Joseph “the animal” Barboza is believed to have killed 26 people.
“Crazy” Joe Gallo an indeterminate number; Giovanni Brusca claims to have murdered over 200 but his figure is disputed; Thomas “Two-Gun Tommy” Disimone killed more than 11; Salvatore “Sammy the Bull” Gravano confessed to 19 murders and Howard “Ice Man” Kuklinski is thought to have murdered 200 men (never women and children.)
However, these murders pale in significance when compared to the 190,000 men, woman and children who, indirectly, died because of Breckenridge Long.
Who was this man Long? What proof is there that he was he responsible for so many deaths and what was his motivation?
Breckenridge Long held two degrees from Princeton University, and served in the administrations of Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
In 1940 he was the assistant secretary in charge of the State Department’s Visa Division.
Proof positive of Long’s culpability comes from his own words.
In a June 1940 intradepartmental memo, Long wrote “We can delay and effectively stop for a temporary period of indefinite length the number of immigrants into the United States.”
As a result of this policy 90 percent of the quota places available to those hoping to avoid Hitler’s “final solution” were never filled.
This was not the first time Long had ordered his subordinates to severely restrict immigration.
What could possibly have motivated him to issue such inhumane directives?
Long was an extreme “nativist” who was paranoid in his belief that he was under attack from the Communists and professional Jewish agitators.
After helping Roosevelt in his 1932 race for the presidency, Long served as ambassador to Italy for three years during which time he seemed overtly pro-Mussolini.
In April 1943, the World Jewish Congress (with FDR’s support) had a plan to save thousands of French and Rumanian Jews.
Long and his associates delayed acting on it for eight months. He did everything in his power to exclude refugees access to America.
This included lying about the number of Jews who had come into the U.S. since the Nazis came to power. There is no question that Long’s sustained efforts were motivated by anti-Semitism.
To our country’s never-ending shame,
Long succeeded, retired from the State Department in 1944, and retired to a luxurious home in Laurel, Md., where he bred race horses.
In a world where evil reigned, Angelo Rancalli’s compassion showed a different side of human nature.
Rancalli was the Vatican’s Apostolic Delegate to Turkey.
Chaim Barlas of the Jewish Agency knew that 25,000
Jews in Sofia, Bulgaria were to be deported to Poland and certain death. Barlas turned to Rancalli who had always been sympathetic to the suffering of the Jews.
Here is Barlas’ description of their meeting.
“I stood before a man of lofty spiritual stature…whenever during my interviews he would hear of the news from Poland, Hungary and Slovakia, he would clasp his hands in prayer, tears flowing from his eyes.”
Rancalli had a good relationship with King Boris of Rumania.
In a letter to Boris, he urged the monarch to resist the German deportation request going so far as to threaten him with the punishment of God.
The order was cancelled and countless Jewish lives were saved.
All of this and more can be found in Arthur Morse’s definitive work “While Six Million Died.”
Morse concludes his narrative with the words: “…Angelo Rancalli, the stocky son of peasants…fought for the lives of Jews, for they, as all men, were precious to him.”
Oh, and in case Rancalli’s name is not familiar, he later became Pope John XXIII, one of the most influential and liberal popes in the 20th century.
He was, deservedly, canonized in 2014.
It is always important to ask why stories like those of Breckinridge Long and Pope John XXIII are worth the telling.
The answer is the light they shed on a particular era in history and the lessons that they teach.
Long’s actions exemplify the enduring nature of anti-Semitism as well as its prevalence among the State Department Brahmins of that era.
It is a cautionary tale teaching us that we must always be vigilant in combating prejudice whether directed against Jews, Moslems or any other religious group.
Angelo Rancalli’s story teaches us that human nature can be good as well as evil. (I will have more to say on this subject in the future.)
For the present, it is sufficient to note that we are a complex species capable of heinous crimes and infinite compassion.
Dr. Hal Sobel
Great Neck
