r/JewsOfConscience • u/RabbitNo4718 • Oct 02 '24

History Folke Bernadotte, the Diplomat Who Saved 31,000 Jews and Non-Jews from Nazi Germany and Was Assassinated by Zionists for Advocating Palestinian Rights

194 Upvotes

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Rabbi David Mivasair has a GoFundMe to help provide basis necessities for the Palestinians of Gaza. If it is within your means, this is the link:

https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-gaza-families-survive

Rabbi Mivasair writes:

I want to add that the need is not only for money. There is a huge need for people there to simply have someone NOT there who expresses care toward them, who listens to them, who witnesses with compassion and empathy. I think of the people who scrawled on the walls of barracks in Nazi concentration camps "if only someone on the outside knew what they are doing to us here". I want to be the people who let them know that we do care, we are listening, we are trying to help, and they can tell us what is going on in their lives.

Please consider signing this petition which calls for a ceasefire and arms embargo, started by Rabbi Brant Rosen of Tzedek Chicago.

https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/not-another-bomb-sign-on-letter?source=direct_link&referrer=group-jvp-2

Excerpt:

We know that in order to achieve a permanent ceasefire in Gaza, the U.S. must stop arming Israel’s war and occupation against Palestinians. That’s why we are calling for an immediate embargo on US arms to Israel. Join us in calling on presidential candidate Kamala Harris to distance herself from Biden’s disastrous policy of arming Israel’s ongoing genocide and occupation in Palestine.

Not another bomb!

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14

u/BerlinJohn1985 Oct 02 '24

Just to be clear, that number breaks down to 450 Jews, 30,550 Non-Jews from several countries. Normally, that headline I would say is no problem, but its reference to his assination by Lehi is setting up a dynamic of ungratefulness.

However, to still be fair, that was just from the Theresienstadt camp. There were more rescues with thousands of more prisoners. But these were more focused on rescuing Scandanavian citizens, with Jews and Poles being a smaller concern. These were good things, but that headline seems to imply the missions held Jews as a main focus, which is misleading.

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u/oncothrow Hasidim Oct 02 '24 edited Oct 02 '24

Normally, that headline I would say is no problem, but its reference to his assination by Lehi is setting up a dynamic of ungratefulness.

Isn’t it? People have been deemed "Righteous among the Nations " for less. His name isn't amongst them. Rather he rescued hundreds of Jews from the Nazis and was instead assassinated.

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u/BerlinJohn1985 Oct 02 '24

Usually Righteous Among the Nations involves someone risking their own lives to save Jews. I don't believe Bernadotte was ever in danger, he was a diplomat who negotiated with Nazi officials. The point I was making was not he deserved what he got, aboslutely not, nor that he did not do heroic things, he did, but only that the headline is misleading and not very nuanced. And that his efforts were not specifically about helping Jews escape the death camps, but was more about recovering Western Europeans who were being held by the Nazi regime. It doesn't make his murder at the hands of Lehi any less than Zionist bullshit.

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u/oncothrow Hasidim Oct 02 '24 edited Oct 02 '24

Usually Righteous Among the Nations involves someone risking their own lives to save Jews. I don't believe Bernadotte was ever in danger, he was a diplomat who negotiated with Nazi officials.

He escorted the convoys himself and himself came under strafing fire from allied planes.

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u/skkkkkt Oct 02 '24

I'm sorry but that's weird, no one would put themselves in danger to save someone Jewish or not, unless it's a very close relation, like a parent a son/daughter, I'm just saying the concept of righteous among nations abd if it's true you should put yourself in danger to someone is kinda narcissistic

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u/rapchee Oct 02 '24

i guess if he rescued 450 jews and just 10 non-jews, he would've been spared

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u/Ok_Editor_710 Non-denominational Oct 03 '24

I am shocked but not surprised. I also had no knowledge of this piece of history