32
Friday, December 28, 1984 THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
NEWS
Ruth Schwartz, ASID
First Amendment shield for Nazis?
Interior Designer
Some Holocaust revisionists claim 'free speech'
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New York (JTA) — Revisionist
historians are seeking to link
their right to question the "histor-
ical reality" of the use of gas
chambers by the Nazis during
World War II to the principle of
freedom of speech and the First
Amendment, according to an offi-
cial of the Simon Wiesenthal Cen-
ter in Los Angeles.
Moreover, these historians,
some of whom claim the
Holocaust was a hoax and others
who call it a "Zionist plot," are
currently engaged in a sophisti-
cated effort to penetrate estab-
lished organizations such as Cos-
met, the Committee of Small
Magazine Editors and Publishers,
in order to circulate their views on
the Holocaust to a wider and more
influential audience.
The revisionists' aim, according
to Rabbi Abraham Cooper of the
Wiesenthal Center, "is to hang
their hat on the freedom of speech
issue." Rabbi Cooper, associate
dean for the center, also expressed
concern over the efforts by re-
visionists like right-wing pub-
lisher David McCalden and Brad-
ley Smith, publisher of a re-
visionist newsletter, to gain
membership in literary and other
organizations.
Smith's newsletter is called
Prima Facie-, and it has been sent
to publishers, editors, reporters,
public relations and advertising
firms and other similar groups in
major cities throughout the
United States. It has printed two
issues to date; one in October, the
other last month, and claims to
have distributed some 4,000
copies across the country.
Prima Facie, whose content is
similar to other literature circu-
lated by revisionists, claims to in-
form "the press and media about
the censorship, supression of free
inquiry and the taboos used to
stifle critical examination of the
evidence commonly used to sup-
port the alleged historical reality
of the German 'poison gas
chamber' tales."
Continuing, it said the newslet-
ter "reports on the intellectual
corruption" of the Anti-
Defamation League of B'nai
B'rith (ADL) and the Simon Wie-
senthal Center "as it is revealed
in their usage of fraudulent
documents, slander, disinforma-
tion, and pathological lying to
encourage the censorship and
suppression of Holocaust-
revisionists."
Prima Facie, the newsletter
added, "will assist writers,
whenever possible to research
stories of mutual interest." It of-
fers a subscription that can be ob-
tained through a post office box
number in Los Angeles. Yearly
subscription rates are $24 for 12
issues.
Accompanying the November
issue is a separate five-page,
single spaced, typed letter dated
June 20, 1984, on "the strange
case of John Demjanjuk," the al-
leged Nazi war criminal in the
United States now facing deporta-
tion proceedings.
The newsletter indicates that
the story on Demjanjuk is written
by his eldest daughter, Lydia De-
mjanjuk, although this could not
immediately be verified.
The newsletter said that De-
mjanjuk's case in the courts is
"based on fraudulent documen-
tary evidence prepared by the
Soviet KGB for the entry into the
American judicial system."
The newsletter, however, at-
tempts to focus primarily on the
issue of freedom of speech. For
example, Smith recalls an inci-
dent last October at which time he
questioned a panelist at the Con-
ference on Censorship and Cul-
ture sponsored by the National
Writer's Union at the New School
for Social Research in New York,
on why the union does not con-
front alleged censorship of re-
visionist materials in libraries
and public schools by the ADL and
the Wiesenthal Center.
The name Bradley Smith also
appears listed as "Midwest
regional director" on the masth-
ead of the magazine Spotlight,
which is published by the
Washington-based Liberty
Lobby, a group with ties to the
Institute of Historical Review, a
primary purveyor of revisionist
literature and books. It could not
be confirmed whether the Bradley
Smith listed in Spotlight is the
same Bradley Smith who is listed
as publisher of Prima Facie.
Rabbi Cooper recalled that last
month, the California Library
Association revoked the decision
to provide a forum at its state wide
convention for McCalden, who
was to be allowed to display his
materials and address it under
the auspices of a so-called "Truth
Mission."
The Arnerican Civil Liberties
Union argued that McCalden had
a right to present his views to the
convention's 3,000 delegates in
the merest of "intellectual free-
dom," according to the Center.
But the library group backed
down after it faced angry protests
from Jewish and interfaith groups
in Los Angeles.
LOOKING BACK
Hollywood's unknown pioneer
BY DAVID PLATT
Special to The Jewish News
His name doesn't carry the in-
stant recognition of Hollywood
legends like Samuel Goldwyn or
Louis Mayer. But Siegmund Lu-
bin, whose life is the subject of an
exhibition this fall at the Na-
tional Museum of American
Jewish History in Philadelphia,
was a celluloid pioneer on the
same level as the co-founders of
MGM.
Lubin, a German Jewish im-
migrant who came to America in
1876 and six years later settled in
Philadelphia, was a skilled and
highly successful optician
(President Grant was one of his
clients), before his interest in the
budding film medium was
aroused by the experiments and
inventions , of Edison and others.
Lubin's first film, a primitive
documentary titled, Horse Eating
Hay, created a sensation in 1897
when it was first shown to a public
that thought it was the real thing
and moved to get out of its way
when the horse seemed to move
toward them. Lubin went on to
produce and exhibit some 5,000
films over the next 20 years and to
put Philadelphia on the map as
the world's leading center for the
production, distribution and ex-
hibition of motion pictures before
World War I.
Far more than any of his con-
temporaries Lubin was involved
creatively in all aspects of film.
Not only did he produce, direct,
distribute and exhibit films (he
was the first to own a chain of
theatres), but he also invented,
developed and manufactured bet-
ter projection machines and
movie cameras, and was well
David Platt is on the editorial board
of Jewish Currents magazine.
known for his expertise in the
promotion, advertising and mar-
keting of films as a highly profita-
ble mass entertainment.
He was a pioneer in the use of
films for educational, scientific,
medical and humanitarian pur-
poses. He made numerous films
against social injustice, political
corruption and war.
Lubin was the first to set up a
stock company of actors and direc-
tors, including a company of black
actors.
Of Lubin's Jewish works only a
few have survived. The Yiddisher
Boy, a one-reeler produced in
1908, spoke out against anti-
Semitism, but not without the
stereotyping of the boy's father, a
character with a huge "Jewish"
nose.
In 1914 Lubin released a five-
reeler, Michael Strogoff, dealing
with the persecution of the Jews
under czarism and starring the
noted Yiddish stage actor Jacob P.
Adler. Molly Picon recalls that as
a child in Philadelphia she ap-
peared in Lubin films but could
remember no specific titles.
ThePhiladelphia Public Ledger
dubbed Lubin "King of the
Movies" in 1913, but few remem-
bered his name by the time he
died ten years later.
The disappearance of Lubin's
name from the pages of film his-
tory, stems in large part from two
disastrous fires at Lubin's
Philadelphia studios in 1912 and
1914:The fires destroyed the bulk
of the master negatives of his
films. The film industry's shift to
Hollywood was another factor.
The current Lubin exhibition is
a long overdue attempt to right a
grievous wrong. It deserves to' be
supported.