10 Friday, December 3, 1982
en a
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Begin Reviews His Past and Future
(2.
(Continued from Page 1)
raham Stern, who was a
friend and deputy actually
of David Raziel though later
they parted and Stern or-
ganized what was later the
famous Lechi, the Fighters
for Freedom of Israel.
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I stayed with the Irgun
and my other friends did.
But Abraham Stern, whom
I knew personally, I met
him many times. He was a
soldier, a fighter, a poet. I
have a deep sentiment for
him, although I did not fight
under his command or in his
organization.
And then above all we
must remember all those
who were executed on the
gallows, because those men
showed heroism which is
very rare, certainly unsur-
passed. They stood before
their judges, British offi-
cers, and said we don't rec-
ognize your right to judge
us. And they knew that they
were going to be sentenced
to die. And we did whatever
we could to save them but
sometimes we just didn't
have the possibility to do so.
Plan after plan was pre-
pared. There were also cir-
cumstances which made it
impossible to save them.
And, ultimately they were
brought to the gallows and
they sang the Hatikva until
their last breath, until the
last moment of their lives. I
got letters from Dov
Gruner, perhaps the most
famous of those executed,
world-famous. And those
letters prove how heroic
those young men were .. .
Schindler: If you were
asked by a young Jew
what's so special about
being a Jew, what would
you say?
Begin: A Jew should be a
man prepared to suffer, to
resist, to be proud of his
heritage, and to always
guard his country and his
human dignity.
Schindler: What does
Torah mean to you and
what does God mean to
you?
Begin: Well, first of all I
will say something about
my Jewishness. I never say
that I'm an Israeli; I say
that I am a Jew. Of course
I'm a citizen of the state of
Israel .. . •
As far as the Divine Pro-
vidence is concerned, I be-
lieve in it wholeheartedly.
Some people say that in our
generation, it is difficult
and perhaps impossible to
believe in God, Divine Pro-
vidence. Where was God
when a million, half-a-
million little Jewish chil-
dren were brought to Au-
schwitz and to other camps
of extermination?
But, to the contrary, I be-
lieve that it proves the
existence of Divine Provi-
dence. Because, were it not
for Divine Providence, Hit-
ler would have won the war.
He was very close to the de-
tection of an atomic bomb
before the United States
did. If he had detected, and
it was possible in 1944, an
atomic bonb, he would have
threatened to drop it on
Great Gritain. And as far as
atomic destruction is con-
cerned, nobody, even the
most heroic leader, could
have withstood the threat.
And then maybe the whole
history of our generation-
would have been different.
Of course, the Jews and
the Land of Israel would
have been completely de-
stroyed. Perhaps the Jewish
community, the United
States would have been left.
And the war would have
gone on between the old
world, completely Nazified
. . . and the new world. How
long it would have lasted
nobody can say and nobody
can say who would have
won it. And because of Di-
vine Providence, just be-
cause of that, mankind was
s ved. Yes.
There is evil in mankind
and mankind is being led
sometimes to disaster;
sometimes he faces the
brink of the abyss. But ul-
timately mankind is being
drawn from the abyss. And
therefore what happened to
our generation never
weakened my faith. On the
contrary, it strengthened it.
Schindler: What does it
mean to you when you go
to the Kotel (Western
Wall)?
Begin: I pray. Very sim-
ply I take the Book and I say
a few chapters of Psalms.
Minly those written by
David the King. They are
the most beautiful ones, be-
cause David our king was a
soldier and a poet.
The meaning of it is that I
really pray for success in my
mission, because it is a mis-
sion connected with the fu-
ture of our people. Yes, in-
deed, as I do also on Yom
Kippur when I pray, to-
gether with others, for the
future of our people. Be-
cause our people need help,
understanding, still sur-
rounded by enemies which
connive at its destruction.
Schindler: Is the survi-
val of a nation its own
self-justification? Or does
the nation have to be
measured against the
ideal to which we ascribe
the words "dive" or
"Jewish?"
Begin: Every nation has a
right to live; therefore I
never ask anybody to recog-
nize our right to exist .. .
We have a right to exist like
France, like Britain, like
the United States, like any
other country. No more, but
no less.
We have a special role,
perhaps. It is different from
that of others because of our
unique history. It is unique.
We don't have to boast
about it, but we can be
proud about it in a positive
way.
Schindler: What is that
special role?
Begin: I don't have to
prove it. It's absolutely
unique. A nation stub-
bornly fights for its freedom
against empires, always .. .
It lives in dipersion for 19
centuries, and then it is per-
secuted, then humiliated
and deported and decimated
and brought to the stake,
and there was inquisition
and deportation and un-
doubtedly it is physically
destroyed.
It never loses its faith. It
always believes it will go
back to the land of its
forefathers. Then it builds it
up, it has to fight for it. It
liberates it, it creates, it rec-
reates its own state. Find
me in the pages of history
a
such a story. I don't think
you will find it.
Schindler: Many times
I've seen tears in your
eyes when you spoke.
Have you ever really
wept in terms of the ex-
(Continued on Page 11)
God respects me when I
work, but he loves me when
I sing.
—Rabindranath Tago-e
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