Commentary on Holocaust Literature
one of the arch criminals. The en-
(Concluded From Page 48)
in the pre-war period." There tire story is about the von Rum-
was hope for settlement in Eretz melsberg brothers, one of whom
Israel, there was faith. But there was an accomplice of the father
was the mass murder. Out of of the girl, Suzi, with whom the
75,000 Jews in Vilna only a few Britisher had fallen in love; an-
dies, also point to the silence,
to the failure of the world to
speak and act against the hor-
rors, and it is just as natural
that there should be selections
admonishing the reader neither
to forgive nor to forget.
And just as there is a prologue
with the appropriate Wiesel piece,
so, also, is there an interlude —
and here the compiler has inserted
"Songs in the Night — the art and
music of the Shoah (catastrophe)"
— giving emphasis to the outcry of
the partisans while also indicating
the reactions of children to the
12—Friday, May 9, 1969
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Delegates Will Join in Open Forum
at Concluding Council Assembly
The Jewish Community Council's
annual election of officers will take
place at the Council's delegate as-
sembly 8:30 p.m. Wednesday at the
Jewish Center. Vacancies on the
executive committee also will be
filled as organizational representa-
tives gather for the final assembly
of the current season.
Judge Lawrence Gubow, presi-
dent of the Council, heads the slate
of officers who have been renom
inated to serve a second term.
Other officers renominated with
thousand remained alive. other had turned Communist while
Interesting personalities are des- an officer in Hitler's army, and
cribed in Kowalski's book. Among the third had been betrayed
by
she married
the heroes was the martyred Chris- Suzi's mother when
tian Anton Schmidt, whose widow the Nazi.
There is a Jewish character,
was honored in Israel in 1965. The
Stern who bad fled from the
Mother Superior of the Benedictine
Nazis to the United States and
Cloister in Vilna rendered great
whose parents and sisters were
service to the resistance and to
murdered in the Nazi camps;
Jews who needed help in hiding.
disaster that faced them.
Among the most fascinating stories Stern who became Starr when he
Excerpts from the writings about Judge Gubow include Avern Cohn,
who
returned
to Germany as one of
is that of Shmuel Rufeisen,
the abysmal period have been tak-
operated as a Pole under the the investigators for the U.S. who
name of Yusef Oswald, who saved sought and knew the truth about
Jews, sabotaged the Nazis, was the criminals in that family but
arrested, he escaped, he survived, who was overruled when the
British official managed to pro-
but he turned Catholic. He believed
test the accused in deference to
he was betrayed by a Jew to the
Suzi.
Nazis and he was embittered.
"The Junkers" is a novel that
Later he was ordained a priest and
en from the works of those who
had suffered the agonies of the
Nazi-created hell and who were
witnesses to the disaster.
Anne Frank's Diary plays a
role in the contents of this deep-
ly moving work in which we find
the evidence presented by Bruno
Bettelheim, Alexander Donat,
Josef Bor, Chaim A. Kaplan,
Leo Baeck, Tuviah Friedman
and many others; and there are
the evaluations of the occur-
rences by Prof. Salo Baron,
Prof. Abraham J. Heschel, Rob-
ert Weltsh and others.
Council during the past year. They
are Americans for Progressive Is-
rael, Oakland. Century Lodge of
Bnai Brith and Workmen's Circle
Branch 1065.
The assembly will conclude with
an informal social hour with mem-
bers of Shaarit Haplayta serving
as hostesses.
Leaflets in Mexico City
Show Star and Swastika,
Liken Israelis and Nazis
MEXICO CITY (JTA) — A n t
Mrs. Samuel Linden and George Semitic leaflets likening Israel to
M. Zeltzer, vice presidents; Edwin Nazi Germany have appeared on
G. Shifrin, secretary; and Hubert walls and posts here recently,
J. Sidlow, treasurer.
chiefly in Jewish neighborhoods.
Delegates will have an opportun- The leaflets show a Star of David
ity to review and discuss Council and a swastika over an inscription
programs and policy over the past reading, "These signs are related.
year at an "open forum" for which Both repudiate the Mexican peo-
several groups have already re- ple. Now the victims are the Arabs.
served time.
Who will be next?"
The "open forum" feature has
been instituted to provide a
IP YON YUAN Trig
greater opportunity for organiza-
tional expressions about Council
torsos DOWN YOU WOWT
programs or other issues related
MMD A MIR WIND THAN
to general Council activity.
as Father Daniel settled in Israel will cause much dispute — because
and asked to be accepted as a citi- it glorifies the love affair while,
zen of the land. He was denied ac- in the course of the disputes be-
ceptance as a Jew but the courts tween the British and American
later reversed it and he was given representatives, appears to condone
the emerging political develop-
automatic citizenship.
These are among many stories ments evolving out of the East-
of heroism and of actions that are
fortunately recorded in the Kowal-
Starr has theories. He warns, as
Here we have evidence not only
Delegates will be asked to con-
ski story.
the issues are reviewed by the rep- of the evolutionary Nazi activities
Of value in his volume are the resentatives of the two countries but also of the post-war plans for sider and vote on a proposed con-
stitutional
amendment to permit
incorporated texts, with musical; as they evaluate the war guilt and rehabilitation, an important section
scores and translations, of thei the guilty, the rise of the National , in the book entitled "The Road
ghetto songs that inspired a will Democratic Party, the threatened Back," and a challenging conclud-
to live. Ghetto folklore contains a new Nazism: "The danger is not ing group of essays, "Questions
number of stories in lighter vein. , of losing votes to the Left but of After the Storm." Two participants
about Nazis and' Nazism. Ap-1 losing votes to the Right — be- in this grouping. Hans Jonas and
pended important dates about cause the National Democratic Jack Bemporad, discuss "The Con-
events in the Vilna Ghetto, lists Party is not committed to the de- cept of God After Auschwitz." and
of Jewish partisans and the in- fense of our interests. Quite to the their response is one of faith, of
serted documents, besides the contrary." "choosing life" in spite of dangers
many photographs, attest to the
In the course of the narrative, that may lurk under tyranny.
book's values. The fact that
the reader learns about the anti-
Faith emerges from the writings
many of the pictures are poor
Semitic practices, the cruelties in this section by Rabbi Leo Baeck,
reproductions is in itself an indi-
against Jews and in the camps, Abraham Heschel. Emil J. Facken:
cation of the author's desire to
the use of Jews as scapegoats.
helm.
retain every semblance of evi-
It is all there: the guilt. the es-
There is added interest in the
dence of what had happened in cape of the guilty, the protection
epilogue by the compiler of this
the tragic years.
they receive, their hideouts, their
work. Rabbi Friedlander deals
To give substance to many of the return.
here with the second chapter in
happenings during the Nazi era,1 And a love affair leads a British
Kings II. He describes the par.
the author accounted for the War- official to whitewash one criminal,
able, quotes the text about the
saw Ghetto Uprising and included later to become aware that the
Prophet Eilijah and the lesser
in his book a reproduction of the major one, Suzi's father, actually
Prophet Elisha. It is the story
text of President Kennedy's procla- had returned and had seen his
about the fiery chariot, about Eli-
daughter with her lover whose af-
jab who "stood above the multi-
w ho resisted the Nazis in Warsaw. fections were very great and who
tude" and Elisha who was "one
It was issued March 4, 1963.
married her.
of the crowd. "They were sure
Kowalski provides figures of re-
A major evident aim is for for-
Elijah would return before the
sults attained by the Jewish United
getting, for abandoning all ef•
coming of the Messiah. But Ell-
Partisan Organization, and he
forts at reminding the world of
sha had seen him leave in the
points to the following:
what had happened under Hitler.
fiery chariot. And whenever he
"In the order of May 1, 1944• the
There is reference to the Nazi
acknowledged that vision and ac-
following figures showed what the
background of Chancellor Kurt
cepted it, he gained the strength
'Vilna' unit achieved in the vicinity
Kiesinger, yet there is that urge
to wear the mantle .. ."
of Narocz during the 10 months of
to wipe out the past and those And the parable as quoted from
its existence: 51 rail cars des-
who seek reminders are looked the Bible is concluded by Rabbi
troyed. 991 vehicles full of soldiers
upon askance.
Friedlander, thus:
and weapons destroyed, two rail
bridges blown up, one electric
power station in Swienciani blown
up, one peat works destroyed, three
trucks destroyed and a colonel ser-
iously wounded. In battle, more
than 30 Nazis were killed and 50
wounded. Among the killed was a
lieutenant colonel with three decor-
ations on his chest.- How many of-
ficers and men were killed in the
destroyed rail cars was not report-
ed, but it is assumed to be in the
many hundreds."
Thus we have in Kowalski's an-
other valuable addition to the rec-
ord of the resistance and to the
Holocaust story. "A Secret Press
in Nazi Europe" tells only briefly
about the press and the anti-Nazi
documents, but the appended his-
torical facts help make the book
an important asset for students of
the history of the Nazi era of terr-
or and the Jewish role in the resis-
tance.
There is much to debate, and to
"There are those who say that no
dispute, in this novel. It presents Messiah can come until the world
the facts — but a love affair con- stops looking for Elijah and begins
dones the criminals. In "The to listen to the testimony of Elisha.
Junkers" we see evidence of For the Messiah's pathway — once
changing times. Perhaps there is seen by patriarch Jacob as a gold-
added warning in that factor of a en ladder -- was seared and torn
piece of fiction that deals with a by the passing of the chariots.
depressing chapter in history. Once the ladder was built from
Heaven to earth; now it must be
• s •
reached from earth to Heaven, and
OUT OF THE WHIRLWIND
must be constructed by man.
Rabbi Albert H. Friedlander of this will only happen when And
the
Harrow, England, has earned our quiet testimony of an Elisha among
gratitude for one of the most im- the multitudes can get them
to
see
pressive anthologies on the Hitler the passing of the chariot.
They
era. In "A Reader of Holocaust must experience the
grief
Literature: Out of the Whirlwind," and loss. They must terrible
cry
for
the
published by the Union of Ameri- past turned to fire, for the future
can Hebrew Congregations, he has
become
ashes.
Etched
into
their
included the most impressive writ- vision there must be the flaming
ings on the subject. With a series path arching up into darkness. And
of impressive drawngs by Jacob from their lips, with reluctance and
Landau, this volume could serve as anguish, words must rise from
an outstanding textbook on the the threshold of the golden ladder:
Jewish experiences under Nazism.
"Yitgadal v'yitkadash sh'mey
Like all compilers of Holocaust
rabba . . .
literature, it was natural for Rabbi
"It is said that his prayer must
Friedlander to include in his col- be repeated six million times.
But
lection noteworthy selections from people have forgotten why this
the writings of Elie Wiesel, and he should be so."
commences as a prologue with
It is in this sense that we have
Wiesel's "An Evening Guest," util- warning of consequences,
an ap-
izing also Wiesel's "Night" and
peal
for a realization of the reali-
"The Town Beyond the Wall" in ties of what had happened, an ad-
the section entitled "The Great monition to retain faith.
• • •
THE JUNKERS
Related to the historical analyses
about the era of German atrocities,
the war, the East-West conflict,
the human relations between the
peoples who were in the great
struggle, is a novel, "The Junk-
ers," by the 28-year-old British
writer Piers Paul Read (Knopf).
A love affair between a British Silence."
These are the basic emphases in
diplomat and a German girl who,
Indeed, the collected works, in Rabbi
Friedlander's "Out of the
it develops, Was the daughter of .addition to portraying the (rage- Whirlwind."
USSR t r il l 't
.r.
"mon
Milan Wintales, Detroit, Mich.
youth councils or federations of
Jewish youth groups to become full
voting members of the Community 4 • 11••••••••••••••••••••••S
• Use modem rolling grilles and
Council.
• shutter, to protect your build-
At the present time, membership •
• ing from: breaking-and-entering,
in the Council is limited to Jewish • burglary, broken windows, ar-
organizations whose members are • son, riot destruction, looting,
over 18 years old.
vandalism.
Another annual feature of the
Call AMBER BROTHERS
final assembly will be the intro-
• intrusion prevention engineers
duction of the presidents and dele- •
549-4045
gates from those organizations
which have affiliated with the floommo
•
The Browser's Paradise:
TalTlaROFF
BUICK- OPEL
12 MItE ROAD
Tel-Twelve
Men
MIRTH.
WESTERN
:weight en/oll
frcen expressway
at Telegraph Road
1ST
either tkrection
11544444
MN lensing
ial west
4
="
4
a
tow from
RP. 03-89Q
Deficit
and east
I
easy to get to . • .
and well worth the trip
Lots and lots of brand new Buicks and Opals right out where
you can see them. Beautiful browsing with no high pressure.
Just the fairest prices, finest service and quickest delivery
In Detroit.
Taletraph just S. of 12 Mile/aeons from Tel-Twelve Mall/353-1300
Open 7;30 a.m. to 0:130
■ 11441 ".--
' •
mocha Thurs. to 0:00 a.m.