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LBJ Rescued Hundreds of Jews from the Holocaust


[I*Consult] Lenny Ben-David - Few know about LBJ's actions to rescue hundreds of endangered Jews from Europe. In 1938, Congressman Johnson was told of a young Austrian Jewish musician who was about to be deported from the U.S. With an element of subterfuge, LBJ sent him to the U.S. Consulate in Havana to obtain a residency permit. Erich Leinsdorf, the world famous musician and conductor, credited LBJ for saving his life. That same year, LBJ provided a Jewish friend with a pile of signed immigration papers that were used to get 42 Jews out of Warsaw. According to historian James M. Smallwood, Johnson used legal and sometimes illegal methods to smuggle "hundreds of Jews into Texas, using Galveston as the entry port.... Johnson smuggled boatloads and planeloads of Jews into Texas." "He hid them in the Texas National Youth Administration.... Johnson saved at least four or five hundred Jews, possibly more."
2008-05-29 01:00:00
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