° E Friday, April 6, 1919

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

German Debate Opens on Statute of Limitations

BONN (JTA) — The long
awaited debate over the sta-
tute of limitations opened in
the Bundestag last week
with an impassioned plea by
West German Chancellor
Helmut Schmidt for its
abolition so that Nazi war
criminals still at large will
not escape justice when the
statute expires on Dec. 31
this year.
"I am against limitation,"
, Schmidt declared. "We do
not know how many Nazi
crimes will be discovered in
the coming days and years
and we could not bear it if
the murderers would stand
up and say 'yes, I did it,' "
once they became immune
to prosecution.
"My opinion is based on
the conviction that the de-
liberate destruction of
human life cannot be un-
done by the passage of
time," he said. He said he
also had iri mind the in-
crease in crimes by mem-
bers of the extreme right
wing. But Schmidt stressed
that the members of Parli-
ament will be free to vote
their conscience on this
issue which has cut across
party lines.
Schmidt said that many
Jewish organizations and
the governments of Israel
and Poland had appealed to
Bonn to abolish the statute.

But, he said, "the decision is
up to us."
Johan Baptist Gradl, a
member of the opposition
Christian Democratic
Union, also spoke against
the statute. He observed
that nobody could say what
new documents will be
found in the future attest-
ing to war crimes.. Nobody
in the world would under-
stand if Nazi crimes go un-
punished, he said.
"They are not forgotten.
We cannot slough off the
history of our people and we
must understand that many
nations, east and west, now
are recalling the Nazi era,"
he said.
In Canada, Secretary of
State for External Affairs
Donald Jamieson has as-
sured the Canadian Jewish
Congress that the govern-
ment would bring the con-
cerns of "many thousands of
Canadians about the sta-
tute of limitations to the at-
tention of the German goy-
. ernment at the earliest
suitable occasion."
Jamieson spoke in re-
sponse to a letter from
Rabbi Gunther Plaut,
president of the CJC, urging
Canada to join the 21
member states of the Coun-
cil of Europe in calling on
West Germany not to per-
mit the statute of limita-

tions on war crimes pros-
ecution to go into effect Jan.
1, 1980.
The Harvard Jewish Law
Students Association an-
nounced that a petition con-
taining the names of about
200 deans and faculty
members of leading Ameri-
can law schools was deliv-
ered last Thursday to the
West German consulates in
Boston and New York urg-
ing repeal of the statute.
One of the signatories,
Prof. Alan M. Dershowitz
Harvard Law School, said
the petition "indicates that
the broadly-based consen-
sus of the American legal
community supports the ex-
tension or repeal of the sta-
tute of limitations. Few
civilized countries have a

statute of limitations even
for simple murder. For
Germany to, in effect, create
a statute of limitations for
genocidal murder violates
commonly accepted princi-
ples of justice."
In New York, Rabbi Ar-
thur Schneier, president of
the Appeal of Conscience
Foundation, and Jacques
Torczyner, a member of the
Executive of the World
Zionist Organization, :
American Section; pre
dicted that "the extension of
the statute of limitations for
capital crimes will be
adopted by the Bundestag
by a slim majority."
Both men recently re-
turned from a 10-day fact-
finding visit to West Ger-
many where they had meet-

Applaud Carter

ings with Chancellor
Schmidt and with leaders of
the Bundestag, the various
political parties and leaders
of the Catholic, Protestant
and Jewish communities.

NEW YORK — President
Carter has been awarded
Atherican Mizrachi
Women's "America-Israel
Friendship" Award, an-
nounced AMW national
President Sarah Shane.

Call for Justice

By MERIAM MARGOLIS

You, who power seek to wield,
Listen, and hear us well -
We are the tiny nation,
The state of Israel!

Called, the stiff-necked people
Of resolute persistence,
We are the tenacious ones
Of unmatched resistance.

Though small are we in numbers
Our courage great tales can tell -
We are not the Ghetto Jews,
We're proud Jews of Israel!

Look at us, our knees not bent,
Our backs are firm and straight.
We stand for life, not suicide
You shall not twist our fate!

Forged in bitter struggles
Our will is iron strong.
We weigh each plan you offer
And must reject what's wrong.

Our goal is peace with justice!
No matter how hard you press
This is the price _we're asking
And we'll settle for no less!

We loathe the thought of battle
We hate bloodshed and strife,
But we'll defend our freedom
As dear to us as life!

1

-

—444

•

This postcard was distributed widely by the
Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies at
Yeshiva University in Los Angeles. Addressed to
Chancellor Helmut Schmidt, Bonn, West Germany,
the card is being mailed by opponents of Germany's
Statute of Limitations on War Crimes, asking that the
statute be extended or abolished.
The Jewish Community Council of Metropolitan
Detroit has learned that the above post card is not
being accepted by the West German post office be-
cause of the picture. The Jewish Community Council
is urging persons to send their own post cards or call
the council (962-1880) for a post card. Twenty-one
cents poilage is required to mail the cards to Ger-
many.
* *

,••

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WASHINGTON Uri A) — in a planned program of
President Carter issued a extermination. These
proclamation designating crimes have few if any
April 28 and 29 as "Days of equals in history."
Remembrance of Victims of
Noting that he visited
the Holocaust" and called Yad Vashem during his re-
upon Americans to join him cent visit to Jerusalem, the
in remembering the murder , President said: "I vowed
of six million Jews and mil- then, and I repeat now, that
lions of other people by the the world must never per-
Nazis and in vowing to pre- mit such events ever to
vent a repetition of crimes occur again. We must never
against humanity.
forget these crimes against
Carter, who issued the humanity. We must study
proclamation in response to and understand the record
a Congressional resolution of the Holocaust. From this,
passed last September, de- we must learn to remain et-
clared:
ernally vigilant against all
"Words alone cannot tyranny and oppression."
convey the shock and
horror, that accompanied Scholar Named
the tangible evidence of
NEW YORK Rabbi
the Nazi regime's sys- Yaakov Perlow, dean of
tematic program of Talmudic Studies and rosh
genocide. Dachau and yeshiva at the Rabbi Sam-
other death-centers like son Raphael Hirsch
Buchenwald, Auschwitz Yeshiva in New York City,
and Treblinka were the has been elected to the Rab-
means by which the Nazi binical Administrative
regime murdered six mil- Board of Torah Umesorah,
lion Jewish people and the National Society for
millions of .other victims • Hebrew Day Schools:

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