Friedlaender Reveals Record of Kurt Gerstein's Heroic Resistance to Nazism

Christian West as a whole, in the and the effect it had on Germans
In RoIf Hochhuth's "The De- sacrificed on the altar of Nazism, all his strength and suffered con-
face of the extermination of the with a sense of honor who retained
puty," the play that exposed the but too few were the voices that sequent disadvantage."
Jews, invests the role of Ger- a human spark.
failure of Pope Pius XII to exert heard or listened. Indeed, as far
Friedlaender states that the Tie-
stein with its true significance:
—P.S.
influence in behalf of the Jews who as the religious leaders were con- bi
his
appeals having brought no re-
were doomed to death by Hitler, cerned, pastors and bishops kept bingen
did out
not acts
deny
that Ger-
stein court
carried
of resistance
10—Friday, March 1 1969
sponse
and
his
dedication
having
the name of Kurt Gerstein emerges silent, as Friedlaender cont in ues
all but it condemned him "in effect,
THE DETROIT EWISH NEWS
proved a solitary commitment,
as a revelation of the courage of to charge as he indicates in n actu
his sacrifice appeared 'useless'
an SS official who pleaded, albeit descriptions of events, of declara- for the
of the
his following
efforts."
It is uselessness
worth noting
and became 'guilt'
ithout results, for intercession tions by churchmen whose failures summation by Friedlaender:
without
CARS TO BE DRIVEN
Dr. Friedlaender rendered a dis- To any state. Also drivers
to respond to the appeals against
against the Nazi crimes.
"If resistance within the body
furnish-
of a totalitarian system is am- tinct service with his research in ed to drive your car anywhere.
Dr. Saul Friedlaender, the au- , the horrors emerge among the
biguous by its very nature, one the Kurt Gerstein case. He con- Fully insured and I.C.C. licensed.
thor of "Pius XII and the Third most devastating indictments of
criterion nonetheless remains es- tributes towards his exoneration.
Insured Driveaway System
Reich," in which the failures of war crimes.
sential for defining it: that of the He adds a significant chapter to
Gerstein, it is now revealed,
9970 Grand River
Pius XII to act are fully reviewed,
danger
incurred.
There
were
the
history
of
the
Nazi
regime.
has made a thorough study of the "made efforts to sabotage the
Detroit, Mich. 48204
many Germans who put forward This is a book of great value for
activities of the SS official who operation" of utilizing Zyklon B for
WE 1-0620-21-22
was plagued by what was happen- the mass murders in the gas cham- the argument 'that they had re- an understanding of the Holocaust
......„ „...„ ........ ......,.z ..zey.<
ing and he relates it in "Kurt Ger- bers. Quoting the testimony of wit-
sisted inside the system to ex-
- r v
.. ,-.3e . - , ove ..rjr -...• va
& .-.
-
•
- ..
•
•
' '''''' — - XtE'- Nie": 4e•-- 40'.4or
' — '" ' ' " — - —
plain away their participation in
stein: The Ambiguity of Good," nesses, among them one of the
exception in the ranks of church-
Nazi activities. Yet how many of
published by Knopf.
them demonstrated their will to
In this, "the first full story of men, Pastor Mochalsky, Gerstein
resist by committing acts which, ::1 1
the SS officer who daily risked is represented as the type of man
had they been discovered, would
his life to alert the Pope and who
have cost the perpetrators their
"by virtue of his deepest convic-
the neutral countries to Hitler's
lives? Kurt Gerstein was one of 10
tions,
disavowed
the
Nazi
regime,
extermination drive," there is a
these people.
even hated it inwardly, but col-
full review of the pious German's
"However, what lends Ger-
laborated with it in order to
youth, his family background,
stein's tragic fate its unique
combat it from within and to
how he become acquainted with
character and its full magnitude
prevent worse things from hap-
the crimes in the extermination
pening. Gerstein, however, was is the complete passivity of the
camps and exerted his efforts to
'others.' Had there been in Ger- 5,5
no more than a lieutenant in the
reveal the truth,
many thousands or even bun-
SS
and constituted in this for-
Gerstein was tried, posthumous-
ly, as a Nazi criminal because he , midable machine a cog of secon- dreds of Gersteins; had some of
dory importance whose role was them tried to divert shipments of
had been assigned the task of pro-
Our meticulous attention to fine tailoring and
toxic gases while others caused .5!
restricted to a sharply defined
viding Zyklon B (prussic acid) to
superb fitting, coupled with unparalleled personal
files to go astray or instigated
area. Despite his greatest efforts
be used in the camps for the mur-
delays in the construction of gas
and the best of intentions, he was
service, offers that little bit more that makes a
der of the millions of Jews. He
chamrs
be or crematoria; had k
tried to bury the acid, to make itnot sufficiently important or in-
world of difference!
still others warned the Jews in
fluential to stop this machine or,
unavailable, but because his efforts
the occupied countries and, above
were of no avail they were ruledmore precisely, to act in matters
all, labored untiringly to keep
outside the scope of his functions.
as "guilt"—later to be exonerated
The machine was stronger than the Germans and the world in-
after the full record was made
formed:
then hundreds of thou-
he
was.
In
the
end,
he
realized
known.
sands of victims undoubtedly ti
this and manifestly suffered
CUSTOM
Much of the story in this volume
greatly from his consciousness would have been saved by these ,
TAILOR
is based on Gerstein's report, sub-
W
same "official" accomplices of v
of the fact • "
• -
-
milted in poor French. There were
the regime. If these things had
There is a concluding note that
a number of people who took him really sums up the entire case, 'ex-
happened, all of these Gersteins
13641 W. 9 MILE
'seriously, his revelations were sub-
would been acknowledged
plaining the condemnation of Ger-
mitted to Sweden, some Germans
Just W. of Coolidge
ste
an
stein
d the posthumous nti-Na
rehabili-
I
and Americans learned the truth
"So much of Gerstein's tragedy
zi
from him. But it took a generation lotion of the courageous a
LI 5-3558
lay
in
the
loneliness
of
his
ac-
by Kurt Kiesinger, then the Baden-
to take what he had done serious-
Open Mon., Thurs. Fri.. to 9 p.m.
tion. The silence and passivity of
Wuerttenberg premirr, on Jan. 20,
ly
Sat,
to
7 p.m.; Sun. 11 to 3
the Germans, the absence of any !.7.
1965. Kiesinger based his decision
MICHIGAN BANKARD • SECURITY
notable reaction among the Allies
What Friedlaender does in this on the fact that "Gerstein resisted
and the neutrals, indeed, in the
work, which was translated from National Socialist despotism with
the French and the German by
Charles Fullman, is to present
the facts, to go into great de-
tail into Gerstein's family back-
ground, his religious devotion,
his loyalty to Hitler but,. 114 de-
viation when he began to feel the
guilt of the mass murders.

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While exposing the details of this
dramatic story of a hero of the last
war and the Nazi criminal period,
Friedlaender presents all the facts
about use of Zyklon B to murder
millions, and he relates to what ex-
tent the church in Germany had
failed to declare itself against the
crimes.
There Were individual cases of
churchmen who rebelled against
the terror, but they were too few
and they were conspicuous because
they stood in their courage.
At the outset "Gerstein's attitude
toward the Jews seems to have
been that of the great majority of
the Confessional Church, even to
the point of picking up and using
some of the regime's anti-Semitic
slogans," but he came to the aid of
converted Jews. When the truth
about the extermination plans
dawned upon him he began to
assert himself in defense of the
people from whom the Christ to ,
whom he was dedicated had sprung.

The reader of this book will be
horrified by the description of
the actual processes of gathering
Jews as they were being sent to
their death in the gas chambers.
Few of the revelations that have
already been published are as
revealing as this account by
Gerstein, from his submitted re-
port, before he had committed
suicide in INS, about the way
Jews were murdered, how their
belongings were gathered, their
gold teeth, bridges and crowns
ha:mmered oat.
The hopelessness of his efforts
emerges among the distressing ex-
periences for the reader of this
histOric record.
There were warnings from this
lonely man who had to act cau-
tiously in order himself pot to be
• - — - - -

MAGIAN WHISKY–A !LINO OF SELECTED WHISKIES. SIX YEARS OLD. 116.8 PROOF. SEAGRAM INSTILLERS COMPANY. M.Y.C.

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