i _ .. _ , _ . .h:: . - .~..- 4 ti Unexpected Propaganda Expressions EXOIIJS: The 'Hard Sell' Clouds Many Issues Austrian Youth Conduct Anti-Festival Campaign By LLOYli GELMAN A CASUAL observer in Vienna at, the time of the International Youth Festival would have been surprised by the propaganda he encountered there. The Commu- nist-sponsored Festival was per- haps most effectively covered by the anti-Festival campaign of the Austrian Socialist Youth. The Festival itself was hard to find, since events took place at isolated theaters or at a large fairgrounds outside the city. If one was just wandering about in Vienna, chances are he would not come across the Festival activities. On the other hand he was almost sure to come across the anti- Festival, which had brightly deco- rated information booths scattered aroundndowntown Vienna, espe- cially near the American Express offices where-Americans congre- gate. At these information booths one could find copies of the Vienna Daily News, a thinly disguised anti-Festival paper; ariti-Festival and anti-Communist propaganda; and information on other Social- ist Youth activities. These activities included sev- eral daily bus trips that went to the Iron Curtain (Austro-Hun- garian border) to show visitors the barbed wire and machine gun towers there. Films such as "1984," "Animal Farm," and "Hungary in Flames" were shown for delegates from behind the Iron Curtain. Free copies of books such as Dr. Zhivago were distributed to those who could not obtain them in their homeland. THE Vienna Daily News was a paper published by the Vien- nese press to cover the Festival. This filled the gap created by a press boycott of the regular daily papers enacted during the con- vention. The regular papers ap- parently assumed that a press blackout would hurt the Festival the most. Instead the Daily News was published, but its anti-Festival overtones were only slightly veiled. Among other things, it printed the_ Festival schedule, within which were inserted certain of the Austrian Socialist Youth activ- ities like the films and speeches by pre-Revolution Hungarian poli- tical leaders. Also included in the paper were articles entitled: "Cameraman Beaten by Festival Guards," "Hungary: A Soviet Colony in Europe," "Festival Au- thorities Bar Western Press," "Fes- tival Chiefs Worried Over Lack of Control," "Two Czech Soldiers Ask Austrian Asylum." The paper was distributed to Festival delegates whenever pos- sible, and reports were heard of attacks on paper distributors by angry pro-Festival workers. Fes- tival delegates who read the paper were also endangered. IF THE FESTIVAL itself was an organ of propaganda, it seemed to me to be well disguised. The only idea really broadcasted was "Peace and Friendship," the slogan of the Festival. Communism or pro-Rus- sian sentiments were not to be seen officially. Festival, the meet- mg's official paper, expressed many sentiments such as "the youth of the world are working together toward unity and friend- ship." Perhaps the names or expressed purposes of some of the demon- strations would best show the ap- parent overtones of the Festival. There were demonstrations for 'Friendship and Solidarity' with the youth of colonial and newly- independent countries and the celebrations in 'honor of friendship and peace among the people against atomic weapons for dis- Iron Curtain at the Austro-Hungarian Border aU armament and peaceful coexist- ence. In the rest of Western Europe a casual traveler is confronted by little propaganda. The only blatant examples that I saw during ten weeks of travel were at the Fes- tival and in Berlin. West Berlin has done much reconstruction during the war and will rightfully and proudly boast of it. This is only natural and is easily ac- cepted. EAST BERLIN, however, is quite a different matter. Here propa- ganda is directed at both inhabit- ants and visitors. In subway sta- tions and on the streets, the advertisements and posters urged atomic disarmament and boasted of the economic successes of the German Democratic Republic (DGR). All organized tours of for Men the SH OE .1 Soft going in floaters the lightest Weightrt $" \~casuals evert-Jn You're sure to find our BATES FLOATERS so comfortable on, you'll hardly want to take them off! Soft glove eather over a remarkable lightweight crepe sole, plus the BATES exclusive construction, makes FLOATERS only halJ the weight of regular shoes... accounts for this extraordinary comfort. Vou'll want to see our new FLOATERS in a new selection of colors. They're greatI SAT I. $ Slipper-Free Where Your Foot Bend I Student Life in Munich Berlin that included the East Ber- lin are required to stop at the border between the two sectors and receive an official welcome. This usually consists of a build-up of East Germany by an officer and then an invitation to help one- self to several pamphlets on a table. One particularly interesting one was entitled "West Germany -- A Smouldering. Volcano." The cover illustrations was that of a soldier, standing with a vicious- looking dog, in front of a stock- pile of bombs. The ideas expressed in the pamphlet included 1) the West German government is full of ex- war criminals and Nazis; 2) Ade- nauer's government can be com- pared to Hitler's in its aggressive- ness and war-mongering: 3) DDR is a -peace-loving nation; and 4) why doesn't West Germany re- cognize DDR, resign from NATO, and then the two parts could live separate and'equal, side by side without atom bombs. - WITHIN the rest of Western Europe, propaganda could be found in only the slightest doses- e.g., speakers in Hyde Park, Lon- don, who spoke their mind on al- most any subject from Commu- nism and pacifism to religion and birth control. From Vienna to Hyde Park, one found the opposite extremes in de- grees of propaganda, attempted both by individuals and by or- ganizations, discussed by diverse individuals from diverse points of view. Lloyd Gelman travelled through Europe this summer for ten weeks. During that time he visited the Vienna Youth Festival and Berlin as well as several other cities. He is a sophomore in the medical school. E xodus,- by Leon Uris, tells the story of the migration of twen- tieth century Jews from the con- centration camps of Europe to the Biblical homeland on the Mediterranean Sea.'Although the hovel concentrates on the migra- tions between 1946 and 1949 and on the establishment of the new state of Israel, frequent flashbacks and digressions record Jewish misery in Europe since 1880 and the whole history of the twenti- eth century transformation of desert wilderness into green and fruitful land. The cruelties the Jews have suffered have been un- deniably genuine, butMr. Uris has injected each incident with strong doses of melodrama, sear- ing purpose, and unbelievable heroism. The material is drained of every bit of emotion, pathos, and sense of destiny it will yield. The account of how the Jews fi- nally managed to escape the ghet- to and the concentration camp is given, the "hard sell" so familiar in advertising and television. Were Exodus marred only by an excess of enthusiasm for the subject, complaint would sound petty or precious. But the enthu- siasm of the novel itself clouds many of the issues it raises. For example, a good deal of the novel is taken up with the difference between two groups of Jews fight- ing for Palestine. One, the parlia- mentary Yishuv insists on using legal means whenever possible, avoiding brutality, and fighting only as a last resort. The other, the Macabees, employ terrorism and murder to gain their objec- tives. The novel presents both points of view, makes the conflict be- tween them so complete that two brothers (Russian immigrants who settled in Palestine in the 1880s) won't speak to each other for fifteen years because one is on one side and one on the other, and yet the novel never, until 'the very end, chooses between the Yishuv and the Macabees. It is as if any notion is acceptable, any point of view sanctioned, so long as dedicated Israelis hold it. The moral issues implicit in the struggle between the Yishuv and the Macabees are never present- ed or worked{out. Finally, on page 570, after Israel has gained inde- pendence, the Macabees are brief- ly castigated for alienating world opinion and never mentioned again. AS ENTHUSIASM for the Jew- ish cause blurs any distinction between possible Jewish points of view, so this same enthusiasm judges all non-Jews simply from the point of view of their alle- giance to the state of Israel. All the British (save for one or two "traitors" to their country) are priggish, interested only in oil,i double-dealing; all the Arabs pre- sented (save for one who is killed by other Arabs early in the novel) are ignorant or fanatical or cruel. Despite the large cast of charac- ters and the relevant historical issues treated, Mr. Uris's perspec- tive is so intensely narrow and so, closely connected with a political cause that the novel 'becomes an instrument of propaganda rather than a selected representation of experience. The central characters of the novel suffer from a similarly simple treatment. Ari Ben Canaan, the hero, the strong and silent leader of the Jewish forces, is pre- sented as a kind of paste-board superman. For complexity, Ari is given a flaw, but it is a paste- board flaw, for Ari is too strong and silent, under his cold and effi- cient exterior too hurt by the mur- ders of his friends and comrades, to be able to give himself emo- tionally. His flaw is simply the ex- cess of his virtue, though it is miraculously cured for the con- venience of the plot at the end of the novel. His sister, Jordana, similarly one-dimensional, seems cold and hard and competent, but grieves for three years for her dead lover, whose name can never be mentioned in her presence. Kitty, the American woman who finally overcomes Ari's emotional nullity, must be made an anti- Semite in the beginning of the novel so that her conversion to the Israeli cause can be that much more startling. All the characters are exaggerated, presented, like the cause itself, as large and simple and suitable repositories for grand emotions. plE PRIMARY merit of the. novel is the history it records. In long digressions, Mr. Uris tells the history of the Palestinian Arabs or the origin of the first kibbutz settlements or the story of the Nazi occupation of Den- mark during World War II. All of these accounts are admittedly shaped to focus on Jewish issues. but the accounts themselves are informative and interesting. When, however, an historical event di- rectly effects the establishment of the state of Israel, such as the 1947 United Nations decision in favor of, partitioning- Palestine, Mr. Uris adds so much melodrama that he overcomes the significant meaning of the historical inci- dent itself. Much of the historical interest, however, is undercut by bad writ- ing. Mr. Uris frequently relies on cliches: significant dates become years "of decision," newspaper headlines become huge captions that serve as chapter headings in the novel, political moves are either "deadly blows" or chess games. The author also introduces various gimmicks to draw the reader into his story. Once or twice, he switches, like the intro- duction to a television program, into the second person to force a sense of historical immediacy on the reader and he never fails to provide an account of the rele- vance of the Russian Revolution of 1905 or the Balfour Declara- tion to the little man working his tiny farm. Sometimes, the form of the statement is more sweeping and promising, more elaborate, than anything the author has to say. At one point, when talking of the Talmud as a "sea," a vast col- Very important Intarsia gov4t Enthusiasm Mars Story of Jewish Migration -u .. EXODUS. by Leon Uris, Doubleday and Company, 1958, 626 pages, $4.50 By JAMES GINDIN lection of wisdom that requires no supplement, Mr.Uris concludes: "The Rabinsky brothers studied this great collection of laws and customs, which contained in- formation on everything from 'social behavior to personal cleanliness." What of theology, morality, gov- ernment, logic, or art? No mention is made of these. Apparently, Mr. Uris has made his point with his sweeping generalizations and ap- propriate form. The details don't matter. THE EXAMPLE. above is one of inept writing, but, more fre- quently, the writing in Exodus is slick. Mr. Uris narrates a story with force and clarity, a story to which he quickly adds an appro- priate quotation or Biblical tag. Each victory for the Israelis in the 1948 campaign is swiftly linked to a Biblical victory, each change in Israeli policy supported by a quotation from the Bible. Writing for an American audi- ence, Mr. Uris is careful to dis- tinguish between the motives dic- tating the American switch to fa- voring the partition of Palestine and the Soviet switch to the same position. While the Russians ap- parently switched for political motives, in order to gain prestige an no Ca ha c th na1 tho to fig kn ha on, Wi col ci. ne, th lar th "A fo I sti col Eu dic cal aci PO a t, (Continued from Page 3) his second duel for his Chor, one of the fraternal orders which were formed in 1814, during the cam- paign for German unity,' and. banished by Hitler. A FEW MORE of us came limp- ing in as a result of unfor- tunate skiing incidents. With Kitz- buehl, Switzerland and the Ba- varian Alps only a few hours away, we enjoyed many skiing weekends when we were not at- tending concerts, the opera, or the theater, or visiting the families of our new friends. The semester vacation - March and April-helped us to recover from final -exams and Fasching, an extended one-month carnival time similar to Mardi Gras. Five girls and I took an ASTA spon- sored train to Athens for $15 and youth-hostelled our way through Italy, along the Riviera through France and Switzerland. For 25 cents we received lodging at the hostels and met students from Australia, England, France, Ger- many, Italy, Switzerland, America, South Africa, South America and France. IN EUROPE the student is be- loved by all and receives many, discounts, such as reduced travel rates, admission to all state-spon- sored museums and projects, and discounts on bookt and concert and theater tickets. We had a storehouse of foreign intrigue tales upon returning to Munich and so did the others, some travelling as far south as Africa, east to Russia and India, north to the Scandinavian coun- tries and the British Isles. We plunged into another full semester which ended July 31 and spent the time until our ship departure tra- velling, bidding farewell to friends and relatives." 1. LEAF DESIGN SLIPOVER FULL-FASHIONED LAMBSWOOL $1 95 2. SKIRT WITH ARROW DETAIL 90% WOOL AND 10% CASHMERE $1 095 Z,1: .:h",.....,.............,.......... ....'.......v......".:v,...,.... .....:".. - . .1 ' .".."d.".. . ..i'lfiit:l:v"..r S;$?iie« ." ,.s:.:A:4" ): I. c A oz e Ill _ -- ll ILAK DSIN Y with "she's a U of M goal" look. If you're a gal with an eye for fashion and a limited budget--you'll love our fall collection of carpus favorites. Every fresh new idea in sweaters-skirts. Jack- ets and sport togs plus wonderfully feminine dresses with a casual air for those .games, dates and dances. Sizes from tiny 5's to tall 20's All the latest whimsies in accessories. There's so much to choose from and we're sure you'll find ours friendly stores. U- 209 SOUTH STATE STREET (Below Marshall's Book Store) Featuring CARVINGS from k -KENYA' -GUATEMALA --INDIA, -BALI -OIL ON CHARRED WOOD -MOSAICS -CRAFTED JEWELRY by Lake $995 I vNL WILnD' sA s Street on the Campus AS -MEXICO ASSORT ED J ADE RINGS -EBONY PENDANTS MAIN SHOP 530 South Forest off corner of S. Univ. opposite Campus Theatre CAMPUS TOGGERY Near Diag. corner off East Univ. Just 1% Vblocks from main shop. 217 South Main "Perfect freedom is reserved for the man who lives by his own work and in that work does what he wants to do."-R. G. COLLINGWOOD