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 48235 Mich.,
VE 8-9364. Subscription $6 a year. Foreign $7.
Second Class Postage Paid at Detroit, Michigan
CARMI M. SLOMOVITZ
PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
Business Manager
Editor and Publisher
SIDNEY SHMARAK
Advertising Manager
CHARLOTTE KYAMS
City Editor
Sabbath Scriptural Selections
This Sabbath, the first day of Nisan, 5725, the following scriptural selections
will be read in our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portion: Levit. 12:1-13:59; Exod. 12:1-20; Num. 28:9-15; prophetical
portion: Ezekiel 45:16-46:18.
Licht benshen, Friday, April 2, 6:41 p.m.
Page 4
VOL. XLVII, No. 6
April 2, 1965
TheCampaign'sVital CornmunityMessage
Because the needs are so very great, be- the overseas relief and rehabilitation causes
cause funds are so vitally needed for aid to and of assuring sustenance for Detroit's major
the homeless, for assistance to home-builders, educational, health, social service and aid-to-
for the continuation of our most necessary the-aged programs.
cultural programs, a campaign to secure the Israel remains the major beneficiary in
necessary means to assure the functions of our campaign. The tens of thousands of our
major Jewish causes must be conducted on a kinsmen who are yet to be rescued from lands
large scale and must have an assurance of of oppression, the assistance that must be
success even before the drive's formal open- given to newcomers in Israel and to the needy
ing. That is why the preparatory efforts for aged who are helped there by JDC's Malben
the Allied Jewish Campaign were carried on hospitals, the relief that has to be provided
by volunteer solicitors for a number of weeks for refugees who are domiciled in France and
before the scheduled opening of the drive, set in other countries — these are obligations
for next Tuesday evening. that must not be shirked. Let it be remem-
bered that Israel carries her own burdens
It is encouraging to know that more than for self defense, and what we do here is to
55 per cent of the campaign goal has been give assistance to the expatriated needy.
attained. This provides a proper commence-
More than 50 causes are helped by us
ment for a great community effort.
through the Allied Jewish Campaign. The
But nearly $2,000,000 more is to be ob- obligations are known and should be fully
tained before the final date set for the end understood. The large donors who have given
of the drive in mid-May. To secure this more than half of the necessary amount have
amount, thousands of contributors must be paved the way for what we hope will be a
reached, and hundreds of workers should be successful drive. Now it is urgent that the
enrolled to attain the goal. masses of our people, those who give in more
The setting of a $5,000,000 minimum goal modest sums than those who have shared in
has been decided on after due deliberation pre-campaign activities, should do their full
in consideration of the community's ability to share.
The opening of the drive on Tuesday her-
secure the necessary sum and also upon
analysis of the basic needs to which our com- alds the efforts in that direction. May they
munity must be committed in sharing with be fruitful and may they sustain the honor
other communities the duties of supporting of our community.
Warsaw Ghetto: Symbol of Resistance
Warsaw was among the first communities dying like animals, without culture or heri-
that were marked for destruction by Hitler.
What a remarkable revelation — that
Yet, it took the highly trained German forces
42 days to put an end to all resistance in three men who had been professors on the
Warsaw, and when the Germans undertook Warsaw University medical faculty — Drs.
to reduce the ghetto to rubble it required Ludwig Hirszfeld, Zweibaum and Zentner-
a struggle that amazed the Germans. Who szwer — taught medicine in the underground
would have believed that Jews, who were schools! And Prof. Hirszfeld did bacteriolog-
viewed as incapable of taking up arms in ical research work amidst the ghetto squalor!
These are noteworthy facts to take into
their own defense, would display courage and
consideration when any one dares speak in
heroism that baffled even the Nazis.
As we prepare once again to mark the terms of cowardice or accuses Jews of having
anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, failed to resist the Nazis.
The great poet, Zalman Shneour, shortly
it is well that we should take into considera-
tion the many elements of strength which after the Warsaw Ghetto revolt, wrote a
emerged from the community that was poetic warning to the Germans:
doomed to destruction but whose inhabitants You have murdered us in millions.
were determined that they were not to die Our people now are few.
But it is not all finished.
as cowards and as enslaved.
There is vengeance to come for you.
An interesting new account of the Warsaw tage."
Those left in the cellars and forests
Ghetto uprising has just been given by Dr. Will come singing out,
Anna Krakowski, who teaches French at And they will hang you on your own gibbets,
Yeshiva University's Stern College for And their singing will drown your shout.
Women. She states in her book, "Comme des No eye shall pity you,
Chiens Abandones," which has just been Who shed so much blood.
published in France and which will appear You would have slain all the rest of us,
only you could.
under the translated title "Like Abandoned If
have you done with your heritage,
Dogs" in an English translation in this What
With your great past,
country, that in the Warsaw Ghetto were pro- Sons of Beethoven and Goethe?
duced scientific, literary and art works as They would have shuddered at what you did,
the last link with the world.
Would have turned away from you, aghast.
*
*
*
What would Kant and Helmholtz have said?
This "counterweapon to Nazi brutality," • They would have shrunk back.
Dr. Krakowski points out, was part of the You flung away their treasures of the spirit,
sack.
ghetto's cultural life. And the more interest- And there is left only an empty
you put in your sack
ing factor about this cultural aspect is that it Whatever
Of the wealth you stole,
made culture a part of self-defense, that the Will drop out through each slash in it,
last fighters for freedom were determined not That we make, hole after hole,
to yield their spiritual values to the Nazis.
No coal for the murderers,
Five years of research, based on original No iron for them to have
documents of the Warsaw archives that were No hammer to make weapons with,
saved for posterity by burial before the last And chains to enslave.
As we plan to mark the anniversary of
battle, convinced Dr. Krakowski that, with-
out the knowledge of the Germans, the Jews • the Warsaw Ghetto uprising — the Jews of
in the ghetto operated a printing press, con- Flint tonight, Detroit Jewry on April 11 —
ducted research and writing, produced let us keep in view the courage which dis-
painters and artists. tinguished the heroes of the ghetto. Let us
The Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto, the not forget that there was resistance — and
Yeshiva University professor states, "con- where there can be spiritual resistance, and
ducted their research, wrote their poetry and adherence to the cultural values which en-
histories and taught their young people in hance our heritage, the resistance is even
schools and colleges to keep themselves from stronger and more lasting.
A Short History of Germany
Vogt's 'Burden of Guilt' Insists
Germans Should Know the Truth
Hannah Vogt was deeply moved by the comments by young Ger-
mans about the events that brought shame to Germany. She proceeded
to write a history of her country which has been made available in an
English translation by Herbert Strauss.
Under the title "The Burden of Guilt—A Short History of Ger-
many, 1914-1945," published by Oxford University Press, (417 Fifth,
NY16), Miss Vogt reviews the events in Germany at the time of World
War I, analyzes conditions that preceded the Second World War and
exposes the Nazi terror. In her preface she makes the bold statement
"To sit in judgment on history of one's own nation is neither
dishonorable nor injurious to national dignity. We cannot avoid the
responsibility for examining ourselves by pointing out that other
people have reason to do likewise. The responsibility for dropping
the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima has been discussed critically
before the American public often enough and nobody criticized the
disaStrous English invasion of Suez more strongly than the leader
of Her Majesty's Opposition, Hugh Gaitskell. It is good that demo-
cratic states do scrutinize their own policies."
While this stretches the point a bit too far, since the Nazi holocaust
is not comparable to any other event in history, Miss Vogt does make a
serious effort to condemn the occurrences in her own country.
In an introduction to her book, Gordon A. Craig, professor of his-
tory at Stanford University, poses the question of how well German
schools are presenting a fair picture of the "fearful things the Ger-
mans have inflicted on their neighbors." He praises the Vogt book as
representative of the new type of German textbook. Having been hi-
spired by the swastika-smearing campaign in Germany in 1959, the Vogt
history, Prof. Craig states, had an immediate success and sold 400,000
copies.
Prof. Craig does, however, call attention to Miss Vogt's having
failed to be critical of some of Hitler's predecessors, "notably
Stresemann and Bruening." But he commends the manner in which
Miss Vogt exposes the myths about Hitler's sincerity "and the
thesis that Germany would really have won the Second World War
if only this or that had, or had not, intervened."
*
*
*
Miss Vogt goes to some length to show how many Germans had
resisted Hitlerism. She appeals in behalf of the victims of the unspeak-
able Nazi terrors. She declares: "We owe it to ourselves to examine our
conscience sincerely and to face the naked truth, instead of minimizing
it or glossing over it." She declares that to be the only way "we can
regain our respect in the world."
"The test," she asserts, "of our change of heart should be not
only the dead but the living. There are 30,000 Jewish fellow-citfzen15
living among us. Many of them returned only recently from emit-
gration, overwhelmed with a desire for their old homeland. It is up
to all of us to make sure that they live among us in peace and with-
out being abused, that their new trust in us, won after much effort,
is not destroyed by desecrated cemeteries, gutter slogans, or hate
songs. Those who will never learn must not be allowed to take
refuge in the freedom of opinion. A higher value is at stake here,
the honor of the dead, and respect for the living. But it is not UP
to the public prosecutor to imbue our lives with new and more
humane principles. This is everybody's business. It concerns us slit
It will determine our future."
*
*
*
The Christian German woman's voice on "The Burden of Guilt*
also asserts in this timely work:
"Covering up or minimizing crimes will suggest that we secretly
approve of them. Who will believe that we want to respect all that Is
human if we treat the death of nearly six million Jews as 'a small
error' to be forgotten after a few years?"
"If we are really serious about the new respect for life," she
states, "it must also extend to the victims of the unspeakable policy
of extermination."
The reproaches may appear in some instances to be mild, but the
book's effort is earnest, and if the textbook will be used widely it Is
certain to fill the need that has been advocated by the enemies of
Nazism: that the school children should learn and understand the truth.
Miss Vogt makes that effort with considerable success.