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Friday, May 16, 1986

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

Meet Our Capable Crew

PURELY COMMENTARY

Waldheim

Jewish Community Center
Day Camp

Robin Herman
Director
Program
Pre-School - 1st Grade

Stan Trumpeter
Day Camp Director

Candy Bousquet
Program Director
2nd - 6th Grades

Ready to provide a wonderful experience!
Free Bus Transportation

Session I, June 23 - July 18, Session II, July 22 - August 15
Exciting programs for pre-school through 10th grade
For information call 661-1000, extension 254.

Continued from Page 2

camp whence escape was virtu-
ally impossible. Kulka tells about
an exception to this rule. A non-
Jewish SS guard, Victor Pestek,
assisted Siegfried Lederer in an
historic escape.
A love story is part of the true,
historic event. The SS guard,
Pestek, was in love with the
Jewish woman Rene who was
among those scheduled for ex-
termination.
The story of this love affair
forms a moving chapter in the
Kulka record of a most remarka-
ble event.
Rene survived the horrors and
with her mother found refuge in
Czechoslovakia. She married an
American officer and moved to
this country.
Recaptured, returned to Au-
schwitz, the story related here
provides the details of Lederer's
survival and Pestek's punish-
ment with death.
Details of the events, the re-
cord of the fellow survivors who
live as testimony of the events,
and the factual record of what is
to a degree a fictionalized drama
of the notable event, is included.
Escapades involving Victor
Pestek, who did not halt his ac-
tivities contra the SS in which he
had been enrolled, and the
dramatic developments involving
him and Lederer make Escape
From Auschwitz a most revealing
chapter in the history of anti-
Nazi episodes.
While on transfer to There-
sienstadt, Lederer and Pestek
discuss the ways to resort to re-
sistance and to help the hordes
threatened with death. Lederer
aimed at finding ways to inform
the International Red Cross. Pes-'
tek was ready to acquire weapons
for action against the Germans.
Pestek was on leave from the
SS during the period when he
aided Lederer. They had reached
Prague from Theresienstadt and
Lederer was trying to make con-
tacts with the Swiss authorities
in the effort to share the facts
about, the status of the Jewish
victims under Nazi oppression.
There was recapture and re-
turn to Birkenau, severe
punishment for Lederer, and the
death penalty for Pestek.
Lederer's tasks via There-
sienstadt apparently attained
some results, the record showing
that the Red Cross received some
of the information regarding the

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Nazi mass death threats to the
Jewish inmates.
Few Holocaust accounts match
this ultra-dramatic tale.
Lederer eventually enlisted in
the partisans and survived severe
gunshot wounds. He died in
Prague at the age of 68 in 1972.
There are survivors from Au-
schwitz who are witnesses to the
correctness of the Lederer-Pestek
escape from Auschwitz and the
subsequent occurrences.
Erich Kulka has added an im-
portant . chapter to the Holocaust
history with Escape From Au-
schwitz.

Death Calls
Personalities

The week's death list marks
sad losses for Jewish com-
munities in this country and in
England.
Hershel Bernardi's theatrical
record is too well known to need
special elaboration.
Ida Landau was among the for-
gotten because she had been out
of active life for many years. Yet
she must receive recognition for
noteworthy services she rendered
with her husband, the late Jacob
Landau, in the advancement of
the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
She had a special role in.
American Jewish journalism in
the management of the Overseas
News Agency. In that capacity,
she was associated with her
brother, Victor Bienstock, one of
the current distinguished Detroit
Jewish News columnists, in
drawing into services the leading
American foreign correspon-
dents. With brother Victor she
also organized Transworld Fea-
ture Syndicate.
From Manchester, England,
comes the news of the death of
Marcus Shloimovitz, and emi-
nent correspondent who played
many roles in championing social
and political causes. He became
famous for his success in conduct-
ing a campaign to have expunged
from dictionaries derogatory
definitions of the word "Jew." In
this campaign he had the collab-
oration, on the American scene,
of prominent Detroiter Leonard
N. Simons, who, like Shloimovitz,
never abandoned a good fight.
From London, England, came
the news of the death at the age
of 101 of one of the controversial
men in British politics and
foreign affairs. Emanuel Shin-
well battled on many fronts. He
was as disputable as the complex-
ity of his many involvements,
even as a pugulist. He applied it
in his political career when he
punched a fellow member of the
House of Commons who advised
him to go back to Poland. Actu-
ally, his birthplace was the East
End of London.
On Dec. 7, 1984, Purely Com-
mentary had a lengthy tribute to
Shinwell, on his career in the
House of Lords and as a member
of several government cabinets.
It indicated his courage and his
valiant alignment in Zionist
ranks. His courage will long be
remembered when recounting
British Jewish history.

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