EDITORIAL
Save Auschwitz
G
eorge Santayana's phrase of caution, "Those who do not
remember the past are doomed to repeat it," has become a bit
of a cliche. This is a shame. There is more wisdom in these
12 pithy words than in some entire books. For unless we meet and
confront the past, with all its horrors and glories and banalities, we
are without a rudder in the swift currents of time and events.
A project that has just been announced to preserve the decay-
ing buildings at the Auschwitz and Birkenau death camps will
help rescue the very worst of the past from the threat of oblivion.
The initial stages of the conservation project are being sponsored
by the World Jewish Congress and the Ronald S. Lauder Founda-
tion. The two groups are sending a team of conservation experts to
the death camps in December to determine the extent of the pres-
ervation work that is required. The cost for the preservation is ex-
pected to total millions of dollars.
Many of the 28 buildings in the camps, which comprise the
Oswiecim-Brzezinka Museum in Poland, are nearing collapse.
Crematoria, barracks and gas chambers, and piles of hairbrushes,
spectacles, luggage and human hair are all in advanced stages of
decay. To let the camps turn into ashes and dust — as did those
who were their victims — would be to give a victory from the grave
to the genocide and insanity of Hitlerian Nazism.
Preserving Auschwitz and Birkenau, the ultimate emblems of
the possible fate of the Jew in the 20th century, is an imperative
not just of the world Jewish community. It an imperative for the
world. Survivors of the Holocaust will not be around forever. The
physical reminders of the hell they endured — and in which 12
million, Jew and non-Jew died — must not die with them.
To a large extent, these items address the most basic need of
Israel: Its survival in the face of Palestinian duplicity and Arab in-
transigence. But the 40-page position paper is as important for
what it omits as for what it states. Chief among its points is the
eventual creation of a sovereign, independent Palestinian state on
the West Bank and Gaza.
This is a popular concept these days, but there can be no such
state — if ever — until there is peace between Israel and all of its
Arab neighbors. For it is these neighboring states that have helped
fuel the decades'-long conflict between Jew and Palestinian. They
have kept Palestinians huddled in inadequate refugee camps, fed
them inflammatory rhetoric and used them as pawns rather than
aided them as humans. This disingenuous and cunning chapter of
the Middle East is missing from the Catholic statement.
The Synagogue Council of America, an umbrella group for Or-
thodox, Conservative and Reform organizations, voiced concern
about the Catholic document, noting that it "seems to go beyond
the Papal call for a Palestinian homeland by stressing territory
and sovereignty while ignoring other possible solutions" and
"prejudges what can only be achieved through the process of
negotiations, which is the domain of political entities rather than
religious bodies."
The point cannot be overemphasized: peace can only come
through negotiations based on the reality of the continuing
presence of the State of Israel.
Sins Of Omission
T
he recent draft of a policy statement for the American
Catholic Church's hierarchy regarding the Israeli-
Palestinian impasse makes some positive points, but is of no
help to the peace process because it falls into a familiar trap.
On the positive side, in what is no doubt a critique of the slip-
pery vagueness of PLO chief Yassir Arafat, the draft states that
"Palestinians will insure secure possession of their homeland by
being clear in word and deed about Israel's security and territory."
It maintains that Palestinian territorial claims cannot be part of a
piecemeal effort to occupy all of Israel. And it stands firmly behind
a close American-Israeli relationship, one that it deemed
beneficial and advantageous to both parties.
Rabbi Defends
Father Brunett
I am disappointed in your
judgment publishing a letter
criticizing Rev. Alex Brunett,
based on a chance encounter
and a brief quote from a let-
ter that the encounter
provoked.
I, too, have worked closely
with Father Brunett on many
occasions, including a
testimonial on his behalf by
his beloved St. Aidans when
I was one of the speakers.
In my 17 years of contact
with Father Brunett, he
always has been open, fair
minded and anxious to work
with the Jewish community.
Ecumenical work doesn't
6
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 27, 1989
LETTERS
always mean agreement with
one another. It does mean
respectful dialogue, sensitivi-
ty and the maintaining on
both sides of one's integrity
and ideology.
Rabbi David Nelson
Beth Shalom Synagogue
What Do Chasidim
Say Of Holocaust?
I am a Holocaust survivor.
I am also a docent at the
Holocaust Memorial Center
in West Bloomfield. My job is
to answer visitors' questions
about my experiences while
incarcerated at the Auschwitz
death camp.
Most Christians who visit
the center have deep sym-
pathy for the plight of the
Jews of Europe while under
the Nazi terror. However,
there are instances when
some openly express
belligerency toward the
Jewish people. One such lady
asked me whether God is
punishing the Jewish people
for killing Christ.
My answer was as follows:
"My God is a good God. He
doesn't create for the purpose
of destroying. If you think
your God caused the annihila-
tion of 1.5 million innocent
Jewish children then he is no
God; he is the devil."
A few days ago I was in-
formed that one day in
September a Lubavitch rabbi
and teacher at a local day
school made the following
statement to his students:
"God justifiably punished the
Jewish people during the
Holocaust:'
The same statement was
repeated to me by a local loyal
follower of the Lubavitch
Chasidim.
I see some similarities in
the two views. The reasoning
may differ, but they both
justify the end result. Final-
ly, the belligerent Christians
have found some belligerent
Jewish allies.
On Sept. 25 I wrote a letter
to the Lubavitch Chasidimin
Brooklyn, requesting infor-
mation whether the above is
their general view or only the
view of two misguided
members of the Lubavitch
movement. I received no
reply.
Martin Schlanger
Oak Park
Tom Friedman
Misleads The Public
The forthcoming visit to
Detroit by Thomas Friedman,
chief diplomatic correspon-
dent for the New York Times,
will no doubt help promote
the sale of his new book,
From Beirut to Jerusalem.
Unfortunately, it also may
give Friedman yet another
opportunity to mislead the
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