THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

2 Friday, March 30,1979

Purely Commentary

The Rights Granted in the Knesset to Communists
and Arabs Prove Israel's Role as a - Democracy

By Philip
Slomovitz

The Genuine Democracy Demonstrated by Israel

Peace could be a strong permanence or a fragile dream.
Like any other diplomatic scheme, it can be shattered on a moment's notice.
What is there to prevent any government from breaking relations with another with
whom it might have had the best relations for a long time?
This applies to peace.
Yet, as in the instance of the agreement between Israel and Egypt, there is a chance
that what might be objectionable in some situations here will become a necessity:
pressure from all sides.
If the moral pressures, Israeli, Egyptian and American, and public opinion in
support of good relations from the rest of the world will add to the urgency for a lasting
accord, then there is a good chance. that the peace attained will last.
Then there also will be the excellent chance of enrolling other Arab states in the
amity that is so vital for the entire Middle East.
Something basic was proven in the past few weeks. Many of the deliberations that
have led to agreement confirmed by the Knesset on March 22 were in secrecy. This is

inevitable. But the final act, the approval of Israel's parliament, was in the open. It even.
was televised. The whole world could hear the praise and the diatribes, the glory and the
despair, that marked the debate that lasted 28 hours. It proved one thing: that Israel is a
true democracy.
Not many democratic countries permit the seating of Communists as members of
their parliaments. This is almost inconceivable in the U.S. Congress. Israel has them and
grants them the right to speak. They were abusive in the Knesset debate, but they had
the right to exercise their legislative rights.
It is difficult to judge whether all Arabs residing in Israel and benefiting from her
freedoms appreciate them and are loyal to the country that grants them. Yet there are
Arabs in the Knesset and they speak their minds. That's the democratic code in Israel.
It is too early to judge the peace commencing in Israel. It may prove costlier than war.
But there are the assurances that there will not be war any more between Israel and
Egypt, that they will confer on differences like good neighbors. That's what counts. That'
what is to be enforced. For it there is cause for rejoicing. Blessed be the days of peace!

Anne Frank and the Lost Message of the Holocaust

By JOAN CAMPION

(Copyright 1979, JTA, Inc.)

(Editor's note: Joan
Campion is a gentile
free-lance author living
in Bethlehem, Pa. She has
been active in inter-
group relations activities
and has been very cony
cerned with anti-
Semitism since World
War II. She has visited
Jordan and Israel. She is
now actively seeking a
national commemoration
in June of the 50th an-
niversary of Anne
Frank's birth.)
The familiar face gazes
clear-eyed at us from the
pages of the book, inno-
cently accusing. It is with a
shock that we realize that,
had she lived, Anne Frank
would have been 50-years-
old on June 12.
Because of her famous
"Diary of a Young Girl,"
Anne has become . almost
the quintessential victim of
Hitler's Holocaust. As such,
she has been honored, vil-
ified, denied by the no-
Holocaust groups who
would like to negate the
existence of a page of his-
tory they find inconvenient,
and perhaps above all sen-
timentalized.
It is just the tendency
toward sentimentality that
we must avoid. Otherwise,
we cannot hope to ask the
right questions about An-
ne's life and death, and
those of her Six Million fel-

-

low Jewish victims of what death, and the passion of any human being on reli-
gious or ethnic grounds is to
was beyond doubt the worst the Six Million other
unchecked rampage of evil Jews so methodically kil- open the door to contempt
for any other human being,
in the history of the human led."
on the same grounds, and to
race. In the words of Alice L.
It would be morally rep-
Eckardt, associate professor indifference to the suffer-
ings of anyone we see as
of religion studies at Lehigh rehensible
to suggest mur-
that
six million ideological
"different from" or "other
University:
ders can have redeeming than" ourselves. There is
significance. But it is still to
"It is all too easy to feel the point to ask whether all plentiful evidence of such
indifference and such con-
a sentimental pathos
tempt on a world-wide basis
P
when we look at the smil-
ing face of Anne Frank or
,-;,,,,,-5--today.
It could be argued that all
read her precocious
such contemporary 'man-
inner thoughts and
ifestations stem in the long
watch her maturing into
run from 2,000 years of the
a sensitive, loving teen-
anti-Semitism which is
i
ager. But the reality of
perhaps the root evil of
Anne Frank is that she
Western civilization. Very
was not allowed to grow
likely it was our conduct
to old age, or make mis-
toward the Jews that made
takes, or become either a
F
possible our treatment. of
famous somebody or a
other "contemptible"
forgotten nobody. Like
peoples, such as Africans,
1.5 million other Jewish
Asians and Amerindians.
children, she was sen-
Nowhere is the record
tenced to death for no
i
good. But more than any-
crime but that of having dr
thing else, it is the
`wrong grandparents.'
ANNE FRANK
Holocaust which was the di-
Even the courageOus
humanity of the few that suffering was in vain. rect, loathsome, scabrous
Dutch friends was not For if we have not learned logical consequence of such
enough to overcome the from the Holocaust the de- a history. And, though it
power of evil raging termination to prevent any- caught fivd million other
thing like it from recurring, victims in its web, that his-
across Europe.
"The real significance_ then Anne Frank and' her torical phenomenon was di-
of Anne's diary for us is fellow victims truly lose all rected primarily against
moral significance for us, Jews in its inception and in
its abrupt termination,
and the knowledge we the victims of a continuing its execution.
When the full enormity of
have of where and how denial of what being human
ought to mean.
what had been done was re-
her life — and dreams —
Unfortunately, the evi- vealed in terms that no sane
ended. If we piously cite
dente suggests that this is person could deny — al-
her belief that 'it will all
what is happening; and the though in recent days de-
come right ... and peace
consequences are not con- niers have been plentiful —
and tranquility will re-
fined to Jews. To despise a temporary revulsion set in
turn,' we dishonor her

against anti-Semitism. But from the outside world are
in the long run there is no likely to fall victim to a sec-
sign that it has abated; in- ond. In the event of such a
deed, it seems to be on the calamity, it is easy to im-
upswing in many parts of agine how many crocodile
the world. Some of the tears might be shed by some
examples are blatant — of the more disingenuous
Nazis marching in Ameri- members of the New Left.
can streets, or Soviet de-
Whatever our religious or
nials of exit visas to Jews political beliefs, or lack of
wishing to emigrate to Is- them, those of us who claim
rael or elsewhere.
any sort of moral under-
Other approaches are standing have moral re-
more subtle, such as that of sponsibilities we cannot.
the so-called "New Left." At evade. We have no right to
its most sophisticated, this , say to Jews, whether they
approach can take the form live in Israel or elsewhere,
of claiming to be "pro- "Wait until the Revolu-
Jewish but anti-Zionist," tion," or "Wait until the
and Israel is usually de- Second Coming" — when
picted as "an outpost of presumably all such super-
American imperialism."
ficial differences as nation-
Now there is, a course, a ality, religion, color and cul-
strong anti-Zionist trend in ture will cease to matter.
Jewish history, and this fact
We have no right to say
is often used by gentile New
that
to anyone, least of all to
Leftists as a polemical
the people we have most
weapon against Israel. But
harmed.
the fact is that anti-Zionism
For us, to be committed to
is not a luxury gentiles can
the rights of human beings
afford, at least not if we are
sincere in our affirmation of is to be committed to the
rights of Jews; and to be
the rights and dignity of all
committed to the rights of
human beings. It is gentile
history we gentiles must Jews must mean to be com-
mitted to the existence of
really come to terms with,
the state of Israel. Anything
not Jewish history; and it
else is, at best, self-delusion.
was gentile history — our
Anything else — and there
history — that led in an un-
is plenty of it in evidence —
wavering line straight to
makes it hard to escape the
Adolf Hitler.
conclusion that we have
There are now in Israel
learned nothing, not even
some 21/2-3 million Jews,
shame, from the sacrifice of
many of them victims of the
first Holocaust, who if they , Anne Frank and her fellow
Holocaust victims.
do not receive moral support

More Evidence Indicts Allies in Failure to Bomb Auschwitz

By MAURICE
SAMUELSON

LONDON (JTA) — Both
Prime Minister Winston
Churchill and Anthony
Eden, his wartime Foreign
Secretary, agreed in princi-
ple to bomb the Auschwitz
concentration camp to dis-
rupt the Nazi extermina-
tion program in 1944. How-
ever, the plan was foiled by
Foreign Office officials who
failed to pass valuable de-
tails of the camp to the
British Air Ministry.
The affair is described in
a forthcoming book by
British historian Bernard
Wasserstein who calls it "a
striking testimony to
bureaucracy's ability to
overturn ministerial deci-
sions."
The book, "Britain and
the Jews of Europe: 1939-

1945," which will be pub- was "advisable to inform
lished in the slimmer by Ox- the Secretary of State for
ford University Press, was Air that we do not wish to
commissioned by the Insti- pursue the idea." No refer-
tute of Jewish Affairs (IJA). ence was made to the re-
According to Wassers- quested topographical data,
tein, the Foreign Office's nor to the fact that the data
delaying action took had been received and
place after, at its own re- withheld by the Foreign
quest, it received from Office.
the Jewish Agency plans
A few weeks later, Paul
and descriptions of the Mason, the newly appointed
Auschwitz and Treblinka
head of the Foreign Office's
camps.
Refugee Department, dis-
On Aug. 18, 1944, I.J. covered the plans of Au-
Linton of the Jewish schwitz and Treblinka in
Agency sent the Foreign the files and wrote a memo
Office details of Auschwitz that the Foreign Office was
and Treblinka received "technically guilty of allow-
from the Polish Interior ing the Air Ministry to get
away with it without hav-
Ministry-in-Exile.
Instead of passing the de- ing given them the informa-
tails to the Air Ministry, tion they asked for as a pre-
however, Foreign Office of- requisite."
The Allies had other in-
ficials drew up a memoran-
dum which concluded that it formation identifying the

target. This was a report it says, for the refusal of re-
written by two Slovak quests to bomb the railway
Jews, Rudolf Vrba and from Hungary to Auschwitz
Alfred Wetzler, who es- to prevent the deportation
caped from AusChwitz on of the 800,000 Hungarian
April 17;1944, and gave Jews.
Jewish underground
It was claimed at the time
fighters in Slovakia a that these targets were out-
30-page report contain- side the range of Allied air
ing details of Auschwitz forces. However, American
and its extermination air raids did take place at
wing at Birkenau.
and near Auschwitz. David
This was passed to Dr. S. Wyman, in Commentary
Gerhart Riegner, the World magazine of May 1978, lists
Jewish Congress represen- many instances of heavy
tative in Geneva, who for- bombing between June 22,
warded it to the British, 1944, and Dec. 26, 1944. On
American and exiled Sept. 13, bombs aimed at
Czechoslovak governments. the nearby I.G. Farben
The IJA says that the lack plant accidentally landed in
of topographical data on the Auschwitz camp itself.
Following the dis-
Auschwitz was therefore no
explanation for the refusal covery of the aerial
by the U.S. and Britain to photographs in the U.S.,
carry out the bombing. Dietrich Strohmanp
There was even less excuse, wrote this month in the

West German magazine
Die Zeit that "between
July and October, 2,700 .
Flying Fortresses
dropped 6,600 tons of
bombs on the plants
Blechhammer and in
ertal. In these exploi ,
they regularly flew over
the gas chambers and
railway lines."
The IJA concludes:
The reason why the pleas
to bomb the camps or the
railway lines were rejected
is 'certainly not that the
now-discovered aerial
photos were overlooked or
misinterpreted at the time.
The reason is rather to be
sought in the low priority
accorded by the Allied
bureaucracy to the saving of
Jewish lives, and, for that
matter, the lives of many
other civilians."