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28- YEAR OLD GBm mVWB CmMVOSY
TREBUNKA,
cols Steiner. (French).
par Jean Fnui-Fayard, Paris.
The passion of a professional journalist endeavouring to exploit to the maximum sensational material drawn to a great extent from original documents comes through in this book. It is the work of a young man who has already published some excellent feature articles. One senses m it as well an ambivalent attitude towards Judaism. There is a sincere love expressed by profound observations on the character, role in history and destiny of the Jewish people; elsewhere there are remarks which surprisingly evince a certain disdain and even at times an undertone of despite for the Jews Steiner describes in his book.
The author, it seems, has been extremely well served by the French side of his personality. The Cartesian spirit in which he was educated has enabled him to describe the unbelievable worid of the Holocaust as a plan of extraordinary simplicity. Tre-blinka as he presents it is a large factory whose purpose it is to put to death a maximum number of human beings in a minimum period of time.
The reader sees before him the geometrical design of the camp with its installations worked out by the "technicians" according to impeccable logic. Right from the beginning the factory works well enough, but the system is improved gradually until it reaches an unbelievable output. But surprisinglv enough the "technicians"
were not content with the
rational application of their system; they also took into consideration the possible human reactions of the men, women and children who had to be put to death without panic, without hysterics, without disturbing the master. And it was to no small extent the psychological "foresight" displayed by them that contributed to the Nazis success in their undertaking.
Nevertheless, perhaps the greatest merit of the book is the fact that it conveys a feeling that the Germans were so successful in carrying out their systematic business of assassination because of their victims' total incapacity to imagine that such an idea could occur to the human mind and that it could be implemented. They could never believe that the machinery could be conceived, blue printed and constructed and that systematic and efficient team work could be organized with the sole purpose of running this factory, making it progress and increasing its horrible output. This the Jews could not admit, even when they were in the arms of death, even when it was no longer possible to have any doubt of the intentions of their hangmen.
Impossible conception All their 2,000-year-old tradition, their ways of survival through a long martyrdom, all the proverbial optimism through their tragic historj', their messianic hope of a
better world — could not admit of such an idea. Because in a world where this could triumph their very existence as a dispersed people without a land and without protection other than that of God, would be senseless and therefore impossible.
This total and obstinate refusal to believe that man
could cease to be a creature in God's image constitutes, I believe, the greatness and heroism of the Jews in the indescribable horror that was Hitlerism.
As the climax of his work, Mr. Steiner describes the revolt of the prisoners in Tre-blinka. Beaten up, tortured, hacked to pieces, the Jews
miZRACHI WITHDBAWS ACCUSATIONS ACIAINS CttlEF RABBI BflSSIM
Jeon-Francoij Steiner, 28, was born in Porit of a Jewish fother and a Gentile mother who converted to Judoism. Hi» fother, o native of Lodz, Poland, emigrated to France
before the war, but died in a Nazi concentration camp. "Treblinka" has been on Immediate bestseller. It has been the cover story in several Freud weekly magazines ond it has received excellent reviews in the general press. Within three weeks otter publication it sold 32,000 copies. American rights have been sold to Simon and Schuster for on advance reportedly in excess of $20,000. The book has provoked o controversy among sortie influentiol members of the Jewish community.
JERUSALEM, (JCNS) - Three days after publishing a blistering editorial attack on Rabbi Iizhak Nissim; the Sephardi Chief Rabbi of Israel, "Hatzofeh," the paper of the National Religious Party, has withdrawn a number of accusations against iiim and published an apolog>- on its front page.
The affair was set ofl by a purported interview with Rabbi Nissim published i n "Yediot Ahronot", an evening paper. This was an imaginative elaborati.m of an article by Rabbi Nissim himself in the religious weekly "Panim el Panim", two weeks earlier.
The "Panim el Panim" article
complained that the Israeli Chief Rabbinate's authority was being steadily eroded by the secular authorities, abetted by the Ministry of Religious Aflairs.
The "Hatzofeh" editorial at tacked Rabbi Nissim for allegedly picking a quarrel with the Minister for Religious Affairs, Dr. Zcrah Warhaftig, and said that the deterioration in the position of the rabbinate was the fault of Rabbi Nissim himself.
Dr. Warhaftig is a National Religious Party leader.
"Hatzofeh" said that if it had known how distorted the "Vedlot Ahronot" report was. it would never have published its editorial.
LIFE SENIENCE FOR NAZI
DUESSELDORF, (JCNS) -Paul Degenhardt, 72. a former police captain who was head of the Nazi police in the Polish town of Czestochowa in 1942 and 1943, was sentenced to hard labour for life in L-aeneburg la.st week on charges ol responsibility for the murder of about 50 Jew there.
Degenhardt, who had been a member of the Nazi Party since 1932, was accused in the indict-
ment of responsibility for the murder of more than 400 Jews.
The jury stated that Degen-hardt's claim, that the had neither killed Jews personally nor ordered their e.xecuiion, had been refuted by many witnesses. He had committed the murders because he had regarded t h e Jews as "useless people.'
Degenhardt said he \iouid appeal.
opened their eyes at last and they saw their hangmen the arms of a machine deaf to any human argument. Accepting the law of the enemy they took up arms, killed and destroyed and succeeded in escaping. They replaced their will to live m spite of everything by the over-simplified philosophy of the classical non-Jewish hero — to kill or be killed.
It was not this revolt nor the uprising in the other ghettos which has saved the honour of the Jewish people. Nor was it the only positive aspect of the moral reckoning of this tremendous tragedy. To admit this is to condemn the general attitude of the Jews during the Holocaust. The moral greatness of the Jews during the Holocaust was their refusal unto death to accept the law of the enemy. They tried to the very last to believe that these missionaries of a new conception of life were still human beings.
Jean- Francois Steiner, 28-year-oId author, has been awarded the Prix de la Resistance for his controversial book, Treblinka, which a weekly newspaper, Le Nouveau Candide, has alleged emphasizes Jewish cooperation with the Nazis in concentration camps.
The jury of former Resistance leaders chose the book by one vote. Five were in favor and four were against. Only two members of the jury were of Jewish origin, one a non-religious Jew, the other a convert to Catholicism.
This is the first time the prize has been given to an author who, because of his age, had no part in the fight against the Nazis.
JESUIT ADMITS ERROR
NEW YORK - Addressing the Ecumenical Coimcil here last Monday, Spanish-bom Father Pedro Arrupe, Father-General of the Society of Jesus, said that Jesuits acknowledged with contrition the part played by their Order in heightening tensions between religions.
Declaring that Jesuits now would be encouraged to play a leading part in the Ecumenical movement, Father Arrupe expressed his belief that there is a definite place for "more specific contacts between Jesuits and Jewish leaders."
Father Arrupe, who is visiting United States Jesuits (his headquarters are in Rome), spoke of "an exaggerated sense of loyalty to one's own church at the expense of charity; a too rigid
concept of truth where personal opinions are sometimes easily confused with
MEMORIAL MEETING
MOSHE SHAREn
ON THE OCCASION OF THE 1ST ANNIVERSARY OF HIS PASSING
PARTICIPANTS;
• HIS EXCELLENCY, GERSHON AVNER,
Israeli Ambassador to Canada
• Y. R. YARON,
Representing the Jewish agency for Israel
• MRS. BERNARD MAYER,
President, Toronto Hadassah
• MAX GOODY,
President, ZOC, Central Division
• CANTOR SEVERINWEIN60RT
TUESDAY, JUNE 14fh, 8:1$ P.M.
liiiii
Zidl|l5ts<lEHK
188 MARLEE AVENUE SPONSORED BY
THE aOMPtOMMViiin OF^T^
TO STAND TRIAL
BO\N (JCNS) - Although Ghana has agreed to extradite Dr. Horst Schumann to West Germany, as already announced in Bonn, he cannot be handed ever until permission has first been obtained from a number ot African States for him to pa s through them on his way to West Germany.
The necessary requests for permission have already been made to the Governments concerned, a Bonn Foreign Ministry spokesman announced, and 2 German police officers, are in Lagos, w-aitiiig to take him into custody and accompany him to Germany aboard a German aircraft.
Schumann is wanted for trial on charges of war crimes against Jews at Auschwitz death camp. For. some years past he has been wdrking as a doctor in a remote Ghanaian village. Previous extradition requests by West Germany were refused by President Nkrumah's regime. His successors in power in Ghana reversed this decision.
Divine revelation; misguided zeal in propagating the Gosi pel which sometimes uses-means not always according to that Gospel; an ignorance of the true thought of others
or facile misjudgement of their motives; a too easy yielding to' nationalistic or partisan prejudices — these are common burdens we all must bear from the past."
Mr. Steiner has used his documentation well. There are certainly inexactitudes of detail, but on the whole the facts are true and presented with cooi detachment which may even shock some readers. But this book is a testimony, perhaps one of the most valuable and most objective to have appeared on the Holocaust. It may even add a new dimension to the discussion around one of the most terrible episodes in the history of mankind whose vital lesson is in danger of being lost because of the continued repitition of slogans and cliches. The German people and certainly the Jewish people as well as mankind in general cahnot leave unanswered the numerous questions raised by this period. What has to be done is not to judge and condemn, but to try to understand, because man must regain his trust in human nature.
Israeli Premier Levi Eshkol is now touring Africa for 0 look at his country's extensive program of technical assistance there. Israel has aid links with 28 independent African nations.
FSHROL VISIT
PARIS LAUDS THE ISRAEL AFRICA ROLE
PARIS. (Special) — "Le
Monde" the leading Freud daily which usually speaks for the Foreign Office, stated Premier Eshkol's African trip was designed to expand Israel's successful cooperation with African nations. In a front-page editorial, "Le Monde" said that Israel set up close relations with the African countries without ever hurting the feelings of the former colonial powers — France, Britain and Belgium.
It continued:
"Contrary to the Arab diplomatic representatives who have been accused repeatedly and officially in countries such as Chad or Senegal, the ?s&r«eT diplomats have always kept their hands off domestic political quarrels. The Jerusalem Government, remaining faithful to this principle and disregarding changes brought about by recent government upheavals, continues its coopera-
tion with such countries as Dahomey, Congo-Kinshasa or the Central African Republic".
"Le Monde" concludes: "Finally, and this is perhaps the basic explanation of the Israel success in Africa — the experts from Israel had proved their efficiency. Endowed with limited financial resources, the Israel governments have been forced to limit themselves to clearly defined cooperation tasks: training of the armed forces, youth education and agricultural producti v i t y. And they have accomplished successfully all three most of the time. In any case they are being praised in Kinshasa where they have trained two battalions of Congolese parachutists, in Abidjan, where they are completing the creation of a women's civil service, and in Niamey, where they are teaching Nigerians how to use solar energy rationally."
Hesse in The St. Louis Globe-Democrot 'But remember — I still hate your guts."
HUMAN RELATIONS
Little Sister
DR. ROSE N. FRANZBLAU
QUESTION: My sister, 6, attends a 9-to-3 first-grade class. She is in the highest class, and enjoys her work and classmates.
The problem occurs at Itmchtime. Since we live almost a mile from the school, my sister must eat in the lunchroom. Sometime during the second week, a little girl asked her for some milk. My sister refused and when she came home she started crying hysterically for fear the other giri would do something to her the following day. My mother settled this by meeting her foriunch and eating in a restaurant.
My sister never did like to share her things even with the family. We only ignored her when she asked for something.
Now anew, problem has occured. She is worried that my mother will fail to brfng her home. This is probably because my mother once came about .two minutes late.
My brother 14, and T, 13, resent iny sis-ter^s attitude, for she is selfish and doesn't care how msiiiy times my mother runs back and forth.
very strict and critical. Or else, they may become extremely ciritical of their parents and the way they rear the baby.
When a child begms to go to school, old insecurities and fears show up again. Being away from home for long periods of time gives rise to the old fear of being abandoned. She may then clutch at her possessions and be unable to share Jier things or her feelings by becoming friendly with her schoolmates.
You ascribe to your little sister the power to make her mother do exactly what she wants. Your mother knows exactly what she is doing; and it is she who makes the decisions, and not your little sister.
. Sometimes, during the months when a child first starts school and shows certain fears and apprehensions, it is good for the parent to be around as much as. possiBle. This gives the child the reassurance sh'e needs tb make friends and establish relationships with her classmates and her ,ANSWER: That you cgire enougb to writ« , teacher. Once she does that.Jand is well on shc>\ys how iniicii you; care for your little the way, her aeed for mother becomes less sister, despite all of the hostility and re- and less and in time she may even finci her sentment you express. UriderstJandinig why mbther in the way■ ; ; .-^^^^v^! ; people behave the way they do sometimes'; ,The tears your little sister sheds are first helps.: ; V "^^ - - out of feai:, and then out pf'^ little shame
' ^ * * * : and anxiety about not being able to handle
Wien tiie oldir childrei feel enviousof. herself better on her ownl You cian be of the baby in the femily and all the attentibh^ 'help by acting as an oldei: brother and sister shei is; getting they ;sometiniesgb( to the .and not as^a^^^ other extreme and;act like parents to their : concern or hostility only sen-es to confiS
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