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Boot TzDtdie,atea
resienstadt
Remembrance of Privileged Ghetto'

By- IOSEF FRAENKEL
roricomycli nreursxmvsriayr..

stadt 37,000 Jews died of hunger.
When it was liberated in May1945,
the Nazi plan to, murder all the
Jews was interrupted: A total of
Only clays after the Ansehluss, -13,000- was left alive, half alive, in
Jews in Austria were being arrest- a horrifying physical state.
ed - and transported to Dachau.
A -Jewish Committee for There-
_Robert Strielzer,":_vice president of sienitadtivis established in Vienna
the Viennese Itraelitische Kultus- which consisted, of the late Dr.
gemeinde, asked 'ire to 'leave for Ernst Feldsberg, president of the
Czechoslovakia to talk ;With Dr. Kultusgemeinde in Vienna, Dr.
Kafka, president of the Prague Gustav Jellinek (New York), of the
Jewish Community about a loan of Council of Jews from Austria in
2,000,000 Czech kronen, and to in- America, Zvi Kraemer, (Tel Aviv),
form Michael Wurmbrand, of the of the Council of Jews from Austria
Jewish Telegraphic Agency, about in Israel, Regierungsrat Wilhelm
the grim anti-Jewish developments -Krell (Vienna), Dr. Charles Kap-
in Vienna.
ralik (London) and Dr. Georg Weis
The Prague community was pre- (Vienna).
pared to give 2,000,000 kronen, but
The committee had the coopera-
I received a message that the tion of the Council of the Jewish
money was not to be forwarded to Communities in Russia, the Inter-
Vienna because the Gestapo would national Tracing Service Arolson
confiscate it. The Prague commun- (Germany) and the Kultusgeme-
ity distributed the 2,000,000 kronen inde, and has now published the
to Jewish refugees from Germany "Totenbuch Theresienstadt."
and Austria.
The memorial book is dedicated
When the Nazis arrived in Vien- to the "memory of all those Jews
na, in March 1938, there were from Austria deported - to There-
about 185,000 Jews in Austria.- To sienstadt, never to return."
escape the concentration camps,
Each page of the 160-page book
half the Jewish population left quotes about 100 names with date
Austria and, in time, more Jews of birth and dates of transporta-
managed to emigrate. Yet, accord- tions to the . extermination camps.
ing to Dr. Jonny Moser's statistics Each, a father or, mother, a brother
quoted in the book "The Jews of or sister, a husband or wife was
Austria," the number of Austrian murdered only' because he was a
Jewish victims numbered over Jew. Professors, doctors, journal-
65,000.
ists, writers, workers, composers,
Austrian Jews at first trans- musicians, painters, actors, phil-
anthropists,
architects, simple peo-
ported to Buchenwald, Dachau
and Sachsenhausen; then to Nis- ple—all were killed—why?
. ko, Kielce, Lodz, Rigs, Minsk,
The "Totenbuch" quotes the
Izbica and other camps. Some
names of Dr. Desider Friedmann,
president of the Kultusgemeinde,
15,000 Jews from Austria were
arrested in Nazi-occupied coun-
and Robert Stricker, leader of
the Jews of Austria.- In 1919,
tries and nearly all of them lost
their lives.
Robert Stricker was elected to
Beginning in June 1942, over the Austrian Parliament.
"I am a Jew"—these were the
16,400 Jews from Austria were
transported to Theresienstadt (Te- words with which he introduced
rezin) in Bohemia, Czechoslovakia. himself to the members of Parlia-
Theresienstadt was established as ment. In 1938, his friends and his
a "privileged" ghetto for "privi- wife pleaded with him: " . . .
leged" Jews, i.e. elderly Jews, for- There is still time, you can still
mer civil servants, officers award- leave Vienna . . . but he would
ed outstanding decorations for bra- reply: "I can't. I owe it to my con-
very and for Jews well-known stituents. I must stay with my con-
stituents." Those were the last
abroad.
words I ever heard from him. In
Heinrich Himmler created the Theresienstadt
he inspired the
"privileged" ghetto or "Muster-
with hope, with moral , resis-
ghetto" to mislead—successfully- Jews
tance
and the will to live; to see
the International Red Cross, for in the defeat
of the Nazis and the cre
reality it was a concentration -ation
of
the Jewish state.- He and
camp, a labor camp from which
Jews of Austria, Germany, Poland Friedmann, together with .: their
and Hungary were sent to. the ex- wives, were sent with one of the
tranaport&to the gas chambers
termination camps. In Theresien- last
of Auschwitz. -
- In this book, I found the name of
Curious Ask Why Envoy- Theodor Herzl's daughter,. Merger-
Neumann; and the names of
From Soviet -Saw Chagall ete
'relatives, friends and of Prof. Ste-
PARIS (JTA)—The new SoViet fan
Of the Vienna .Uni-.
Ambassador to France, Vladimir versity, whose. lectures at the file-,
Abrassimov, recently paid a visit ulty of law I used to attend. , -
to the studio of the Jewish artist
Simon Wiesenthal, in one of-his
Maw Chagall, who., was born in books, recalls Adolf EichmaiM's-

-

Deportlerte aus Oesterretch
JuedIsches Komitee tuei Therestenstadt,
•Vienna;

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS'

10—Friday, October 22, 1971

•,
Kghrig:.ccalPtionor„of. Israel InSulteetr:: ;::::.:.0
When Black Hebrews Claim Precedence

tavatru:Stata. Ats, drivers fionillo:-
(Witco' deity your car anywhere':
fr ;Iffmaliritesqnstwidi.c-Ce.lisenssd-

-

DIMONA (JTA) — This Negev
town gave a rousing welcome to
Rabbi Meir Kahane, leader of the
Jewish :Odense League, who ad-
capacity crowd in the
dressed-
,
local :nroVie auditorium. He ex-
horted„tbem to "guard the- nation's
honor" against "insults" - he attri-
buted. to a . community of several
hundred self-styled black Hebrews
from . the United States who have
settled: here during the past two
years;
It was the militant rabbi's first
speech in Israel since he arrived
here: to settle last month and it
struck a responsive chord in his
audience, which included Jewish
emigres from the Soviet Union.
Seizing upon the recent claim
of one of the black Hebrew lead-
ers that they were God's true heirs
to the land of Israel, Rabbi Kahane
accused. the group of insulting
Jewish honor.
"If they say God is black, that
is God's business. But if they say
Moses and Abraham were black,
then. this is a reflection on our
ancestry• . . . They. deny us the
Divine right to our country. This
is an insult and no nation cher-
ishing its honor can stand such
an insult," Rabbi Kahane de-
clared.
Earlier, Rabbi Kahane staged
his first demonstration in Israel,
and the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv
was the target. Flanked by JDL

followers and nrembers of the
tent Betar orgar A
' zationi be•plckei,.
ed the embassy in priitentegaingt
U.S. "pro-Arab"
_

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39th
ANNUAL

BALFOUR
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presents

*Lilt to Theresienstadt in April

It was the Soviet ambassador's 1945, two or three weeks before
, first visit' to a. French artist. Many the liberation, -Here he saw .Rabbt
here tried to read political hnplica- Leo Baeck of Berlin and expressed
.tions In the envoy's visit to the his surprise at finding him Still
• man whose paintings include views alive, A few days' later, however,
of Jewish life in the small Russian Eichmann and the other criminals
city of Vitebsk.
were seeking hiding . places for
It seems, however, that themselves and,, as a result, had
Abrassimov just wanted to pay no longer the. time to complete
homage to the world renowned their final arrangements.
artist.
Although the book consists only
The fact that the ambassador of names—it is the tragic story of
himself, according to Who's Who, each of the 16,000 Jews. And when-
also was born in Vitebsk may have ever a Jew from Austria opens this
Totenbuch, he will remember rela-
further moffiated this visit .
Though now a French citizen, tives and friends. He will likewise
Chagall is still close to _traditional remember raker for - -those who
-Jewish life in Russia and' con- - left no relatives..ancy•wM - say for.
tinues to use Jewish folklore -as them Yisgadal w'yiskadaali
one of his main artistic =Near' - -stareh rabbo
.
•
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IkPpeating
With

:SUNDAY.—

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