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11 Questions for Gerhart M. Riegner 1. How did you feel and what did you think about the fact that your August 1942 telegram was not made public until November 24, after it was confirmed by the State Department when Undersecretary Sumner Welles had a meeting with Rabbi Wise and told him he could release it? and 2. Do you think Rabbi Wise should have publicized the telegram earlier? Please explain. I was not concerned with the publication of the telegram. I had myself asked that the news should be checked by the secret services of the Allies. The essential step was to inform the governments and the leaders of Jewish organizations. This was urgent. Wise respected the instructions by Sumner Welles not to publish the telegram because he was probably afraid that the channel of communications through the State Department would be closed if he did not follow the advice. I do not think one can blame him for that. The time was however not completely lost: Wise informed Justice Frankfurter and asked him to convey the message to President Roosevelt. Our British colleagues, notably Mr. A. L. Easterman, the Political Secretary of the WJC in London, informed all the governments in exile as well as the Soviet ambassador in London. My telegram was reported to two meetings of the American Jewish organizations in New York in September. 3. What kind of information did you provide to Rabbi Wise and others and what methods did you use to communicate this information (telegram, letter, telephone) and did you change how you sent information after you found out about the fact that U. S. State Department didn't give Rabbi Wise the telegram? Open telegrams on the Final Solution were excluded in Switzerland. The Swiss censorship would never have allowed it. Facilities for telephone conversations with foreign countries did not exist during the war. And even normal letters would go in most cases through German censorship. The only sure way of corresponding was through the intermediary of foreign legations. The most important messages were, therefore, sent through the American legation in Bern to Washington and through the British legation in Bern and the Czechoslovakian diplomatic representative in Geneva to London. I used open letters for sending all kinds of reports, extracts from official gazettes in all occupied countries, newspaper clippings, etc.
Approximate Word count = 1529
Approximate Pages = 6.1
(250 words per page double spaced)
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