South African
Security Chief
Apologizes for
Slur to Jewry

JOHANNESBURG (JTA)—The chief of South Africa's Security
Police, Maj. Gen. H. J. van den Bergh, apologized for remarks he
made about Jews and Communism at a symposium held last week
by the Council to Combat Communism. In his address at the
symposium, which was criticized by Jewish leaders here, Gen. van
den Bergh said that he was often asked why so many of "our
Jewish friends" were listed as Communists and why so many
had been arrested for sabotage. He said the reason why Jews
"tend to be involved" was because Communism was "an extreme
form" of capitalism.
Maurice Porter, chairman of the South African Jewish Board
of Deputies, criticized the Security Chief's remarks and said they
evoked "indignation and resentment" in the Jewish community. E. J.

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Horwitz, chairman of the South African Zionist Federation, said
the remarks were "deplorable and offensive, and would be resented
by all right-thinking people." Also criticizing Gen. van den Bergh's
statement, the major Jewish newspapers here called on the security
chief to withdraw his remarks.
In his statement, Gen. van den Bergh said: "If I gave the
impression in my speech that Jews, to the exclusion of other races,
became Communists and engaged in sabotage—which is not the case
—it is a wrong impression, and I am sorry that this interpretation
was made. I make no such allegation against the Jewish community,
and I would like to acknowledge with thanks and appreciation the
particular help . . . which I received from Jews in my extremely
difficult task in the fight against Communism and sabotage."

NATIONAL
NEWSPAPElt
WEEK
OCT. 9.15, 1966

A Weekly Review

Editorials
Page 4

of Jewish Events

ttIA

Michigan's Only English-Jewish Newspaper — Incorporating The Detroit Jewish Chronicle

Vol. L, No. 8

October 14, 1966

17100 W. 7 Mile Rd.—Detroit 48235—VE 8-9364

$6.00 Per Year; This Issue 20c

Mounting Syrian Attacks on Israel
Increase Dangers and War Threats

Mass Murderers Being Retried •
One Nazi Acquitted, One Suicide

9

VIENNA (JTA)—Two brothers, Poles, who are former members
of the Nazi SS, Johann and Wilhelm Mauer, pleaded not guilty to
charges of taking part in the wartime shooting of 12,000 Polish Jews.
They had been acquitted by a Salzburg court last February on the
same charges, but the Austrian Supreme Court ordered a new trial
because of errors by the Salzburg jury. Johann Mauer testified that
it was true that they had acted as guards during the executions of
the victims in the Stanislav Ghetto, "but we never took part in any
shooting."
In the original indictment, the Polish-born brothers, who voluntarily
joined Hiter's SS Elite Guard, were charged with participating in
the "Bloody Sunday" massacre of Oct. 12, 1941, when about 20,000
Polish Jews were driven to the Stanislav cemetery, and 12,000 of
them were shot.
A Salzburg jury acquitted the two Nazis last February, on the
ground that they had acted under "compulsory orders." The Salsburg
Senate, however, immediately suspended the verdict, and the Austrian
High Court later ordered a new trial. The new trial of the Mauer
brothers follows only a few days after the sensational acquittal here
of Franz Novak, a former aide of Nazi mass murderer Adolf Eichmann.
That acquittal has resulted in protests from various parts of the
world as well as a sit-down protest demonstration by Austrian students
in downtown Vienna.

A Vienna jury handed down a verdict Oct. 6 which, in effect,
(Continued on Page 37)

BULLETIN

Announcement by the "worried" King Hussein of Jordan that if there
is active fighting between Israel and Syria he will be compelled to open a
second front against Israel further aggravated the war-threatening Middle
East situation. Expresing anxiety in an interview in Amman, Hussein ex-
pressed the hope that "the world will act to prevent an explosion." An ex-
change of gunshots between Israelis and Jordanians on Wednesday, result-
ing in the wounding of an Israeli soldier, increased anxieties. The Israel
delegation to the UN on Wednesday made an urgent demand for Security
Council action to avert full-scale military operations.

(Direct JTA Teletype Wires to The Jewish News)

JERUSALEM--Premier Levi Eshkol made it clear Tuesday that, while Israel

would not remain passive over Syrian border incursions, the place, time and form of
Israel response would be decided by Israel.
In his first public address since an El Fatah group ambushed an Israeli border
patrol whose jeep detonated a mine Saturday night, killing four policemen and wound-
ing two others, the premier told a Paratroopers Day celebration that acts of sabotage
and murder would be reacted to — but that Israel would decide when and how. He
spoke after a paratrooper drop exhibition at Ramat Gan.
"Syria has already learned that we are able to defend the lives of our citizens
and our sovereignty," he told the paratroop officers. "Syria will learn again in the
future at a time when we think fit. Meanwhile, let Syria think and consider its acts
and turn away from present methods."
The premier also commented on Arab propaganda and on false reports emanat-

(Continued on Page 36)

Sensational Masada Explorations: Great Historic Romance
Related in General Yigael Yadin's Archaeological Record

Archaeology has played a great role in confirming biblical history. Discoveries
in recent years have added to knowledge about the pre-exilic history of Jewry and

other historic Jewish backgrounds.
Among the most fascinating and most revealing occurrences of the past decade
were the diggings that uncovered the old fortress of Masada where heroic Jews made
=their last stand against the Romans. General Yadin, who was Israel's chief of the
army staff after having served as chief of operations in the war of liberation,
,directed the excavations, and his story is told in one of the most fascinating books
yof our time, "Masada," published by Random House.
This remarkable work about one of the most momentous undertakings in
archaeological excavations deals with the heroism of the Zealots, with the battle for
liberty and the refusal of the survivors to fall into the hands of the Romans, thereby
accepting virtual slavery, with the result that all the survivors ended their lives and
only two women and five children survived to tell the tale and to pass it on to
posterity.

Yadin's "Masada" confirms the accounts of that historic
event in the writings of Josephus. He relates his own experiences,
together with those of his remarkable group of volunteer diggers,
parallel with Josephus' chronicled events, and indicates how true
to fact are the latter and how his findings corroborate the literary-
historic works of the historian of the 1st Century.

filled ingeniously by occasional rain water, barracks, arsenals and palaces. It was
these fortifications and buildings which served the last band of Jewish fighters in
their struggle against the Romans some 75 years after Herod's death. At the beginning
of the 66 AD rebellion, a group of Jewish zealots had destroyed the Roman garrison
at Masada and held it throughout the war. They were now—after the fall of Jerusa-
lem—joined by a few surviving patriots from the Jewish capital who had evaded
capture and made the long arduous trek across the Judean wilderness, determined
to continue their battle for freedom. With Masada as the base for their raiding
operations, they harried the Romans for two years. In '72 AD, Flavius Silva, the Roman
Governor, resolved to crush this outpost of resistance. He marched on Masada with
his Tenth Legion, its auxiliary troops and thousands of prisoners of war carrying
water, timber and provisions across the stretch of barren plateau. The Jews at the
top of the rock, commanded by Eleazar ben Yak, prepared themselves for defense,
making use of the natural and man-made fortifications, and rationing their supplies
in the storehouses and cisterns. Silva's men prepared for a long siege
When the Romans succeeded in making a breach, the

defenders realized that the end was near and: "Rather than

become slaves to their conquerors, the defenders — 960 men,

women and children—thereupon ended their lives at their own
hands. When the Romans reached the height next morning, they
were met with silence. And thus says Josephus at the end of
his description: 'And so met (the Romans) with the multitude
of the slain, though it were done to their enemies. Nor could
they do other than wonder at the courage of their resolution, and
at the immovable contempt of death which so great a number of
them had shown, when they went through with such an action
as that was."
It was at this historic site that General Yadin and a most
interesting group of volunteer diggers conducted the archaeologi-
cal expedition for 11 months — from October 1964 to May 1964
and from November 1964 to April 1965. He calls himself "privi-
leged" to have pursued this task because
"it had been the dream of every Israeli archaeologist to
fathom the secrets of Masada; and because an archaeological
dig here was unlike an excavation at any other site of
antiquity. Its scientific importance was known to be great.

Yadin's "Masada" describes "the gaunt and majestic

beauty" of the rock of Masada, the fortress on the eastern edge

of the Judean desert "with a sheer drop of more than 1,300 feet
to the western shore of the Dead Sea." The Romans had over-
thrown the Maccabeans and occupied Palestine. Most of the Jews
were driven from the country when Titus destroyed the Temple
and sacked Jerusalem in the year 70. Only one outpost remained
where the Jewish rebels against the invaders and oppressors held
out until the year 73 — in the Masada fortress.
Josephus Flavius made a record of the events and wrote
about "Jonathan the High Priest" as the first to occupy "this
natural position." But 100 years earlier it was King Herod the
Great who had established the formidable position at Masada
with his palaces, adjoining apartments, synagogues, storerooms,
towers, cisterns for the collection of rain water. There were
valuable, historic scrolls among the discoveries. Yadin elaborates:

Between the years 36 and 30 BCE, Herod built a casemate
wall around the top, defense towers, storehouses, large cisterns

Gen. Yigael Yadin

But more than that, Masada represents . . . a symbol of
courage, a monument to our great national figures, heroes
who chose death over a life of physical and moral serfdom."
(Continued on Page 48)