Joseph, the spiritual dangers most definitely did not exceed the physical benefit. Those people died in horrible circumstances. There was no way to predict how they would have lived their lives had they emigrated. Wheter or not they had the opportunity–the advice was not to emigrate–and that advice was given to some few who did have the opportunity.
Sorry–but if you think that that was a correct decision to give that advice– I just cannot possibly convey the degree of my disagreement.
Of course, I do not think that that advice was given because of evil intent. But it was a horrible mistake in judgment (which can happen to anyone, and it implies no disrespect). Again, these were unprecedented times, and those of us who are now alive cannot possibly understand what our parents, grandparents, uncles, aunts, brothers, sisters, etc. went through. Blaming our own for the atrocities committed by the bnai belial is an evil act in and of itself. I brought this up originally in this thread to make a point to those who accuse the Zionists of complicity with the nazis–that you can take any quote out of context, and the priority for those who could rescue people was to rescue their own first. Any and all of us can be accused of the same thing–that does not make anybody complicit with the nazis. We are all human, and to judge how people act under those circumstances is beyond human justice. For that, we have a Dayan Emet. In my opinion, until that Dayan makes His judgments known to us, it is better to have a care as to how we refer to our fellow Jews.