Collaborators, Moral Objectors and Fellow Travelers. The Actions, Reactions and Inactions of 13 Nazi-era European Leaders

By David Weiss

Introduction:

Fellow Traveler: A person who is not a member of a particular group or political party, but who sympathizes with the group's aims and policies. —(definition from Oxford Language Dictionary)

The term Fellow Traveler is often used in relation to communist nations, but it is even more relevant when discussing fascism. When Stalin began setting up the Soviet satellite nations he searched for allies in places like Romania, Bulgaria, Poland, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia. While Soviet agents and operatives were already infiltrating these nations, Stalin wanted and needed more support from local and national-level politicians. He found this support coming from a variety of people who shared many Soviet beliefs and Stalin's basic world vision. Hitler needed Fellow Travelers for the same reasons and used them throughout his reign of terror.

The Nazis main philosophical pillars were anti-Semitism and the belief that some ethnicities are superior to others. Hitler used these two core beliefs to reach out to potential Fellow Travelers. Leaders like Josef Tiso and Miklos Horthy had great antipathy toward Jews. Hitler used this commonality to further their relationship. Mussolini and Ion Antonescu shared Hitler's belief in ethnic superiority. This core belief led to the strong alliances between Germany, Italy, and Romania. Even though Hitler's Axis partners were not technically Nazis, they shared certain core, crucial beliefs. Their goals were not always the same as Hitler's, but there was significant overlap. In many cases, fear and hatred of communism and the Soviet Union were also shared beliefs. Ultimately, Hitler needed more than just Nazis to take over Europe. He needed co-collaborators, co-conspirators, and Fellow Travelers.

A moral objector is a person who opposes the goals of the aggressor. During the 1930's and early 1940's this meant openly opposing anti-Semitism and the belief in a Master Race. Even if their country could have found benefit to aligning with Hitler, a moral objector simply would not agree to such an alliance. In some cases, like with Prince Paul of Yugoslavia, a leader could be a moral objector but still be forced into an alliance with the Nazis. In cases such as this, leaders threw obstacles into the Nazi military and political operations.

Some of the leaders, such as Enver Hoxha and Vaclav Havel, are included in this book for special reasons. Enver Hoxha came to power in Albania due to his successful guerilla war against the Nazis in 1944. Hoxha and his informal army drove the Nazis out of the country. Hoxha, however, unleashed forty-plus years of terror on his people. The Nazi invasion of Albania led directly to Hoxha's takeover which imprisoned and abused Albania's population until the early 1990's.

Czechoslovakia was taken over by the Soviet Union after World War II. This was, for the most part, a reaction to the terror of the Nazis. Stalin wanted a sphere of influence to protect his nation and to help expand its influence. Oppressive Soviet rule in Czechoslovakia lasted until the very last days of 1989.  Vaclav Havel and his pro-Democratic partners in Czechoslovakia put an end to this Moscow-dominated rule. Havel had to fight the history of both communism and Nazism. When Havel spoke to the liberated people of Prague on New Years Eve 1990 the country was finally back to its rightful, pre-Nazi existence. The aftershocks of Hitler's regime choked both Albanian and Czechoslovak life for half a century.

These thirteen men were guided and mis-guided by their convictions and by the desires of their citizens. Some of these leaders were deeply anti-Semitic and others were highly ethical Humanists. This book gives readers an important view of the Holocaust and some of the men who helped and hindered Hitler.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Holocaust Legacy Books
• Release date: Jan 3, 2024
• ISBN: 9798224330393

Book preview

Collaborators, Moral Objectors and Fellow Travelers

The Actions, Reactions and Inactions

of 13 Nazi-era European Leaders

Table of Contents:

About the Author and Dedication

Introduction

Miklos Horthy *Short on Courage*

Josef Pilsudski *The Greatest Polish Patriot*

Ion Antonescu  *Romania’s Genocidal Collaborator*

Tomas Garrigue Masaryk *The Consummate Mensch*

Phillipe Petain  *A Legacy Disgraced*

Edvard Benes  *A Rock and a Hard Place*

Benito Mussolini  *Wrong on All Counts*

Vaclav Havel  *Ending the 45 Year Czechoslovak Nightmare*

Josef Tiso  *From Anti-Semitism to Mass Murder*

Boris III of Bulgaria  *Walking the Tightrope*

Enver Hoxha  *The Post-Nazi Nightmare: Hoxha’s Forty Years of Hell*

Prince Paul of Yugoslavia  *No Good Options*

Jan Masaryk  *The Truth Prevails, But It’s a Chore*

My 8 other Holocaust Legacy Books

About the Author and Dedication:

I am, first and foremost, the grandson of four Holocaust Survivors. My grandparents all had an important role in my upbringing and in my life. Grandma and Grandpa Grinbaum, my maternal grandparents, were born in Poland and suffered through life in the ghetto, slave labor and the concentration camps. With almost their entire family gone, my grandparents got married just weeks after meeting one another in the Kielce Displaced Persons Camp. They left Kielce just weeks before it was attacked by the local Polish population, killing dozens of Holocaust Survivors. Even though the Holocaust was over their struggles continued. Grandma and Grandpa eventually made it to Belgium where they lived until 1961. After all their struggles my grandparents were finally allowed to make their way to the United States.

My paternal grandparents were born in present-day Slovakia. Their lives and their loved ones were torn away when Slovakia broke apart from Czechoslovakia and became a Nazi Protectorate in 1939. Both of my grandparents lost their loved ones and just about everything else. My grandmother survived by escaping from a deportation center window and finding places to hide in her hometown of Trnava. My grandfather was an economically Important Person and a Slave Laborer and then went into hiding during the final year of the war. After liberation they got married and built a new life in re-built Czechoslovakia. Unfortunately, the communist takeover began and by 1949 and they joined most of Slovakia’s Jews and left for the new nation of Israel. In 1952 my grandparents were able to immigrate to the United States to join my grandmother’s one surviving sister (out of six siblings).

My maternal grandparents, the Grinbaums, lived into their late eighties. My grandmother died in 2009 and my grandfather passed away in 2012. My Grandma Weiss lived to be ninety-six-years-old and passed away in 2002. My Grandpa Weiss also died in 2002 at the age of eighty-seven. While I have exact dates for the Weiss’s, the Grinbaums are a different story. My Grandpa Grinbaum changed his name and his age several times and genuinely did not remember his real birthday. My Grandma Grinbaum always used a certain birthdate, but in her early documents there is a different date posted. For me, this symbolizes a small piece of their enormous suffering. Absolutely everything was taken from them, even the basics of their identity.

I was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and have lived in the area my whole life. I graduated from Cardinal Stritch University and majored in Elementary Education and from Viterbo University where I earned a master’s degree in education. I spent eleven years as an elementary school teacher and have been teaching at the college level for the past thirteen years. In 2015 I wrote my first book which was about my grandparents’ Holocaust experiences. I have now written eight books about my grandparents and about the Holocaust in general. www.HolocaustLegacyBooks.com has become a labor of love for me. I also help other people document their own family’s Holocaust history. I live just outside of Milwaukee with my wife and our daughter. My parents are still alive and live in the Milwaukee area.

I dedicate this book to my grandparents. All four of my grandparents lived incredible lives which were filled with tragedies they never could have imagined. As children in the old country they experienced anti-Semitism on a  daily basis yet never imagined where it would lead. I had the four greatest grandparents I could have asked for. They lived great lives filled with integrity, purpose, and love. It has been the honor of a lifetime to be the grandson of four amazing Holocaust Survivors.

Introduction:

Fellow Traveler: A person who is not a member of a particular group or political party, but who sympathizes with the group's aims and policies. —(definition from Oxford Language Dictionary)

When Adolf Hitler’s time in the military came to an end following World War I, he was short on talent and heavy on rage. Hitler moved to Vienna, Austria’s largest city and one of the crown jewels of Europe. Unable to find success as an artist, he began seeking like-minded individuals to join him in his endless outrage. Once Hitler forged his way to the summit of the German power-structure he found a vast supply of like-minded murderers, scapegoats and Fellow Travelers. Hitler utilized all three groups to perpetuate one of the most heinous genocides in history.

The Holocaust was a crime against the Jewish people. While millions of other minorities and political prisoners were killed by the Nazis, the Holocaust was, first and foremost, Hitler’s attempt to get rid of the world’s Jews. He knew the deep level of anti-Semitism that had festered in Europe for centuries. With the continent slowly recovering from the painful wounds of World War I, Hitler weaved together a false narrative and blamed Jews for the ills of the world. With his like-minded henchmen on-board and scapegoats to rail against, all Hitler needed were Fellow Travelers.

The term Fellow Traveler is often used in relation to communist nations, but it is even more relevant when discussing fascism. When Stalin began setting up the Soviet satellite nations he searched for allies in places like Romania, Bulgaria, Poland, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia. While Soviet agents and operatives were already infiltrating these nations, Stalin wanted and needed more support from local and national-level politicians. He found this support coming from a variety of people who shared many Soviet beliefs and Stalin’s basic world vision. Hitler needed Fellow Travelers for the same reasons and used them throughout his reign of terror.

The Nazis main philosophical pillars were anti-Semitism and the belief that some ethnicities are superior to others. Hitler used these two core beliefs to reach out to potential Fellow Travelers. Leaders like Josef Tiso and Miklos Horthy had great antipathy toward Jews. Hitler used this commonality to further their relationship. Mussolini and Ion Antonescu shared Hitler’s belief in ethnic superiority. This core belief led to the strong alliances between Germany, Italy, and Romania. Even though Hitler’s Axis partners were not technically Nazis, they shared certain core, crucial beliefs. Their goals were not always the same as Hitler’s, but there was significant overlap. In many cases, fear and hatred of communism and the Soviet Union were also shared beliefs. Ultimately, Hitler needed more than just Nazis to take over Europe. He needed co-collaborators, co-conspirators, and Fellow Travelers.

A moral objector is a person who opposes the goals of the aggressor. During the 1930’s and early 1940’s this meant openly opposing anti-Semitism and the belief in a Master Race. Even if their country could have found benefit to aligning with Hitler, a moral objector simply would not agree to such an alliance. In some cases, like with Prince Paul of Yugoslavia, a leader could be a