• 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 • Detroit Live Fish Co. 9515 OAKLAND T% 8.3273 CHANUKAH GREETINGS Kinsel Drug Co: No. 1 store-100 Michigan No 3 store-13552 Michigan, Dearborn No. 4 store-14149 E.• Jefferson No. 5 store-13627 Gratiot No. 6 store-10001 Fenkell No. 7 store-14365 Harper No. 9 store-5601 Michigan No. 10 store-21670 Grand River, Redford No. 11 store-15301 Livernois No. 12 store—Biddle at Elm, Wyandotte No. 14 store-401 S. Washington, Royal Oak No. 15 store-6500 Woodward No. 16 store-14276 Gratiot 4 • DENT-KRAFT DENTAL LABORATORY Ted Glass - David Weinberg MACCABEES BLDG. • ■ WISPER Zd WETSMAN THEATRES 41.•• ■■ •• CHANUKAH GREETINGS Chanukah Greetings UNIVERSAL CARPET SERVICE Upon This Occasion We CARPETS, RUGS & LINOLEUM CAREFULLY LAID Take This Opportunity to Extend Our Best Wishes to the Entire Jewish Commu- nity for a Happy Chanukah! Chanukah Greetings SPORTSWEAR McGregor • HERZBERG COOPER UNDERWEAR AND HICKOK Belts and Suspenders Pajamas—Robes KEYSTONE 9038 TWELFTH ST. HETAhD eseHAJ paErtD isR anlV s,,E are in For A Joyous Chanukah 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 MANUFACTURING FURRIERS . Restyling • Repairing • Remodeling and Storage 11350 WOODWARD AVE. KERN'S WOODWARD AT GRATIOT TO. 8-4318 pmensmommummuSszlEm NAO