'Krueger Case' Embarrasses Chancellor Erhard
(Continued from Page 1)
until it threatened Der Alte's
own prestige in party govern-
ment and foreign affairs.
Once, when cornered in
parliamentary debate about
the background of his closest
adviser, Hans Globke, and the
records of other ministers
a it d high-ranking officials,
Adenauer said, "I think it's
time to end the witch hunt
for Nazis." That, at least, left
the cards on the table.
But no one in West Ger-
many, friend or foe of the rul-
ing Christian Democratic Party
alike, would have predicted
three months ago that Ludwig
Erhard would also find himself
in the thick of a Nazi scandal.
Today, Krueger and his cronies
in the expellee movement,
which he once headed as presi-
dent of the League of Expellees,
are being blamed for the new
chancellor's embarrassment.
"It was Hans Krueger's duty
to tell us and the chancellor
about his past," said a bitter
CDU functionary the morning
after Krueger asked for his own
suspension. "He should have
known that the East Germans
or the Poles had evidence on
him that could have proved em-
barrassing."
SPD officials go even fur-
ther than that.
"In these days of disengage-
ment and detente, when the fed-
eral government is committed
to improving relations with Po-
land, the Soviet Union and other
East European countries, a man
with Krueger's views on the
Oder-Neisse line and the east-
ern territories was bound to be
an impediment. He's an irri-
dentist, and irredentism is out
of step with the times," said a
Social Democratic foreign affairs
strategist.
Krueger's own actions dur-
ing the past weeks fall neatly
into the pattern set by other
West German officials who
have found themselves in the
same boat. When the charges
were first leveled by East Ger-
many's chief propagandist, Al-
bert Norden (who happens to
be. the son of a Silesian rabbi),
Krueger denied them catego-
rically and wrote them off as
just so much "Pankow propa-
ganda."
Experience, however, should
have taught Krueger, a member
of Parliament since 1957, that
the East Germans never make
such allegations without proof.
Protests in West Germany that
the Pankow propagandists re-
sorted to forged documents in
previous cases have generally
been proven false. It is only log-
ical for them to fire their blasts
with real bullets instead of
blanks, for otherwise the whole
exercise would boomerang.
When Norden, in a Dec. 6
East Berlin press conference, al-
leged that Krueger had been a
judge on a special Nazi court
in Konitz, Poland, which was
responsible for the execution of
2,000 Poles, had been head of
the Nazi Party in the town of
Konitz, and had participated in
the Feldherrnhalle march—the
minister denied all the accusa-
tions.
"I was not a member of the
group that marched on the Feld-
herrnhalle," Krueger said. "At
the time I was studying law in
Jena. not Munich. I was only
an ordinary member of the party
and, from 1940 to 1943, until
I was drafted into the army, I
was a municipal judge in Ko-
nitz. There was no special sum-
mary court attached to the mu-
nicipal court, and I never served
on any such court or courts.
Therefore I could not have been
involved in the passing of death
sentences. I know nothing of the
execution of 2,000 Poles who
had been interned in the Konitz
prison. The prison. was under the
jurisdiction of the district court,
not the municipal court."
But Norden held the aces
and began playing them,
round by round. He had Krue-
ger's personnel forms on
which the refugee minister
had written, by hand, the fact
that he had participated in
the march.
"Well," admitted Krueger, "I
did write that, but it wasn't
true. I just thought it would
look good and help my promo-
tion chances in the judiciary
during the Nazi period."
West Germans were shocked
at this blunt admission of falsi-
fication of documents and rank
opportunism.
His tenure as Nazi party
leader in Konitz? Yes, it was
true. He held the post for
three months.
The West German govern-
ment press chief, Karl-Guenther
von Hase, explained that Krue-
ger's "nominal membership" in
the party had been known to
Erhard. Krueger said that, in
view of this, he had seen no rea-
son to also inform the chancel-
lor that for a brief time he
had been party leader in the
town.
Service on summary courts?
Six weeks after the allegation
was first made and the East Ger-
mans supported it with docu-
ments, Krueger admitted that it
was true. "I think I served as
an associate judge on one of
those courts for a very brief
time. I must have forgotten
about it," he said.
Political sources in Bonn
pointed out that, in one respect
at least, the Krueger affair dif-
fered markedly from similar
scandals under Adenauer's ad-
ministration. Erhard didn't wait
very long to act.
And the betting here was that
Krueger's suspension will be-
come permanent. The investiga-
tion is a formality. Krueger has
resigned.
The Detroit Jewish News Humbly Acknowledges Tribute to Its Editor
Commended
for Leadership
By BERNARD G. RICHARDS
(A Tribute
to Philip Slomovitz
and His Paper)
One evening a few days ago
it was my privilege to speak
before the Theodore Herzl In-
stitute on the Jewish leaders of
a former generation, and I took
the opportunity of reminiscing
about some outstanding families
out of which some eminent lead-
ers emerged. The great families,
who in different ways left their
imprint on the evolving Jewish
community, were, of course, the
Seligmans, the Lehmans, the
Sulzbergers, the Strauses, the
Guggenheims,
the Lewisohns,
the Rosen-
walds, and not
least among
them, the:,
Schiff-Warburg
family.
Some distin-
guished lead-)
ers stood out
without any
family back-
ground, like
Louis Marshal,
Samuel Green-
baum, and
others. The
masses of Jews
of immigrant
origin also had
their more B. G. Richards
prominent families, which often
challenged and came into con-
flict with the earlier • settlers.
These families included the
Eisensteins, the Roggens, the
Lamports, the Lewin-Epsteins,
the Radins, and the Jarmolow-
skys. Again, some personalities
stood out, independent of not-
able families, and they were Jo-
seph Barondess, Zvi Hirs Mas-
liansky, Otto Rosalsky and Ber-
nard Semel.
In reciting the activities and
describing the personalities, I
leaned heavily upon a notable
book—like most important rec-
ords now out of print—called
"Memoirs of an American Jew."
This was written by Philip
Cowen, a native of New York,
originally a simple printer, who
by virtue of splendid public
spirit and intense energy and
Jewish devotion, became the
founder of a most important
Jewish newspaper which Ameri-
The following article was released to the English-Jewish press
this week by Seven Arts Feature Syndicate of which Nathan
Ziprin is the editor. The author of the article, Bernard G. Rich-
ards, director of the Jewish Information Bureau, 250 W. 57th
St., New York 19, is one of American Jewry's most distinguished
leaders. He was the first national executive director of the
American Jewish Congress, an associate of the late Supreme
Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis and the late Dr. Stephen S.
Wise, author of hundreds of published essays and of two books,
"The Discourses of Keidansky." This article reached The Jewish
News during Mr. Slomovitz's absence from the city on a brief
vacation.
can Jewry had cherished for
years. Cowen had the encourage-
ment and cooperation of a not-
able group of men who served
on his editorial board and to
mention their names is to indi-
cate another strand of pioneer
molders of opinion, perhaps the
Sephardic strain, which served
to f a s h i on the intellectual
growth of American Jewry.
These men are as follows:
Frederick de Sola Mendes, Rev.
Dr. H. Pereira Mendes, Cyrus
L. Sulzberger, Dr. Solomon Solis-
Cohen, Max Cohen, Jacob Fonda
de Silva Solis, and Samuel
Greenbaum. Cowen took part in
innumerable important activi-
ties, finally holding government
office as an immigration inspec-
tor. His contact with important
people both here and abroad is
by itself a rare phenomenon. In
thinking of the past many other
Jewish journals and journalists
come to mind and the American
Jewish newspapers, their sim-
plicities of their past and their
complexities of the present, pre-
sent a problem in itself—one
more problem for unburdened
minds.
There is no comparison be-
tween the late Philip Cowen and
our good friend Philip Slomo-
vitz, auf Lange yohren. Cowen
was more of a businessman, exec-
utive, promoter. Slomovitz is a
distinguished writer with a fine
penchant for history, all in all
an extraordinary journalist, of
talent and resourcefulness.
Cowen, in his own naive
and simple way, surveys' in
broad and most comprehensive
form all the developments
within our community close
to the first quarter of this cen-
tury. Just as Cowen could be
painstaking guide and the di-
rector to all the people, the
events, the organizations, the
commotions of his time, so I
would choose Slomovitz as my
mentor, advisor and informant
about American Jewish affairs
of his day. Without engaging
in superlatives I would say
that The Jewish News of De-
troit is one of the few and
one of the very best Jewish
newspapers in America, one
of the very few published in
the English language any-
where.
In the first place The Jewish
News tells you exactly and
clearly and potently what is go-
ing on within our community
here and all the many things
happening abroad which affect
our people. It also explains, in-
terprets, illuminates everything
from a positive and emphatic
Jewish point of view. Read the
Jewish News and you are really
fully informed about Jewish
events, Jewish thought, Jewish
art and . literature almost every-
where. The paper has a special
flair for watching and recording
the book world. And now it is a
little hard to explain enthusi-
asm. It is rarely transferable,
but I believe it goes together
with strong feelings and intense
convictions. I would say if there
was one important enterprise
and function that tends to assure
the preservation of our identity
and our ideals it is the act of
connecting our present with our
past, of constantly associating
the things we do and think to-
day with achievements of the
past, the gains and triumphs of
the spirit that the years left
behind.
That is where Phil Slomo-
vitz comes in. To connect, to
associate, to combine, to bring
back the past, to make Jewish
history live again—that, in
my humble opinion, is the
chief, most essential mission
of the Jewish printed word,
especially in our newspapers.
This objective becomes espe-
cially important in an atmos•
phere of quick forgetfulness,
indifference, and callousness,
and the new sensations pro-
duced by the rush of events.
All the fanfares, all the ex-
citement of the day, all the
extravagant slogans and out-
cries, all the orgies of photog-
raphy and publicity, open ever
wider the gates to oblivion.
Deprived of vivid reminders
and recollections of the past,
we are heading only for more
noise and intellectual sterility.
Essentially, the Jewish news-
paper, like any other good jour-
nal, should be a history of the
time and in that sense Phil
Slomovitz, in his Jewish News
and other truly responsible ed-
itors endeavor to reflect truly,
sincerely, and courageously the
events of the time and their re-
lationship to the Jewish past.
Slomovitz himself best describes
the understanding of his work
in the following words:
"The Jewish reader's respon-
sibilities are, in a sense, greater
than those of his neighbor's.
Jewish news is more specialized,
world Jewish news is often more
difficult to gather, and it needs
better understanding because it
is, so often, a bit more depress-
ing. That is why the Jewish news-
paper and its editor are com-
pelled to be more cautious and
at the same time more enterpris-
ing in securing the data that
makes a Jewish newspaper the
current history of the Jewish
people."
Phil Slomovitz not only "ex-
plains and interprets, but has
the courage to ask pertinent
and pointed. questions. In
other words, he is an editor
who leads. I call your atten-
tion to a characteristic edito-
rial which appeared on Nov.
29 and which, employing the
words from the Pirke Aboth
or the Ethics of the Fathers,
declares that "Scholars should
be careful with their words."
This is apropos of the declara-
tion of Rabbi Maurice N.
Eisendrath that Jews should
revise their attitude toward
Jesus. A suggestion that has
previously come in different
forms from other hasty re-
formers.
It would have been character-
istic of Slomovitz to propose
that at least for the next 50
years the Christians and Chris-
tian leaders should be revising
and re-evaluating their position
with regard to Jews and Ju-
daism.
Though everlastingly youthful,
Slomovitz has been a tireless
worker for every good cause and
Zionism and Israel itself can
claim him as a founding father,
youthful though he still may be.
He formerly graced and directed
another newspaper for many
years and that too made history
and contributed to the splendid
development of the Jewish corn-
munity of Detroit which occu-
pies such high standing in Amer-
ican Jewry. The Jewish News is
not only an index to current
events, it also serves as a guide
to Jewish history, for every sig-
nificant occurrence of the day
is connected with some parallel
happening of former years, just
what happened, how the situa-
tion was met and under what
circumstances Jewish 'individuals
and groups showed their devo-
tion, their fearlessness, their
courage. And here we receive
the lessons that are priceless
and unforgettable. Slomovitz will
seek out the neglected, the for-
gotten, great qualities that re-
main obscure, and always the
highest aims and the best quali-
ties within Jewry are brought
to the fore. In that sense he is
the most devoted friend and
most beneficent benefactor of
our people.
It has been my privilege to
correspond and - to cooperate
with Slomovitz for many yeArs
and to watch his work with in-
creasing admiration. We. are
nearly always in agreement
about Jewish questions and
problems. There is one matter
in regard to which I disagree
with him. He should not confine
his splendid work to only one
community no matter how val-
ued and important. He belongs
to the whole of American Jewry
and his paper should reach out
for national circulation.
LBJ Sends Message
to Rabbis' Peace Parley
(Direct JTA Teletype Wire
(to The Jewish News)
WASHINGTON — In a mes-
sage to the Central Conference
of American Rabbis in Wash-
ington for a two-day conference
on disarmament and world
peace, President Johnson said
Tuesday "You are meeting at a
time when the disarmament
discussions have been resumed,
and our government has pro-
posed a major initiative for
containing arms production and
reducing international ten-
sions.'
The President added, "the
paramount issue of our time is
peace. Religious leaders espe-
cially can help maintain the
climate of public opinion in
which this spirit and this effort
can continue. The conference
you are holding is encourag-
ing."