Nazis Re-Indicted in Story of Martyred Girl House of Dolls' Has Powerful Moral Mandate' • Another great document is be- ing published today as a re- minder of the Nazi horrors and as a warning against their repe- tition. "The House of Dolls." original- ly published in Israel, is making its appearance today. in a trans- lation from the Hebrew by Moshe M. Kohn, from the press of Simon and Schuster (630 5th. NY20). Its author is "Ka-tzetnik 135633." The publishers explain that the author's true identity is not known, but that "it is a matter of record that he was in a Nazi concentration camp where his number was 135633. All the people confined in con- centration camps were known. as `Ka-tzetnik number . . . ' The prisoners called each other `Katzets,' which is the slang equivalent of 'jailbird' or `con'." "The House of Dolls" created so strong an impression that the president of Simon and Schuster, M. Lincoln Schuster, has sent us the following mem- orandum from the publisher's Inner Sanctum: • The circumstances which led to the publication of this novel are so extraordinary that a word of explanation is in order: Although the book is pre- sented in fiction form, it is based on the authentic diary of a fourteen-year old Jewish girl who left her home in Po- land one day in 1939 on a school trip with her classmates and never returned. It thus becomes the story of one of the millions whose lives were crushed by Hitler's storm troopers, a story of life in the ghetto, in . labor camps, And, finally, in the "House of Dolls, one of the brothels set up by the Nazi for their armed forces. Every editorial report on this tragic and soul-shaking human document compared it with "The Dairy of Ann Frank" and "The Wall." One editor •said: "If you want to sleep at night, don't read it." Another added: "If God can permit such things to happen, we must publish it. This is no time to think of audience ap- peal or market, but only a moral mandate." A word about the author: Although "House of Dolls" be- came a spectacular best seller when it was first published in Israel, and although a previous book, "Salamander" made him a lengendary figure, and won great critical acclaini, he pre- fers to identify himself only as "Ka-tzetnik 135633"his own concentration camp num- ber—"a saved cinder from the crematorium." "Not I," he says, "but the book got the prize,'r he says about the lit- erary acclaim he has received in Israel. All we are told about him is that he was born in Poland in 1917, and that under his hard-won pseudonym he insists on being "mysterious, silent, secret." The "moral mandate" becomes evident from the very moment ;he reader opens this book. From ' irst to the last, he is gripped ay emotions that must move every huMan being to pity for the sufferers. to indignation against the perpetrators" of suf- ferings. The "moral mandate" must move future generations to action to prevent the recurrence of Nazism and it horrors. "The House of Dolls" is the moving story of Daniella Pre- leshnik, who, at the age of 14, left her home in Poland in 1939 on a school picnic with her play- mates. They never -returned. They became the captives of the Nazis. Daniella was taken to the prostitution doll house— to ful- fill the German idea of labor via joy, the inscription "feld- hure" seared into each inno c ent body. Based on an authentic diary, this is the story of Daniella's three years under the Nazi, the tortures in the labor camp, the experiments performed by the Nazi doctors on the girls, the brutalities of sex - p e r v e r t e d woman overseers. Each episode in this book is a tragedy. The craving for a tear, ("please, will some one help him shed a tear" . . .), to relieve in- nermost feelings; the hugging of a show. as a reminder of something dear to the afflicted soul; the urge to carry on in the hope of the coming of the day of redemption, as incorporated in a three-word unexplained re- port that "Roosevelt has spoken" —these and many more narra- tives stir the reader to his very soul. "The House of Dolls" is a story not only about Daniella but also about her brother Harry and about other characters. Harry carries on, hopefully, like his sister, but both perish. But Daniella's dairy becomes a cause for living for Fella—the inter- esting girl who at first sacrificed her honor to secure small favors from. the Nazis for herself and bread for her fellow-sufferers; who later also was taken to the doll house; whose courage is a shining example of human de- termination to conquer indig- nities and to acquire freedom. Then there- is the incident about Itche-Meyer, the father of Pini, who at first refused to recite the kaddish for his son because: "You don't say Kaddish for Prophet Elijah Pini is alive,. Pini has gone right to heaven . . . " "The House of Dolls" indicts the Poles. The corpses of many Jews were found on the road with "notes nailed to their naked bodies: "SHOT, BUT NOT BY GERMANS — POLISH PARTI- SANS." And as the martyred Jewish 'girls were marched to their doom in the doll houses: "Among the marching girls many are daughters of families who had Jived on the streets through which they are now be- ing led. Dumbly they lift their eyes to the windows behind which they had lived, to the railings of the balconies on which they had sat. From there, grinning faces of Polish girls look back at them. The eyes of the herded girls rove shamefully over the house walls. This is their last good-bye. These are the houses they were born in. These are the streets they play- ed in as children. Through these gates they skipped off to school every morning. Here stood their fairy-tale dreams. Every brick The Excellent Facilities of The Ira Kaufman Chapel are Known to Our Community, and are Available at a Cost Within Reach of All The Ira Kaufman Chapel FUNERAL DIRECTORS 9419 Dexter at Edison TYler 4-8020 here is alive with memories. Every tree—a trove of budding girlhood. On more than one tree is carved a heart,, pierced with a lover's arrow, beside the ini- tials of a classroom sweetheart. Under this sky they had grown and they felt toward it what children the world over feel to- ward their kindred sky. Now they march over these familiar pavements. surrounded by stran- gers with leveled machine guns in their hands, whose face they had never seen: whose honor they had never touched . " . "Once, only -Jews lived in these streets. The Jews had built these houses and lived in them. Now, Poles lived here--:the same Poles who, before the war, had waved their patriotism on high and never let up chanting: 'The Jews are selling_ our Motherland to the enemy!' But no sooner did the Germans come in than these selfsame rabid patriots turn overnight into Volks- deutsche. Most of them now sport the Nazi party emblems with pride on their lapels, and in turn each of them was given a Jewish apartment or Jewish business." There is a powerful line in this book, serving as an in- dictment of all who worship a Jew yet murder Jews: "Above the watchtower hangs the Moon sphere, like the halo around the head of the tor- mented Jew of Nazareth in the images placed in the Pol- ish windows to indicate that here lives a non-Jew." "The House of Dolls" is a powerful indictment of Nazis and their Polish collaborators. It is as strong as "The Wall" and as "Anna Frank's Diary." May its lesson sink into human hearts to prevent the recur- rence of the great shame that was humanity's: for having per- mitted Nazism to humiliate and disgrace human beings! - 1 Commentary on Biblical Book of Kings Published Yiddish as Central Language Stressed at Bond Parley Laymen can now secure a bet- ter understanding of the First Book of Kings in the Bible, thanks to a book by Dr. Leo °L. Honor published by the Union of American H e - brew Congrega- tions. Designed f o r popular use, the book, called ",`Book of Kings I: A Comen- tary," is part of a series intend- ed to make ScriptiireS more comprehensib 1 e to the general The Dr. Honor public project, begun some years ago by the Union's Commission on Jewish Education, has received financial support from the will of the late Benjamin Blumauer, a leader of Temple Beth Israel, Portland, Oregon. n s i s t- MONTREAL, (JTA ence on the centrality of the Yiddish language in the con- tinuity of Jewish culture was the theme of speakers here at a cultural session of the weed- long third world conference of the Bund. Delegates and guests at the parley included representatives from the United States, Canada, Argentina, Uruguay, Mexico, Australia and France. Pinchos Schwartz, director of the Yiddish Scientific Institute (YIVO), called for a broad united front of all Jewish or- ganizations for the advancement of Yiddish and Hebrew language and literature and for strength- ening Jewish culture through- out the world. 22 — DETROIT JEWISH NEWS Friday, April- 22., 1955 4147474 Open May 27 Reserve Now For A Gala Decoration Day Weekend l May 27-June 30 510.50 per day, $60 per Best week for our IHot Springs Ntl. Pk., Ark. F or Health Baths and Recreation Rooms with Private Bath, three superb meals plus all the won- derful extras; Swim- ming Pool, Orchestra, Free Rhumba Lessons, Midnite Snack. Tennis, etc. Come to The Famous BALFOUR HOTEL • Finest American Plan Hotel • Dietary Laws Strictly Observed • Few Blocks from Government Hot Mineral Baths • Enjoy the friendly hospitality at the BALFOUR. Reasonable rates. Write - or Con Now! Television—Entertainment FIDELMAN'S RESORT For Reservations Call or Write: Hot Springs 2671-1. Schulman, Owner, Manager South Haven, Mich. Ph. 789 CAMP HE-YU-Mil ONLY 60 MILES FROM DETROIT ACCEPTING LIMITED REGISTRATIONS FOR THE 1955 SEASON BOYS - GIRLS 6-14 — Thou shalt not hate thy broth- er in thine heart.—Lev. 19:17 RESORT Rabbi Levi Yitzchok Berdit- cher was asked: "Why do all tractates of the Talmud begin with page 2 and not with page 1?" And he replied: "In order that a person should know that he has not really begun to study . ." Jewish Birth Rate Declining ; -Predict Static Population WASHINGTON, D.C. Ameri- can Jewry probably will not be numerically larger in 1970 than it is today despite the general p o p u 1 a ti o n increase in the United States during the last decade, according to Ben B. Seligman, former director of the Office of Jewish Population Re- search. The noted demographer made his prediction in an article in the National Jewish Monthly, published by Bnai Brith. He points out that about 75 percent of the total American Jewish population lives in 13 large com- munities where the average family size and birth rate are smaller than in rural areas. According to Mr. Seligman, other factors on which his pre- diction is based show that the average size for Jewish families is 3.1 or less, in contrast to the U.S. average of about 3.7 per- sons per family; that American Jews are generally older than I their neighbors, and have fewer I children. Mr. Seligman quotes Nathan Goldberg, another Jew- ish demographer, as asserting that the Jewish birth rate itself as declining. He sa ys al- though an average of 2.2 chil- dren per family is required for the general population to renew itself, the average number of children per Jewish family is "much fewer," and would have to be even larger than 2.2. Losses from intermarriage and assimilation generally are also proportionately large. 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