1976 paper The Secret Contacts: Zionism and Nazi Germany, 1933-1941:
Cooperation with the Nazi Intelligence Services
During the first days of fascist domination in Germany, the Zionists held a direct line to the fascist repression apparatus which developed into loose collaboration between the Zionist leadership and the terror organizations of the Nazi Reich (the Gestapo, SS, etc). Before 1933, the Zionist official, Leo Plaut, already "had a connection" with the political police and with the police official Oberregierungsrat Rudolf Diels (supposedly a schoolfriend of Plaut). When Diels was first appointed chief of the secret police in 1933, he retained his connection with Plaut. "Indeed Plaut even had the secret telephone number of Diels and could call him anytime."58 One can only speculate about the details of these contacts because the documents regarding them are kept under lock and key at the Yad-Vashem archives in Jerusalem. However, it is to be supposed that it was through these contacts that a meeting was arranged between the then Prussian Prime Minister Hermann Goering (later sentenced to death by the Nuremberg International Tribunal as a war criminal) and the leaders of German Jewish organizations. The meeting took place on March 26, 1933. Among the representatives of the Zionists taking part was the official, Kurt Blumenfeld, but he was silent about this episode in his memoirs.59
Such contacts were conducted covertly, but evidence exists pointing to preparations then underway for cooperation between the Zionists and the SS (the organization that dominated the whole police and secret service apparatus of the fascist state). Not long after the takeover of power by the fascists, the paper Der Angriff, published by the chief Nazi propagandists, carried a travel report from Palestine, which presented Zionist colonization in Palestine in positive terms. The report, entitled "A Nazi travels to Palestine," "was almost devoid of criticism."60
The writer's pseudonym of "Lim" concealed the identity of SS-Untersturmfuehrer (equivalent in army rank to lieutenant) Leopold von Mildenstein. Mildenstein was active in the SD (the security service of the SS) which was originally established as the internal secret service organization of the Nazi party, but which from 1934 ceased to be merely the party police and police-command instrument, and developed into the dominant internal political secret of the fascist dictatorship.61
It also became the organization for the political command and cadreformation (cadre formation means the development of a tightly knit conspiratorial party that will eventually seize the system of institutions and exercise a dictatorship until it can shape the majority to the right doctrine and behaviour) body of the fascist security police. That Mildenstein should have been the man to write an outspokenly pro-Zionist series of articles was no mere coincidence, since in 1934 in Office II of the SD (inland) there had been born Department II-112, the so-called "Judenreferat" (Office for Jewish Affairs) presided over by himself. According to (German journalist Winfried) Martini(;) Mildenstein was "discreetly advised by the Zionist officials" during his Palestine trip.62
Mildenstein's department was in charge of fascist Jewish policy until 1938. This policy was formulated by the official organ of the SS, Das Schwarze Korps, in the following words: "The time may not be far distant when Palestine once again receives the sons whom it lost a thousand years ago. Our wishes along with the good will of the state accompany them."63 There have been attempts to depict the pro-Zionist policy of the SS as being the personal attitude of Mildenstein, rather than the reflection of an official entente between Zionists and fascists. But not only does the quotation from Schwarze Korps contradict this; Mildenstein himself, a few years later, extracted his Palestine travel report from the Angriff to publish it in book form. But this time he turned the originally pro-Zionist tendency into unmasked anti-Semitism.64
The Zionist leaders who had "discreetly advised" the director of the SD "Judenreferat" during his Palestine trip, continued their contacts with the SS and SD. Naturally, few details are known about these contacts, the record of which is highly classified material. One of the few documents about these occurrences that is available is a memorandum by (SS-Hauptsturmfuehrer) Professor Franz Six (director of the Central Department of the Press and Library at the SD main office),65 dated June 17, 1937, which bears the classification "Secret Matter for the Command."66 This memorandum contains information about a visit of the Zionist emissary Feivel Polkes to Berlin. Polkes was a member of the general staff of the Zionist underground army, the Haganah, with the rank of commander.67 SS-Oberscharfuehrer Herbert Hagen, who succeeded Mildenstein as director of the Judenreferat, claimed in his papers that Polkes held the "leadership of the whole self-defence apparatus of the Palestinian Jews."68
In Palestine, Polkes had been in close contact with the correspondent of the "German News Agency," Dr. Reichert, who was active in the Palestine espionage network of the SD. This ring was directed by the SD agent Otto von Bodelschwingh, who lived in Haifa as a salesman. It was Dr. Reichert who acquired an entry visa for Polkes to visit Germany. Polkes stayed in Berlin from February 26 to March 2, 1937, holding several meetings with SD agents representing the Nazi regime, two of which were with SS-Hauptscharfuehrer Adolf Eichmann (Eichmann had by then taken up work at the "Judenreferat"). Here, Polkes offered to collaborate with the German regime telling Eichmann that he was interested above all in "accelerating Jewish immigration to Palestine, so that the Jews would attain a majority over the Arabs in his country. For this purpose, he worked together with the secret services of England and France and he also wanted to cooperate with Hitler's Germany."69 Hagen noted further in his report about Polkes' visit to Berlin: "He also declared his readiness to provide Germany with services in the form of information, so long as that did not conflict with his personal objectives... He would, among other things, vigorously support the foreign interests of Germany in the Middle East..."70 (German historian Heinz) Hoehne commented on Polkes' offer with the words: " ...behind it there clearly stands the immigration policy if the Haganah."71
The SS immediately awarded Polkes' cooperative intentions with the instructions put forth by Six. "Pressure is being exerted on the Reich Deputation of the Jews in Germany in order to compel Jews emigrating from Germany to head only to Palestine and not to any other country." That was exactly what the Zionists wanted, but Six added: "Such a measure lies entirely in the German interest and it is already being put into effect by the Gestapo."72
Feivel Polkes, the Haganah commander, went out of his way to help in the development of cooperation between Zionists and fascists; he even extended an invitation to Eichmann to visit Palestine as guest of the Haganah. Six noted: "In the work of making contacts, the name of SS-Hauptscharfuehrer Eichmann of Department II-112 comes to mind before any other. He had talks with Polkes during the latter's stay in Berlin and he was invited by him to visit the Jewish colonies in Palestine under his guidance."73
The trip to Palestine undertaken by Eichmann and (his supervisor SS-Sturmbannfuehrer Herbert) Hagen is only an episode in the history of collaboration between Zionism and Nazi Germany. But it was both a meaningful and revealing one that has become the subject of considerable falsification. Rather than admit the fact that the subject of considerable falsification. Rather than admit the fact that the infamous and notorious murderer of the Jews, Adolf Eichmann, was at one time invited to Palestine by the Haganah, Zionist writers reversed the blame and claimed that the purpose of Eichmann's visit was to make contact with the Palestine by the Haganah, Zionist writers reversed the blame and claimed that the purpose of Eichmann's visit was to make contact with the Palestinian rebels, or even to conspire with the Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin Al-Husseini. The inventor of this story seems to be the well-known Zionist Simon Wiesenthal, who by 1947 was already making the claim that Eichmann had planted a network of agents in the Palestinian settlement of Sarona and had taken up "contact with the Grand Mufti."74 In 1951 Leon Poliakov published a similar version in Die Welt,75 and Gerald Reitlinger borrowed it two years later for his book the Final Solution,76 in which Eichmann was supposedly sent to Palestine "in order to make contact with the Arab rebels." From then onwards the legend grew, with the American Quentin Reynolds even claiming that Eichmann had paid a visit to the Grand Mufti.77 Eichmann's biographer Comer Clarke went so far as to claim that Eichmann carried with him 50,000 dollars in "Nazi gold" to offer to the Palestine rebels.78
"The Secret Contacts: Zionism and Nazi Germany, 1933-1941" is available for free, here [http://archive.org/details/TheSecretContacts-ZionismAndNaziGermany1933-1941]
ReplyBlack Rabbit: the link to the book is dead, so here's the update.
Thanks again.