looking back

Summer of 1936! Fresh Air Camp counselors Evelyn, Adele, Esther, Bluma, Margie and
Becky finish cleaning out Dorm I in Brighton before heading home for the summer. •

This photograph is just one of 145 photographs taken from 1936-1941 at Fresh Air Camp, from the
Marjorie Mitshkun Acker Photograph Collection, courtesy Leonard N. Simons Jewish Community Archives.

From the DJN

Davidson Digital Archive

I

t seems, while looking for stories 75 years ago from the JN
for my columns, I often write about the war and the crisis
for Jews in Europe. This week, the June 19, 1942, issue of
the JN had this headline: “60,000 Vilna Jews Massacred by
Nazis.” There was also a sub-headline on the front page that
read: “Nazis Renew Mass Murder of Jews in Germany.”
The enormity of the atrocities against Jews,
now known as the Holocaust, or the Shoah in
Hebrew, was certainly becoming clear in the
Jewish News by 1942. Nearly every issue that
year had stories like those above, but a mas-
sacre of 60,000 was still particularly striking
at that time. It is sad to think this only rep-
resents about 1 percent or less of the total
number of Jews murdered in the Holocaust.
Mike Smith
Once past the disturbing headlines, the
Detroit Jewish News
Foundation Archivist
front page had another interesting piece

58

June 15 • 2017

jn

about the annual Memorial Day parade in New York City. It
showed a photo of the New York governor and Daniel Harris,
a 97-year-old Jewish Civil War veteran on the dais with him.
Not only did Harris survive the war with the most casualties
in American history, but to reach 97 in that day and age? He
must have been living right.
There were two other small items of good news. After
15 years of service to the University of Michigan, it was
announced that Hillel would have its own house on campus.
In another article, the Jewish Community Council passed a
resolution officially welcoming the Jewish Theater Guild of
Detroit. This was one of the ancestors of our current Jewish
Ensemble Theater (JET). It is good to know that the arts were
still alive during the war. •

Want to learn more? Go to the DJN Foundation archives,
available for free at www.djnfoundation.org.

Historic photos are curated by the
Jewish Historical Society of Michigan.