18 Friday, November 13, 1381
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Impressions of Liberators Parley Linger
ADL Will Fight European Bias
NEW YORK-A new mul-
tinational foundation to
combat and counteract
`anti-Semitism in Western
Europe has been estab-
lished by the Anti-
I
_____w_.._
Caricatures
for
for your party
By
SAM FIELD
Call
399-1320
Defamation League of Bnai
Brith and two Bnai Brith
European districts to over-
see the activities of ADL's
European office in Paris.
FRANKLIN LITTELL
National Institute
on the Holocaust
International
The
Liberators Conference held
in
Washington,
D.C., last
The unit will be called the
Anti-Defamation League of month was a public event of
Bnai Brith European Foun- major importance, and its
impressions will long re-
dation IADLEF).
main with us. Fortunately,
in this case the media paid
Divided on Bases some attention to a major
JERUSALEM (ZINS) — event of moral and religious
A recent Public Opinion Re- significance. We may hope
search Institute poll shows that the public will also
that Israelis are divided on benefit, as well as partici-
whether it would be good to pants assembled from 15
nations.
have U.S. bases in Israel.
The initiation of the con-
Some 48.7 percent fa- ference went back to a
vored the idea, 45.5 percent sliggesiton this writer,
opposed it and 5.8 percent working with the
President's Commission on
were undecided.
Audrey Lorber
585-7223 or 559-6022
memory you will have forever .
1
One of those who took
part in our Philadelphia
Conference was Dr.
Leon Bass, principal of
Benjamin Franklin High
School and as a young
soldier one of the
liberators of Buchen-
wald. None of us who
attended the Philadel-
phia Conference several
years ago will forget his
testimony. Dr. Bass also
played an important role
in the International
Liberators Conference.
The suggestion from
Philadelphia commended
itself, caught fire, and be-
came an important part of
the agenda of the U.S.
Holocaust Memorial Coun-
cil. For in 1980 the
VIDEO TAPING SERVICES
Legal Taping
Business Meetings
Weddings
the Holocaust, made to col-
leagues of that body. Fol-
lowing a suggestion made
by Prof. Jaffe Eliach of the
faculty`-of the City Univer-
sity of New York we had
scouted for liberators to
play a part in our Philadel-
phia Conference on Teach-
ing the Holocaust.
The appeal of the idea was
this: there are other eye-
witnesses to the facts of the
Holocaust besides sur-
vivors, and these liberators
can and will corroborate
their testimonies.
Advertising
Social Events
Bar Mitzvahs
. ,
cealles
Health Aids. • Beauty Aids ,
Cosmetics • Fragrances
850 S. Woodward -Ave.
Birmingham, Michigan
'MANUFACTURERS
COUPONS
GLADLY
ACCEPTED
Open Daily 10 A.M. to 9 P.M.
Saturday eSunday 10 A.M. to 6 P.M.
Sure Solid
1.5 oz
$1.16
0
Mil a I=
Head & Shoulders
11 az lotion
52.46
1 .59
$2.46
Secret
Solid
2 oz
$1.44
$1.59
6 oz
SKIN LOTION
Sett Sense
Skis Lotion
6 az extra
25 oz
Lilt Perms
Sore SIM
$2.09 4 or $1.66
Special $1.88
Bodywave $1.88
trz"Selft Sense
protection W
10 oz
Extra Moisture
Secret Roll-On
Sore Roll-On
51.73
8.2 oz.
7 oz tube
■
Crest Toothpaste
PIPT.
Extra Protection
Extra Moesture
51.37
15 ox, Extra PrOLecoon
ammo,
Condition Shampoo
$1.56
Condition II
24 oz
24 oz. Conditioner
$1.56
Extra Motstufe
52.09 -
DEEP DISCOUNT PRICES
EVERY ITEM-EVERY DAY
President's Commission on
the Holocaust, and adminis-
trative unit, was °replaced
by a statutory body.
The members of the U.S.
Holocaust Memorial Coun-
cil, constituted by
Presidential appointment
and Congressional vote in
both houses, serve five-year
terms.
In 1979, a team, led by
Elie Wiesel as chairman of
the commission, traveled to
Poland and Russia to effect
the most difficult diploma-
tic task: to get the coopera-
tion of scholars and officials
in the eastern bloc in the
continuing work to be lo-
cated in Washington, D.C.
The international polit-
ical scene had shifted
enormously since Allied
victory in 1945, but our
hope was that we could
still build a cooperative
work in teaching the
story of the Holocaust
and working out the les-
sons thereof.
There were impressive
delegations from the USSR,
Poland, Czechoslovakia and
Yugoslavia at the Washing-
ton conference. Space does
not allow detailed inciden-
tal report on what their
presence meant, survivors
and liberators remembered
dramatic scenes of 36 years
before. But two incidents
must be reported.
In Moscow, we met on one
occasion with four Russian
generals, among them Gen-
eral Petrinko who liberated
Auschwitz. Acting as
chairman of the delegation
in the absence of Prof.
Wiesel, I told him through
the translator that in the
very room with me were
four "alumni" of that in-
stitution (Auschwitz). He
was visibly moved, and he
was one of our speakers at
the International
Liberators Conference.
Second incident: Jan
Karski, as a young man a
courier out of Nazi-occupied
Poland to the Polish and
British offices in London,
and then to the top organ-
izational and governmental
offices in the United States
(including FDR), told his
story and answered ques-
tions.
In a lifetime of confer-
ences, I have never heard
more impressive pre-
sentation. He told us
what he had known, what
he reported (word for
word), and to whom, and
he did it with an emo-
tional as well as intellec-
tual power that was
overpowering — and
brought at the end a
standing ovation from
the entire assembly from
15 nations.
There is no question but
that top organizational and
governmental leaders knew
what was happening, also to
the Jews, and that — among
those who were concerned
at all — what we now call
"the Holocaust" was low on
their list of items for atten-
tion.
Fortunately, the matter
of Jewish survival does not
today rest solely with the
agenda list of others. There
is a powerful restored Israel
which can and will act deci-
sively to save Jewish lives
where it can, not waiting on
the agenda of malicious or
amiable gentiles.
Following Reagan's
twisting through the Saudi
arms deal, his office gave
verbal assurances of inten-
tion to maintain Israel se-
curity. A few years ago his
office promised the Saudis
wouldn't be given sophisti-
cated equipment. Fortu-
nately, Jewish security no
longer rests upon "Chris-
tian politicans, with their
long record of indifference
and broken promises.
There are two massive
events in our recent his-
tory, and even in the mo-
ments of darkest memory
at the International
Liberators Conference
neither was forgotten.
The conference centered
of course upon the libera-
tion of the camps and upon
the remembrance of those
who were liberated only by
death. But shining through
the darkest clouds of an-
guished memory of the
Holocaust there was a
steady beam of ligtht: Israel
has been reborn.
Holocaust Unit
Is Reorganized
PHILADELPHIA — The
National Institute on the
Holocaust, founded in 1975
as an interfaith agency in
Holocaust education, has
undergone a reorganiza-
tion.
Dr. Rufus Cornelsen,
Lutheran- clergyman and
ecumenical leader, has suc-
ceeded Dr. Franklin H. Lit-
tell as chairman. Marcia
Sachs Littell has been ap-
pointed executive director.
Other major changes in-
clude the naming of Benja-
min Loewenstein as vice
chairman and Dean Tobe
Amsterdam of the Univer-
sity of Pennsylvania as
secretary-treasurer.
Prof. Yehudah Bauer of
the Institute of Contempor-
ary Jewry, Hebrew Univer-
sity (Jerusalem) and D.
Erich Geldbach of the Uni-
versity of Marburg and
Evangelischer Bund (Ben-
sheim) were named as ad-
juncts.
Packwood Cited
NEW YORK — Sen. Bob
Packwood (R-Ore.) will be
honored by the National
Council ofJewish Women at
its 1981 Joint Program In-
stitute in Washington,.D.C.
next week.
NCJW national president
Shirley I. Leviton will pre-
sent the National Council of
Jewish Women Social Ac-
tion Award to Sen.
Packwood "for his outstand-
ing and courageous leader-
ship in behalf of the right to
choose abortion and his un-
waivering support for Is-
rael's security and for peace
in the Middle East."
History is a nightmare
from which I am trying to
awake.
—James Joyce