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  • An Ambassador and a Mensch: The Story of a Turkish Diplomat in Vichy France
  • Yücel Güçlü (bio)
Arnold Reisman : An Ambassador and a Mensch: The Story of a Turkish Diplomat in Vichy France. Lexington, Ky.: CreateSpace Publishers, 2010. 308 pages. ISBN 978-1-4505-5812-9. $40.00.

As its subtitle would suggest, this book by Arnold Reisman is about Turkish foreign policy during the Second World War. The author is an engineer and a retired professor of operations research at Case Western University. He has attempted to write the story of Behic Erkin's ambassadorship in Vichy from 10 September 1940 to 13 July 1943. The reader, whatever his own thoughts on the subject may be, will almost certainly [End Page 90] finish the book with a sense of profound admiration for the diplomatic skill displayed by Erkin during the years under review. He will also be compelled to admire his perceptiveness and realistic view of power politics. Erkin (1876-1961), who was among the earliest associates in Ataturk's struggle for Turkish independence, had a varied and distinguished career of military, political, and diplomatic service. He was an army officer, director general of the State Railways Administration, member of parliament, and minister of public works. He served as minister to Hungary prior to his assignment to France.

An Ambassador and a Mensch is divided into five parts: "Background," "Lead-up to the Story, "The Story," "The Contrast," and "The Précis." It contains two appendices, of which one is especially noteworthy: appendix two offers excerpts from the testimony of Lazare Rousso, the first person to be removed from a Nazi concentration camp by the Turkish Consulate General in Paris in 1942. A short bibliography is included. The book is organized chronologically and devotes considerable space to Erkin's early life and career before France.

The study leans heavily on Buyukelci (The Ambassador) (Istanbul: Goa Yayoncilik, 2007) written by Erkin's grandson Emir Kivircik, and is supplemented by information from American archival materials, the press, and the pertinent secondary literature. It is welcome to see references to American press opinion of the day. But the author does not handle his materials analytically nor does he sufficiently integrate the information derived from the press with that obtained from official records. Virtually no use is made of contemporary Turkish newspapers and periodicals.

Where historical methodology is concerned, there is a total disregard by Reisman of the practice of source criticism. The bias of Kivircik, especially as regards his grandfather, is obvious; nonetheless, the author accepts his narratives at face value.

The illustrations are often blurred, and both misprints and inconsistencies of spelling abound. Many footnotes are incomplete—entries do not always include the proper page number—and, elsewhere, although authors are properly quoted, the relevant reference is not cited. The book gives the impression of having been hurried through for publication with inadequate revision. Should a second edition be called for, the text should be submitted to a most careful scrutiny.

The author is unstinting in his praise of Erkin. The picture of the Turkish ambassador in Vichy in 1940-3 as it evolves from Reisman's depictions of his actions and thoughts is of a most reasonable individual. Thus the title of the book.

While Reisman's narrative biographical sketch of Ambassador Erkin is mostly correct, his description and discussion of Turkey's policy regarding the Jews of Turkish nationality in France during the Second World War is seriously flawed. Reisman is no doubt right in crediting Erkin with saving thousands of Jews of Turkish heritage living in France from certain death. However, the author's bold assertion that "it had never [End Page 91] been the policy of the Government of Turkey to intervene on behalf of French Jews of Turkish heritage" is untenable.

There are other important inaccurate statements in the text for which no source references are given. Reisman alleges that Erkin's keeping a Turkish consulate open in Paris was "an action that was against the direct orders of President Inonu and the Foreign Ministry." We are told that "of his own accord Erkin decided to oppose the subjugation of the Turkish...

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