Germany Revisited

Shocks of Iron in the 'Curtain'

In this report to the Anterican Jewish community on her
recent trip to Germany, Mrs. Moise S. Cahn of New Orleans,

national president of the National Council of Jewish Women,
explains why the presence of the iron curtain is a harsh aspect
of daily life for all Europeans but most painful of all to the
surviving victims of Nazi persecutiOn. Mrs. Cahn was one of
four .women in a group of 60 American leaders who went to
Europe in October as guests of the Crusade for Freedom.

—

By MRS. MOISE S. CAHN

President, National Council of Jewish Women

workers in the countries of
Iron curtain—the phrase is a
household byword by now, and people's democracy." It ended
with a complaint that our
we tend to forget what it really
"provocations" were "carried
means.
out on the eve of the forth-
coming Geneva Conference .. .
-I was shocked when I found
at that moment when peoples
myself actually confronting the
unanimously wish success to
iron in the "curtain"—the barbed
this conference and are over-
wire hemming the border of
flowing with resolve still more
Czechoslovakia with the West;
to strengthen the spirit of
Geneva." (This was the very
the watch towers with the Com-
'conference torpedoed in No-
munist soldiers. I was taken
vember by Russian Foreign
aback by the warning from my
Minister Molotov!)
hosts—the representatives of the
Crusade for Freedom—that one
The reason for the Russian an-
step across the boundary by a nouncer's excitement, evidently,
Westerner still means a pot shot, is that the RFE broadcasts really
or arrest.
Hurt. They send "home news"
which has been suppressed by
We were outside of Munich,
the communist governments, and
Germany, having been in Mu-
entertainment, and cultural and
nich several days. I'd had a
religious and bow-to-do-it pro-
pleasant trip across, with the
grams of interest to special
other guests of the Crusade, on
groups; and they are on the air,
the comfortable char t er e d
competing with internal broad-
plane. We had v i s i t e d the
casts, as much as 20 hours a day.
headquarters of the great ra-
dio and press programs sup- One series of RFE "expose"
broadcasts is said to have led
ported by the Crusade. We had
to the dismissal of the polish
seen exiled leaders of Eastern
Minister of Security Police.
European countries broadcast
to their people over Radio
I saw another side of Germany
Free Europe; had inspected
while in Munich. I went to visit
the headquarters of Free Eu-
nearby Foehrenwald, the last of
rope Press; had even floated
the Jewish displaced persons
balloons carrying pamphlets to
camps in the country. Plans are
Eastern Europe.
going forward for the closing of
But all of this was civilized, a Foehrenwald, but first the 1,000
part — though unusual — of the people who still live there must
everyday world. What a forbid- be provided for. The camp is
ding change was the sight of supported by the German Gov-
that border! There were no ernment, with additional subsi-
Czechoslovak civilians in view dies and services provided by
across the barbed wire line. the Joint Distribution Commit-
Oddly, I wondered if the in- tee.
visible people behind the wire
Deborah Levy assistant to the
were lonely, being cut off from social work director at Foehren-
us, and suddenly I felt lonely, wald, showed me around. De-
being cut off from them. People borah was one of the first of
should not be isolated from each Council's overseas scholarship
other this way. Human feelings students. She studied at McGill
cut us off from one another University Social Work School in
more than enough already, with- Montreal, and has been engaged
out barbed wire added.
in important and sometimes dra-
matic work ever since she re-
There it was—the wire, the
turned to Europe.
watch towers, the soldiers. One
could not but be conscious that
Deborah introduced me to a
the line of quarantine stretches , young man of -28 who poses a
up and down the middle of
problem for the authorities try-
Europe, jagged and dangerous
ing to arrange the camp's clos-
as broken glass; and on either
ing. The young man doesn't want
§ide, people: aware of each
to leave FoehrenWald. He has
other, unable to meet, afraid
lived in camps since his parents
of the soldiers at their backs.
were exterminated in a gas
This border, this isolation: this chamber, in his early childhood.
is the western face of commu- Deborah explained that Foehren-
nism. I thought of the recent wald is his substitute for mother
warning of the head of Russia's and father, and he is afraid to
Communist Party, Nikita Khrus- try his wings.
chev: "Those who wait for the
It seems so recently that
Soviet Union to abandon com-
Germany was a Nazi labora-
munism, wait until a shrimp
atory for the exploration of
learns to whistle." The homey
human beings' more horrible
old peasant saying mixes incon-
capabilities. I still feel an in-
gruously with barbed wire.
stinctive trepidation at actual-
ly being on German soil; I
I had an opportunity to try to
doubt that the Jewish genera-
talk to the unknown people
across the border the next day. . - tions which lived through the
war will ever overcome this
Back at Radio Free Europe stu-
feeling.
dios, members of our group re-
And yet the frightened "child"
corded messages of hope which
were translated into five lang- of the Nazi days is already 28
uages and broadcast to coun-• years old. And another totalitar-
ian force rules be hind that
tries of Eastern Europe.
barbed wire fence, and presses
RFE has a monitoring serv-
ceaselessly against the West,
ice which listens in to the
looking for ways to increase its
broadcasts of communist coun-
holdings. It was revealing to
tries. It wasn't long before
learn that five sick patients at
"Monitor" brought us the news
the Foehrenwald hospital, of-
that Moscow Radio had an-
fered transfer to a hospital in
swered our broadcast. I bor-
Berlin, refused—because Berlin
rowed "Monitor's" translation.
is too close to the Russians! To
Moscow had said: "How the
Europe, and most painfully to
enemies of freedom like to
surviving victims of the Nazis,
hide themselves behind false
the iron curtain is a cold fact
signboards, with the special
purpose of organizing new of daily life.
Will it last "until shrimps
subversive activities against
learn to whistle"? It does not
the peopl es ' democratic
seem possible. In the meantime,
states!" (Imagine! The broad-
cast was speaking of us!) It• no matter what campaigns of
smiles or intimidation the Rus-
went on, in that nagging man-
sians may have in the offing,
ner, to attack us because " .. .
Westerners ought to keep in
The members of the delegation
mind that grim line of barbed
themselves launched balloons
wire in all its significance. The
with . . . the dirty provocative
one certain thing is that we can-
leaflets, studded with lies and
not afford to lose our nerve or
slander and hatred against the
relax our guard—not for now,
° 32 DETROIT JEWISH NEWS and not perhaps, for the rest of
our lifetimes.
Friday, December 16, 1955

.

—

Mrs. Roosevelt
To Be Honored
By AJ Congress

Judaica Collection Presented
At Book Fair to Wayne Library

Mrs. Roosevelt will be honored
by the Women's Division of the
American Jewish Congress for
"her outstanding contribution to
the welfare of the children of
the world" at the group's Hanu-
kah luncheon, Dec. 20, at the
Waldorf-Astoria, New York, ac-
cording to Justine Wise Polier,
national Women's Division presi-
dent.

Dr. Martha Eliot, chief of the
Children's Bureau of the United
States Department of Health, Ed-
ucation and Welfare, also will be
a speaker at the luncheon which
will provide the funds for the
Louise Waterman Wise Memorial
Fund.

The Fund, named for the late
founder of the Women's Division,
enabled the construction, and now
supports the maintenance and
program of the Center in Jerusa-
lem, a recreational, cultural and
educational institution for Israel's
young people, Jewish, Christian
and Moslem alike, and for young
students and visitors.
Representatives of the various
delegations to the United Nations
International Children's Emerg-
ency Fund will be guests at the
event. More than 1,500 leaders
of the AJ Congress' Women's
Division throughout the country
are expected to attend. Judge
Polier will preside.

Women Establish
Scholarship Fund

The culmination of the annual Jewish Book Fair, at the Jewish
Community Center, was climaxed, on the concluding night of the
book exhibits and programs, at the Davison Jewish Center, by
the presentation of a large collection of Judaica to the Wayne
University Library. Contributions towards this collection were
made by a number of Detroiters who selected books to be in-
cluded in the collection with book-plates bearing their names.
The presentation was made to Dr. G. FLINT PURDY (center),
Librarian of Wayne University, by SAMUEL FRANKEL, a Jewish
Center vice-president, and PHILIP SLOMOVITZ. Dr. Purdy is
shown here examining the typographically improved latest print-
ing of the Jewish Publication Society Bible.

NEW YORK.—A national schol-
arship program to provide greater
opportunities for young women
to receive a dual education—
Jewish and academic — at the
nation's first liberal arts college
for women under Jewish auspices,
was initiated this week by the
Women's Branch of the United
Orthodox Jewish Congregations
of America.
LONDON, (WJA)—Daniel So-
More than 400 women, repre-
senting sisterhoods throughout lod, Soviet Ambassador to Cairo,
the 48 states and Canada, meet- called on the Acting Secretary-
ing at the closing session of a General and the Assistant Secre-
three-day conclave at the Hotel tary-General of the Arab League
New Yorker, voted to sponsor a last week, the - Arab News Agency
series of scholarships at Stern reports.
College for Women, of Yeshiva
It was the first visit of a Soviet
University.
Ambassador to Arab League
The launching of the scholar- headquarters and lasted three
ship program at the college was hours. According to Arab News
described by Mrs. Mordecai A. Agency reports, conversations
Stern, national president of covered, among other things, "bi-
Women's Branch, as "an effective lateral Arab defense pacts and
means of providing greater defense pacts between certain
educational opportunities for Arab States and Western Powers,
women."
the Dulles and Eden proposals

Soviet Courtship of Arab Countries
Apparent in Increased Cooperation

•

On the Record

By NATHAN ZIPRIN

(Copyright, 19 5 5, Seven Arts Feature Syndicate)

Hanukah Notes . . •
It must be the inveterate pinochle player in me that is responsi-

ble for my seasonal reversion to the origin of card playing on
Hanukah. The origin of the custom is obscure, but I have heard it
said it was started by German Jews during the Black Plague as a
diversion from fear. Whatever the impetus, the custom certainly
spread rapidly to almost all Jewish communities. In fact; it is
recorded that in Bologna card playing was banned by Jewish decree
and no Jew could be admitted to community membership without
pledging to shun card playing even with Christians. In Venice, it
is told there lived a rabbi, whose youthful days were dedicated to
crusading against the card evil, but who in the end succumbed to
the disease:. himself even to the extent of risking excommunication
under a rabbinic decree against cards. One of the yeshivas in Italy
evidently couldn't completely cope with the card playing habit
among its students and so it moved propitiously, allowing students
to indulge in card games on Hanukah and Purim as well as on
wedding and circumcision days when, it seems, the yeshiva bachurim
had a respite from learning. Cards and the dreidel, a sort of put-
and-take contrivance, add color and . -luster to Hanukah, and with
latkes they make as good a dish as any gourmet would care for.

It Is Whispered • . .
Israel will save two million dollars in foreign exchange as a
result of planting her own cotton ... Of the more than 3,000 students
enrolled in the Hebrew University in Jerusalem some 80 are Arab
and Druse . . . The profile which the New Yorker will carry soon
of Daniel Persky, noted Hebraist and one of the most colorful Jewish
figures in the United States, was suggested by Edmund Wilson,
author of Dead Sea Scrolls . . . When Moshe Sharett, now touring
the country on behlf of Israel bonds, visited Secretary Dulles in
Paris recently he was surprised on entering the Dulles office to be
welcomed in Hebrew. The greeter was an aide to Mr. Dulles who
was formerly attached to the American Embassy in Israel . . . A
new edition in Hebrew of the complete works of Dr. Theodor Herzl
will shortly be published in Israel . • . Israel has the outstanding
Yiddish literary publication in the world, qualitatively as well as
quantitatively, in the Goldene Keit (Golden Chain) ... The Soviet
journalists who promised they would confer with Jewish writers on
the fate of Jewish writers and culture in the Soviet Union were less
derelict in effort than fearful of consequences.

for a settlement of the Arab-
Israel dispute, the reasons for the
failure of the Geneva conference
and the development of atomic
energy for peaceful purposes."

The Soviet Ambassador left
Cairo to inspect the building at
Port Said which is to house the
new Soviet Consulate. It will be
the first Soviet Consulate in Egypt
outside Cairo, says the Arab News
Agency.

A Czechoslovak Trade Mission
led by the Minister of Foreign
Trade, Richard Dvorak, arrived
in Cairo during the week of No-
vember, and a Bulgarian trade
mission is to visit Egypt "in the
first months of next year," says
a Cairo broadcast.

A Romanian economic mission
led by the Director of the Min-
istry of Trade, Jacob Magura; ar-
rived in Beirut for trade talks
with Lebanon.

Under its new trade agreement,
East Germany is to supply to
Lebanon "products of the ma-
chine-building industry, equip-
ment for light industries, electri-
cal engineering products, preci-
sion engineering instruments and
motor vehicles.

According to Ankara broad-
casts, the Central Bank of Tur-
key has authorized foreign ex-
change for the import of Bulgar-
ian goods and has allocated one
and a half million Turkish
pounds for the import of medical
goods from Czechoslovakia.

The Egyptian Premier is re-
ported by an radio to have
accepted an invitation to visit
Bulgaria on his way to the Soviet
Union.

Poland has offered Egypt the
export of "complete factories to-
gether with technicians to install
them," say s the Arab News
Agency.

`Church of the Air' Gets •
Jewish Music - Council Award

The National Jewish Music
Council of the National Jewish
Welfare Board has awarded to
"CBS Radio and the 'Church of
the Air'," now observing its 25th
year, a citation for "radio broad- •
casting as a medium.of education,
enlightenment and culture."

