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Resistance:
Aimed At Defiance
PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
Editor Emeritus
I
n Ecclesiastes — Kohelet
12:12 — we are advised:
"Of making many books
there is no end."
The continuing demands
are that the Nazi crimes
should not only never be
forgotten, but should keep
calling for emphasis.
Therefore, there is the im-
portance of realizing that
the many books about the
Holocaust are compellingly
unending.
Keeping the memories
alive is vital. There are
many in the documentaries
represented in the Yad
Vashem in Jerusalem and
the Holocaust Memorial
Center in Detroit.
The Detroit communal
commitment to the Detroit
Holocaust Center under the
direction of Rabbi Charles
Rosenzveig deserves recog-
nition and commendation.
This is now more evident
with the horrifying re-
emergence of neo-Nazism.
In ignoring the Holocaust
guilt, even in the process of
the re-unification of Ger-
many, the very mention of
the Holocaust was too often
avoided. In Danzig only a
few days ago, advocates of
the resurgence of Hitlerism
marched in the thousands.
Those who are not guided
to an understanding of the
emerging threats need to be
warned of sinister develop-
ments. This was in evidence
in one case at Purdue Uni-
versity where students were
misled by a lecturer who
preached anti-Semitism and
Naziism in a prejudiced
course.
It is encouraging to note
from the report of the ser-
vices provided by the Holo-
caust Center that non-Jews
as well as Jews are learning
the facts. Rabbi Rosenzveig's
report that 98,000 visited
the Holocaust Center in the
past year, a large percentage
non-Jews, provides hope that
bias spreading will be
treated with the deserved
disdain.
Basic facts are provided in
the "Holocaust Memorial
Center Study" conducted by
Jacob I. Hurwitz, professor
emeritus at Wayne State
University and research
consultant to the Memorial
Center. This brochure, with
its explanatory charts,
should be treated as an im-
portant contribution to the
Rabbi Rosenzveig
recognition of the need for
the Memorial Center and its
accumulating services. The
Center's library with
thousands of books on the
Holocaust and Jewish
historical experiences has
great merit in assisting
students and historical
researchers.
An important guideline
was put forth by one emi-
nent author. In his World of
Yesterday, Stefan Zweig
(1881-1942) wrote:
Beneath the yoke of
barbarism one must not
keep silence; one must
fight. Whoever is silent at
such a time is a traitor to
humanity.
Mr. Zweig was undoubted-
ly a victim of the Nazi terror.
The admonition for action
from his book should be a
daily reminder for all faiths
and races.
Professor Guy Stern of
Wayne State University
provides testimony in his
Nazi Book Burning and the
American Response to the
destruction of Mr. Zweig's
books. Professor Stern
makes these comments on
the inhumanities
perpetrated by Hitlerism:
Flames and fires ac-
companied the Third
Reich from its strident in-
ception to its apocalyptic
demise. On January 30,
1933, an endless tor-
chlight parade turned
night into a surrealistic
day in my hometown, and
in all German cities. On
February 27 of that year
the flames of the
Reichstag fire also con-
sumed the last vestiges of
the Weimar Constitution;
on May 10, 1933, the Nazis
burned the books; on
November 9 and 10, 1938,
the synagogues; in 1939
they commenced bombing
and scorching European
cities; in 1942 the gas
ovens of the death camps
were lit; in 1944 whole
German cities went up in
fire and smoke, including
the corpse of the chief ar-
sonist of that world con-
flagration.
The very act of recoun-
ting this grisly progres-
sion or retrogression
makes clear why the
commemoration of one of
the events in this chain
should be sponsored
jointly by the Wayne State
Center for the Book, one
of the 17 branches of the
Center at the Library of
Congress and the Friends
of the Library. Our
library; any fine library,
stands by its very exis-
tence as a bulwark
against book burners and
all inhibitors of a people's
right to know.
As Professor Stern in-
dicates, prevention of such
recurrences depends on the
rejection of villainies by
world public opinion.
A handful of survivors re-
tained evidence of per-
sistence of the spiritual
strength. There was devo-
tion to literature and music
even under the most horrify-
ing conditions that led mill-
ions to the death camps.
Books were burned, but
Hitlerism did not and could
not destroy creative author-
ship or erase the names of
the authors.
A moving example of sur-
vivalism was provided under
the title "Out of the Ashes"
in a New York Times essay
by Anthony Lewis. The
Timescolumnist describes "
A Concert of Music that
Survived a Nightmare"
upon attending a memorable
event in Boston
perpetuating music that was
played by the victims of
Theresienstadt.
The SS commanders at
the camp allowed the in-
mates to put on concerts
and plays. The Nazis used
them for propaganda, to
show that Jews were not
being ill treated. One con-
cert was put on for repre-
sentatives of the Interna-
tional Red Cross. The
Nazis called There-
sienstadt a "paradise
ghetto" though in fact it
was a place of starvation
and death...
Somehow, in that place,
Jewish composers wrote
music to be performed by