These next few months for the Board–from July-September 1944, are really the busiest period in their history. Hundreds–literally hundreds–of cables, memos, and correspondence are written and received by the WRB every day. All the representatives are out in the field; there are rumors of ransom negotiations; refugees are arriving in Turkey, North Africa, and Switzerland; and (perhaps most importantly) the armies of the western Allies are breaking out of the Normandy area and streaming towards Paris, Belgium, Germany.
So of course, I’m going to start with something that seems utterly ridiculous, and is only a little less ridiculous than it seems. Eri Jabotinsky, the representative of the Emergency Committee to Save the Jewish People, is still trying to have any success in Turkey. He has almost no money and none of his ideas seem to be gaining any traction (mainly because he has very little knowledge of the diplomatic negotiations going on, so he always seems to be a few steps behind). On July 20th–while thousands of miles away, von Stauffenberg and other plotters attempt to assassinate Hitler–Jabotinsky asks Ira Hirschmann to transmit this cable to Congressman Andrew Somers, who was one of the ECSJPE’s main Congressional supporters. In it, Jabotinsky asks Somers to gather a group of prominent Americans to send a cable to the president of Turkey’s DENTIST, to thank him for his humanitarian efforts and to ask him to use his influence to convince Turkey to continue humanitarian efforts. I laughed at this at first, but then learned that the dentist apparently was quite influential. Still, as far as I know, Somers did not rally Congressmen to petition the Turkish dentist.
