THE JEWISH NEWS issue of July 20, 1951
Jewry's Open Forum
Incorporating The Detroit Jewish Chronicle commencing with
Member American Association of English--Jewish Newspapers, Michigan Press Association, National Editorial
Published every Friday by The Jewish News Publishing Co., 17100 West Seven Mile Road, Detroit 48235 Mich.,
Association:
VE 8-9364. Subscription $6 a year. Foreign
37. Class Postage Paid at Detroit, Michigan
Second
PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
Editor and Publisher
CARMI M. SLOMOVITZ
Business Manager
SIDNEY SHMARAK
Advertising Manager
CHARLOTTE ILYAMS
City Editor
Sabbath Scriptural Selections
This Sabbath, the sixth day of Shevat, 5725, the following scriptural selections
will be read in our synagogues:
Jeremiah 46:13-28.
Pentateuchal portion: Exod. 10:1-13:16; prophetical portion:
Licht benshen. Friday, Jan. 8, 5 p.m.
VOL. XLVI, No. 20
Page 4
January 8, 1965
The Community's Share in Paradise
Another campaign is about to be launched
here for the major causes to provide for our
overseas needs, to care for national educa-
tional movements and to support Detroit's
Jewish agencies.
Having dealt with the budgeting problems,
having begun the 1965 Allied Jewish Cam-
paign with the magnificent sum contributed
at the dinner given in honor of Max M.
Fisher, the new national general chairman
of the United Jewish Appeal, at the specially
convened Detroit function in New York,
we are now confronted with the task of en-
rolling the support of more than 25,000 con-
tributors to the approaching Detroit drive.
While we do not speak in terms of charity
when we appeal for the numerous causes that
are represented in our campaign, since the
Jewish term is justice--zedakah—rather than
philanthropy. there nevertheless is a story on
charity that is applicable to all our needs.
In his new, impressive work, "The Book
of Jewish Knowledge," published by Crown,
Nathan Ausubel relates the following:
When an orphan asylum was in danger
of closing down because it lacked a certain
Stall of money, the rabbi of the commu-
nity urgently implored the richest man in
town to make up the deficit. But the nogid
(wealthy man) promptly refused. "I will
sell ?you my place in Paradise if only you
will give me the money," pleaded the rabbi
out of desperation. The rich man was
delighted with the "bargain" and gave him
the money. And so the orphan asylum was
saved, but the collector was without his
portion of bliss in the World-to-Come.
The rabbi's disciples were aghast when
they heard of his 'deal." They remon-
strated with him: "Oh, Rabbi! how could
you do a thing like that—you, a holy man
who was sure to enter Paradise!" The rabbi
replied: "Twice each day I repeat in my
prayers: 'Love thy God with all thy heart,
with all thy soul, and with all thy posses-
sions.' My sons, I'm only a poor man. What
are the possessions with which I can serve
God? All that I possess is my share in
Paradise, and to serve God's children, the
orphans, I am ready to part with even
that."
It is the share in the greatest good that
man can perform that beckons again to our
community. There is so much that needs
to be done—in our midst, in behalf of the
unfortunates who must escape from persecu-
tions, in support of Israel that stands ready
to welcome these distressed!
This is the time, therefore, to prepare for
the great drive—by providing the manpower
it needs for the tremendous job of soliciting
so many thousands, and by assuring for the
many causes the funds that are so vitally
needed!
The tens of thousands who must find
refuge in Israel, the need at home and
abroad, the educational institutions in our
own community and those operating on a
national scale, look to us for support
through the local drive.
Our community should be in readiness
soon for the great task inherent in- the forth-
coming Allied Jewish Campaign.
Moral Issue in Statute of Limitations
If the statute of limitations on war crimes
should go into effect in West Germany on
May 8 and in Austria on June 15, the year
1965 may go down on record as one of the
most tragic in history because the impending
limitations will make it possible for tens of
thousands of Nazis responsible for mass mur-
ders to go free and to be at large again
as a menace to peace.
Should the statute of limitations go into
effect. in spite of the protests that have been
made by non-Jews as well as Jews, by men
of responsibility in many lands and also in
Germany, it is estimated that more than
130.000 Nazi criminals will be able to get
out of hiding. to claim back positions and
openly to propagate again the Hitler theories.
The impending danger stems from the
that West Germany's Justice Minister
Ewald Bucher opposes extension of prosecu-
tions, in spite of the warnings by the
Christian Democratic Union and the Social
Democratic Party of Germany that it would
be intolerable if after next May Nazi mur-
derers should not only go free but should
be able to boast of their deeds.
Many warnings have been issued against
the statute of limitations. While it is natural
for Jewish groups throughout the world to
protest against the planned statute, it is im-
portant to note that Jews are not alone in
protesting against giving free reign to hordes
of Nazis. Robert Kempner, a U.S. prose-
cutor at the Nuremberg trial, pointed out
that the murderers of 4,000 Catholic priests
in Nazi Germany have not been brought to
trial. And there are many other indications of
.failure to round up the Nazi criminals—a
task yet to be completed if justice is to be
meted out.
*
*
*
The attitude of German officials is not
necessarily the verdict of all of Germany, and
fact
Trevor-Roper Presents Hitler's
Orders in 'Blitzkrieg to Defeat'
Commencing with the invasion of Poland in 1939 and continuing
through his aggressions on the European Eastern front, in the Mediter-
ranean, in the Scandinavian countries, Adolf Hitler personally issued
74 directives dictating strategy in major war activities. until hi,s
collapse in 1945.
Hitherto unpublished texts of these documents are included in
"Blitzkrieg to Defeat: Hitler's War Directives, 1939-1945," edited by
H. R. Trevor-Roper and published by Holt. Rinehart and Winston
(383 Madison, NY 17).
This is one of the most unique books dealing with World War II
and is a most valuable addition to the works that expose the Nazi terror.
The author, history professor at Oxford. is one of the best informed
men on the era of Nazism. His "Last Days of Hitler" was one of the
first and most important volumes dealing with the Hitler mania, and
his subsequent works. his numerous articles, are part of a vast literature
revealing the background and effects of the holocaust.
There is no doubt about the important need filled by this
work. Now, possessing the documents as they were issued by Hitler
himself, it is simpler to understand the motivations that led to
the war crises.
The author's introduction and his commentary additionally illum-
inate the conditions of that tragic period.
One of the directives by Hitler, dated May 23, 1941. dealt with the
it certainly is meeting with opposition and Middle East and the fuehrer gave these orders:
resentment in many other quarters.
is our natural ally against England
"The Arab Freedom Movement
Last week, seven members of the British in the
Middle East. In this connection the rising in Iraq is particularly
House of Commons issued an appeal to the important. It strengthens the forces hostile to England beyond the
German government to extend the deadline Iraqi frontier. disturbs English communications, and ties up English
for the prosecution of the Nazi war criminals. troops and shipping at the expense of other theaters of war.
"I have therefore decided to hasten developments in the Middle
They pointed out that if the statute of limi-
tations were to be enforced there would arise East by supporting Iraq."
This order continues with further instructions at much greater
"a situation which must be repugnant to the
seared conscience of the world that lived length.
In another order, dated June 11, 1941, there is further refer-
through a period of the most atrocious crimes
ence to the Middle East. On the question of "exploitation of the
of man against man."
Arab Freedom Movement," Hitler's order stated: "The situation
Even more interesting was the approval
of the English in the Middle East will be rendered more precarious,
by the French National Assembly, by unani-
in the event of major German operations, it more British forces
mous action. of a law holding that war crimes
are tied down at the right moment by civil commotion or revolt"
against humanity are not subject to any time
Other directions for operations in the Middle East were issued
limit for prosecution in France.
Dec. 28, 1942.
This is the step that must be taken
Trevor-Roper points out that "Hitler envisaged the possibility of
wherever a Nazi might raise his head. The making war on the West as early as 1938; and in his last months, look-
crime must continually be exposed to light, ing back on his ultimate failure, he would regret that he had not
else all the martyrdom at the hands of the launched it then."
and
Nazis will vanish from memory.
The noted historian reviews Hitler's war plans, his methods
*
*
strategic orders. He explains that "Hitler's directives . . . provide an
There is no doubt, as a New York Times outline documentary history of Hitler's war, the war as he conceived
it and as he controlled it; for even at the end, even when the initiative
correspondent stated in a report to his paper had
passed to the Allies, it was still Hitler who controlled the strategy
on what he called "a German dilemma," that
"the issue touches on the moral foundations of disaster."
"Historians of the war," Trevor-Roper states, "can add a mass
of the new German state founded in 1949
ofdetail to this outline. They have the captured records, the
in repudiation of Hitlerian methods."
reconstructed war-diary, the recollections of the survivors. But
The issue that has arisen as a result of the
they can never dispense with these central documents which show,
new German tactics to end the prosecutions
in crude but emphatic form, the war which Hitler envisaged, which
he launched, and which he directed, in all its stages, past the
is a real challenge to the sincerity of West
intoxicating vision of universal victory to universal defeat."
Germany's rulers. Either the Nazi ideal is to
be totally obliterated, or guilt will be posed
Trevor-Roper shows how during the last 18 months of the war
with those who publicly denounce Hitlerism Hitler had become desperate, with the old assurance gone, "turning
desperately from one theater to another, uncertain where his over-
but whose actions may condone Nazism.
Germany is, indeed, being put to the test. stretched front will break, where the Russians, whom he had so often
The Bonn government is in position, how- defeated, will counter-attack, where the Western allies, whom he had
triumphantly driven out of Europe, will return, where the `bandits'-
ever, to exonerate itself by making it known so
only
i.e. the resistance-forces of occupied Europe—will strike. The
that no criminal ever will be shielded so unity
of these later orders is the unity imposed by general fear."
that the memory of the holocaust should
Trevor-Roper has added most valuable material to the history of
linger in humanity's determined will that the Nazi era and his "Blitzkrieg to Defeat" must rank among the very
again
be
Nazi
crimes
should
never
the
valuable works about the holocaust and its fuehrer.
.
repeated.