32 THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS — Friday, July 8, 1960 — Rockwell Issue Nears Showdown; Sanity Charge Made; Hearing Set for July 27 (Continued from Page 1) "No American who remembers the horror of Nazi bestiality can react to Rockwell's words with anything but complete and utter repugnance." The court hearing on Wednes- day • was continued to July 27 for Rockwell and his followers. Five other defendants were ex- cused until Sept. 7. Rockwell was obviously very much disturbed by the prosecu- tion theory that he was of unsound mind. He had previous- ly wanted to defend himself and had not applied for legal aid by the Civil Liberties Union. The court appointed attorney 0. B. Parker to defend him. Rockwell implied that he would want to be observed by his own alienist and therefore requested continuance. T h e judge granted three weeks and Prosecutor Clark asked that Rockwell place a bond of $1,000 for his reappearance. His de- fense council argued that there was no reason to doubt his re- appearance in court, but the judge ruled that a bond for $300 would have to be posted. Rockwell had great difficulty in settling the issue, since the bond companies did not con- sider him trustworthy. The Nazi group appeared in court in civilian clothes, but all of them wore the swastika as a badge. Some of them were still bruised and bandaged from the beatings they took Sunday. The United States Govern- ment forbade Rockwell to hold any more rallies on the Mall— an area that attracted many thousands of tourists here to celebrate Independence Day. The order was issued by Elmo Bennett, administrative assist- ant to Secretary of the Interior Fred A. Seaton. It followed a bloody melee on the Mall Sun- day, when Rockwell and 12 of his cohorts were arrested, some were beaten, while five anti- Nazi hecklers were also taken into police custody. All those arrested, including Rockwell, were released on moderate bail for hearings Wednesday on charges of disorderly conduct. Bennett told the Jewish Tel- egraphic Agency that the order against using the Mall for speeches without a permit is directed against anyone at tempting to hold a meeting there. Asked whether Rockwell would be granted such a per- mit, if he applied, Bennett stat- ed flatly that permission would be denied to Rockwell because the type of preachments he ut- ters in public are always likely to incite to riot. Promptly at his accustomed hour of 2 p.m., Monday, Rock- well and a dozen of his follow- ers in uniform, featuring swas- tika armbands, showed up at his usual rallying point on the Mall. He started by announcing that he would exercise his "con- stitutional right of free speech." A police officer then served him with the order froth the Department of the Interior which has jurisdiction over this area—a square flanked by the historic Archives Building. Rockwell was told that he could use one of two other loca- tions in this city to exercise "free speech." He chose the nearest site, Judiciary Square, a relatively isolated area seven blocks away from the Mall. By the t i m e Rockwell r ea c h e d Judiciary Square with his group now number- - ing 20 men, including some in civilian dress, about 25 anti- Nazis had gathered there. Polic e, outnumbering the combined number of Nazis. and anti - Nazis, interposed themselves between the two sides. Rockwell, mounting a red-painted tin bucket, start- ed to speak. His platform, banners and other public-rally paraphernalia had been de- stroyed in Sunday's fighting. As Rockwell started shouting "Ladies and Gentlemen — and Jews," the anti-Nazis began hiss- ing, booing, and yelling anti- Nazi slogans. He tried for an hour and a half to speak, but never uttered more than two or three words without being outshouted by the anti-Nazis. The police allowed the latter to reply to every one of Rock- well's attempted insults and jibes. Finally, Rockwell gave up. He and his group departed. Unlike Sunday, there had been no fighting. A number of brownshirted Nazis were severely beaten at Rockwell's rally Sunday. Rock- well himself hid under the speakers platform at the first sign of violence, but his "Dep- uty Commander," Kenneth J. V. Morgan, was injured. Police were compelled to set up riot control conditions and to sepa- rate the estimated 50 persons who were exchanging blows. Rockwell's Nazis evidently got the worst of the fight, and some required medical atten- tion. The Chief of the Wash- ington Park Police and the Chief Prosecutor for the Dis- trict of Columbia were present. A number of Israeli tourists in Washington and local Jews be- came involved in the brawl. Witnesses described the brawl as reminiscent of the street fighting in Berlin, in the early 1930s, between anti-Nazis and the adherents of Hitler. Before the fighting started, two Jews were arrested for heckling Rockwell. One "storm- trooper" was arrested by Armed Forces police for purposes of an identification check on his duty status. He was released, having established that he has been discharged from the serv- ice. In the course of the fighting, the Nazi banner was trampled. An SS pennant, with skull and crossbones insignia of the SS troops of Hitler Germany, was ripped from its standard. The Jew-baiting reached such a point that veteran police offi- cers said it was "absurd to con- sider such hateful threats and abuse" of the public to be legiti- mate "free speech." There was also resentment on the part of police to Nazi attempts to arro- gate to themselves police power in a para-military formation guarding Rockwell and restrict- ing the public in part of the park. The police, however, sought to behave objectively against all infractions considered breaches of the peace. District of Columbia avothor- ities last week also dumped the theory that Nazi George Lincoln Rockwell had full constitutional rights to abuse Jews at public meetings but that the victims had no free speech rights to reply. Chester Gray, Chief Corpora- tion Counsel for the District of Columbia, ordered disinissal of charges against Larry Selinker, 22-year-old Brandeis University graduate who had been arrested for "loud talking" during one of Rockwell's anti - Semitic ha- rangues in a public park. Gray ruled that Selinker was "just exercising h i s constitutional right to free speech." Maurice Friedman, attorney for Selinger, said he hoped the ruling would help to "clarify the confusion over freedom of speech which has enabled Rock- well's Nazi gang to exploit and abuse the First Amendment in a manner never intended by the founding fathers. Asserting that it was "deplorable" that charges had been brought against his client, the attorney said that the charges indicated "a double Around the A Digest of World Jewish Happenings, from Dispatches of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Other standard in which First Amend- News-Gathering Media. ment free .speech rights were freely accorded to Rockivell but denied any client who was sub- ject to arrest." Jewish organizations in the nation's capital expressed ap- preciation Tuesday of the de- cision by the Department of Interior to end Rockwell's speechmaking o n Washing- ton's strategically located Mall, by declaring the area off limits for public assem- blies. However, some Jewish organizations considered this far from being an adequate solution of the problem pre- sented by the activities of the self-styled Nazi commander. Isaac Franck, executive direc- tor of the Jewish Community Council of Greater Washington, stated Tuesday that the decision of the Interior Department was "sound and judicious." He said the Community Council had dis- cussed this matter with officials of the department on several occasions and had made avail- able documentation which help- ed arriving at this decision. ADL, although considering the new location as the lesser of two evils, takes the position that it presents no solution. Hermann Edelberg, director of ADL's Washington office, said Rockwell was guilty of inciting riots and should be punished. "If it is a crime to incite riots on the Mall, it is a crime to do so in Judiciary Park," he stated. The ADL feels that Rockwell has raised a serious question about his mental stability. "It is inconceivable that an Ameri- can can raise the banner of the Nazi party and wave the swas- tika, the cruelest symbol of murder and evil the modern world has known, and still pre- tend to be sane." A somewhat similar position was taken by the Jewish War Veterans, their spokesman said Tuesday. The JWV was grati- fied by the order of the Depart- ment of Interior, which com- pelled Rockwell to shift his ral- lies from a location frequented by a great number of tourists, to one practically deserted on Sundays and holidays. Never- theleSs, the JWV feels Rockwell should not be permitted to speak publicly at all, since this is an abuse of the First Amend- ment. The organization will con- tinue to act in this spirit, its spokesman said. A number of Jews involved in Sunday's riots, when the an- gry crowd charged the Nazis and inflicted physical punish- ment on them, received anony- mous phone calls Monday threatening their lives. Their names and addresses were pub- lished in the local papers in connection with their being charged with disorderly con- duct. Jewish Veterans Hold Rally in Union Square NEW YORK, (JTA) — More than 1,000 New Yorkers Mon- day attended an Independence Day celebration here in Union Square—the area denied for a proposed rally by George Rock- well, leader of the American Nazi Party. The celebration had been organized by the Jewish War Veterans of the United States. New York State Assembly- man Irwin Brownstein, one of the men responsible for obtain- ing an order from Mayor 'Robert F. Wagner, forbidding the Rock- well meeting in Union Square, was among the speakers. All of the speakers condemned all forms of totalitarianism, and assailed Rockwell's Nazi senti- ments. Police were out in strength to prevent any attacks that might have been made by local adherents of Rockwell. How- ever, the patriotic celebration was unmarred. Europe ROME — Luigi Medici, Minister of Public Education, ruled that candidates for admission to, or for degrees from, public institutions who are of the Jewish or Seventh Day Adventists faiths would no longer be required to take oral examinations on the Sabbath . . Complaints were filed with the Italian Foreign Ministry against the practice of Arab consular officials here in crossing out in passports of Italian nationals applying for visit to Arab countries passport validations for Israel. FRANKFURT Dr. Erich Schmidt-Leichner, German criminal lawyer, denied reports that he would undertake the defense of Adolf Eichmann before an Israel court in Jerusalem. HAMBURG — The 6,620-ton motor freighter, "Alon," built under the reparations agreement for Zim-Israel Lines, was launched here at the H. C. Stuelcken Sohn shipyards . . . The Research Center for the History of National Socialism will be reopened and resume its activities after a four-year lapse, having closed in 1956 "due to a shortage of qualified staff." LONDON — Two 10-year-old French boys, Jacques Picard and Isaac Isacovitch, won the annual International Bible Quiz for Children held here, Switzerland taking second place . . . The Czechoslovak government has granted a special subsidy to the Prague Jewish community for restoration of the old Jewish cemetery, the . Czechoslovak News Agency reported. It said the former Regina Palace Hotel at Marienbad in northern Bohemia will be converted into a home for aged Jews. BONN — Chancellor Konrad Adenauer strongly endorsed a proposal of the American Jewish Committee that leading West German educators be invited to the United States to exchange views with American educators in the teaching of civic respon- sibility in West German schools when he received Jacob Blau- stein, honorary president of the American Jewish Committee. KARLSRUHE, Germany.—Dr. Kurt Knittel, administrator of the Karlsruhe public school system, was suspended from office by the State Ministry of Education of this Province of Baden- Wurttemberg, have been publicly accused of having headed the classes for instruction of the SS Nazi guards at the Auschwitz Concentration Camp during the war. VIENNA — A Polish court at Przemysl has sentenced to death Jan Szpontak, former leader of the Ukrainian national movement, for participating in the mass killings of Jews in the area of Rzeszow, Poland, in 1944 and 1945. AMSTERDAM—Trade between The Netherlands and Israel in 1959 reached a total of 96,700,000 guilders (about $26,000,- 000)—almost double the 1958 total. Israel's exports to The Netherlands amounted to $7,000,000. Dutch exports to Israel totaled $19,000,000. United States CHICAGO—More than 60 Israeli firms are represented here at the Israel exhibit of the International Trade Fair. WASHINGTON — Israel development programs were de- scribed to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee by Israel Foreign Minister Golda Meir, who was guest at a luncheon tendered by Chairman J. W. Fulbright, Arkansas Democrat, who said later that a "friendly, informal atmosphere prevailed," and that Arab-Israel relations were covered in broad context. NEW YORK—Thirty American college and university students sailed from New York aboard the S. S. Zion, to pursue a one-year study program at the Hebrew University of Jeru- salem. ATLANTIC CITY—Augustine A. Repetto, Atlantic City Prosecutor, reported that two teen-agers who admitted defacing homes of Jewish residents in Absecon were members of an organization calling itself the Junior Ku Klux Klan. BRIDGEPORT, Conn.—Sixty-day jail sentences were imposed on two men convicted of vandalism in smearing swastikas on the Beth Israel Synagogue in Norwalk on Feb. 1. Superior Court Judge Joseph W. Bogdanski passed the sentences on Harold L. Fahy, 23, of Norwalk and William Arnold, 22, of Greenwich. They had faced maximum terms of 20 years imprisonment and $5,000 fines. Israel JERUSALEM—Seventeen basalt stones, hewn near Tiberias and polished to a glossy black, have been placed over the tomb of Theodor Herzl in Jerusalem to form a composite tombstone which will be officially unveiled July 15 during observance of the centenary of Herzl's birth . . . The Kenyon archaeological expedition in the Jordan-held Old City of Jerusalem will carry out excavations in the razed Jewish quarter and not in the Wailing Wall area . . . Rationing of water will be implemented soon in Israel's southern half because the nation's water supply is approaching a "disastrously" low level on account of last winter's inadequate rainfall, the Israel Water Authority announced . . . Communications Minister Yitzhak Ben-Aharon told the Israel Parliament a special allocation of 33,000,000 pounds ($18,300,- 000) would be used to develop Israel's transport system, includ- ing_ reconstruction of Lydda International Airport to adapt it to handle jetliners, and he estimated the cost of this job at nearly $10,000,000, the work to be completed early in 1961 • . . The Knesset passed a 1,690,000,000 pound ($940,000,000) budget for 1960-61, retroactive to April 1, the start of Israel's fiscal year .. The Jerusalem Municipal Council accepted a gift of $70,000 from Mrs. Harry Sacher of London to establish a park in the new government offices area . . . Panama's Minister of Agri- culture Amilcar Tribaldos, on a visit here, has asked Israel to send an irrigation expert to Panama to advise his ministry • • • The Rockefeller Foundation has made an additional $30,000 grant to Tel Hashomer Hospital for its research on blood solvents as a factor in hereditary illnesses . . . The National Insurance Fund will spend about 75,000,000 pounds ($41,667•,000) this year in benefits to insured persons, mostly in old age and survivors' benefits . . . Nearly a half-million Israel schoolchil- dren downed pencils and books to start their summer vacation on June 30. Latin America MEXICO CITY—A new building to house the Mexican- Israel Cultural Institute was officially opened here, the Minister of Education, Jaime Torres Bodet, Senator Moreno Sanchez, Israel Ambassador Mordechai Schneerson, senior government officials and Jewish community leaders, attending the ceremonies.