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The Jew Who Defeated Hitler. Henry Morgenthau Jr., FDR, and How We Won The War. By Peter Moreira. Amherst: Prometheus Books, 2014. 348pp.
Historians sometimes overlook important actors in history. The case of Henry Morgenthau Jr., FDR's Secretary of the Treasury, is especially puzzling. The oversight is not caused by a paucity of archival material, as Morgenthau maintained a most complete record of his doings. Almost daily he dictated his aggravations to Henrietta Klutz, his faithful secretary, who also served as his bridge to the Jewish community. After he left office he commissioned noted Yale historian Morton Blum to write his political biography. Blum's three volumes, on which Moreira draws heavily, took twelve years to complete. Nonetheless, despite two new books and a TV documentary about the Morgenthau dynasty, his remarkable contribution to the mobilization of American industry to which many trace the ultimate defeat of Germany remains largely unheralded. If indeed World War II was the most costly and impactful event in human history, as Moreira observes, then Morgenthau's role in readying an unprepared nation for a war should go down in history as the crucial step assuring the ultimate Allied victory.
The title of this book suggests that Morgenthau's remarkable role is related to his Jewishness. He held the highest official position in the Allied camp, with a ringside seat to observe the workings of the "final solution," and Morgenthau emerged from the war a newly affiliated Jew. His wartime role cannot be fully fathomed without understanding the Jewish-Holocaust nexus...