Yehuda of Kahane.org: Re: Lt. Col. Dr. W. Perl, JDL Leader in 1970's, "Amateur"?

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Yehuda of Kahane.org: Re: Lt. Col. Dr. W. Perl, JDL Leader in 1970's, WWII savior of 40,000 Jews- "Amateur"?

Dr William Perl, of blessed memory, (Lt. Col. US Army - Ret.) was chairman of the Washington, D.C. JDL chapter for several years in the early 1970's and served as JDL national chairman form 1973-1974.  He was the consummate professional.  Among his many contributions: crucial role in organizing the March 21, 1971 JDL rally for Soviet Jews in Washington, D.C. in which 1,347 Jews!!!!! were arrested (up to that time the largest mass arrest in D.C.); creative efforts to publicize plight of Soviet Jews, e.g. widely publicized - sending crate containing goat to USSR embassy bearing tag “I am a soviet Jewish scapegoat;” numerous militant acts on behalf of Soviet Jews; accused of planning to assassinate USSR/ ambassador to US.

Since he was a JDL leader during for part of the period between 1971-1984 doe that mean he was also an “amatuer”???  - See excerpted NY Times obituary below.

 William R. Perl, who as a young lawyer in Vienna organized a waterborne rescue operation that carried thousands of Jews from Nazi-occupied Europe to Eretz Yisrael, died [December 24, 1998] at his home in Beltsville, Md., near Washington. He was 92.

Years after his operation, which he called the Action, Dr. Perl estimated that it had carried 40,000 Jews aboard cattle boats, rundown freighters and sailboats on 62 clandestine voyages to Eretz Yisrael from Romania, Greece, Yugoslavia and elsewhere in southern Europe. The sealift employed subterfuges, including forged documents, to defy the British, who governed Eretz Yisrael under a League of Nations mandate and sought to block large-scale Jewish immigration in hopes of maintaining influence in the Arab world.

Born in Prague, the son of a textile merchant, Dr. Perl received a law degree from the University of Vienna and during the 1930's was active in the militant Zionist movement led by Vladimir Jabotinsky.

He began his rescue operation in 1937. A year later, after Hitler had taken over Austria, he was summoned by Adolf Eichmann, then a lieutenant in the SS, who stuck a pistol in his back, demanding to know the whereabouts of a fugitive Jew. Dr. Perl did not give Eichmann any information but instead interested him in a plan to remove Jews from Vienna through sailings to Eretz Yisrael.

When Eichmann ultimately rejected the proposal, Dr. Perl went to the German Finance Ministry in Berlin and, suggesting that he had the backing of Nazi authorities, received permission to exchange German marks for sought-after British pounds that would be used to bribe Greek seamen involved in clandestine sailings.

Dr. Perl told Ralph Blumenthal of The New York Times in 1990 that the most painful part of his work had been selecting the healthiest evacuees for the scarce shipboard space. He said he was still haunted by the image of a sick Hungarian woman and her family whom he had barred from a transport. ''I convicted them to death,'' he said.

Dr. Perl was arrested in Greece in 1940 -- at the behest of the British, he believed -- and put on a train for Berlin. But he cut his wrists as the train approached Yugoslavia, was taken off as he had intended and was eventually sent back to the Greek authorities. He later escaped to Portugal and then Mozambique, where in 1941 he obtained a visa for the United States. After that, his operation carried out few missions; it ceased entirely in August 1944.

Dr. Perl enlisted as a private in the United States Army soon after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. He became a lieutenant colonel in military intelligence, serving in Europe, then joined the Army staff at the war crimes tribunal after the German surrender. He was the chief interrogator of German SS men who had been involved in the massacre of 72 American prisoners of war at Malmedy, Belgium, during the Battle of the Bulge.

After the war, he received a doctorate in clinical psychology from Columbia University and then served with the Army in Munich, counseling soldiers. On retiring from the military in 1958, he became a psychologist for the District of Columbia's welfare department, taught at George Washington University and maintained a private practice in psychology.

Dr. Perl ultimately became an official of the militant Jewish Defense League. In November 1976, a Federal jury in Baltimore convicted him of conspiring to shoot out the windows in the apartments of two Soviet Embassy officials in Hyattsville, Md., in protest of the treatment of Soviet Jews. The conspiracy conviction was overturned on appeal, although Dr. Perl was sentenced to three years' probation for a related firearms conviction.

Dr. Perl recounted his rescue efforts in ''The Four-Front War: From the Holocaust to the Promised Land'' (Crown, 1979), in which he denounced not only the Germans but also the British Government, for blocking entry of Jews to Eretz Yisrael, and what he called the ''Jewish establishment,'' for failing to take vigorous action to save European Jewry. His second book, ''The Holocaust Conspiracy: An International Policy of Genocide,'' was published in 1990 by Shapolsky Publishers.

Then why does the list Chaim made say there was no chairman when Yehuda claimed Perl was chairman?

1973-1974- No chairman, just infighting and chaos until HaRav Kahane returned in August 1974 to straighten things out.

[Chaim Ben Pesach]

Dr. William Perl זצוק''ל was the head of the JDL chapter in Washington DC. He never held any national position in JDL, because he didn't want one.

Dr. Perl was a GREAT Jew whom I love with all my heart. And he did indeed save tens of thousands of Jews during the holocaust.

When I blew up two Soviet diplomats' cars in Washington during the June 1973 visit of Soviet dictator Leonid Brezhnev, I stayed overnight at the Perls' home in Maryland. I was only 16 years old at the time. After bombing the Soviet cars, I made anonymous calls to the news wires (AP, UPI and Reuters) in Washington to explain why we did what we did. It was Dr. Perl who told me what to tell the reporters in the anonymous calls. I learned so much from this genius, who was a Professor of Propaganda at American University. In Vienna, during the holocaust, Dr. Perl was an Austrian Jewish attorney.

Throughout the 1970s and early 1980s, Dr. Perl always complained to everyone about the amateurish nature of JDL. He was THRILLED when Rabbi Kahane appointed me National Chairman in 1984. He was already very sick with advanced Parkinson's disease, but he invited me to his home in Beltsville, Maryland several times to discuss strategy in our Soviet Jewry campaign.

If Dr. Perl had not been ill since the early 70s, and had been able to become JDL National Chairman, I have no doubt that 1 million Soviet Jews would have been freed much sooner. Dr. Perl was precisely the type of real professional that JDL so sorely lacked between 1971 and 1984.

I was the National Chairman briefly in 1978, but I was only 21 years old. I did not have enough experience, and I looked like a 15 year old kid.

[Archie]

When I blew up two Soviet diplomats' cars in Washington during the June 1973 visit of Soviet dictator Leonid Brezhnev, I stayed overnight at the Perls' home in Maryland. I was only 16 years old at the time. After bombing the Soviet cars, I made anonymous calls to the news wires (AP, UPI and Reuters) in Washington to explain why we did what we did.

This incident was reported in the News on June 21, 1973. This is the first article I find on the subject so far:

[Wayne Jude]

Archie,
Love your comics.LOL
Hey, Your doing a great job.
Can you put this all togather?
wayne jude

[Archie]

Can you put this all togather?
wayne jude

Yeah, I may.

But, right now, I'm focusing on getting the Village Voice articles.

Archie.

 
 

[Wayne Jude]

KOOL!