Page Six

THE JEWISH

NEWS

Friday, August 17, 1945

Yorkville Cheers
U. S. But Sighs
For Deutschland

By William B. Saphire

The pre-war New York Nazi hangout, York-
ville, has turned coyly patriotic since V-E
Day. It shuns films of the occupation of
Germany, but cheers the routing of the Japs,
a Jewish Press Service writer finds.

DETROIT ROUND TABLE OF CATHOLICS, JEWS AND PROTESTANTS

Four Men of God

By Edgar A. Guest

THE AMERICAN CARGO TRANSPORT "DORCHESTER" WAS TORPPEDOED IN ICEBERG WATERS NINETY MILES FROM-GREENLAND

The transport Dorchester set forth upon her dangerous
mission north.
Grim winter rode . the seas with her, and cold
and gray the sky.

There were four men of God aboard to do the service
of the Lord,

To share the life of fighting men and shrive
them, must they die.
.
Four chaplains, Catholic and Jew and Protestants (by
chance) were two:
• Poling and Fox and Washington and Alexan-
der Goode.
Four men of God—enough to say—who questions,
which was which today.?

Four men of God who shared the dream of
world-wide Brotherhood.
They did not preach the narrow way; they lived with
men from day to day;

They understood their smiles and tears, their!
every joy and care; '
The human heart they understood; found in the worst
a share of good,
And tried to do for God those deeds which
men beseech in prayer.
The Dorchester's clean decks they trod; four gracious,
humble men of God,
Who served both braid and dungaree as
though they were the same;
Who never questioned post or place, religion, color,
caste or race
Of any who in earnest need of aid or comfort
came.
Aye, there were times when faith alone called each
- to worship with their own,
When Rabbi, Priest, and Minister knelt down
with one in grief,
And times when each would draw apart to comfort
many a lonely heart
Or strengthen at the battle's eve some falter-
ing -boy's belief;
But one must ask the question: Who was Catholic,
Protestant, or Jew?
Unless the holy vessels on the altar had been
laid,
For in the ship's life—weal and woe—there was no
outer sign to show
That form of worship, rite, or prayer the
slightest difference made.

EDGAR A. GUEST

_,,,../.1•••••• ■ ••••
••••'•,..- 01

••••,• ■ ••.....,•••,,,o4,4

War takes no heed of wrong or right,
The only god it has is might.
Its deadly missiles screaming fly,
Not caring who shall live or - die;
Not asking: Is the mission fair?
Not wondering: Does the good Lord care?
Or will their fearful force be spent
Where sleep the old anal innocent?

Below the waters, cold and green,
Within a German submarine
A youthful, listening sailor stirred,
The sound of moving ship he'd heard.
He rose and to his captain spoke.
A periscope the surface broke!
The captain turned it, left and right,
And peering through the slotted sight,
He waited for the ship to pass
Across his little field of glass.

The Dorchester came into view.
To battle stations went the crew.
"Fire one" was ordered. Then: "Fire two!'
From tubes, shot out with flaming breath,
Went two, shrewd instruments of death,
Controlled by many a wise device,
They sped upon a course, precise,
To sink their targets—ship and men!
"Good," said the captain. "Down, again!"

Upon the decks of ships are chests in which are life
' belts stored

Against the time when men must trust them-
selves unto the sea:

At such a chest each Chaplain stayed to calm and
hearten boys afraid

And pass them belts to hold them up till
rescued they could be.
But some •oo'frightened were to leap; they would not
risk the raging deep,

Convinced that death awaited all who ven-
tured overside.
"Trust God!" they heard the Chaplain say: = "Trust
God and go! 'Tis death to stay!"
And thus was many a -youngster saved who
otherwise had died.
No talk of Catholic -tor Jew! No question: "Protestant
are you?"
But this: "Your belt! God keep you safe!"
No sign of inner fear.
Four humble men of God, just then in peril with
their fellowmen,
Who dared to keep the faith they'd taught
when death was drawing near.
•
Then when the last life -belt was gone and still were
others who had none,
"Here," said each Chaplain of the sea, "take
mine! Your- life 'twill spare!"
And with this last brave service done, they stood
together—four as one!—
And linked their arms and bowed their heads
and spoke a final prayer.
From bow to stern the vessel shook: Those in the sea
who turned to look
Just as the ship went down beheld four men
of God who stood,
Arms linked together and at prayer! Four men of
God undaunted there,
Who dared to die for - their belief in ties of
brotherhood.
Oh, there- are times when hate and strife stain all
that's best in human life,
Wien bitterness so fills men's hearts that
hatred seems their trade;
But 'gainst war's Jaorror, filth, and crime will shine
for all remainin ime
The glory of united faiths which four brave
men displayed!

We are not told the prayer they chose,
Since death so swiftly came.
I fancy, though, 'tis thus it goes:
"Our Father, Who in Heaven art,
Hallowed be Thy name!"
.(Reprinted by Permission of Good Housekeeping Magazine.)

YORKVILLE, NEW YORK CITY'S
"little Munich," where brown-shitted
Bundists once strutted, has since V-E
Day, become self-copsciously American.
The beer parlor restaurants on every
corner are no longer called - "Hofbrau,"
but plain bad and grill. The juke boxes
inside play swing tunes instead of "hei-
matsklaenge" (homeland melodies). Gen-
eral MacArthur's portrait hangs where _.
once hung Hitler's.
But there is an atmosphere of glum-
ness. Old time Yorkville merchants say
the neighborhood isn't what it used to be.
Many Germans have bought homes in
Long Island and . New Jersey . and are
moving to the suburbs. Irish, Hungarians
and Spaniards are moving in.
The proprietor of a "reiseburo" (travel
agency) who has done business in the
same spot for 39 years, says that before
the war "almost everybody in Yorkville
took a trip to Germany." "I used to book
whole families almost every day." Peak
years, he says, were 1936- and 1937, right
after Hitler's Austrian putsch. After that
it began to fall off because the people
"smelled war in Europe."
Now, again customers come to inquire
when they will be permitted to "send
a little something" to relatives.
Oswiecim Books Don't Sell
The proprietor of a large English-Ger-
man book and magazine shop on East
86th, admits that "years before" the war,
he sold books and pamphlets by Goebbels,
Rosenberg and Streicher, and- the orig-
inal of Iiitler's "Mein Kampf'. Now they
don't sell.
In the magazine rack, in the -same
shop, . is a pile of booklets describing
atrocities at Oswiecim death camp. "We've
had them for months. They don't sell
either," the proprietor says.
When the official newsreels of Buchen-
wald and other German horrtr camps'
were distributed recently, managers of
the -large chain theaters in the Yorkville
district sayS they expected trouble, Iri.
fact, they admit, "we've been worried all
alOng. When the Allies crossed the Ger-
man border, newsreels became unpopular.
Half the audience would get up and go
to the .lobby for a smoke," one manager
said. When films of Germany's surrender
were. shown right after V-E Day, some
of the theaters had extra ,staffs of ushers
sent down."in case somebody made a- re-
mark that started- a fight."
The owner of a small theater, Special-
izing in German-language films, _admits
that after Pearl Harbor, he had to cancel
all newsreels. "Nobody said anything, but
my audience - consist of Germans who
came here 15 or 20 years ago and have
families over there. I felt that they
wouldn't like to see pictures of bombers
over Germany. Now, I hold very suc-
cessful war-bond rallies."
"Athletic Clubs" Dot Yorkville
Tureinhalle, on the corner of '85th and
Lexington, is a. shabby five-story building
with banquet halls on each floor, and a
gymnasium and swimming pool in the
basement. Here, in the lush days of the
German-American Bund and affiliated
organizations, local fuehrers and their •
followers celebrated the Fourth of July
and other holiday with parties, at which, •
often, the Horst-Wessel song was sung.
Tureinhalle still rings with songs, but
mostly "Roll. Out the Barrel" and "Home -
on the Range,"- waiters who serve at
banquets report. The gymnasium and pool
is kept busy by dozens of young men's
"athletic clubs" which have cropped up
all over Yorkville.
Most Yorkvillers have phonographs in
their homes, and record shops along Third
Avenue do a booming,,business. Best sell-
ers, says the lady in charge of a large
record importing - firm, are the numbers
"from home," meaning from Germany.
On- V-E Day, when the metropolitan
press - sent reporters to see how "little
Munich" was taking the downfall of
Nazism, beer • hall habitues and sidewalk
groups resented being questioned. "We're
good American citizens. Why make the
rest of the country feel we're different,"
many complained.-
Whatever Yorkvillers feel about the
future a Germany, hard or soft peace, .
punishment of war criminals, they are
keeping to themselves. Since V-E Day
Yorkville has pulled down the shade on
its political thoughts. The shade bears an
oversized American flag.

,(Copyright 1945 by Independent Jewish Press
Service. Inc.)