by Wayne Dunn

We live in an age when compromise has been elevated to the status of a virtue. But not "compromise" in the rational sense of the word—as in, compromising over the price of the car one is trying to purchase, but "compromise" in the irrational sense, as in, surrendering one's principles.

For example, the politicians most willing to "reach across party lines," i.e., those most eager to compromise the views they purport to hold, are praised for their "levelheadedness" and "bipartisanship," for being "grown-ups"—implying that anyone who consistently sticks to his principles is thereby being childish.

The tangible expression of the "virtue" of compromise is concession; for wherever the spirit of the former is present, the deeds of the latter quickly follow. And since every moral system needs a role model, a "saint" who most consistently embodies the values that the morality lauds, my nomination for "Patron Saint of Compromise" goes to Chaim Rumkowski, a name few recognize, but a man whose affinity for concession-granting exemplifies the "virtue" of compromise that modern society worships.

Chaim Rumkowski was an Elder, the de facto leader, of the Jews unfortunate enough to live in the Lodz ghetto in Poland during the late 1930's and early 1940's. His "spirit of bipartisanship," his unparalleled penchant for "reaching across party lines" in the name of peace, kept Nazi guns off the ghetto's streets and Jewish blood off its sidewalks--but only literally.

To fully appreciate the magnitude of Rumkowski's concessions, it is best to read his own words. Here is a portion of the text of his address to the occupants of the Lodz Ghetto on September 4th, 1942:

"A grievous blow has struck...They [the Nazis] are asking us to give up the best we possess...I never imagined that I would be forced to deliver this sacrifice to the altar with my own hands. In my old age I must stretch out my hands and beg: Brothers and sisters, hand them over to me! Fathers and mothers, give me your children! (Horrible, terrifying wailing among the assembled crowd.)

"I had a suspicion something was about to befall us...I did not know the nature of the danger. The taking of the sick from the hospitals caught me completely by surprise.

"I thought that that would be the end of it, that after that they'd leave us in peace, the peace for which I long so much, for which I've always worked...But something else, it turns out, was destined for us. Such is the fate of the Jews, always more suffering and always worse suffering...

"[T]hey gave me the order to send more that 20,000 Jews out of the ghetto, and if not—'We will do it!' So, the question became: 'Should we take it upon ourselves, do it ourselves, or leave it for others to do?'...[W]e should take the implementation of this order into our own hands.

"I must perform this difficult and bloody operation...I must take children because, if not, others may be taken as well. (Horrible wailing).

"[I succeeded] in saving the ten-year-olds and up. Let this be a consolation in our profound grief.

"[T]hey requested 24,000 victims, 3000 a day for eight days. I succeeded in reducing the number to 20,000, but only on the condition that these would be children below the age of ten. Children ten and older are safe.

"Help me carry out this action!...I am afraid that others, God forbid, will do it themselves.

"This is the most difficult of all the orders I've ever had to carry out...Give into my hands the victims, so that we can avoid having further victims...So they promised me: if we deliver our victims by ourselves, there will be peace. (Shouts: 'We will all go!' 'Mr. Chairman, an only child should not be taken; children should be taken from families with several children!')

"[M]y duty is to preserve Jews. I don't speak to hotheads. I speak to your reason and conscience. I...will continue to keep arms from appearing in the streets and blood from being shed. The order could not be undone....

"[P]ut yourself in my place, think logically, and you'll reach the conclusion that I cannot proceed in any other way."

He tells his people that he "cannot proceed in any other way"! One wonders if he ever considered telling the Nazis to do their own dirty work, instead of volunteering to do it for them. One wonders who is more evil—he who builds the furnace or he who encourages his fellow victims to leap in?

Note how in one breath Rumkowski lamented the "destiny" and "fate" of the Jewish people—as if concentration camps were not manmade but were metaphysical realities, like gravity or the earth's rotation. Yet in the next breath he appealed to his listeners' "reason" and "logic"—as if sending one's children to their deaths is a rational, logical move! And note that those who protested he called "hotheads"! (Today they might be derided as "partisans".)

Each new promise the Nazis made him was soon broken with successive demands—, which Rumkowski met with further concessions. Within two years of that speech, Chaim Rumkowski had ushered over 160,000 of his fellow Jews to their doom, several thousand at a time. Rumkowski himself climbed aboard the final transport to Aushwitz where he too was murdered. By the time the conquering Soviets marched into the Lodz ghetto, only 870 starving Jews remained.

Hopefully, it will not take a Senator or a Congressman or a President "Rumkowski" to make Americans realize that compromising rational principles is not a reason to praise politicians, but a reason to throw them out of office. If we don't dethrone these compromising Rumkowskis, they, like the actual Rumkowski, will likely concede our remaining liberties for the sake of a little short-term safety—and will expect a crown of virtue for doing it.

[The speech excerpts were quoted from The Penguin Book of Twentieth-Century Speeches; 1992, edited by Brian MacArthur; 'Give me your Children', pb version, pg 207.]

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