THE JEWISH NEWS
Page Eight
CORWIN
Epilogue To
The Dreyfus Affair
Calls Radio Weapon
Against Anti-Semites
By ALFRED WERNER
Editor's Note: The issues
raised by the Dreyfus af-
fair, and the alignments then established, have continued
to this very day and gave birth to Vichy. With the Allies
reconquering Fortress Europe, the final verdict will at last
be rendered. Alfred Werner, free lance journalist, reviews
French ' anti-Semitism in thiS "important article.
By WILLIAM B. SAPHIRE
"R
ADIO BROADCASTING affords the
best means of combating anti-Semitism in the
United States," says young, tall square-should-
ered Norman Corwin, master of radio drama.
There are many ways of combating anti-
Semitism over the radio, he says. One can
dramatize the work Jewish individuals and
Jewish groups are doing toward winning the
war. One can picture the activities of Jewish
underground fighters in Europe. "The sui-
cidal revolt of the Warsaw Ghetto is a wonder-
ful subject for a radio dramatization," Mr.
Corwin says, "I would have liked very much
to have done a program on that, but another
network beat me to it:"
Last summer Mr. Corwin -Wrote a series of
eight programs dealing • with the United Na-
tions. One of the series was about Tel. Aviv,
recently re-broadcast. The dialogue between
two Americans, one of them a newspaper cor-
respondent, played by screen actor Robert
Young, was subtlely aimed against anti-Semit-
ism. Both were having tea at one of those
beach-side Tel Aviv cafes. The gist of their
talk was this.
"How do you like it here?" The corres-
pondent asks.
"Fine," says the Irishman.
"It's a 100% Jewish city, there's no anti-
Semitism here."
"No."
"No, none."
POWERFUL EDUCATIONAL FORCE
WARNS AGAINST '.(WORD FEAR"
In his opinion, radio must be frank, bold,
and at times downright shocking, to convince
America that anti-Semitism is the mortal enemy
of democracy. Timidity, sweet sounding am-
biguities and vague allusions to persons and
groups are useless in such a fight. Mr. Corwin
_especially derides what he calls a "word fear"
that has developed among the very nations of
attack. He cited an example of "word fear."
During a rehearsal of the Tel Aviv show, a
Jewish young man, one of Mr. Corwin's assist-
ants, who objected to the words "Jew" and
"Jewish" continually used in . the script, in ref-
erence to Tel Aviv. He thought that the word
which had been -hurled as an insult so often
by anti-Semites, would offend the listeners.
The battle against - anti-Semitism in this
country will be a tough one, Mr. Corwin says.
Anti-Semites don't conceal their hatred. Theirs
is not an underground movement, although
plenty of Jews regard it as such, and back away
from an open fight. Mr. Corwin cited the re-
cent anti-Semitic incidents in his native Boston
which were nervously laughed off by some
Yews there. "It's such stupid hush-hush policies
of some Jewish groups who try to deny the ex-
istence of anti-Semitism; that, hampers our ef-
forts to destroy it," Mr. Corwin said.
His programs, he says-, are for people who have
open minds and are willing to co-operate
mentally. Mr. Corwin believes radio itself is
a "wonder child," and is enchanted by its
limitless possibilities. "If we make the best use
of them, the future of radio is boundless," he
says.
Mr. 'Corwin was born in Boston, son of a
middle class Jewish family. His voice still
retains the broad "A" of Boston. -
Mr. Corwin's personal story has a touch of
the scenario to it. "When I finished high
school, I felt that I wanted more than anything
to be a newspaper man. I wrote eighty letters
to all the newspapers that I could find in New
England. I told thern'what I thought I could
do and asked for a job. I got forty-five an-
swers. Ten were encouraging. One offered a
reporter's job at $15 a week. I took it."
Mr. Corwin didn't attend college. -"In those
days most editors preferred non-college men,'
he says. He stayed in newspaper work from
then on. Quite by accident, according to him,
he found his way to the radio department, be-
coming the radio editor of a New England pa-
per. Deciding that his talents lay in that field,
he came to New York, got a job on WQXR,
then a small independent station, specializing
in symphony music and open to fresh ideas.
"Any signs saying white Semites only, or re-
stricted to Semites exclusively?"
Radio broadcasts are the most powerful mass
educational forces in America,- because they
reach a far greater audience than any other
medium of entertainment, he points out. They
enter the privacy of almost every home awl so
have an intimate appeal.
E ditor's
Note: Norman
Corwin, nuts-
ter of radio
NORMAN CORWIN
drama, ex-
plains how ra-
dio can be
used in the. fight against anti-Semitism. The anti-
Semites are not hiding underground and our fight
against them must be in the open, he telks Independent
Jewish Press Service staff writer William B. Saphire.
WITH ALLIED forces moving
on Germany's borders, edging the
Nazis back pill box by pill box,
the curtain is finally being rung
down on an affair which became
a L'Affaire, beginning as a mis-
carriage of justice against a
single Jew and turning into a
miscarriage of justice against the
entire French nation. We- mean
the Dreyfus affair. For a strange
alignment of forces crystallized
that day, fifty _years ago, when
a large INstile crowd assembled
on the grounds of the Military
Academy at Paris to watch be-
spectuled middle-sized Captain
Alfred Dreyfus degraded. In
1906, Dreyfus was finally vindi-
cated, restored to his rights and
assigned to the general staff with
the rank of major.
But that did not end the align-
ment of two distinct camps in
French life and politics, an align-
EXPERIMENTED WITH T
' HEORIES
"Any anti-Gentilism?"
"That's putting the shoe on the other foot,"
Mr. Corwin says about this passage, "it drove
its point home. When radio is directed against
racial bigotry and intolerance, it can be more
effective than either the press or motion pic-
tures in destroying the microbe of anti-Semit-
ism.
Friday, September 15, 1944
.
ALFRED DREYFUS
Mr. Corwin experimented with his s theories
of writing and directing. His broadcast - caught
the ear of the "higher ups" at Columbia. They
invited him to the big studio. He became writer
and program director at Columbia, five years
ago. Today he's boss of his own program. He
writes all of his scripts, auditions his casts, re-
hearses, and sometimes acts, on his own radio
shows. His" work takes up all of his time, com-
pletely cutting across any other activities.
Script writing comes easy to - him, he admits,
but sometimes it takes days-to get a clear con-
ception (idea) for a radio show. He does most
.of his writing in his studio, where the con-
stant ringing of telephones and the parade of
potential script writers and young audition-
hungary hopefuls doesn't seem to bother him.
Mr. Corwin believes that in radio he has found
the best medium for self-expression. He con-
siders himself "purely a radio man."
.
Does he owe his success to his exceptional
talent, tireless work, personal drive? Perhaps,
but like so many Jewish boys, Mr. Corwin will
tell you he owes it all to his parents.
Copyright, 1944, by
Independent Jewish Press Service, Inc.
ment which was discernable be-
fore the affair, but had become
more definite during the fight
for the vindicatiOn of the Jewish
captain and has continued to
this day.
The invading Allies are now
destined to pronounce the final
verdict.
The Cabal Lives On
Among the revengeful officers
aligned with the anti-Dreyfusard
camp was Henri Philippe Petain. .
In World War I it was not anti-
Dreyfusard Petain who saved
France, but the civilian Drey-
fusard Clemenceau called "The
Tiger." The men who, in 1894,
sent the innocent Jew to prison
were chiefly those who not only
resented the Jews but also hated
the new republic, and its device
"Liberte, Fraternite, E g a 1 i t e,"
that was the motto of the Grand
Revolution. These officers and
aristocrats wanted to crush the
rule of the middle classes and
restore the hegemony of French
nobility. For a dozen years they
fought stubbornly ' against t h e
_Vnai Brith Is Sponsor of World's Largest
Free Hotel for Servicemen in Los Angeles
"WONDER CHILD" OF RADIO
Norman Corwin, who is only 34, is called by
many the "wonder child" of radio. In only
five years as writer and program director for
the Columbia Broadcasting System, he has in-
troduced revolutionary changes in the art of
script writing. He has developed a literary
script designed solely for radio presentation,
making the best use of radio technique. He
writes exclusively for the adult radio audience.
Bnai Brith's Hospitality House at 519 S. Spring St., Los Angeles, is the
world's biggest free hotel for servicemen.
Since it was opened on Christmas Eve, 1943, it has accommodated 14,000
men in uniform on Friday and Saturday nightS.
The photo on the left shows the reading room and lounge _where servicemen
relax before turning in for the night.
The photograph on the right shows one of the dormkteries in the Bnai Brith
,
Hospitality House which has a total of 500 beds.
representatives of modern demo-
cratic France, like the writers
Emile Zola. and Anatole France,
and the political leaders, Clemen-
ceau and Jaures.
The anti-Semitic and anti-
democratic elements in France
did not disappear even after
1918, but organized themselves
in several subversive groups,
along military lines, such as Ac-
tion Francaise, Croix de Feu,
and C.amelots - du Roi. They be-
came vociferous a n d violent
after 1933, encouraged by . the
success of the FaScists in Ger-
many. Both Petain and Wey-
gand were outspoken supporters
of the Action Francaise, and are
known to have sympathized with
the "Cagoulards," the French Ku
Klux Klan which armed itself
in order to start a counter-revo-
lution.
The Attack on Blum
Enemy No. 1 of all these re-
actionaries w a s Leon_ Blum,
leader' of the powerful Socialist
Party, who, in 1936, became
Prime Minister of France. When
he took office and entered . the
Chamber of Deputies, one of the
parliamentarians, Xavier Vallat,
shouted: "The formation of your
government, Monsieur President
of the Cabinet, is irrefutably a
historical event! For the first
time this old Gallo-Roman coun-
try will be governed -by a Jew!"
When the overwhelming major-
ity of the House angrily refuted
his racial attacks, protesting
against this introduction of Nazi
sentiments into democratic
France, Vallat "excused" him-
self by saying that he had no
grudge against the Jews as such,
but that he wished France to
be headed by a son of a French
peasant rather than by a "subtle
Talmudist."
When, after the surrender of
the French armies, Marshal Pe-
tain. installed a puppet regime
he appointed Vallat Commis-
sioner General for Jewish affairs,
in charge of the implementation
of the anti-Jewish laws. B u t
neither Petain nor Vallat were
radical enough (Vallat, it turned
out, accepted bribes from Weal-
thy Jews) and the Germans
backed, instead, Laval — who
completely forgot that once he
had been closely associated with
t h e Jewish banking house of
Lazard brothers — and Darquiel
de Pellepoix, became Vallat's
successor.
Freedom Rings
It is unknown how many of
the approximately 35.0,000 Jews,
who resided in France at the
outbreak of the war; were still
on French soil on the day of
the Allied invasion. We fervently
hope that' many will live to see
the -final triumph of justice. The
French patriots have -been sav-
ing and aiding as many Jews
as possible, in .the past f our
years, hiding adults as well as
children lest they be transported
to the death chambers of Eastern
Europe. Among the noted French-
men who disobeyed Vichy and
Berlin were Herriot who rejected
Petain's demand that he furnish
a list of deputies who were of
Jewish extraction, and the poet
Paul Claudel who, in a letter to
t h e Chief Rabbi of France,
strongly condemned the persecu-
tion of the Jews.
The first French Jews to be
liberated were those Of Algeria
and Morocco. Then came t h e
Jews of Tunisia. Now the rem-
nants of French Jewry in metro-
polian France_ pin their hopes
on the complete victory of the
British, American - and Free
French troops who are liber-
ating France in order to re-
store Liberty, Fraternity a n d
Equality in what the French
once proudly called "God's Own
Country."
Copyright, 1944, by
indeDendint Jewish Preis Service, Inc.