THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
62 Friday, November 11, 1918
Local Woman Testifies in Maidanek Case
Ail Oak Park woman has
returned from West Ger-
many where she was a pros-
ecution witness last week in
the Maidanek concentra-
tion camp trial in Dussel-
dorf.
Mrs. Brenda Vinton Tes-
tified for a full day about at-
rocities committed by four
of 14 former Nazi guards
who are on trial. She also
attended a memorial cere-
mony at a Dusseldorf
synagogue commemorating
Krystallnacht.
Mrs. Vinton, who was
taken to Maidanek from
Warsaw after the Warsaw
Ghetto Uprising in 1943,
only spent three months in
Maidanek before being
transferred to Skarzysko
labor camp. She doubts that
she would have survived
Maidanek if she had re-
mained there.
Her father was shot in
the Warsaw Ghetto; her
mother died at Treblinka
and her brother died at
Maidanek.
"I really did not want to
go to testify," she said, "but I
don't think I could live with
my conscience if I did not
go."
Mrs. Vinton's cousin,
Mrs. Rose Minc of Oak
Park, was also scheduled to
testify. German defense at-
torneys objected, however,
claiming the two cousins
may have discussed the case
after Mrs. Vinton's tes-
timony. Mrs. Minc was not
permitted to address the
court.
Mrs. Vinton said the
German people seemed to be
unsympathetic to the Nazis.
There were banners in Dus-
seldorf proclaiming the
commemoration of Krys-
tallnacht and the witnesses
were interviewed by the
German media.
She was outraged, how-
ever, that the 14 defendants
in the trial are free on bail.
She said the 27-year-old son
of one of the witnesses as-
saulted one of the defen-
dants on the street outside
the courtroom last week, demonstrated in Cologne in
sending the woman defen- front of the home of former
SS Col. Kurt Lischka who is
dant to the hospital.
A New York Times report expected to go on trial
on the Maidanek trial this shortly for his role in the
week said the trials are deportation of Jews from
dragging into their fourth France during the Nazi oc-
year. The report by John cupation. The group was
Vinocur said the 28 defense headed by Serge Klarsfeld.
He and his wife, Beate, have
lawyers have used every
available tactic to delay the been active in tracking
trial. A verdict is not ex- down Nazi war criminals.
The demonstration was to
pected until 1981.
remind
the public of Lisch-
'There were numerous
ka's role in Krystallnacht.
ceremonies marking Nov. 9
as the 40th anniversary of He was then chief of the
the infamous "Night of Gestapo's office for Jewish
affairs.
Broken Glass" — Krys-
The demonstrators car-
tallnacht, when the Nazis
destroyed thousands of ried banners noting that
Lischka was directly re-
German Jewish shops and
sponsible for the mass ar-
synagogues.
rests of Jews in Germany in
German chancellor Hel-
June and November 1938
mut Schmidt spoke in Col-
and their incarceration in
ogne, saying that today's
concentration camps. He
Germans, "mostly innocent
also directed the deporta-
as individuals," still bear
tion of thousands of Polish
the responsibility of the
Jews from Germany under
Holocaust.
brutal conditions on Oct. 28,
He said the Germans and
1938.
the German churches of • There were a number of
World War II kept silent out
observances in New York
of fear. He also mentioned
commemorating Krys-
the growing dispute over tallnacht, including pro-
extension of the German
grams by the United Jewish
statute of limitations on Appeal; the American Fed-
war crimes, scheduled to go eration of Jewish Fighters,
into effect at the end of Camp Inmates and Nazi
1979.
Victims; and the Jewish
Schmidt said Germany Community Relations
would consult with Israel Council of Nev York.
Six persons staged a sit-in
and other nations before
making a decision on at the West German Consu-
whether or not to extend the late in New York until the
counsel general agreed to
statute of limitations.
At the same time, 20,000 meet with them.
Identified as members of
persons led by former con-
centration camp inmates the International Commit-
marched through Cologne tee Against Nazism, the
demanding that the statute group was protestille the
statute of limitations pro-
of limitations be extended.
Fifty French Jews vision.
**
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West German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt, left, is
shown with Werner Nachman, chairman of the Cen-
tral Committee of Jews in Germany, at Cologne cere-
monies marking the anniversary of Krystallncaht.
Negev May Get Egyptian Water
TEL AVIV (ZINS) — An
Egyptian proposal to sell Is-
rael water from the Nile
River has drawn considera-
ble interest.
Israeli experts say the
country is on the brink of a
severe water shortage and
that Nile water can help de-
velop the Negev and relieve
the shortage. A water
pipeline has been estimated
to cost $300 million and
take 5-10 years to complete.
Vietnamese Refugees Reported
Faring Well Living in Israel
By ROB WADE
From United Jewish Appeal
JERUSALEM — Rescued
from the Gulf of Thailand by
an Israeli freighter and
taken to Israel when no
other country would have
them, 66 Vietnamese cas-
taways have spent the past
15 months rebuilding their
lives in ways remarkably
similar to the absorption of
the 1.6 million Jewih im-
migrants who have reached
Israel through the years
with the aid of community
fund-raising campaigns in
the U.S. and other free
world countries.
More than a year after
they-set sail off the coast of
Vietnam, the refugees are
deeply involved in the ab-
sorption process, the Jewish
Agency's program for trans-
forming newly arrived im-
migrants into full-fledged
Israelis.
"My people are well-
settled and building a new
life here," said Dr. Hoa
Tran-Quang, the 33-year-
old physician, a central fig-
ure in their escape who acts
as spokesman and om-
budsman for the group.
After their arrival in
June 1977, the Viet-
namese were sent to an
immigrant absorption
center in Ofakim, a de-
velopment town west of
Beersheba. There they
studied Hebrew at' an
ulpan for two months and
some began their search
for jobs and permanent
housing.
A major problem arose,
however, when many
applied for visas to live in
the United States. When
these proved to be slow in
coming, some applicants
went through a period of de-
pression.
Dr. Hoa says that those
who applied were afraid
they would fail to adapt to
life in Israel. Now he con-
tends, many would change
their minds about moving to
the United States if their
visas came through. Only
three received visas thus far
and two have left, but their
ranks were quickly re-
plenished with two births.
Tran Thi Phuc, a pretty
24-year-old hostess at the
Jerusalem Hilton who is
known there as Peony, has
aunts in America who want
her to join them, and she is
an official applicant. "But I
think I will stay here," she
says now. "This country is
very nice and I want to stay
here and work."
By next year, with
enough Hebrew at her
command, she hopes to
be able to continue her
studies in law, begun be-
fore the Communist
takeover in Saigott.
Today, the refugees have
scattered throughout the
country in a wide 'variety of
jobs. Some a: e working as
waiters and cooks in
Chinese restaurants in Tel
Aviv and Jerusalem. One is
a dentist in Tel Aviv, an-
other a dental technician.
One drives a truck in the
Sinai desert and two women
MISS TRAN
are working as nurses in
Haifa.
The Absorption Ministry
has arranged housing for
them, sending about 30 to
the Tel Aviv area, including
a number to the suburb of
Azor, where they live in a
typical Israeli neighbor-
hood of multi-storied
apartment buildings. An-
other group lives in Central
Tel Aviv.
Ten children, none of
whose parents escaped with
the group, were sent to Kfar
Hanoar, a youth aliya cen-
ter in Haifa, where they will
be able to complete their
high school studies, learn a
profession and perfect their
knowledge of Hebrew.
No Jews Built
Egypt's Pyramids
JERUSALEM (ZINS) —
On at least one contested
point of "history" between
President Sadqt and Pre-
mier Begin, the Egyptian
was more correct than the
Israeli.
Begin had said that
President Carter was
struggling mightily at
Camp David for "our ances-
tors who built the pyramids
in Egypt." Sadat, on the
other hand, denied that this
has. any historical basis in
fact.
Egyptologist Dr. Irna
Maramak, of the Hebrew
University in Jerusalem,
declared that Sadat is right.
She cited several well-
known researchers who are
convinced that the
pyramids of Egypt were
erected around 2500 BCE.
The Jew (Hebrews) came to
Egypt no earlier than 1800
BCE, when the pyramids
were already standing in
their place.
The Israelites were
engaged in the building up
of the cities of Pithom and
Ramses, as described in th
first chapters of the Book of
Exodus.
Israel Population
Hits 3.7 Million
JERUSALEM (ZINS) —
On the eve of Rosh Hashana
Israel's population was re-
Nrted to have reached
3,708,300. This included
3,118,200 Jews and 590,100
non-Jews.
The Jewish population
increased 56,800 over the
previous year (1.9 percent)
while the non-Jewish popu-
lation increased 9,100 (3.3
percent).