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2 Friday, February 10, 1910
1
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Purely Commentary
Confusions Regarding the Israeli Pledges on Settlements
to President Carter: the 'Dignity of Israel' Is Defended
by Ambassador Dinitz . . . Tragic Nazi Revival in Hanover
By Philip
Slomovitz
Dignity of Israel Not to Be Tampered With!
Instability in negotiations seems to be a continuing destiny in the aspirations for a
Middle East peace.
Media interference in the discussions was believed to have encouraged rumors, chal-
lenges, accusations. Now the media are fighting off the demand for quiet diplomacy by
insisting that what had commenced with a Walter Cronkite inducement for Anwar Sadat
to go to Jerusalem could be continuity in press relations to encourage further involve-
- ments by the media for the eventual advancement of peace.
Is this reasonable, considering the fact that every time any Middle East leader was
being interviewed newsmen inevitably posed the question "What will Israel concede, or
give up,? etc." This is what created an image of Israeli intransigence that has harmed the
Jewish cause immensely.
The most damaging of anti-Israeli propaganda was the charge spread last week that
Israel's pledge to President Carter not to build new settlements in Sinai was broken, thus
causing greatest harm to the Israeli-Egyptian negotiations. If this were true it would
bring severest protests from American Jews and from Israelis as well. Apparently it is
not true. There is insistence that the newest settlement is archeological. Of the utmost
importance is the statement in the New York Times by Ambassador to the U.S. Simha
Marta Feuchtwanger Memo:
Widow Honors Husband's Name
Lion Feuchtwanger is an unforgettable name. His
"Power," "Jew Suess," "Josephus" and other works are
among the most noreworthy by Jewish authors on Jewish
subjects in this century.
Leonard N. Simons has
given encouragement to
Feuchtwanger's widow to
have his books reprinted and
they have appeared in
numerous editions.
Marta Feuchtwanger was
87 on Jan. 21 and as Leonard
Simons states in describing
his friend. "Her mind is still
great."
Mrs. Feuchtwanger, who
now lives in the Pacific Pal-
lisades,e Calif. , told of her ex-
periences with Charlie Chap-
lin in a letter to the Los
Angeles Times. The many
other interesting details in
LION FEUCHTWANGER her letter merit its reproduc-
tion. It follows:
My husband, Lion Feuchtwanger, kneW
Charles Chaplin from his first stay in America for
a lecture tour. Chaplin had asked Albert Einstein
for an introduction. After reading my husband's
novel "Power," he wanted to make a film of it and
to playthe part of the protagonist, Jew Suess. My
husband, although greatly flattered, was puzzled
since he could not imagine the "Little Tramp"
playing an 18th Century courtier. Later Conrad
Veidt played the part, and Chaplin did not spare
his praise of the latter's performance.
The whole Hollywood film population gave
help to the European immigration. It should
never be forgotten how many lives and existences
were saved by their great generosity. Chaplin was
not part of the general effort. He gave privately
and unstintingly.
I remember also that he chose to receive them at
his parties with the greatest attention, interrupt-
ing his conversation with the Rockefellers and
Huntington Hartfords to meet them at the door,
and to introduce the newly arrived with almost
old-fashioned chWalry.
When we came to his home on an everyday oc-
casion he was sitting with Oona on his terrace
dictating to her his new project, "Limelight," and
telling me what a delight it was for him to work
with her, whose sense of humor he greatly ap-
preciated. Before he found this mutual unending
devotion, we shared with him the terror of his
trials.
But there was not always gloom. He liked to tell
about the practical jokes he played on his friend
Douglas Fairbanks. It was after Chaplin had re-
turned from a world trip. He enthused about the
then prerevolution China, and said he had
learned the language. Fairbanks was doubtful.
Chaplin went to the kitchen and came back with
his Chinese cook. They had an animated talk, and
the cook brought back 'a dish which Chaplin had
ordered him to prepare. It was an avocado filled
with lobster. Until his death Fairbanks did not
know that Chaplin had only imitated the sound
and intonation of the Chinese language. The cook,
of course, had been instructed beforehand.
When he was here in 1972 to receive new honors,
his true friend Walter Matthau gave an unforgett-
able party on his lawn, and when I reminded
Dinitz denying the failure by Israel to adhere to pledges made to the President. Moshe
Dayan also issued a denial. The statement by Ambassador Dinitz uphdlds the dignity of
Israel and declares:
I primarily wish to address myself to the impression that Israeli leaders are
"tricksters" and are bent on circumventing or breaking promises made by them
to the President of the United States. While matters of policy can be discussed,
Israel's integrity cannot be put in question.
Let me state categorically that Israel has never broken any promise that was
made to the- President of the United States nor reneged on any of its commit-
ments.
It is the dignity of Israel that insists upon security and will not abandon the right to
defend people and land. It is in this light that American Jews must judge the situation
before yielding to suspicions stemming from the foxy Egyptian who, having paid a vis .
Jerusalem, would be compensated for it by Israel's yielding to the very demands
would spell her suicide. No self-respecting American Jew will support a policy of suici e
for Israel.
Chaplin of some of his antics he immediately re-
peated them for me. And nobody who was present
will forget how he played for us the part of Mon-
sieur Verdoux when, after a night of love, he put
two cups on the table, but quickly took one back
to the cupboard, and then went outside and
looked at the smoking chimney rubbing his hands
in deep satisfaction.
Aside from benefiting from the experiences detailed in
this letter, Mrs. Feuchtwariger's story helps increase an
interest in the Feuchtwanger contributions to the litera-
ture that has influenced thinking in two generations. More
power to a lady who makes her husband's name a mark of
distinction. -
The Nazis: They Are Few But They
Are Vile, and Their Venom Is Spreading
however, that all possible efforts were being made and
that seven youths from 16 to 21-years-old were under
surveillance.
Perhaps these introductory lines about the threats to
Hanover's Jews are the very basis of similar reactions to
Nazi activities througout the world. Perhaps the American
Civil Liberties Union view is in evidence here. It is the
argument that they are so few, why bother with them ? And
don't the few share the right to speak?
But these few also act. They violate the rights of their
fellow citizens. Here is how it operates in West Germany.
Here are the figures quoted in the Vinocur article with
reference to the view of the Hanover police inspector:
.
"But I wonder," he said in an interview, "if too
much isn't being-made out of this. You must think so if
you look at the statistics."
The official statistics, from the Federal Office for the
They are few In number, but they also were few in
Protection of the Constitution, reported in the begin-
Munich more than 50 years ago.
ning of last year that there were 142 extreme right-
It was a Munich Putsch, and Germans and the world
wing organizations in West Germany with 18,300
laughed at him. Charlie Chaplin • exposed him in "The
members. There were 533 suspected right-wing ex-
Dictator" as an idiot. Yet Adolf Hitler soon became the
tremists holding positions in federal, state and munici-
darling of his people, and even now there are some who
pal organizations, the figures showed.
glorify his name.
Therefore, the few must be viewed as seriously as the
In 1976, the last year for which - complete statistics
many. They can become a horrible menace to humanity.
are available, 33 people were said to have been found
guilty by courts for extreme right-wing activities.
It was on a Black-sponsored program that a. Nazi
appeared to spew his hatred. Blacks are as much the
When the Josef Goebbels diaries were made public in
victims of the Nazi spirit as the Jews. The blunder was
Germany last month there was an indication that the
committed. Will it teach a lesson to future generations —
interest in it was part of the growing German infatuation
that if you grant a platform to a Nazi in the name of
with
the Nazis. Vinocur's report similarly points to such
Freedom of Expression he will deny it to his benefactor
' new developments, as he states in his NYTimes report:
when he gains power to exercise it?
The repeated emphasis on the need for vigilance should
A national television news special stated clearly last
not be treated lightly. An admonition now comes from
week what became apparent in the second half of last
Hanover, West Germany. There were 5,521 Jews in Hano-
year — that there is a growing fascination in West
ver in 1925, when they were 1.4 percent of the population.
Germany with the Nazi era. It did not say there was
Now the Jews in that historic city number 400 in a total
any great new sympathy for Nazism, but it offered a
popUlation of 550,000, which approximates .072 percent of
public opinion survey that found that about a quarter of
the total. The minuteness of the community is not sparing
the population would again like "a strong leadership
them and the Nazi hatred has left legacies that are making
personality" and that about one-third would favor a
life miserable for them.
single strong party.
A distressing report on the evolving hatreds in Hanover
was published in the New York Times on Jan. 17. In a
signed article by John Vinocur it is indicated that the neo-
Nazi, anti-Jewish activities during the last six months have
been to an extent described as having been "in a way that
has not happened in West Germany since the end of World
War II."
Vinocur's report on the Hanover occurrences states:
Culminating last month in neo-Nazi demonstrations,
a beating and a threat to a Jewish shopowner, the
period produced incidents leading to 25 official com-
plaints to the police. They involved anonymous tele-
phone-threats and insults, .a cemetery desecration, the
distribution of anti-Jewish pamphlets, the daubing of
anti-Semitic slogans and reports from high schools and
elementary schools of racist comments and jokes.
A survivor from Bergen-Belsen, Dr. Leon Feller, is
quoted by Vinocur as deploring the fact that "we thought
that with time the old Nazis would just disappear —
biologically just die off, you know — and that Germany
would be a good place. But now we have Nazis again, and
they are young ones. That is very disturbing."
Quoted also is the Hannoversche Algemeine Zeitung
which called the incidents as "reminiscent of early days of
the Hitler Storm Troopers."
Vinocur reports: "Moviegoers have found leaflets read
`Don't buy from Jews' on their seats, and shop windows
have been smeared with such words as 'Jews Out.' "
Non-Jewish friends of Jews also are reported to be
targets of the new Nazi emergence, and the dangers that
lurk for the 26,000 Jews who have survived out of a total of
600,000 at the advent of Hitlerism is an amazing indication
of the manner in which the anti-Semitic mind works. No
matter how few the Jews, they must be hated.
"The authorities have essentially told us to be quiet
and not to do anything to dramatize the situation so as
not to make it worse," said Bruno Grunfeld, a member
of the Jewish Community Council. "But it is dramatic
— because nothing has happened like this in 30 years.
It is vicious."
Isn't the lesson clear, that a Nazi can not be given free
reign anywhere, that the platform is not for the hatemo-
nger?
Although two arrests have been made, the commu-
nity described the police as appearing "less than
enthusiastic" in their investigations. Chief Inspector
Karl Heinz Seim of the Hanover police asserted,
Yes, they are few and far between, but they have a
legacy of growth when a Hitler is permitted to shout his
wares and to instigate to murder. Lunatics must be treated
as lunatics. There are no two ways about it.