The Conquerors has been a page turner and an eye opener. I will admit that may not be true for every reader, but this book which the author begun in 1992, after East and West Germany were reunited, was completed in 2001 and 2002, once new archives from the former Soviet Union, England, and the United States were made public, is well worth the read! The research is remarkable, and the years the author waited for new material to be available, enhanced the quality of the final piece.
This book begins with the certainty that World War II is finally coming to an end, and that the Allies are going to soon defeat the Germans. The question, at hand, is what will a defeated Germany look like?
There is a genuine concern, among the allies, that Germany must be dealt with in such a manner that she will not begin another war, having been the aggressors in the Franco-Prussian War, World War I, and World War II. The Soviet Union is set on Germany’s total annihilation, wanting her to pay for the massive destruction she caused in the Soviet Union and the loss of lives. The English, while certainly seeking accountability on Germany’s part, are at the end of the war worried that Germany may be the only thing which stands between Soviet aggression and the rest of Europe. The Americans who are actually the ones holding the power, to make this decision, vacillate between returning Germany to a pastoral set of kingdoms, and rebuilding her into a stabilizing force in Europe.
The most startling factor regarding this book is that Mr. Beschloss has truly written a manuscript voiced by the various historical figures which it covers. Having access to diaries, journals, and previously classified material, has given Mr. Beschloss an opportunity to let his characters speak for themselves. In fact, Mr. Beschloss’ voice is notably absent, but not missed. His commentary being kept at a minimum truly allows the reader to hear President Roosevelt, President Truman, and Mr. Morgenthau Jr., who is perhaps the most interesting of the characters in play.
“During his decade at the Treasury, Roosevelt’s friend had avoided Jewish matters. But the evidence from the death camps radicalized him. When Rabbi Wise, who had celebrated Morgenthau’s marriage to his wife Elinor, brought him a cable from Switzerland and other information about how Hitler’s Germans were murdering millions of Jews, Morgenthau had told him. ‘Please, Stephen, don’t give me the glory details.’ Wise pressed on, explaining how the inmates’ remains were being made into soap. The Nazis he said, were ‘making lampshades out of the skins of the Jews.’” (P 42)
Henry Morgenthau, Jr. was 52 years old when he first heard news of the yet unnamed Holocaust. He had been born to German – Jewish parents who insisted that their son think of himself as an American, and had never so much as attended a Passover seder. His father was a successful business man who made a fortune in real-estate, and helped to finance President Woodrow Wilson’s first presidential campaign, for which Morgenthau Sr., was awarded the ambassadorship to Turkey. Morgenthau Sr., was one of the lone voices in 1915, which called for action during the Armenian genocide in Turkey – his calls were of course unanswered.
The very secular Morgenthau Sr. cautioned his son to follow in his footsteps, in both religion and business. His son however, fled the world of real-estate, which had made his father a millionaire, and instead chose to be a gentleman farmer in Dutchess County, New York, where he became friend and neighbor to Franklyn Roosevelt, a friendship which eventually landed him a place in Roosevelt’s cabinet as Secretary of the Treasury. He thought of himself as being one hundred percent American, which more or less made him bearable to an incredibly anti-Semitic world.
Gerhart Riegner, of the World Jewish Congress, sent a telegram from Geneva, Switzerland, which landed in Mr. Morgenthau’s hands, and changed his life! The telegram spoke of the atrocities in Germany, and stirred Morgenthau Jr. to act, and to become almost a solitary voice, in the Roosevelt administration, calling for action regarding the systematic extermination of European Jews. Like his father before him, Mr. Morgenthau Jr.’s call also went unanswered.
The many comments made by and about President Roosevelt clearly paint a picture of a man who should not have been elected to a fourth term, and a man who was more than slightly anti-Semitic. The author voices what for many is one of the key unanswered questions of World War II and the Roosevelt administration: Knowing with certainty of the Holocaust, why was nothing done to destroy the death camps? Why did the allies not make public statements, calling for the end of genocide; and why did they not announce to the German people that they would be held accountable for what they were allowing to happen?
President Truman clearly had the advantage of time, in controlling how history viewed him. Much of what President Truman says is filtered through the books he wrote, after leaving the White House. Nevertheless, the quotes taken from the many letters he wrote his wife, reveal a man who was both ready for his appointed hour with history, and well understood the role which lay ahead of him.
This book has been sitting on my “to read” list since it was written, and I am glad I finally got around to it.
