I’ve told you before about some of the ways in which the WRB didn’t skirt the rules, per se, but were tricky. Today’s document is an example of that. The topic–encouraging Turkey to extend transit visas to Jews who show up on the land borders, not just those who arrive by sea–is irrelevant. Look at this first memo, dated June 15, 1944. You can always tell who drafted the memo by looking at the very bottom left of the document, where the author is listed. This one says “LSLesser,” or “Lawrence Lesser,” one of the WRB’s assistant executive directors. The “als” is the secretary who typed the document.
Okay, now scroll down.
Now look at this one. It’s identical, except for the signature, which says that this memo is being submitted by Dr. Baruch Korff, representing various Orthodox Jewish organizations. The memo is dated the next day, and if you look at the one with Lesser’s signature, you can see that there’s a note saying he sent a copy of Korff. So the WRB drafted this memo for Korff to issue, so the request would be officially coming from a third party rather than from the US government.
Even more fun, in the WRB papers, the Lesser copy is in part one of the microfilm, reel 24. The Korff copy is in part 2 of the microfilm, reel 20. Unless you’re following my methodology, there’s no way to put these two documents together–or the true story behind them.
