Friday, October 2, 1981 15

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

`Witness to the Holocaust'

skulls of guards and
NEW YORK — For 25
years, Dr. Azriel Eisenberg, executioners alike? Was it
a leading Jewish scholar not a father's- first, most
elemental duty to save his
and educator, has worked to
compile the moving words of child's life even at the cost of
Holocaust victims and sur- his own? Or for a son to die
vivors. The result is "Wit- _ defending his mother?
"Why had we not lain in
ness to the Holocaust" (Pil-
wait, axes in our hands, for
grim Press), Dr. Eisenberg's
the
assassins? There is a
60th book and a work of
time to live and a time to
monumental proportions.
From letters, journals, die, and when the time to
diaries and books, Dr. die comes, we must stand up
Eisenberg has culled the and accept death with dig-
most effective, relevant and nity.
representative writings of
"Over and over, the
men and women who were Ghetto Jeremiahs asked
present at the very start of each other aloud, 'Why
the Nazi terror, who were didn't we go out into the
prisoners in the concentra- streets with whatever we
tion camps or who were could lay our hands on —
compassionate supporters axes, sticks, kitchen knives,
from the outside. stones? Why hadn't we
"Witness to the—poured boiling water on the
Holocaust" describes the murderers or thrown sul-
emergence of Nazism in the phuric acid?- Why hadn't we
late 1920s and continues broken out of the Ghetto
through postwar Europe.
walls and scattered all over
The volume was re- warsaw, all over Poland?
viewed in the Sept 4 issue Perhaps 20,000, even
of The Jewish News 50,000 of us would have
(Page 72). The following been slain, but not 300,000!
are excerpts, quoting What a disgrace, what an
from an article by Ale- unspeakable shame!'

xander Donat:

"After the first sorrow
came the soul-searching.
How had it all come to pass?
How could 300,000 people
have let themselves be led
to slaughter without put-
ting up a fight? How could
young healthy parentshand
over their children without
bashing in the criminal

"It was an agonizing
self-appraisal. We were
bitter to the point of self-
flagellation, profoundly
ashamed of ourselves,
and of- the misfortunes we
had endured. And those
feelings intensified our
sense of being aban-
doned alike by God and
man. Above all we kept

Center Dedicated in Israel

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.sa& CEREMONY F INC PcNER-TRIAMAN COMMUNITY CEY
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Dedication of the Max-M. Fisher - A. Alfred
Taubman Community Center in Detroit's "twinned"
Project Renewal city of Ramla took place recently
during the United Jewish Appeal Prime Minister's
Mission. Among the local and UJA dignitaries shown
are Fisher (seated fourth from left) and Paul Zucker-
man (seated third from right), both of Detroit.

asking ourselves the
age-old question: why,
why?

"What was all that suffer-
ing for? What had we done
to deserve this hurricane of
evil, this avalanche of
cruelty? Why had all the
gates of Hell opened and
spewed forth on us the
furies of human vileness?
What crimes had we com-
mitted for which this might
have been calamitous
punishment?
"Where, in what code of
morals, human or divine, is
there a crime so appalling
that innocent women and
children must expiate it
with their lives in martyr-
doms no Torquemada ever
dreamed of?
"In vain we looked at that
cloudless September sky for
some sign of God's wrath.
The heavens were silent. In
vain we waited to hear from
the lips of the great ones of
the world-- the champions
of light and justice, the
Roosevelts, the Churchills,
the Stalins — the words of
thunder, the threat of mas-
sive retaliation that might
have halted the
executioner's axe.

_ "In vain we implored
help from our Polish
brothers with whom we
had shared good and bad
fortune alike for seven
centuries, but they were
utterly unmoved in our
hour of anguish. They did
not show even normal
human compassion at
our ordeal, let alone
demonstrate Christian
-charity.

They did not even let
political good sense guide
them; for after all we were
objectively allies in a strug-
gle against a common
enemy. While we bled and
died, their attitude was at
best indifference, and all too
often 'friendly neutrality' to
the Germans.
" 'Let the Germans do this
dirty work for us.' And there
were far too many cases of
willing, active, enthusiastic
Polish assistance to the
Nazi murderers.' "

Kol Nidre
in Bergen-Belsen

Detroit District

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1. Public Affairs:

a)
b)
c)
d)

Zionist Information & Education
Combatting anti-Israel propaganda
Promoting American-Israel Friendship
Interpreting Israel's Aims & Aspirations

twice murdered shadows
rising slowly
out of deserted
cirri:0st forgotten
massgraves
walking naked
through smoke
no longer breathable air
death fog
in the stone covered silence
of mankind's forever frozen
ashes
nameless
faceless
holier than God
unprayed to

Students Jailed

Shown during the recent United Jewish Appeal
Prime Minister's Mission are UJA Executive Vice
Chairman Irving Bernstein with former UJA execu-
tive Henry Montor. The Max M. Fisher — A. Alfred
Taubman Center in Ramla, Israel was dedicated dur-
ing the mission. Detroiters attending the mission in-
cluded Martin Citrin, Judge Avern Cohn, Kenneth
Dishell, Fisher, Irwin Green, David and Marion Rand-
leman, Jay and Reva Kogan, Joel Tauber and Paul
Zuckerman.

_Zionist Organization of America

JERUSALEM (JTA) —
Two members of the Arab
students committee at the
Hebrew University were
seiftenced last week to 90
days in jail for disseminat-
ing anti-Israel propaganda.

Fine sense, and exalted
sense, are not half as useful
as common sense.

2. ZOA's Educational Center in Kfar Silver, Israel

which includes:

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Agricultural High School for Israeli Students
Mollie Goodman High School for American Students
Alexander Hassan School for Aeronautics
Vocational School for Automotive Technology
School for Nursing

3. ZOA House in Tel Aviv
American-Israel Cultural Center