Page 8 of The Righteous
“Julie, Julie, how I’ve missed you,” he said, giving her a big hug that lifted her off the floor.
“We’ve gone from seeing each other and working together all day, every day, to not seeing each other at all.
Both Sara and I have missed you a lot.” He turned to Theresa and held out his hand.
“You must be Theresa Weissbach. It’s nice to meet you, Miss Weissbach. ”
“Just Terri,” she said, “and I’m delighted to meet you as well.
Needless to say, Julia has told me quite a bit about you.
” Theresa reached into her purse and pulled out a few letters that were addressed “To whom it may concern.” She handed them to Teddy.
“These are signed commendations from the dean of the History Department, the faculty dean, and my rabbi. It was all I could gather on short notice. I hope they give you some confidence in my trustworthiness.”
Teddy gave her a warm smile. “I’m sure they will do just fine.
When I mentioned to Mr. Pehle that you were coming, Terri, and that you would be bringing a letter of recommendation, he gave me an interesting response.
He said he was more interested in learning what you could bring to the discussions about Hungary.
He was confident that any friend of Julia’s would be a trustworthy person. ”
“Does Mr. Pehle have information about the Jewish population in Hungary?” Julia said.
“I’m sure he knows something,” Teddy answered. “He knows a lot about each of the European Jewish communities.”
Julia smiled and elbowed Theresa. “I told you. It sounds like Mr. Pehle is the one who could answer your questions.” Then she turned back to Teddy and said, “It just seems curious to me that an officer of the US Treasury Department has foreign refugees as his principal concern. That should be the province of the State Department, don’t you think? ”
“Hmph,” groaned Teddy. “Do I think? Yes. Is it happening? No.”
They started walking down the hallway, and a group of men and women in business suits rushed by them. They carried folders in their hands and were engaged in animated conversations. Julia raised her eyebrows in awe.
“Welcome back to Washington, Julie,” Teddy said. “Are you jealous you’re not part of the scene? Have you been thinking about reentering the intelligence world?”
Julia started to shake her head, but Theresa interrupted.
“Tell him the truth, Julie; it’s on your mind all the time.
Teddy—if I may call you that—she thinks about it all day and night.
She mentioned to me that upon her return from the Netherlands, she spoke with Undersecretary of State Sumner Welles, and he offered to find a place for her.
She assumed it was at the State Department. Am I right, Julie?”
Julia paused, then nodded.
“That’s good to hear,” Teddy said, “but I’m sure that the position Sumner was talking about would not have been at the State Department.
He would have placed you here with me at Treasury.
Knowing you like I do, I don’t think you would want to be at State right now.
That is not where your interests lie. You’d be much better off here. ”
“I don’t understand why you say that,” Julia said. “Why wouldn’t I want to go back to State? That’s where I was able to do good work. We saved lives, Teddy—you know that’s true.”
“Don’t get me wrong,” Teddy said. “If you want to do intelligence work for OSS and MI5, then State is for you. That is our intelligence arm. But if you want to focus on refugees and saving lives, then you want to be here. There are opportunities here at Treasury for continuing the kind of humanitarian work that we did in Holland.”
Julia wrinkled her forehead. “I don’t get it. Why do you say that? Aren’t they doing humanitarian work at State? Aren’t they rescuing refugees?”
Teddy looked around at the busy hall and quietly said, “Let’s not talk about that out here. Let’s go back to my office, and we’ll talk in private.”
Teddy arranged some chairs around his desk, had a secretary bring in coffee, and shut the door.
“Your comment back there surprised me,” Julia said.
“I was good at what I was doing for the State Department in Amsterdam. You know that. We helped rescue Jewish families, thousands of them. We found homes for little babies, hundreds of them. I have a medal to prove it. And so do you. So why wouldn’t I want to return to State—that is, if I wanted to return at all? ”
“At all, Miss Woman of Mystery? I thought the same things when I was placed here at Treasury, but State is the wrong place for us, unless you want to do intelligence work. If you want to be a spy, that would be the place for you. But I know you better than that. Your heart was in saving the lives of innocent families. If you want to keep rescuing refugees, you’re much better off here at Treasury.
They’re not doing that at State. If you asked Sumner, he would tell you the same thing, and he’d place you right here with me. ”
Julia stared at Teddy with a questioning look. “Why? You haven’t answered my question. Why the Treasury Department and not at the State Department? That doesn’t make sense to me. The State Department is the arm of government that helps refugees. Our consulates issue the visas in foreign countries.”
Teddy looked first at Theresa and then back at Julia. “How many visas did you issue to desperate refugees when you were in Amsterdam, Julie?”
Julia shook her head. “The quotas were filled; there were no visas to issue. All we could do was place people on the waiting lists.”
“And why was that, Julie? Those Jewish refugees were in desperate straits. If they didn’t find a way out of Europe, they feared they were going to die.
Yet Congress set immigration limits. There are Democrats, and there are Republicans.
There are liberals, and there are conservatives.
They don’t always agree. Sometimes they serve different masters.
The position on immigration by a government agency at any given time depends on the powerful politicians in charge.
” Teddy shrugged. “Maybe Theresa doesn’t understand how American politics works. ”
Julia tightened her lips. “Terri is an award-winning history professor who understands politics just fine. If you can tell me, you can tell Terri. Which politicians are influencing the State Department to limit immigration?”
Teddy shrugged. “I suppose it’s not as classified as I think. If you can read the newspapers and put two and two together, it’s not much of a secret. You will come to understand that at this time there is no arm of the State Department designed to aid refugees.”
“I can’t believe that,” Julia said. “That is the function of the State Department.”
“It is certainly one of them,” answered Teddy, “but that doesn’t mean it’s an operating function of our State Department today. Quite the opposite. I grew up in Washington with very conservative people. You know that, Julie.”
“I remember the photograph of you, your dad, and Senator Gerald Nye. He was very conservative. He was an isolationist. He wanted nothing to do with citizens of foreign countries. He didn’t want them coming here, and he didn’t want his money going there.”
“That is exactly correct,” Teddy said, “and he still doesn’t. There was a time he offered me a job, and I almost took it. Little did I know.”
Julia smiled. “You told me about that. Your girlfriend Betsy wanted you to take his offer, live in DC, and marry her. She did not want you to go overseas with the State Department.”
“That’s true, but I’m glad I did. The conservative arm of Congress was very powerful in the thirties, and it still is.
They were against getting involved in foreign matters, and they were anti-immigration.
One of the loudest spokesmen was Breckinridge Long.
He was credited with writing Woodrow Wilson’s electioneering slogan, which was ‘He kept us out of war.’ That political stance helped Wilson win the presidency in 1916.
Of course, he wasn’t able to keep us out of war.
The US went to war a year later. Breckinridge Long ran for the Senate twice, but he was roundly defeated each time.
He was very wealthy, and he contributed large amounts to President Roosevelt’s campaign.
He knew FDR from the navy, but they were very different people.
When FDR was elected, Long got appointed to the dream job he always wanted: He was the ambassador to Benito Mussolini’s Italy. ”
“Why is this relevant? Why would I care about Breckinridge Long?” Julia said. “I certainly don’t care about Fascist Benito Mussolini. So what if Long is a wealthy ultraconservative who kisses ass? How does that affect the State Department and refugees?”
“Be patient, young Julia. I’m giving you a chronology. While in Italy, Long was close to Mussolini, and Long was quoted saying that Italian Fascism was ‘the most interesting experiment in government to come above the horizon since the formulation of our Constitution.’”
“He said that?”
“Yes, he did. He believed in authoritarian government. He also read Hitler’s Mein Kampf , and he said, ‘It is eloquent in opposition to Jewry and to Jews as exponents of Communism & chaos. My estimate of Hitler as a man rises with the reading of his book.’”
“He praises Hitler and Mussolini, and he works for the State Department?”
Teddy nodded. “Long never retracted either of those statements. Still hasn’t.
You ask me why Long matters? Because when he came back from Fascist Italy, he was appointed as assistant secretary of state in 1939 and held that post for three years, until 1942, long enough to shape policy.
In that position, he tried as hard as he could to keep immigrants out of the United States. ”
Julia was getting angry. “Teddy,” she said, “you and I both know how hard it was to help people get visas, and that was our job with the State Department, but Congress set strict limits.”