THE JEWISH NEWS

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Incorporating The Detroit Jewish Chronicle commencing with the issue of July 20, 1951

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CARMI M. SLOMOVITZ
Business Managv„.

PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
Editor and Publisher

ALAN HITSKY
News Editor

HEIDI PRESS
Associate News Editor

DREW LIEBERWITZ
Advertising Manager

Sabbath Scriptural Selections

This Sabbath, the 22nd day of Shecot, 5740. the following scriptural selections will be read in our synagogues:
Pentoteuchal portion. Exodus 18:1-20:23. Prophetical portion. Isaiah 6:1-7:6, 9:5-6.

Candle lighting. Friday, Feb. 8, 5:38 p.m.

VOL. LXXVI, No. 23

Page Four

Friday, February 8, 1980

HOLOCAUST RULING

A World Jewish Congress' Institute of Jewish
Affairs memorandum summarizes the German
Supreme Court ruling on the subject as declar-
ing: "Jews have a personal right to claim recog-
nition of their fate of persecution under the
Nazis; whosoever denies the murder of Jews in
the Third Reich offends every Jew."
Thus, the denial of the Holocaust is declared
an offense against every Jew.
Analyzing the ruling as a landmark, the
WJC-IJA research statement declares:
"An interesting aspect of the current case is
that it was decided not by a criminal court, on
the basis of the Penal Code's provision on insult,
but by the highest civil court as an application
for an injunction. The forthright language of the
judgment is not only a recognition of the feel-
ings and rights of Jews but can also serve as a
guideline to the German authorities in their
policy of trying to curb neo-Nazi activities."
The case itself was important. A student was
offended by a sign posted by a neighbor declar-
ing that the murder of 6,000,000 Jews by the
Third Reich was a "Zionist swindle," and that
the gassing of Six Million was a lie. The stu-
dent, whose one Jewish grandfather was mur-
dered in Auschwitz, secured a court injuntion
prohibiting the display of such Nazi prop-
aganda. The court ruling was upset on appeal
and the case reached the Supreme Court.
The original court decision was upset on the
ground that the student was neither a Jew nor a
victim of Nazi persecution. The appeals court
accepted the claims of the student's neighbor, a
gardener, that by referring to Zionists he did not
mean all Jews.
Restoration of the lower court's decision
against the neo-Nazi by the Federal Supreme
Court, the Bundesgerichtshof, was marked by a
ruling considered of unusual significance. It de-
clared:
"In calling the racist murder by the Nazis an
invention, the incriminated statements deny
the Jews the inhuman fate which they have
suffered on account of their origin . . . This
means an attack on the personality of the people
who have been singled out by the anti-Jewish
persecutions in the Third Reich. This unique
fate created for them a claim for regard and
respect by their fellow-citizens on whom the
burden of the past rests.
"The significance of those events goes far be-
yond the individual's personal experience of
discrimination and persecution. The historical
fact alone, that people could be singled out ac-
cording to their origin and — with the intention
of extermination — could be robbed of their
human individuality, establishes a special rela-
tionship between the Jews in Germany and
their fellow-citizens. In this relationship the

events of the past are still of the present. It is
part of the personal consciousness
(Selbstverstandniss) of the persecuted to be con-
sidered as belonging to a group that stands out
because of the persecution suffered and to whom
all other citizens bear a moral responsibility.
This consciousness of being victims of persecu-
tion is a matter of their personal dignity.
"Respect for that consciousness is the guaran-
tee against the repetition of similar discrimina-
tion in the future and an essential condition
which makes their life in Germany possible.
Whoever tries to deny the truth of past events,
denies to every Jew the respect to which he is
entitled. To the individual affected this must
appear as a continuation of discrimination
against his group and therefore indirectly
against his person."
The WJCongress-IJA analysis makes impor-
tant observations regarding the case:
"The fact that the plaintiff was born after the
war and could not therefore have suffered per-
secution personally, was considered irrelevant
by the court. 'Not the personal fate but the his-
torical events are the criterion which weighs
upon the personality of every Jew in Germany
and upon his personal and social relationship to
his German fellow-citizens . . . The terrible
events have formed the personality of the citi-
zens of Jewish origin, who embody the past even
if they were not personally part of it.'
"In this connection the court also made the
important comment that one can impose no
'time limit (zeitlicher Trennungsstrich)' to this
sense of being linked with persecution, 'as long
as the past is still present. It can only be done
when the events have become a mere historical
process. In Germany at present, such distance
from the past does not yet exist . . "
Now there is a neo-Nazi reaction, with a
threat of a continuing effort to reimpose the
Nazi ideology on Germany. This is no doubt the
weaker of the elements functioning in Ger-
many. The fact that the highest court in West
Germany ruled in opposition to the revivalist
movement among the bigoted in Germany is of
great importance. Significant also is the fact
that in the highest ranks of German govern-
ment authorities the neo-Nazis are unaccept-
able. While the abandonment of the Statute of
Limitations for the prosecution of Nazi crimi-
nals was by a narrow margin in the Bundestag,
the result remains encouraging.
There remains the need to be on the alert
against the resurgence of Nazism. The high
court decision and its interpretation of the obli-
gation to view the reactions to the Holocaust
with the utmost seriousness is an occurrence
meriting the utmost seriousness.

SAKHAROV , S NOBILITY

Andrei Dimitriyevich Sakharov emerges as
one of the saintly in the modern world that is
filled with so much indifference. He is the very
antithesis of a government that has sent him to
what he now calls "a gilded cage."
There is a nobility of spirit in Sakharov that
spells courage and so much dedication to a
man's conscience amidst tyranny that he has

become the symbol of defiance to persecution for
the entire mankind.

It is no wonder, therefore, that dissidence has
become the clarion call for the few who dare to
challenge the bias of Kremlinism. The liberta-
rians of the entire world applaud Sakharov and
acclaim him their guide and inspiration.

Humor Essays Paperbacked

Sam Levenson always has a message of cheer and the encourag-
ing words necessary for the lighter vein in facing up to all challenges.
He does it in all his books and he reaches new heights in You
Don't Have to Be in Who's Who to Know What's What." It has just
been reissued as a paperback by Simon and Schuster Pocket Books.
He is both philosopher and humorist, humanist and commen-
tator. In his latest paperbacked humor essays he evidences these
multiple qualities, as the excerpt from his "Freedom from Freedom"
in the latest paperback indicated:
"My credentials, my obligation, and
my need to write this chapter come
from having been raised by people who
Were escapees from despotism in the
'old country.' They implanted in us.
their children, through their personal
accounts of pogroms, tyranny, and de-
, privation of human dignity a profound
appreciation for freedom. We were
never to forget and never to be silent
about human slavery. As is com-
manded in the Passover service, the
story of human bondage is to be told
from generation to generation: 'Slaves
were we unto Pharaoh . .
SAM LEVENSON
"When my own son was still very
young I talked to him about the beauty of freedom. (It's never too early
to start, I thought.) After the third time of telling him how good it is to
be free he stopped me cold with:
"'But I'm not free.'
"'I couldn't believe what I heard.'
" 'Why do you say you're not free?'
" 'Because I'm four.'
"He was saying naively what human beings of all ages have been
saying through the ages knowingly: 'I'm not free.' "
• • •
"Between man's reluctant departure from the womb and his equally
reluctant departure for the tomb he lives under a protem setup known
as government, put there to see to it that he doesn't get some wild idea
that he can govern himself. (`You crazy or something?') He learns
pretty fast that he can have all the free will he wants as long as it does
not run into the will of the government, which he may or may not have
put there of his own free will.
The best of humorous political heresy comes from people who
have lost their freedom. Even after the four basic freedoms have been
banned, laughter stands alone as the fifth freedom often hidden un-
derground as the last possible weapon for the salvation of the other
four.
"The will of the people, disguised as humor, becomes the won't of
the people. The examples of the humor of political protest that follow
do not come from any one oppressed people. They come from various
languages and various times, since tyranny has always existed (and is
still doing well) in many parts of the globe. The very same jokes
surface when the very same circumstances recur. For example:
"Under this system freedom of speech is guaranteed, but not
freedom after the speech."
• • •
"We here have as much freedom of speech as Americans do. In
America you can stand at the door of the White House and shout what
you think of the President of the United States. Here you can also
stand in front of the president's headquarters and shout what you
think of the President of the United States."
• • •
"'Life in this country is simple; everything is either forbidden or
compulsory."