Alfred Ka ntor's Inerasable Memories of the Holocaust
It was at a displaced per-
sons camp in Deggendorf, Ba-
varia, that Alfred Kantor
drew pictures that will in-
delibly impress all who see
them as a mark of agony
created by the terror the
artist experienced under the
Nazis.
"The Book of Alfred Kan-
tor," published by McGraw
Hill, is the diary of a man
who, at 22, compiled the
moving story of his experi-
ences which he documented
artfully and which emerges
as additional evidence of the
greatest crime in history of
our time.
They are not the photos
alone: there is the autobi-
ographical introduction by
Kantor in which the story of
this sensitive soul is told:
starting with his childhood in
which he had begun to feel
the . anti-Semitism . of . the
the emerging Nazi rulers;
the terror of the transport
to Terezin and the years in
Terezin; the family's suffer-
ings and his mother's share
in the oppressive cycle—then
Auschwitz, finally Schwarz-
beide.
Now he is in New York,
where he has perfected his
memories in the pictures he
drew. His last experiences
before coming to this country
are told in these concluding
introductory paragraphs:
"I wanted to return to
Prague as quickly as possible.
The radio had reported
fierce battles raging in the
streets between retreating
German units and Czech par-
tisans. On the way to the
city I saw long columns of
disarmed German soldiers,
their coats torn, some with
rags on their feet. In the vil-
lages everyone was out to
greet the homecoming men.
The town squares and main
streets were decked with
flags and bunting, Czech wo-
men handed out apples, sand-
wiches and sweets. I
hitched a ride to Prague and
got off a short distance from
Mimi's house. There were
signs of recent street fight-
ing and the nearby Old Town
City Hall was a burned-out
shell. But the buildings on
my sister's street were intact.
I hurried up the three flights
of stairs to her apartment,
where we were reunited.
"The first days of freedom
were strange. I was so happy
to be alive, and at the same
time I felt that nothing
would be the same again. I
yearned to roam, to be else-
where; so I packed my draw-
ings and sketches and joined
a group of ex-prisoners who
were going to a displaced
persons' camp in Deggendorf,
Germany. And it was here
that I immediately began to
work. Within a matter of
days I went to look for a
bookbinder. A week later the
book of blank pages was
ready and I proceeded to fill
them, to record what I had
seen and observed."
No review of the Kantor
works is adequate. The pic-
tures must be seen for a reli-
zation of the horrors a young
man had experienced, for an
appreciation of the skills
that assure a blessing for
our generation to have a pic-
torial account of the great
tragedy that was caused by
the inhumanities of the Hit-
ler hordes.
Kantor's is a multicolored
work, and there are explana-
tory notes for the 127 full-
page pictures of the years in
the near-death and displaced
person camps. The notes, like
the colored pictures, provide
historical data on the inhu-
man conditions which terror-
ized the artist, and the mem-
ories that need to be retained
in relation to those years.
The best way to explain
the important "Book of Al-
fred Kantor" is to share with
the reader these rough repro-
ductions from his book.--P.S.
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Watergate-2,300 Years Ago
By DAVID SCHWARTZ
(Copyright 1973, JTA, Inc.)
Si curl fellow age
There was a famous Water-
gate story 2,500 years ago.
Read about it in the Bible.
Take the book of Nehemiah
and read.
It is not a story associated
with scandal, with burglary
or anything like that. On the
contrary, it tells of a time
when men dreamed of better
things and hearts were lifted.
It marked the revival of the
Jewish people and Jewish
religion.
It was after the Babylonian
captivity. The Persians were
the rulers of the Mediterran-
ean world. Many Jews at-
tained prominent positions
in the Persian government.
30
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There was no television
then, but heralds were sent
to the Jews throughout the
Persian Empire announcing
a great event in Jerusalem
on Rosh Hashana• There
would be a reading of the
Five Books of Moses.
It was something unheard
of. Everyone was curious.
Where will it be held, people
asked. The heralds told them:
at the watergate.
A great concourse was as-
sembled to find out what
the Five Books of Moses con-
tained.
We read in Nehemiah:
"All the people gathered to-
gether as one man in the
broad place that was the
watergate and they spake un-
to Ezra the Scribe to bring
the law of Moses which the
Lord had commanded unto
Israel" and "Ezra read before
the watergdte from early
morning and then Ezra
blessed the Lord and the
people bowed and raised
their hands and answered,
Amen."
Nehemiah held the posi-
tion of cup bearer to the
king. We don't know how
you get to be cup bearer to
a king, whether it's a civil
service job or not.
His job was to fetch the
king his wine glass. It prob-
ably isn't comparable to that
of secretary of state but it
brought him into intimate
A whole day was spent in
knowledge of the king, and reading from the Five Books
the king appeared to have of Moses.
been concerned about him.
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THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
a S W/•/2
11 5
Nehemiah, as we can judge
from the Bible account, was
a man of distinction. He
didn't need a job to make
him important. Anyway, as
we said, the king was con-
cerned about him, and one
day he asked him, why he
looked so sad.
Nehemiah replied that he
was concerned about what
was happening to Jerusalem.
Since the Babylonian captiv-
ity, Jerusalem had fallen into
ruin. The wails of the city
were broken down and the
whole city had fallen apart.
He would like to return to
Jerusalem and rebuild the
walls of the city. Nehemiah
was granted his request. He
was named governor of Jer-
usalem and returned to Jer-
usalem and set about restor-
ing the walls and the city.
Nehemiah was joined by
Ezra the Scribe, who was
concerned with the decline in
Jewish religious values. Many
had little knowledge of the
Jewish religion, and the
Torah of Moses was unknown
to many except by name.
Ezra launched a religious re-
building to parallel the re-
building of the walls.
Some scholars held — al-
though this is not agreed to
by others—that this was the
occasion when the Five Books
of Moses were first joined
in the Humash or Pentateuch.
At any rate, what took place
that Rosh Hashana has been
followed since. Rosh Hashana
marks the beginning of the
yearly cycle of Sabbath read-
ings from the Torah in the
synagogue.
Today, one does not
_1
to go to one place to
the contents of the Bible.
Thanks to Ezra and Nehe-
miah and the scene at the
watergate, there are Bibles
everywheare today. An Amer-
ican Bible society recently
reported that 200,000,000 Bi-
bles ' were distributed this
year. The Bible is still the
best seller.
Apparently, it is not being
distributed widely enough, or
maybe the people who should
read it are not reading it.
Maybe if those involved in
the present Watergate inci-
dent wold have read more
from the laws of Moses,
especially the 10 Command-
ments, we would have been
spared the present shame.