My letter concerns an article you published in History Today
Volume 74 Issue 5 May 2024 entitled. Kapo Trials: How Israel Judged the Jewish
Collaborators by Dan Porat. Porat is clearly a competent historian and has
written extensively on this subject.[1]
Porat is Unterberg Chair in Jewish
Social and Educational History at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. I do not
argue against the main thrust of the article.
What I take issue with is the complete absence of a political
evaluation of the role the Zionists played in the facilitation of the Nazi holocaust.
It is unclear whether it was Porat’s choice or yours to whitewash this historical
episode, as Porat makes clear not all Zionists collaborated with the Nazi
genocide. A section of the Zionist youth
movement carried out a struggle against the fascists. The same cannot be said
about the leadership of the Zionists.
As the Marxist writer David North writes, “ There is no
period of history—before the founding of Israel in 1948—that so thoroughly
exposed the reactionary character of Zionism and its fraudulent claim to
represent the interests of the Jewish people than its conduct during the 1930s.
The extent of the political and commercial dealings of the Nazis and the
Zionists has been extensively documented by historians. Many of the most
important works on this subject have been written by Jewish historians, among
whom the most renowned are Saul Friedlander and Tom Segev.”[2]
It is hoped that Porat’s next article will redress this historical
and political whitewash. I do not hold my breath. I will, therefore, comment on
it further when Porat’s new book is published.
[1]
Bitter Reckoning: Israel Tries Holocaust Survivors as Nazi Collaborators
(Harvard University Press, 2019).
[2] Genocide in Gaza: Imperialism descends into the abyss- https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2023/11/20/jhqc-n20.html
