Churchill comments on Jews - 1937

[Andy in West Oz]

The title of the news article is a little inflammatory but Churchill's words are, as usual, what you would expect from a great man.

BRITAIN'S WWII prime minister Winston Churchill argued that Jewish people were "partly responsible for the antagonism from which they suffer" in an article publicised for the first time tomorrow.
Churchill made the claim in an article entitled How The Jews Can Combat Persecution written in 1937, three years before he started leading the country.
He outlined a new wave of anti-Semitism sweeping across Europe and the United States, which was followed by the deaths of millions of Jewish people in the Holocaust under the German Nazi regime.
"It would be easy to ascribe it to the wickedness of the persecutors, but that does not fit all the facts," the article read.
"It exists even in lands, like Great Britain and the United States, where Jew and Gentile are equal in the eyes of the law and where large numbers of Jews have found not only asylum, but opportunity.
"These facts must be faced in any analysis of anti-Semitism. They should be pondered especially by the Jews themselves.
"For it may be that, unwittingly, they are inviting persecution - that they have been partly responsible for the antagonism from which they suffer."
The article adds: "The central fact which dominates the relations of Jew and non-Jew is that the Jew is 'different'.
"He looks different. He thinks differently. He has a different tradition and background. He refuses to be absorbed."
Elsewhere, Churchill praised Jews as "sober, industrious, law-abiding" and urged Britons to stand up for the race against persecution.
"There is no virtue in a tame acquiescence in evil. To protest against cruelty and wrong, and to strive to end them, is the mark of a man," he wrote.
The article was discovered by Cambridge University historian Richard Toye in the university's archive of Churchill's papers.
At the time, Churchill's secretary advised him it would be "inadvisable" to publish it and it never saw the light of day.
Churchill was voted the greatest Briton ever in a nationwide poll held by the BBC in 2002.

Churchill blamed Jews for antagonism | NEWS.com.au

[Ron Goldstein]

Andy

Toye did go on to say "While most people would accept that Churchill was no anti-Semite, this sheds fascinating new light on his views about Jews, which were very inconsistent"
"In a slightly unfortunate way I think he was trying to help. But he lapsed into common misconceptions and stereotypes. I think it does show genuine intellectual confusion on his part."
In addition to the above, Sir Martin Gilbert (Churchill's biographer) referred to the article in a book more than twenty years ago, pointing out it was "ghosted" by a member of Oswald Mosley's British Union of Fascists....say no more !

Despite the quoted "lapse", I would stay on record as an unmitigated admirer of Churchill who just happened to be the Colonel of my old Regiment, the 4th Queen's Own Hussars.

I had the pleasure of attending the first postwar reunion of the Regiment at which he was present BBC - WW2 People's War - Churchill and Ron enjoy a meal together,
I kept vigil when he was dying at his home in Kensington and stood for hours in Trafalgar Square to see his funeral procession.

Warts and all, he was the greatest of men and his decision not to publish this particular piece showed that he could recognise when he had made an error of judgement.

[PeterG]

Originally Posted by Andy in West Oz

BRITAIN'S WWII prime minister Winston Churchill argued that Jewish people were "partly responsible for the antagonism from which they suffer" in an article publicised for the first time tomorrow.

Churchill made the claim in an article entitled How The Jews Can Combat Persecution written in 1937, three years before he started leading the country.

I am afraid that this sensationalist drivel will now run and run.

This is Sir Martin Gilbert's (himself a Jew) reaction to this 'news':

Sir Martin Gilbert, Churchill’s official biographer, said this weekend that the article, which was never published, had been ghost-written by a member of Oswald Mosley’s fascist party. He added that Churchill had refused to have it published because it was not his work and did not reflect his views.

Gilbert said Richard Toye, the lecturer who “found” the article and includes it in a new book, Lloyd George and Churchill, must have failed to consult Gilbert’s compilation of Churchill’s writings published in the 1980s, which describes it. “I’m amazed. My book would have been on the shelf in the same library. I immediately recognised the name of the article,” said Gilbert, whose own new book, Churchill and the Jews, will be published this summer.

The article is controversial, not only for its apparently racist sentiments but also because it goes against the accepted view that Churchill was a strong ally of the Jews and was one of the prime movers behind the creation of the state of Israel in 1948.

See The Sunday Times report in full here Authors battle over ‘anti Jewish’ Churchill-News-UK-TimesOnline

[Andy in West Oz]

I'll try to post more accurate and less inflammatory drivel next time!

[Ron Goldstein]

And Cheers to you Andy !

Ron

[PeterG]

Andy

No reflection on you, it's just the result of poor scholarship. I just saw the book on sale today, with a suitably sensationalist blurb.

Peter

[PeterG]

Just to finish this off,

This weekend Toye admitted that he had failed to spot Gilbert’s reference to the article, but stood by its importance. He agreed with Gilbert that the ghost-writer of the article was Adam Marshall Diston, a member of Sir Oswald Mosley’s British Union of Fascists, but said Churchill had approved the article and actively tried to have it published.

That Churchill had approved the article and actively tried to have it published is just too silly for words.

From 1936 to 1938 Churchill was writing regular articles for The Evening Standard and he also had articles in The Daily Mail and The Daily Express as well as other national papers during that period. He would have had no difficulty in getting any article published. Can you imagine an editor binning a sensational article from Winston Churchill?

[Andy in West Oz]

No offense taken Peter. Should have picked it myself!

[PeterG]

This morning I had a chance to look at Richard Toye's book Lloyd George & Churchill in detail. The matter is worse than I thought.

In his Introduction Toye praises his own work as a model of scholarship. Referring to 'hitherto ignored documents' he has found, he says at p. 8

... some such documents have the status of intriguing curiosities, the contents of others, such as Churchill's 1937 article on the Jews are explosive.

He devotes considerable space to the article, pages 318-321

An article he wrote in or around 1937 - but which he did not publish - is remarkable evidence of this [Churchill's ambiguous approach to Jews, according to the author]. It was called How the Jews Can Counter Persecution and pondered the causes of anti-semitism

Toye then discusses it at length over the next few pages, quoting entire paragraphs interspersed and propped up with remarks such as

Churchill asked ... ; He went on to suggest ... ; He went on to say ... ; ... he also went on to criticise them ... ; Churchill thought ... ; But he added ... ; Churchill went on to suggest ... ; ... he also argued that ... ; Later in the article he wrote ... ; Churchill suggested that ... ; What is clear from the article is that Churchill's attitude was ... ; The logical conclusion is evident ...

But not only did Churchill NOT write the article (it was written by an English Fascist, Adam Marshall Diston) there is no evidence that Churchill even read it.

A scholarly footnote (note 85, on page 460) purports to give authorship and details of the document:

Winston S. Churchill, "How the Jews Can Counter Persecution", n.d. [c. June 1937] Churchill Papers

Although the true facts came to light whilst the book was still with the publisher, there's not a word of retraction not even a temporary loose insertion.