Zionism During the Holocaust: The weaponisation of memory in the service of state and nation

by Tony Greenstein

"Tony Greenstein offers a comprehensive and incisive analysis of the indissoluble nexus between anti-Semitism and Zionism. This connection is exposed in its ugliest form during the Holocaust. You can trust a courageous and committed fighter against anti-Semitism, such as Tony, to guide us through this particular dark moment when Zionism and antiSemitism interacted in Europe's darkest hour to educate us about its historical manifestations and implications for our time." Ilan Pappe, Professor of Middle East History, Exeter University "This book is essential reading. Understanding the politics of the thirties and forties is essential if we are to ensure the horrors of World War Two never happen again. Tony Greenstein's detailed reference to original sources leads to conclusions that cannot be ignored." Ken Loach, socialist film maker "In this timely scholarly polemic Tony Greenstein authoritatively demystifies Zionism, convincingly depicting its long obscured and misunderstood connections with anti-Semitism, especially during its horrifying climax in the Holocaust. Essential reading for anyone that wants to understand Israel as a state built upon the premise of Jewish supremacy and sustained by a cruel apartheid regime to deny basic rights to the Palestinian people in their own country." Richard Falk, Professor of International Law Emeritus, Princeton University and Chair of Global Law, Queen Mary University London "The present book is about the entire history of this relationship between Zionism and anti-Semitism. Tony's encyclopaedic familiarity with the dispersed relevant publications and his achievement in arranging the vast material in a coherent account are second to none." Emeritus Professor Moshé Machover, King's College, London University "This is a work of remarkable historical scholarship and analysis, its subject matter is as telling and relevant today as it ever was." Dr Derek Summerfield, Honorary Senior Clinical Lecturer King's College, University of London "Greenstein's book, meticulously researched and liberally peppered with quotations from original sources, will make uncomfortable reading for anyone who feels a sneaking sympathy for Zionism". Dr. Susan Blackwell, Dept of Languages, Literature and Communication, University of Utrecht "The historical relationship of Zionism with antisemitic and racist regimes and movements has been an area long neglected by normative research, influenced as it is by Zionist assumptions; this is why Tony Greenstein's book is so crucial, further developing the pioneering work by Lenni Brenner. Greenstein work is epic in scope, shedding light on dark corners, covering an immense historical, geographic, political and discursive arena; It provides an updated, comprehensive account and evaluation of Zionism's complex interrelation with, as well as its uses and abuses of the Holocaust." Professor Haim Bresheeth, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London "In this substantial, detailed and scrupulously referenced account, the history of Zionist policies and practices before, during and after the Nazi Holocaust is examined in all its awfulness. Greenstein will no doubt be vilified by predictable opponents, but he offers a powerful alternative to the way most people would think about Zionism, given its current status as beyond criticism, on pain of accusations of anti-Semitism." Patrick Williams, Emeritus Professor, Nottingham Trent University

Genres: History, Politics, World War II, Nonfiction, Middle East, Holocaust

546 pages, Hardcover

Published October 28, 2022

Reviews

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I strongly recommend everyone to pick up this book!
The conflation of anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism, a favourite tool of the right, is clearly shown to be baseless, ridiculous and anti-semitic in itself. Zionist attempts to use the Holocaust for the benefit of an ethno-state affirm the very same ideology that Nazism thrived on..

Greenstein clearly shows that contrary to opposing the Holocaust, at the time, key Zionist figures actively denied it until it was no longer possible to. In America, Zionist organisations opposed strikes against Nazi Germany and boycotts of German goods, with the best interests of capital rather than the Jewish population at heart. Zionism also actively opposed the deportation of Jews to anywhere other than Palestine, at times even complaining about German Jews entering Palestine due to being a 'burden' as a result of their weakened state.
The third part of the book dealt with Zionism after the Holocaust and it was extremely interesting. Greenstein covers the link between far-right, fascist parties and the state of Israel. Of course, a major component of the Zionist WW2 narrative is the emphasis on pure anti-semitism as the primary cause of the Holocaust. Zionist historians refuse to acknowledge the real root cause of the Holocaust and other similar genocides, which are fascism and racism. There are very real, disturbing parallels between the treatment and rhetoric around Arab people in Israel and Jewish people under Nazism, which become a lot easier to deny when the Holocaust is portrayed purely as a culmination of anti-Semitism.
The same eugenics that resulted directly in the Holocaust are also the basis of Zionist ideology. The idea that there is no such thing as a German Jew, or a Jew of any nationality other than Israel converges in Nazism and Zionism. The desire for an ethnically pure state and the systematic genocide of Palestinian people is the reason why Zionism is so closely linked to other fascist, imperialist movements. Widespread anti-Arab sentiment, the narrative of a 'Great Replacement' all closely echo Nazi rhetoric.
There was also a very interesting part that explored the Israeli government's role in actively arming the brutal Argentinian government of the 70s' and its role in the murder and torture of left-wing people, many of whom were Jewish themselves.

[Randall Wallace · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Prior to the Holocaust, the Zionists’ main enemy was not Nazi Germany, which was more than willing to allow the emigration of Jews, but Britain, which barred entry to Palestine.” “Just as in Israel, the Nazis sought to solve Germany’s ‘minority problem’ through ethnic cleansing. Israel as a Jewish supremacist state treats its Palestinian subjects in much the same way as the Nazi State treated the Jews in the period 1933-1939, according to Jewish historian Amos Funkenstein. Just as the Nazis forced Jews to live in their own segregated areas, the same is true of Arabs in Israel today.” “A sad fact is that the pogroms we see today against Israel’s Palestinians resemble those in Nazi Germany and Poland in the 1930’s. ‘Death to the Jews’ has been replaced by ‘Death to the Arabs’.” Israelis can’t even come up with their OWN hate filled slogans.

Balfour was a white supremacist; “in 1906, Balfour defended (in Parliament) the refusal to give the vote to Black people in South Africa.” Mapai was an anti-communist and pro-imperialist militaristic party that formed the government of Israel from 1948 to 1977. The Mapam party pretended it was Marxist but note their feelings of good-will did not extend to their non-Jewish fellow man. At the al-Dawayima Massacre in 1948, Zionists killed children “by breaking their heads with sticks.” Thus, it was Zionists who literally taught children by example that “Sticks and stones CAN break my bones” – and cause an agonizing death. Even a senior officer of the Zionist Haganah complained that after the villagers had waved a white flag, they were slaughtered – he added, “Where did they learn cruel conduct such as that of the Nazis?” Another officer sadly added, “The most eager were those who had come from [concentration] camps.” Mr. X tortures Peter without cause, so Peter tortures Paul w/o cause.

“Up until 1945 the majority of British Jews were working class and they were hostile to Zionism. (p.47)”. “When the Nazis came to power, the vast majority of Jews, wherever they lived, began a Boycott of Nazi Germany. “When Hitler came to power, German Jewry vehemently rejected Zionism as an enemy from within …Anti-Zionism was one of the few Jewish topics, Reform, Orthodox, cosmopolitan and ghetto Jews could agree on (p.58)”. The Zionist movement however refused to accept that German Jewry was facing destruction nor did it particularly care.” “The Zionist movement was not unhappy at the coming to power of the Nazis. It represented the defeat of assimilation.” Zionist Nahman Bialik said, “Hitlerism has perhaps saved German Jewry, which was being assimilated into annihilation.” “Ben-Gurion believed that Jewish ‘distress’ could serve as political leverage and that ‘it is in our interests to use Hitler…for the building of our country’.” He added, “the harsher the affliction, the greater the strength of Zionism.” He said, Hitler’s victory “could only bolster Zionist fortunes.” When the Nazis came to power, the Zionist inaccurate Holocaust myth “was integral to the forging of a Western imperialist alliance. It laid the foundations for the multi-billion-dollar reparations agreement (that benefited Israel OVER the actual Holocaust survivors).” “Germany atoned for the Holocaust by financing Israel as the West’s watchdog in the Middle East.” Too bad the dog was rabid. Emil Ludwig wrote, “The coming of the Nazis was rather a welcome thing …Thousands who seemed to be completely lost to Judaism were brought back to the fold by Hitler, and for that I am personally very grateful to him.” I picture Emil praying before eating w/ his wife and kids, “and special thanks God for Der Fuhrer, amen.”

Nazi/Zionist Alliance: Did you know that when the Gestapo banned all Jewish political meetings in 1935, Zionist organizations were exempt? Did you know the Zionist terror group Lehi “sought a military pact with Nazi Germany”? They contacted the Nazis not once but twice offering an alliance and “if the Nazis accepted the offer, Lehi would join the war fighting on the side of Germany.” Nothing to see here folks! Zionist historian David Cesarani wrote, “the efforts of the Gestapo are oriented to promoting Zionism as much as possible”. The author adds “Zionists however don’t hesitate to compare their opponents, even Zionist opponents, to the Nazis.” Menachem Begin portrayed “Arafat in Beirut as Hitler in his bunker in Berlin as a reason for bombing Beirut.” He then justified the Lebanon War as “the alternative to this is Treblinka.” In the lead up to the Six Day War, Nassar was repeatedly identified with Hitler. Not to be left out of the racist name-calling spree, Ben-Gurion said just before the Eichmann trial, “when I listen to the speeches of the Egyptian president …it seems to me that Hitler is talking.” To add to this sad Zionist hate fest, Ariel Sharon then said Arafat “was like Hitler, who wanted so much to negotiate with the Allies.”

Identification of Jews with Israel is a “negative identity”, “based on state worship, devoid of any of the positive qualities traditionally associated with Jews, such as solidarity with the oppressed and welcoming the stranger.” “Jews are beginning to understand that Zionism offers them nothing other than the thankless task of defending Israeli apartheid (and settler colonialism).” “Anti-Semitism (as used by Zionists) has now become the equivalent to the term ‘communism’ in the days of McCarthy. It has become the false anti-racism of the Right.” “As a Jewish state, Israeli policies are driven by concerns for the maintenance of a Jewish demographic majority. This is why Israel can never be a demographic state.” “Zionist concerns about a high Arab birth rate in Israel mirror the Nazis’ racial obsessions. Ideologically Zionism and Nazism drink from the same poisoned well.” “One soldier confessed, ‘sometimes I feel like a Nazi when I watch my friends in action’ (p.71).” It’s hard not to think of a Nazi comparison when marching Israeli settlers chant “Arabs to the gas chambers” and too easily replace the Nazi “dirty Jews” with the Zionist “dirty Arabs”. Israeli leaders have made many racist comments. Menachem Begin called Palestinians “beasts walking on two legs”- a remarkable comment from someone so ugly, his proctologist kept sticking his finger in Menachem’s mouth.

Fun facts: “Anti-Semitism was not a constant of German history. It ebbed and flowed and by 1933 it was on the wane.” “The Nazis looked upon the Russians as livestock. Millions would have to starve if the German Army, the Wehrmacht, was going to be fed during the invasion of Russia.” “Auschwitz’s first inmates were Poles and its main purpose was the exploitation of their labor.” Around 120,000 non-Jews died in Auschwitz. Under Nazi Nuremburg Laws, Jews were forbidden to fly the German flag but they were totally allowed to fly the Zionist blue & white flag. “Operation Barbarossa (the beginning of the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941) was the beginning of the Final Solution.” “At the end of January 1941, Himmler spoke with senior SS officers about the 30 million people who must disappear in the East and of the plans for the Jews.” “The Nazis also envisaged the death by hunger of 30 million in Russia. The Jews who came under Nazi control could hardly expect to be treated differently.” In September 1941, over 33,000 Jews were murdered at Babi Yar by the SS and Ukrainian Nazis wannabe’s. Ukrainian Nazi’s who wore black uniforms were graduates of Globocnik’s training camp at Trawniki. These Ukrainians could kill a Jew as fast as you could say Zelensky. “The Ukrainian partisan Gopko was executed for having killed five Jews” by the Soviets. “The SS established a mental institution in the East for men suffering the effects of murdering women and children by November 1941.” One guy who fought the Nazis (Bach-Zelewski) said the “death camp was something that the Russians could not accomplish: it reflected the German gift of organization. Bureaucrats created it.” In 1937, Hitler directed that Jewish emigration should be directed ‘first and foremost’ to Palestine because this would create ‘only one trouble in the world’.” Up to 600,000 Gypsies were exterminated. “In areas of greatest Nazi dominance Gypsies were almost as likely to suffer extermination as the Jews.”

Hungary: The resistance movement in Hungary was almost non-existent. Zionists “Kasztner and Vaada were being offered a straight swap – 600 of the Jewish and Zionist elite in exchange for nearly half a million Hungarian Jews.” Eichmann said, “Kasztner rendered us a great service by helping keep the deportation camps peaceful, I would let his groups escape.” George Soros’s father wrote that when the persecution of the Jews began, “it was not carried out by the Germans, nor by their Hungarian lackeys, but, most astonishing – by the Jews themselves.” “It was the same pattern as in Warsaw and elsewhere.” “The Zionist leadership denied Hungarian Jewry both the opportunity to escape and any choice over their fate.” Braham writes of “of (Hungarian) peasant woman who tried to hand food to the deportees and was caught by a gendarme. She was thrown in a car and also sent to Auschwitz.”

Europe During the Holocaust: “The Holocaust in Latvia was more complete was more complete than in any other country and only 1.6% survived the depredations of Einsatzgruppe A.” “Romania was the most anti-Semitic country in Europe. Its leaders saw Romania as a Christian state.” “The survival of three-quarters of France’s Jewish population was testimony to the aversion of the French people to the deportations.” “Denmark capitulated after just four hours of fighting.” Denmark and Albania were the ONLY two European countries where not one Jew died in the camps. When the Nazis imposed the yellow star on Denmark, they were told “the first person to wear it would be the King of Denmark.” “The Swiss state became increasingly hostile to Jews who escaped from the Nazis and turned them back.” “Poland suffered more than any other country under Nazi occupation.” “It is estimated that at least one million Poles sheltered or helped Jews survive, despite the fact that if they were caught it meant an automatic death sentence (700 Poles were executed for that).” The Nazis overlooked Sweden getting sassy at times because they relied too much on Swedish iron and steel.

“It was to prevent the German people learning of the Final Solution, that the death camps were located in Poland. It was a closely guarded state secret. A determined effort was made to keep the news from the German people. This was because the Nazi leadership felt it could not rely on popular backing for its extermination policy.” In 1945, Himmler ordered Becher to close the extermination camps and destroy evidence of mass murder (p.141). But there also exists in his handwriting an order that no prisoner should “fall into the hands of the enemies alive.”

To Palestine or Nowhere: Colonial Secretary Malcolm MacDonald said of Chaim Weissman’s attitude, “he insisted on the children going to Palestine. As far as he was concerned, it was Palestine or nowhere.” “One thing is for certain; the sabotage by Jews of efforts to help Jews met with success (p.320).” “Thousands of Jewish children were forcibly removed from their adoptive families who had taken them in when their parents had perished. Zionist leaders were even sabotaging Jewish adoptive homes for young Jewish survivors, for the single reason that those homes were not in Palestine.” A Yiddish paper wrote, “by insisting that Jewish D.P.s do not wish to go to any country outside of Israel …they [the Zionists] sacrificed the interests of …their brothers and sisters who went through a world of pain – to the politics of their own movement.” “Stephen Wise, leader of American Zionism and friend of Roosevelt, kept silent about the Holocaust from August to November 1943, implacably opposed to rescuing Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany if it meant them going anywhere but Palestine.” “The Zionist movement believed that saving Jews in places other than Palestine would simply transfer anti-Semitism to another country. It would perpetuate the tragedy of ‘exile’.” “Moshe Shertok proclaimed that: It is Zionism’s fate to be cruel toward the diaspora at times …when this is necessary in order to build the country.”

“There is no doubt that but for churches, especially the Catholic church, tens if not hundreds of thousands more Jews would have perished. The same cannot be said of the Zionist movement, whose deliberate obstruction and sabotage of the rescue efforts of others consigned thousands of Jews to a slow and agonizing death.” David Ben-Gurion said, “For me, Zionist considerations take precedence over Jewish sentiments, Zionism is the most profound thing in Judaism – for a Jew is not automatically a Zionist.” “The weaponization of the Holocaust has led to the marginalization and dispossession of the Palestinians.”

“On 6 October, 500 rabbis staged a march through Washington DC in order to lobby Roosevelt. They marched first to Capitol Hill and then to the US Senate. Vice-President Henry Wallace [my grandpa] went out [as the only politician] to meet them.” “The response of the Zionist movement to the march was hostile because it had been organized by dissident Jews.” [At a NYC event in front of Justice Brennan, some of those rabbis confirmed this story about grandpa.]

Eichmann Trial: “In the late 1940’s and early 1950’s the Holocaust was barely mentioned in Israel. The survivors were an embarrassment and Israelis described them as ‘sapon’ (soap).” “Until 1960 school textbooks contained virtually nothing on the Holocaust.” “The Eichmann trial marked the beginning of a dramatic shift in Israeli perception of the Holocaust.” “The trial was not about Eichmann but how Israel related to the Holocaust. The trial’s purpose was not to prove the guilt of Eichmann, which was self-evident, but to mold Israel’s identity as one of victimhood.” “The trial’s purpose was not so much to understand history as to rewrite it.” “Anti-Zionist Jewish resistance and the failure of the Zionist movement to make the rescue of European Jewry a priority were erased, both from the trial itself and from Israeli memory.” “All other victims of the Nazis went unmentioned.” “Eichmann was an ardent Zionist.”

“When Israelis did talk about the Holocaust, the sentiments they expressed were less likely to be sympathy or sadness for the suffering of the victims and more likely to be denigration of their behavior.” “In Ben-Gurion’s view they were ‘hard, evil, and selfish people and their experiences destroyed what good qualities they had left’.” “The prevailing view in the Yishuv was that holocaust survivors represented the ‘survival of the worst’.” “Zionism is a narrow, tribal form of Jewish nationalism.” Zionists hated Hannah Arendt because she “had turned her back on Israel’s racial nationalism.” “She saw the Jewish diaspora, not the Jewish state, as the center of the Jewish universe, whereas for Zionism ‘the Jewish individual has no existence in the diaspora’.”

Yad Vashem weaponizes the memory of the Holocaust; it is Israel’s Holocaust propaganda museum. “The Holocaust enabled Israel to reverse roles. It became the victim, and the Palestinians became the oppressor.” Holocaust memorials “provide a distorted Hollywood version of the Holocaust history, whose purpose is to eliminate anti-imperialist, anti-racist or anti-fascist politics.” Arabs who visit Yad Vashem “are often racially abused.”

Zionism: “Israel may be a ‘Jewish’ state racially, but it subscribes to none of the values that Jews have traditionally been associated with such as solidarity with the oppressed and welcoming the stranger.” “Fighting anti-Semitism was alien to the very concept of Zionism. Saving Jews anywhere but Palestine contradicted the very raison d’etre of Zionism.” Zionist historian Edwin Black said that with the famous Ha’avara Agreement, “the Zionist movement had made an investment in the survival of the Nazi regime.”

Zionism caused DP Deaths: “If the Soviet Union had not become a refuge for an estimated 1.5 million Jews, the number of Jews who would have perished would have exceeded seven million. The Zionist movement’s contribution to saving Jewish lives during the Holocaust was, as Elie Wiesel observed, negligible.” Elie Wiesel admitted that Zionists helped their own over saving the Jews (p.425). “Zionism was at its heart a Jewish supremacist, settler-colonial project intended to perpetuate the Jewish people/race. That is why, even today, abortion and intermarriage are compared to the losses in the Holocaust. To Zionism the survival of individual Jews means nothing. This explains Ben-Gurion’s infamous speech when he said he would rather save half of Germany’s Jewish children in Palestine than all of them in England.” “Far from saving European Jewry, Zionism was an obstacle to their rescue. There isn’t one single instance of the Zionist movement campaigning for the UN or Britain to lower their immigration barriers or admit refugees from Nazism.” “There was no section of the Zionist movement which contemplated, still less attempted, the overthrow of Hitler.”

Questions: Did Zionist settlers fleeing Nazi persecution have the right to do to Palestinians what was done to them? “Did the Irish famine justify Irish-American participation in the extermination of the native population of North America?”

“If it is anti-Semitic to criticize Israel then what that means is that something can be anti-Semitic even though it is true.” “An SS officer who was responsible for the murder of at least 100,000 people and was wanted by the Allies as a war criminal, was employed by the Israeli secret service. Instead of bringing him to justice it paid for his services and helped him escape to South America (from 2007 Haaretz article).” “Supporters of the settlers shout ‘Hitler was right’ at Jewish peace activists (p.356).” “Nakba denial is kosher.”

Because of its length, the rest of this review continues in the comment section below... amazing book!

[hal]

good article by this author published on the Electronic Intifada regarding the weaponization of the Holocaust in Zionist propaganda to justify the ethnic cleansing of Palestine : https://electronicintifada.net/conten...

i’m def interested in reading more of his work 🍉🍉

[K.A.L.M · Rating 5 out of 5]

Packed with information! Probably has the most citations of any book I've ever read so intent is the author on ensuring he backs up every claim and reference he makes! It's eye opening and some of it is very hard to read! Were ever a people more let down by their so-called leaders than the Jewish victims of the Holocaust? Those single minded Leaders had a very specific goal on the altar of which they seemingly were prepared to sacrifice anyone! The repercussions of this live on to this day!

[Frumenty · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have procrastinated about reviewing this for nearly 2 years, partly fearful that I couldn't do it justice but also reluctant to involve myself in a debate about the legitimacy of Zionism. Many centuries of (often violent) antisemitism in Europe provided one impetus for the foundation and growth of the Zionist movement. While it was not widely embraced by European Jewry, it would be strange indeed had there not been a significant constituency of Jews passionately committed to the idea. Considered as one among many nationalisms conceived in the 19th century, it is unremarkable apart from the absence of a large population of its people on the land in which the nationalists aspired to reside. Few today would question the validity of the aspirations of the likes of Cavour, Mazzini, and Garibaldi in creating a nation-state for the Italians, so why not a nation-state for the Jews? The difficulty is territory. The myth that Palestine was a land without people (waiting for ‘a people without land’) is given the lie by the violent expulsion of 750,000 Palestinians in 1947, and more than 75 years of ongoing conflict since.

This book opens a huge can of worms regarding the role of Zionists and Zionist organisations in frustrating efforts to mitigate genocidal harm committed by the German Nazi regime against European Jews, and Zionist efforts to exploit the situation in Europe for political gain. Zionism, as Greenstein presents it, is on a par with the Bolshevism of Stalin in its ruthless disregard for the lives of those it purports to serve. By promoting the notion that the Jews were forever aliens in Europe, Zionism abetted the antisemitic propaganda and programmes of the Nazi regime. It is noteworthy that Zionism has historically had a good press in the most virulently antisemitic circles.

I’m not sure that I’ve ever before taken such a deep dive into the history of the Holocaust. Greenstein has one checking Wikipedia repeatedly for outlines of such topics as the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, the Holocaust in Hungary, the Anti-Nazi Boycott, and more. It’s quite an education. The book reviews the several theatres in which the ‘Final Solution’ was carried out, evaluating the influence of Zionism and Zionists on outcomes. With a few honourable exceptions (eg. the Warsaw resistance fighter Zyvia Lubetkin), Zionists opted for a policy of abandoning the diaspora to their fate, even doing deals with the Nazis for the benefit of Jewish settlers in Palestine. For myself, the most disturbing revelation was the Ha’avara Agreement of 1933, between Nazi Germany and Zionist organisations. By permitting German Jewish emigrants to Palestine to transfer a portion of their assets to Palestine in the form of German manufactures and other goods, it circumvented the 1933 worldwide Anti-Nazi Boycott which, Greenstein asserts (p.118), ‘threatened to topple the Hitler regime in its first year.’ Additionally, Jewish Palestine bartered the bulk of Palestine’s crop of oranges for German goods, and in time began to act as agent for the sale of German goods in the Middle East and Cyprus. Whether or not the Boycott might have led to the overthrow of the Nazi regime is immaterial to the question of the morality of the Ha’avara Agreement and of subsequent Zionist cooperation with the German regime. Greenstein makes a persuasive case that Zionism, as exemplified by its history, is a morally bankrupt ideology.

The book is in three parts: before, during, and after the Holocaust. Part 3 discusses Israel’s weaponisation of the memory of the Holocaust. Greenstein calls Yad Vashem, Israel’s Holocaust memorial, a ‘diplomatic laundromat’ by means of which each and every outrage committed by Israel, even genocide, can be flushed away, and Israel is never held to account. He traces the evolution of official attitudes to the Holocaust in Israel, from silence and contempt for the victims, to systematic censorship and distortion of survivor testimony, to appropriation of selected narratives to serve purposes of nationalistic propaganda. In the immediate aftermath of the War, there were just too many difficult questions to be answered regarding inaction and even obstruction by Zionists in respect of efforts to rescue European Jews. Zionists had preferred to exploit antisemitism rather than combat it. It was only sometime after the 1961 trial of Adolf Eichmann that the Holocaust and Auschwitz became an undisputed fixture of Israeli national identity.

Greenstein’s footnoting is idiosyncratic, quite unlike the conventions of any academic style guide that I’ve ever seen. He makes much use of ‘tiny URLs,’ a facility that I was aware of but have never before seen employed. Nevertheless, he is no less punctilious about providing documentation than the most pedantic academic. The fact that a small number of the ‘tiny URL’ links are broken is regrettable, but given the sheer weight of evidence he presents does nothing to vitiate his case. This is a monumental work of documentation which, if one were minded to dispute its findings, would require years of sedulous application to answer with any persuasive force. This is a very important book, and should, in the context of ongoing hostilities in Gaza and Lebanon, be widely read.

[Douglas Kim · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is Norman Finklestein's "The Holocaust Industry" on steroids. While Finklestein's book was illuminating on how Zionists repurposed the Holocaust for their own designs and grift, Greenstein goes even further, showing that Zionists not only didn't help Jews during the Holocaust, they promoted Nazis in the initial stages of the regime and also may have had agents that aided SS leaders of the Holocaust like Adolf Eichmann.

This is probably due to the fact that Greenstein is an unashamed Marxist Leninist, in addition to being a son of an Orthodox Rabbi who fought against Oswald Mosley, a fascist politician in the UK during the Nazi rise. Greenstein himself was kicked out of the Labour party for "anti-semitism", adding to the legitimacy of his claims.

From learning how Zionists effectively ended the global Nazi boycott in 1933 with the Ha'vaara Agreement, using refugee money to buy Nazi weapons (probably for later use during the Nakba), Hungarian Zionist Kastzner exchanging 500k Hungarian Jews with Eichmann for several hundred Jews of "high Zionist stock" and using Mossad to eliminate Eichmann soon after that revelation (while being able to grab him at any time before 1959), this book has every single moment of Zionist collaboration with the Nazis that kept me in total astonishment at the brazenness of their perfidy and their hypocrisy. Zionists were openly supporting Hitler until around 1941, and only started denouncing the Holocaust after the Eichmann trials and the Six Day War provided opportunism for Zionists to use it for their own nefarious purposes, given that they were literally the FIRST Holocaust deniers in history, as they ran interference against Soviet reports of Operation Barbarossa SS Einszatsgruppen killings and prevented American/British forces from action against Auschwitz railway lines in the middle stages of the war.

This is a MUST read for any anti-imperialist against the Satanic criminal state of Israel.

[Marc Bedard Pelchat · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is a hard read because the level of information is way beyond almost anything the helps comprehend the current situation in Palestine. It is also mind-boggling and almost unbearable how fanaticism and ideologies can turn the people into such a level of ugliness of the human mind. I think zionism is worse than nazism. The collaboration of the zionists with the nazi regime is obvious. That is what makes it worse. The silence of the West in the 1930s and 1940s (European and US governments) is equal to what's going on in Palestine in 2025. The 'never again' is totally meaningless.

[Al Owski · Rating 3 out of 5]

An exhaustive exploration of the history of Zionism and I do mean exhaustive. I started this book to learn about the birth of Zionism in Europe and the consequences of that today. I have read enough to get a pretty good picture. Tony Greenstein's research is thorough researched and footnoted. So if you want to learn the history, this is the book to read.

[Deeg · Rating 4 out of 5]

lots of info but not well organized

The author has put together a lot of information. The book is poorly organized and chapters skip back and forth in time. This is made worse by the authors failure to include full dates (I.e. years). Still it is a strong reference.

[Rchard Carabine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thoroughly researched account of the role Zionism played in World War Two and the creation of Israel. The sources are robust and the analysis first-rate. An essential read.

[Ali · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a must read for everyone!

[Robbie McLean · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is an education. Essential reading.