US President Harry Truman made an extraordinary attack on Jews in his personal diary just two years after the end of World War II, accusing them of being "selfish" and not caring about who gets mistreated. According to details released by the Truman Presidential Museum and Library in Independence, Missouri, the president -- who had helped Jews in post-war Europe and who recognized Israel in 1948 -- made the outburst after speaking with a Jewish former treasury secretary. "The Jews, I find are very, very selfish. They care not how many Estonians, Latvians, Finns, Poles, Yugoslavs or Greeks get murdered or mistreated as (displaced persons) as long as the Jews get special treatment," Truman wrote on July 21, 1947 in his journal, excerpts of which were published on the Truman library's website (www.trumanlibrary.org/diary). "Yet when they have power, physical, financial or political, neither (Adolf) Hitler nor (Joseph) Stalin has anything on them for cruelty or mistreatment to the underdog," he wrote. The remarks, deemed surprising by historians specializing in the era, were scrawled on three loose sheets of paper following a 10-minute conversation with Henry Morgenthau, who served as treasury secretary under Truman's predecessor, Franklin Roosevelt. In 1945, Truman, then vice president, was sworn in as president after Roosevelt's sudden death. He was re-elected in 1948, despite a widely anticipated defeat. Jews and Israelis had always held Truman in high regard because of his efforts to support Israel, which eventually culminated in his recognizing the Jewish state in May 1948, less than a year after the journal entry was written. **PHOTO CAPTION*** Harry Truman (1884-1972), the 33rd President of the USA, addresses media in 1945 in Washington, D.C.(AFP/File)