THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS — Friday, January 1, 1960-24
Synagogue Desecration Creates New German Crisis
Liberals Demand to Know: 'Has
Nazi Criminality Been Uprooted?
'
Continued from Page I
court, in 1952, banned the neo-
biggest political program, the Nazi Socialist Reich Party,
correspondent said, adding that many of whose leading mem-
Dr. Adenauer was beginning to hers are now active in the Ger-
be worried about the reaction man Reich's Party.
to the incident inside the NATO
The Ministry of the Interior
alliance.
of North Rhine Westphalia or-
dered the arrest of several per-
sons • belonging to the Cologne
Begin Investigations
chapter to which the two 25-
of 'Subversive Activity' year-old
men arrested in the
Direct JTA Telet ype Wire
desecration belong. Police mean-
to The Jewish News
BONN — A spokesman for while disclosed there was evi-
the West German Ministry of dence that the Cologne party
the Interior Monday outlined leadership knew in advance
the steps planned to determine about the plan to desecrate the
whether the German Reich's newly-rebuilt Cologne syna-
Party was • engaging in "sub- gogue, which was dedicated per-
versive activity" in the Christ- sonally last October by Chan-
mas eve desecration of the cellor Konrad Adenauer.
The Bonn Interior Ministry
Cologne synagogue and subject
spokesman said the action of
to a ban.
He said a special commission Otto Wilhelm Meinberg in ex-
had been named to make the pelling the two synagogue dese-
investigation as to whether the crators was done to "disguise
basic law of the West German the anti-democratic and anti-
Republic had been violated. He Semitic ideology" of the party.
said the commission's findings As the furor over the inei-
would be presented to the Fed- dent continues to grow, Wili
eral Cabinet which would then Richter, chairman of the Ger-
decide whether the matter man Trade Union, demanded in
should be referred to the Fed- a telegram to Chancellor Ade-
eral Constitutional Court. That nauer that strong measures be
taken against "rightist elements
who seek to revive the criminal
Nazi past."
The Christian Democratic In-
formation Service on Monday
severely condemned "all race
hatred and violence" and called
the synagogue desecration • "an
alarm signal to the German
people to watch out against
Nazi revivals."
Heinz Galinski, chairman of
the Berlin Jewish Community,
demanded that rightist organi-
zations be investigated and
prosecuted.
It was announced that Wurz-
burg police had started a search
for persons who on Christmas
night desecrated a Protestant
church and a monument for
Nazi victims in Heidingsfeld. A
new anti-Semitic incident was
reported in Seligenstadt in
Hesse where only one Jew
lives. Isaac Hamburger received
an unsigned letter which called
all Jews gangsters and said all
Jews should be executed. The
recipient, who is 85, lost all
of his family in the Nazi mur-
der camps.
The letter to him said that
persecution of German Jews
would start again when Chan-
cellor Adenauer no longer was
in power. The letter also con-
tended that profanation of a
Ilammarskjold Called 'Poor Petitioner at
Nasser's Door' in Mrs. 'Wires Protest
Against World Bank Loan for Suez Canal
WASHINGTON, (JTA)—The
determination of the Eisen-
hower Administration to estab-
lish friendly ties with Abdel
Gamal Nasser's United Arab Re-
public produced a handsome
gift—a loan to widen the Suez
Canal which Nasser bars to
Israel, plus other grants and
loans.
While the World Bank was
considering the $56,500,000 loan,
Nasser stopped a Greek freight-
er, the S.S. Astypalea, as it
entered the Suez Canal. It was
carrying a load of Israel cement
to French Somaliland, F.O.B.
Haifa. This meant that title to
the cement had passed to the
purchaser.
The detention of the Asty-
palea produced some red
faces at the United Nations.
The Greek ship had been dis-
patched, Mrs. Golda Meir, Is-
rael's Foreign Minister said,
on the understanding that
Nasser would not halt a cargo
sent F.O.B. This arrangement
had been reached by UN Sec-
retary General Dag Hammars-
kjold with the UAR.
Mrs. Meir said the World
Bank loan to a leader "who be-
haves like a sea pirate"
amounted to rewarding "a vio-
later of international practices."
Reporting on the impasse to the
Knesset, Israel's Parliament,
Mrs. Meir said Nasser would
almost • certainly consider the
loan as an encouragement for
future acts of blockade against
Israel shipping. It was recalled
that the Danish ship, the Inge
Toft, was still tied up in Port
Said where it had been halted
with its load of Israel products
last May 21.
She said Israel would not end
efforts to expand trade with all
countries and to demand the
right of free passage through
the Suez Canal without discrim-
ination. She added Israel was
confident that it would not
stand alone "in this fight,"
since the UAR's handling of the
waterway was of interest to all
maritime nations and violation
by the UAR of one nation's
rights was likely to bring about
UAR violation of the rights of
other nations.
Mrs. Meir expressed herself
as being in agreement with
the contention of United
States State Department of-
Christian cemetery in Seligstadt
was done by Jews.
S S
German Leaders Condemn
Synagogue Desecration
FRANKFURT, (JTA) — West
German officials promised
everything . possible would be
done to halt such acts of anti-
Semitism as the desecration on
Christmas Eve of the newly-
rebuilt Cologne Synagogue.
As police questioned two
members of the neo-Nazi Ger-
man Reich party, arrested in
the investigation of the vandal-
ism., Chancellor Konrad Ade-
nauer, President H e i n r i c h-
Luebke and other leading West
German officials sent official ex-
pressions of regret over the in-
cident to the tiny Cologne Jew-
ish community.
The suspects were identified
as Paul Schoenen, 25, a com-
mercial employee, and Arnold
Strunk, a baker's helper, also
25. Otto Neinberg, chairman of
the party, immediately an-
nounced expulsion of the sus-
pects because their alleged ac-
tions had violated the party's
principles. He also announced
dissolution of the North Rhine-
Westphalia branch of the party
because of anti-Semitic under-
currents.
The low wall in front of
the synagogue was found
smeared in red paint with
the words: "Germans demand
`Out With the Jews'." One of
the doorways was covered
with swastikas in red paint.
The anti-Nazi memorial, about
a mile from the synagogue,
was also disfigured with paint.
Chancellor Adenauer, whci
took part in the dedication of
the synagogue three months
ago, delivering an address from
the pulpit, said in his telegram
that neighborly love was domi-
nant among the German people
and that "strong action" would
be taken against disturbers of
the peace. "All decent Ger-
mans," stated Dr. Adenauer,
"join me in condemning this
atrocious deed."
Ernst Schwering, Mayor of
Cologne, made a personal visit
Sunday to Rabbi Avi Asaria - to
assure him of Cologne's pro-
found regret and of the muni-
cipality's determination to make
life livable for the 1,200 Jews
left in Cologne from the pre-
Hitler Jewish population of
20,000. Max Adenauer, city man-
ager, and son of Chancellor
Adenauer, said the vandalism
should not be considered as rep-
resenting the attitude of
Cologne's 600,000 residents.
Around the World...
A Digest of World Jewish Happenings, from
Dispatches of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Other
the status of United Nations News-Gathering Media.
ficials that World Bank
grants should be based on Secretary Dag Hammarskjold.
economic and not political
The paper noted editorially
considerations. However, she that the loan came as the Egyp-
contended, granting a loan to tians had detained another ship
the UAR under existing con- seeking passage through the
ditions was in fact a political Suez Canal with cargo originat-
act.
ing in Israel. It said the deten-
Nasser's detention of the. tion of the Greek freighter,
Astypalea, she asserted, was a Astypalea was "not just a jab
"direct result" of the "tolerant at Israel; it was a slap in the
attitude" of the United Nations face for Hammerskjold. While
toward the UAR leader's activi- President Nasser administered
ties. Emphasizing that she had it with one hand his other hand
no doubt of the sincerity of Dag held the Suez begging bowl out-
Hammarskjold's arrangements stretched; and into it, with stag-
for passage of Israel's cargoes gering untimeliness, the World
through the Suez Canal if ship- Bank yesterday dropped its
ped FOB, Mrs. Meir said that 20,000,000 pounds s t e r ling
Hammarskjold "now stands like I I Christmas present."
a poor petitioner at Nasser's
"The bank," the editorial
do or."
Radio,
in
a
broadcast
added,
"may act on economic
Cairo
the day before the loan was criteria only. But if the United
announced, confirmed that an Nations is impotent to enforce
agreement had been reached its decisions about the freedom
with Hammarskjold on allowing of the canal, it might begin by
Israel cargoes F.O.B. through establishing the principle that a
the Canal. The broadcast also nation at war with a fellow-
said that the UAR had can- member, as Egypt asserts, is no
celled the agreement the first fit recipient for international
aid."
time Israel tried to use it. The
The Times of London edi-
Cairo radio's explanation was
that "Israel should know that torially deplored the Arab
only the United Arab Republic blockade of Israeli shipping
can permit or forbid passage at the Suez Canal but insisted
that the World Bank would
through the Suez Canal."
have been the wrong weapon
Conservatives in Britain
to employ against it.
Consider World Bank Loan
(The World Bank's grant of a
to Nasser 'Untimely'
LONDON, (JTA)—The Lon- loan to Nasser, in spite of his
don Daily Telegraph, leading refusal to adhere to pledge to
British Conservative daily, con- grant freedom of the seas to all
demned the World Bank loan to nations. was condemned in
the United Arab Republic as many quarters.
(The New York Herald Trib-
"untimely" and as undermining
une stated editorially: "For the
bank now to grant Nasser his
loan as though he were iri fact
running the canal with proper
regard for the rights of others
is to acquiesce in illegality and
to reward defiance of the UN.
i The bank's function may not be
to serve as a political weapon,
but neither is it to underwrite
piracy."
(The New York Times edito-
EUGENE R. BLACK, presi-
dent of the World Bank, rial stated: "Now that President
in Washington recently ap- Nasser is getting his money it
proved the $56,500,000 loan to is surely in order to urge him
the United Arab Republic for to make a courageous and
widening the Suez Canal, in friendly gesture and open the
spite of objections by the Is- Suez Canal fully to interna-
rael government, 66 members tional traffic. He would be doing,
of both Houses of the U. S. so voluntarily and without pres-
Congress and newspapers in sure, and in the process would
this country and in Great be contributing greatly to peace
in the Middle East.")
Britain.
Europe
OFFENBACH, West Germany—A collection of Israeli chil-
dren's books was exhibited here for the first time at the "Bunte
Kinderwelt" annual exhibition of educational material, and Dr.
Hans Halbey, director of the Offenbach Museum, stated that
the Israel books "show a very high quality, equal to those
published in the United States.
KIEL — Dr. Marbach, president of the highest financial court
of Schleswig-Holstein, is to be suspended on charges of perjury,
being accused of giving false testimony in 1958 in the trial of Dr.
Maximilian Mertens who was sentenced to 25 years in prison by a
Greek court for participation in the deportation of Greek Jews
to Nazi death camps.
MUNICH — A bill to end the activities of de-Nazification
courts in Bavaria became law after a near-riot in the Bavarian
Parliament where de-Nazification was criticized as an "unfor-
tunate measure of postwar times" by Walter Becher, leader of
the All-German Bloc Refugee Party.
MUNSTER, West Germany — Dr. Otto Adam of Hammelburg
has been arrested and charged with murdering inmates in the
Buchenwald and Sachsenhausen concentration camps. Dr. Adam
was believed to have carried out yellow fever experiments on
the prisoners.
LONDON — Premier Kassem of Iraq resumed his propa-
ganda campaign against Jordan with a demand that King Hus-
sein give up the portion of Palestine he absorbed after the
1948 United Nations partition decision, and in a speech, broad-
cast by Radio Baghdad, called Jordan the "perfidious stepchild
of imperialism" and asked Jordan to yield the "confiscated"
parts of Palestine and make them the nucleus of a "new state."
MUNICH—A 47-year-old sales manager, Alfred Schmolke,
has been sentenced by a jury court in Kassel to a four-month
jail term for making anti-Semitic remarks. He was convicted
of declaring publicly that "not enough Jew-pigs have been killed
and now they are again taking over in the banks and in the
economy." A 52-year-old druggist. Victor Capesius, has been
arrested in Goeppingen, and is now being held in jail here on
charges of complicity in the murder of Jewish and political
prisoners at the Auschwitz death camp, Dr. A. Wulf, Chief
State Attorney, said.
Israel
THE HAGUE — A modern synagogue of the Ashkenazi
Jewish congregation in the southern outskirts of The Hague,
will be converted into a moving picture theater, it was reported
here. The city's Jewish community, which, before the second
World War consisted of about 15,000 persons, now numbers
only 1,500.
United States
PHILADELPHIA — The Philadelphia Psychiatric Hospital,
a beneficiary of the Federation of Jewish Agencies, received two
federal grants totalling $311,712—$186,712 to match funds to
build a center for emotionally disturbed children and $125,000
given by the National Health Institute for a three-year study of
a sedation drug.
BRIDGEPORT, Conn. — An afternoon and evening Hebrew
High School has been established by Congregation Shaare Torah,
to give diplomas at various levels from a graduation certificate
to more advanced diplomas.
BOSTON — The Boston community invested $1,527,000 in
Israel bonds in 1959—to top the minimum goal of $1,500,000—it
was announced by Lawrence G. Laskey, general chairman, at the
sixth annual Hanukah festival.
LOS ANGELES — A plan to cut down the number of waiting
applicants and to increase the variety of services offered to
aged Jewish men and women was announced by the Los Angeles
Jewish Home for the Aged.