Tea at Trianon: FDR and the Jews

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Sunday, November 1, 2015

FDR and the Jews

From Juicy Ecumenism:

FDR’s greatest success was dispatching Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg to save thousands of Hungarian Jews near war’s end. But perhaps many more could have been saved across Europe by wider actions earlier, the authors speculated. Winik afterwards told me he thinks Churchill was somewhat more proactive, asking that Auschwitz be bombed, a request that was ignored. Breitman said bombing Auschwitz would have had symbolic importance but likely would not have significantly slowed the Nazi death machine.

After Yalta, FDR met the Saudi king to urge Arab acceptance of a Jewish state, pointing out two million Jews had been murdered in Poland. The king caustically responded there should be plenty of room then left for survivors in Poland. So much for Holocaust sensitivity.

Remembering the Holocaust and other genocides is important for, among other reasons, it reminds us of humanity’s endless capacity for evil. Modern, wealthy, protected Americans largely live in functional denial about evil. In our coddled culture, any absence of affirmation and security is a terrible wrong meriting grievance and renumeration. It’s nearly impossible for most Americans to imagine a political upheaval involving orchestrated, sustained mass murder. We believe people are basically nice, and when they’re not, it’s a mysterious aberration. (Read more.)