In a letter Wegner sent to Hitler after "boycott day" under the heading "To Germany," he tried to dissuade him from activities intended to suppress the Jews. "Sir Reichskanzler, we are not talking here solely about the fate of our Jewish brethren. This is a matter of the fate of Germany!" he wrote. "As a German, who received the gift of speech not for the sake of remaining silent, I appeal to you: stop this madness!"

He surveyed what the Jews had endured throughout history and estimated that "with the same perseverance that helped them survive as an ancient people, the Jews will also overcome this danger but the shame and tragedy that will be caused to the German people will not soon be forgotten." Moreover, he proposed to Hitler: "Preserve Germany by granting protection to the Jews."

As a result, he was imprisoned and tortured, and after three years he was released and managed to escape to Italy.



By Haaretz




The writer and journalist Armin T. Wegner, another hero featured in the exhibition, was imprisoned at the time in a German concentration camp. Only a few weeks earlier, after "the boycott day" the Nazis imposed on Jewish businesses on April 1, 1933, he mustered the courage to send Hitler a sharp letter criticizing the persecution of the Jews. As a result, he was imprisoned and tortured, and after three years he was released and managed to escape to Italy.

This was not the first time that Wegner voiced conscientious objection. Wegner was born in 1886 and began his creative career as an expressionist poet, and refused to serve in the army as a soldier for pacifist reasons. Nevertheless, in World War II, he volunteered to serve as a medic and afterward as a medical officer.

He served in the Middle East and witnessed the Ottoman Empire's genocide against the Armenian people. He visited refugee camps and mass graves and circulated reports and photos documenting the destruction, despite the personal risk that entailed. In 1919, he published an open letter to U.S. President Woodrow Wilson in which he called on him to grant the Armenian people independence in the name of "the voice of humanity."

After the war, Wegner became known as a prolific journalist, the author of travel books and novels as well as a human rights activist. He traveled the world with his wife, the Jewish poet Lula Landau. In the late 1920s they visited Palestine and Wegner described this visit in essays and a book that voiced his support for the creation of a Jewish national state in Palestine. After the couple's divorce in 1939, Landau immigrated to Palestine and lived there until he died.

In a letter Wegner sent to Hitler after "boycott day" under the heading "To Germany," he tried to dissuade him from activities intended to suppress the Jews. "Sir Reichskanzler, we are not talking here solely about the fate of our Jewish brethren. This is a matter of the fate of Germany!" he wrote. "As a German, who received the gift of speech not for the sake of remaining silent, I appeal to you: stop this madness!"

He surveyed what the Jews had endured throughout history and estimated that "with the same perseverance that helped them survive as an ancient people, the Jews will also overcome this danger but the shame and tragedy that will be caused to the German people will not soon be forgotten." Moreover, he proposed to Hitler: "Preserve Germany by granting protection to the Jews."

A Hebrew translation of his letter appears in the book by Israeli researcher, Prof. Yair Auron, "Genocide: Can it be Prevented" (Open University Press, 2010 ). Auron maintains that "Wegner is one of the loftiest voices produced by the German-Jewish symbiosis against the Nazi German effort that sought to annihilate it."

Auron adds that in 1968, Wegner was recognized as a Righteous Gentile by the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem. Even though he did not actually save Jews, the committee that grants the title decided to honor his courage and the risks he took in an attempt to defend the Jews in Nazi Germany. In addition, he received Medals of Honor from the governments of West Germany and Armenia. Wegner, who remained in Italy until the end of his life and did not manage to recreate his success as a writer, died in 1978.







http://www.haaretz.com/culture/arts-leisure/unburning-books-in-berlin-1.425175