THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

Reviewer Finds Historical
Errors in Holocaust Book

ing of the yellow star, has
two errors in her book,
stating that as of March
28, 1944, all Jews were
compelled to wear the
8x8 cm. size yellow star.
This is incorrect. Both the
date, as well as the size is
erroneous. The 1240/1944
Royal Hungarian Gov-
ernment Edict about the
yellow star had been de-
cided by the entire Royal
Hungarian Ministerial
Council on March 29,
made public in the offi-
cial gazette, the
"Budapesti Kozlony"
(No. 73) of March 31 and it
went into effect on April
5, 1944. The prescribed
size was 10x10 cm., not
8x8, as the author recol-
lects.
Page 81 contradicts the
historic chronology of the
events. The Arrow-Cross
Party and Militia came into
power only after Regent
Horthy's abduction by the
Nazis, on Oct. 16, 1944,
therefore, they could not
have arrested -Imre, four
months earlier in June
1944. Imre was surely ar-
rested by some other units,
hunting for Jews, and the
poor .soul perished before
the clock of liberation
struck for the enslaved,
doomed people.
We have a problem with
the Nazi SS-rank of
Oberscharfuhrer. First she
says that the "commandant
of the camp, the Oberschar-
fuhrer was not an SS-man,
he was an officer in the
Wehrmacht, the regular
Germany army." This
statement has at least three
grave errors. First: an
Oberscharfuhrer is pos-
itively an SS-man. Any
German military rank, with
the word of "fuhrer" in the
second half, always denotes
an SS-man.

By DR. ALBERT B.
BELTON

"Elli: Coming of Age in
the Holocaust" by Livia E.
Bitton Jackson (Times
Books) is a moving book of
personal and family recol-
lections by the author, a
survivor of the bloodiest
mass slaughter in all man-
kind's history, the most
shameful epoch in human
civilization.
It is impossible to read the
book without excitement,
pity and tears, not just for
the victims of this unparal-
leled brutality, but also for
that segment of humanity
which sank that low in the
pit of inhumanity and bes-
tial cruelty in beating,
starving, torturing, degrad-
ing and in the end murder-
ing millions of their inno-
cent, helpless victims.
This book is a classic de-
acription of man's inhuman-
ity to his fellow man, in the
personal account of a young
girl, uprooted and torn out
of her middle-class living
conditions into the hell of
Auschwitz. It will remain
such a clear, true and fac-
tual account for generations
to come.
Regrettably, there are
a few errors and mis-
statements in it. They
could be excused, even
forgiven to the 13-year-
old victim, due to her
young age, inexperience
and unfamiliarity with
those names, ranks, data
and events, but the book
was written 36 years after
those horrible experi-
ences, and after her lib-
eration by the Ameri-
cans.
The author-victim should
have checked out her data
and recollections of events
that led to the errors, listed
below. She refers, several
times, to Hungary as "Royal
Hungarian Republic." This
Secondly, an SS-man in
is a clear contradiction in
such a low rank (four
terms. Any country is either ranks lower than a sec-
a (Royal) Kingdom, or a Re-
ond lieutenant) cannot be
public. It cannot be both at
a commandant of a camp.
the same time.
If he were in the regular
In fact, Hungary had been Germany army, his rank
a kingdom for over 900 would have been that of a
years, with the slight inter-
Wachtmeister or
ruption in the days of the Feldwebel, the equiv-
Kossuth-Revolution (1848)
alent of a technical
and the short-lived (Corn- sergeant in the U.S.
munist) Council Republic Army.
(Tanacskortarsasag) in
Thirdly that SS-man in
1919, but it remained a
kingdom, nevertheless the low rank of "Oberschar-
until its liberation from the fuhrer" could not be called
an officer either in the army
Nazi occupation, by the Red
or in the SS, because in both
Army in the spring of 1945,
organizations, the rank of
even if just by name only,
under the regency of Admi- an officer begins with
"Lieutnant" or "Un-
ral Miklos Horthy (1920-
terstrumfuhrer."
Oct. 16, 1944) and even
under the Nazi Quisling,
This book is a classic, in
the Arrow-Cross Leader
sui generis. It will have
Ferenc Szalasi (Oct. 16,
numerous editions in the fu-
1944-January 1945).
ture. Therefore, it would be
Another one is that she
worthwhile, to make the
calls the gendarmes "mili-
corrections and thereby re-
tary police." It is an error.
move those eyesores from
They were the regular gen-
subsequent editions, and
make it more authentic.
darmes, executing the
secret and confidential
Edict 6163/1944 by the
royal Hungarian Ministry Celebrates 70th
DENVER (JTA) — The
of the Interior of April 7,
Jewish
1944, for the round-up, Intermountain
plunder and eventual fore- News published a 120-page
ing of helpless Jews into issue, the largest in its his-
tory, to celebrate its 70th
cattle cars.
The compulsory wear- anniversary.

Jewish Living
Center May
Expand in U.S.

LOS ANGELES — Offi-
cials of the Center for
Jewish Living, an educa-
tional program conducted in
Israel for the past two sum-
mers, are exploring the
feasibility of opening a cen-
ter in the United States, Dr.
Robert Barnhard, chairman
of the center's American
Friends reported.
The center under the di-
rection of its founder and
president, Robert Bleiweiss,
is currently operating at
Beit Berl, a campus north of
Tel Aviv. In the 1983 pro-
gram are participants from
Germany, Holland, Mexico,
Ethiopia, England, Canada,
the United States and Is-
rael.

Friday, August 19, 1983 19

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