Tuesday, September 09, 2008

Hillel Kook aka Peter Bergson

Yellow Badge appears on  the cover page of a book about Hillel Kook aka Peter Bergson

(Wyman, David S., Medoff, Rafael. A Race Against Death: Peter Bergson, America, and the Holocaust. New Press, 2004. ISBN 1-56584-856-X). 

From David Wyman’s website:

Hillel Kook (known as Peter Bergson) succeeded in shattering the wall of silence that surrounded news about Hitler's annihilation of the Jews.

During World War II, Kook spearheaded an extraordinary campaign of public rallies, hard-hitting newspaper advertisements, and lobbying in Congress that forced America to confront the Holocaust. Whether by mobilizing hundreds of rabbis to march on Washington, or by recruiting Hollywood celebrities such as Edward G. Robinson and Eddie Cantor to support the Jewish cause, Kook displayed an uncanny ability to take a long-ignored issue and propel it to the forefront of public interest.

Picture is courtesy of Rafael Medoff.

Copyright: Wyman, David S., Medoff, Rafael 2008