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DETROIT JEWISH CHRONICLE
Page 4
Detroit Jewish Chronicle
A Glance at Freedom
n ^venArtw,.. ■■ ••••-•• ■ ••• ■ ••••••±,n.
Published Weekly by the Jewish Chronicle Publishing Co., Inc.
WOodward 1-1040
900 Lawyers' Building, Detroit 26, Michigan
SUBSCRIPTION
$3.00 Per Year. Single Copies, tOc; Foreign, $5.00 Per Year at
Entered as Second-class matter March 3, 1916, at the Post Office
Detroit, Mich., under the Act of March 3, 1879
Friday, July 6, 1951
Survivor Tells
of Life, Death
in Nazi Camps
By DR. FRANK ROSENTHAL
Temple Beth Israel, Jackson
.
I CAME BACK, by Krys-
tina Zywulska (Roy Publ. Co.,
New York, $2.50.)
SEYMOUR TILCIIIN
Publisher
GERHARDT NEUMANN
Editor
During these days of general
pardon that is being extended to
a vast number of Nazi criminals,
a book like "I Came Back - ," is
greatly needed. •
The world seems to need each
In full-page advertisements in New York's daily
year a rehearsal of the bloody
papers, a committee by the name of American Friends of
memory, so that those millions
the Middle East recently made its existence known to
of innocent will not have died
the public.
in vain.
Its chairman is columnist Dorothy Thompson, and
During past years, we needed
among its charter members we find a few names of well
the observations of Zewerina
Grandfather and grandson recently arrived from Iraq, stand at Zmaglewska's "Smoke Over Bir-
known personalities, such as Dr. Philip K. Hitti, professor
the site of their new home in Israel's latest movie, "Tent City,"
kenau" or Olga Lengyel's "Five
at Princeton University; Vincent Sheean, author; W. L.
which had its midwest premiere recently in Chicago. The feature
Chimneys" to remind us of the
White, editor of the Emporia Gazette, and Dr. John A.
documentary is being distributed by the United Palestine Relief:
untold sacrifices of blood and
Wilson, director of the oriental Institute of the University
tears and dear ones that were
of Chicago.
offered to the moloch of man's
The comtnittee believes that the people of the Middle
inhumanity to man.
East are in great peril and "need the assurance of Ameri-
And now, we read the story
can awareness and the demonstrations of practical friend-
of a Polish woman who worked
ship that go with it."
in the Polish undergrodnd, and
who was caught and shipped
"Most Americans," the advertisement states, "have
steel, windowless com- from Warsaw to various camp
long,
were
never had an accuratae picture of the Middle East. Too
By WILLIAM B. SAPHIRE
partments, sucking air through sites, and finally to Auschwitz
often they regard it in the romantic terms of the 'Thou-
Jewish Agency for Palestine ventilators which reared over the (Oswiecim).
sand and One Nights.' Or they conceive of it as simply
We hear of the sadism of the
DECENTLY I TRAVELED from top deck of th ship.
a vast petroleum reservoir. These misconceptions have
• •
guards at the camps, yet we
" Marseille to Haifa with 600
been exploited by partisan propaganda which has lowered
immigrants from the ghettos of
SOUTH OF CRETE the sea also learn of the strange per-
a curtain of misunderstanding between the peoples of the
Casablanca, Oran and Algiers. smoothed out and the air warm- verse expressions of love and
west and the peoples of the east."
They had 'come in small groups ed. The immigrants came on deck tr , .derness that sometimes brings
Noting the resurgence of nationalism in the Middle
from North Africa to France, and squatted Arab fashion on the together guardsman and pYis-
collected at a transit center out- hatch covers, taking in the sun, oner.
East, the committee asserts that the nations of that area
side of Marseille, put through watching the distant island, nib-
A piece of stale bread passed
"are moving toward democratic institutions. In their '-
routine medical examination and bling food for the first ,time in between lovers or a hopeful
fort they are entitled to American support, free fn
organized into a single transport four days. A few had Hebrew word and soft caress may add
political pressure and racial or religious discrimination."
for the ocean trip.
primers, and with others leaning years to the lives of the doomed.
While on the surface the purposes of the committee
over their shoulders, they began The author is able to describe
From
the
promenade
deck
of
seem to be impartial and with malice toward no group,
how even the prisoners lost their
the Israeli steamer Negbah I to study.
it becomes apparent from the advertisement that the
sense of proportion in accepting
watched them arrive by the
The first sight of Israel was and observing human suffering.
group is just another attempt by the Arabs to offset the
truckload at the quayside, a rag- Cape Carmel light piercing the
While these helpless masses
influence of the Jewish state in America.
ged segment of the tens of thous- pre-dawn sky on the sixth morn-
ands of Jews who have been and ing of the voyage. The Negbah marched by these "Canada bar-
If there is a movement toward democracy in the Arab
world, it is hard to find. Naturally, democratic aspirations
still are streaming to the shores took a slight list as she steamed racks," as a never ending stream
of Israel from the pestholes of into Haifa's horseshoe bay, her from "Sauna," the reception cen-
ought to be supported by Americans, but we are afraid
ter to the gas chambers, pris-
the Arab world.
that the committee misrepresents the true political pic-
passengers crowding the star- oners and Nazis alike appropri-
Watching the embarkation board rail from end to end.
East.
ated for themselves some of the
the
Middle
ture in
from the upper decks, we few
spontaneous
roar
of
"slialoin"
possessions.
It takes no notice of the fact that the existence of
A
cabin passengers felt strangely greeted the pilot boat as it came
Within the light of the fiery
the Jewish state has changed materially the political
neglected, but hardly resentful. alongside and the same for the furnaces, fashion shows were
realities in the Middle East. It also fails to note that the
Though still in France, we were tugs which nudged the vessel held, cabaret performances tried
Arab states—despite a few weak reform efforts—are still
witnessing a process which was around the breakwater into the to dispel the thought of death.
living in thei,.. feudal past and are unwilling to admit
as much a part of the building of
Mme. Zywulska tells us of one
that their social and political outlook must eventually
Israel as digging a drainage ditch harbor.
of these performances, where a
If
there
was
apathy
at
a
liora
in the Huleh or laying a concrete
crumble under the impact of Israel's revolutionary
Jewish comedian gave a mono-
foundation somewhere in the Ne- in Marseille, there was wild ex- logue;
impact.
citement,' tears and murmumed
gev.
"They buried one single man.
Instead of seeking to bring the Arab nations into the
prayers as the strains of Hatik-
Listening
to
their
gutteral
Ara-
orbit of western civilization, the committee is overplaying
vah rolled over the harbor from The crowd burst into laughter.
bic speech it was difficult to be- a dozen loudspeakers on ship and A funeral for one man, a black
the perils of Communism in the Middle East. In fact, we
lieve that they were of the same
suit, a hearse, wreaths, a casket,
have a sneaking suspicion that the meaning behind this
blood and heritage as the Jews shore.
an obituary . . . but that was
is the imaginary danger which the Arabs see in Israel.
The gangplank was dropped. not all . . . there will be a
of Europe and the west. They
were olive skinned, with dark, Four generations of ghetto Jews tombstone. The actor choked
The committee intends to bring spokesmen of eastern
deep-set eyes and finely chiseled went ashore. The mass of friends with laughter."
religious and cultural groups to this country to meet
and relatives on the dock surged
This is just one of the haunt-
features.
American audiences as well as to invite the participation
The children were painfully forward, surrounding them like ing incidents in the book, which
of the many Americans of Near Eastern origin in its
thin, with large, hungry eyes and an all-embracing arm. And even give a graphic description of the
work.
rickety limbs. Some of the girls as this took place, another ship, spirit and the sense of values
Why the smokescreen? Miss Thompson should have
were pretty. But their elder sis- the blue and white flag snapping that prevailed in this man-made
come right out with her real intention,.that is, to mobilize
ters, women in their mid-twen- over her empty decks, slipped hell.
American public opinion against Israel.
The author leads us almost to
ties or early thirties, were al- noiselessly out of the harbor
ready gray, haggard and bloated bound for Bari, Tripoli and lands the doors of the gas chambers,
west to pick up another cargo of tells of her observance of the
from eeapeated child-bearirig.
gassing of a train of newcomers,
the homeless.
• • •
• * •
whom she had to register,
A recent article in the N. Y. Times pointed out that
ILLUMINATED BY the cargo
period
of
SEVERAL WEEKS later I had healthy human beings, who but
lamps the scene on deck was
Israel's Kibbutz movement "is undergoing a
an hour later were burning in
another
opportunity to see immi- the most gigantic funeral pyre
a
mass
of
pressing
bodies.
great uncertainty. A number of crises have left the move-
grants
from
North
Africa,
not
the
mountainous piles of dilapidated
ever known in the history of
ment's future in question."
luggage and the nondescript de- group with which I had traveled, man's fiendishness.
Kibbutzim, the article says, no longer attract the
bris of cargo loading operations. but others who had arrived in
"I Came Back" is indeed a
newcomers. When the state was founded, 143 kibbutzim
A group of Youth Aliyah wards Israel a few months earlier. They worthwhile book. Though sim-
and 57 moshavim existed. (Kibbutzim work on the collec-
were
on
a
ma'abarah
(work
vil-
sprang into an impromptu hora,
ply written, which might be the
tive principle, moshavim on the cooperative principle.)
circling around their young lead- lage) on Mount Gilboa overlook- result of its translation from the
63
er on the canvas hatch cover. But ing the green , carpet of Emek Polish into English, it should
By the end of 1949, 67 additional kibbutzim and
moshavim had been established. In ,1950, the new immi-
the dance was ignored by the rest Israel.
serve as a reminder of the ex-
grants set up 58 moshavim, while only four new kibbut-
of the immigrants and wos soon
In appearance they were a termination camps, this great
lost in the mass of people mov- happy contrast to the group I Nazi contribution to the "civil-
zim were opened. This ratio has even widened in the first
ing slowly to their quarters be- had first seen on the dock at ization" of this century.
five months of this year.
It should be read by all those
low decks.
The kibbutz movement, the writer says, "has slipped
Marseille.
A British woman standing next
out of its predominant elite role in the shaping of the
They had cast the stoop of the who would want to let "bygones
to me, bound to visit her daugh- ghetto off their shoulders; their be bygones," and see in those
f uture."
ter in a Galilean kibbutz, looked skin was browned by the sun; very criminals desirable part-
There are reasons for this. Many of the old kibbutzim
peeved. "Where's their Zionist their once thin arms and legs ners in our fight against the
have grown rich and soft. After years of hard toiling
spirit?" she wanted to know. Her were rugged with growing mus- Communistic menace.
they prefer to relax. They are the victims of a natural
This book may show that we
answer came from a Tel Aviv cles. They worked prodigiously,
let-down process as they are progressing in age.
business man, one who had set- building houses and roads, laying ought not only judge our friends
Is the kibbutz movement dead? If so, an integral
by their willingness to join us
tled in the city when it was still pipe, plowing up fields
against something, but let us
part of the Zionist movement has disappeared.
mostly a sand dune.
Each stroke of the pick and
It is a fact that the pioneer spirit which led thousands
"These immigrants don't come toss of shovel reflected the pride rather be reminded what these
of young Jews from Europe to Israel is not to be found
to Israel out of idealism," he said, of willing labor in a free land. new friends represent, what they
are.
among the Jews of the Moslem countries. They are com-
"for them it's a stark need. All They spoke Hebrew now.
May the last cry of anguish
their
lives
they've
known
only
ing to Israel in a different frame of mind. Most of them
of
the dying millions rise as a
I
approached
a
husky
bearded
the ghettos, squalor, disease, in-
spent their lives far away from Zionist ideas, and when
man, his hands busy on the mighty voice of warning, so that
security.
They
couldn't
possibly
their native states began to expel them, it came as a rude
never again need another book
be Zionists in the western sense." throttle of a rumbling cement as "I Came Back" be written.
mixer. "Do you like the country?"
shock to them.
Six days on the Mediterranean I asked.
As a solemn reminder and a
We probably will have to reconcile ourselves to the
can be a pleasure cruise, but not
fact that the reconstruction of Israel will differ ideologi-
"Like it?" he repeated, "why sound testimony of an era that
for 600 people living in tiers of
we hope has passed forever, this
cally from the spirit of the mandatory period. There will
It's our country. We've been
not?
berths in the depths of a rolling
book is highly recommended.
be hardly any halutzim and, as time goes on, fewer
ship. The immigrant dormitories here all our lives."
Friday, July 6, 1951
Tammuz 2, 5711
Pro-Arab Propaganda
Israel to Newcomers
Home All Their Lives
Is the Kibbutz Dead?
immigrants.
//I