The Nasser Bluff THE JEWISH NEWS incorporating the Detroit Jewish Chronicle commencing with issue of July 20, 1951 Member American Association of English-Jewish Newspapers, Michigan Press Association, Nation] Uitorial Association. Published every Friday by The Jewish News Publishing Co., 17100 West Seven Mile Road, Detroit 35, XVI,ich., VE 8-9364. Subscription $5 a year. Foreign $6. Entered as second class matter Aug. 6, 1942 at Post Offic,, Detroit, Mich.. under act of Congress of March 3871% PHILIP SLOMOYITZ SIDNEY SHMARAK CARMI M. SLOMOVITZ Editor and Publisher Advertising Manager Circulation Manager C FRANK SIMONS City Editor Sabbath Scriptural Selections This Sabbath; the twenty-fifth clay of HeSh,V0A, 5719, the following Scriptural selections will be read in our synagogues: • Pentateuchal portion, Hoye Sarah, Gen. 23:1-25:18. Prophetical portion, I Kings 1:1-31. Licht Benshen, Friday, Nov. 7. 5:01 p.m. VOL. XXXIV. No. 10 Page Four November 7, 1958 The Nazi Holocaust: Can We fford to Put it Out of Sight?' In an historical review of the "Last Fight in the Ghettos," under an addi- tional heading "Facing the Terrible Facts," in the London Observer, Edward. Crankshaw posed the question: "Can we afford to put it out of sight?" Crankshaw's stirring account de- serves retelling. What he related were not new facts. They are well known. They should be in the minds of all the people of this generation, in order that the Nazi atrocities should not be forgotten. The account is of the 15th anniver- sary of the destruction of the famous Jewish community of Bialystok in Rus- sian Poland. The Warsaw ghetto had al- ready been razed and the Nazis' S.S. began to move to cordon off the Bialy- stokers whom they aimed to lead to con- centration camps and to gas-chambers. * * * Up to August of 1943, Jews had be- lieved, when the S.S. criminals began to herd them together to take them to extermination centers, that they were to be "resettled." "Even when they ar- rived at their destinations," Crankshaw wrote, "the terrible little railway sta- tions, built at the ends of special spur lines, were disguised as ordinary sta- tions, and the new arrivals thought they had come to be put to work. Even when they — or all those not robust enough to be put on productive work until they were worn out — were taken to the gas- chambers and made to undress, they thought at first that they were being put through a special delousing bathhouse." Since "the atrocious truth could not be hidden forever," an active revolt be- gan and "small groups of brave and defiant youngsters set to work to or- ganize combat groups and persuade their comrades to go down fighting." Tragical- ly, the majority submitted. There was fear, there was hope for escape by cun- ning, "by luck, by skill, by bribery," but 60,000 fought. It was one of "the most horrible and macabre of battles"—young, rebellious Jews—"the starved and suf- focated mass of men and women"— "armed with nothing but home-made grenades and Molotov cocktails (bottles filled with petrol), and a few rifles and revolvers," fighting against the S.S. and its armored cars, tanks and artillery. * * * A young Jewish lad, Mordecai Ten- enbaum, was the hero of the organizing of Bialystok, Vilna, Warsaw and other com- bat groups. They fought from the sew- ers where they were hidden. They lost, but at least they put it an record that a minority' of brave Jews refused to per- mit the S.S. to exterminate them like rats. Crankshaw comments that the Polish government's report on the Battle of the Warsaw Ghetto had not been put in evi- dence at Nuernberg, but that the Bialy- stok anniversary "is a good moment to reflect that these deeds were committed only the other day by one of . the most advanced peoples of Europe." He adds: "We talk about Western values with the greatest of ease; but the extermina- tion of several million human beings because they were different was no less a part of Western culture than Goethe was a part of it .. . "It is hard to comprehend this fact. The whole story is so sinister that our wider consciousness rejects it. Can we afford to put it out of sight? It is not enough to exclaim "Oh; Hitler . . . and leave it at that. Hitler found will- ing hands among outwardly respect- able Germans. His worst killers, more often than not, were Austrians. In Russia, Poland, Hungary and Romania he relied on traditional and deep-seated anti-Semitism. Ukrainians, Lithuanians, Latvians,_ Romanians, did some of his most abominable work for him (always under German or Austrian command). The Polish Home Army, while cover- ing itself with glory in its own later fight for Warsaw, largely stood by and let the Germans have their way with the Jews of Poland. There remains still the question whether Britain and America could have saved more Jewish lives than they did. "Fifteen years is not long. It is much too soon to forget. Perhaps it is still too soon to start remembering. But until we bring ourselves to face this whole operation in all its evil, we are really refusing to face ourselves." Indeed, the Western powers could have done much more than was done to rescue many among those who were ex- terminated . . . There was no need for "coffin ships" on their way to Palestine. Democracies were blind to realities . . . Even so humane a person as the late Pope Pius XII did not believe that a wholesale massacre like Hitler's was possible. (He was Cardinal Pacelli when he minimized the Nazi danger—and he later referred to his error as a mistake of his youth) .. . But one thing is certain: it is much too soon to forget. It must never be for- gotten. The Nazi crimes must be en- graved in the minds of young and old so that they will labor with all their might against their repetition. Are we "refusing to face ourselves"? Let it be repeated: It is much too soon to forget. Anti-Israel Offensive Sparked by Soviet Russia and used by Gamal Abdel Nasser as another means of blinding the Arab masses to the reali- ties of Middle Eastern economic trage- dies, a new offensive has been launched -against Israel. Contrary to all evidences, and in spite of Israel's denials, the Communists and the Arab potentates are accu s ing the Jewish State of seeking to annex a' piece of Jordan's territory the moment the British troops evacuate from there. The fact is that the entire Middle East would have been in complete chaos were it not for the deterring factors of Israel's ability to prevent infiltrations into Jordan. A New York Times observer, in his analysis of the situation in Jordan pend- ing the withdrawal of British troops on Nov. 11, stated: "Aside from Israel, the British observe, there is no force in the Middle East to restrain President Nasser. . . . Israel's clear opposition to any move- ment of Egyptian troops into those areas of Jordan contiguous to Israel is seen as a restraining factor." This should be an invitation to praise for Israel and support of her position. But that would, not be in the interests of disruption aimed at by both Khrushchev and Nasser. Therefore, a new attack has been launched upon Israel, based on false accusations. But, as usual, the truth will out. Roger lkor's The Sons of Avrom,' Splendid Novel About French Jewish Family's Life "The Sons of Avrom," by Roger Ikor, published by Putnam, (210 Madison, N.Y. 16), is one of the leading novels of our time. In a splendid translation from the French by Leonard M. Fried- man and Maxwell Singer, it deals with Jewish characters in France and may be giving us some insight into the life of a large sector of the Jews in France. The story is more about one of the sons of Avrom—Yankel —than about any one else, but it also describes the reactions of the grandsons of Avrom, their assimilation into French life, their disappearance from Jewish ranks. Ikor, who was born in Paris in 1912 and is himself the son of parents who had fled from Czarist pogroms, should be considered well qualified to write about people of like lineage. The author's childhood was spent in Paris and he knows his native city and his country well, and it should be assumed that he knows French Jewry. He studied philology at the Gymnasium Mistral in 'Avignon, entered the French army in August of 1939 as an infantry lieutenant, was taken prisoner at Lille and was in a Pomeranian prison camp for five years. Since then he has worked on literary magazines, taught at Carnot Gymnasium, and has written an earlier novel and two non-fiction books. He is married to a doctor and they have four sons. "The Sons of Avrom" won the highest French literary prize, the Prix .Concourt, and the German Albert Schweitzer Prize. In the English translation, it is worth equally high acclaim. The Prologue and the Epilogue of the novel are most sympathetic approaches to the interesting characters in the story. In the prologue, Yankel Mykhanowitzki meets Baptiste Saulnier, his son's father-in-law, at the grave of their grandson, Jean-Claude Saulnier Mykhanowitzki, who was shot by the Germans. They share a common grief, but in different fashion —as different as Jew is from Christian. Pangs that afflict a Jewish grandfather at the grave of a half-Jewish grandson are evident in this moving narrative. But in the Epilogue, which pictures the retired Yankel, aged yet ageless, who outlived his non-Jewish mechutan, the hero of the story is reconciled with his fate. He is part of his son Simon's life and his non-Jewish family. Yankel is described "stealing" • across the Russian border into Germany, on his way to France. He sees in many obstacles the evidences of anti-Semitism, and often he is wrong in his prognosis and fear. He aspires to become integrated into French life. He glories in Victor Hugo and Voltaire and the Revolution. But he will not change his name. He adhered to his Jewish background. His wife and child arrive in Paris from their home town of R.akwomir which always creates nostalgia for him. He must stop his dreaming to support his, family. He begins to prosper in his capmaking business. But the children are thoroughly French. Simon marries,a farmer's daughter. He has no interest in Jews. Most of the other children, and certainly the grandchildren, are lost to Jewry, There is total assimilation. But the name Mykhanowitzki remains. Thus, when Yankel nostalgically looks through a Paris tele- phone directory, he finds the names — Mykhanowitzki, Guy, jeweler Dr. Mykhanowitzki-Dubreuil, senior resident in the Paris hospitals. Mykhanowitzki, Joseph, gabardines of all kinds . . . • In the Doubs directory he finds "Mykhanowitzki, Jene, min- ister" and in the directory for Seine-et-oise "M and Mme Myk- hanowitzki, Four Winds . . ." • Thus, in the process of three generations' developments, there is nothing left for Jewry, but the family has supplied tradesmen, craftsmen and professionals for their communities, and even a Christian minister. It is a revealing story. Avrom himself is described in inter- esting fashion after his arrival to join his children in Paris. He is a fanatical and tyrannical man, and his extremism in his blind and often foolish attitudes even creates a hatred in him for Zionists. He settles in Palestine, squanders his money, begins to mulct his children and dies with hate of Zionism in his heart. The repulsiveness of Avrom is never translated into dislike by children and grandchildren. Like all the other details in the story, the old man is accepted as a phenomenon to be ignored — by generations that intermarry and leave the Jewish fold. "The Sons of Avrom" throws new and interesting light on certain aspects of Jewish life in France. It is a well-told story worthy of high places among long-lasting works and best sellers.