The HAPPY SIDE of LIFE

VICTOR AITAY, brilliant Hungarian violinist
who was forced to remove detonators from 400
unexploded Russian mines and bombs by the
Nazis, shown with his wife in New York. They
arrived under President Truman's directive.

WAR ORPHANS enjoying themselves at a Joint Distribution
summer camp in Hungary, made possible through American
Jewry's contributions to the $100,00 -0,000 United Jewish Appeal.
Many children„ gathered from concentration camps, for the first
time in their lives are enjoying the fresh air and sunlight.

KURT MAIER, noted Czech pianist, shown
with his sister, Mrs. Karl Korter, after his ar-
rival from Germany. He entertained American
GIs upon his liberation from Buchenwald. With
Victor Aitay he will appear in U. S. concerts.

F we4fW . ISH NEWS

Hi

of Jewish Events

3445:41. 22

Detroit 26, Michigan, August 30, 1946

10c; $3 Per Year

ufti, Seized Jews
May Be In on Parley

Special Cable to The Jewish News

LONDON. (JTA)—A spokesman for. Prime Minister
Attlee has indicated that the British government will allow
the ex-Mufti of Jerusalem and detained Zionist -leaders to
attend the London Palestine parley which will open Sept. 9.
The spokesman said that the government would rather not
have the Mufti or the Jewish leaders attend, but "we would
not let the conference break down on that issue."

Foreign Secretary Bevin is expected to make final deci-
sion on the Palestine Arab Higher Committee's request that
the Mufti be a delegate to the Palestine conference. Official
spokesmen refused to comment on the likely reply to the
Arab Committee, nor would they go beyond Palestine High
Commissioner Cunningham's statement that it would be diffi-
cult for Britain to accept the Mufti as a delegate.

MEN AND WOMEN jam the cramp-
ed quarters on one of the Jewish
refugee ships in the harbor of Haifa,
Palestine. Aboard the vessel for
more than a month during their
trip from Italy, they were allowed
only about 10 minutes in Eretz
Israel before being placed aboard
British transports for deportation
to the British-created concentration
camp on the island of Cyprus.

The Jewish Agency Executive, after a three-hour meeting
on Tuesday, failed to reach a decision whether to accept Britain's
invitation to the Palestine conference. After the meeting, mem-
bers of the executive committee proceeded to .Paris to continue
their discussions with David Ben Gurion. The Agency's statement
is expected before the end of the week.

British Ministers Willing to "Run Between"

JAMES BYRNES, U. S. Secretary of State,
while at the Peace Conference in Paris, pay-
ing a visit to LEON BLUM at the latter's
villa at Joy-en-Josas. Mr. Byrnes is shown
holding a grandchild of Mr.• Blum.

2 Musicians, Former Nazi Slaves,
To Be Heard on U.S. Concert Stage

As strains of music resound in the hall-
way outside two New York City apart-
ments on separate West Side streets, fel-
low tenants often pause to listen mo-
mentarily in rapt attention.
Their interest in the careers of the
musicians also has been aroused by their
knowledge of the dramatic story which
each of them, celebrated artists in Eu-
rope before the war, has to tell of sur-
vival from Nazi terror.
The two musicians now rehearsing for
their first public performances in Amer-
ica, are Czech pianist Kurt Maier, 35, and
Hungarian violinist Victor Aitay, 25. Both
recently found haven here as quota im-
migrants under the Truman directive.
Between the time of their liberation
from concentration camps in 1945 and
their departure from Germany for the
U. S. .a few weeks ago, they entertained
thousands of GIs.
During the 40 months of his captivity,
the Nazis forced Maier to play the piano
and accordion in concentration camps
and to lead a band to drown out the cries
of prisoners being led to the gas cham-
bers at Auschwitz,

"My own mother, my uncle, aunt,
cousins, had all been put to death in this
same camp," Maier said.

A native of Carlsbad, Czechoslovakia,
Maier had planned to come-to the U. S.
in 1938, but was prevented from leaving
by the fateful developments that year at
Munich.
Maier was liberated from Buchenwald
on April 11, 1945.
According to Aitay, he is one of 150
survivors of 3,000 Hungarians whom the
Nazis rounded up in 1941. For three years
the Nazis forced him to remove detona-
tors from 400 unexploded Russian mines
and bombs. Once he escaped death when
he was called from one bomb to help
with another. The first bomb exploded,
killing 15.
He was appointed concert master of
the Budapest Opera Orchestra when only
18. Three years later, the Nazis sent him
to a slave labor camp.
From the labor camp, where he was
beaten regularly with rubber truncheons,
Aitay was sent to Auschwitz. There he
met his wife, Eva, now 21, who came with

him to the United . States in July.

The London Daily Express, under headlines, "Mufti May Travel
Here for Talks," said on Tuesday that while the government indicated
it would prefer not having the Mufti at the Palestine discussions,
"the Cabinet is not likely to allow the chances of the conference to
fail merely on the point of whether the Mufti should or should not
attend." The newspaper added that "the British Cabinet still hopes
to get Jews and Arabs into one room for a round table talk. But if
this fails, the Ministers are willing to 'run between' two sides who
would meet in adjoining rooms."

"War" in Zion Stirs Universal Protests

Shocked by the heightening tension in Palestine and by the con-
tinued mass deportation of Jewish immigrants to Cyprus, Christian
and Jewish public opinion throughout the world this week increased
the demands upon the United Nations to speed an early solution to
the problem.
Uneasiness grew when British armed forces invaded numerous
Jewish areas searching for escaped immigrants from Athlit camp.
Haganah, having succeeded in the mission undertaken by three
Jewish swimmers to beach the British ship Empire Rival, into whose
hull a large _hole was blown to prevent its taking more Jews to
Cyprus, has announced that the Jewish resistance movement is
mobilizing all its forces to break the British blockade against the
entrance of Jews to Palestine.
Continuation of the war of nerves in Palestine gives indications
that the Jewish resistance efforts are far from broken.
Dr. Chaim Weizmann and the Jewish Agency have issued state-
ments reaffirming Jewish demands for the establishment of an in-
dependent Jewish homeland.

Must Resfore Jewish Statehood
In Paris, the statement of the executive committee of the Jew-
ish Agency emphasized that while its leaders will seek a settlement
of the Palestine problem satisfactory to all, "no solution will be
considered unless it provides for the restoration of Jewish statehood."

(Continued on Page 6)