4 .1 ' 2 Ifiday,-August 26; 1983 DETROIT 1JEWISH NEWS Purely Commentary `Targets' ... in the Land of the Free and the Brave West Hartford, Conn., was in itself a "target" — of the sick minds who bombed the home of a rabbi, put two synagogues on fire. In that sadly struck city a target emerged on a community-wide basis. Jews commenting on the occurrences were reluctant to give their names to the press. They were advised by the police not to expose them- selves to public notice, lest they be attacked by the sick- minded who have found such pleasure in arson, in burning synagogues. It is inconceivable that such should be the condition of American life in a very progressive community like West Hartford. Since bigotry has no limits, this may not be sur- prising. It isn't to those who believe that "it can happen again," that "it can happen here." Yet, a person with a sense of history can not despair, and one with a sense of realism may not concede that by speaking out he becomes a target of the bigots, the anti- Semites, those who have no sense of American decency. There is and no doubt will be a "speaking out" because West Hartford, its communicative media, its religious leaders, its officials and also the police with what may have been unwise and untimely advice, will not be silent. That's it — it's the silence that becomes criminal, and there is seldom total silence when bigotry attempts to raise its ugly head. • An attack on a synagogue is a threat to the church as well. A threat to a Jew is also a threat to his fellow citizen. Therefore, there will surely be unity in a fine commu- nity like West Hartford, and in the nation at large, with a warning in the words of George Washington: to bigotry no sanction. The Vigilant . There is a normalcy in the reactions to the West Hartford outrages. The vigilant assert themselves. Anger becomes a medium. Does it always serve the proper pur- pose? In outrageous incidents like the burning of synagogues, often accompanied by burning crosses, the first, the major, the unending obligation is for authorities Targets in a Law Abiding Society and the Commitment to Assure the Basic American Principles of Common Decency and. Humanism to act and to punish. People cannot take the law into their own hands. Else, the chaos will encourage rather than punish or end the crimes. It is when authorities fail to act that there is the com- pulsion to make demands and to assure commitment to fulfillment of the decencies that are inherent in the basic principles of Americanism and humanism. If this were ever to be interrupted in this country, then there would be woe upon all. Targets Galore Targets are innumerable in many spheres, and Jews are frequently aimed at. They are not alone. There is the Klaus Barbie case, and now the U.S. is the target for attack. A Jewish spokesman even portrayed "a skeleton in the American closet." The former Wayne State University professor of Ger- man Erhard Dabringhaus was among the first to expose the U.S. guilt. Now he states that he could not have spoken much sooner because he would have been a target for Nazi and other threats to his very life. Will "the skeleton" in this nation's share of guilt in failing to punish the Nazi criminals drag the U.S. into inhuman ranks? A Wall Street Journal editorial makes an interesting comment on a situation which seems to have demanded caution in dealing with the Communist threat after the war. But it makes an especially important point to indicate that in this country, at least, there is a readiness to admit guilt while exposing a charged crime. It came too late but it arrived. As the WSJournal indicates: First of all, let's remember that preventing a Communist takeover of France was a legitimate and high postwar priority, not just of the U.S. but also of a French patriot named Charles de Gaulle. Drawing a picture of a ruthless and single-minded American anti-Communist machine does not really help us understand what happened to Bar- bie. In other times and places, a man who began to trouble the sleep of an intelligence outfit the way Klaus Barbie did would soon find himself at the bottom of a muddy lake. But no, these are Ameri- cans; they don't dispose of this man, they escort By Philip Slomovitz him to Bolivia and let him live to haunt them. Some ruthlessness. Likewise, in other countries they do not let prosecutors rummage through the old secret papers exposing national error. But we are Americans; we would be scandalized at a cover-up. Something else was at work in the Barbie case. Our American officers may not have known at first that their Klaus Barbie had sent innocents off to death camps and tortured his adversaries. In 1950, after the French made serious charges, our people still did not comprehend them. They still resisted understanding that they were deal- ing with a reality here whose imperatives were more powerful than those of their organizational mission, They were not alone in this. From the time when stories of the Holocaust began to seep out of Nazi Germany, the West ignored and delayed and refused to believe. It has taken years of incessant pounding by the incredible facts to force us to absorb this event and the changes it has de- manded in our political thinking. The Barbie es- cape was one chapter in this book of tenacious ignorance, but it was by no means the only one. The test at hand is whether the French courts will go all the way in the task of punishing the guilty and in the process of exposing the crimes in which France and others shared in guilt. Meanwhile, it is good to know that guilt is not hidden. There was worldwide guilt in the Holocaust. It is evident in "Haven," (Coward McCann), the Ruth Gruber account of the handful who were granted haven in this country on condition they return to the hell they came from. Fortu- nately, permanent haven was finally attained through the good graces of Harry S Truman. There is evidence of the guilt in "The Redemption of the Unwanted" (St. Martin's Press) by Dr. Abram Sachar, who shows how the worldwide anti-Semitism ignited the craving for haven in what was then Palestine and which helped lead to the rebirth of the state of Israel. Such is the record of the unforgettable that often leads to the unforgiving. Wallenberg's Birthday Marked by Congressional Testimony WASHINGTON (JTA) — Raoul Wallenberg, the Swedish diplomat who saved thousands of Hunga- rian Jews from the Nazis during World War II, was 71 years old Aug. 2 if he is still alive in the Soviet Union where he has been impris- oned for more than 38 years. Belief that he is alive was expressed by those testify- ing in a hearing on Wallen- berg held by the House Foreign Relations Commit- tee's Subcommittee on Human Rights and Interna- tional Organizations. "I am more convinced than ever that Raoul is still alive," Sonia Sonnenfeld of the Swedish Wallenberg Committee declared. "On his 71st birthday he still suffers somewhere in the Soviet Union waiting for us to come for him: His only hope lies with the United States." Rep. Tom Lantos (D- Calif.), who introduced the legislation which in 1981 made Wallenberg an honorary citizen of the U.S., said that despite the Soviet claim that Wallen- berg died in 1947, he was known to be alive at least through the mid-1970s. He said that although the hope that he is still alive today "is waning," it is still belieired that he may be somewhere in a Soviet prison. Lantos, who was born in Hungary, said that the Soviet Union must either "free Wallenberg or, at the minimum give the "true story" of what happened to him. Rep. Gus Yatron (D-Pa.), chairman of the sub- committee, said the Soviet Union has up to now met all inquiries about Wallenberg "with silence. I hope we can work toward shattering the silence that surrounds the Wallenberg matter." Lantos, a member of the subcommittee, said that since President Reagan signed the law making Wal- lenberg the second person since Winston Churchill to achieve honorary U.S. citi- zenship, one of the two major goals, in the effort on Wallenberg has been achieved, keeping his name alive. He said across the United States, schools, museums, parks and streets have been named for the Swedish diplomat who went to Hungary at the request of the United States and after helping rescue Jews was arrested by the Red Army when it entered Budapest in January 1945. But the second goal of fre- eing Wallenberg has not been achieved. At the same time, Lantos praised the U.S. government and par- ticularly Secretary of State George Shultz and his pre- decessor, Alexander Haig, for doing all they could in raising the issue at interna- - tional meetings and at pri- vate meetings with the Soviet Union. State Department Coun- selor Edward Derwinski . stressed that the Wallen- berg issue "will be raised again in every forum" until there is "full clarification of . Wallenberg's fate." Lantos, while praising the U.S. gov- ernment effort, had harsh words for the Swedish gov- ernment. He said he was "disappointed" that the Swedish government had missed a "unique historic and God-given opportunity" when they rejected his suggestion that they not re- lease the Soviet submarine and crew Sweden captured in 1981 until Wallenberg was freed. self on Wallenberg and "not merely to Jewish groups." Eilberg also urged mem- bers of Congress to continue to press the issue at every conceivable moment. Rachel Oestreicher Has- pel, president of the Raoul Wallenberg Committee of the United States, in affilia- tion with the Anti- Defamation League of Bnai Brith, also urged that all branches of the U.S. gov- ernment raise the issue of Wallenberg with the Soviets. direct action and interven- tion." "Our children have few heroes not created by script writers," Mrs. Haspel added. "If they are going to survive, they must all know that they and others carry within the same possibility for kindness, selflessness and courage that Raoul Wallenberg showed. Only because he is a flesh-and-blood hero — and because of his flesh, vulnerable like all of us — will our children know they, too, are capable of facing evil and danger with courage."Former Rep. Millicent Fenwick called Wallenberg a "true hero in the classic sense" and said that the "val- ues" that he represents are needed more and more today. Another strategy was argued by Morris Wolff, pro- fessor of international law at the Delaware Law School, who has been asked by the Wallenberg family to file a suit in Wallenberg's behalf in U.S. Federal Court. But Mrs. Haspel said that she became interested in the Wallenberg issue be- cause she is "the mother of two young children who are growing up in what today appears to be a wl-ry hostile world." She said she was "staggered by the enormity" of what Wallenberg had done because "I can think of no other human being who has saved 100,000 lives by a He said he believes that in arresting Wallenberg, the Soviets violated his dip- lomatic immunity and the international protection he had as a representative of the U.S. government in Hungary. Wallenberg had gone to Hungary as a repre- sentative of the U.S. War Refugee Board. Wolff asked the Congressmen to support his efforts in the courts. . However, Sen. Claiborne Pell (D-R.I.) did not agree with the criticism of Sweden although he did not explain. But he did say the U.S. gov- ernment should do more. So did several other witnesses. Joan Scarob, who along with Lantos' wife, Annette, is co- chairperson of the Free Wallenberg Committee, said the House subcom- mittee should keep "pressure on both the Soviet government" and the U.S. government "present and future" on the Wallenberg case. Former Rep. Joshua Eil- berg, speaking for the Wal- lenberg Committee of Greater Philadelphia, urged that the President issue a directive that the Wallenberg issue be raised at every bilateral and mul- tinational meeting with the Soviet Union. He said that Reagan himself should speak out more often him- RAOUL WALLENBERG Among others testify- ing were Mrs. Lantos, who founded the Free Wallenberg Committee and who described the early efforts to bring the issue to the nation's at- tention. Both she and her husband were rescued by Wallenberg. Rep. Theodore Weiss (D-N.Y.), another sub- committee member, noted that he was also born in Hungary and some of his relatives were the "real be- neficiaries" of Wallenberg's efforts. Another former Hungarian Jew who tes- tified was Agnus Adachi of N . Y . , vice Queens, president of the U.S. Wal- lenberg Committee. Rep. Hamilton Fish (D- N.Y.) noted that the confer- ral of honorary citizenship on Wallenberg symbolized America's commitment as a nation to remember the Holocaust and vigilantly guard against the possibil- ity of a recurrence. Lantos said that he is urg- ing that an international freedom award be estab- lished in the name of Wal- lenberg and Winston Chur- chill to honor persons any- where in the world who have advanced the cause of human rights. Activists on behalf of Wallenberg have tried for several years to have the former University of Michi- gan student nominated for the Nobel Prize for Peace. Those efforts are believed to be continuing.