Friday, OeTober 12; 1945
O'Donnell Smear on Jews
In Patton Case Refuted
by Paterson-McCormick Washington
Columnist Branded as Lies; Reveal That Soldier
He Quoted Is Not Jewish, as_Charged
Vicious Charges
-
- NEW YORK. (JPS)—A vicious smear against American Jewry
by John O'Donnell, Patterson-McCormick Washington columnist,
based on the allegation that influential Jews in Washington are re-
; sponsible for the ousting of General George S. Patton from command
of the Eastern Military District in Germany, has been nailed down
as a congerie of lies. •
O'Donnell, to whom F.D.R. presented the German Iron Cross,
. based his charge that Jews framed Patton's removal, on the al-
leged fact that a battle fatigued soldier, reported slapped by the
General, in a Sicilian hospital on Aug. 3, 1943, is of Jewish descent.
"The General used the words 'yellow bellied' or 'yellow streaked'
linking them up with a direct reference to the patient's racial back-
ground," O'Donnell wrote.
See Attempt to Build a 'Dreyfus Case'
• That the soldier in question definitely is not Jewish was reported
by Rabbi Stephen S. Sherman, of Temple Beth El, South Bend,
Ind. His name is Charles Herman Kuhl. He is from Mishawaka,
Ind., five miles from South Bend. His family are members of the
Pirst Nazarene Church of Mishawaka. They are of German ex-
traction, Rabbi. Sherman reports.
In what appeared, like an attempt to build a "Dreyfus case"
against, Jews in the U. S. Government, O'Donnell wrote that fol-
lowing the slapping incident "Secretary of the Treasury Morgenthau
and Associate Justice Frankfurter bellowed in the White House
that the important issue was that Patton used the word 'Jew' in
reprimanding the reluctant warrior (`after all, what are we fighting
this war for anyway, Mr. President?')."
Charge Is Denied by Morgenthau
Former Secretary of the Treasury Morgenthau asked for a
statement, said: "It is an absolute untruth that I ever discussed the
incident with President Roosevelt, Frankfurter or anybody else in
the United States." Justice Frankfurter, since accession to the
Supreme Court Bench, makes no public comment. According to a
dispatch to the Jewish Morning Journal, the War Department has
denied any connection between the slapping incident and Patton's
removal. by General' Eisenhower.
O'Donnell wrote further that the removal of General Patton
indicates "the secret and astoundingly effective, might of this Re-
public's foreign born political leaders such as Supreme Court Justice
Felix Frankfurter, of Vienna, White House advisor David Niles,
alias Neyhus, and a Latvian ex-rabbinical student known as Sidney
Hillman.'
O'Donnell has frequently grouped together names of well-
known Jews to intimate that they allegedly exert power in America.
Powerful Protest Brings Apology
A pbwerful protest against the actions of the New York Daily
News was sounded in a joint letter to the editor signed by the heads
of the American Jewish Committee, American Jewish Congress,
Bnai Brith, Jewish Labor Committee, Jewish War Veterans and
aewish Welfare Board—Judge Joseph M. Proskauer, Dr. Stephen S.
Wise, Henry Monsky, Adolph Held, Archie Greenberg and Frank
, L. Weil.
(Expressing regret over the appearance of the libelous column
to a committee who called on him, the N. Y. News' managing editor,
Richard Clarke, said: "It won't happen again.")
THE JEWISH NEWS
Page Three
.
Weekly Review of the News of the World
(Compiled From Cables of Independent Jewish Press Service)
AMERICA
OVERSEAS
Racial and religious prejudices, particularly
against Jews, is rife in the U. S. Army and in
War Department circles, it was charged in a
letter to the newspaper PM, by Major Alphonse
Fammricatore, Army Air Corps officer who
has been held in solitary confinement pendin g
his court-martial for allegedly "peddling dis-
charges" to' Army Air Corps personnel sta-
tioned at Mitchell Field.
Sixty one year old Congresswoman Frances
Bolton (R. Ohio) who said of King Ibn Saud
"he's terrific," was not permitted to sit at the
King's supper table while visiting him with
other Congressmen on a tour of, the Middle
East, Drew Pearson reports in the Daily. Mirror.
"While the six male Congressmen ate camel
meat and other delicacies at the table of the
King, Bolton dined in the harem," he reveals.
New York City's three mayoralty candidates
have pledged themselves not to inject any
racial or religious appeals into their campaigns,
in statements to the National Council of Chris-
tians and Jews. "
Sixteen-thousand European Jews, who fled
Nazi persecution before the war, are living,
in indescribable poverty and squalor, in a spe-
cial Jewish refugee camp- at Honkew, China,
near Shanghai, the United Press reports. After
six years of war, these people are known
as "the lost souls of the Pacific." They have
no place to go "nothing to look forward to ex-
.cept a continuing existence as white coolies,"
the report says.
Brigadier General Edward. S. Greenbaum,
attorney of New York, has been awarded the
Distinguished Service Medal by Secretary of
War Robert Patterson "for extraordinary abil-
ity" as executive officer of the office of Under-
. secretary of War.
Dr. Julius Korngold, dean of European com-
posers, died at 84, in Hollywood. He was music
critic of the Vienna Neue Freie Presse from
1902 mntil the German Anschlus, and is credited
with liaving discovered Arthur Schnabel, pian-
ist and Nathaniel Milstein, violinist.
.
The diet of displaced persons and refugees in
in Germany is again being curtailed by order
of United States forces in the European theater,
because of "the urgent need of conserving in-
digenous food stocks" for the Germans. Under
this order, displaced person centers must draw
their rations from surplus Allied prisoner-of-
war parcels and military government civil af-
fairs stocks.. These rations include no fresh
food, particularly important for the prevention
of rickets and scurvy. German food stocks have
hitherto been the source of 80 to 90 per cent of
the food for displaced persons.
Sydney S. Silverman, Labor M. P. who at-
tended the first conference of displaced Jews,
in Belsen, reports that the 250 delegates to the
conference represented Jews in 30 camps in
the U. S. and British zones of Germany, but
included no official representatives from the
Russian zone. He declared that the majority of
the 70,000 displaced Jews in Germany want to
emigrate to Palestine. He scored-British Jewry
for lack of consideration for the welfare of the
displaced Jews.
Nazi propaganda books written by Goebbels,
Alfred Rosenberg and Robert Ley, and writings
known to contain indirect militaristic and Nazi
propaganda are being removed from all book
stores, rental and circulating libraries in Ger-
many, the American sponsored Allgemain
Zeitung reports.
The trial of Karl Splet, Polish Bishop of
Danzig, arrested on charges of collaborating
with the Nazis and encouraging the Polish
fascist underground to continue pogroms
against Jews, will begin in Warsaw within a
few days.
The first group of Polish and Jewish inmates
of the former Nazi concentration camp at
Dachau, have arrived in Poland and are being
settled in Katowitz, lower Silesia. The remain-
ing Jews in Dachau refuse repatriation to Po-
land.. They are being housed in the former
SS barracks until they can emigrate to Pal-
estine or elsewhere.
Deportation of 200,000 Jews
By Nazis Prevented by MC
'Amazing Story of Rescue Efforts Revealed by. Spokesmen
for Relief Movement; JDC Will Deliver Messages
to Displaced Jews in German Camps
NEW YORK, (JTA)—The Joint Distribution Committee has an-
nounced the .establishment of a department which will deliver
messages from American relatives to displaced Jews in the Amer-
ican and British zones in Germany and will also accept messages
from Jews in the camps for delivery to their relatives abroad, thus
establishing direct contact for the first time between the liberated
Jews and their friends in the United States and in other countries.
The announcement was made at a press conference-addressed by
Dr. Joseph C. Hyman and Moses. A. Leavitt, executive vice-chairman
and secretary of the J.D.C. respectively.
JDC Representatives Prevented Deportation of 200,000 Jews
Mr. Leavitt told the amazing story of a middle-aged Swiss Jew-
ish retired businessman who persuaded Hitler's agents to cancel the
deportation of 200,000 Jews from Hungary to almost centain death
in Poland, browbeat the agents into releasing another 1,700 Jews
from Bergen-Belsen, and won permission to send truckloads of food
to 'the starving inmates of other Nazi camps. He is Saly Mayer, a
leader of the Swiss Jewish community and full-time volunteer rep-
resentative of the Joint . Distribution Committee in Switzerland.
The J.D.C. secretary then related how Mayer carried on discus-
sions with the Nazi representatives for months, with the idea of
gaining time for the hundreds of thousands of .Hungarian Jews the
Nazis threatened to exterminate. At one point, at the risk of • his
life, Mayer entered Nazi Germany to carry on the disCussions. "Here
at the J.D.C. we held our breath until we were advised of Mayer's
safe return," Mr. Leavitt said.
How the Deportation Order Was Cancelled
At another point in Mayer's negotiations, according to Mr.
Leavitt, Mayer was advised that 66 trains were ready in Budapest
to carry 200,000 Jews to the notorious murder camps in Oswiecim.
Mayer called and threatened that if the deportation orders were not
cancelled, the negotiations Would be broken off. , The order was
cancelled.
According to Mr. Leavitt, the Nazis in their turn also demanded
of Mayer that he demonstrate his ability to carry out his part of the
bargain. Mayer then called on the J.D.C. to supply $5,000,000 which
he might show for the purpose. The J.D.C. borrowed funds from the
banks and made this vast sum available. The State and_ Treasury
Departments permitted the J.D.C. to transfer the amount, so that
Mayer could hold the negotiations open.
BUILDING A BETTER WORLD IS A WOMAN'S JOB!
We've come c long vcay from the days when Puritan women faced the perils
of a strange new country, with nothing but willing hands and a faith in the
future. They laid America's cornerstone ... and we owe them a debt. But our
job's easy. Simple as opening, your bag, taking out a bill. Easy as signing
a check. You can't hand a glass of milk to a starving child in China or spend
hours at the bedside of a sick soldier. Let your dollars do it for you through .
the Community War Chest!
The Fate of the Surviving Jews
In Europe Is in YOUR Hands!
Give Liberally to the
WAR CHEST
Enroll as a Volunteer Worker NOW
by Calling the
JEWISH WELFARE FEDERATION * CO. 1600
Give .generousl y
C o m m u
t
Welcome Red Feather Workers
Into Your Home—and Heart
Someday soon, a neighbor of yours—wearing a Red Feather
—will ring your doorbell. That feather, emblem of the 1945
Community War Chest Campaign, should open wide *MY
door. Please open yours, and make your visitor welcome.
OCTOBER 8-31
GOAL:*
8;490,336