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EZRA POUND 275
was released without compensation for his sufferings. Where was
justice in this case?
One of the excuses offered by politicians for their failure to
speak up for Pound was the charge that he was "anti-Semitic", and
that the wrath of the Jewish community would fall on any politician
who tried to help him. Walter Winchell, Bennett Cerf, Karl
Shapiro and many others waged virulent hate campaigns against
Pound on the grounds that as Jews they were bound to attack anyone
who was anti-Semitic. Karl Shapiro stated quite frankly that
he could not vote for The Pisan Cantos because he would not
support anyone who was "anti-Semitic", regardless of the merits of
the work. 10
The editorial page of the B'nai B'rith Messenger of April 8,
1955, carried this note: "TALKING ABOUT unsavory characters,
you might be interested in the fact that Ezra Pound, the poet who
joined Hitler and Mussolini in the campaign of extermination of
Jews is well taken care of in the St. Elizabeths Hospital for
mental diseases, in Washington, D.C."
This was typical of the allegations that were hurled against
Pound throughout his imprisonment. This was the gratitude that
was offered him for the forty years during which he helped Jewish
poets, and shielded them from the death cars of the Gestapo.
Pound had publicly criticized Hitler, was persona non grata with
the Nazi government, as proven by their refusal to grant him a
pass to Katyn, and had met Mussolini only once.
After the war, a public ceremony of thanksgiving was held in
Florence, Italy, in honor of Dr. Gerhard Wolf, the German wartime
consul, who had saved hundreds of Jews from the Gestapo,
openly defying that organization in many instances. It is to be
hoped that Ezra Pound's work on behalf of the Jewish artists will
likewise be recognized.
Throughout his life, Pound sponsored Jewish writers and artists
who were beginning their careers. In a letter to his mother, written
in November, 1913, he said "Epstein is a great sculptor." In the
March 16, 1914 issue of The Egoist, he wrote an enthusiastic
review of Epstein's work. Another of Pound's enthusiasms was
Ben Hecht, at that time a promising young avant-garde writer. In