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Friday, February 7, 1947_
THE JEWISH NEWS
Page Six
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Women to Raise Ten Per Cent of Record Quota
Mrs. Ehrlich Stresses Role
Qf Young Mother in Drive
Left to right:
Mrs. Herman
Weisman, Mrs,
CarrSchiller,
Mrs. Louis Gla-
sier, Mrs. Ralph
Davidson, Miss
Dorothy David-
son, Mrs. Joseph
G. Gilbert, Mrs.
Benjamin Imber
and Mrs. H. G.
Goodman.
(Continued from Page 1)
The more than 570 women who braved the snow and
ice to attend the luncheon were spurred to intensified par-
ticipation in the campaign by the addresses of the two guest
speakers, Mme. Alfred Spanjaard, Dutch survivor of the
Nazi concentration camps, and John W. Vandercook, noted
author and news commentator.
The audience was visibly affected by Mme. Spanjaard's
talk. She described her experience with the Nazis, from the
first Gestapo raid on her home )
in Amsterdam, through two years
in the notorious Bergen-Belsen
concentration camp, and, finally,
her return to this country as an
exchanged prisoner-of-war.
Son Born in U. S.
Mme. Spanjaard is convinced
she owes her life to the 12 years
she lived in the United States.
Her son was born in this country
and his American citizenship
classified her family as "privi-
leged prisoners," that is, those
who were starved and tortured,
but not automatically extermi-
nated. After 13 midnight raids on
the Spanjaard residence, the Ges-
tapo finally decreed that 11-year-
old Barry's American passport
carried with it no privileges, and
the boy, with his parents, were
arrested and forced to sign a
paper asserting they were "giv-
ing their services voluntarily to
Germany."
For 10 months the Spanjaards
were interned at the Westhofer
Camp in Holland, where they
were forced to witness each Tues-
day the transportation of 2,500
Jews to certain death in the Polish
extermination camps. Mme. Span-
Left to right: Mrs. Rose Woirauch, Mrs. Gerald Woloveck,
Mrs. Harry Jurow, Mrs. Jose Winsen,• Mrs. Joseph H. Kukes, Mrs.
Harold B. Kukes, and Mrs. Nathan Silverman.
Left to right: Mrs. Jacob Fishman, Mrs Morris Tack, -Mrs.
Sidney Kelt, Mrs. Asher Smith, Mrs. Meyer Goldstein and Mrs. A.
Alpert.
finally reached Switzerland, the
Swiss were so human and kind
that her son asked in bewilder-
ment "Mother, are there really
good people left in this world?"
Happiness Shattered
Their happiness was shattered
by the death of M. Spanjaard, at
the very moment that they
crossed the Swiss border. Yet,
Mme. Spanjaard reports, "he died
happy, knowing that his wife and
son were free at last."
Mme. Spanjaard warned the
Federation women that it was "a
Left to right: Mrs. G. L. Willens, Mrs. Sidney Rosen, Mrs. I. B.
Dworman, Mrs. Samuel B. Danto, Mrs. Theodore Levin, Mrs. Isidore
Sobeloff, Mrs. Harry Jacobson, Mrs. H. B. Keidan, Mrs. S. Koblin.
Left to right: Mrs. L. Yaffa, Mrs. J. Feldman,
Miss B. Beudes, Bobs Srere, Mrs. M. Schayowitz,
Mrs. Abraham Srere, Mrs. Rose M. Lipson and
Mrs. Abraham Hershman.
jaard's parents were among the mere geographical coincidence"
that the American Jews escaped.
victims of the gas chambers.
She urged unlimited support of
Suffered Hunger and Torture
Transferred to the Bergen-Bel- ; the United Jewish Appeal, to ease
sen camp, the Spanjaards under- the plight of the thousands of
went a two-year period of star- survivors. "Out of pure grati-
vation, cold, and mental and phy- tude," she concluded, "you must
sical torture. Mme. Spanjaard re- consider your contributions not
counted numerous incidents of charity, but absolute human duty."
Vandercook's address carried
Nazi bestiality, climaxed by her
own son's plea that he and his the impact of facts and authorita-
parents commit suicide to elude tive observations on the future of
the unbearable starvation. Her world peace and the status of
reply was a fierce "We must live," world Jewry.
"Suspended in Space"
although there seemed little pros-
He described the remaining
pect of remaining alive, until Jan.
21, 1945, when she received the European Jews as "suspended in
almost unbelievable news that space" with no home ties and no
the family was to be returned to I economic security. "The world is
unconcerned about them, yet their
t' country.
hope of life must be em-
Mme. Spanjaard and her son small
bellished, and given substance.
managed to get her dying hus-
This is the task of the United
band to the Red Cross train
where, for the first time in two Jewish Appeal," he emphasized.
Vandercook sees little prospect
years, they found heat and hot
food. At first, she reported, they of a third world war. "I'm per-
were totally immune to their sur- fectly sure," he stated, "that the
roundings; they found it impos- world isn't going to tumble into
sible to believe they had been another abyss." This prophecy he
''released out of Hell." When they bases on the rapid demoblization
of the United States and the
USRR, and on the success of the
United Nations.
All photographs on this
The NBC commentator dis-
page are by Paul Kirsch,
cussed the Jewish survivors in
Europe from the aspect of their
Jewish News Staff Pho-
importance to the world. He nar-
rated his impressions of the
tographer.
Buchenwald concentration camp,
Left to right: Mrs. Louis Oppenheim, Mrs. Joseph Silverman,
Mrs. E. E. Einstein, Mrs. Earl Gilman, Mrs. Louis Tatkin, Judy Preger-
son and Mrs. E. Greenbaum.
LEFT: L. to R. — Mrs.
Arthur Levy, Jean Feerer,
Mrs. Alan Warnick, Mrs. Bud
Harris, Mrs. Lawrence See-
gar, Mrs. David M. Feerer,
Mrs. Samuel Ruskin and Mrs.
Victor Shiffman.
• • •
BELOW: L. to R. — Mrs.
Charles Rubiner, Mrs. Robert
Marwil, Mrs. Robert Morri-
son, Mrs. Thomas Marwil,
Mrs. D. J. Bittker, Mrs. I. Irv-
ing Bittker, Mrs. B. B. Glazer
and Mrs. Harold Shapiro.
"a vast city of the dead," which
he visited within a few days of
its liberation.
"Still a Socialist"
His self - appointed guide
through the camp, Vandercook
reports, was one of the inmates,
a tiny Jew who dismissed queries
as to his physical condition with
the statement "When I came here
I was a Socialist, a Jew, and a
free man. I am still a Socialist,
still a Jew, and again free. Is it of
any consequence what is the
shape of my figure?"
It is the people with this
strength of character and convic-
iton who have survived, Vander-
cook declares, "people who have
an enormous lot to give to hu-
manity."
Climax to Seminars
"If this campaign succeeds," he
concluded, "you will have saved
some of the finest talents among
people alive today. You will be
aiding not only homeless Jews,
but, by saving this rare metal,
you will haye served supremely
well in the larger task of saving
all humankind."
The luncheon climaxed a pro-
gram of seminars on the "Accent
on Youth" theme, led by leaders
professional
Detroit's
among
social workers. Dr. Editha Sterba,
noted psychoanalyst, discussed
emotional problems at-- )ng child-
ren; Samuel Neuschatz, director
of intermediate activities at the
Jewish Community Center, led
the seminar on leisure time ac-
tivities; Mrs. Charles Lakoff spoke
on Jewish education, and Albert
Cohen, director of the Jewish
vocational Service, discussed vo-
cational guidance.
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