American 'elvish Periodical Center

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• 31 YEARS OF SERVICE TO DETROIT JEWRY •

Detroit Jewish Chronicle

VOL. 48, NO. 39

(Section Four)

and The Legal Chronicle

DETROIT, MICHIGAN, FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 1946

10c a Single Copy; $3.00 Per Year

I KNOW THE MEANING OF VICTORY

By MRS. LISETTE SOEP

author of this article, Mrs.
Lisette Soup, wee interned In the
Bergen•Belsen Concentration Camp
for 14 months. At this camp, the
records at the court trial at Lune-
burg revealed, survival was possi-
ble for one week. The Germans
designated Bergen•/3elsen as a one•
week camp, after which inmates
would be dead. 'Sirs. Soep, Holland-
born social worker, came to Amer-
ica with her parents before the
war. She returned to Rolland to
get married, and was unable to
leave when war broke out. Tho
Germans deported her with other
Jews from Holland. She worked as
a slave laborer, and owes her life
to the fact that she was classified
as an American Jew — Editor's
Note.

The

When I think of V.E Day, I
cannot think of it in any other
fashion than a personal one. My
victory came when I finally left
Europe to come to America. Two
months ago I arrived in this
country, and on that day, I felt
that I finally achieved victory. I
believe that everyone hal their
own personal V-E Day. If any-
one would have told me that a
year after victory in Europe I
would be here in America, I would
have regarded him as mad. A
year ago today, there was no ce-
lebrating the end of the war. On
that day, sick with typhus, weak.
ened frod starvation, I fought
and prayed for the chance to re.
main alive.
I'd like to tell you a little about
what we were doing, how things
were on the day that the war
ended in Europe. At Bergen-Bel-
\sen concentration camp, where I
was, the 'Soldiers were happy and
we heard from them that the war
had just ended. There were no
newspapers and we had no con-
tact with the outside world. Some
of the soldiers were shooting off
their guns, and drinking. In
marked contrast, for the survi-
vors of the horror camp, V-E Day
meant a search for a piece of
bread. Two distinct worlds exist-
ed: The world of free people that
joyously greeted the end of hosti-.
Mies, and the world of former
concentration camp internees who
went about dazed and bewildered,
in rags, bent upon satisfying their
great hunger. V-E Day had no
meaning for us. It was as if we
were existing on a different plan-
et, divorced from all that the rest
of the world was feeling and do-
ing. On the one hand, the sol-
diers were shouting and singing,
and on the other we walked,
slowly, and in complete silence.
We walked as If In a dream.
At Belson, our main task was
burying the dead. This required
months. While the world was ce-
lebrating (and we were happy
for them) we buried our dead in
the huge mass graves, and marked
them with little wooden signs,
"5,000 Jews, May 8, 1945." Some
of us worked In the hospitals at-
tempting to bring help to the
thousands of living skeletons who
were lying shrivelled into sha-
dows of their former selves. We
cried for food. We suffered the
agonies of the burning fever of
typhus. Can you picture a person
too weak to cry? In our lives
there was no room for celebrat.
ing. The word, "victory" had no
meaning for us.

The hope that sustained me
was that I would contact my
American family, and there,would
be possibilities of leaving Ger-
many. Through some soldiers, and
through the J.D.C., I managed to
contact my American relatives,
and after months of work, my
papers were arranged. I left for
America. Now, I know what vic-
tory means, what it means to live
In freedom. A year ago, I had no
concept why the world was fe.s•

Jewish Youngsters Enjoy Camp Life
At' J.D.C. Summer Centers In Europe

year after V-E Day, over 3,000
refugees are expected to arrive
monthly. The care of these people
has been placed in the hands of
the National Refugee Service.
Rather, I should say, the care of
these people is in your hands
through the support of the United
Jewish Appeal campaign f o r
$100,000,000.

Survivors of Bergen-Belsen who
are in America today cannot for.
get what they hate endured, and
because we are deeply concerned
over the fate of the 1,400,000 Jews
who are still ih Europe we have
banded together to do everything
possible to support the United
Jewish Appeal as the unified in-
strument in the rescue and reha-
bilitation of the remnants of Eu-
ropean Jewry.

Throughout Europe this summer,
thousands of Jewish boys and girls
are enjoying—many for the first
time—the fresh air, the sunlight
and happy childhood games of the
season at camps operated by the
Joint Distribution Committee in a
program for which the J.D.C. has
appropriated $200,000. Above left,
a Jewish war orphan catches up on
her knitting at a summer home in
Germany. Above right, youngsters
frolic in a J.D.C. summer camp in
France.. Left, boys and girls at • _
camp in Hungary supported by the
Committee chant the words of •
Hebrew song. Funds for these and
the J.D.C.'s other relief, rehabilita.
tion and emigration activities are
provided by contribution. to the
U. S. to the $100,000,000 cam-
paign of the United irwillh APPewl-

tive. Our lives were too bleak,
our existence too meager to per.
mit celebration. This year for the
first time I can join with the rest
of the world in commemorating
the end of the war. I know vic-
tory. I have tasted its fruit.

that now that the war had ended,
real help would arrive. On May 8,
1945, those of us who came stumb..
ling out of the extermination cen-
ters breathed renewed hope and
faith. Some love and attention
would now come to us. The war
in Europe was over. Maybe now,
we the first victims of Nazism,
the remnants of a people, would
receive help. However, such was
not the case. We became the for-
gotten people. We were relegated
to an obscure corner, neglected
and forgotten. The world seemed
to say, "The war is over. We can
forget our disagreeable problems.
We liberated these people, now
let us forget them. Our job is fin-
ished."

But even now, a year later,
when I think of what it was like
on the day the war ended, and
we were in Belsen, I do not feel
much like celebrating. When I
think of V-E Day I picture that
hospital at Belson, and the gap-
ing mass graves waiting for still
more victims. There is something
the world does not realize. When
we were liberated on April 15,
1945, there were 10,000 bodies ly-
ing among the living In Belsen.
By V-E Day, 13,000 additional
But for the 100,000 Jews still in
Jews had died. Today, a year af- barracks in Germany, the war is
ter V-E hay, the mass graves at not over. They have never known
Belsen contain 40,000 Jews.
any victory. Their struggle, their
Today, a year after the end of war continues—a ceaseless war to
the war in Europe, there are 10,. leave Displaced Persons' camps,
000 Jews still in Belsen. TICere to find permanent homes, to start
are 100,000 Jews waiting in Dis- new and productive lives, to sat..
placed Persons camps in Germany isfy their constant hunger, to be-
and Austria. The joy that I feel come normal useful members of
in my newly discovered freedom society. The only hope that these
people have of ever celebrating
is tempered by the memory of the
miserable existence that these victory in Europe lies with the
survivors of concentration camps Jews of America. In the months
are enduring. There Is a real and that followed the end of the war
big difference in what I had a in Europe, news reached us of
year ago, and what I have now. the effort being made in America
but the only difference to the to rescue us, to bring us some
thousands of Jews still in Ger- relief, to help us in quitting Ger-
many and Austria is that it is a many and going to Palestine or
year later, and more of our broth- America.
ers have died; the gnawing sen-
We who have come out of Bel-
sation of hunger is sharper, the son to America know the efforts
cold and uncertainty persists with of American Jewry and the role
of the United Jewish Appeal. Ths
greater intensity.
100,000 Jews still languishing in
As we walked the streets of camps know also about the cam-
Belsen in dazed silence and
watched the soldiers celebrating paign to raise $100,000,000. A year
the end of the war, we thought after lbieration, they have seen

little improvement in their lot.
Whatever help has reached them
has come through the efforts of
the United Jewish Appeal. To
hundreds of thousands the Jobit
Distribution Committee marks the
difference between death and sur-
vival. The caring of the children,
the feeding of the old, the com-
fort and aid to the sick, the re-
habilitation and retraining the
young—all is part of the huge
task that the J.D.C. is doing.
The people that still remain in
the camps, the people who have
returned to the graveyards that
mark their homes, speak and
exist with one hope — to go to
Palestine. The end of the war for
them will come when they are.
permitted to go to Palestine. Hun.
dreds of thousands exist for one
reason, and one reason only—for
the chance to begin their lives as
free people in Palestine. Whether
that possibility becomes reality
or not depends mainly on you.
The United Palestine Appeal,
which is supported by the United
Jewish Appeal, has the responsi-
bility for the care of these people
upon arrival In Palestine for their
training and settlement there. The
Niue. of the displaced person In
linked irievocably to
Palesiin,.., \Ind the future of Pal-
estine is linked irrevocably to
your support of the United Jew-
ish Appeal.
To those of us who have reach.
ed America, the work of the Na-
tional Refugee Service is well
known. The agency that helps
newcomers and gives aid in the
adjustment of refugees in Amer-
ica is the National Refugee Ser.
vice. It is to the N.R.S. that thou.
sands turn for help upon arrival
in this country. This year, one

It is a pleasant and good thing
to have a V.E Day. It is corn.
forting to say that this day marks
the end of our struggle. Our
fight has ended, victory is ours.
Let us rest and celebrate. It is a
comforting and good thing to do
this. But, In a larger sense, there
Is no V-E Day for the 1,400,000
HOMELESS Jews who , wander
the graveyards of Europe, with-
out food, without clothes, with-
out hope for a productive future.
A year ago there was no cele.
brating, and now, a year later,
there will be no celebrating. You
cannot dance on the graves of
your family. The grim reminder
of mass graves, the bleakness of
barrack living, all nullify what-
ever Joy springs _
an ., anal.
Versary of the end 'of the war In
Europe. One year later,, and all
the people in Europe can say is
that it is a year more that we
have suffered. They have tasted
freedom, but have not been per.
milted to eat from the fruits of
victory. It Bangs before their
eyes as a hope that sustains them
in this year of survival. I have
been permitted to know freedom.
I have been fortunate in having
family here In America, and
through the efforts of the United
Jewish Appeal. I have been per-
mitted to come out of the horror
that is Germany and begin a new
life in America. On the first an-
niversary of the end of the war
in Europe, I can only say that
the war has never ended in Eu-
rope. The war for survival con-
tinues for the homeless, displaced
Jews of Europe, there never has
been a V-E Day. American Jewry
can provide a real victory in Eu-
rope by coming to the aid of the
1,400,000 Jews who are fighting
for their lives today, a.year after
the end of the war. The message
that I wish to give to my new
country Is, "Give the others who
are still in Europe the same op-
portunity that I have had. Make
these homeless people members of
your family. Support, work, sac.
rifice for the United Jewish Ap.
peal in its drive for $100,000,000
for relief, overseas rescue and
Palestine. When the day arrives
that there does not exist a home-
less hungry Jew in Europe, that
day will mark our V-E Day. Un-
til then, there will be no peace."

Jews m U. S. Army
Hold 50,000 Medals

Jewish men and women of the
American armed forces hold an
aggregate of 49,315 awards for
valor and meritorious service in
the course of World War H. 550,-
000 American Jews—" or, in mill.
tary terms, the equivalent of 37
divisions"—served in the armed
forces. Nearly 11,000 Jews are
know); to have died in service as
of JulY 1, and that the total num-
ber of casualties, in all categories
authenticated as Jewish VMS
38,338.

