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- THE JEWISH NEWS Member Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Independent Jewish Press Sers ice. SeN en Arts Feature Syndicate, Religious NeNNS Se, ice. Palcor News Agency, King Features Syndl- :ate, Central Press Service. International Sound photos. Member American Association of English-Jewish News- papers and Mlcnlgan Press Association. Published every Friday by The Jewish News Publish- ing Co.. 2114 Penobscot Bldg , Detroit 26. Mich.. RA. 7956. Subscription. $3 a year: foreign. $4. Club subscription. e.e•y fourth Friday of the month. to all subscribers to Allied Je,,Ish Campaign of Jewish Welfare Federation of Detroit. 40 et•nts per year. Entered as second-class matter Aug. 6. 1912. at Post Of- fice, Detroit. Mich., under Art of March 3. 1879. 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.