On April 23, 1998, Mr. Saul's "Visas for Life" exhibit arrived at Yad Vashem, in Jerusalem, with the 50th year celebration of the Jewish State (Exhibit 4, hereto). Eleven diplomats were exhibited there with nine of them holding the Yad Vashem's "Righteous" title and two that did not. Notwithstanding that Hiram Bingham IV was one of the two that did not hold the title of Righteous, he was placed first in the list because of the alphabetical arrangement. The listing in which Bingham IV appeared at its head was posted under this preposterous and absurd heading:

DIPLOMATS WHO RESCUED MORE THAN 200,000 FROM THE HOLOCAUST

In addition, Mr. Saul made an accompanying flyer for his special exhibit with this matching title (Exhibit 5, hereto):
"VISAS FOR LIFE: THE STORY OF DIPLOMATS WHO RESCUED MORE THAN 200,000 PEOPLE."

We cannot help but sympathize with the bewilderment of the Holocaust survivor Ernest Heppner who being made aware of Mr. Saul's preposterous claim at Yad Vashem, in his December 2, 1998 email-response, bearing the Subject Title "Diplomats Who Saved 200,000 Jews Honored By Yad Vashem," exclaimed in frustration: "How in heck can I possibly respond to this nonsense?"

Yes, it is difficult, is it not, to entertain such a preposterous proposition that eleven diplomats saved 200,000 Jews from the Holocaust and, one of which being Hiram Bingham IV who to this day has not been recognized by Yad Vashem of saving even one single Jewish life from the Holocaust!

And this patch of concocted lies, that was carefully packaged and masterfully wrapped by Mr. Saul, had snowballed, in no time, reaching surreal proportions.

Encouraged by how easy Yad Vashem was able to be duped by Mr. Saul, Mr. Bingham upon his return from Jerusalem immediately began thinking "big" and in grandiose terms: Why use the 200, 000 Jewish lives as a "bottom" number for the Hiram Bingham IV's "select" group (as this was how it began to be called --Exhibit 6, hereto) when a far larger and equally meaningless number can be used instead! Mr. Bingham undoubtedly entertained these questions: What was wrong with milking a cool one million out of the 200,000 "bottom" figure?, and Why not place his dad on the same footing with Oskar Schindler himself? Why not? Who was going to stop him? Most certainly not his "official" peddler, Eric Saul! So armed perhaps with these ideas, Mr. Bingham wrote an article on May 24, 1998 in The Day newspaper of New London, Connecticut entitled "Remembering Salem's "Schindler'" (Exhibit 7, hereto) where in a centered caption, one can see these preposterous lines:

Collectivelly, the eleven diplomats, at great personal risk to themselves, clandestinely saved 200,000 lives from the Holocaust... .................................................. There are an estimated 1 million descendants of these survivors.

With Mr. Saul's blessings and active participation, the Hiram Bingham IV campaign began to blossom at an incredibly rapid pace based on nothing but fabricated and hearsay evidence. Meticulous, intelligent, persuasive, and extremely privileged to be part of one of the oldest family in Connecticut going back several centuries, Mr. Bingham using his formidable political and social connections was able to sway practically all politicians from his home State, from Governor down to Senators and Congressmen. His feat of duping so many politicians is staggering indeed, perhaps to no equal in recent American politics. From the many examples that can be given, we chose the one coming from the Connecticut Congressman Rob Simmons who on March 21, 2001 introduced a Bill before the Connecticut Legislature (Exhibit 8, hereto) to officially ask the United States Postal Service to honor Salem's Hiram Bingham IV with a commemorative stamp, concluding as follows:

"Hiram Bingham is now recognized as one of eleven 'righteous diplomats' who saved 200,000 lives from the Holocaust; their descendants total one million survivors today. His quiet selflessness was never recognized during his lifetime. The least we can do is honor his life's work through this commemorative stamp."

Of course, outside Eric Saul, nobody has recognized Hiram Bingham IV as saving even one single Jewish life much less recognized as a "Righteous." The only thing that it was universally recognized was that in 1940 he was a Vice-Consul in Marseille in charge of issuing visas and that, in that capacity, he performed his "ordinary" job honorably. (To our friends and supporters, outside of the United States, who may wonder how in God's name such a preposterous legislation can ever be introduced and passed, we respond that this is --as astonishing as it may appear-- an integrant part of the American "politics" in its purest form of expression! When in America, we talk about "politics" that is what is meant: something done not because of its merits but because it serves a particular political purpose. The "politics" involved in the Hiram Bingham IV case was, of course, that it was "good" for the Connecticut State to have found an unsung hero "son" that could be recognized nationally and internationally through the issuance of a United States commemorative stamp.)

The United States Postal Service as a Federal Agency, to its credit, was unmoved (so far) by the Connecticut political pressure that it has received for issuing a commemorative stamp for Hiram Bingham IV nor persuaded by Mr. Saul's letter of March 16, 1999 (Exhibit 9, hereto) who began with his pitch as follows:

"The purpose of this letter is to nominate Hiram "Harry" Bingham IV for a commemorative US postage stamp. I am the curator of an exhibit entitled Visas for Life: The Righteous Diplomats. This exhibit documents the role of diplomats in rescuing Jews during the period of the Holocaust, 1938-1945. This exhibit has toured throughout the United States and Europe. Since its inception, this exhibit has included the story of Consul Hiram "Harry" Bingham.

Consul Bingham was one of a very few American diplomats who were willing to risk their careers and safety to issue visas to save the lives of Jewish refugees in Europe. I can think of no one more highly deserving than Consul Bingham to be honored with a commemorative stamp."

Now, we could go on and on exposing further Mr. Saul's long trail of deceit that he left behind be it before the United Nations, before the Stockholm International Forum on the Holocaust or before other important organizations. And those who are interested can pursue further this sickening path on which Mr. Saul had traveled. For us, for the purpose of this presentation, we need go no further as we have amply demonstrated, we think, our point. Easy, easy... one may interject: But what about Mr. Saul's point of view and his take in all this? Where is it?

Well, if you are wondering why we have not contacted Mr. Saul directly to have his response to all this, then wonder no more as this is the subject of our next section.

 

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