The New Channel
THE JEWISH NEWS
Incorporating the Detroit Jewish Chronicle commencing with issue of July 20, 1951
Member American Association of English—Jewisb Newspapers, Michigan Press Associations, National
Editorial Association.
Published every Friday by The Jewish News Publishing Co., 17100 West Seven Mile Road, Detroit 35,
Mich., VE 8-9364. Subscription $6 a year. Foreign $7.
Second Class Postage Paid At Detroit, Michigan
PHILIP SLOMOVITZ CARM1 M. SLOMOVITZ
Editor and Publisher
Business Manager
SIDNEY SHMARAK
Advertising Manager
HARVEY ZUCKERBERG
City Editor
Sabbath Scriptural Selections
This Sabbath, the first day of Shevat, the following Scriptural selections will be read in
our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portion., Wa-era; New Moon; Exod. 6:2-9:35, Num. 28:9-15. Prophetical por-
tion, Isaiah 66:1-24. •
Licht benshen, Friday, Jan. 25, 5:20 p.m.
VOL. XLII. No. 22
Page Four
January 25, 1963
Jan. 30: Dark Anniversary for Mankind
Circle the date of Jan. 30. Remember
it. It was .30 years ago, at noon on Jan.
30, 1933, that Hitler was finally called in
to become Chancellor of the German
Reich under Hindenburg's presidency. It
was believed by von Papen and others
then in the weak German government
that Hitler would be trapped by being
given the powerful office, but the Junkers
who. wanted to sidestep Hitler were them-
selves trapped and the calamities that
commenced with Hitler's rise to power
are now -a matter of historical record.
The tragedy of that sad day was that
people either did not read or did not
believe what Hitler had written in his
"Mein Kampf." He stated bluntly in his
blueprint for a world he expected his •
Nazi movement to control for a thousand
years:, "The future of a movement de-
pends upon the fanaticism, yea the in-
tolerance, with which its followers rep-
resent it as the only true one, and carry
it through, despite other similar move-
ments."
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To this day the world is paying the
price for Hitlerism, for its fanaticism and
intolerance.
And to this day it is difficult, if not
impossible, to vindicate the German
people and to relieve them of guilt in
the great crime that had been perpetrated
by them against Jewry and against man-
kind under Hitler's leadership.
It is impossible to forget, let alone for-
give, on this tragic - 30th anniversary day
of Jan. 30.
One would have to be totally blind to
reality not recognize the over-all German
guilt. There was little—too little!—resist-
ance to Hitler among the Germans. The
recollection of one minor incident will
prove its
In March of 1936, 35 German adver-
tising men came to Detroit, as part of
their American tour. The late Philip A.
Adler, who was one of the ablest re-
porters and students of foreign affairs in
the entire Detroit journalistic history,
covered the story of their visit for the
Detroit News. The following is an ex-
cerpt from his report that appeared in the
::arch 31, 1936, issue of the Detroit News:
German advertising men, 35 strong, who
today are the guests of Detroit, agreed on
one point—the less said about the Vater-
land's politics the better.
"Business has improved considerably in
Germany under the National Socialist govern-
ment," said Christian A. Kupferburg, owner
of the Kupferburg Gold, a German champagne
firm with a business of 1,000,000 bottles a
year.
"The army of unemployed in Germany
has dropped from 6,000,000 to 2,000,000. But
please, do not ask me anything about politics.
I should much prefer to speak to you on
advertising in Germany. As for politics, allow
me to introduce you to my friend Herr Durr-
meier, general manager of the Knorr & Hirth
publications, with a joint circulation of 1,000,-
000. He knows all about politics."
Herr Durrmeier corroborated Herr Kupfer-
burg's statement on business and unemploy-
ment and added that the German press today
is divided into two groups, the party press
and independent publications, with his own
firm representing the latter.
Asked to what degree the independent
press is influenced by the National Socialist
government, he replied: "This is a delicate
question. I would rather have Dr. Donald
Stuart answer it."
"The German people stand solid behind
Hitler," Dr. Stuart declared. "Sunday's pleb-
iscite in which the government received a
99 per cent vote (actually 9'7.75 per cent)
has proved this conclusively. Charges that the
plebiscite was taken under coercion and that
the voters had no alternative are without
foundation."
To the question whether the German peo-
ple stood behind the Nazi dictatorship in its
racial and 'religious policy, Dr. Stuart's reply
was a vociferous yes.
"That this sentiment has become apparent
of late only is due to the fact that it was only
recently that the German people have learned
of the harmful influence extended by these
groups in Germany," he explained.
"Do you mean to say that men like Albert
Einstein, Jacob Wassermann and Max Rhein-
hardt harmed Germany?"
"Germany has lost nothing by their leav-
ing," was the reply.
"Have you in your travels found that this
sentiment is shared by cultured men outside
of Germany?" was the next question. But
although repeated several times in German
and English, Dr. Stuart said he could not
understand it.
Stories by Eight Israeli Writers
Called Country's 'Best Writing
'
Israel's literary craftsmen, their reactions to events that
their people's lives, the struggle for peace and the war
This old story is representative of all affect
with their neighbors are reflected in the "selection of the best
the declarations that had been made by writing" by Israelis, as represented in "Israeli Stories," published
visitors from Germany, by spokesmen for simultaneously by' Schocken Books (67 Park, N.Y. 16) and Herzl
professional and industrial groups, who Press (515 Park, N.Y. 20).
insisted that Germans were nearly unani-
There are nine stories in this noteworthy collection. Two
mous in their support of their fuehrer. are by S. Y. Agnon, the best known of Israel's - novelists and
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short-story writers. Another is by Haim Hazaz, who also has
Of course, there were Germans who gained wide recognition as a skilled story-teller. Six others
opposed Hitler! Surely, there were represent the younger Israeli writers.
Agnon, who is 75, the oldest, was born in Galicia. He is
Thomas Mann, his children, his niece and
considered the dean of his country's writers. His "Tehilah,"
nephew; others who, like the Manns, pub- meaning
the lead-off story in this book, has its setting
lished books decrying the Hitler terror. in the Old "praise,"
City of Jerusalem, now a part of Jordan. It is a story
But they were among the 2.5 per cent about sanctity and piety, about Hasidim and those who despised
of Hitler's opponents. Most of the Ger- them. The woman heroine of this tale, Tehillah, is a saintly
mans were Hitlerites!
person. She is the last of a generation — the last of a character-
This is the major tragedy of the Jan. istic era in the Old City.
"Forevermore," the closing story, Agnon's second, depicts
30, 1933, event that brought to power
Hitler and the Nazi power. The fact that a man of learning who discovers himself, who, in spite of disap-
an entire people condoned the horrors is pointments, in an area of lepers, nevertheless retains his devotion
to holiness and to learning.
worse than the horrors themselves.
It is noteworthy that Haim Hazaz, the second oldest — he is
On the 30th anniversary of that event,
65 — was born in the Ukraine and has lived in Israel
we circle the day in the blackest garb nearing
since 1931. His story "The Sermon" reveals his secular Zionist
and we recall the events that transpired, leanings. It is a searching for the meaning and obligations and
reminding our generation and the gen- leanings of Jews and it reflects the attitudes of a man of the
erations to come never to forget the bru- generation when the Zionist ideal was the search for freedom
talities and those who perpetrated them. and for a release from the depressing conditions of enslavement.
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The younger writers reveal the influence of the times upon
On this tragic anniversary, we will their thinking. Their writings deal with their neighbors, the
war, the kibbutzim, the struggles for freedom.
again pay tribute to the memory of six Arab-Israel
The Sabra Yoram Kaniuk, the youngest in the group — he
million Jews and many more millions of is 32 — in his story, "The Parched Earth," laments over the
Christians who perished.
paSsing of the old Tel Aviv where he was born as he knew it.
Remember on this day—the gas cham-
"The Name" is a story filled with pathos, by Aharon
bers, the extermination camps, the tor- Megged, who was born in Poland in 1920 and has lived in
ture chambers in which many courageous Palestine since 1926
Benjamin Tammuz, (born in Russia in 1919), has lived in
men and women who refused to yield to
the Nazi terror suffered for their ideals. Palesthle since he was 2. His story, "A Roll of Canvas," takes
Never forget that from the Nazi camp the reader back to the . difficulties encountered under British
oozed out a constant stream of poison mandatory rule.
S. Yizhar, born in Palestine in 1916, a nephew of the late
that infected many weak minds in many Moshe
deals with the war thesis after Israel's declara-
lands, in Europe and in Asia, and on this tion of Smilansky,
statehood in "The Prisoner."
continent. Even in this great land of
In "Next of Kin," Moshe Shamir, who was born in Safed
freedom there were — and still are — in 1921, devotes his theme to the Arab-Jewish problem.
weak-minded people who succumbed to
Yehuda Amihai, who was born in Germany in 1912 and has
the Nazis' poisonous ideology. Against lived in Israel since his 12th birthday, has the Sinai Campaign
this heritage from Hitlerism we shall as his theme in "Battle for the Hill."
The editor of this collection of short stories is Joel Blocker,
have to labor for a long time to come.
'5
associate editor of the New Leader, a former Hebrew University
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An illuminating introduction to the book was written
But—how will the Germans of our day teacher.
by Robert Alter, who now teaches English and comparative
react? Will the 30th anniversary of the literature at Columbia University. He has studied in American
rise of Nazism be marked by equal con- colleges and the Hebrew University.
demnation by the new generation of Ger-
Translators of the stories are Walter Lever, Ben Helpern,
mans, or will the tragic date be forgotten Minna Givton, Zeva Shapiro, K. Kaplan, V. C. Rycus, Hillel
and observed merely with lip service?
Halkin and Blocker.
In his introduction, Alter, who offers an excellent evaluation
Let the Germans react with the full
force of indignation that causes their best of the stories, nevertheless makes a point that may be subject
men and women to leave the land when to challenge. He maintains that Hebrew literary writers are
mostly concerned with the problems affecting Jews as Jews
Hitler's rule threatened their lives! Let rather
than men and therefore mankind. The fact is that Jewish
there be an unending beating of the literature
is universal in many aspects, that Jewish writers
breasts in Germany with assertions that have dedicated themselves to viewing mankind's difficulties.
they have sinned. Perhaps that will one
Nevertheless, it is true that the war for freedom in Israel
day lead to a measure of forgiveness for has made many militarily-conscious and the enmity of Israel's
the children of those who have sinned neighbors has forced Israelis to think in terms of their freedom
and committed crimes. But that can only as Jews. .
The question posed by the story-tellers and by the editor
come when there is full proof that the
children of the murderers fully • repudi- and the writer of the introduction make "Israeli Stories" a
thought-provoking book.
ate the murders and the murderers.