LEITERS
scription, and they wrote to me in
New York.
I refused the endorsement, saying
that Wolfgang's parents did not
know we were Jews and that even if
they suspected we were, they still did
not deserve
to
be honored for not
having had us killed. It is as if, as I
wrote to Wolfgang, "a driver would
be so honored for not running over
someone although he could have
done so with impunity. Our world
has not yet sunk that low."
Wolfgang's answer followed imme–
diately. "Dear Yehuda: Who do you
think you are? A six-foot tall Aryan?
If not for my father, you would have
been a heap of ashes in Auschwitz."
He got his parents into Mr. Paldiel's
garden without my vote in 1964.
I am writing all this because, in
my opinion, Cynthia Ozick is prob–
ably the most important Jewish voice
on the issue of the Holocaust, and
she owes it to all of us to remain
precise, definite, and to not give the
world an option to misread her po–
sition.
Yehuda Nir, M.D.
New York, NY
Cynthia Ozick replies:
Yehuda Nir and I have talked on
the telephone about my essay, and
with considerable candor; I am glad
he has decided to air his disappoint–
ment with me in writing. (The late
Lucy Dawidowicz's advice about
telling your ideas is that it ought to
be done wholesale, not retail.) Yet I
am not sure what Dr. Nir intends
169
when he hugely inflates my putative
"importance as a Jewish voice on the
issue of the Holocaust," since I am
certain he would agree that the only
truly resonant voices are, like his
own, those of the survivors and wit–
nesses. Nor am I sure what Gunter
Grass has to do with the subject of
Jews saved by Gentiles; in any event,
Dr. Nir is using quotation marks
imprecisely, choosing thereby to
speak on my behalf on matters I have
chosen not to examine in print. The
point I was making (Dr. Nir has not
succeeded in conveying it) was that
those intellectuals - Jewish and
Gentile, usually of the left - who oc–
casionally weep in public about the
German murders are crying crocodile
tears if, at the same time, they express
support for the PLO "cause," suc–
cinctly articulated in the ruthless
Article 21 of the PLO charter, and
never repudiated, even during the
current negotiations. Mourning dead
Jews is futile if you are backing those
who are daily terrorizing living Jews.
But all that is entirely irrelevant
to Dr. Nir's thesis, which, as I under–
stand it, is that there were literally no
Gentiles at all who can be said to
have saved Jewish lives out of gen–
uine altruism, humanity, or compas–
sion - Yad Vashem's Avenue of
Righteous Gentiles notwithstanding.
I recall how shocked I was on a
visit to Denmark orne years ago,
when a group of Danish Jews drew
me aside to whisper their similar
skepticism. In the first place, they
said, there were many more Danish
Nazis than there were Danes in the
Resistance; and in the second place,
