Hiram Bingham IV (c. 1950)

Robert Kim Bingham of Salem, Connecticut, USA, and a son of the late Hiram "Harry" Bingham IV has been campaigning for a number of years to convince the world that his father was an unsung World War II hero, who at his own personal risk, saved from the Nazi Holocaust thousands of lives in general, and Jews in particular, among them some of the most prominent artists, writers, and scientists of Europe. The purpose of Mr. Bingham's campaign (as can be seen from his elaborate website) has been twofold:

• to convince the State of Israel (through Yad Vashem, The Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority, in Jerusalem) to award his father with the medal and title of "Righteous Among the Nations" --this being the highest award that Israel can bestow; and
• to convince the United States Postal Service that his father is deserving to have a commemorative stamp honoring him for his purported heroic deeds during the Holocaust.

For his campaign towards the State of Israel, Mr. Bingham had secured the services of Eric Saul of San Francisco, USA --a purported Holocaust researcher with no academic credentials and the author of a concocted educational Holocaust project dubbed as "Visas for Life: The Righteous Diplomats" which is a photo exhibit that purports to "educate" the world on the Righteous Diplomats. (See, if you will, our in-depth analysis entitled The Eric Saul Case and his "Visas for Life: The Righteous Diplomats" Project: An Issue of Credibility and Accountability)

For his campaign towards the United States Postal Service, Mr. Bingham had been employing elaborate fraudulent and deceiving schemes involving concocted testimonials from various Holocaust survivors, distorted and out of context analyses and, a bogus Internet site entitled "Hiram Bingham IV Commemorative Stamp Petition" at www.rescuer-stamp.com, now taken out of circulation, purporting to collect genuine petitions in support of his stamp campaign. In addition, Mr. Bingham was able to take full advantage of his considerable political clout within his home State of Connecticut and the US State Department (where he works as an Immigration Attorney). And of course, an essential element of Mr. Bingham's campaign was his association with Eric Saul who has been promoting Mr. Bingham's dad as a "Righteous Diplomat" notwithstanding the little fact that Mr. Bingham's father has not been awarded with the "Righteous" title by the State of Israel.

The imaginary and concocted portrait that Mr. Bingham (et al.) was able to create for his father is staggering indeed taking in consideration that it has been build entirely on hearsay evidence, fabricated and concocted evidence that defies History, Common Sense and Rationality in the most blatant way.

So what? --one may ask. Why are we getting involved in all this? Why do we care whether or not the late Bingham IV will get the title of "Righteous Among the Nations" from Yad Vashem? Why do we care whether or not the late Bingham IV will get a commemorative stamp from the US Postal Service?

Well, the truth of the matter is that we could care less whether or not the late Bingham IV will get the "Righteous" title from Yad Vashem. And this is because we have no regard for that award as currently is being handled by Yad Vashem. In fact, we would like to see the late Bingham IV awarded with the title of "Righteous Among the Nations" as this would be able to reinforce our contention that this award, as currently implemented, represents an affront to History, to Holocaust and its victims and, to the great majority of Holocaust survivors. As to respect to our "feelings" for the issuance of a commemorative stamp for the late Bingham IV, well, we have none. Either way, how the US Postal Service chooses to deal with this issue is just fine with us.

Again then, WHY are we getting involved in all this?

Well, the answer to this is rather simple as it involves us, our website, and our viewers. Also perhaps, we may owe an explanation to Mr. Bingham and his extended family as to why we have removed his father from our section dealing with Heroes and Heroines of the Holocaust notwithstanding Mr. Bingham's plea for reconsideration.

 

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