Q
Fantastic Rise and Fall of Germany's Chief
of Secret Police Is Related in Post Article
There was room at the top in
the boom of postwar Germany, and
many an ex-Nazi succeeded in
clouding over his past and build-
ing a new life in this new land of
prosperity.
But for the persistence of war
crimes prosecutors, one of the
"greatest of them all" would have
gone free, according to an article
by Edward Behr in the current
Post Magazine.
Forty-nine-year-old Ewald Peters
was virtually Chancellor Ludwig
Erhard's right arm and as depart-
ment chief of the West German
secret service accompanied the
chancellor on visits throughout the
Western world.
Recognized as a man of breeding
(he loved good music) and kind-
* * *
Libel Trial Begins
Against Accuser of
Austrian Chancellor
VIENNA (JTA)—The libel trial
by Austrian Chancellor Josef
Klaus against a former concentra-
tion camp survivor who charged
the chancellor with having been a
member of a Nazi storm troop
group opened here Monday.
Viktor Matejka, a leading mem-.
ber of the Austrian Communist
party, charged that the chancellor
had been a member of the illegal
group in 1938 before the occupa-
tion of Austria.
Matejka also publicly accused
Chancellor Klaus of not having in-
tervened during the Nazi regime
for a man named Studt, who died
in a concentration camp. Matekja
said Klaus then had the power to
do so.
The attorney for the chancellor
submitted a statement at the trial
denying that the chancellor had
ever been a member of any Nazi
organization and that he could not
have intervened for Staudt be-
cause he had no connections with
the Nazis.
liness, Peters received a 10-gallon
hat from President Johnson on
the LBJ ranch and a handshake
from President Charles de Gaulle
in Paris.
On Jan. 30 of this year, when
Peters returned from a trip to
Rome with the -chancellor, two
policemen were waiting for him.
He cried when they said why
they had come.
And then unfolds the strange
tale of a "shy, compassionate, mod-
est man" (as described by a col-
league). who was accused of com-
plicity in the murder of 12,000
Ukrainian Jews betwen October
1941 and March 1942.
Peters, who held medals and
decorations and scrapbooks full
of testimonial letters from world
leaders. committed suicide on Feb.
2, before he • could come to trial
for his crimes.
His wife and friends still protest
his innocence, but the German
prosecutors are adamant. The evi-
dence against Peters was solid.
Born Ewald Czempiel in Silesia,
a disputed province now part of
Poland, he joined the criminal
police as a young man and in 1935
dutifully became a member of the
Nazi party. He adopted the name
Peters, a more German-sounding
name.
Throughout the war Peters ap-
peared in various part of Europe,
with the Einsatzkommando 6
unit in the Ukraine (created to
help carry out the "Final Solu-
tion of the Jewish Problem")
and doing police jobs in Hungary
and Romania. The evidence is
incomplete on his whereabouts
during the entire period.
Taken prisoner by American
troops in 1945, he was given the
harmless ex-Nazi rating of "D",
least important grade, and re-
leased.
When. through a case of mis-
taken identity Peters was arrested
as a Nazi agent subordinate, U.S.
Army investigators offered him
Foreign Advertisers Keeping Eye
on Flourishing Economy of Israel
Below the drawing of a buxom
Israeli native, a newspaper ad-
vertisement for Orlon Dacron pro-
claims in Hebrew "Today's Eve
doesn't have to iron with Orlon
clothes."
And another foreign advertiser
has succumbed to the wiles of a
consumer-conscious Israel with
booming population and flourish-
ing economy.
Abraham Moss Succeeds
Janner as President of
Board of British Jews
LONDON (JTA) — Alderman
Abraham M o s s, a former lord
mayor of Manchester and an ac-
tive leader in the communal af-
fairs of British Jewry, was elected
president of the Board of Deputies
of British Jews. He succeeds Sir
Barnett Janner, labor minister of
Parliament, who held the post for
the past nine years.
Moss, who is 64, has given a life-
time of service to Jewish welfare
work and Jewish education. He has
been vice president of the Board
of Deputies for two terms and a
member for the past 40 years.
While not affiliated with the Zion-
ist movement, Alderman Moss is
devoted to Israel and connected
with the Jewish state in many per-
sonal and public ways.
Moss. like Sir Barnett Janner,
is in favor of cooperation with
international Jewish bodies but
without getting too closely iden-
tified. It is, therefore, not ex-
pected that under the new presi-
dent, the board will join the World
Jewish Congress or evolve any
other radical policy.
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Friday. June 19, 1964
30
Ben W. Feller, in the agency
organ "Advertising Age," reports
that advertising volume in Israel
is surprisingly low considering the
rising standard of living that
rivals most European countries.
Some experts attribute this low
volume to the language problems,
Feller says, others to the "vast
gaps in standards of living be-
tween older settlers and new
immigrants."
"And even for those to whom
the language of the prophets has
become a negotiable instrument
of daily speech," Feller adds,
"this has yet to be converted
into advertising idiom."
He reports that efficient
and good graphic artists are in
demand. There are some 100 of
these agencies, many with highly
trained personnel from the United
States, Great Britain and France.
Newspapers are the chief me-
dium. Radio advertising is a rel-
tive newcomer on the Israeli
scene, Feller reports, but since it
was introduced five yearS ago
has proven increasingly popular.
Also, with Israelis the world's
second most frequent movie-goers
(30 rotes yearly), screen advertis-
ing is another growing medium.
Highway advertising is subject
to stringent regulations, now un-
dergoing reconsideration, b u t
transit ads are used extensively.
Many overseas advertisers who
have heard of the local prosperity
and demand for luxury goods have
stepped up Israeli allocations, par-
ticularly in airline shipping and
auto fields. Also the liberalization
of imports, restricted until now, of
many categories of goods will,
Feller states, "undoubtedly prod
Israeli producers to enter the field
in order to retain, if not to cap-
ture. Mr. Moshe Consumer."
and his young bride jobs teaching
in a school for children of U.S.
servicemen.
It wasn't long before Peters was
reinstated in the police, trans-
fered to the secret service squad
and eventually made head of it.
Peters' bubble burst when some
prosecutors, investigating crimes
of the Einsatzkommandos, brought
a former leader to trial. Witnesses
to the crimes of Robert Mohr's
unit included private soliders,
some from Einsatzkommando 6.
They included the name of
Peters in their testimony. Under
his command, they said, Jews
were rounded up, dug mass
graves and served on the firing
squads. Official reports from the
Peters unit had documented
12,000 executions in the Kiev
area in a five-month period.
An anonymous tip and a photo-
graph led investigators to Peters.
He denied any involvement, and
continued his denials until his
death.
Friends and neighbors sym-
pathized with his widow. Only one
phone call lacked sympathy. A
voice said the night after Peters'
death: "Has your old man met the
Devil yet?"
* * *
Claims Conference
Leaders Ask Erhard
to Reopen Deadline
WASHINGTON (JTA)—Leaders
of the Conference of Jewish Ma-
terial Claims Against Germany
conferred here with West German
Chancellor Ludwig Erhard, urging
him to reopen the filing deadline
— under the amendment to the
Federal Indemnification Law pro-
posed in Bonn.
This would benefit .Nazi victims
who through no fault of their own
are barred• from registering their
claims under the existing legisla-
tion. This concerns primarily Nazi
victims who came out from the
Iron Curtain lands after October
1953.
The meeting of the Jewish lead-
ers with Chancellor Erhard took
place in the German Embassy here.
The Claims Conference delegation
was composed of Dr. Nahum Gold-
mann, president; Jacob Blaustein,
senior vice president; Moses Lea-
vitt, treasurer; and Saul Kagan,
special consultant of the Claims
Conference.
The delegation also urged the
chancellor to take imediate steps
to correct serious deficiencies in
the proposed amendment to the
Federal Restitution Law presently
before the West German Parlia-
ment.
* * *
Aussies Demand Action
Against Local Nazis
MELBOURNE (JTA)—The first
public exposure of Nazism. in Aus-
tralia touched off wide spread de-
mands for action against the local
Nazis.
The exposure was in the form of
a telecast of a Nazi group meeting
in a suburban house in Sydney in
which jackbooted uniformed men
gave Nazi salutes in front of a
picture of Hitler and screamed
"Hitler was right."
Strong objections were voiced
in the press and by federal and
state political leaders, civic lead-
ers and spokesmen for the general
community. R. W. Askin, the op-
position leader in Parliament, said
"Nazism is abhorrent to Liberal
party members." He said he de-
plored the fact that "any" Aus-
tralians "have felt impelled to join
a body sponsoring the "shameful
Nazi creed."
A Labor party spokesman said
"it is disturbing to hear people
supporting the Nazi movement in
Australia and to hear the spokes-
man for this organization say that
the extermination of more than
6,000,000 Jews was only an allega-
tion of the press."
New Deranged 'Hitler Has Returned .
Walter Seifert, 42, and his homemade flamethrower are shown
after he burst into an elementary school in Cologne, Germany, stabbed
two women teachers to death and sprayed flames in classrooms, injur-
ing 29. The deranged Seifert shouted "Hitler has returned!" He was
shot by police, and died later.
Hochhuth Backs Pension for Widovt
of Ex-Nazi Who Tried to Save Jews
DUSSELDORF (JTA)—A cam-
paign for a pension for the widow
and three childen of Kurt. Gerstein,
who joined the Nazi party to fight
it from within, is being pushed
here by Rolf Hochhuth, author of
"The Deputy," aided by clergy-
men, Jewish leaders and groups of
Nazi victims.
Gerstein, who was a Nazi party
member until 1936 and an active
anti-Nazi thereafter, died in 1945
in a Paris prison under unknown
circumstances. He had a major role
in informing the world of Nazi
atrocities against Jews in Ausch-
witz and other Nazi death camps in
occupied Poland. He conveyed the
information to Baron Von Otter
of the Swedish Embassy in Berlin.
Gerstein is one of the principal
characters in the Hochhuth play in
which he is recorded as trying to
inform the papal nuncio in Berlin
about the Auschwitz horrors but
denied an audience because he
was in uniform. Mrs. Gerstein's
petition for a pension was rejec-
ted several years ago.
Also in Dusseldorf, Gideon
Hausner, Israel's former attor-
ney general and prosecutor of
Adolf Eichmann, declared Tues-
day "I still believe in the collec-
tive guilt of Germans" for Hit-
ler's atrocities.
The Israeli made the statement
in a telephone interview with the
Frankfurt Abendpost. He said that
every German "should search his
conscience regarding his and his
family's guilt for the happenings
during the Third Reich."
* * *
Newest Report:
Mengele . Hiding
m N. Paraguay
BRUSSELS (JTA) — Le Soir,
Belgium's largest daily newspaper,
asserted that Josef Mengele, the
long-hunted "selection doctor" of
Auschwitz death camp, was in hid-
ing in North Paraguay under the
protection of one of the most in-
fluential army officers of the
regime.
According to the report, Mengele
entered Paraguay from Buenos
Aires in October 1958 and in 1959
he received Paraguayan nationality
though he had not been a resident
of the country for five years as re-
quired by law.
Immediately on arrival in
Asuncion, the report said, he
was taken under the protection
of Robert Jung, a businessman
who made it his aim, immediate-
ly after the collapse of Hitler's
Germany, to settle former Nazis
in Paraguay.
Mengele mixed freely with
various circles in Asuncion until
1960 when Adalf Eichmann was
seized and brought to Israel. From
that time on Mengele was a wanted
man. However, he was not believed
to be in immediate threat of ar-
rest because his extradition might
be difficult in view of his presem
nationality.
It was also indicated that Men-
gele might be involved in smug-
gling activities, exposure of which
could compromise men in high
military position and that he was
protected by the "cuchiolleros, -
men armed with knives who pro-
tect the security of military chief
and smugglers. Mengele's securit'•
was portrayed as being finall ,-
dependent on the continuation o e
the Stroesser dictatorship in
Paraguay.
* * *
Monument to 6 Million
Unveiled in Geneva;
Germans Pay Tribute
GENEVA (JTA)—A monument
to the 6,000,000 Jewish victims of
Nazism Was unveiled here Sunday
in the square in front of Geneva's
Great Synagogue. Among those
taking part in the ceremonies were
Israel Ambassador Moshe Bartur.
the directors of the European of-
fice of the United Nations and
other international organizations.
high civic officials and representa-
tives of the various religious de-
nominations.
In addresses at the gathering.
both Geneva Chief Rabbi Alex-
ander Safran and George Brun-
schvig, president of the Jewish
community here, deplored the
world's silence in the face of the
extermination of European Jewry
by the Nazis 20 years ago and ap-
pealed strongly to world opinion
today to raise its voice against
current threats by Arab leaders to
destroy Israel.
In West Germany memorial
meetings were held in a number—_,
of cities for Anne Frank, who diet
in Bergen-Belsen in 1945 and
would have been 35 years old this
week, •
In a television broadcast. Otto
Frank, the girl's father and the
only survivor of the family of four,
said Anne once spoke about her
wish to live on after her death. He
added that "she lives on in the
minds of many" as a symbol of
all children persecuted by the
Nazis. He expressed satisfaction
that several youth centers had been
established in West Germany in
his daughter's name.
One of the speakers at the
Frankfurt memorial meeting was
Prof. Franz Boehm, a West Ger-
man expert on restitution.
*
*
Bishop Hits Anti-Semitism
as Being 'Anti-Christian'
MEXICO CITY (JTA) — Dr.
Sergio Mendez Arceo, the Catholic
bishop of the State of Cuernavaca,
denounced anti-Semitism as "anti-
Christian" and voiced sympathy
for Israel in a meeting here with
a d el e gat i o n representing the
Central Jewish Committee. The
delegation included Gregorio
Shapiro, president of the Commit-
tee,
c , r Fernando Jeno and Eduardo
[-/