COMMENT RABBI EMANUEL RACIVIAN DAVID ADAMANY Chancellor Bar-Ilan University President, Wayne State University honorary Chairman PROFESSOR GERSHON WINER DOREEN HERMELIN BERNARD It 5TOLLMAN Incumbent Rena Costa Chair of Yiddish Language and Literature Bar-Ilan University General Chairmen Detroit Friends, Bar-Ilan University 50 Years Ago, War Broke Out ARNO HERZBERG Special to The Jewish News I BAR-ILAN UNIVERSITY You are cordially invited to a reception honoring EMMA 5C11AVER for her outstanding lifetime of work for the enrichment of Yiddish language and literature on WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 11, 1989, 7:30 P.M. CONGREGATION 511AAREY ZEDEh Guest Performer: JUDITH LECIIMR No Admission Charge No Solicitation R.S.V.P. 423-4550 A HEALTHY & HAPPY NEW YEAR TO OUR CUSTOMERS & FRIENDS FROM ALL OF US AT e el' You're never too old to quit blowing smoke. No matter how long or how much you've smoked, it's not too late to stop. Because the sooner you put down your last cigarette, the sooner your body will begin to return to its normal, healthy state. ace APPLEGATE SQUARE MARCIA BLUME-AMHOWITZ PHYLLIS COHEN SYLVIA FORREST NATALIE HOFFMAN EVELYN KEIL JACKIE LIPSHAW 160 FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 1989 356-6468 ELAINE MORTON MARGO ROSENTHAL ESTHER ROSENTHAL CHARLOTTE PASMANTER MARLENE SLUTZKY American Heart Association WERE FIGHTING FOR YOUR LIFE I t is difficult to remember what happened 50 years ago. The problems of the world, the imminent concerns of people, have changed. A new generation has come up with a different approach to the demands of the day, with a different outlook, different interests and a new agenda. The outbreak of World War II, 50 years ago, has been relegated to the history books. But those who lived through it remember vividly and clearly the years of ten- sion that preceeded the first of September 1939, the cons- tant changing, insolent demands of Adolf Hitler. They remember the weak and meek response of politi- cians in the Western democracies, the illusion that America could keep out of the turmoil ini Europe, the con- cerns we had as Jews to preserve our people and to continue living in an uncer- tain, if not hostile world. Sept. 1, 1939, was the logical result of years of ap- peasement and pretense. The Western democracies never grasped the danger Hitler posed to their values and to their world. They let him grab Austria and Czechoslo- vakia. They would still cling to "Peace in our time," a docu- ment which that naive Englishman Neville Chamberlain brought home from days of negotiations, pro- udly showing Hitler's signature, not realizing that it was worth less than the paper it was written on. For us Jews, Sept. 1, 1939, is a day that confirmed the old adage that Jews will be victims of upheaval and war, that they are expandable, that their fate is of no concern to the great makers and shakers of this world. This day was significant not only because it showed how little the Western democracies were prepared to cope militarily with the power, tactics and methods of Nazi Germany: for us Jews, it was the end of all efforts to save our people from the clut- ches of the most vicious criminals in history. Emigration out of Germany slowed to a trickle on that day, and the physical exter- Arno Herzberg was JTA bureau chief in Berlin in the 1930s. mination of Jews was brought a decisive stop closer. I had always feared that the Germans would resort to measures beyond the im- agination of a normal person if war ever broke out; that they would want to get rid of Jews so that they did not have to feed them. When war did break out, the Germans were no longer concerned how the world would react to their behavior. The so-called civilized nations saw the cruelties the Nazis dealt out in Austria and Czechoslovakia, as in Vienna, where the Jews had to scrub the sidewalks with their bare It bothers me to this day that the Gestapo might have used my writings to compile a dosiser of Jewish leaders in certain European countries. hands. The Allies had signal- ed to them long ago, in the Conference of Evian and eslewhere, that they could to with the Jews as they pleased. In this war, fate of the Jews was bound up with the ad- vance of the German armies. First came the conquest of Poland, with its millions of Jews; then France, Belgium, Holland, Denmark, Norway; then Hungary, Yugoslavia and Greece, and finally, the Soviet Union. All of these conquests brought more and more Jews under the rule of the Ger- mans and invited even more stringent measures, culmin- ating in extermination in the notorious death camps. The round up of Jews and their shipment to the death factories was organized and executed by the SS. But the rest of the German army was not averse to taking part in shootings and humiliation of Jews. It was almost standard pro- cedure. Right after the vic- torious German armies came the Gestapo with their files. In those files were the names of Jewish leaders and promi- nent persons who the gestapo would round up to ship to Auschwitz. It bothers me to this day that the Gestapo might have used my writings to compile a dossier of Jewish leaders in certain European countries.