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14

DETROIT JEWISH CHRONICLE and The Legal Chronicle

JR.

September 11. 1942

Children on the More • • •

In 1931 Renate Levy was born
in Berlin. Her parents were Jew-
ish. She therefore came into a
world in which the love charac-
teristic of the Jewish family shad-
ed off into a background of in-
tense and unreasoning hate.
By 1933 Renate, now prattling
German, had a little sister born
in May of that year, but the posi-
tion of Jews in Berlin was so
intolerable that Papa Levy decid-
ed to start life anew in Pales-
tine.
This move was the first of
many to follow, so that today, in
their English home, these two
dark, vivacious and completely
charming children can look back
on more experiences than many

By GEORGE GODWIN

Pinio Mine, his father, is a freedom, and in this social
soil
journalist with views about his that starveling human plant. Aleck
And a in opuolliigtisetserhepiirsi ioa sLui If): Mine slowly revives. Ile would
like to grow up and suport
oral. Asa
p
self. He would like to be him.
homes, their parents, their native lands. Their bewildered trek f1e9r3ci;d Pinio
noi(r)re
bus
pogroms.
In
driver.
He
is
happiest
wh
across the face of Europe. their search for safety has been one
i,.,.noottei tn.a..
Mine
nteho decided
lided to try
keying with something mechanical.
of the cruelest by-products of the almost incredibl y brutal life
in a new land. Aleck was When he is not doing
Nazi order. Here. Mr. Godwin of
the British Ministry of Infoz- then eight years old. But Papa likes to go away and write that
h
long
mation in London. describes some of those children who reached
Mine had no papers. He had to letters to his parents, both of e
safety and found the ordered life. the love and companionship smuggle himself out of Poland. whom are now working
which is the heart's cry of childhood.
on the
This he did by boat, taking his land in France.
wife, Rachel, and his little son. mottlheeir.ilstoinw
an adult after a long life.
drii.teecseitvoesMie
iststerfnie
psychological kinks came to her They mixed themselves up with Chapin, his American
.oltin
Renate is plump, dark-haired, one after another as a series of a large summer party of tourists
Foster-
exciting
events.
Hers
is
the
pow-
as they boarded the boat for Cop- her. He has recovered from the
but fair-skinned, with the bluest
of blue eyes. She is a little er for swift and successful adap- enhagen.
astonishment with which he
For several months they lived first received the idea that at
human dynamo, full of high spir- tation—one reason why, today, she
accepts
the
routine
of
her
English
in
the
Danish
capital,
with
no
its and with a terrific sense of
strange person should desire to a
life as though born within the papers, and therefore, as illegal do so kind
humor. Her experiences that sound
a thing for him.
of Bow bells.
might have left another child wit
intruders. During these months
Thus,
after
many tribulations
When Renate talks it is in the .
these children,
dren , flotsam of a
war
true Cockney accent of the Coun- his father talk. It was always
hate-tortured Europe, find
cif School playmates who have the same subject: The wrongs of and
what dl children need; an or-
shaped her English. She has no his people. It seeped, this little tiered life, among those who radi-
trace of foreign accent.
talk, into the boy's blood,
ate love for them, and the cham-
And this achievement—for she
One new-found Danish friend pionship of other children,
has been not quite four years in decided to get Aleck away from
Here these children have Nettled
England—makes it a
little diffi- this unhappy social setting and c own until such time as
their
cult for the stranger meeting Ren- into the school of Minna Spechts, Parents can make a new home
ate for the first time to bear and to this truly noble woman for them in
MAY THE NEW YEAR be one of great advance,
in mind that this child speaks the boy went. Soon after, Pinio free men keep that world which a
also
witnessing decisive victories of good will over evil,
perfect Hebrew, German and Mine
was ascovered
discovered and told to ' steady vision in the darknes s
Danish,
of
nobility over meanness, wisdom over ignorance,
leave Denmark. The boy had to the days of total war.
After two years in Palestine, go too. They went to Belgium
tolerance over bigotry, of justice and law
Mrs. Levy took Renate and Baby and then by foot into France. DOBKINRETURNS
Ruth to Denmark. This was the Rachel Minc finally came to Tou- FROM • PERSIAN
over injustice and disrespect. May the
opening of a new and remarkable Ion with her boy. It was a fright- REFUGEE MISSION
New Year bring to every Jewish
chapter in the children's lives, for ful struggle to live. She decided
JERUSALEM
heart fulfillment of its de-
they were to come in contact with to try Paris. There is was a Eliahu
Dobkin, an (PALCOR)
executive —
in
an
outstanding woman, Minna little
sire and to every home
Spechts.
better, but not much. She the immigration department of
meager living by mend- the Jewish Agency for Palestine,
—Happiness.
Minna Spechts founded and ran earned
ing old a furniture,
retuere
rne h
to d ay from a mis.
the Landerziehungsheim Walke- Aleck reached England in the sion
tort Pe rsia on behalf of the
muehle, Cassel, a school with lib- end as one of the party brought Jewish Agency.
While in Persia,
eral
ideas
about
shaping of over by Minna Spechts. She set he surveyed the relief needs of
human
cools.
To o the
lidbera
tol for the up school near AbergavennY, Jewish refugees from Poland in
ee de stop
Nazis, wh proc
an Wales, and the boy had, for a Russia as ll as in . It i
PP isers ia
educational
work
of
the
first im- time, some sort of settled life. understood we
portance.
that there
a critical
He goes to a London Council need for foodl
Minna Spechts, nothing daunt- school. He has a place in a coo- caments among c othing and medi-
g
t
ed, moved into Denmark, gathered munity which includes also Dutch,
hese refugees.
about her old pupils, added new, German, Czech and Austrian chil- 7
----
began all over again with that dren. Here Aleck's social instincts
courage which borrows its strength are on the way to securing an
HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL!
from the quality of the spiritual outlet. By now—he has been six
purpose which is its true dynamic. months at The Sanctuary—he rea-
Little Ruth was boarded with lized that he is among those who
a farmer at Oestrupgaard. To- tend his wants, regard him as a
Steven's Heating and
day, so little alike are these two human being, and desire his affec-
Opp. Riviera Theater
children, each in her way, out- tion. This precious commodity,
Ventilating Company
standingly distinctive, that one however, he tends to wrap up in
HOGARTH 5908
would
never
take
them
for
sis-
suspicious
reserve,
and
the
watch-
ters.
A Complete Heating Service
y about h im see that here
ing ees
Ruth is dark, with curly black is Alec k's danger ; that
unless sue-
hair and dark brown eyes. Like cored spiritually, he may grow
926 W. BETHUNE
most second children, her attitude into a misanthrope.
to her elder sister is compounded
MAdison 7625
Everywhere, however, there is
of envy and admiration. This in-
VOIVCS her in the obligation always color and brightness and an air of
to Cap any story of the marvelous
told by Renate. It also necessi-
tates her reminding adults that
Renate has a little sister in every
way as notable as herself. All
New Year's Greetings and Best Wishes
parents with more than one child
FROM
will be familiar with this situa-
tion.
In 1938, these children were
talking Danish as today they talk
DR. (MAYOR) STEPHEN S. SKRZYCKI
Cockney English; and in that
year Minna Spechts brought her
school to Britain—to be precise,
10040 JOS. CAMPAU
to Abergavenny, which is in
Wales. From Wales the school
HA mTRAMCK
moved to Somerset and when that
The Schmidt Brewing Co.. Detroit
county was closed to aliens, once
more to Worcester.
Then came that period when all
enemy aliens were interned. Minna
Spechts was sent to the Isle of
Man, and the Levy children were
once more "on the move."
Ruth attached herself to a
teacher, Charlotte Jacob, and was
found a temporary home in Eve-
sham. Now she is settled per-
manently in north London in the
UPON THIS MOMENTOUS OCCASION
Sanctuary with 11 other children
refugees.
IN THE LIVES OF THE JEWISH PEOPLE
Among them is Alexander Minc
who is learning not to be afraid.
WE EXTEND BEST WISHES FOR A NEW
This is not easy when you are
a boy, 13 years of age, a Polish
YEAR REPLETE WITH HAPPINESS AND
Jew, separated from your mother
CONTENTMENT
and father arid among strangers
in a strange land.
Like all who have suffered cru-
DESIGNERS AND MANUFACTURERS
elty and injustice, he is liable to
look for a slight or a blow rather
than for a smile and a pat on
JIGS --- FIXTURES -- SPECIAL MACHINES
the back. He regards all grown-
ups with a certain suspicion as
SCREW MACHINE PRODUCTS
potential enemies and feeling him-
self to be inadequate, he over-
Experimental and Production Sheet Metal
9035 TWELFTH STREET
compensates by a sort of hostile
approach to most human relations.
The elements of Aleck's prob- 1
MANUFACTURING DIVISION
— anu —
lem are well understood by the 1
people among whom his home life 1 1
11644 CLOVERDALE AVE.
is now spent, for they have had !
in their care many, many children
HO. 6655 - 3362 - 2246
whose homes have been destroyed
by the war and whose childhood
ENGINEERING AND DESIGN DIVISION
wears in retrospect the aspect of
a
bogey story.
9021 TWELFTH STREET
Aleck is dark, thick-set and
FISHER BUILDING
strong. His eyes are very bright,
Near Clairmount
TYler 6-7161
MA. 6277 - 6278
but they look out on the world
as a watcher peers from a fort-
DETROIT
ress set in hostile territory. IVhy
should this he?

EDITOR'S NOTE:

As the evil

star

of

Nazism rose over darkened
Europe, thousands of blameless, innocent children from Austria,
Czechoslovakia. Germany among others were forced from their

L'Shono Tovo Tikosevu!

Mr. and Mrs. Nate Goldman

GOLD1VIAN

FURNITURE CO.

9241 GRAND RIVER

NEW YEAR
GREETINGS

SEASON'S
GREETINGS

Rosh Hashonah
Greetings

RELIANT
INDUSTRIES

CHIC DRESS SHOP

JANET'S SHOPPE

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