Posted on 06/13/2006 10:49:22 AM PDT by anotherview
A few months ago, Secretary of State Colin Powell gave a posthumous award for "constructive dissent" to Hiram (or Harry) Bingham, IV. For over fifty years, the State Department resisted any attempt to honor Bingham. For them he was an insubordinate member of the US diplomatic service, a dangerous maverick who was eventually demoted. Now, after his death, he has been officially recognized as a hero.
Bingham came from an illustrious family. His father (on whom the fictional character Indiana Jones was based) was the archeologist who unearthed the Inca City of Machu Picchu, Peru, in 1911. Harry entered the US diplomatic service and, in 1939, was posted to Marseilles, France, as American Vice-Consul.
The USA was then neutral and, not wishing to annoy Marshal Petain's puppet Vichy regime, President Roosevelt's government ordered its representatives in Marseilles not to grant visas to any Jews . Bingham found this policy immoral and, risking his career, did all in his power to undermine it.
In defiance of his bosses in Washington, he granted over 2,500 USA visas to Jewish and other refugees, including the artists Marc Chagall and Max Ernst and the family of the writer Thomas Mann. He also sheltered Jews in his Marseilles home, and obtained forged identity papers to help Jews in their dangerous journeys across Europe. He worked with the French underground to smuggle Jews out of France into Franco's Spain or across the Mediterranean and even contributed to their expenses out of his own pocket. In 1941,
Washington lost patience with him. He was sent to Argentina, where later he continued to annoy his superiors by reporting on the movements of Nazi war criminals.
Eventually, he was forced out of the American diplomatic service completely. Bingham died almost penniless in 1988. Little was known of his extraordinary activities until his son found some letters in his belongings after his death. He has now been honored by many groups and organizations including the United Nations and the State of Israel.
I guess that wouldn't Captain Bingham on "McHale's Navy"...
Well, at least he never rounded up people and marched them into camps based on their nationality.
Oh wait...
Hmmmm? Do the Nazis and Arabs have something in common.
Man, that is some story. Nice Post.
You forgot the commie apologist phase but that may be a permanent condition.
Could you please give an opinion here?
Good ol' Eleanor had her noted views on Jews and Catholics as well.
He was protected and glorified by the press, and still is.
If you will accept the opinion of another FReeper who is a bit familiar with the issues, Jews have a problem discerning the difference between social justice and socialism.
The tattered remnant not reduced to ashes by the National Socialists (Nazi's) went to Israel and founded a socialist theocracy.
Not their leader is so far to the left that he is giving away everything to the Sand Savages. Even his daughter is participating in the pro Pali demonstrations, thereby proving the rot of socialism in Israel is indeed inbred, and like a spoiling fish, starts at the head.
The Arabs need not fight Israel - give 'em time enough and their own leftist whackos will destroy Israel for them.
As the British would say, "Pity".
Wow!
Thank you! I think I know about this now.
Actually, American political asylum laws do, in fact, allow any Sudanese or Turkish Kurds or Tibetans or any other person who is peresecuted to enter the United States once granted asylum. Granted more Cubans have taken advantage of this law than Sudanese or Tibetans but the law would apply equally to them. Yes, there was a moral imperitive then and there is one now. There is no need to violate immigration laws. Indeed, the only thing wrong with American immigration law today is that it isn't enforced. If illegal aliens were deported promptly there wouldn't be a problem, would there?
It's not about political correctness. It is about doing what is right.
Oh, and FWIW, there is nothing wrong with *legal*, controlled immigration. America was built by immigrants who came here, learned the language, and became part of the fabric of American society. There is everything wrong with illegal immigration.
Yes, indeed. The true portrait of the late Harry Bingham has very little in common with the portrait pained by his son Robert Kim Bingham.
In short, Harry Bingham was a good man but no hero of the Holocaust. Israel and Yad Vashem rejected to award him with the 'Righteous Among Nations' title that is given to anyone able to prove that he/she was able to save even one single Jewish life from the Holocaust. According to Yad Vashem --that is the final authority in those matters, no evidence exists to support that Hiram "Harry" Bingham saved even one single Jewish life from the Holocaust.
As to WHY Harry Bingham got a stamp and honored by Collins Power? --that is because the Bingham family as one of the oldest Connecticut families has a tremendous clout that, in the end, was able to succeed in the concocted portrait of Harry Bingham, who was a drifter all his life living out of the huge fortune of his wife and, who --in the end-- transformed into a hater of Jews and a Holocaust denier.
One cannot help but wonder what values the current United States Postal Service is promoting these days...
God save the values of our country.
It may seem odd, but the truth is that many older American "Jews" don't like Jews.
Many older American "Jews" are atheists and blame religions, including Judaism, for WWII, the Holocaust, and other human tragedies and evils.
My theory is that in the next generation, as these older American "Jews" die off, having passed no knowledge of Judaism or any sense of a Jewish identity to their children, the only Jews who will remain will be religious ones who don't dislike Jews or blame their own religion for historical tragedies and evils.
The phenomenon of American "Jews" who don't like Jews will disappear.
Still an amazing story.
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