Arthur R. Butz – The Hoax Of The Twentieth Century

Arthur R. Butz, The Hoax of the Twentieth Century
to insist on) revealed that, in response to a request by Wise, Welles had cabled
Harrison in April to meet with Riegner and transmit new information that Riegner
was supposed to have obtained. The confused Harrison did as requested
(Riegner’s information had to do with proposals to assist Jewish refugees in
France and Romania) and also remarked to Welles that such material should not
be subjected to the restriction imposed by the February 10 message.
Morgenthau was victorious in the State-Treasury collision; Roosevelt, drawn
into the issue, sided with him by establishing in January 1944 the so-called War
Refugee Board consisting of Morgenthau, Hull, and Secretary of War Stimson.
However, the executive director was “Morgenthau’s fair haired boy,” John Pehle,
and Josiah DuBois was the general counsel. It was thus Morgenthau’s Board. The
WRB naturally acquired the powers that had been held by the three Government
Departments that were involved in the proposed projects for taking Jews out of
Europe. Thus, the State Department became committed to appointing special attachés
with diplomatic status on the recommendation of the Board (the UNRRA –
United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration – set up the previous
November, was to have a similar function but only after the war ended). 133
In order to completely grasp the nature of its development and its import in
terms of our subject, we should go beyond noting the obvious fact that the WRB
was to serve, to a great extent, simply as an instrument of the World Jewish Congress
and other Zionist organizations. The Communist apparatus was also through
one of the directors involved, for the person to whom Morgenthau had delegated
all of the Treasury’s powers in the areas relevant to the WRB was Harry Dexter
White, later exposed as a Soviet agent. White became a member of Morgenthau’s
inner circle in the spring of 1938. A week after Pearl Harbor, Morgenthau announced
that “on and after this date, Mr. Harry D. White, Assistant to the Secretary,
will assume full responsibility for all matters with which the Treasury Department
has to deal having a bearing on foreign relations […].” The extreme
generality of the wording of this order, especially the phrase “having a bearing
on,” were to create grand opportunities for White in the years ahead. In early
1943, Morgenthau amplified White’s responsibilities:
“Effective this date, I would like you to take supervision over and assume
full responsibility for Treasury’s participation in all economic and financial
matters […] in connection with the operations of the Army and Navy and the
civilian affairs in the foreign areas in which our Armed Forces are operating
or are likely to operate. This will, of course, include general liaison with the
State Department, Army and Navy, and other departments or agencies and
representatives of foreign governments on these matters.”
White, who became an Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in early 1945, took
full advantage of these powers, especially in connection with occupation policy in
Germany. It is also evident that, because the WRB was to a large degree an arm of
the Treasury, its operations fell into White’s domain. It is also worth remarking
that the general counsel of the WRB, DuBois, was “closely associated” with the
133
88
New York Times (Jan. 22, 1943), 6; (May 13, 1943), 8; (Sep. 5, 1943), 7; (Sep. 6, 1943), 7.23,
1944), 11.