64 Friday, August 24, 1919
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Hebron: 50 Years Since Frenzied Arabs Killed Jewish Residents
o
By SHOLOM MORGAN
World Zionist Organization
JERUSALEM — Hebron,
reputed to be one of the old-
est cities in the world,
played a vital role in the
early history of the Israel-
ites. It was the residence of
the biblical patriarchs, and
King David's capital before
he took Jerusalem. From
the time of the return from
Babylon and up to the
Crusades, there seems to
have been a Jewish
presence in Hebron. At the
end of the last century Jews
made up some 10 percent of
the population.
Abraham, Isaac and
Jacob and their wives
Sarah, Rebecca and Leah
are buried in the cave of
Machpela in Hebron and
the Talmud says it was the
last resting place of Adam
and Eve.
Access to the traditional
site of the cave, a most sac-
red shrine (also to Muslims
and Christians), was denied
to Jewish pilgrims from
1948 to 1967, until it was
occupied by Israeli soldiers.
The town of Kiryat Arba (an
alternative name for Heb-
ron in ancient times) was
established near Hebron in
1968.
This month marks the
50th anniversary of the
1929 Arab riots, in which
the Jewish community of
Hebron was killed or dis-
persed.
The story of the massacre
makes grim reading. In the
summer of 1929, there had
been Arab' riots against
Jews in other parts of Pales-
tine. No one is certain just
what precipitated them:
speculation is that broken
promises to the Arabs by
British Mandate author-
ities were largely responsi-
ble.
Unlike many parts of
Palestine, Hebron at that
time was composed of a
heterogeneous group of
Jews consisting of
Ashkenazim, Sephardim,
Chabad, as well as many
yeshivot, including the
world-famous Slobodka
Yeshiva, in which many
foreign students studied.
Shortly before the mas-
sacre, several sympathetic
Arabs warned the Jews of
Hebron that riots could
break out at any time. They
cautioned the Jews to be
particularly careful after
Moslem religious services
on Friday night, the 18th of
Av, when the Arabs were
exhorted by the Koran dur-
ing their prayers to wage a
"holy war" against enemies.
A few Jewish residents
heeded the warning and left
Hebron; most simply ig-
nored it.
One man who did not
ignore the warning was
the vice mayor and only
Jewish member of the
Hebron Municipal Com-
mittee, Mr. Slonin. The
Slonin family was well-
respected in the commu-
nity for their philan-
thropy. Slonin was also
the founder and owner of
the Anglo-Jewish Bank,
the forerunner to Bank
Leumi.
Taking the warning seri-
ously, Slonin contacted
British Mandate suthorities
iiw4eggwI rior•
Shown are the new markers which were corn-
memorated this month o ver the graves of the Jewish
victims of the 1929 Arab riots in Hebron.
to express his concern for and one of his two daugh-
the safety of Hebron's Jews. ters were ruthlessly kil-
They reassured Slonin that led, along with 15 others
the Jews would be protected who sought refuge in
and told him not to worry.
what they believed to be
Slonin and the Jews of the safest place in Heb-
Hebron probably slept well ron.
that Friday night. Little did
The band of a few
they realize that when they
would arise the next morn- hundred Arabs then turned
ing, they would be seeing its fury toward Beit Hadas-
sah. Part of the out-patient
their last sunrise.
Early Saturday morning, clinic was a pharmacy
an Arab from Jerusalem owned by Shlomo Gershon,
ran through the streets of who dispensed free drugs to
indigent Arabs and Jews.
Hebron proclaiming that
Gershon's
eyes were gouged
the Jews of Jerusalem had
out and he was tortured to
just murdered all the Arabs
of the Holy City. From that death as his eight-year-old
daughter watched from her
moment on, the genocide
hiding place under a bed.
and terror began.
Another Jewish man was
Angry Arab mobs
armed with sticks and brutally murdered at an
unknown location when the
knives first invaded the
gang
held his face against a
house of Slonin, the one
lit bunsen burner.
man most people be-
lieved would not be
(The occupation of Beit
harmed. Slonin, his wife
Hadassah by 37 women and
Korczak Memoirs Published in English
NEW YORK — Most
Jewish commentators see
Dr. Janusz Korczak as an
"ish gadol," a hero of the
people, for in a sense, deeds
speak louder than words.
On Aug. 5, 1942, Dr.
Korczak, then 64 and in
poor health, and his assis-
tant, Stefania Wilczynska,
accompanied 200 orphan
children and personnel from
their Jewish orphanage in
the Warsaw Ghetto to the
Nazi concentration camp in
Treblinka, where they were
all exterminated.
But Polish commentators
— at a recent symposium at
the Polish Institute of Arts
and Sciences in America,
New York — recall the "Old
Doctor" as the author of
more than 20 volumes of
short stories, novels,
dramas (mainly about chil-
dren), radio talks, and his
career as a physician,
philosopher, pedagogue,
with an ability to communi-
cate with children in simple
language about painful,
complex problems. His spe-
cial ability is documented in
"The Warsaw Ghetto
Memoirs of Janusz Korczak
(University Press of
America).
Recipient of the German
Book Trade Peace Prize in
1972, he was honored by
UNESCO, which pro-
claimed 1978 as "Janusz
Korczak Year" — a fitting
prelude to the international
observance of 1979 as the
International Year of the
Child.
In a life of selfless dedi-
cation to others, chil-
dren's rights occupied
most of Dr. Korczak's
time and writings. He
fought against physical
and psychological abuse,
against molding children
according to state, reli-
gious or social class
interests — rights still not
fully secured in East
European countries
which honored him in
1978 when a bust of
Korczak was unveiled in
Treblinka.
His "Memoirs" were writ-
where 100,000 Jews
perished from hunger and
disease alone.
Under these conditions
Korczak worked to create
some semblance of a toler-
able environment. School-
ing, work assignments,
children's court, games, di-
versions, and even a news-
paper functioned in the face
of sickness and fright. At
night, surrounded by his
sleeping children, he would
write trying to find some
reason for all this madnes -§.
Toward the end, de-
spair, hopelessness, and
JANUSZ KORCZAK
a presentiment of the
ten in the last year of final tragedy facing his
Korczak's life and under the orphans crept into his
most unfavorable condi- notes. They became more
tions for himself and for his brief, more cryptic and
orphans.
evasive — the inevitable
He was director of an or- was drawing near. The
phanage housing some 200 last entry begins: "I am
children, age 5-17, in the watering my flowers ..."
Jewish ghetto. Terror, re-
When it became apparent
prisals, starvation, round- that the end was in sight,
ups, on-the-spot executions, friends made plans for
beatings, lockups, forced Korczak's escape: But he
labor — these were daily preferred to remain with his
conditions in the ghetto, children.
Korczak's "Memoirs," ex-
cellently translated and
annotated by E.P. Kulawiec
of George Washington Uni-
versity, with pertinent
background notes, offer
more than just a brief in-
sight into those final terri-
ble days. It also is a docu-
ment which reveals the rare
human being Janusz
Korczak was.
children from Kiryat Arb a
Recent press reports indi-
to stress Jewish rights i n eating that the original
Hebron, as well as in thei ✓ gravesites of the 1929 mar-
own nearby town, mad e tyrs were recently dis-
headlines some thre e covered by the military gov-
months ago. The old build - ernment are totally inaccu-
ing had served as a combi
rate, according to Yigal
nation synagogue, Talmu d Klein, Hebron tour guide
Torah and clinic.)
and expert on Hebron Kis-
Where were the Britis h tory. Klein said Prof. Ben
Mandate authorities dur - Tziyon Tavger, a physicist
ing the carnage? Nor - from ...the USSR, found
mally, British police car
stones of the graves while
ried guns and ammuni
digging on his own in mid-
tion to protect them - 1975. He was assisted by
selves and residents. Bu t Rabbi Zalmon Kore
on that fateful Saturda y possessed burial rem
f
morning, only one British the period recorded by he
policeman could be seen burial society.
— carrying a baton.
The town of Kiryat
Two yeshiva students , Arba recently com-
whose colleagues' bodies lay memorated the 50th an-
mutilated on the floor , niversary of the mas-
managed to escape. One was sacre (Aug. 12). Cere-
murdered by a pursuing monies included an ex-
Arab gang, but the other hibition of 4,000 years of
managed to approach the Hebron history, dating
policeman
w ith
a back from the time of Ab-
passionate plea for assis- raham; the unveiling of
tance. The policeman re- the graves of the martyrs
sponded that since he had in the old Jewish
no weapons, there was noth- graveyard in Hebron;
ing he could do. Oddly tours of the original
enough, the terror, which Jewish community sites
began at 9 a.m., abruptly in Hebron; and the com-
ended at noon when the pletion of the writing of a
policeman mysteriously Torah scroll in memory
found his weapon and fired of the victims.
one shot into the air to dis-
The ceremonies recalled
perse and angry Arab mob one of the bloodiest episodes
that was approaching him. in the history of Arab at-
It was the only shot fired ,tempts to crush the Jewish
that day.
return to Zion by crude
When it was all over, 58 force.
Jews lay dead, their muti- — Fifty years after the mas-
lated bodies left for burial sacre, the great question is:
by the Hebron Burial Will the next half-century
Society. Nine others suc- see Jews and Arabs living
cumbed either en route or in together in peace in Hebron
Jerusalem hospitals and 60 and in the whole of Eretz
were wounded.
Yisrael?
Prison Camp Experience
Leads to Holocaust Project
ALBANY, N.Y. (JTA) —
Dr. Fred Crawford's experi-
ence as a non-Jew in a Nazi
prison camp in 1944 has led
to a unique "Witness to the
Holocaust" project at Emory
University's Center for Re-
search in Social Change in
Atlanta, Ga.
Now director of the
Emory Center and a profes-
sor of sociology, Crawford
left high school and enlisted
during World War II. When
his fighter plane was shot
down over Hungary, a
Nazi-inspired mob thought
he was a Jew and almost
lynched him, he told the
Jewish Telegraphic
Agency.
He was beaten, dragged
to the nearest poplar and
had a noose placed around
his neck. At that moment,
his dog tab flopped outside
of his shirt and the crowd
noticed that a small gold
cross was attached to it. De-'
ciding that perhaps he
wasn't Jewish, the mob
spared his life.
Crawford was incarc-
erated in a civilian prison
near Budapest, and he
watched through the
narrow window of his
cell each morning as
Jews were marched off to
be hanged. He later was
sent to Stalag 7A, a POW
camp near Dachau. His
camp and Dachau were
both liberated on the
same day, and Crawford
saw the death camp,
complete with boxcars of
bodies, on April 30, 1945.
Believing that the
Holocaust was a "unique
catastrophic event of mod-
ern history," Crawford and
Dr. David Blumenthal, pro-
fessor of Judaic Studies at
Emory, set up the "Witness
to the Holocaust" project in
the summer of 1978. To
trace the influence of the
Holocaust, they began to re-
cord the testimony of
liberators of Nazi concen-
tration camps.
. "We thought we'd have 10
liberators volunteer,"
Crawford told the JTA, "but
we had 30 names in one
month, 150 names vo
months and now w, ye
over 300 names." Inter-
views with these liberators
are being taped and trans-
cribed.
The purpose of the study
is two-fold: to add to the
existing historical tes-
timony concerning the
camps and their liberation
from a previously untapped
source, and to measure the
impact of the event on the
liberators themselves.
With the attempts to re-
write history and deny that
the Holocaust occurred,
Crawford feels it's impor-
tant to prove what hap-
pened with a source that
non-Jews will not reject.