100%

Scanned image of the page. Keyboard directions: use + to zoom in, - to zoom out, arrow keys to pan inside the viewer.

Page Options

Download this Issue

Share

Something wrong?

Something wrong with this page? Report problem.

Rights / Permissions

This collection, digitized in collaboration with the Michigan Daily and the Board for Student Publications, contains materials that are protected by copyright law. Access to these materials is provided for non-profit educational and research purposes. If you use an item from this collection, it is your responsibility to consider the work's copyright status and obtain any required permission.

April 22, 1961 - Image 4

Resource type:
Text
Publication:
The Michigan Daily, 1961-04-22

Disclaimer: Computer generated plain text may have errors. Read more about this.

C e mlrigu Daily.
Seventy-First Year
EDITED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS OF THE UNIVERSrY OF MICHIGAN
Are Free UNDER AUTHORITY OF BOARD IN CONTROL OR STUDENT PUBLICATIONS
reval" STUDENT PUBLICATIONS BLDG. ANN ARBOR, MICH. * Phone NO 2-3241
printed in The Michigan Daily express the individual opinions of staff writers
or the editors. This must be noted in all reprints.

Kennedy

CAA

2. 1961

NIGHT EDITOR: HARVEY MOLOTCH

Pity Comes 20 Years
Too Late

ANGS of righteous indignation
xtermination of six million Jews
powers, Americans watbh the
,. In their insulated capacity as
bators, they consider themselves
solved from all guilt for this'
crimes.
s of history outline an American
gn policy that reflects the height
and a betrayal of the Judeo-
Is upon which this country was

ply the operation with its
the necessary shippings. No
followed.
The Rumanians died.

flags to protect
American action

.v
* -e

ugh it. was known early in the 1940's
tier was obviously pursuing his diabolic
destroy all Jews on the European'con-
the United States at virtually no time
the, course of the war, modified 'its
ation quotas to allow a larger number
in this country. Since this action was
by all other major powers, even the
ho could have escaped their persecutors'
place to go.
OUGH THE UNITED STATES govern-
nt had many opportunities to facilitate
ape of Jews headed for gas chambers,
Z a policy of inaction, deceit, and pro-
ton each opportunity was allowed to go
out action. The examples are not listed,
ry books; they can only be gleaned by
g memoirs of Winston Churchill, Henry
thau, William Haslett, Franklin Delano
lt and yellowed congressional records.'
these sources one finds that before
, a bill was introduced into Congress to
0,,000 Jewish refugee children into the
States. Pressure from American Legion
aughters of the American Revolution
nen, in addition to the powerful influ-
America's conservative lawmakers, the
defeated.
hildren died.
in 1943, a dispatch from London to
w York Times revealed that Rumania
pared to free 70,000 Jews. The Vatican
'eed to make all arrangements and sup-

N 1944 TWO NAZI emissaries turned up in'
Istanbul with an offer to exchange human
beings for coffee, tea. and motor trucks. Spe-
cifically the deal "called for 10,000 allied motor
trucks for one million Hungarian Jews. The
Germans were prepared to prove their sincerity
by delivering 100,000 Jews "on account." Nev-
ertheless, Lord Moyne, voicing Britain's oppo-
sition to the plan said later: ". . The very
idea of exchanging money or material in the
midst of a war was revolting. Of course they
(the allies) would not do it, as it was' contrary
to principle."
The Hungarians died.
It is to be hoped that the Israeli govern-
ment will parade these and other examples of
American and British inhumanity during the
course of Eichmann's trial. The blind prejudice
which many Americans, especially those with a
Jewish background, apply to present day Ger-
many smacks of the same irrationality that
has allowed Christianity's historic persecution
of the Jewish people.
As The Nation admonished in 1943:
"No one living today will escape retribu-
tion for the crime. For the purge of the
Jews is only positively a Nazi crime. In
this country, you and I and the President
and the Congress and the State Department
are accessories to the crime and share Hit-
ler's guilt. If we had behaved like 'humans
and generous people instead of complacent
cowardly ones, the two million Jews lying
today in the earth of Poland and Hitler's'
other crowded graveyards would be alive
and sate.
"And other millions yet to die would
have found sanctuary. We had it in our
power to rescue this- doomed people and
we did not lift a hand to do it-or per-
haps it would be fairer to say that we
lifted just one cautious hand, encased in a
tight-fitting glove of quotas and visas and
affidavits and a thick layer of prejudice."

Old Handcuffs
By J. M. ROBERTS
Associated Press News Analyst
PRESIDENT KENNEDY'S NOTICE that the United States will act
unilaterally if necessary to repulse Communism in the Western
hemisphere is his second reaction against handcuffs imposed by
America's allies.
First came the break from the years-long pattern of trying to
carry water on both shoulders on the issues drawn between the
European allies and the remaining colonial areas. That was the
decision to side with the smaller countries in demanding, through

1
s

the United Nations, a change in
Portuguese colonial policies.
THE CUBAN POLICY, on the
other hand, is being received with
a raising crescendo of criticism,
both official and unofficial, all
over the world.
The chief criticism in the
United States itself is that,.-in its
first matnifestation, it failed. Aside
from that, there seems to be ap-
proval in principle.
In non-Communist countries
abroad there seems to be a feeling
that the United States should wear
her kid gloves and top hat no mat-
ter how many rotten eggs are
being thrown; that she should stay
on the side of .the angels even if
the angels provide no assistance
against attack.
Kennedy seems to be working~
from a premise that there is too
much argument about how many
angels can dance on the point of
a win-a-war policy.
He envisions situations in which
American power may have to be
used for more than deterrent and
containment.
* * *
HE MADE A 'MISTAKE, on the
basis of misleading intelligence
about the possibility of a popular
rising against Castro, and admits
he is studying some lessons.
One of them may involve the
effects of halfway measures once,
a course has ,been decided upon.
Another involves handcuffs, both.
political and moral.
The handcuffs worn by the
United States with regard to Cuba,.
ever since Castro turned from the
establishment of freedom to the
establishment of Castro, had more
than one loop.
Many Latin American fear any.
sort of precedent for United States
intervention in their affairs.
They also feel that Fidelism is
a part of 'Latin America's long
struggle toward democracy.
Many Latin Americans are pro-
Communist.
These elements put strong pres-
sures on political leaders, a great
many of whom know better, not
to act in consort with the United
States.

CINEMA GUILD:
.Red, Black
'ad'
r ERE IS STILL another ver-
sion of "The Red and the
Black" being shown at Cinema
Guild this weekend-it is an ex-
traordinary bad movie. I don't
know how many screen transla-
tions the French have made of
Stendahl's noved but this must
certainlybethe worst, simply be-
cause it must be one of the least
intelligent screen adaptations of
any novel.
The story of how the film was
made seems clearer than its plot.
They signed up two of France's
finest actors (the late Gerard Phil-
lips and Danielle Darrieux), which
costs money.
What is missing? Furniture, for
one thing; the sets are vast and
empty. A more important and tan-
'gible space Is left by a lack of in-'
itellgent direction, cutting and
manuscript editing.
. * *
THIS IS one of the few movies
made in recent years I have seen
which calls for detailed techni-
cal criticism.
The fadeouts' are amateurish,
the camera work primitive, the
color suggests an old master in.
need of cleaning and 'the 'sound
effects seem to have been dreamt
up by somebody nostalgic for their
apprenticeship in radio.
What has been overlooked in
valid dramatic buildup is made up
with the evocative, amplified
sound of people walking across
tile floors.
* S *
IF THER WAS anyone who
should have given Stendahl's ro-
mantic hero a proper readiig it
was Phillipe, but surrounded as
he was by all this and less, his
performance is at best excusable.
--Robert Kraus

EICHMANN TRIAL:\
Germany Faces World Reaction

I

m .

rn Madnes

ITS ACTION Thursday night, the'
ion Board of Directors established the
a place' which offers no unique services
Jniversity community. In so doing, the
wmipletely ignored a basic function of
JG-to ,provide a common gathering
)r the discussion of ideas. The Union
be conducive to spontaneous discussion"
1 become merely a massive room with
L mercenary food dispenserary.
)uld be a place where anyone (includ-
so-called 'undesirables) can go to buy
while they pursue their intellectual'
rs. Permission to combine eating with
suit of chess, bridge and idle discussion'
essity to provide the proper atmosphere
rsational creativity.
rbidding these pleasures to their pa-
Lie Michigan Union is not maintaining
n-it is. establishing a sterility which
Lo tradition. For this reason, the Union
scind the restrictions whcih have been
upon,the use of the grill and reverse
d toward becoming tuition supported
tion against the private restaurants

WHAT THE NAZIS DID, reflects nothing of
an intrinsic German personality. It is a
manifestation of the capacity of. human be-
ings, whose minds have been influenced by
the normative and social complex of the day,
to act in ways beyond the scope of the egali-
tarian American imagination. It Indicates that
given conditions In the United States during
the same period which promoted an American
populace to turn deaf ears on the pleas of an
enslaved and doomed people, the U.S. govern-
ment's,-.response was equally as. "wrong" as
that of the German concentration camp mas-
ters. No "people" has any right to pride them-
selves in the role they played during the death
of the Jews.
Hopefully, the ideals of humanitarianism,
flouted during the 1940's by Germany, during
the Hungarian Revolution by the Russians,
and during the past several days by the United
t States in their policy towards Cuba, can be in-
grained into the German culture. Hopefully,'
the Germans have demonstrated the deepest
abyss to which human action can sink and
iow the world's people can look forward to a
manifestation of the infinite potentiality for.
human action in the opposite direction.
-HARVEY MOLOTCGH

(.EDITOR'S NOTE: The. author of.
the following article is a 1957 grad-
uateof the University currently
studying in Switzerland.)
By RICHARD MIKTON
Daily Guest Writer
BASEL-The well-fed, glittering
prosperity of West Germany,
which now counts 30,000 million-
aires among its 54 million inhabi-
tants in a territory the size of
Oregon, Americanized in its ap-
pearance but not in its social
structure, where the factories still
have 500,000 ,unfilled jobs, where
the fate of'the Jews 'will be the
major topic of interest in the
weeks-perhaps months-to come,
although if you are a foreigner
no one will want to talk with you
about The Trial.
With the beginning of the Eich
mann proceedings, the German
nation, as a political entity, has
had to face up to daily reminders
of its past, for the first time since
regaining economic strength,, in-
deed for the first time' in its his-
tory. The man chosen to bear the
onus of Jdugment meant for the
German people is, like Hitler, an
Austrian.
'The West German press is not
hiding the trial on the back pages.
It has sent 50 correspondents to
Jerusalem and full-page articles
about the trial appear often. Head-
lines in the independent Die Welt
read "In Jerusalem I nd No
Hate," "There Is No Doubt' of
His Guilt," and "The Trial Should
Uncover Much That Has Remain-
ed in the Dark Until Now." The
Frankfurter Allgemeine carried a
two-page report on "The World
in Which Eichmann Lived-The
Dark Background, of the Trial."
The report consists of excerpts
from, Nazi laws, proclamations,
and records of the concentration
camp period. The German State
Radio has broadcasted "The Life
of Adolf Eichmann."
* * *
A CORRESPONDENT for one
of Germany's largest newspapers
writes from Israel, "Himmler,
Heydrich, Rosenberg or Heinrich
Mueller have to bear much of the
responsibility (for the solution of
the 'Jewish question'). But the
guilt of Adolf Eichmann is no less.
i-e is not merely a scapegoat. He
was not a bookkeeper nor the
chief bookkeeper. He was one of
the directors of the inhuman un-
dertaking 'Solution'."
Germany's leading literary and
political weekly Die Welt carried
an article stating that "We will
be spared nothing, whether we
are ex-Nazis, sympathizers, or
neutral, whether we are resistance
fighters, returned emigrants, in-
different, of the younger genera-
tionwhich has learned of the
Nazis only from books, movies
and their parents.
"Although we don'twant to,"
he continued, "alldof us will have
to concern ourselves with the case.
We want our black past to be for-
gotten. We are already frightened
that sixteen years after the col-
lapse of the Third Reich-the year
of the Eichmann Trial-we will
havea to face humiliation again.
Nobody will be able to avoid it...
"No one has to'identify himself
with Eichmann," the writer states,

We must accept this fact. In do-
ing so we must display dignity,
decency, and common sense." .
* * *
THE TRIAL HAS even brought a
statement from Bundeswehr (ar-
my) headquarters. Since Eich-
mann's capture scarcely a day
goes by that the question isn't
brought up: When does- carrying
out an order become a criminal
act? When should an inner sense
of duty oppose an order? Can I
defend myself as Echmann, does:
"I was an officer. I had to carry
out my duty!" Today's Bundes-
wehr officers refuse to consider
Eichmann as having been an offi-
cer. Nor do they view any of the
Waffen-SS as officers. Bundes-
wehr Press Officer Schmueckle
says "For us the Ss were a part
of the German Armed :Forces but
they never belonged to the Wehr-
macht."
As 'the trial date approached,
Bonn intensified itsefforts to les-
sen the impact of world opinion
on Germany. A month ago "Broth-
erhood Week" was proclaimed
throughout West Germany. Spe-
cial commemorative' programs
honoring the Jews were given on
radio and television. Songs were.
sung in Yiddish and Hebrew re-
c a 11 i n g various concentration
camps and ghetto uprisings. Four
weeks ago Bonn announced that
the Defense Ministry was taking
steps to acquaint the German peo-
ple with the role of German Jew-
ish soldiers in World War I, be-
ginning with the publication of a
book entitled, "War Letters from
Dead German Jews." This book
was originally published in 1935
but had been quickly banned by
the Nazis.
THE CENTRAL OFFICE for In-
vestigating Nazi Crimes in Bonn
announced that a thousand Nazi
"extermination specialists" will
face murder or manslaughter
charges in the months ahead, as
soon as investigations have been
completed. About 150 of the ac-
cused are now held in pre-trial
detention. Of the several thousand
persons involved in the Nazi
crimes, about one thousand of
the most serious offenders have
disappeared, said the office, and
will not be traced.
Six trials involving ex-Nazis
were begun in various German
cities. In Tubingen, near Stutt-
gart, two former SS officers are
accused of carrying out large-
scale war-time executions in Lat-
via. On April 5th in Landsberg,
near Munich-in the same prison
where Hitler wrote "Mein Kampf"
-a 58 year old former SS officer
hanged himself in his cell. He
had been arrested on March 25th
by the BavarianCriminal Police
and was awaiting trial.
In Kiel on April 6th, a woman
doctor who had appealed for the
right to practice again was re-
fused by the court on the grounds
that her war-time experiments as
a doctor in the Ravensbrueck
Concentration Camp disqualified
her from the medical profession
forever.
* .* *
ALTHOUGH 16 YEARS have
passed since the Nazi regime end-

intellectuals, although it was not-
ed that these books came from the
left. In Germany itself the war
period provides the stories for
one-third of all German films
made today. Although the Nazis
are given the full treatment in
most of these, occasionally a film
appears with no political over-
tones and these are the most ef-
fective. German portrayals of
Nazis are exactly the same as Hol-
lywood's: - a weak-brained, cruel'
individual somehow out of step
with the people around him and
readily susceptible to pleasures of
the flesh.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR:
Eichmann Trial Stirs Campus

.1

--F. ULEMAN

Right Move, Wrong Reason

)UGH -THE NEW decision to permit
en to visit in men's apartments Is
erdue, it is neither new nor a revo-
y concept on the part of the Uni-
simply an official acceptance and
ion of an already existing situation.s
have been visiting men's apartments
zy years now, and the reaction most
had to the new ruling was, "Oh,, I
now it was illegal before."
of course, is the main reason the
ty has decided to change the ruling.
simply unenforcable, and, in fact, no
r seriously tried to enforce it.
Keep Ou
E UNITED STATES is to regain the
or that it so highly prizes, it should
'ernational and national law.
ormer demands the United States ree-
he sovereignty of every nation and not
e in its internal affairs. The latter, the
ty Act, enjoins private groups from
invasions of foreign countries from;
States soil.
r by our neglect or design, an invasion
t has been launched from the United
The damage has been done.
ver, the United States can regain some,

Certainly it is better to have the ruling
passed for the wrong reasons than not at all,
but the basic issue will not be solved until
the University has the :courage to say, "We
.make no restrictions about the presence of
women in men's apartments because we recog-
nize the student's right to complete personal
freedom so long as he does not violate the
law."
ASTATEMENT LIKE this would have a tre-
mendous impact on the Dean of Women s
office. The Dean of Women would immediately
be bombarded with' phone calls, letters and
telegrams from parents whose - daughters are
away from home for the first time and who are
worried about them.
This is hardly a desirable situation, nor
is it fair. Even with all her assistants it is
absurd to hold the Dean of Women accountable
for the conduct of 12 thousand women.
It is equally unrealistic for parents who send
their daughters to school to expect that they
will be watched over and guided just as if
they had never left home.
If parents cannot trust their daughters by.
the time they are seventeen years old (some-
how they never seem to worry much about
their sons) they obviously have failed in their
duty and now is not time to expect the officials
of an academic institution to correct their
-mistakes.
FTyRnmymVr T, Tm TTTQtua,.h44. a '..'

To the. Editor:
E ADVENT of the Eich-,
mann Trial has brought out
what I feel to be a distinctively
Jewish reaction in this country
and on this campus. The tenor
of discussion has been so highly.
legalistic and so overwhelmingly
defensive that a comment on this
reaction seems necessary.
To my mind there is, a hidden.
doubt operating among American
Jews. It might be the 'fear that
"it might 'have happened here."
But I think it 'is more a doubt..
American Jews are nervous about
this trial because it makes them
question their Americanism in a
very basic way. Why did America
and the rest of the so-called civ-
ilized world let the Nazis like
Mchmannwdowhat they did? Why
didn't America do more for the
Jews under the Reich?
This trial isan intensely per-
sonal one for'every Jew. To the
American Jew the tria'l says -
whether you like it or nt you are
not only an American like every
other American-you are a Jew.,
Whether or not you admit this
fact, you are different. You are
different from every other Amer-
ican and you are different from
every other human being.
THE REASON that much 'of
the defensiveness is so strong In
the case of Jewish students is be-
cause we, more than any other
segment of the American Jewish.
population, have so faithfully ac-
cepted so much of the 'American
dream. In many different ways,
there are those of us who, with
this trial, question whether or
not much of this dream is a, glori-
fied myth'.
As an American Jewish student
my question of the trial is not a
legal one. It is not even, what will
be done with Eichmann? My ,dues-
tion, and I believe much of the
questioning behind the legal and
technical defensiveness, is this:
Why did it all happen? Once
this question is voiced another fol-
lows: Who let It.all happen? At'
these questions every Jew and
Gentile turns his head and all
are afraid to answer.
.-June Namias, '62
Unrealistic .

"against humanity and thus
should be tried by an interna-
tional body." The fact is that
Eichmann was for the duration of
his career in charge'of the final
solution of the "Jewish" problem.
(However, is it not historically
ironic that one of the reasons Is-
rael came into existence as a state
is due to Eichmann's failure in
completing his job?)
THE IDEA of an "international
body" trying him is also unreal-
istic- as there is no international
criminal court in existence. Ger-
many did not request him. Israel,'
therefore, as a sovereign state,
has no choice but to try him.
I strongly feel that it is not an
error to remind the world of Nazi
tyrannies. The words, "six mil.
lion," have' becomne simply words
with little more meaning,.
Also, it is a generally accepted
fact that the society which pro-
duced these' mass murderers have
today produced a 'youth totally
DAILY
OFFICIAL
BULLETIN
T~e Daily Official Bulletin. is an
official publication - f The Univer-
sity of Michigan for which The.
Michigan Daily assumes no editorial
responsibility. Notices should be
sent in TYPEWRITTEN form to
Room 3519 Administration Building,
before 2 p.m., two ,days preceding
publication.
SATURDAY, APRIL 21
General Notices
Seniors: Graduation costume may be
rented from Moe's Sport Shop, 711 North
University-Monday through Saturday
8.30-5:30.
Approval for the following student-
sponsored activities becomes effective
24 hours after the publication of this
notice. All publicity for these events
must be "withheld until the approval
has become effective.
April 21 Russian Circle, film of Mak-
sim Gorky's book "My Childhood,"
UoLib. 'Multipurpose room, 7:30 p.m.
April 29 India Student Assoc., picnic,
whole day.
May 13 Michigan Union, "Music on;
Campus," Hill Aud., 12:45 p.m.
May 15 Michigan Union, "Modern
Dance Recital," Trueblood Aud., 3:00
p.m.

ignorant of what Nazism stood
for or of the vast crimes it perpe-
trated.
--Alvin K. Berkun, ?61
Darling Adolf.
To the Editor:
AFTER READING your editorial
concerning the unjust trial of
that poor darling Adolf, I was. so
ashamed of my downright mean
feeling that I spanked my hand
three times. Of course, it is of no
value morally or otherwise to be
reminded or "in many cases iitro-
duced to the bloody atrocities of
that era. Instead we should all
strive to think nice thoughts and
have fun. Let us lust direct our
thoughts to the pleasant present
and future.
And aren't we sick and tried of
reliving that horrible massacre.
Honestly, you don't know what I
went thiought watching that "Sta-
lag Seventeen." And "Anne Frank"
-well you just don't know what
that picture did to me. I just can't
seem to get the gruesome images
out of .my mind. No, I will never
forget.
But do you know who I feel
most sorry for. It's those ex-Nazi
officials who are now occupying
top positions in the German gov-
ernment. Those poor fellows must
be going through hell. Thank God
Germany is rearming; this will
give these poor tormented victims
something to occupy their guilt
ridden minds.
-Sandra N. Lewis, 'TlEd

'Objectivity
To the Editor:
CCORDING TO AN old Aieri-
can adage, a person should be
considered innocent until proven
guilty, no matter what crimes he
may be accused of. The Michigan
Daily is to be congratulated on last
Tuesday's excellent editorial o'n
the Eichmann Spectacle. We con-
sider it to be the finest editorial
that ever has appeared in the
Daily during our stay at this
University.
In an era where objectivity n
this type of subject 'is met from
some camps with accusing shouts
of "anti-semitism" it certainly A
a higuh ma~i'r of courage onthe

Back to Top

© 2024 Regents of the University of Michigan