April 2, 1976 57

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

Rockefeller Recalls GM's
Business Ties With Nazis

A Detroiter's German Farming Heritage
and the Destruction of the Holocaust

The story of Detroiter
Frank Theyleg's family re-.
lationship with automobile,
inventor Siegfried Markus
(Jewish News, Nov. IA,
1975), brought heavy re-
sponse from Jewish News
readers.
In an effort to gain more
information about his fa-
mous ancestor, Theyleg, a
retired Ford Motor Co. engi-
neer, wrote to his aunt, who
lives in Israel and Weisba-

fdp.

could provide little
information
adthtional
N about Markus, but supplied
these ancedotes about her
Parents, Jakob and Johanna:
They lived in Pomerania
and West Prussia, then
provinces of Germany.
True to custom, Jakob
— being the first-born —
was sent off to attend the
gymnasium (a boy's upper
level high school, prepara-
tory to university) in the
county capital, some dis-
tance away. This was a
major sacrifice for the

family because, in addi-
tion to the high tuition,
10-year-old Jakob had to
live in a boarding house.
He must have been a
gifted student. Many cita-
tions commended his ac-
complishments. But trouble
loomed in the 11th grade
when his 16-year-old girl
friend who had just grad-
uated from lyceum (girl's
equivalent to gymnasium)
took up ball room dancing
lessons. Only 12th grade
gymnasium students were
permitted this extrava-
gance.
This however did not stop
Jakob from registering for
the same dancing lessons
and acquiring the requisite
patent-leather slippers.
Whereupon he was
promptly expelled from
school.
His father's anger over
this revolutionary behavior
placed the 17-year-old on his
own, which could have been
disastrous, had not an un-

Police Jail Student Protesters
in Wake of Arab Riot in Israel

(Continued from Page 56)

dents from the Hebrew
University were detained
after police broke up an ille-
gal demonstration outside
the Knesset. On the West
Bank, Nablus, Tubas, Tul-
karem, Kalkilya and Jenin
were paralyzed by strikes.
There was a partial strike in
Hebron but business was
conducted normally in Ra-
mallah and Bethlehem.
Leaders of Rakah had in-
creased their agitation over
the weelcpnri for a strike.
The Communists and
other extremists held mass
rallies over the weekend
urging Arabs to join the
strike. They labelled as trai-
tors the mayors and heads
of local councils of 35 Gali-
lee towns who voted last
week against supporting the
strike.

There was also a demon-
stration by some 300 Be-
douins in the Negev where
some land is also scheduled
for expropriation.

On Sunday, Jerusalem
Mayor Teddy Kollek pro-
tested police action in ar-
resting some 50 schoolgirls
and three of their teachers
in an East Jerusalem Arab
high school.

Kollek said the police had
in the past refrained from
entering East Jerusalem
schools, and he wanted this
restraint to continue. The
police said the girls had set
up road blocks and burned
tires. The high school in
question was the Mamuni-
yeh School in the modern
part of East Jerusalem, out-
side of the Old City walls.
* *

Temple Mount Ban Upheld

JERUSALEM (JTA) —
The Chief Rabbinate Coun-
cil decided Saturday night
that Jews cannot visit and
pray on the Temple Mount
and defeated a move by
Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi
Shlomo Goren who wanted
the Council to decide that
Tpws can pray on the site.
was the first time
suffered a defeat in
the Council despite the fact
that most of the rabbis in
the Council are his support-
ers.
The phrasing of the deci-
sion, however, was rather
vague. It stated that the
Council considers that the
Temple Mount is the Moriah
Mountain on which the an-
cient and sacred Beit Ham-
ikdash or Holy Temple was
built. The decision stated
further, that Israel has the
right to own the Temple
Mount and that the rela-
tions between the Jewish
people and the mount are

part of the infrastructure of
Jewish belief.
The decision also stated
that "the Council heard a
lecture from Chief Rabbi
Goren on the Temple
Mount" and decided to ask
him to publish his re-
search on the Temple
Mount, after which "the
Council will discuss again
the issue with the rabbis of
Israel."
Rabbinical sources said
the net effect of the decision
was a rejection by the Coun-
cil of Goren's opinion. The
sources noted that the fact
that the Council decided to
rediscuss the issue "when"
Goren publishes his re-
search and that the Council
will "consult" with the
"rabbis of Israel" showed
that most of the Council
members share the opinion
of the majority of rabbis
which forbids Jews to visit
or pray on the Temple
Mount.

cle, also a farmer, decided to
loo _ k after the sinner.
Thus Jakob took up
farming, in the family
tradition, and forgot all
about the hoped-for juris-
tic ambitions. He became a
good farmer, in Balden-
burg, soon enlarged the
farm and fell in love all
over again, this time with
a young West Prussian
beauty named Johannah.
They were married in
1885.
Jakob and Johannah set
up a very religious and
happy household in their
100-year-old homestead, his
youthful escapade forgiven.
The homestead included the
three-story - main building
with innumerable bedrooms
and two kitchens, stables,
barns and what was ac-
knowledged to be the largest
manure pile in town.
Gradually the bedrooms
were filled, first with four
sons, to be followed by four
daughters. All were sent to
good schools and inherited
Jakob's love for farming.
By the beginning of
World War I in 1914, Jakob
had disposed of much farm
land, retaining just enough
for growing the family's
food because he rejected ar-
tificial fertilizer as cancer-
causing poison.
The war hurt seriously.
All sons were in the army
and the second son gave his
life for the "fatherland",
while his daughters rolled
bandages.
By 021, although all
children had left home to
form their own families,
the family reunions which
occurred about twice a
year caused major
traffic problems. The fam-
ily had now grown to well
over 30 grandchildren,
sons and daughters-in-law
and assorted relatives ar-
rived in their latest mar-
vels, shiny chauffer-driven
Studebakers, Chevrolets,
Adlers, Mercedes and
other automobiles, as Bal-
denburg had not been con-
nected to the German rail-
ways.
Johannah's kitchens sent
off the aromas of her reci-
pes. Jakob assembled his
crew of.grandsons to em-
bark on a fishing expedition
to the pond of the farm,
partly to get out of the
women's way but mainly to
bask in the grandfatherhood
as he liked it best. The boys
loved his tales as much as he
loved telling them, for Jakob
was a unique grandfather.
He never moralized but
simply told episodes from
his own experience, perhaps
a little embellished, to con-
vey the meaning of man-
hood to the boys. He also
knew where the largest
pikes were hiding and how
to hook them, how to ride
his prize horses in style and
without a whip, and what it
means to be independent
and walk tall.
Johanna, in the mean-
time, checked if her daugh-
ters had successfully contin-
ued her recipes and other
housewifely values.
It was a happy bunch

that converged on the
farm, each successful in
his own way. Some were
farmers, others were mer-
chants, dentists and other
professionals.
After Jakob died in 1929,
at the age of 71, Johannah
managed the farm single-

handedly. The Depression
caused not too much trou-
ble, nor did she suffer from
loneliness as many friends
in town helped with her
chores so that she could visit
her children and grandchil-
dren between reunions
which carried on in a more
somber mood.
Few of the family sur-
vived the Holocaust, or had
contact with those that had
survived. The Nazis seized
the 100-year-old family
farm, and Johanna died at
Theresienstadt.
The family did not get
together again until they
noticed a memorial tribute
to a cousin who was killed in
Israel's 1948 War for Inde-
pendence.

Jakob and Johannah's
spirit lives on. Their
youngest daughter and her
husband built one of the
first synagogues in post-
war West Germany. Two
grandchildren lead highly
successful lives in the U.S.
One granddaughter is a
principal in one of Israel's
most successful kibutzim.
One grandson founded and
operated a major munici-
pal police department in
Israel. Two great-grand-
children earned high rank
in Israel's Defense Forces.
After nearly 40 years,
Jakob's and Johannah's
youngest daughter and her
husband were able to re-
sume the family reunions
by celebrating their 50th
wedding anniversary in
Herzlia.
This time, the crowd
came from four continents
and had to be reintroduced
to each other. There was
great joy, perhaps greater
joy than ever, for the crowd
had increased in number.
Jakob's and Johannah's
great-grandchildren, did not
grasp this significance and,
God willing and thanks to
Israel, never will.

WASHINGTON — Vice
President Nelson Rockefel-
ler says that General Mo-
tors refused to dump its
agents in Latin America
who were linked to the Na-
zis before the United States
entered World War II.
Rockefeller, who was
coordinator of inter-Ameri-
can affairs for the State
Department at the time,
said in a tape recording and
an interview that GM was
the only one of 1,700 U.S.
firms that refused to parti-
cipate in an anti-Nazi boy-
cott he organized in Latin
America.
According to the Detroit
News, in his tape-recorded
comments for the Rockefel-
ler family archives, Rocke-
feller said that GM had 19
agents in Latin America
who were Nazis.
Rockefeller said that
GM officials claimed there
was nothing they could do
about the situation. But,
he said, the company fin-
ally removed the 19 agents
after he threatened to
make a public statement
about GM's refusal to par-
ticipate in the anti-Nazi
boycott.
Rockefeller said that he
wrote personal letters to all
of the American firms in
Latin America asking them
to dump their anti-U.S.
agents and that, by the time
of Pearl Harbor, all but GM
had done so. An official
blacklist of such agents was

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NELSON ROCKEFELLER

published then, he said.
According to Rockefeller,
the anti-Nazi boycott was
being studied by the Ford
administration to prepare
policy to counter an Arab
boycott of U.S. firms doing
business with Israel.

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