Bob Hope's death yesterday at 100 has been the occasion for an outpouring of heartfelt tributes to one of America's greatest comedians. Among his many achievements, Hope is perhaps best known as the premier entertainer of America's troops. What is not well known is that he also took a courageous, if not controversial, stand during Hitler's war against the Jews.

At the peak of the Holocaust, in early 1944, Hope volunteered to perform in an all-star show at Madison Square Garden to benefit the Emergency Committee to Save the Jewish People of Europe.

This was not merely another benefit concert for a worthy cause. For Hope to support the controversial Emergency Committee took real political courage. The Committee's public criticism of the Allies apathy toward the Holocaust had infuriated government officials in Washington and London. In fact, the State Department repeatedly tried to have the Emergency Committee's chairman, Peter Bergson, drafted or deported. At State's urging, the FBI opened Bergson's mail, rummaged through his trash, and planted informants in his organization in an unsuccessful search for information that could be used to muzzle or prosecute the Bergson activists.[...]