THE JEWISH NEWS LSPS 275 520 Incorporating The Detroit Jewish Chronicle commencing with the issue of July 20, 1951 Member American Association of English-Jewish Newspapers, Michigan Press Association, National Editorial Association Published every Friday by The Jewish News Publishing Co., 17515 W. Nine Mile, Suite 865, Southfield, Mich. 48075 Postmaster: Send address changes to The Jewish News, 17515 W. Nine Mile, Suite 865, Southfield, Mich. 48075 Second-Class Postage Paid at Southfield, Michigan and Additional Mailing Offices. Subscription $15 a year. PHILIP SLOMOVITZ CARMI M. SLOMOVITZ Editor and Publisher ALAN HITSKY News Editor Business Manager HEIDI PRESS Associate News Editor DREW LIEBERWITZ Advertising Manager Sabbath Scriptural Selections This Sabbath. the 15th day of Shevat, 5740, is Tu b'Shevat and the following scriptural selections will be read in our synagogues: Pentateuchal portion. Exodus 13:17-17-16. Prophetical portion, Judges 4:4-5:31. Candle lighting. Friday, Feb. I, 5:29 p.m. VOL. LXXVI, No. 22 Page Four Friday, February 1, 1980 HOLOCAUST AS GUIDELINE Human values sank to their lowest depth give added status to the special commission he under Nazism, during World War II, when an had selected to assure that the sufferings under indifferent world became an ally to the forces Nazism are not forgotten. The purpose of such that caused the Holocaust. memorializing is that there shall never again be More than 12 million people perished, 6 mil- a repetition of anything resembling the lion of them Jews, as victims of Hitlerism. Holocaust. Now, with the horrors confronting so many Nevertheless, the seeds of the inhumanity of more nations, with the agonies of the Holocaust man to man are visible again. In Southeast pursuing the conscience-stricken, the mass Asia, in Afghanistan, in. Iran, in other lands murders of the last world war now serve as where medievalism retains its roots, the warnings to the nations of the world that the menace of the past retains its image. unconscionable must not be permitted to domi- nate mankind, that unless there is concern lest Therefore, the warning that "Never Again" the bestialities are repeated, they may, indeed, as applied to the Holocaust must become the emerge anew as a menace to the world. motto of the civilized nations. Unless there is In his State of the Union message last week, unity on that score, the world can be subjected to President Carter spoke of implementing the fears which may develop into the realities of a proposals to memorialize the Holocaust and to re-emerging tragedy for all mankind. NAZIS AND LIMITATIONS West Germany's conscience was awakened during the lengthy debates over the statute of limitations for the prosecution of Nazi crimi- nals. The statute was abandoned, albeit by a rather small majority. But the decision of the legislators for the German people was to con- tinue the prosecutions and to punish the crimi- nals. Why didn't this decision serve as well and as forcefully as a guide for American action in dealing with escapees from punishments for crimes committed during the Nazi regime by those who acquired asylum illegally in this country? It is admitted that there are hundreds of Nazi criminals who have secured haven in this coun- try by lying when they came here. Among them is the Michigan clergyman Valerian Trifa. They are here under false pretenses. Their back- ground has become known. Yet they are pro- tected under false interpretations of the laws of the land or because they gained protection from American officials. There must be an end to the failure to bring to justice the many scores who have come here under the protection of industrialists or gov- ernment agencies who found it convenient to be the protectors of Nazis. They have therefore be- come supporters of Nazism. The demand for action is strong to end the imposed statute of limitations in this country. Nazis must be deported and brought to justice. There should be no delay in bringing the mass murderers to the punishments that should have been decreed or meted out long ago. AN OLYMPICS DANGER The hesitant who fear politicizing the Olym- pics as interfering with the glories of sport would do well to recall the tragedy of 1936 and the threat of a similar menace in Russifying the Olympics. An article in the current edition of "Freedom at Issue," published by Freedom House, con- tains this telling recollection: "Aleksey Orlow, in the Russian emigre jour- nal Kontinent, compares the Berlin 1936 Olympics to those of Moscow and speculates on the impression Americans will get of Soviet society. He remembers a New York Times head- line of Aug. 16, 1936: 'Visitors to Olympics Car- rying Away Highly Favorable Impression of Re- ich.' It was the striking cleanliness of the city, the well mannered guides and the great service that did it. And when today's tourists return to say, New York's filthy streets and dangerous subway, it may be hard for them to remember that clean streets, fresh paint and polite wait- resses cannot be used as an index of freedom and basic human rights or even success of a certain political system in any country. Certainly they did not count for much in the Berlin of 1936; what will they mean in the Moscow of 1980?" The application is direct and simple. The les- son is effective. Who, under such circumstances, would want a great sports event to be held in the USSR? WHEN NATIONS COMMUNICATE Historic occurrences are on the calendar of countries. events in the Middle East. Such is the civilized result from proper coin- While the free nations must defend them- munications between nations. When people selves against the Communist threats emerg- speak to each other as neighbors they can as- ing from an effort to dominate the Persian Gulf, sure amity and peace. In the other spheres there there are joyous developments on the Israeli- is a quest for power. That's where the trouble Egyptian border. Ambassadors are being ex- begins and ends: in the USSR aim to dominate. changed and El Al Israel Airlines and Egyptair That's what the civilized in mankind will not have begun tourist flights between the two permit. `Encountering the Holocaust' Links Historic Experiences Searching for meaning in the Holocaust horrors, declaring that "no work we can read can be definitive, no scholar can be considered the authority," Byron L. Sherwin, co-editor with Susan G. Ament of "Encountering the Holocaust" (Impact Press), presents essays by the most noted scholars on the subject to provide necessary studies of the age of horrors under Nazism. The importance of this volume, distributed for Impact Press by Hebrew Publishing Co., is the eminence of the authoritative writers. Exemplary is the essay by Dr. Helen Fine, entitled "Socio- Political Responses During the Holocaust." Dealing with "Actions and Reactions of Allies, Axis Partners and Neutrals to the Destruc- tion of European Jewry," Dr. Fine draws upon historic experiences to draw this conclusion: "German allies' and satellites' response to German pressure to deport their Jews was first a function of how consonant the German's end goal of eliminating the Jews was with the ideology of the state's ruling class or elite. This could best be predicted by the degree to which anti-Semitic programs had been incorporated by the state (signified by adoption of the numerus clausus, other discriminatory legislation, or divesting Jews of civil equality) and such movements had attained a mass audience, there was no resistance. "The Church proved to be the criticallegitimaiing institution in all states. All instances where states refused to collaborate, or did not implement agreements to deport, were instances in which the head of the dominant church in that state had protested categorically and very early against deportation and/or previous discrimination against Jews. Roman Catholic Church heads in states allied to Ger- many were less likely to protest categorically than were non-Roman Catholic Church heads (ranking only states where each church was dominant); predominantly Roman Catholic states produced substan- tially more victims than did non-Roman Catholic states among Ger- man allies. Adding up the Jewish population in Roman Catholic and non-Roman Catholic Axis states separately, we find that three- quarters of the almost 1,000,000 Jews in Croatia, Slovakia, Hungary and Italy became victims as compared to less than half (48.5 percent) of Jews in Finland, Bulgaria and Romania in 1941. Dr. Fine summarizes: "Why was rescue of the Jews believed by high Allied officials to be contrary to other war goals — diversionary — even when it was within their capacity and little cost was involved, e.g., in the request to bomb the lines to Auschwitz? No satisfactory answer has yet been given, but several plausible hypotheses can be proposed. The evidence shows that Germany was successful in persuading the western world that the Jewish problem' was constituted by the Jews' existence itself: hence, the more Jews there were, the greater the problem. Denying any claims to aid Jews by labeling their requests as dis- criminatory or diversionary demands insured that one would not increase the number of Jews in one's sphere of influence. "Systematic denials also made it less likely that the Jewish community of the Allies' homelands would press claims either unac- ceptable to those nations' constituencies or adversely influencing the loyalty of subject populations which the Allies were seeking to woo. Marie Syrkin contributes an important chapter to the Holocaust series in this volume. She deals with the diaries of the Nazi victims, referring to Anne Frank, touching significantly on Emanuel Ringelblum and others. Much value in this volume will be found in the compilation of data about Holocaust poetry, novels, short stories, dramas, films, music and art. In its totality, "Encountering the Holocaust" is a valuable addi- tion to the literature on the Holocaust.