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2 Friday, March 1, 1985
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— THE- DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
PURELY COMMENTARY
PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
Roosevelt's Failure On Auschwitz And Reagan's Shunning of Dachau
Echoes of World War II anti-Nazi
planning continue to carry with them deep
regrets that President Franklin D.
Roosevelt should have failed to recognize
the need to bomb Auschwitz. There was a
strong feeling at the time that it would
have served a great purpose to curb Nazi
brutalities, that it was a necessary gesture
to emphasize the condemnation of Hit-
lerism.
There remains the feeling that such
failure, as an expression of the Allied pow-
ers' determination to end the Nazi terror,
was vital, and rejection of the proposal was
a grave error.
There is a repetition now in the deci-
sion announced by President Ronald Rea-
gan not to visit Dachau when he is on his
European trip to mark the 40th anniver-
sary of the Allied triumph over Germany.
A most emphatic criticism of the
President's decision is in an editorial in the
Washington Post, Feb. 10. Calling it "A
Memory to Rekindle," the Washington Post
editorial stated in part:
The triumph of arms is cer-
tainly the most splendid event to be
memorialized in this anniversary
season, but the tragedy of human
loss is the moral core. To pass by
the occasion to bear witness at
Dachau is to remove a whole vital
dimension of American participa-
tion in the war — and to give unin-
tended but unavoidable support to
the vile campaign to pretend there
was no Holocaust at all.
What is odd about the decision
to leave out Dachau is that the
President has himself shown a
deep personal awareness of the
Holocaust. In a White House cere-
mony in 1982 he recalled in compel-
ling detail his wartime work edit-
ing the first film that came in about
Teaching Devotion That Gained Friendships
A faithful friend is a sturdy shelter.
He that has found one has found a
treasure. — Ecclesiastes 6:14.
Ronald Reagan
Franklin Roosevelt
2Q al l
n
If ever the Ecclesiastical passage had merited application, it was to the Detroit
language teacher, the multi-lingual scholar Israel Elpern.
His was the type of scholarship that inspired friendships, and they commenced in the
famous Tarbut schools in Eastern Europe, continued in creative tasks in concentration
camps and in France, and then in Detroit.
His productive labors also were a resistance to the Nazi plague. He and his wife
Paula — they were married during the Hitlerite horror — never spoke of the personal
loss, the child who perished during the brutalities. Instead they joined in forming classes
for the youth who survived in the Nazi controlled and dominated camps.
There was a spiritual inspiration in his transitional devotions from community to
community. In DP camps he organized kindergartens and arranged for minyanim to
provide devotional urgings for fellow survivors from Nazism. He continued these efforts
in France, and in Cong. Shaarey Zedek and Beth Achim he was both teacher and Hazan.
His love for music was evidenced in his cantorial skills.
From all the areas of his services there are echoes of esteem and appreciation. His
students stem from ghetto resistance and underground roles to those in France and
thereafter in the Detroit area and finally, in the last decade, in Florida. In Miami he was
the organizer of study groups and chamber music concerts.
It may have started in France where, in addition to his Hebrew-Yiddish-Russian-
Polish language mastering he became a French perfectionist.
Therefore, for a number of years,he was called upon to act as interpreter in these
languages.
Then, afflicted with cancer, he surprised the famous expert, Doctor V. — Dr. Vait-
kevicius — by chatting with him in Lithuanian. He wrote poetry for him in Lithuanian
and he will long be remembered in Harper Hospital
where he impressed physicians and staff with his
scholarship and the courage with which he con-
fronted his illness.
There was a measure of courage in his career. He
was the principal of one of the United Hebrew
Schools' branches. His contemporary as an educator,
Wolf Snyder, pays him honor by recalling that when
the Day School movement developed here, Elpern
was the most adamant in supporting it.
Snyder points out that the opposition was strong
at the outset and Snyder was equally as insistent in
behalf of the cause that has now become the guideline
in Jewish educational tasks.
Talmudist, Hebraist, teacher, poet, linguist — he
was a combination of these qualities. As the
Ecclesiastical quotation applies, Israel Elpern also
was the haver neeman, the revered friend of so many
who looked to him as teacher and guide. Such is the
landmark in the career of a Hebrew teacher who
earned admiration and respect from the vast areas
covered by a life that was marked by sufferings and
acquired glory from a spirit of courage.
Israel Elpern
the death camps. The film, he said,
"remains with me as confirmation
of our right to rekindle these
memories, because we need al-
ways to guard against that kind of
tyranny and inhumanity" . . .
There is reason to believe that
Germans would be gratified to
present a common face, with an
American President, to the evils of
their country's past. A president
with Ronald Reagan's compassion
for the victims of tyranny need
have no political hesitation to re-
member them and, in remember-
ing them, to raise the moral barrier
against any repetition of the great
Nazi crimes.
Equally effective in a rejection of
President Reagan's defensive position on
his Dachau visit decision is a letter. the
New York Times published Feb. 19 from
William L. Shirer, who remains one of the
most authoritative journalists on the Ger-
many of pre-war as well as the World War
II eras. Shirer stated, in comment on an
Op-Ed NYTimes article:
David Schoenbaum, in his
Op-Ed article ("V-E Day, the Right
Way," Feb. 3) states,"The United
States officially denied in 1945 that
Germany was a liberated country"
and insisted, "like the Nazis them-
selves that 'German' and 'Nazi'
were interchangeable terms." He
goes on to say that "we soon caught
on that this was nonsense and had
been since 1933."
Though I was back briefly in
Gerthany in 1945 after the war's
end, I never heard that the United
States "officially" refused to dis-
tinguish between "Germans" and
"Nazis." If it did, it was certainly
correct.
I do not know who is included
in Mr. Schoenbaum's "we" — the
ones who soon "caught on" that it
was "nonsense" not to distinguish
between "Germans" and "Nazis."
Being in Berlin during most of that
time, I'm afraid I never caught on.
My impression was that the over-
whelming majority of Germans
heartily approved Hitler and what
he was doing. This was shown in
one election and plebiscite after
another and in the way Germans
threw themselves into working for
the greater glory of the Third Re-
ich. One saw it almost daily in the
German people's adulation of their
Fuhrer, diabolical as he seemed to
many of us non-Germans. To most
Germans he appeared a savior.
Mr. Schoenbaum seems to
think that V-E Day, the 40th an-
niversary of which we will be
celebrating on May 8, was for the
Germans a liberation and a "new
beginning" and therefore "a
ground" for them now to join us in
a "common celebration" of the
day.
A liberation it certainly was
for Germans (as it was for
everyone else in bombed-out
Europe) from the agonies of war.
But quite understandably, the
Germans were bitter at their de-
feat, the second their country had
suffered in less than 30 years. I did
not get the impression from talking
with them that they were grateful
Continued on Page 37
Julius Chajes: Communal Episode
Julius Chajes earned the encomia now accorded his
name in a lifetime of creative musical devotions. His com-
positions are known globally because his music was loved
in many lands, notably this country, Israel, England,
France and Austria.
His life was primarily spent in Detroit and many inci-
dents contributed to an activism in his profession as well as
his interest in communal affairs and in Jewry's and Israel's
status in the world. In the past decade he became a letter-
writer, defending Israel and condemning prejudices.
He became an important factor in the Jewish Commu-
nity Center, where the orchestra he organized drew wide
attention and had the participation of outstanding musi-
cians. The support he received from Fred M. Butzel is espe-
cially noteworthy. Mr. Butzel helped him in his orchestral
interests and attended the concerts he directed. There was
an interesting incident. Butzel came one Sunday afternoon
for a concert directed by Chajes. It was set for 1 p.m. and
Butzel was, as usual, punctual. He arrived a few minutes
before the set hour for the event and he was the only one
there. He told Chajes he would have to leave to fulfill
another important commitment. Chajes said: "You are here
and I'll start the program, even if you'll be the only one
here." He did and then there were half a dozen. By the time
the first number was concluded, there were several dozen in
the audience. Butzel never forgot the experience, and he
blessed Chajes for it.
There were hundreds of incidents in the Chajes career
that linked him with musical creativity and devoted De-
troit Jewish citizenship and involvements. Therefore, his
name and achievements are immensely praised in tribute
to his rich career.
Julius Chajes
Fred Butzel