Purely Commentar
Another Nazi Incident—Its Worldwide Factors
On Aug. 25, four photographs of Adolf Hitler were mounted
1:0 on the wall of Berlin's Jewish Community House, and underneath
cn _m it were English anti-Semitic slogans and the address of the London
Socialist movement:
cz1
Commenting on the new neo-Nazi demonstrations in West
E.4 Germany, the American Jewish Committee asserted that worldwide
0.4
neo-Nazi groups are supporting one another and carrying on unified
campaigns."
E CLI propaganda
Such new developments review the challenge to the com-
21 placent among us who had begun to believe that we were on the
Pz4 road to a panacea and that Nazism was dead and buried. Nothing
could be farther from the truth.
The American Jewish Committee certainly is not a panic-
stirring movement. It is cautious and conservative. When, there-
of fore, its executive vice president, Dr. John Slawson, finds it neces-
sary to say that "though Nazi organizations in different countries,
West Germany, have not merged, they have succeeded in
ca including
establishing informal liaison with one another—as well as with
't former Nazis and Fasicsts in hiding, or beyond the arm of the law,
in Spain, Argentina and the United Arab Republic," it is time once
again to take note of the new developments and to renew the
cis vigilance that is so urgently necessary to assure the prevention of
any new recurrences of Nazi propaganda.
;14
There is a warning by Dr. Slawson that "anti-Semitic propa-
ganda is sent from country to country and from continent to
continent," that "anti-Semitic journals frequently borrow each
other's themes and carry advertisements for one another." The re-
cent American Jewish Committee survey of anti-Semitic activities
abroad found - that "supra-national anti-Semitism today is not a
unified movement, but a tangle of small, loosely-knit alliances, torn
by doctrinal disagreements and personal jealousies."
The survey stressed that: "The neo-Nazi internationals today
are weak and divided and likely to remain so—certainly if western
Europe's prosperity continues. Yet, if nothing else, they are
keeping Nazi ideology alive in the hope that some future political
catastrophe or economic disaster will afford them the opportunities
they now lack." It pointed out that while there are "several hun-
dred neo-Nazi, fascist and anti-Semitic groups" in 11 countries
survey in Europe and South America, "only a comparatively small
number pose any major threat."
The survey also found that "anti-Semitism is being used as a
political weapon in countries which are in the midst of political
turmoil and instability." It stressed that anti-Semitic movements
are aiming their propaganda particularly at youth and youth groups
in some countries.
Does anything else need to be said in support of those who
warn that a new vigilance is necessary, that we must be on guard
against the repetition of the events that were inaugurated by
Hitler, that every manifestation of anti-Semitism must be taken
seriously?
Enough said! If ever we relent in our. watchfulness there is
no foretelling how serious the situation may become and how
damaging anti-Semitism may become not only to Jewry but to the
peace of the world. Hitler's initial campaign was directed against
the Jews, then it became a war on mankind. That is how it always
works: first the Jews, then the Negroes and the Catholics, then all
mankind is on the defensive. Let there be protection against it
now, before we have another world calamity.
The Six Million and the Current Racial Issue
At his recent press conference, President Kennedy was asked
a rather perplexing question regarding "dispensation" for the
Negroes on a basis of "reparations" that have been paid to suf-
ferers from Nazism. The question as addressed to the President
and his answer appear in the stenographic report as follows:
Q. Mr. President, some Negro leaders are saying that,
like the Jews persecuted by the Nazis, the Negro is entitled to
some kind of special dispensation for the pain of second-class
citizenship over these many decades and generations. What is
your view of that in general, and what is your view in particular
on the specific point that they are recommending of job quotas
by race?
A. Well, I don't think—I don't think that is the generally
held view, at least as I understand it, of the Negro community
—that there is some compensation due for the lost years,
particularly in the field of education. What I think they would
like is to see their children well educated so that they could
hold jobs and have their children accepted—have themselves
accepted—as equal members of the community.
So, I don't think we can undo the past. In fact, the past is
going to be with us a good many years in uneducated men and
women who lost their chance for a decent education. And we
have to do the best we can now. That's what we're trying to do.
I don't think quotas are a good idea. I think it's a mistake
to begin to assign quotas on the basis of religion, or race,
color, nationality. I think we'd get into a good deal of trouble.
Our whole view of ourselves is a sort of one society. Now,
that hasn't been true, but at least that's where we're frying
to go. And I think that we ought to—not to begin the quota
system.
On the other hand, I do think that we ought to make an
effort to give a fair chance to everyone who's qualified—not
through a quota, but just look over our employment rolls; look
over our areas where we're hiring people and at least make
sure we're giving everyone a fair chance. But not hard, fast
quotas.
So much for the—we're too mixed, this society of ours, to
begin to divide ourselves on the basis of race or color.
Indeed, our society has become "too mixed" up by racial
and color divisions—and our society was on the verge of bank-
ruptcy when a strange and cruel ideology was permitted to destroy
six million people.
Entire communities were annihilated, fortunes were confis-
cated, properties were destroyed.
It was not like the 300-year-old sin which enslaved a people.
Under the Nazis there were people who considered themselves
"free men" who abused their neighbors who were their equals,
who robbed their possessions after sending them off to death
camps.
There were many lynchings, just as there were many pogroms.
Jews were not compensated after pogroms in Russia and Poland,
during the Inquisition and after the CrUsades. The number of
Reparations and Racial
Issue—The Six Million
and Worldwide Nazism
By Philip
Slomovitz
lynchings in the South is infinitesimal compared with the numbers
of Jews who died enmasse in synagogues in which they were
burned during the Crusades, on the autos-da-fe in Spain, in the
massacres that were condoned by the Czarist regimes.
When, therefore, we are told that we, who had lost six
millions at the hands of "civilized" Germans (many of the execu-
tions and exterminations were condoned by collaborators in the
vanquished countries—Poland, Romania, Hungary, Czechoslovakia),
must view the Negro problem as being exactly like the tragedy
that was suffered under Nazism, are misguided.
It is known exactly where to begin with reparations for the
Nazi crimes: the names of those who were robbed are known,
the losses they suffered have been calculated, the relatives they
lost are a matter of record.
The sin of slavery that was practiced against the Negro and
the failure to liberate him completely during the century that
followed the Emancipation Proclamation call for atonement. They
demand reparations—in the form of better housing, good schooling,
opportunities to share alike with all of us the bounties we enjoy
in this great land. But the comparison with the era of Nazism
is totally lacking. The President said that we can not "undo the
past." We can atone for it. And in our atonement we can take
pride that Americans were never like the Nazis and never will be;
that we not only did not and could not condone slavery, but we
even fought a war of the brothers to end it; that the sins of the
past are now being recounted for the purpose of assuring that
it will not be repeated.
Whenever there was a lynching, only a handful approved of
■ it. Even the South deplored it. Only the minority in the South was
bent upon murder. Now we are certain that the good people in
the South will join their fellow men in the entire country in
guaranteeing the human values that are due to the Negroes.
Thank God for America whose libertarian-humanitarian prin-
ciples made it impossible for anything like the murder of six
million to be enacted upon our shores! Let us be thankful for the
oppOsite role we play against Nazism, and let us not fall prey
to the error of likening the era of Hitler to that of democratic
America.
*
*
*
Eric Johnston's Role for Peace in Middle East
Dayan Loses
Power Fight,
Quitsillinistry
(Direct JTA Teletype wire
to The Jewish News)
JERUSALEM — Sources close
to Moshe Dayan verified
Wednesday a press report that
the former Chief of Staff plans
to resign as Agriculture Min-
ister on Sept. 10.
He was understood to have
so informed Prime Minister
Levi Eshkol in a letter in which
z he reiterated
the reasons for
•h i s quitting
t h e cabinet
which he gave
Eshkol when
the latter was
forming a cab-
inet, following
t h e surprise
resignation of
:;David Ben-
Gurion as Pre-
,) mier last June.
Dayan, at
that time, told
Eshkol he
join the cab-
inet but only
for two or
Dayan three months
unless changes in the cabinet
structure were made to give him
a greater voice in high policy
fields, particularly in security
and economic planning.
The departing minister is con-
sidered one of the "y o u n g
Turks" of the Mapai Party who
have been chafing under what
they contend is the continuing
dominance of the older Mapai
leaders.
In the death of Eric Johnston, this country lost one of its
most distinguished leaders and one of its ablest public servants.
He served under three Presidents in various capacities, and his
dedication to public causes made him stand out as a man of great
stature.
He will be remembered as the person
who was designated by President Eisen-
hower to propose a solution to the war
Draftees to Get
problem involving the harnessing of the
Deferments for
Jordan River. After a thorough study of
the issue, he suggested a plan that would
High Holy Days
have given the three countries equal oppor-
tunities to benefit from the studies that
The National Jewish Welfare
were made by Israel to utilize available
Board's Commission on Jewish
water supplies. The waters that would have
Chaplaincy has been officially
been harnessed would have been divided
advised by the Selective Serv-
equally among the three nations.
Eric Johnston
ice Commission that all draft
Israel accepted the plan. Her antagonists rejected it because i boards
have been asked to give
it might have been considered an act of recognition of Israel.
consideration. when-
What a pity that this great American's idea, which could I "favorable
ever possible" to requests from
have led to peace in the entire Middle East, fell on the deaf ears Jewish
registrants for postpone-
of hate-inspired enemies of Israel!
ment of their physical examina-
His plan provided 'a workable solution to the most serious
or induction into the Armed
problem in the Middle East: that of providing the most precious tion
Forces during the coming Jew-
substance for survival: water. Yet, it seems to have been more ish High Holy Days.
important for Arabs to obstruct Israel than to improve their own This official word was re-
position!
by Rabbi Israel Miller,
Eric Johnston's name will come up time and time again ceived
the Kingsbridge Heights Jew-
whenever the water issue emerges as another matter of contention 1of
ish Center, Bronx, N.Y., corn-
—as it may very soon when the new water pipes installed by i mission
chairman, from Brig.
Israel begin to be filled for the transmission of water from the Gen. Lewis
B. Hershey, director
north to the south of the Jewish State. When the issue will be of the Selective
Service System,
reviewed, the name of the good American who departed last week in the form of Operations
Bulle-
will be spoken of as that of a leader with vision, who knew the tin No. 81, amended as of June
road to peace, but whose good advice was rejected by people bent 20, 1963, and addressed to draft
upon war rather than the aim of providing higher standards of boards throughout the country.
living for their people.
Bulletin No. 81 applies to
*
*
Phyllis Bottome's `J'Accuse'
There were so few who had the vision to foresee the approach
of a great danger to the world in the person of Adolf Hitler that
those who were able to look into the future must be viewed as
modern prophets who have earned our respect and unbounded
and unending gratitude.
Phyllis Bottome rose to great heights not only as one of the
most brilliant writers of our time but as a courageous fighter
for justice and against tyranny and brutality.
Even before the outbreak of the second world war, which
caused the world's democratic statesmen to abandon their attitude
of awe for Hitler (even David Lloyd George and Winston Churchill
were among Hitler's early admirers), Phyllis Bottome had the
vision to recognize the dangers that were imminent and to warn
against Nazism. She had lived with her husband, Capt. A. E.
Forbes Dennis. in Vienna, from the period of the last years of the
first world war until 1937. They left their Vienna home three days
before Hitler took control of Austria. As a result of her experi-
ences she wrote her most powerful novel, "The Mortal Storm," in
which she warned mankind of the dangers that were emerging
with Nazism.
Miss Bottome was determined to do more. She pleaded for
action against Hitler and wrote a pamphlet in which she resorted
to Emil Zola's title condemning those who were hiding the facts
in the Dreyfus Case—"J'Accuse." She accused her own govern-
ment, the British, of unwillingness to recognize the danger of
Fascism. She couldn't get it published and she became a circuit
lecturer as her means of bringing the messages against Nazi-
Fascism to the United States as well as to the British.
Miss Bottome wrote 50 books. She will. be known especially
for the anti-Nazi novel "The Mortal Storm" and for her pamphlet
"J'Accuse." Blessed be the memory of this saintly lady who had
the vision that so many statesmen lacked! Would that her words
had been listened to! Perhaps the tragic World War II and its
accompanying holocaust might have been averted!
Rosh Hashana (Sept. 18 and 19),
the Jewish New Year; Yom
Kippur (Sept. 28), the Day of
Atonement, and Sukkoth (Oct.
3-11), the Feast of Tabernacles.
Since all the Holy Days corn-
, mence at sundown of the day
previous to these dates, Bulletin
No. 81 states that "normally,
the registrant's physical exam-
ination or induction should be
postponed to a date following
the religious holiday involved."
Rockwell Nazi Held
on Weapons Charge
WASHINGTON, (JTA)—Au-
thorities made known that prior
to the Civil Rights March on
Washington, a Nazi adherent of
George Lincoln Ro ckwell's
group, identified as Benton Lee
Johnson, 39, was arrested under
a federal law which prohibits
felons from carrying weapons
across a state line. Johnson was
said to be a dishwasher from
Clearwater, Fla.
Arlington Police Inspector
Raymond Cole said Johnson was
carrying a .38 caliber pistol. He
was arraigned in Alexandria
before a United States Com-
missioner and ordered held in
$2,500 bond.