•
Midwest JWB Chief
Czech Jews' Prospect
of Comeback Is Strong
Humane Regime, Outside Agencies
Help Mature People Back to Normal
regeneration the Jews of pres-
ent day Czechoslovakia have ach-
ieved standards far higher than
those of their brothers in neigh-
boring lands.
Their losses have been enor-
mous. And their prospects, par-
ticularly .in Slovakia, are still
somewhat uncertain. But great
strides have been made towards
what normality can be achieved
in the abnormal context of shat-
tered Jewry in a 1946 Europe.
For this, three main factors are
responsible: the maturity of Czech
Jewry; the attitude of a humane
government; and the fine work of
outside Jewish agencies.
.1.
255,000 IN 1939
progressive; under the occupation
they became a protectorate.
PUPPET SLOVAKIA
Slovakia was always more back-
ward; with German dominance, it
became an "independent" puppet
state. Jews received decent treat-
ment in pre-war Czech lands. In
Slovakia anti-Semitism was strong.. JOSEPH S. LERNER, former
Yet curiously enough the Czech president of the Jewish Com-
Jews suffered heavier losses under munity Center of Kansas City,
the occupation. For being more Mo., has been elected president
advanced, their organization was of the midwest section of the
better and their records more com- National Jewish Welfare Board.
plete. These records were secured The section covers Michigan,
Colorado, Illinois, Missouri, In-
by the Germans. And few Jews
could escape by false documenta- diana, Nebraska, Iowa, Ohio,
tion or by assuming Christian Kentucky, Wisconsin, West Vir-
ginia, Minnesota and parts of
identities.
In Slovakia it was somewhat Pennsylvania.
easier. In Czechoslovakia, too, the
considerable German minority sup- Jewish survivors have returned
plemented the records by inform- from camps of death, many who
ing on Jews and anti-fascists.
seized their property in their ab-
CZECHS FRIENDLY
sence have been reluctant to give
With the liberation, the Jews it up.
who trickled back found a central REGRET SURVIVAL
government that understood their
They have openly resented the
plight and seemed to appreciate
something of what they had suf- Jewish return. It was, after all,
fered. In the Czech lands, they unfair. "Why should the particu-
found a friendly folk prepared to lar Jew whose house I have taken
offer the place in society they had have survived? By all the rules
he should have perished with the
formerly occupied.
In Slovakia, they found that rest." Men who have fattened
nothing had been learned and for some years on the property of
nothing forgotten. They found people with only a one per cent
an accentuated anti - Semitism chance of survival dislike the de-
among the common folk which scent down the economic ladder
the central government was pow- when that chance comes off.
Slovakian Jews suffered more
erless to check. It was aggrava-
ted even more deeply by the prob- from this tendency than did their
Czech brethren. For in Slovakia,
lem of property restitution.
It is a grim fact that wherever an "independent" state, Jewish
On March 15, 1939, the day
that Hitler marched into Czecho-
slovakia, there were 255,000 "ra-
cially approved" Jews in the coun-
try — 118,300 in Bohemia, Mor-
avia and Silesia, and 136,700 in
Slovakia. The Jewish population
today stands at little over 50,000,
of which some 8,000 are Jews
only in the "Nuremberg Law"
sense.
I have not included in these
figures the 110,000 Jews from
Carpatho-Russia of whom only
11,000 are estimated to have sur-
vived.
The bulk of the Czechoslovak-
ian Jews perished in concentration
camps. Some 4 to 5,000 fell
fighting with partisan groups.
Almost all the survivors went
through the hell of German in-
ternment.
Only comparatively few found
survival by hiding or passing
themselves off as non-Jews. Prac-
tically every Jew I have met here /,
or am likely to meet has lost
most of his family.
HORRORS HIT ALL
The pattern is the same wher-
ever you move through Europe or
the Balkans today. But it hits
you afresh with every Jewish hand
you shake.
Most of them do not talk about
it. But you discover later that
the woman with the sad eyes lost
her baby the first day they were
deported and saw her husband
shot the day before she was lib-
erated. The . middle-aged man
whose mind moves through a re-
captured photo montage of a mur-
dered wife, child, sister and moth-
er, you learn is only 32.. . .
To understand the politics of
Czechoslovakia, the historic Czech
lands, Bohemia and Moravia, must
be considered apart from Slovakia
7.N
Chanukah Greetings
the
forefront of the anti-Semitic drive
in Slovakia. While all parties in
the Czech lands condemn outrages
like the minor pogroms in Slovakia
a few months ago, even the Slo-
vakian left wing party, in which
there is little anti-Semitism, is not
prepared openly to attack popular
S oTvhaek i pa ons ot ipoin n i oi sn .
better in Bohe-
(Continued on Page 13)
Season's Greetings
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CHANUKAH GREETINGS
Chanukah
Greetings
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Upon This Occasion We
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CAREFULLY LAID
Take This Opportunity to
Extend Our Best Wishes to
the Entire Jewish Commu-
nity for a Happy Chanukah!
Chanukah Greetings
SPORTSWEAR
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MALLORY HATS
OLEN'S
Men's Shop
tion fell in the immediate d ys
b e o erhe etchke e d dawn.
I chec
story with a min-
ister . of the cehtral government
and he confirmed all the details I
have mentioned.
CHANUKAH GREETINGS
Contract Work a Specialty
CHERRY 7030
145 W. JEFFERSON
SHIRTS
Ambassador — Arrow
The Czechoslovak central gov-
ernment's restitution law of May
16, 1946. opens the way for court
action for the recovery of prop-
erty. It was recently suspended
in Slovakia under pressure from
anti-Semitic occupant groups.
Some of these groups are "re
spectable." Only a few weeks
ago, a partisan congress in Brat-
islava flourished banners demand-
ing a change in the restitution
laws.
I was told that in the final
weeks before the liberation, a
number of Hlinka men, realizing
the game was up and anxious to
secure credentials of respectability
joined partisan groups.
Some turned on the Germans
during those few weeks. Others
exploited the opportunity by kill-
ing Jewish partisans. That is how
a number of Jewish mountain
fighters who had served with the
partisans throughout the occ a-
BEST WISHES - -
To our host of Jewish friends we ex-
tend our sincerest wishes for a Joyous
Holiday — May your holiday fes-
tivities and services attain the success
and beauty for which you have so
diligently planned.
Mean good Has news for
Spring. We have the Hat styles
You want!
property was taken over by indi- I
vidual Slovaks.
In Bohemia and Moravia it was
taken over by the Germans. With
liberation, the Czech government
put custodians in charge of Ger-
man occupied property. These
custodians, with less attachment ,
to the property than private oc-
cupants, were on the whole less
loth to give it up.
MAY GO TO COURT
PRAGUE—In terms of physical The Czech lands were always more
TIES
Arrow—Beau Brummel
Friday, December 20, 1946
DETROIT JEWISH CHRONICLE and The Legal Chronicle
Page Four
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