Purely Commentary

King Farouk—the Hitler and Mufti Ally

King Farouk's death serves to recall the Egyptian playboy-ruler's
role as a collaborator with the Nazis.
In November 1948, a sensational document revealed the role of
the Egyptian ruler during the war. A report, signed by a Hitler roving
ambassador, E_ttel, taken from official Nazi _records,
showed that Farouk backed the Axis and provided
the Nazis with information about the Allied armies
in the Western Desert. The revelation was published
by Nation Associates which had sent the information
on to the United Nations in the form of a memoran-
dum entitled "The Record of Collaboration of King
Farouk of Egypt . with the Nazis and Their Ally, the
Mufti."
The reproduced documents showed that Farouk
went so far as to give the Nazi High Command
military information that was designed to destroy
the Allied armies in North Africa. The expose showed
that .on July 28, 1942, two Egyptian military planes
Farouk
were instructed by the highest authorities in Egypt
to fly to Field Marshal Rommel's headquarters with important maps
and plans to be turned over to the German military authorities.
Such was the role of Farouk who was ousted by Naguib, who, in
turn, was demoted by Nasser who has since then retained control
of Egypt.
A prominent Detroit Christian world traveler informed us shortly
after Naguib had taken over that he had interviewed him in Cairo
and that Naguib had hinted to him that he was prepared to make
peace 'with Israel.
The subsequent happenings are too well known to need elaboration.
Nasser, toe, had been mentioned as a possible peace-maker. But it is
equally well known that the present Arab leaders are so fearful of
assassination that even against their better judgment they must spout
hatred for Israel. i
It is equally well known that nearly all the Arab rulers had
collaborated with the Mufti who was at Hitler's side when many of
the plans were being perpetrated for Jewry's extermination.
Such was the background of King Farouk: he was a Hitler-Mufti
collaborator. But unlike Haman of old it was his destiny to die in a
restaurant. The cabaret was this gourmand's more natural seat than
a throne.

Quentin Reynolds: He Warned Against Dangers of Neo-Nazi
Deification of Hitler and He Fought Bigotry in This Country

‘Quentin Reynolds has earned it that his name should be written
indelibly in the record of the libertarians of our time.
.He was among the first to recognize. the Hitler danger, while he
was in Germany in the early days of Nazi rule, and he warned
against the menace. He fought bigots in this country. He was basically
a man of deep. principles,
We recognize his worth not only because
he • supported Israel and Zionism and
important Jewish causes; not only because
he shared with us the labors we exerted
in behalf of Allied Jewish Campaigns in the
early stages of our communal drives here,
but primarily because of his deep under-
standing of human values.
To understand the ideals by which his
actions were motivated, one should read his
autobiographical work the last he pub-
lished—"By Quentin Reynolds." Our review
of the book (Jewish News, Sept. 13, 1963)
contained some of the basic facts about 'his
anti=liazi stand and his dedication to humani-
tarian ideas, and we offer it again:
"By Quentin Reynolds" is a biograph-
ical work and therefore did not need any- Quentin Reynolds
thing other than a byline. This revealing McGraw-Hill Book -ads pub-
lication is packed full of incidents about the eminent author's life, his
experiences that developed in the course of his -reportorial career,
his accounts of world shaking _events and of the Nazi era.
He wrote the story at the suggestion of Dorothy Parker and there
are numerous human interest angles relating to the development of
the self-study., Reynolds quotes Heywood Broun, one of his devoted
friends who appears in this life story several times, who said: "In
the long run, history is compounded of, small things which may seem
trivial at the time." It is applicable to -"By Quentin Reynolds."
For obvious 'reasons, in offering a review for Jewish _readers, it
may be proper to begin the Reynolds story with his epilogue, in
which he declares: "I have made .no judgments in this book except
to condemn Adolf Hitler for making a shambles out of part of the
Twentieth Century."
Reynolds makes a comment -here that deserves special attention,
in view of the fear over the rising neo-Nazism and because' there are
so many who hold the view that Hitler, rated a "genius," may be
deified by generations to come.
Reynolds soon heard Goebbel's harangues, his appeals to the crowd
with anti-Semitic passion and with slogans "Die Juden sind Schuldig !"
H. R. Knickerbocker was with him in Germany during the early
days of Hitler's rise to power. Knickerbocker recommended that
Reynolds read "Mein Kampf" immediately, and he did. Reynolds relates:
" 'No American I know of has taken the trouble to read it
seriously,' Knick said, 'but it's all there: his plan for the conquest of
Europe.' Knick, a red-haired Texan with an impish sense of humor,
also pointed out that Hitler must be one of the world's wealthiest
writers. His book, which he had written in 1924 while being comfortably
detained in prison, had sold more than a million copies in Germany in
1932. 'He's a silly-looking man with that stare and mustache and lock
of .hair and outstretched arm,' Knick went on, "but he doesn't look
silly to the cheering German masses, and he writes and says what
they want to hear'."
'Reynolds also relates the following:
"Sigrid Schultz told me that many wealthy Jews, in spite of the
increasing confiscations of their property, still hoped to buy their
safety 'from the regime, and John Gunther spoke of the Nazi govern-
ment 'that he saw growing in Austria.
"My feeble comment was that I did not understand how any
German, rich or poor, if he had a serviceable mind, could follow so
visionary and contradictory a leader. "You might think of Father
Charles Coughlin,' Knick said. 'He's giving several million American
radio listeners the very same scapegoats that Hitler is presenting so
effectively: the Jews, the bankers, the Communists, and the political
kaders he calls traitors.'
"The parallel had not occurred to me, but it was pointed up when

A Playboy King and His Evil
Pals
. . Recollections of
Distinguished Libertarian.

By Philip Sherman's Study

SIOMOVitZ

Knick went on to tell me that the. Voelkischer Beobachter, the voice of
the Nazi party, printed Coughlin's radio talks in full and hailed him
in its editorial columns."
Then Reynolds met "my first Nazi official, the Harvard-educated
piano player, Putzi Hafstaengel, known to all the correspondents as
Putzi." Reynolds comments: "You had to know Putzi to really dislike
him." Putzi later told him there was no Jewish problem in the
Third Reich, that there only were a few objectionable individuals.
Reynolds describes an incident when Putzi serenaded his mother
who was visiting him in Berlin, "with a foul song in which the Third
Reich's enemies were singled out as Jews, Catholics and Negroes."
Reynolds writes that he had an impulse to slug him and throw him
out. As he was leaving, Reynolds said to him, "Never come to my
home again, you louse." Then Reynolds recalls:
"Not for some years later did I have a chance to repay Putzi
for his ,malice. One day in 1942, when I was in New York, I received
a letter from him. Two years earlier he had fallen in disfavor with
Goebbels, and even his long intimacy with Hitler was not enough
to save him. Fleeing to Spain, he had made his way to Canada,
where he was now interned as a prisoner of war.
"His letter, which began 'My dear Quent,' suggested that I
knew influential men in the government and suggested that I prevail
upon them to get him released so that he could come to the United
States and make himself useful in the American war effort. I
thought about it. Putzi, I had known only as a dedicated Nazi.
Now apparently he wanted to be a turncoat. For some reason a line
of Goethe came to me: `Menschlich ist est bloss zu strafen, aber
Goettlich zu verzeihen.' (It is manlike to punish, but Godlike to for-
give). I thought this noble sentiment over, rejected it, and tore
Putzi's letter in small pieces.
"4pparently he wrote a good many more letters of the same
type and some credulous soul eventually went to bat for him. After
the war ended I learned that Putzi had been sent secretly to Wash-
ington to advise the government on Germany. It was a depressing
thought that he had been able to fool high-ranking defense officials
into believing • that his advice on anything but Liszt, 19th century
paintings or the wines of the Rhineland would be worth considering.
"As for me, in 1933, at a- time when I. needed it, I got an educa-
tion from Putii and his colleagues.
"Late in the year Grantland Rice finally made good his threat
to quit Collier's, and Charley Colebaugh quite honestly and amicably
hired me away from INS as his. replacement. When I took the boat
home, thanks to what I had seen and learned in- the Third Reich,
Hitler was no longer just a story. He was a threat."
Scores of incidents attest to Reynolds' exciting experiences, as a
war correspondent, in Russia, among the notables in this country.
He relates an occurrence during the war when Sam Schulman, of
Hollywood fame, was assisting a Nazi prisoner and put a lit cigarette
between his lips. When he asked for the prisoner's religion, so that if
he died he should get a burial in- his church, the pilot rasped: "I am
a National Socialist, Heil Hitler ! You God damn Jew !" Schulman
told him to take it easy, to relax, that he'd be back later if he needed
anything. Reynolds then said to him: "You're one lousy Jew, Sammy
boy," and Schulman replied: "What the hell, the guy is hurt, isn't he?"
In 1945, George Backer interested Reynolds in the United Jewish
Appeal and he told many tragic details of his work in Switzerland
where Backer had been spiriting Jews put of Germany for settlement
in Palestine. "As I listened to Backer's stories," Reynolds . states, I
wondered why Roosevelt and Churchill were not warning Hitler that
the Allies would eventually exact retribution for his atrocities."
Backer told him "that neither of the Allied leaders really believed,
yet, the extent of the Nazi bestiality."
Reynolds commenced his life's story by recalling his parents'
friendly relations with Jews in Brooklyn. He' quotes Jewish phrases to
indicate the associations of his youth from whom he had learned them.
One of the most interesting chapters in the book gives a full
account of his libel suit against Westbrook • Pegler who .abused and
maligned him. He was defended by Louis Nizer. The report of that
trial is thorough and exciting. Reynolds won a high momentary verdict
in this story as one of the great trial lawyeit of our time.
"By Quentin Reynolds" is a noteworthy historic document. It
throws much light on the major events of our time.

,

About U.S. Jewry
Now in Paperback

An important sociological study
that aroused much interest when
it first appeared
as a Wayne State
1 University Press
hard-cover in
1960, has been is-
'sued by WSU
Press as a paper-
back.
"The Jew With-
in American So-
ciety" by C. Be-
zalel
Sherman,
"a study in eth-
Sherman n i c individual-
ity," was published with the fi-
nancial assistance of the Morris
and Emma Schaver Publication
Fund for Jewish Studies.
Richly annotated, containing 14
tabulated sets of figures on ques-
tions relating to fertility, distrib-
ution of students, migration, edu-
cational achievements, and other
matters, Sherman's study probes
into many issues. He outlines the
development of the American
Jewish community, economic mo-
bility, the role of immigrants,
Jewish life in America.
Sherman points out that "col-
lectively, American Jews regard
themselves as first of all a re-
ligious community."
At the same time he indicates
that "the basis of secularist ideo-
logies, even in their outspokenly
atheistic aspects, was of course
not the negation of religion but ra-
ther the recognition of dynamic
Jewish culture as the most charac-
teristic expression of Jewish peo-
plehood."
"It is only as a community that
the Jews can best and most ef-
fectively inject their tone into the
American symphony — and thus
help bridge the chasm," Sherman
states. Pointing out that Jews "ex-
ist as a separate ethnic group and
will remain so in the foreseeable
future," he adds that if Jews
"were to retain their ethnic iden-
tity solely because the majority
refuses to absorb them, then their
existence would be marked by all
the frustrations and bitterness that
accompany externally imposed
separateness, and their spirit
would bear the imprint of the en-
tire misfortune of marginality. If,
on the other hand, their group
identity is founded on their will
to live and to enrich America with
whatever creative originality they
possess—then they will be able
to make of their exceptional status
a joy to themselves and a bless-
ing for the United States."

Ben Shahn's Hagadah, Dr. Roth's Translation,
Make New Work Outstanding Collectors' Gem

Two men who are outstanding in
their fields — Ben Shahn the
artist and Cecil Roth the historian
combined
their skills a n d
knowledge to
produce an out-
standing w o r k,
"The Hagadah
for Passover," a
most impressive
and very - artistic
work printed by
Trianon Press in
Paris and issued
in this country
by Little, Brown
and Co. (34 Bea-
con, Boston, 6).
The drawings,
the color illustra-
tions, the letter-
ing, are the su- Dr. Roth
perb works of Ben Shahn whose
nostalgic exPlanatory note points
out that:
"The making of this book .. .
reflects my memories of the
Passover in my father's house.
It reflects my early impressions
and feelings; • the images that
were always invoked in my
fancy by the majestic and
meaningful ritual. If the work is
less than accurate from the

C purely pedantic point of view,
let us say that it more than
compensates for such lapses by
being full of the glory and the
mystery that form the essential
meaning of the Passover, that
kind of meaning which is so woe-
fully lacking in the customary
Hagadahs."
Thus, "for perfectionists and
scholars, there has been added a
section in letterpress," and Ben
Shahn expresses appreciation for
having used in this Hagadah re-
productions of early manuscript
pages now owned by the Jewish
Museum of New York.
The reader is treated to an au-
thoritative evaluation of the Ben
Shan-Cecil Roth work in a preface
by Stephen S. Kayser, who former-
ly was the curator of the Jewish
Museum. This essay is a tribute to
Shahn's works and contains basic
facts regarding the artist's activi-
ties and his early efforts, dating
back 30 years, to produce the
principal Hagadah plates.
While this Hagadah is not a
complete text of the Hagadah
itself but contains basic portions,
its significance lies in its excel-
lent translation by Dr. Roth and
the explanatory notes by the
eminent English-Jewish histor y

ian. Dr. Roth speaks of this
Hagadah as being "devoted to a
personal and visual interpreta-
tion of an ancient ritual by a
most distinguished contemporary
artist" and as reflecting "the
basic timelessness of the Hag*.
dah." The seder ritual, its var-
ious steps; the essential portion
of the service, the history of the
Hagadah and the Passover
seder, are reviewed by Dr. Roth
who shows how artists turned
to the theme.
In Dr. Roth's texts the reader
will find proper guidance relative
to the' customs of singing certain
hymns; To- the "Next Year in
Jerusalem" ("LeShanah H a b a
b'Yerushalayim") t r a d i t i o n al
phrase he' adds the word used In
Israel — lia'bnuyah — the Rebuilt.
The excellence of the typo-
graphy of this Hagadah makes
it stand out , as a work of' the
printer's . art, and the splendid
texts, the annotations, the great
art work of Ben Shahn, makes
this a uniquely artistic work and
a gem for collectors of Passover
Hagadah.

THE DETROIT JEWISH liEVIIS

2—Friday, March 26, 1965

