•

4 Notorious Jew-Baiters: Their Memories Plague Libertarians

again hailed as a great poet, and
a new volume, "Ezra Pound—Per-
Four notorious b i g o ts, Jew- spectives," edited by Noel Stock.
baiters whose records are tainted published by Regnery, could well

By PHILIP SLOMOVITZ

(Copyright. 1966. JTA, Inc.)

with marks of hatred, with poison-
ous aims to malign and to harm
the Jewish people, have just
emerged into the limelight again.
Three of them are still alive,
and their friends and admirers
(sic) are glorifying them as if they
were saints.
A fourth is dead, but his com-
patriots speak of him as if he
were a world hero.
In the records of the libertarians,
all of them were deeply involved
in spreading hatreds. They are all
anathema in the chronicle of 'hu-
manitarianism.
Simon Petlura, Haj Amin el-Hus-
seini, the Rev. Father Charles E.
Coughlin and Ezra Pound just fig-
ured prominently in the news. All
of them possess a record of in-
humanity of man to man that will
keep their names among the ty
rannous and the inciters to hatred.
Ezra Pound is back in the news,

be interpreted as a glorification.
Indeed, he is accepted as the great
poet. Few passages in this book,
by several of the notables, whose
contributions appear in this vol-
ume, refer to his anti-Semitism.
But he was a fascist propagandist.
He was a defender of Nazism. He
was captured by American forces
near Genoa, Italy, in May of 1945.
On July 26, 1943, he was indicted
by a Federal Grand Jury in Wash-
ington for treason.
He was known as the "American
Haw-Haw" because of his broad-
casts of seditious utterances over
Radio Rome. In 1946 he was
brought to the United States for
trial, but was adjudged insane and
therefore escaped , facing a court
of honor and justice.
In "Ezra Pound Perspectives,
under date of Nov. 21, 1932, Ernest
Hemingway is quoted: "The best
of Pound's writing—it is in the

SIMON PETLURA

CHARLES COUGHLIN

Skeletonized Austrian Jewry
Amid Anti-Semitic Terror

By SHIN FEY SAMAKH
(A Seven Arts Syndicate Feature)
Once proud Austrian Jewry, whence came many of the great
Jewish scientists and scholars, Jewish leaders and dignitaries, is a
skeleton of its old self. It is a community that still lives in the shadows
of Hitlerism, reminiscent of the years when the Nazi salute was the
order of the day, when the swastika predominated, when Adolf Hitler
received a warmer welcome in Vienna than he did in Munich.
The official organ of the Vienna Israelitische Kultusgemeinde
offers us some very depressing figures of the status of the Jewish
community today.
In a series of statistics, outlining the Jewish . population of Austria
at the end of 1965, by ages, the following figures were made obtainable:

282 15-18 years
366
218 11-14 years
89 6-10 years
5 -years
966 41-50 years
1,152 51-60 years .. 1,686
250 22-40 years
19-21 years
1,369 81-90 years
414 Over 90 years
38
2,100 71-80 years
61-70 years
8,930
Total
But, 1,500 persons, are, for various reasons, not registered at the Israelitische
Kuftusgemeinde in Vienna. Therefore, it is considered that the Jewish popul-
ation of Vienna consisted of at least 10,500 persons. In the last year the popu-
lation increased by 400 (immigration-355, conversion and re-conversion-20:
births-25) but at the same time the population decreased by 443 persons
(emigration-135; conversion 4,343. deaths-265). Which means that the Jewish
•
population in 1965 decreased by 43 persons.

Before turning to the security—and social—problems of Austrian
Jewry, it is worth considering the status of the Israelitische Kultus-
gemeinde. Its budget for 1965 was 16,500,000 Austrian shillings —
approximately $630,000.
In 1966, the Kultusgemeinde will are reaching for power," charging
spend approximately 5,811,000 for those who opposed anti-Semitism
its hospitals and homes for the that "thanks to your links with in-
aged; for social welfare, 1,832,000 ternational Jewry . . . you have
shillings, an amount of 1,374,000 secured your capital as labor lead-
for religious affairs which will in- ers so that your livelihood in exile
clude religious education; an addi- will be assured . . . " Such were
tional 768,000 for cultural and edu- threats that have not materialized
cational undertakings, and 110,000 but nevertheless indicate that there
to fight anti-Semitism and neo- is a growing anti-Semitism in the
Nazism.
land of song and music that had
These are revealing facts. That turned to hate and greed among
care for the aged and the sick a large portion of the population.
should require more than half the
The decline of Austrian Jewry
gemeinde's budget is an indica- will
be better understood by
tion of the decline of Austrian Jew- viewing comparative figures. In
ry. It shows that the aged pre- 1924 Austria's Jewish population
dominate, and as the upper figures numbered 350,000, with 300,000
show, the youth are in the smallest living
in Vienna alone. There
minority.
was a decline to a pre-war fig-
That accounts for the small allo- ure of 178,364—most of them in
cations for educational efforts. In Vienna. Then came the whole-
this context, there is a lesser need sale slaughter by the Nazis.
to finance religious services.
1953 there were 13,000 Jews
Meanwhile, the fact that a sum, in In
Vienna.
Now it is 10,500—and
no matter how small, has been most of them
are old people. Thus
set aside to fight anti-Semitism, to a great community
declined.
be on guard against the re-emerg- It is a fulfillment of has
a prophecy
ing Nazi spirit, is proof of an un- made more than 40 years
ago, by
ending danger that may contri- Hugo Bettauer, in his book
"City
bide towards a continuing disin-
Without Jews." He wrote about
tegration of Austrian Jewry.
At recent trials of anti-Semites, Vienna. He was murdered by anti-
Semites for exposing the rising
there were anti-Jewish demonstra trend
of hatred.
tion in courtrooms in Vienna. They
Austrian
Jewry had been a part-
were disturbing factors in a dis-
turbing area, pointing to an in- ly assimilating Jewry. As a re-
sult of the 1869 law of Austria-
crease of tensions.
During the last election in Aus- Hungary which permitted civil
tria, the anti-Semites were among marriages and voluntary changes
the most voluble campaigners. One of religions, 28,777 Jews abandon-
of the candidates, the former So- ed Judaism in a 60-year period that
cialist Interior Minister Franz followed the promulgation of that
Olah, who had been expelled from "religious freedom" law. In the
his party, ran on a Progressive same period there were 6,310 con-
Democratic ticket of his own, versions to Judaism, mostly by
charged his former associates with women who married Jews.
treason and murder and a variety
In general, there was a trend
of crimes and was greeted with toward assimilation. That did not
howls of approval from anti-Se- deter Nazi terrorism. Now Jews
live again under the increasing
mitic audiences.
Then there were many anti-Se- threats of anti-Semitism. In Aus-
mitic pamphlets, accusations that tria lives not only a skeletonized
"the Jews in the Socialist party but a tragically afflicted Jewry.

64 Friday, September 16, 1966

—

EZRA POUND

THE GRAND MUFTI

Cantos—will last as long as there
is any literature." As long as there
is national honor, will Ezra Pound's
name also be the anathema he had
earned for himself by propagating
the views of brutality-minded ty-
rants?
Distantly-related, through his
mother, to Henry Wadsworth Long-
fellow, Pound distinguished him-
self early in life. But later, sport-
ing a red beard, he became a
protagonist of haters of men. When
he left this country for London
at the age of 22, he had said:
"For 22 years I had struggled
against the appalling waste of op-
portunity in America's mental af-
fairs." Some years later he was
found mentally deranged.
Pound now lives with his daugh-
ter in Merano, Italy. "Ezra Pound
Perspectives" was published to
honor him on his 80th birthday.
It was only 20 years ago that he
preached hate against "Niggers"
and "Yids" and now he is being
honored again. After being spared
court action when he was declared
insane he won the Bollingen Prize
for Poetry. This has been called
"treason's strange fruit."
Yet, this traitor to America, this
vile anti-Semite, had and has his
defenders. For example, on May
5, 1958, a lady who signed herself
Gladys Hynes, wrote as follows to
the London Observer: "May I pro-
test against the assertion in your
Profile of Ezra Pound that he is
`a crude anti-Semite?' Ezra Pound
is not, and never has been, an
anti-Semite. He hates usury, and
the Jewish people have been, and
still are, much concerned with the
manipulating of money. This is
probably a result of their historic
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS position. Ezra Pound hates usury,

not Jews; he has always had Jews
among his personal friends. That
Ezra Pound has' been intemperate
in the expression of his faith and
feeling none of those who love
and admire him can deny; but is it
possible to imagine a poet without
passion? Passion can quicken and
energize, but it can and does dis-
tort."
And in the name of genius there
is all-too-often distortion of hu-
manitarian ideas. Through Pound
there is distortion, although the
record has him down clearly as
the bigot, the hater of Jews, Ne-
groes—his owu country.
* * *
One of the four haters of Jews
whose name has cropped up anew
in the news is dead. The name
of Simon Petlura has been foisted
anew by his compatriots as if he
were a hero.
Simon Petlura was president of
the short-lived Ukrainian republic.
He was the anti-Bolshevik general
who, according to documents of
the Juedische Historical Archives
in Berlin, personally instigated -
massacres of thousands of Jews
in Poland and the Ukraine and
supported the activities of the po-
gromists. As an act of vengeance -
for his crimes, he was shot by a
young Jewish watchmaker, Samuel
Schwartzbard, in Paris, May 26,
1926. The French court *quitted
Schwartzbard on the basis of facts
presented about Petlura's
atrocities.
Petlura was born in Poltava, the
Ukraine, in 1880. He was exiled to
Galicia in 1907. He returned to
Moscow after World War I, began
reorganizing the Ukrainian army
in 1917 and ousted the Germans
from the Ukraine. He was associ-•
ated with another anti-Semite,
General Denikiii, and with the anti-
Semitic General Wrangel. Their
pogroms had been likened to those
of Chmielnicki. For a time he was
associated with Joseph Pilsudski
in Poland. He fled to Paris as a
political refugee, and he paid the
debt for his crimes at the hands
of Schwartzbard for the 493 pog-
groms, which commenced in 1919
in Zhitomir, claiming the lives
of 16,706 martyred Jews. The
worst of the pogroms was in Pros-

kurov where 1,500 Jews perished.
Now he is being hailed as a
great Ukrainian hero, and a bulle-
tin of the "Anti-Bolshevik Bloc of
Nations," ABN Correspondence,
published in Munich, has been dedi-
cated to him. There is no mention
in that bulletin of his anti-Semitic
acts, but, curiously enough, the'
bulletin states that he was "mur-
dered by Moscow." That's how
historical facts are being distorted.
* * *
Then there is the revival of in-
terest in Father Charles E. Cough-
lin of Royal Oak, whose frightful
role of reprinting the Protocols of
the Elders' of Zion as if they were
facts placed him among the most
nortorious Jew-baiters of our time.
On the occasion of Coughlin's
retirement from active ministry,
his church issued a most im-
pressive brochure, hailing his spir-
itual leadership, acclaiming him
as a socially conscious leader. His
sins were overlooked. Cardinal
Cushing joined in honoring him,
and his sins against the Jewish
people were ignored.
The Royal Oak priest said he
was now "less impetuous." But
he has failed to apologize for the
harm he had done to Jewry dur-
ing the tragic years 'when Hitler
already was in the act of exter-
minating our people.
Coughlin had made Jewish
friends. He bought an Israel Bond
from one of them. He had oppor-
tunities to wipe out his inequities.
He hasn't done it. His name re-
mains among the guilty who con-
tributed towards the Nazi crusade
and the genocide of the 1930s.

One other hater of Jews has just
been in the limelight. Haj Amin
el-Husseini was, mentioned in re-
ports from Amman during Shu-
kairy's plot to organize an army
to fight Israel—and the Sews. The
fact 'that he was quoted in Am-
man was a bad omen.
The former Mufti of . Jerusalem
has such a bad record as a war
criminal that to enumerate his
crimes would take a full issue
of the largest New Year issue Of
any Jewish publication. Suffice it
to recall that he collaborated with
Hitler, in Germany, in plans to
exterminate the Jews; that he
worked with whatever force had
emerged to harm Jewry; that he
was instrumental in fomenting
strife in Palestine and in encour-
aging the wholesale massacre of
defenseless Jewish theological stu-
dents in Hebron in 1929.
The Mufti owed his poWer to
the first British High Commis-
sioner for Palestine, Herbert Sam-
uel, who tolerated him. But he was
ingrate, ruthless, brutal — he re-
mains one of Israel's and Jewry's
chief enemies.
Thus, anti-Semites often — too
often—emerge on the scene to re-
iterate the libels, and they would
re-enact the crimes of genocide
if permitted. They must not Iv-
forgotten: Remember Amalekt

Modern Ashdod Port Expanded

aks

s..

With the aid of Israel Bonds, Ashdod has become the most mod-
ern port with the most up-to-date equipment in the Middle East.
Shown above are new giant cranes which are used for loading and
unloading ships. Ashdod is expected to handle some 1,000,000 tons of
cargo during its first full year of operation, and is slated for an even-
tual annual capacity of 4,000,000 tons. Israel Bond funds have also
helped finance the development of the port at Eilat.

