UP FRONT
Holocaust Scholar Traces
Memory And Rebellion
DAVID HOLZEL
Staff Writer
R
Anna and Israel Wiener explain how Jewish National Fund aids Israel in response to a
Tzedakah Fair question from Stephanie Warren and Marla Herman last Sunday at Temple
Beth El. Students from four schools solved hypothetical problems by talking to representatives
of 31 Jewish organizations at the annual fair.
Kitty Dukakis Is Vying .
For Detroit Jewish Support
STAFF REPORT
K
itty Dukakis, the Jewish wife
of presidential hopeful Gov.
Michael Dukakis of
Massachusetts, will be campaigning
within the Jewish community of
metropolitan Detroit today.
Mrs. Dukakis will be the guest of an
open reception at 10:30 a.m. at the
Holocaust Memorial Center following
a tour of the memorial.
She also will tour the Oak Park
building of the Jewish Community
Center and will speak on Jewish con-
cerns during erev Shabbat services at
the Federation Apartments.
Her campaign pitch toward the
Jewish community winds down with
a private reception at 2 p.m. at the
Bloomfield Hills home of Arthur and
Effie Weinberg.
She will then attend a reception in
Flint at the home of Michael and
Natalie Pelavin. She will join her hus-
band at a labor rally in Flint Friday
evening.
Mrs. Dukakis will return to Detroit
next weekend to campaign for her
husband before the March 26 state
Democratic caucuses.
Mrs. Dukakis, who could be the first
Jewish first lady, has served on
former President Jimmy Carter's
Commission on the Holocaust and
the United States Holocaust
Memorial Council.
aul Hilberg's career as a hist-
orian of the Holocaust began
with a flippant remark by a
university professor when he was an
undergraduate.
The professor, a specialist in the
Prussian bureaucracy, was teaching a
course called "The Rise of the Na-
tional State!' Hilberg recalled the pro-
fessor telling his students: "Atrocities
of the Napoleonic period have never
again been repeated!'
The incident took place two years
after the end of World War II, and
Hilberg responded, "Professor
Rosenberg, what do you call six
million dead Jews?"
"Ah," the professor responded,
"that is a complicated question!'
Hilberg told a Detroit audience
Monday night that he took his pro-
fessor's evasive answer as a serious
challenge. Even after he began his
Holocaust research, professors and
publishers tried to discourage him
from making the Holocaust his
career.
"Writing about the Holocaust, in
my case, was an act of rebellion."
Hilberg, now a professor of
political science at the University of
Vermont, wove together the themes of
rebellion and response to the
Holocaust in a presentation at the
Jewish Community Center in West
Bloomfield. His appearance was spon-
sored by CHAIM — the Children of
Holocaust-Survivors Association in
Michigan and the Albert Einstein
Lodge of B'nai B'rith.
The author of such works as The
Destruction of the European Jews told
his listeners that "a doctrine of forget-
ting" followed the Holocaust. Even
with the Cold War in full swing,
"there was an air of optimism which
precluded the past?'
The purpose of the war crimes
trials in the late '40s was to "finish
the business." Textbooks and en-
cyclopedias made little mention of the
Nazi atrocities and when they did,
dealt with the perpetrators and not
the victims. "Courses [on the
Holocaust] were not offered in schools,
not even in Jewish colleges."
The first attempts to understand
the Holocaust in the 1950s, such as
the film Night and Fog, never men-
tioned Jews as the victims of genocide.
Then something happened: In
1961, Nazi leader Adolph Eichmann
was captured by the Israelis and
brought to trial in Jerusalem. "In
some sense it was an educational mis-
sion," said Hilberg of the Eichmann
trial. "Israel and the world were now
going to discover the Holocaust!'
The Israelis' intention was as
much to teach their younger genera-
tion about the Final Solution as it
was to serve justice. But something
went wrong, Hilberg said. Young
sabras, some who had fought in one
or two wars, or who were about to
enter the army, asked, "Why did they
let themselves be slaughtered? We
would never have done that."
"For the first time, the victims
emerged;' Hilberg said and they were
regarded as cowards by the young
generation.
The Eichmann trial was an utter
failure, he asserted, and the
Holocaust again became nearly a
Continued on Page 34
ROUND UP
Israelis Urge
Pollard Pardon
Tel Aviv (JTA) — A petition
signed by more than half of
the Knesset asked President
Reagan to pardon Jonathan
Jay Pollard and his wife,
Anne Henderson Pollard, now
serving prison terms for spy-
ing in the United States on
behalf of Israel.
The petition, which was
signed last week by 70
Knesset members represent-
ing ten parliamentary fac-
tions of all political complex-
ions, was presented to U.S.
Ambassador Thomas Picker-
ing for transmission to the
president.
Jonathan Pollard is serving
a life sentence and his wife is
serving two concurrent five-
year sentences as an acces-
sory to the espionage
activities. She reportedly is
seriously ill with a digestive
system disorder.
The petition states that the
signatories are approaching
President Reagan "on a
humanitarian basis, assum-
ing that after the Pollards are
granted pardons they will
emigrate to Israel!'
Ambassador
Sent To Fiji
Tel Aviv (JTA) — Israel's
first ambassador to the Fiji
Republic, Zohar Raz,
presented his credentials
Tuesday to the president at
Suva, the island nation's
capital.
Fiji, an archipelago in the
Western Pacific, had been a
British colony since 1874 and
became an independent
parliamentary democracy on
Oct. 10. 1970.
Greek Generals
To Aid PLO
Athens (JTA) — A group of
30 retired Greek generals and
admirals from the army, navy
and air force announced they
are prepared to put their
technical expertise at the
disposal of the Palestine
Liberation Organization in
its struggle against Israel.
The declaration was issued
in Tunis, where the retired of-
ficers met at length with PLO
chief Yasir Arafat, affirmed
their solidarity with the
Palestinian cause and con-
demned Israel for its "bar-
baric acts against the Palesti-
nians and refusal to abide by
United Nations resolutions."
Dem Absentee
Ballots Available
The Michigan Democratic
Party will make available
absentee ballots or "presiden-
tial preference forms" for
those who will be unable to
participate in person in the
March 26 Democratic
caucuses.
The preference forms must
be returned to the Democratic
Party no later than 5 p.m.
March 25.
For information, contact the
Oakland County Democratic
Party, 334-0971 or 399-1112.
Rabbi Abramson
To Leave Hillel
Rabbi Robert Abramson
will leave his position as
headmaster , of Hillel Day
School this summer. He made
the announcement Tuesday
night at a meeting of Hillel's
school board.
Rabbi Abramson has ac-
cepted the New York-based
post of director of the depart-
ment of education of the
United Synagogues of
America. He will begin his
new job on Aug. 1.
He has headed Hillel Day
School for 13 years.
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
5