In the news today: a historian uncovered an unpublished 1937 article from Winston Churchill, in which he wrote that the Jewish people were "partly responsible for the antagonism for which they suffer".
In the article, Churchill argued that "the wickedness of the persecutors" was not the sole reason for the ill-treatment of Jews down the ages, criticising the "aloofness" of Jewish people from wider society and urging them to make the effort to integrate themselves."
Uncovered: Churchill's warnings about the 'Hebrew bloodsuckers' (articles from The Independent and the Telegraph)
Dr. Toye, the historian, said that "It was certainly quite a shock to read some of these things and it is obviously at odds with the traditional idea we have of Churchill."
For example, Churchill wrote:
"The Jew in England is a representative of his race. Every Jewish money lender recalls Shylock and the idea of the Jews as usurers. And you cannot reasonably expect a struggling clerk or shopkeeper, paying 40 or 50 per cent interest on borrowed money to a "Hebrew bloodsucker", to reflect that, throughout long centuries, almost every other way of life was closed to Jewish people".
The choice of language is especially poignant since, as the Telegraph article points out, the article appeared only a year after Mosley's anti-semitic blackshirts had clashed with Jews and other locals on Cable Street in east London, and just months after Jews in Germany were banned from holding many professional occupations.
In the Independent article, Churchill's biographer suggests that the article may have been penned by a ghostwriter for Churchill who was a member of the anti-Semitic Mosleyite party.
In all this context, it is eerie to read sequences that could have been published in any newspaper today - about immigrants or Muslims. As the Telegraph article points out:
Quote:While he clearly disapproved of their persecution [Churchill] was critical of what he saw as the "refusal" of the Jews to be "absorbed" into the wider society.
In comments that foreshadow the current debate on multiculturalism, Churchill argued that a tendency to form a "distinct and separate community" runs counter to the idea that settlers should be "100 per cent British" irrespective of their race and religion.
"The central fact which dominates the relations of Jew and non-Jew is that the Jew is different," he added. "[He looks different. He thinks differently.*] He has a different tradition and background. He refuses to be absorbed. In every country the Jews form a distinct and separate community - a little state within the state." [..]
"Refugee Jews from Germany may be willing to work for lower wages and under worse conditions than English [people] would look at," he wrote. "If they are allowed to do so, and their numbers are sufficiently large, they may depress the standards of all workers [..]. That, I suggest, is bad citizenship. [..] It creates an atmosphere in which anti-Semitism thrives."
In conclusion, Churchill advised: "I believe that Jews would be wise to avoid too exclusive an association in ordinary matters of business and daily life and that they should, as much as possible, avoid living in little groups and colonies of their own. [..]"
*quote completed from the Independent article.
