House Cleaning in Bonn
THE JEWISH NEWS
incorporating the Detroit Jewish Chronicle commencing with issue of July 20, 1951
Member American Association of English—Jewish Newspapers, Michigan Press Association, National
Editorial Association.
Published every Friday by The Jewish News Publishing Co., 17100 West Seven Mile Road, Detroit 35,
Mich., VE 8-9364. SubscripLion $6 a year. Foreign $7.
Second Class Postage Paid At Detroit, Michigan
PHILIP SLOMOVITZ CARMI M. SLOMOVITZ SIDNEY SHMARAK
Editor and Publisher
Business Manager
Advertising Manager
CHARLOTTE HYAMS
City Editor
Sabbath Scriptural Selections
This Sabbath, the twenty-third day of Adar, the following Scriptural selections will be read in
our synagogues.
Pentateuchal portion: 35:1-40:38. Prophetical portion: Ezekiel 36:16-38.
Licht Benshen, Friday, March 6, 6:10 p.m.
March 6, 1964
Page Four
VOL. XLV, No. 2
Centuries of Hatred Preceded Holocaust
Nazi atrocities were "a natural, evolu-
tionary development of German history,"
and "Adolf Hitler was not an accident
but the result of centuries of anti-Semi-
tism in Germany," Dr. Helmut Krausnick,
of the Munich Institute of Modern His-
tory, testified at the trial in Frankfurt.
Thus, the new trials in West Germany
bring to light not only the atrocities and
the plans for the mass murder of Jews,
but reveal also the background of Ger-
man intentions.
It is an established fact that anti-
Semitism had established roots in Ger-
many. In his "History of Modern Ger-
many," published by Knopf and reviewed
in our column on Jan. 10, Prof. Hajo Hol-
born pointed out that in the earlier era
the legal position of the Jews "rested on
special privileges and not on general leg-
islation" and he added: "The violent per-
secutions of the Jews in the 15th and the
early 16th centuries, which led to the
emigration of many Jews to Poland, indi-
cated the insecurity of Jews in Germany."
These conditions continued and they
assumed grotesque proportions under
Nazism. Now the crimes again are being
exposed.
Among the deplorable facts that have
been revealed of late is the influence of
former Nazi criminals in the West Ger-
man Government.. The current trials and
the resultant suicides of several of the
guilty Nazi criminals indicate how the
leaders in the extermination program
have infiltrated into the government. The
"recurrent sickness" which afflicts the
German government was evaluated edito-
rially in the New York Times which
stated on the question of "Nazis in Office":
The periodic appearance of former Nazis
in various Government positions continues
to plague the West German Republic like
a recurrent sickness.
Just a few days ago, Chancellor Erhard
accepted the resignation of Hang Krueger,
Minister for Refugee Affairs, who had been
accused of presiding over a Nazi court in
a
occupied Poland. Then Dr. Erhard's own
security chief, Ewald Peters, was charged
by the West German Interior Ministry with
misdeeds against Jews in southern Russia,
and has now committed suicide in jail. The
Adenauer administration frequently was
haunted by the discovery of ex-Nazis within
its fold. Partly because of laxity on the part
of investigating authorities, partly because of
their large . numbers, many active Nazis eluded
the net of justice after the war. That they
are brazenly walking the streets in freedom
is bad enough. That even a few of them
should find their way into responsible public
posts is intolerable.
Apart from the moral considerations, the
presence of prominent supporters of the
Hitler terror in the Bonn Government offers
obvious propaganda material to the Com-
munists and weakens the moral posture of
Emphasis on education and culture in Jewish communal plan-
the free world. We can hope that Dr. Erhard
will not permit misplaced magnanimity to ning is reflected in the programming approaches as well as in
campaigning. The progress that has been registered and the aims
deter him from cleaning house.
fOr advanced cultural activities, with emphasis on our schools, is
unfortunate
that
the
guilty
It is most
reflected in a volume that should prove of great importance to
who also are serving the East German all Jewish educators—"Modern Trends in Jewish Education" by
Communist - ruled government can not Zvi E. Kurzweil, published by Thomas Yoseloff (11 E. 36th, NY 16).
similarly be ferreted out because the
While some of the essays in this volume deal with Hebrew
Communist regime launches its attacks education and with schooling in the kibbutzim in Israel, it is, in
upon former Nazis in West Germany only the main, an evaluation of Jewish educational activities on a wider
when it serves its purpose. In the mean- scale.
Kurzweil, the author of this volume, had a thorough Jewish
time many former Nazi criminals are
training, has studied in Hildesheimer's Theological Seminary and
being protected in that area.
had a general education in European universities. He is now the
History will undoubtedly have a com- head of the department of general studies at the Israel Technion
plete record of the crimes, and the Ger- in Haifa.
mans on both ends of the Brandenburg
The thorough criticism as well as examinations of educational
Gate will be exposed for all their cruel- trends cover several areas and include some of the most distin-
ties. Meanwhile the trials bring to light guished Jewish scholars in Europe and in Israel. Commencing
again the horrors that were perpetrated with Naphtali Herz Weisel. a leader in the Haskalah movement,
on Jews and on the nations that were Kurzweil draws upon the thinking and teachings of Martin Buber,
under attack by the Nazi regime. If there Rabbi Kook, Israel Salanter, Samson Raphael Hirsch, Franz
and others.
is to be a cleansing of the sins committed Rosenzweig
The Weisel essay contains noteworthy references to the
by Germany, the youth especially must era of Moses Mendelssohn who was considered a spiritual giant
know the facts and all of the horrors in Graetz's time and who had named Weisel "to reform the sys-
must be exposed in their entirety. There tem of education in the Jewish communities within the terri-
is no other way of preparing future tories under the jurisdiction of Emperor Joseph II, just as he
generations to be on guard against the had delegated to the Christian liberal, Dohm, the duty of fight-
recurrence of crimes against humanity. ing for Jewish civil equality."
In contrast to Weisel, Mendelssohn was conservative and
we are told that his reluctance himself to enter the arena of
Jewish education may have been due to his uncertainty regarding
content and character of changing factors in Jewish education.
Educators wil be interested not only in Kurzweil's discussion
opposed to each other in normal life
should have been brought together as of the problem of corporal punishment that was the issue in Wei-
sel's time but more especially the programs introduced by Weisel,
protesting groups against this play is one his
new system which called for a knowledge of both German and
of the strange phenomena of our time. Hebrew,
his revolutionary dicta which called for lessons in moral
We must never interfere with freedom Precepts and his curricula. The irony of the then developing
of expression, and we must insist on peo- programs was that they payed the way for complete assimilation
ple's rights to propagate their ideas. Even of Jews in German-speaking countries, Kurzweil notes.
The noted Orthodox sage, Samson Raphael Hirsch, is
Rockwell has a right to a platform—as
long as he does not advocate murder and treated here as an educationist and thinker. His writings, his
does not incite to riot. It is when he commentaries on Maimonides and others are reviewed. Hirsch's
shouts over loud speakers in Washington importance. the author states, "lies in the fact that he believed
possibility of a fusion of Torah and general culture."
the slogan "kill the Jews" that we say in the
Rabbi Israel Salanter and the lqussar Movement and the
there should be a halt to insanity.
Educational Philosophy of A. D. Gordon takes us to two important
By the same token, Jews have a right although differing fields of thought in Jewish cultural approaches.
to express their views on this as on other
The struggle a generation or more ago of Hebrew versus
subjects, and it would be unwise to inter- Yiddish, the revival of Hebrew, the foundation of the progressive
fere with freedom of expression either Tarbut schools, and the accumulated acts regarding educational
on the sidewalks in front of a theater or activities in Israel, provide an immense amount of material for
consideration by Jewish educators everywhere.
on the stage of that theater.
Kibbutz education is a study of a field all its own, and it is
There is a source of regret, however, done here with expertness.
Then there is an evaluation of the Polish-Jewish educator,
in the state of panic that has been cre-
ated in some Jewish ranks over the Janusz Korczak (Henryk Goldschmith), who rendered great serv-
showing of "The Deputy." Why should ice to the cause of Hebrew learning, who had written and propa-
advanced methods, who founded an orphanage in Warsaw
Jews, or any other group, have fears over gated
and was a physician in the Polish army during the last war and
the presentation of a theme that probes about whom Kurzweil relates:
the elements of an historic tragedy? A
"It would appear that the Germans respected him and
Christian authored the play and he bases offered to set him free if he would abandon the children of the
his views on indisputable historic facts, orphanage, who were to be deported to an extermination camp.
available data indicating that there was He refused to do so and was last seen at the head of a proces-
hesitancy to rescue Jews under Nazism, sion of children—two he carried in his arms—on his way to the
except in instances of converts to Catholi- appointed place of concentration for the Jews. from where they
were loaded onto trucks headed for the gas chambers of Tre-
cism.
blinka. He was never seen or heard of again." (This Story was
There is no room for fright. Facts reported in Time and 'ride Dec. 19, 1942).
should speak for themselves. The stage,
Buyer's, Rosenzweig's, Kook's and other notables' views on
like other basic American platforms, education follow in this perceptive and thorough analysis of Jew-
must be kept free. Let "The Deputy" ish education. Ktu-zweil's "Modern Trends of Jewish Education"
is as valuable for laymen as it is for educators.
be judged on its merits.
Unjustified Panic Over The Deputy'
"The Deputy" has begun its run on
Broadway. Strange b e d f ello ws joined
forces to protest its presentations in this
country, but the producers, encouraged
by a strong element of civil liberties pro-
ponents, was determined that there
should be no interference with the free-
doms of the stage.
There were other elements that in-
spired the staging of this play: the need
that was felt to continue to expose the
German crimes; the necessity constantly
to keep alive the memory of the holo-
caust so that a world aware of its horrors
should prevent its recurrence; the desire
to expose the role that was played by
churchmen during the Nazi era, it having
been admitted that the German pastors
and the Catholic priests had failed to
come to the rescue of the Jews when it
became evident that Hitler was bent upon
exterminating our people.
It has been indicated that there is
one danger in the showing of "The
Deputy": that the blame may be shifted
from the Nazis to the Catholic church.
That, of course, is utterly ridiculous. How
can anyone forget the nauseous term
Nazi? And it has been shown that "The
Deputy" is not anti-Catholic—the noblest
characters in the play are Catholic priests.
But these noblemen of the church dif-
fered with the Pontiff who is exposed in
the play as having failed to aid Jewry
because the position of the church might
have been affected negatively through
such an effort.
Why elements that are so strongly
Trends in Jewish Education:
Important Study by Kurzweil