4

DETROIT JEWISH CHRONICLE and The legal Chronic!.

July 14 . 1944

Detroit Jewish Chronicle

will have to be reconditioned and re- r—
trained,
and perhaps not a few will have
and THE LEGAL CHRONICLE
Published Weekly by Jewish Chronicle Publishing Co., Inc. to be imprisoned in order to rehabilitate
JACOB H. SCHAKNE.
...Pres.-Gen Mgr.
them. We are similarly persuaded that
b y Al Segal
JACOB MARGOLIS
Editor
many Germans have never accepted the
CHARLES TAUB
Advertising Mgr.
Nazi credo and are only waiting for the
.2enereu vtfices and Publication Bldg., 525 Woodward Ave.
time and opportunity to return to their
Telephone: CAdillac 1040
Cable Address: Chronicle
Subscription in Advance
normal
lives. These men and women are
$3.00 Per Year
To insure publication, all correspondence and news matter not responsible. They are victims of con-
must reach this office by Tuesday evening of each week. ditions over which they have no control
When mailing notices, kindly use one side of paper only.
and, inasmuch as they are victims who
The Detroit Jewish Chronicle invites correspondence on sub-
OUR MR. HILLEL, the busi- good citizens, husband
jects of interest to the Jewish people, but disclaims respon. are powerless to protest and oppose,
ness man, who from time to ther, a Jew examines the
sibility for en endorsement of views expressed by its
alJnei fa.
writers. they should not be held responsible for time comes to my relief by writ- facets of his being as well
w It's
ing
this
column
for
me,
today
really
very
complicated.
Entered as Second•class matter March 3, 1916, at _ the
the
Post. acts of the Nazi gangsters.
brings me the welcome gift of
Had I been a man named 'I

Plain Talk...

•

Mr. Hillel's Funeral

office at Detroit, Mich., under the Act of March 3, 1879.

another guest column. It's a hot it would have been enough for
(lay and the oppressive humidity my conscience to know that
is not at all helpful to the mental had been a decent Jones. But orl
France and Romania
Pentateuch! portion—Nuns. 25 :10-30 :1.
processes necessar
y to the pro- having found myself to be But,
Prophetical portion—Der. 1:1-2:3.
Accordi ng to reports, the Vichy anti- duction of a column of my own, satisfactory man, husband
a
__
_______
and Mr. Hillel is as welcome as ‘fNthtahterw,
---- —.
thad fsua ly.thoebrootto Illicq atiha ed
JULY 14, 1944
re
Jewish laws are bei
repealed in the rain .
will
All in all, I am grateful to Jew?
areas of Normandy liberated by the present
1
Mr. Hillel in a column
I could see myself at rest i .
American,
British
and
Canadian
armies.
which he entitles "My Funeral," Weil's funeral parlor. The i
Are Peoples Responsible?
d- n
subject : i c.ltauta
Tahroosemotoomstayeatnhl p
There is the further report that the Tunis- a grisly yet fascinating
/ / 1
inlg words. The
The closer the armies of the United Na- ian Court of Appeals has voided a sale THE other evening I, your Mr. to mention my name and to say
tions get to Berlin, the more shrill are the of property made by a Tunisian Jew, A. Hillel (that isn't my real something about me as a Jew
name, though) was suffering aw- The rabbi seemed to be fishing
voices of those who would indict a whole under the Vichy regime, on the grounds fully
from indigestion and while around to find some angle of my
nation and hold them responsible for the that it was made under compulsion and I lay in the throes of my ma- Jewish life on which to hang
laise I gave my mind to the mat- oh fis uoln.eyatthhingHe seigollnlidfinca'tntt.akt.There
acts of a conscienceless gang of sadists. duress and therefore void. There is still

Sabbath Readings of the Law

I am not a person who nor- really hadn't been anything to
The latest to join the ranks of "people another report that the Russian armies mally
lets his mind be occupied distinguish me in Jewish life.
responsibility" is Brendan Bracken, Brit- in Romania are not interfering with the by melancholy reffections. In fact, I had never been a fighter in
I am always the life of the party Israel. cInnhriaitel rsnevm
et.37 mixed never
ish Minister of Information. He was less Romanian civil administration and are at
home and abroad.
fierce
shrill than the Van Sittarts, yet, at a Kisch permitting the Romanian Nuremberg laws But it really was a most sick- was raised in denunciation of
ening. indigestion and I could feel anybody in Israel's house. I had
memorial meeting he said, "the responsi_ to be enforced.
sure that my heart had gone missed all the opportunities to
bility rests not only on the Nazis, but
on me, though it turned out be a vocal and conspicuous Jew
In all these cases the United Nations back
to be only gas pains. My dis. in the convocations in which Is-
upon the entire German people and par- are trying to carry out their promise not comfort was such that the pos- rael lets his voice out so furi-
tieularly upon the General Staff"•
of (lying could not be ously.
to interfere with the civil administration sibility
ruled out and I faced the matter
I had been a meek man at all
What can the German people do to of the countries liberated. They do not in a philosophical way,
the meetings. I sat in the last
stop the massacre of innocent Jews? come as conquerors or as occupiers but o I am not a man who is afraid row. There had been moments in
f dying, since I have already my Jewish life when, at meet-
What could the German people do since as liberators, and as such they try as lived
a goodly number of years. logs, I thought I should get up
the Nazis succeeded in coordinating the far as possible to allow the people to When a man has lived a long and speak loudly and be noticed,
time he shouldn't be greedy for as all the other people did. I
whole of the Reich by silencing all dissi- choose their own form of government, more life. He should know that could be a prominent Jew, a
he has had about enough and champion in Israel merely by let-
dents and opportunists?
provided it is not Nazi or Fascist.
that all the additional years he ting my voice out. I could get
are a bonus.
on a c omittee.
m
Up to a certain point an individual or
If the report from Romania is correct, gets
My children have grown up
But on those occasions I always
a group can show his or its disapproval, the Russians even go beyond the promise and are taking care of them- managed to keep my vanity in
If I had to leave them I check. I said, well, so what? Do
dissent or opposition, but beyond that of allowing a choice of the form of gov- selves.
could do so with a clear con- you have to get into a fight to
point it becomes not only futile but prac- ernment, provided it is not. Nazi or Fas- science. I have (lone my duty to be a great and good Jew? I'll
tically physically impossible to protest. cist. The most reasonable explanation for my family and, that done, the keep my mouth shut. Maybe I
main job is finished and I'm ;.eady can serve Israel best by keeping
my mouth shut instead of let-
We see this evolutionary process of this kind of action is that it is intended to go any time.
I could look at the prospect ting it explode in battle. I kept
complete coordination and liquidation l■ -• to refute the Goebbels propaganda that of So
death with equanimity, even on being a meek man.
opposition and dissent in Hungary. We the Russians would impose their form of while my tortured stomach seem- My wife had at times reproach-
learn that many Hungarians are aiding government upon any country they ma ed twisted in knots. I always have ed me. She said I, too, might
Y had due regard for my reputa- turn out to be a big man in
and concealing Jews. They are even en er.
tion and now my mind turned to Jmeel‘n.rt,
enue1
:n bi enr mouth.
y nf ni She
tehie.
charged with
over their property
fo
opened
the question: What will they say mentioned
a
so that it should not fall into the hands
low; citizens who were always
This kind of action on the part of the about me after I'm gone.
Nobody could call m e a d ea d_ getting their names and pictures
of the Hungarian Nazis. The Hungarian Soviets should certainly counteract, if not beat,
for I was paid up to the in the Jewish press. She said
people may be able to continue to do this cum p i e t e i
last dollar. My wife could think they never could have gained this
y
negate,
the
Goebbels
pro
a-
p
work of rescue, mercy and salvage until
well of me, for I had been a fame if they had kept their
the very end of the war, because the ganda among the satellite neighbors of faithful and generous husband mouths shut . . . "You got to
Nazis may not be able to achieve the Romania, and if it became known among who t c o nsidered nothing too good be mad at somebody. But you
he l it tle woman. My children
complete coordination achieved in the the peoples of the Nazi Reich it should always
had considered me blessed
just sit
there, saying
against
anybody.
You're nothing
just a
Reich,
go a long way in breaking the hold the on last Father's Day each of shlemiel."
had given me a necktie.
The case of the Hungarians is the Nazis have upon them. If there is one them
As man and father I could Now as I looked at my pros-
latest instance of helping the doomed Jew- bogey the Ministry of Enlightenment and close my eyes and fold my hands nective funeral I could see that
ish people in their midst. The French, Propaganda has sedulously disseminated in content. But by being just
See SEGAL—Page 9
Dutch, Danes, Norwegians, Poles did the since Stalingrad, it is the bogey of en-
same as long as they could.
Goodwill Team at Romulus Air Base
slavement by the Russians of all con-
We have heard of countless instances quered peoples.
of Germans helping their Jewish country-
What is of especial significance, how-
men during the early days of the Nazi
regime. In fact, according to many who ever, in these reports is the reaction of
are in a position to know, were it not the French and Romanian governments
for the helpfulness, cooperation and kind- to the problem of anti-Semitism. The
liness of their German neighbors, many French in Normandy and in Tunisia rid
more German Jews would have been tor- themselves immediately of the malodor-
tured in concentration camps and many ous and brutal Nazi Nuremberg laws.
more would have lost their lives. All this These laws are alien to them and they
was done before all opposition was elim- only endured them. because they were
listed and before complete coordination imposed upon them by military might, but
in the case of Romanians we have a dif-
was achieved by the Nazis.
ferent situation. Anti-Semitism is indig-
It is true that there are a few men and enous. The Iron Guard, Professor Cuza,
women who will continue to fight for their Ion Antonescu and countless other anti-
convictions despite the hopelessness and Semites are an old story in that unhappy
futility of their fight. We call these men land. The Nazis did not have to threaten;
and women martyrs. They are admirable in fact, they hardly needed to urge the
and evoke our respect for their heroism, native anti-Semites in Romania to accept
but the vast mass of men and women are the Nuremberg laws.
not of the stuff of martyrs; they are
It is obvious that the internal problems
simple people who realize that it is use-
less to fight against overwhelming odds, of Romania will be much more difficult
so they accept the inevitable and adjust to solve than those of France. It is espe-
A goodwill team from the Detroit Round Table of Catholics.
c
themselves the best way they can. Their cially
obvious that great care and much Jews & Protestants presented a message of national unity before
failure to continue to protest, oppose and caution will have to be used in choosing the officers and men of the Romulus Air Base on June 24.
d
Left to right: Edgar A. Guest, noted poet and Protestant co-
fight does not by any means mean that democratic-minded
Romanians who will chairman
of the Detroit Round Table; Dr. Alvin D. Hersch, Jewish
they condone or approve the brutalities have the task of setting up an anti-Nazi, attorney,
member of the faculty of the University of Detroit
and bestialities of their civil and military anti-Fascist government.
Law School; Dr. Herbert Beecher Hudnut, minister, Woodward
Church; Col. Panton De Arce, commanding
rulers. It means only that they know that
The task is a difficult and complex one, Ave. Presbyterian
Joseph Q. Mayne, executive secretary of the Detroit Round
temporarily they can do nothing about it. but with patience and forbearance it can officer;
Table of Catholics, Jews and Protestants; Hon. Joseph A. Moyni-
We are persuaded that many Germans be completed in a reasonably short time. han, Presiding Judge, Circuit Court of Michigan, vice president
of

the National Council of Catholic Men.

1111111

11L'IFF

a