The forgotten ally

Van Paassen became interested in Jewish affairs after interviewing a Rabbi from New York who had just returned from Mandatory Palestine. From this point on, Van Paassen took a great personal interest in the issues of Palestine and the plight of European Jewry. In 1933, Van Paassen, a fluent German speaker, reported on the Nazis and courageously exposed the doctrines and policies of Hitler's fascist regime. Van Paassen spent quite some time in Palestine and wrote extensively; when one reads this book today, one notices how profound and ironic it is, that the times which Van Paassen describes of his generation are now repeating themselves, the only differences are the players' names.