After World War ONE it was reported as news that five million, over five million, even six million Jews in Europe were dead or dying from starvation, horrible epidemics, and a malignant persecution. Because of this 'news' huge fund raising efforts were launched by organizations, some of which still thrive today. They raised tens of millions of dollars, billions in today's dollars, much of which disappeared. The following may offer historical significance both on its own and as a precursor to the post World War Two holocaust industry.

To find the truth sometimes it helps to follow the money. There are a lot of similarities between the atrocity stories of World War One and World War Two. A lot of the same players are involved such as the American Jewish Committee, The Joint Distribution Committee for the Relief of Jewish War Sufferers, the Warburgs, the Morgenthaus, and Stephen S Wise.

The Price of Liberty, a book about the History of the American Jewish Committee published in 1948, mentions some of the World War One and after fund raising efforts. The following quote concerning World War One is found in Chapter Five entitled The Holocaust of War:[1]

An earlier book entitled Felix M. Warburg, a Biographical Sketch by Cyrus Adler, which was published by The American Jewish Committee in 1938, reported:[2]

In 1915 Louis Marshall on behalf of the American Jewish Relief Committee was declaring:[3]

In Britain, while the British Empire was fighting a war allied with the Czar, Jewish leaders including Leopold de Rothschild were reporting that one and a half million Russian Jews were starving. Chief Rabbi Hertz stated:[4]

In 1916, a book entitled The Jews in the Eastern War Zone was published by the American Jewish Committee, and 25,000 copies of this book were sent to "to the leaders of American thought and the molders of public opinion - President Wilson, members of the Cabinet and Congress, the press and the magazines, influential men and women everywhere."[5] In its introductory section on Russia, this book reported:[6]

Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, who as early as 1900 told a Zionist gathering that "there are 6,000,000 living, bleeding, suffering arguments in favor of Zionism",[7] chaired the Provisional Zionist Committee. In a news story entitled "Germans let Jews Die, Women and Children in Warsaw Starving to Death" Wise vouched that "Jewish mothers, mothers of mercy, feel happy to see their nursing babies die, at least they are through with their suffering."[8] By 1918 Louis Marshall was spearheading a patriotic, non-sectarian, drive to raise 15 million dollars for the millions of starving Jews in the war zones. It was non-sectarian in that the promoters were hitting up non Jews as well as Jews for pledges and contributions.[9]

The end of World War One seemed to only increase the intensity of these money raising publicity campaigns. Rabbi Stephen S Wise met with President Wilson who approved of a Jewish Commonwealth in Palestine under British rule. Wise declared that "The rebuilding of Zion will be the reparation of all Christendom for the wrongs done to the Jews."[10]

In 1919, Felix M. Warburg, (Edward M.M. Warburg, his son, was the Chairman of this same committee during World War 2), was the Chairman of the Joint Distribution Committee of American Funds for Jewish War Sufferers. He was reporting:[11]

"Five Million Face Famine in Poland -American Jewish Relief and Red Cross Societies Fighting Disease and Hunger" was the headline of a New York Times story reporting that a vast region in Europe from which little had been heard in five years had just been penetrated by the American Red Cross and American Jewish Committee representatives:[12]

In another New York Times story, tobacco baron turned ambassador Henry Morganthau Sr. (father of Henry Morganthau Jr.) reported during an "Official mission to Poland" that five to ten millions face hunger death in the coming winter. But his real point was not only to talk about the "starving millions", but to also give his account in haunting detail of 35 leading Jewish residents that he said had been shot in cold blood against the wall of a cathedral. According to Morgenthau:[13]

Of course, as is habitually the case in similar atrocity stories, none of the leading residents who were murdered are named, the cathedral is nameless, the Jewish cemetery anonymous.

The 1920 Non-Sectarian Appeal "This time the burden is too gigantic to be borne by Jews Alone" by the Greater New York Appeal for Jewish War Sufferers included many prominent Protestant and Catholic clergy with special model sermons prepared for delivery in all denominations on Church Sunday. The New York City Board of Education cooperated so that children in the public schools could hear the story of the suffering of the children in other lands. Dr. Boris B. Bogen sent to Warsaw by the Joint Distribution Committee provided this message:[14]

This 1920 fund raising campaign was aided and legitimized by at least two New York Times editorials. One titled "A Work Of Mercy" stated:[15]

Another Times editorial headlined "The Jewish War Sufferers" reported:[16]

On September 10, 1920, President Woodrow Wilson expressed sympathy for the suffering Jews of Eastern Europe in a letter to Steven S. Wise, then Executive Chairman of the Committee on Jewish Status in Eastern Europe. President Wilson declared:[17]

The peace treaty that President Wilson was referring to was of course the Versailles Treaty and the Peace Conference at Paris which ended World War One.

As we have shown, these stories were taken seriously even in high places. But did anybody at that time think that these stories were made up or exaggerated? If so, who might make up such a story? A New York Times editorial entitled "Pogroms in Poland" addressed that very issue and suggested a possible scapegoat. This editorial stated:[18]

What if somebody else assisted in spreading these stories perhaps to gain sympathy or invented them for fund raising purposes? Would that also be a cruel deception?

These stories, unbelievable in terms of the magnitude of unique suffering conveyed and at the very least grossly exaggerated, continued to be told in support of fund raising drives on a more or less annual basis. In 1922, Joseph H. Hertz, Chief Rabbi of the British Empire, condemned the silence about pogroms that he said were being carried out in Ukraine. He declared that "1,000,000 human beings had been butchered" and that for three years 3,000,000 persons in the Ukraine had been made "to pass through the horrors of hell." He said that although the pogroms in the Ukraine had ended there were something like 600,000 homeless children, 150,000 orphans, and 35,000 double orphans in the Ukraine "who would die from cold, hunger or disease unless Jewish hearts remained human and came to the rescue."[19] By "remaining human and coming to the rescue" Rabbi Hertz meant specifically contributing money to certain Jewish relief charities. An unrelated brief and unfortunately very incomplete news article "Jews Take Over Relief" reported that the Jewish Joint Distribution Committee was taking over the work of the American Relief Administration in overcoming famine in seven governments of the Ukraine.[20]

The unique victims stories continued. In 1923, the Jewish Relief Committee of the Joint Distribution Committee was reporting 1,165,290 stray children wandering in the Ukraine. They made the further astounding claim that the 1,165,290 stray children were wandering in the Ukraine because 3 million dollars in pledges had not been paid. The New York Times reported that the Committee stated:[21]

The 1926 drive of the American Relief Fund for the Jews of Eastern Europe employed a correspondent named Irma May who sent radiograms from Warsaw to New York. One of these radio programs said:

Another of Ms. Mays radio messages described conditions in Rovno, Poland:[22]

About 500,000 persons attended rallies in New York City in support of this 1926 drive and speakers "spread the message of the suffering of millions of Jews abroad".[23] The Joint Distribution Committee cabled:[23]

David A. Brown of Detroit Michigan was the national chairman of this 1926 drive. His message, which was read in all meetings, began as follows:[24]

The New York Times, in an editorial in support of the drive, called it "the latest chapter in the story of American succor for Europe's stricken populations, which began with Herbert Hoover's work in Belgium and has taken the form of vast sums expended on war relief, famine relief and reconstruction."[25]

On December 6, 1926, a page one New York Times banner headline read, "St. John's Cathedral is Scene of Rally of Faiths for Jewish Relief." It reported 1500 people attended the mass meeting for the 5,000,000 destitute Jews in Eastern Europe. Those gathered heard World War One Commander in Chief of the US forces General John J. Pershing urge generous contributions as well as Protestant and Catholic leaders and Louis Marshall. This meeting was organized under the auspices of the American Christian Fund for Jewish Relief. New York Governor and later Presidential Candidate Alfred Smith and Supreme Court Justice Arthur S Tompkins sent telegrams of support.

This American Christian Fund sent a letter to 150,000 Christian Leaders around the United States apprising them of the following:[26]

One of the themes stressed by several of the speakers was that by financially helping the starving Jews of Europe they will be fighting race prejudice, hate and bigotry in the United States. A Times editorial supporting this drive reported that 62 million dollars had been raised and that they were now engaged in raising 25 million more.[27]

Where did this money actually go? Chairman David A Brown reported that less than 20 percent of the funds collected actually went into emergency relief. The remainder was devoted to "constructive undertakings" such as establishing cooperative banks in Poland, financing tradesmen and artisans, and promoting Jewish agricultural settlements.[28] A Max Steuer who had gone to Europe to investigate charged that 40% of the money raised "disappeared in the manipulations by the bankers on the subject of exchange." Mr Steuer made it clear that he was referring to European bankers and not American bankers.[29]

For making such statements, Steuer was attacked by Felix Warburg of the Joint Distribution Committee. Warburg deplored the wide publicity and insisted Steuer placed an exaggerated value on hearsay testimony and had tried his case in the newspapers. Warburg further stated that no good purpose had been served by Steuer's statement and that the problem had been corrected. The Jewish Daily News editorialized that Mr Steuer had simply removed himself from the role of a Jewish communal leader.[30] It may or may not be of significance that Felix Warburg had been born and reared in Hamburg, Germany, to a prominent banking family although he was an American citizen by this time.

Were any of these Jewish people in Europe really starving and if so did any of the money collected go to help them? The chairman of the campaign publicly admitted that less than 20% went into relief efforts. The question is how much less than 20%? And how many people were actually dead or dying? New York Times editorials in 1920 put the number at over 5 million Jews starving or on the verge of starving. Several campaigns later in 1926 they were still reporting 5 million starving Jews.

These fund raising efforts also continued on a more than annual basis after 1926. Typically, reports were made at these fund raising affairs that a million Jews were starving in Poland and another million were on the verge of starvation[31] or that "Russian Jewry was about to be annihilated by the pressure of economic circumstances and intermarriage".[32] A Dr. Tannenbaum of the American Jewish Congress declared in 1932 that The Jewish people all over the world face a war of extinction.[33]

According to A History of Zionism by Nahum Sokolow published in 1919, the anti Zionist Mendelssohnian school argued:[34]

This book also mentions fifteenth century massacres of Jews in Poland and Inquisition stories of Jews being burned alive in Spain.[35] Sokolow writes this about Theodore Herzl, the founder of the Zionist movement:[36]

So the imagery of a massive garish imitation of the crucifixion was around long before we had holocaust survivors.

Did the holocaust story evolve out of Jewish fund raising drives? These emotional appeals played on people's fears in order to raise lots of money. They always needed a believable crisis to convince the donors to contribute large sums. Were the leaders making these appeals calculating and unscrupulous enough to invent facts? If enough money was at stake, could repetition over a protracted period create facts that would be accepted as totally credible? If repeated and expanded upon day after day, over and over for generations, could such 'facts' put forth by institutional sources become unassailable?