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THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS — Friday, August 25, 1961 4--

Purely Commentary

Application of Experience to Current Dangers

If statesmen had learned from experience, half of the world's
current troubles might have been avoided.
A Nasser of today may be a mere replica of the Hitler of
Yesterday, and an Ethiopian episored of yesteryears may have
been an augury of the Sinai Campaign of 1956 and the East Berlin
the Bizerte crises of the present time.
But there seems to be falure in applying historic experiences
to repeating episodes. Appeasement is the order of the day even
in matters involving discrimination against American citizens—
as in the instance of our State Department condoning the Arab
boycott against American business firms and our merchant
marine.
It is proper, therefore, that we turn to the past for evidence
that The Holocaust could have been avoided.
Let us turn to the year 1933, to the months immediately
following the betrayal that placed Adolf Hitler in power over
Germany, thus commencing the threat to the security of the
entire world. Reference already was made earlier this month to
your Commenator's experience as the first American reporter to
interview Heinz Spanknoebel, who became the leader of the Nazis
in this country and later, when he finally was forced to leave
this country, became an SS general.
Recapitulation of the Spanknoebel story was occasioned by
the publication by Thomas Yoseloff of 0. John Rogge's "The
Official German Report", in which the author gives the official
account of the Nazi's activities as he uncovered them in his
capacity as Assistant U. S. Attorney General in charge of the
criminal division of the U. S. Department of Justice.
There were Jewish leaders at that time, as there have been
during all crises in Jewish life, who were blind to realities and
who failed to recognize the impending dangers. But some of us
recognized the Nazi danger and warned against it. This Corn-
mentator's interview with Spanknoebel appeared on the first
page of the March 31, 1933, issue of the old Chronicle and is
reproduced here in full, for obvious reasons of current interest
and as an admonition relating to recurring dangers:

From a flat above the Stutz Photo Service at 10860 Shoemaker avenue
Heinz Spanknoebel was called for the present interview. As national
president of the Friends of the Hitler Movement in America, Spanknoebel
is recognized as-Adolf Hitler's personal spokesman in this country, and
his views are therefore of.,,,interest. as. reflecting- the sentiments of the
man whose dictatorial Powers today threaten' the very lives of the 600,000
Jews in Germany.
Herr Spanknoebel is a. lean man of about 38, above medium height,
with a mustache trinuned in Hitler fashion. A resident of this country for
three and a half years, he visited in Germany a year ago, and while there
was active in organizing pro-Nazi sentiment. He returned to this country
to sponsor his Friends of the Hitler Movement in America, which now
has offices in the large cities of this country, and which today publishes
an organ, the Deutscher Boebachter, in New York.
NATIONAL MEMBERSHIP OF 1,500.
Hitler's American lieutenant does not claim much for his movement.
He admits a national membership of only 1,500, and he is careful, as a
non-citizen, to emphasize that his party intends to stay out of American
politics. The aim of his group, he says, is to educate the Germans in
this country regarding the Hitlerite platform and to befriend them for
the Nazi program.
On the Jewish question Herr Spanknoebel is quite frank. Hitler and
his Nazis, he told this interviewer, want a Germany for the Germans, and
are determined to drive all Jews from public office and from positions
of responsibility.
„
Asked how he would classify these positions, he admittted that his
.party was determined that no Jews shall' practice law in Germany, that
no Jewish physicians should be permitted to stay on the staffs of hospitals,
that Jews be expelled from state positions and that they should not be
permitted to edit or write for newspapers.
"Aren't Jews, whose residence in Germany dates back 800 years, Ger-
mans?" Spanknoebel was asked, and he shrugged his shoulders: "Well,
they say, they believe, they are Germans. But they are Jews just the
same."
"Is it your policy to exterminate the 600,000 Jews in Germany, to
starve them to death? Else, how can you in the name of reason and
justice drive from employment such a mass of people, no matter how
small its percentage to the entire population, and thus rob them of the
means of a livelihood?" To which we received a rather saintly response.
"Hitler," said Spanknoebel, "is providing more work for people than
anyone before. Jews can go to work, they can be shoemakers, tailors,
bakers, but they can't hold public office."
SENT REPORT ON FEUCHTWANGER.
Reminded that his statement is inconsistent with fact, that not only
Jews but all who may at all be mistaken for Jews are immediately at-
tacked and molested, dragged from street cars, trains and automobiles and
mercilessly beaten. Spanknoebel had another explanation: No revolution
ever passed quietly, without bloodshed. In Germany there is a revolu-
tion, and there is .a price to pay. Besides, Hitler is not responsible for
the acts of his Storm Troops. 'Whatever is being done in Germany is the
act of young followers of Hitler. Hitler would not murder Jews!
Spanknoebel would make us believe that Hitler. is °fit to protect all ele-
ments in the population. "Chinamen or Jews or all others will be pro-
tected," he told us. And he produced a statement made public by the
German Consul in Detroit, Fritz Heiler, who said that he had received a
cable from Germany denying the campaign of lies about persecution of
Jews.
Then came an interesting revelation: Spanknoebel told this inter-
viewer that he was the one who informed Germany about Lion Feucht-
wanger's lecture tour in this country. He it was who told the Hitler gov-
ernment that Feuchtwanger called Hitler "lousy" in an address in
California!
It is important that our readers should know that Hitler's lieutenant
had misrepresented truth by sending such a report to his Nazi chief.
Herr Feuchtwanger, whose Berlin home was ransacked last week, was
doubly careful in his discussion of political events in Germany. In an
article syndicated by the North American Newspaper Alliance, which
appeared in the New York Times on March 21, Herr Feuchtwanger
wrote:
"My house in Berlin is a beautiful one, I admit, and I was looking
forward to being in it again and enjoying its peace after my hectic journey
through America. However, I had been careless. It is true that while
in America I had refused absolutely to talk about Chancellor Hitler and
had refused unusually high fees to lecture about him, but I had, in
reply to urgent questions, uttered a couple of brief sentences about
Hitler'S literary style."
Thus one of the world's outstanding literary figures is paying a high
price for uttering a literary criticism, and Heinz Spanknoebel of Detroit is
the official misinterpreter of his statements!
Spanknoebel, unusually polite to this interviewer, described his last
visit in Germany. He visited his parents in Brugenau, Bavaria, and he
found a strong anti-Nazi sentiment. The hotel keeper would not rent to
Nazis, fearing reprisals from Jewish salesmen. So reports Spanknoebel!
So the fixitor from America rented a room in his own name, and his
audience was sold on the Nazi platform. Even the Jews who came to
hear him told him that if Hitler would only eliminate the anti-Semitic
program from his platform they would join the Nationalist Socialist Party!
"We govern better without Jews," said Spanknoebel. "Germany for
the Germans," he reiterated.
Hitler's lieutenant has spoken. Small in number, the Hitlerites are
nevertheless here, and they are disseminating propaganda based on the
anti-semitic program of a government which looms far more dangerous
than that of the Czars. In their own way they spread their deadly propa-
ganda. They meet regularly—and Spanknoebel even invited this inter-
viewer to come to his meeting at 8 p.m. this Saturday, April 1, at the
Bundesheim, St. Aubin and Gratiot.
It is well to take note of this movement. One of a small seed of hate
planted in Hitler's heart grew his dangerous Nazi movement. There may
be a similar danger to the Jews of this country from the bigoted move-
ment of the Friends of the Hitler Movement in America.
Our government must know about this!
American Jewry, beware!

As the then editor of the Chronicle, this Commentator had
occasion to append the following note to the above article:
"As we go to press we are informed that Heinz Spanknoebel
is no longer in the employ of Charles A. Noble of the Stutz Photo
Service at 10860 Shoemaker avenue, and that Mr. Noble disavows
any affiliations with or sympathies for the Hitler cause. The
Spanknoebel residence, we are informed, is now at 16644 Park-
side avenue, and the Hitler headquarters here are in the Hitler

Early Nazi Incident
Emphasizes Urgency
of Heeding Warnings

By Philip
Slomovitz

Heim, 11757 Chelsea avenup. An electrically lighted swastika
hangs from the porch 01 . 44; freer Heim."
It was a period of rising terrorism and it is no wonder that
soon after our Spanknoebel article was published children who
sought epithets for use in their quarrels were heard to hurl in
derision the name "Spanknoebel."
This is part of the history of the Nazi movement and the
warnings against it when it first emerged as a danger to mankind.
Your Commentator especially calls attention to the conclud-
ing line in the article: "American Jewry, beware !"
The date of the article is important: remember, it was March
31, 1933, exactly two months after Germany collapsed morally by
capitulating to Hitler !
-
In this Commentator's review of Dr. Martin M. Rosenbluth's
"Go Forth and Serve" (Herzl Press) in our last week's issue, an
account was given of Dr. Rosenbluth's participation, with a dele-
gation of German Jews, in a mission that was ordered by the
Nazi leader, Hermann Goering, to London Jews, aimed at putting
an end to worldwide Jewish protests against the Nazi terror.
In the same issue of the Chronicle—March 31, 1933—in
which appeared our interview with Spanknoebel, were reports,
on the front page, of countrywide protests against Nazism—in
cities throughout the United States. A great rally of Detroit Jews
convened on a few days' notice. It was covered in a report in
that issue, which also contained the account of the Madison
Square Garden meeting in New York, held simultaneously with
the one in Detroit and in other cities. The leader in the mass
protest movement was the late Dr. Stephen S. Wise.
When Rosenbluth was sent with other German Jews to Lon-
don, by Goering, he was ordered to demand that Dr. Wise should
call a halt to his protests. The wise Dr. Wise refused. His warn-
ings were as timely as this writer's "American Jewry, beware !"
In the report of the American Jewish Congress meeting in
New York, engineered by Dr. Wise and reported in the story
referred to, we now're-read this sentence: "Bernard S. Deutsch,
president of the American Jewish Congress, who presided, dis-
claimed emphatically that the protest meetings were called 'with
any feeling of unfriendliness or ill will toward the German
action.' " That was the main Jewish approach at the time.
When this Commentator, 10 years later, referred back to the
Spanknoebel incident, he emphasized the fact that the Ridder
Brothers had refused to turn their New Yorker Staats-Zeitung
over to Spanknoebel and that they consistently battled against
Nazi ideas and Hitlerism. Yet, the German people as a people
was responsible for what had happened by permitting it to occur.
There also were Jewish leaders who were blind to factutal-
ities. It was to them that it was necessary to say at the time:
"American Jewry, beware !" Let the lesson of the past sink into
the future !

March of Dimes Gives
$50,000 to Brandeis
University for Research

WALTHAM, Mass., (JTA) —
An exploratory study on the
changing roles of health work-
ers in modern medical practice
will be launched by the Flor-
ence Heller Graduate School for
Advance Studies in Social Wel-
fare of Brandeis University.
The study, to be financed by
a $50,000 grant by the National
Foundation-March of Dime s,
will seek to determine to what
extent and how professional
education for health personnel
should be changed to meet
modern conditions.
Theodore Shapiro, a promi-
nent New York Jewish philan-
thropist, has underwritten the
cost of building a $150,000 lec-
ture hall at Brandeis Univer-
sity, it was also announced. The
hall, to be known as the Theo-
dore Shapiro Forum, will be
modeled on the United Nations
General Assembly hall. Shapiro,
a benefactor of numerous edu-
cational and medical institu-
tions, is a founder of the Albert
Einstein Medical School of
Yeshiva University.

Management
Sc/tools Planned
for 700 Israelis

(Direct JTA Teletype Wire to
The Jewish News)

JERUSALEM — The United
States Operations Mission has
allocated $90,000 in equipment
and the services of five experts
to aid three or four schools open-
ing next fall for the training of
Israeli hotel and tourist person-
nel, it was announced here Tues-
day.
According to the Government
Tourist Corporation, the demand
for trained personnel in the field
has exceeded the number of
graduates of the few existing
courses of study. El Al Israel
National Airlines alone requires
80 additional air stewards and
there is a growing demand for
guides throughout the country.
The schools will offer a two
year course in hotel management
courses, in catering and hotel
trades, and will include a school
for tourism. The schools are
planned to accommodate 700
students.

Israel Will Request
Loan from W. Germany

JERUSALEM, (JTA) —
Israel's Finance Minister Levi
Eshkol will discuss the possi-
bility of a loan from the West
German government, totaling
180,000,000 pounds sterling
($504,000,000), when he attends
next month's meeting of the
International Bank for Recon-
struction and Development at
Vienna.
He will confer about the pos-
sible loan with West German
Minister of Economics, Prof.
Ludwig Erhard.

■143 ■011.111,41 ■11.04111111 HNIMWD ■414!0■0■0 411 ■ 041MINSi4,01.0-0.1!0 ■ 0 1•1 ■ 01111 ■ 011 ■ 04•11.0

Boris Smolar's

`Between You

...and Me'

(Copyright 1961,
Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Inc.)

Arab Poison

The Palestine Arab delegation in this country has registered
inciting anti-Jewish material with the Department of Justice
under the Foreign Agents' Registration Act ... This material aims
at arousing American Christians against Israel by alleging that
the Israeli government is "eradicating" Christianity .. . It con-
tains the most brazen lies that "Jews desecrated and profaned"
churches by breaking doors, windows, statues of Jesus Christ,
the Virgin Mary, Saints and Crosses . . . Also, that they tore Holy
Books and sacred vestments, looted church belongings, danced
and slept and committed sin and obscene acts in churches . . .
In many respects this propaganda material—already being dis-
seminated through the United States mail—resembles the worst
anti-Jewish propaganda ever disseminated on American soil
. . . This time the Arab propaganda does no longer limit itself
to attack against "Zionists" but its blast is directed against the
"Jews" . . . The Talmud is injected into the new wave • of Arab
propaganda which can only be compared, in its vulgarity with
the notorious "Der Stuermer" issued in Nazi Germany by Julius
Streicher who was hanged by the Allies as a war criminal . . .
Arab representatives in the United States also are seeking to
exploit the Berlin situation for their propaganda against Israel
. . . They disseminate material in Washington and among dele-
gates of the Western Powers at the United Nations comparing,
the present developments in Berlin with the "Palestine situa-
tion" . . . The point they are trying to make is that just as the
Western Powers are determined not to sacrifice its rights in
24,000 Tourists Went
Berlin, they should also "show determination" in helping the
to Israel During July
Arabs "to liberate Palestine from Zionist alien occupation"
JERUSALEM, (JTA)—More . . . Anticipating that their propaganda will not be taken seri-
than 24,000 tourists arrived in ously, they indulge at the same time in attacking the Western
Israel during July, an increase Powers for "blindly" supporting the State of Israel.
of more than 50 per cent over Community Leadership
the number of tourists who ar-
Much is being talked now about the need of "young leader-
rived in the country in July ship" in organized American Jewish life ... The Council of Jewish
1950.
Federations and Welfare Funds and the United Jewish Appeal
Last month's visitors brought seek to develop such "young leadership" in communities . . .
the total number of tourists An impressive analysis on this subject has now been made by
since the beginning of the year Melvin Cohen, executive director of the Jewish Federation in
to 99,208 as against some 72,000 Worcester, Mass. . . . It establishes that the new American-born
for the corresponding period leadership coming into community view today is separated from
last year.
the cultural patterns and motivations of the immigrant fathers
Income from tourism for the of the previous generation . . . The young leader does not reject
first five months of this year Israel's need for continuing assistance, but has a strong interest
totaled $12,800,000, an increase in the local Jewish community agencies and services . . . In his
of 17 per cent over the tourist relationship to the national movements, old ideological antagon-
income earned by the State's isms, like Zionism vs. non-Zionism, or Reform vs. Orthodoxy,
national carriers, El Al Air- seem to have little importance to him . . . He refuses to panic or
lines and the Zim-Israel Naviga- be caught up in the wave of hysteria to which the older genera-
tion Company. Some 14,000 tion seems prone . . . He does not become upset about a Rock-
Israelis traveled abroad last well and takes a dim view of the emotional outbursts against
month as compared with 11,000 anti-Semitic hate peddlers . . . He refuses to be trapped into
in July 1960, the figures indi- providing copy for the press which only serves as free publicity
for bigots
cated.