Van Paassett's 'To Nuinber Our Days' Recalls Triumph of Evil
Under Nazism, His Work for Zionism; Honors `Messianism'

Pierre van Paassen, the fascinat-
ing storyteller, the man who has
on hundreds of occasions inspired
Jewish audiences in behalf of
Zionism, the friend of Israel who
has applied his theological studies
in support of major humanitarian
causes, has written an autobiog-
raphical memoir that will bring
back many memories of the stormy
events in which he was a partici-
pant.
In his new and truly ex-citing
reminiscences, "To Number Our
Days," published by Charles Scrib-
ner's Sons (595 5th, NY 17) van
Paassen describes events, deline-
ates on his personal experiences
and exposes a number of "great
men" by revealing the obstacles
they had placed in the paths of
justice during the crucial years
chronicled in this autobiography.
The title of van Paassen's new
book stems from Psalm 90:12: "So
teach us to number our days, that
we may apply our hearts unto wis-
dom." The noted author has at-
tained his goal prescribed in the
second portion of this quotation.
His "Days of Our Years" was a
bast seller more than three dec-
ades ago. One wonders how the
present volume will be received.
Surely, as a sequel to his earlier
best seller, the current work de-
serves an equally popular spot—
as popular as was his "The For-
gotten Ally," in which he exposed
British perfidy in Palestine.
Van Paassen is the dedicated
Fleming, the cultured Dutchman,
whose mother was a very religi-
ous woman, whose father was
a skeptic, whose entire back-
ground was pro-Jewish. Thus, the
early experiences in Holland are
those of a young man well pre-
pared for the ministry who later
turned to journalism and became
famous as a foreign correspond-
ent in Paris, in Berlin and other
world capitals.
It is not only on Jewish issues,
on Zionism and Israel, that van
Paassen emerges as a great lib-
eral. He is the staunch backer of
civil rights, and the stories he re-
lates about the difficulties he en-
countered as a reporter in the
South add to the accumulating lit-
erature dealing with the battle
against race prejudice.
His work on the Atlanta Con-
stitution inspired him to make a
study of the tragic Leo Frank case.
He discussed it with the paper's
editor, Clark Howell. He showed
him "the evidence establishing
Frank's innocence" and he wanted
to write a series of articles about
the young Jewish intellectual who
was accused of having raped and
murdered a young girl who worked
in his pencil factory. Frank was
lynched while being transferred
from one jail to another.
Howell was prepared to let van
Paassen write the series of articles,
but, van Paassen charges in his
new book, a Jewish lawyer, Harry
Alexander, demurred and urged
him "to leave sleeping lions alone."
Van Paassen states: "Some local
rabbis were drawn into the discus-
sion and they actually pleaded with
Clark Howell to stop me from re-
viving interest in the Frank case
as this was bound to have evil
repercussions on the Jewish com-
munity. That someone had blabbed
out of school became quite evident
when I received a printed warn-
ing saying: 'Lay off the Frank case
if you want to keep healthy.' " The
warning was followed up by his
being forced into the track of a
fast-moving streetcar while driv-
ing his car. The auto was demolish-
ed although he escaped without a
scratch.
Van Paassen's deep interest in
the civil rights issue is summed
up in the followinig:
"In 1942, Atlanta's Oglethorpe
University built a memorial
tower and in the vault placed a

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Friday, July 24, 1964

40

want to defend France against
"Unbelievable- ... That nation is
so nobly intentioned a gentleman
the most unpredictable in history.
as Adolf Hitler. 'The big lie'
They were the toughest people to
triumphed all along the line."
handle in the days of the Roman
For a short time, van Paassen
empire . . . In Russia, which was
became associated with the Irgun-
overrun by Mongols, the conquer-
ists and became chairman of the
ors withdrew leaving not one
Committee for a Jewish Army
soldier behind. Yet for hundreds of
That was when he was, as he de-
years the Russians paid their
plores, so unjustly maligned by
tribute annually. A caravan loaded
Jewish leaders. He left that post
with treasure made the trip to
to be succeeded by Senator Gil-
Karakorum once a year . . On
lette. He maintains that while he
the other hand, the Romans were
never received pay, Gillette did.
always in trouble with the Jews
His book is a continuous warn-
The best legions had to be sta-
ing of the constantly emerging
tioned in ancient Palestine to
dangers from German militarism,
keep the Jews from revolting .. .
and there is no faith in the au-
The ablest Roman generals had to
thor's analyses in any of the cur-
be summoned from the ends of the
rent pledges. Evaluating history,
earth, from Britain even, to sup-
he shows how the Foerster admini-
press the Jewish revolt when it
tions of 1927 apply to the condi-
did break out . . . Funny thing,
tions of the present.
PIERRE VAN PAASSEN
I had a man here from Palestine
Van Paassen as a Soldier in
Insofar as Jewry is concerned,
the other day, a journalist, Ittamar the Canadian Army in World War I
number of articles dating from Ben Avi, who told me to take down
van Paassen declares that on this
that year. One of the articles in the Arch of Titus because of the
Among the recorded tragedies is point he has never varied, that:
the vault is a book of mine en-
inscription 'Judea Capta.' He want- that of Georges Mandel who "I always took the Jewish people
titled 'Days of Our Years.' In ed me to change the words to struggled to convince General seriously." He pays us this com-
A. D. 2042, 100 years after the `Judea Liberata.'
Weygand of the impending Nazi pliment:
sealing of the vault, it is to be
"Israel, the Jewish people, re-
danger, only to be told that the
" 'And if I don't?' I asked him.
opened. In addition to the book
Communists were threatening main to me of central signif-
"
'If
you
don't,
we
Jews
will
I was asked to give a letter with
France—at a time when there was
cance in the history of Western
a prediction. My prediction ran come and do it ourselves some about to be a pact between Rus- civilization. And this not because
Avi."
day,'
replied
Ben
this way: `Eppur si muove! In
sia and the West against Hitler.
of any chosen people concept or
Among the most revealing ex- Van Paassen charges throughout special divine revelation, but be-
A. D. 2042 when Oglethorpe's..
periences
related
by
van
Paassen
vault is opened, there will be a
that the French failed to strike, cause the Jews, in. spite of the
are those dealing with the em- that several times Hitler could
socialist president in Washing.
enmity of demonic forces and a
ergence of Nazism and the Hitler have been stopped, but that there thousand deaths, furnish man-
ton. He will be a Negro!' "
As a roving reporter he went to threat to the world. He recalls was collaboration with the Nazis kind with the key that fits the
Palestine, became intimately ac- the warning of Dr. Friedrich based on false fears of commun-
doors through which civilizations
enter and leave history; I mean
quainted with Jewish work in the Wilhelm Foerster, the German ism. About Mandel, who pleaded
scholar, now a nonagenarian re-
Holy Land, learned about the
with the French military in vain, Messianism, their undying vision
and inextinguishable hope of the
Arabs and their tactics. He tells siding in New York, whose van Paassen writes:
pamphlet
"Germany's
Secret
Re-
future."
of his early meetings with Shamar-
"Jeroboam Rothschild Mandel
armament,"
as
early
as
192'7,
Once again, as in his column in
yahu Levin, with whom he later
(Georges Mandel for short),
conferred in Warsaw where he warned of the impending
three times minister of the in- the World which was entitled "The
learned about the plight of Polish dangers to the world. But its
terior and Clemenceau's most World's Window," van Paassen
Jewry; with Meyer Dizengoff, first appeal fell on deaf ears.
intimate collaborator, was im-
opened a large window through
Van Paassen then was associated prisoned in a German concentra- which we see the past more clearly.
mayor of Tel Aviv, the Jewish mu-
nicipality that began as the sand with the New York Evening World. tion camp till 1944. When His "To Number Our Days" is an-
dune visited by van Passen in He had just completed his first brought back to France he was other great work that brings back
1926 and which later, as a me- Palestinian visit and had written turned over to Petain's militia to public attention the name of
tropolis, awarded him honorory nine articles on Palestine and who assassinated him at Fontain- the eminent writer, the courageous
three on Poland where he found bleau. In the eyes of the Fascists libertarian, Pierre van Paassen.
citizenship.
He tells the story of Pinhus most deplorable conditions. Ed- it was tantamount to crime to
—P. S.
Ruttenberg, the engineer who es- itors Tennant and Swope of the
tablished Palestine's first hydro- Evening World rejected t h e
electric station, the hero of the articles when Louis Marshall, to
Russian revolution who, with whom they were submitted "for
Father Georgii Gapon, led the verification," wrote a 17-page re-
14p
march of 100,000 Russian peas- port branding the descriptions of
ants carrying a petition to the Polish and Palestinian condition's
czar's palace in St. Petersburg in too optimistic. Time has proven
1905. Gapon betrayed the protest- that van Paassen was right in his
ing marchers, thousands of whom analyses.
were shot down in cold blood. On
ihP 1? 5tY-1.tr4,
Inroads that were made by Naz-
.7 ;1 57.1
April 11, 1906, Gapon showed up ism into France, the revival of the
tvr4 147j - it
again, was hung by the revolu- hatreds that were caused by the 11.*-1 41,4 - rem 1 , v; D";1137mitkin
tionaries as a traitor, and when Dreyfus Case, the anti-Semitic at-
•M41. 47P t?r4 n 1r?77 "117;'1 nPin" rPTYPIri . 1 .4'174
the rope broke Ruttenberg stran- titude of French bigots against
gled him. From that day on, Rut- Leon Blum are part of the recon- "1'7;z? minn
ntrintg
•ivg Itgp4
tenberg wore gloves to cover up structed history in van Paassen's
.rinr ,ktnn rrnInr.1 - nsipp 1113;1x*..77 n41 ntgi'n •
the hands that killed the traitor. "To Number Our Days."
The story of the gloved Ruttenberg
O
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hands is told by van Paassen as
Hebrew Corner
related to him by the Jewish engi-
nisintg 11111711 ,1573 mainly
.ninrin1 117 40pn
neer who became one of the Pal-
Youth
T
own
1T1p7,1 7n.
estinian pioneers.
t31.7 ron74 ,r344icti -trpv
nisiVri
The "Youth Town" that was or-
Incorporated in the variety of
ganized in Tel Aviv was the first
roDrmtl,r1 ;1
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experiences he had while assist-
experiment in Israel to solve the
youth problem during the summer
ing in the Zionist causes are his
1
14n4
94ti
triqp3.
r
niait
.17 ril?vn
In this "city" the youth
friendships with many Jews- vacation.
themselves were responsible for all
,rrivs
the general services in a city. A
nntrivn
Shmaryahu Levin, Chaim Weiz-
rI 13 14;:t 714 C1 4147 , 4 , ppktp
pupils' "City Council" was set up.
mann, Meyer Weisgal, Morris
The "City" was to the youth for
14?-niin51 nnlivn
n7r.inv nniivn ,rinv
Margulies, Marvin Lowenthal,
six weeks a recreational center
where they found the appropriate
Ludwig Lewisohn, Louis Lipsky,
14
social environment.
"2117
111e7 ninon tpiron
Isaac Carmel, Sholem Asch,
The "City" was divided into vari-
ous
departments:
There
was
a
spe-
Maurice Samuel and a score of
nnin
.riNti:nn 44 'V
cial department for discussing news,
others.
contents and games. There were
days that were devoted to various
j7 271
4511-w?
ta,4.4,477.pri
One night they met at the home nations
with the participation of
of Sholem Asch: "He read us foreign embassies and the diplomats'
vie?ipn
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iiiparnn
1x
nitr!'7
4t2191
snatches from The Nazarene' in children.
was a special department
Yiddish: Reb Jeshuah hot ongeton for There
exhibitions, mostly of the works
.nii4v* MT! 1 N'pr t:t
sein grossen weissen tails. In done by the boys themselves, like:
stamp
collections
of
the
boys
in
Maurice Samuel's English transla- which 13,000 stamps were shown,
_ 1913 41'2 ; E344,4WP 71
rIPL7
tion this phrase became: 'The Lord handicraft of youth in reformatories
and
Arab
youth
drawings
about
ktirit#
,1:71ltD7?
5S7
'77itinn
topn4
1
,11.
put on his great white robe.' Quite youth and farm work.
a difference! But it was this dif-
Entertainment was a main part of
11b4'?
nivtgn
nv-r1
the program. Those interested could
ference which made his book!"
see a doll theater, a children's
Van Paassen managed to meet theater, sport films and a zoo of
15r, in -rt'? - liiv.in-; 117 44
rrivin niltq
more than once with Benito Musso- young animals.
Those that looked for additional
1;74'7
lini who inquired about his old entertainment, could visit a Luna
socialist friends. He gives an ac- park from Turkey, they could ride
on camels in a Bedouin tent or ride
;1!
;;sFianimprtgn
n44r.;.) ntr4;:r1i-rv,inn nin4n
count of one of his conversations in cars hanging from cables. In the
later hours of the evening they
with Il Duce who said to him:
- 11114 INV 1Tim74 n417t97
could go to a night club but were
"Tell me honestly: do the Jews served
only light drinks and were
in Palestine really talk their an- shown plays by Bernard Shaw.
•1?.1
'pi
rtrZ
r315
That is how the youth were enter-
cient language again?" When van tained
in an educational and inter-
Paassen told him that little chil- esting manner.
•1:131.?? 1.111P
Translation of Hebrew column,
dren call each other in Isaiah's Published
1.1v
rmsirtz)
by Brith Ivrith Olamith,
ntn,p7n4-
s
language, Mussolini exclaimed:
Jerusalem.

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