S Friday, July 3, 1978

ME DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

.

`The Peace Ship' Explores Ford's Anti-Semitism

Henry Ford Sr. figured
"The humiliation en- Protocols of theWise Men of
dramatically in a quest for dured in the Tribune trial, Zion.'
peace. He had a dream and the failure of the peace ex-
"The entire series
in 1915 he inaugurated an pedition, the successful op- lasted several years and
effort to encourage an end to position to world disarma- was published in pam-
the war. The nationally ment and all his other frust- phlet and book form for
prominent social worker rations and disappoint- worldwide distribution.
Jane Addams induced him meats Ford blames on a (In support of the claim of
to his mission. While it was cabal of international the `Protocols' that Jews
generally believed that the Jewish bankers who were corrupted national in-
Jewess Rosika Schwimmer bent on world domination. stitutions in order to
was responsible for the mis- (His sister insisted he was dominate them, an article
sion, the story of Jane Ad- not anti-Semitic; "he called contended that jazz was a
dams in her vital role in this all the moneylenders of Jewish creation because
story is revealed in "The the world 'Jews,' " she 'the mush, the slush, the
Peace Ship" (Macmillan), explained, "regardless of sly suggestion, the aban-
told in this splendidlj, re- their religion.")
doned sensuousness of
searched story by Barbara
"Henry Ford's belief was sliding notes are of
S. Kraft.
common to rural people who Jewish origin.')
"Associates on the weekly
The detailed story is an grew up in a cultural and
important chapter in the political atmosphere that said Ford had wanted only
'to
expose an unethical
life of Henry Ford. -
was fearful of the unfamil-
The elder Ford's involve- iar and suspicious of what practice to the good Jews' so
'they could clean it up,' and
ment in anti-Semitism is could not be easily under-
was nonplused by the public
linked with the occurrences stood. Farmers found it
disapprobation and the
intertwined with the peace comforting to blame 'dark
boycott of the Model T that
ship pursuits. The author forces' — Wall Street his educational endeavor
tells the story of Rosika 'moneylenders' and 'inter-
had caused.
Schwimmer, Hungarian- national Jewish bankers' —
"However, Ford did not
born, who was listed as an for the perplexities of a stop publishing anti-
enemy alien when she left world market that kept
Semitic misinformation
her native land for England, them under constant obli- until he was sued by Aaron
later coming to the U.S. gation to their banks. Or
Sapiro, a Chicago attorney
where she became involved Ford may have heard of an and agricultural economist,
in the Ford ill-fated episode, alleged international
Jewish conspiracy during for defamation of character
Miss Kraft not only de- his early years in Detroit following a series of articles
scribes the events related
from the businessmen and which accused Sapiro of
to the peace ship and its
bankers who backed his master-minding a Jewish
takover of farm cooperative.
failures but also defines
early companies.
"At the trial, in 1927, the
the effects of the disap-
editor of the Dearborn Inde-
"In the midst of his tribu-
pointments upon Ford.
pendent took all the blame.
He had suffered chagrin lations, Ford bought a coun-
Ford had a minor auto-
over the libel suit he had try weekly, the Dearborn
instituted against the Independent, in order to
mobile accident the night
before he was to testify and,
Chicago Tribune, the combat his denigrators and
while the trial was delayed,
trial in Mt. Clemens, the educate public opinion with
settled out of court, agre-
verdict of six cents 'unbiased news.' In May
eing to make a public spol-
awarded him. Is this how 1920, Ford and Ernest G.
his anti-Semitism had Liebold began publishing a ogy, to never publish anti-
begun? Here is how Miss series of articles, 'The In- Semitic articles again and
to withdraw the book 'The
Kraft summarizes the ternational Jew: The
International Jew' from cir-
story of Ford's anti- World's Problem,' which in-
culation.
cluded an analysis of 'The
Semitism:

"The settlement was
politic, if not sincere; it
kept iord out of the wit-
ness box and it appeased
at least some of the public
who otherwise might
have boycotted his
brand-new Model A. At
the same time and for the
same reason Ford made a
similar settlement with
Herman Bernstein, a
member of the peace ex-
pedition.
"In 1921, on the sixth an-
niversary of the peace ship's
sailing, Ford had told repor-
ters he was publishing his
'International Jew' series
because 'two very promi-
nent Jews' on the Oscar II
had convinced him that
Jews 'controlled the world
through control of gold and
that the Jew, and no one but
the Jew, could stop the war.'
A few weeks later he iden-
tified Merman Bernstein as
one of the Jews, possibly be-
cause Bernstein, a foreign
correspondent and editor of
short-lived Jewish news-
papers, had just exposed the
'Protocols' in his book 'The
History of a Lie.'
"Bernstein's demands for
retraction were regarded as
publicity-seeking diver-
sions by Ford and Liebold
until Bernstein sued Ford
for $200,000 and success-
fully attached $65,000 of
Ford Motor Co. assets.
Bernstein withdrew the suit
two years later after Ford.
personally apologized and
made a monetary settle-
ment.
"In the aftermath of the
Independent adventure
the only one who suffered
permanent serious dam-
age was Ernest Liebold,

'the 'spark plug in the
Jewish series.' His influ-
ence with Ford and in the
company declined shar-
ply until he was finally
fired in the early 1940s.
"Liebold never doubted
the authenticity of the 'Pro-
tocols,' never considered a
single penny of the
$5,000,000 he encouraged
Ford to spend on his pub-
lishing venture wasted
(though he thought the
half-million spent on the
peace mission an unre-
deemed loss — 'an un-
economical thing that was
useless in the long run') and
never stopped believing in
an outgoing international
Jewish conspiracy to control
the world."
Miss Kraft explains the
background of the infamous
"Protocols of the Elders of
Zion," their Russian origin,
their expose by the London
Times as forgeries.
The story of Ford's as-
sociates and his own anti-
Semitic beliefs and cam-
paigns is told so thoroughly
that it covers the mul-
titudes of Ford's sins.
Miss Kraft also de-
scribes Ford's role as an
endorser of the views of
two other anti-Semites,
Father Charles Coughlin
and Gerald L.K. Smith.
Ford had employed the
Nazi leader and Hitler as-
sociate Fritz Kuhn and
later accepted a decora-
tion from the Hitler gov-
ernment.
In the aftermath of the
peace ship mission, Rosika
Schwimmer's activities are
described by Miss Kraft:
"Rosika Schwimmer re-
turned to Hungary in the
fall of 1916, and in the

spring went to Switzerland
as the special representa-
tive of Count Karolyi, a
Socialist member of parlia-
ment who was working for
an early and conciliatory
peace. In the tumult follow-
ing the downfall of the
Hapsburgs, Karolyi formed
a new government, and in
mid-November 1918 he ap-
pointed Mine. Schwimmer
minister to Switzerland, the
first woman to hold a high-
ranking diplomatic position
in modern times.
"Within a month she was
asked to resign. Though her
spending of state funds on a
fur coat, an expensive
apartment and a chauf-
feured limousine — all of
which she argued were
status symbols necessary to
a diplomat — was not ap-
preciated by her country-
men, many of whom were
starving, Rosika Schwim-
mer's downfall was not en-
tirely her own fault.
"She had the misfor-
tune of serving in a coun-
try that did not recognize
women's political rights,
and her usefulness as a
conduit to the Americans
at the Versailles peace
conference was nullified
by the anti-Semitic
American minister at
Berne, who would
neither see her, nor for-
ward her messages."
"The Peace Ship" story is
so dramatic that Miss
Kraft's book earns the rat-
ing of an important adden-
dum to history in the era of
Ford, his anti-Semitism and
the personalities who were
involved in the occurrences
in the post-World War I
period.
— P.S.

Jewish History, Holocaust Shown in Bucharest Synagogue Museum

Quarter of Bucharest,
Hadassah Magazine
where as many as 70
BUCHAREST — The houses-of-worship were in
Jews of this city observed active use before World War
Yom Ha-Shoah, the Day of II.
Remembrance, this year
The earliest artifacts
with a solemn pilgrimage to
a newly-opened museum on display in the series of
showcases
lining the
whose principal feature is a
spectacular exhibit on the walls of the synagogue
Holocaust years in are the original tablets
engraved with the names
Romania.
The Synagoga Mare a of Jewish legionnaires of
the
First Century. They
Croitorilor — the Great
Synagogue of the Tailors — were the kinsmen, or the
children,
of the heroes of
has been converted into a
museum of the 2,000-year Masada who fell in the
history of the Jewish people last, futile battle against
in this country. Their pre- the Romans in 73 CE; and
sence is recorded by hun- they were conscripted
dreds of artifacts — religi- into the Roman army for
ous objects, manuscripts, the invasion. and con-
scrolls and tablets — dating quest of Dacia (the an-
as far back as the Roman cient name for Romania),
conquest of Romania in the under the Emperor Tra-
First Century of the Com- jan, in 106 CE.
mon Era.
There are documents
The museum is at 3 Mau- from the time of Benjamin
lari St., in Vacaresti, the Tudela, the 12th Century
once-flourishing Jewish Jewish traveler from Spain,

By GABRIEL LEVENSON

who spent 14 years travers-
ing the then-known world to
record Jewish life and cus-
toms. There are paintings
by Constantin Rosenthal,
who died in the 1848 Re-
volution, fought against
Turkish rule and who is
honored today as a national
hero.
There are programs and
posters of the State Jewish
Theater, probably the best
Yiddish-speaking acting
company in the world,
whose antecedents were the
theater created by Av-
raham Goldfaden in Jassy,
Romania, in 1876 — the
first Yiddish theater any-
where.
Yellowed newspapers in
Romanian and Yiddish, in
the 1890's, recall the "Wal-
kers," the Romanian Jews
who fled the anti-Semitic
excesses of the government
at that time, journeyed on
foot all the way across

Europe, from Bucharest to
Hamburg, and took passage
there for freedom in
America.
Above all, dominating the
museum, are the grim
memorabilia of the
Holocaust in Romania.
First, there are the
items relating to the ini-
tial German takeover of
Romania, and the
constantly - increasing
pressure upon its Jewish
population . . . the yel-
low Stars of David, the
identity cards, the ration
cards limiting Jews
to ever-diminishing
amounts of foods, the
worthless paper money
issued in the ghettoes .. .
Then, there are the five
huge volumes of documents,
maps and photographs re-
lating to the major pogroms
directed against Romanian
Jews. The most infamous
was the massacre in Jassy,
in June 1941: the men of the
community were collected
in the courtyard of the
police headquarters and
machine-gunned to death.
Women and children were
herded into freight-cars and
left there to die of suffoca-
tion and hunger.
The Nazis themselves
compulsively photographed
these events; and their

Great Synagogu e of the Tailors
photographs, among other 0178. A simple message
items, have been preserved typed on a piece of white
in the five books on display.
cardboard tells the rest:
Six candles, a metaphor Reines Judiches Fett —
for the six million dead, pure Jewish fat!
throw light on a shallow
This is the soap the
box sheathed in black thrifty Germans provided
velvet. Inside the box are their soldiers to wash with;
nine, small, pale-yellow
and the numbers designate
bars of soap. Etched in the
the source of manufacture:
waxy surface of each bar is
0032, Treblinka; 0172, Bir-
an inscription: 0031, 0172, kenau; 0178, Auschwitz.