Peg.... Four
THE JEWISH NEWS
As the Editor - - -
Views the. News
Friday, October I t, 1946
`Best Laid Plans of Mice and M
Crime Finds Its Judges
From Nazi GasChambers
To the Nuernberg .Trial
The Way to Build Zion
In the long run, there is only one thing
that'matters to assure ultimate security for
the Jewish community in Palestine: enlarged
immigration and the establishment of as
many new colonies as possible.
Having accepted President Truman's lat-
est declaration with gratitude and satisfac-
tion, we feel justified, nevertheless, in as-
serting that an occurrence of vastly greater
importance is the Operation Negev of last
Sunday.
• Under the leadership of Jacob Shertok,
Survivor of I I Concentration Camps Who
Was a Reporter at War Crimes Trial,
Now a Newspaperman in Port Huron,
• Tells His Story
By ERNEST W. MICHEL
•
(The author of this article is a German Jew, who for
six years was a •prisoner in 11 German concentration
camps. among them the notorious Auschwitz and Buchen-
wald camps. After his escape he served as one of the first
German reporters and the youngest world correspondent
at the War Crimes Trial in Nurenberg. He came td the
United States two months ago and now is on the staff of
the Times-Herald in Port Huron, Mich.)
28-yea•-old son of Moshe Shertok, one of the
interned Jewish leaders in Palestine, 200
trucks moved in and occupied land in the
Negev owned by the Jewish Natipnal Fund.
Over night, they established 12 colonies there
and settled 1,000 Jews-700 men and 300
won-len.
It was an heroic undertaking and it pro-
vided great thrills for Jews throughout the
world who were informed about it the next
morning.
It was an operation that compelled the
British to say that these Jews, coming to
territory rightfully possessed by our people,
have a right to these settlements.
But—thus it has been throughout the en-
tire era of Jewish settlement in Palestine.
Whenever ' the British authorities under-
took to interfere with Jewish undertakings,
our pioneers moved in at night, built fever-
ishly, created the beginnings of new settle-
ments and established a system of colonies
which is admired worldwide.
Operation Negev is important from another
point of view: the Arabs'.
Arab neighbors welcomed the Jews. They
provided them with water. and started a
series of celebrations which continued for
days and which, we believe, can and will
continue for years to come—provided no one
steps in to destroy the genuine friendships
that must persist between the two kindred
peoples.
Operation Negev is a lesson to the entire
world. It is a lesson to the British. It is an
encouragement to the Jewish people to carry
on in spite of all obstacles in the process of
building the Jewish National Home.
ZLonist Congress in Basle .
April 18, 1945. 4 p.m.
It is the sixth day since
left the Buchen-
wald concentration camp. 'ihe American troops
come nearer and nearer. We hear the thunder
of the cannons.
They come. They come. We shall be free.
We, the last survivors of the millions of the
Auschwitz and Buchenwald concentration camps
are marching. Six days and six nights. And
there is still no end. The SS guards become
restless.
President Truman's Latest Demand
Great Britain's wrath notwithstanding, President Tru-
man's latest declaration in behalf of those to whom- it has
been pledged that they will be admitted to Palestine is a
great humanitarian stand.
Our own government is on record favoring the imme-
diate admission of 100,000 Jews into Palestine, and Great
Britain owes an obligation to fulfill this request in accord-
ance with the responsibility she had undertaken. under the
Mandate.
It is idle talk to speak of political considerations as
having forced President Truman's hand. The fact remains
that his initial request for the admission of the 100,000
neediest cases among the displaced Jews in Europe was
made more than a year ago. Since then we have had pro-
crastinations, selection of numerous committees and endless
debates. The postponement of the London Palestine dis-
cussions to Dec. 16 represented another trick to delay action
until after the U. S. November elections so as to help the
hidden motives of the present British government.
Mr. Truman's emphatic declaration calls for only one
answer: immediate fulfillment of pledges to the Jewish
people.
Ncit All Nazis Will Hang
.
Growing dissatisfaction over the results of the trials of
the Nazi fuehrers is due to the leniency which has been
shown some of the worst German culprits and the manner
in which the hearings were dragged out in spite of the well
known facts which should have been enough to condemn all
of the accused.
It is no wonder, therefore, that, on the day after the
verdicts were announced, thousands' of Berliners, marching
Unter den Linden in Berlin, should have shouted "Hang
Switzerland remains one of the great tra-
ditional places of free assembly.
The announcement made this week that
the World Zionist Congress definitely will
open in Basle the first week in December
relieves some of the tension which was cre- Them' All" and "Down With the Nazis." Even German civil-
ated two weeks ago when it was announced ians realized the inadequacy of the. decisions.
that the Swiss government had refused such
We should not fool ourselves, however, into believing
an assembly on the grounds that it would that such demands for vengeance represent the opinions of
result in the spread of anti-Semitism.
most Germans, in -view of the renewal of charges, coming
Switzerland's decision provides us with from responsible quarters, that Nazi leaders who were in the
new faith that justice is far from having _good graces of Hitler again are assuming power in some
ended and that freedom of speech has a place sections of Germany.
in the land of William Tell and in other
A most disgusting aftermath of the Nuernberg trial was
countries where liSerty is not a sham but a the rush for autographs from the acquitted. An International
reality
photograph showed Hans Fritzsche, former assistant to Propa-
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BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Maurice Aronsson
Philip Slomovitz
Fred M. Butzel
Isidore Sebeloff
Judge Theodore Levin Abraham Srere
Maurice H. Schwartz
Henry Wineman
YHTLIP SI.0310VITZ. Editor _
VOL. 10--NO. 4
OCTOBER 11, 1946
Scriptural Selections for Sabbath
Hol Hamoed Sukkoth
Pentateuchal portions—Ex. 33:12-34:26, Num. 29:
17-25.
Prophetical portion—Ezek. 38:18-39:18.
Hol Hamoed Sukkoth Scriptural Selections
Sunday, Num. 29:20-28; Monday, Num. 29:23-31;
Tuesday, Num. 29:26-34.
HoShanah Rabba Scriptural Selections
Num. 29:26-34.
Sitemini Atzeret Scriptural Selections,
Thursday, Oct. 18
Pentateuchal portions—Deut. 15:19-16:17, Num.
29:35-30:1.
Prophetical portion—I Kings 8:54-66.
Simhat Torah (Friday, Oct. 19) Scriptural
Selections
, Pentateuchal portions—Deut. 33:1-34:12, Gen
1:1-2:3, Num. 29:35-30:1.
Prophetical portion—Josh. 1.
For us, — it means freedom, a new life. It
means a piece of bread, perhaps some meat, and
a bed to sleep in: things almost unknown to a
six-years' prisoner.
The thunder comes nearer and nearer.
Six years of endless hunger seem to end.
But it evidently only seemed.
With his shrill voice the transport commander
orders our transport to stop: "Jews and Russians
on one side—Aryans on the other." The SS
guards have taken the guns in their hands and
lead us into a wood.
•
•
•
We look at each other. Three friends, together
for years. More than once we have seen the
death. We went through everything — together.
Honzo is from Czechoslovakia, Felix is from
Vienna. We are all the same age. Beginning 20.
And while we look at each other, we under-
stand what this separation means. They are
going to shoot us.
Our decision is met. We do not want to be
shot a few hours before our liberation. Is that
why we lived thrOugh six years of hell?
We must take a chance. Escape is the only
way.
One short whistle. Each of us kicks an SS
man violently in his back. Exactly at the base
of his spine. They drop, unconscious. And we
run.
Into the woods. We run for our lives. We
stumble, get - up, run again, fall down.
They begin to shoot behind us.
God. let us live. We are still young. Run.
Then we are out. We can't move anymore.
We do not know how long we ran. Two min-
utes? Half an hour? Two hours?
But now we are free. We will live again_ We
hear the thunder of the American cannons and
it sounds like music for our ears.
We are free. . . .
••
•
•
A few, months later.
I am in a comfortable chair. I have a clean
suit. My hair is growing and I am not hungry
any more.
The room, where I arn sitting, is dark. When
I look a little ahead I can recognize some faces.
Goering. Hess. Ribbentrop, Kaltenbrunner. The
others I can not recognize. It is too dark.
- I am sitting in the courtroom of the Palace of
Justice in Nuernberg. In the room, where the
International War Crimes Trial is held. I sit as
a reporter among the correspondents.
It is dark in the room. The Russian prosecutor,
Col. Smirnow, shows a picture, "Auschwitz con-
centration camp."
This picture shows my life in the past six
years. The bodies, I see, are the bodies of my
dead comrades.
Is it a dream? It can not be true. Am I a
pr;soner again?
The lights go on. Now I see their faces again.
The "masters of Germany", who killed my par-
ents, my friends, who killed all the millions and
millions of our people, the innocent children,
wives and men whom I saw dying.
ganda Minister Goebbels, signing autograph at a press con-
ference upon his acquittal. This is frightful proof how leading
Nazis, who got away with inexcusable leniency, are now mak-
ing a mockery of justice.
The Nazi bandits need not have been convicted to death.
I want to jump over the line, which sepa-
rates the press seats from the defendants'
They should have been caged like animals and exhibited
bench.
I want to look into their faces and ask
throughout the world as symbols of their inhumanity.
them: "Where are the six millions you killed?
Instead, they are treated like "statesmen" and "warriors."
Answer me."
-
Apparently the lessons of the war and of the murders of
"The court adjourns." The voice of the court
marshal
brings
me
back
to
reality
in
the
right
millions in the era that led to the outbreak of the war were
time.
forgotten all too soon.
•
•
•
False Issues in Political Campaigns
Appeals to hatred on religious and racial grounds during
the past few years, on the occasion of local and national
elections, proved such shocking experiences that they ought
to serve as lessons (for future action.
On numerous occasions, politicians have appealed to
Jews, Negroes, Italians and others with appeals which gave
the impression that there is "a Jewish vote," "a Negro vote"
and other sectional votes by solid groups or blocs.
Insofar as the Jews are concerned, it is high time that it
should be clearly understood that there is no such thing as
"a Jewish vote," that Jews vote as Americans and that their
divisions among the major political parties can be measured
only in the same sense as the general vote usually goes.
When appeals to various groups in our communities,
issued on the eve of elections, are tinged with racial and
religious issues, those injecting them are rendering great dis-
service to true American principles. By injecting such issues
they fan hatreds which have no place in this- country.
In the approaching election, our people should make it a
point firmly to reject appeals of this nature. They should
refuse to be parties to the spread of prejudicial views and
the injection of race, religious or class hatreis.
. .
I remember that I am not the prikner any-
more, but that Goering, Hess and the other 19
defendants are the prisoners. The roles have
changed.
These people had sent millions and millions to
death. Without a trial, without anything. Just
by order. Now they got a fair triaL They had
possibilities to defend themselves.
But they were the defendants and- I was free.
The last day of my presence in the historical
courtroom in Nuernberg, the German defense
counsel of Kaltenbrunner, the former Gestapo
head. presented Rudolf Hess, the former com-
mander of the Auschwitz concentration camp, to
the court. He was the commander of the camp,
where I had been for more than two years.
He was asked one question: "Do you confess
that during the time, where you have been com-
mander of the Auschwitz concentration camp,
there were gassed in the gas chambers, killed and
shot 2,500,000 people, most of them Jews?"
Then Rudolf Hess •looked at the defendants'
bench and said .one word: "Yes."
In this moment one could hear one's breath in
the courtroom. No word, -no voice,—nothing.
And then the trial went on.
The day after it I left Nurenberg. And I took
with me the feeling that there is justice in the
- world, that no crime can be done that will not
find its judges.
But six million - dead won't come back. Never.