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.