, writing, and devotion.
Lee Kanawada lives with his wife, Carol, in Long Island, New York.