10
THE CANADIAN JEWISH REVIEW
OCTOBER 12, 1945
I
CANADIAN JEWISH REVIEW
An Impartial Medium for the Dissemination of Jewish News and Views
MEMBER AUDIT BUREAU OF CIRCULATIONS
George W. Cohen, Publither_____________
-------------------- " Room" 1207, 21 Dundas Square
Toronto Phone ELfin I486_____
Room 80S, 1253 McOill College Are.
Montreal Phone MArquette 1208
every friday
Entered �� Second-Class Mail at the Port Office at Ottawa, December 1921, Subscription $1. per year, United State* $2.00, Single Copy, 6 cents
Florence F. Cohen, Editor Rabbi H.J. Stern, Contributing Editor
i*na A. Newman, Ida Hlion, Suzann F. Cohen,
Adverfutng Manager Toronto Manager______Circulation Manager
I wholly disapprove of what you toy and will defend to the death your right to toy it. � Voltaire to Hejyetius.
OCTOBER 12, 1945
r<DL. XXVIII, No. 2
Letter To Rabbi Stern From Montrealer In Germany
lads done1
The following letter to Dr. Harry J. Stern, Rabbi, is from Trooper Bernard Goldfield, son of Mr. and Mrs. Solomon Goldfleld, of Montreal, 14th Field Regiment Royal Canadian Artillery, in Germany :
It seems as though an eternity has passed since the days when I attended the Religious School and services at the Temple. I have been prompted to write to you because I have just finished reading the Temple bulletin for Yom Kip-pur.
I have been in Germany for over three months now. I am presently in the Canadian Army Occupational Force. As you are able to imagine, this is indeed not by any means the best way to spend one's time. However, we have to make the best of it
I had expectations of spending the High Holidays in England with relatives in London but apparently something happened, making it impossible for me to go there. Instead, I spent these important holidays at Hanover and Brunswick in Germany,
I attended New Year's services at Hanover in an English army camp. The services were conducted by an English Jewish Chaplain, Major Levy. Also in attendance werefcwo other Chaplains. Several hundsjed English Jewish soldiers these services. Only a of Canadians -were there, were held in other dties, >unting, perhaps, for the inadian attendance. Rosh knah, or rather Erev Rosh 5nah, several other Jewish one from Glasgow, a Lon-and about eight Canadian lads, all Jewish, drove down the main street in Hanover after the evening service, singing Yiddish songs and also "Hatikvah." I would like to know the reaction of the German people as we drove along.
While an Hanover we were invited to go to Brounschweig (Brunswick), a large city about twenty-five miles away. Mr. and Mrs. Ansel] invited us eight Jewish Canadian beys tp the canteen they operate there, sponsored by the Jewish Hospitality Committee. Mr. Ansell also opened the Jewish canteen in Brussels-Jast October, which I also have visited. On arriving at their lovely canteen this Rosh Hashonah evening, we were immediately asked to dine with them in their private quarters. A few words about the canteen now.
It was formerly the Hotel Lor-enz, week-end rendezvous of Hitler and Eva Brann, his mistress. On this same hotel a sign was posted at the entrance in 1930, "No Jews Allowed". The city of Brunswick was the first city in Germany to become completely Nazifled. That happened in 1932. Now to get back to Rosh Hashonah. We ate that evening in what was formerly Hitler's bedroom. In this room we participated in the services and later had our meal. Mr. Ansell is having a small synagogue made from this room. When we were there, he told as some Jerries were worfctUff on an ark to house the Torah. There are two flags on the outside of the budding, the Union Jack and the Star of Dsvid. A truck f� used by the canteen to convey rations. On each side of the canvass of the vehicle there is a Star of David painted on. Ironically enough, a Jerry drives it A few weeks ago. General Montgomery visited tbe canteen and gave his coofratolatioas to Mr. Ansell on the floe work he has done there. This is the only canteen in and ta*re are about that
through daily. It is located in the British occupied tone. ' While we were walking along the streets of Brunswick, we met quite by accident some youngsters, about four young boys with a white and blue emblem on their lapels, the colours used in the Star of David. On asking them who they were they told us that they were Jewish. They told us that they were Polish Jews and were living in a D.P. (displaced persons) camp where about a hundred Jewish people were staying. They wanted to take us there immediately. However, we told them we would return to Brunswick the following day (Sunday, September 19).
We came back the next day from Hanover to Brunswick and met them again. They took us by street-car to their camp, about a twenty-minute journey from the center of town. A Polish soldier guarded the gate but after a little persuasion, for the place was definitely out-of-bounds to all troops, he let us pass through. We went into a building which was formerly German barracks but now it is occupied by these Jewish people. They expected us and invited us into their rooms and were indeed glad to see us as we were so glad to see them.
Later on they brought us into a large room where an old broken-down phonograph played some Polish dances. There were almost a hundred Jews in that room, all with happy shining faces. They got us to dance their native Polish dances with them, they sang both Yiddish and Polish songs to us and we in turn, (eight Canadian Jews) sang "Roll Out The Barrel" and several army songs, and also the French-Canadian song, "AUouette." These people were happy. This was the first Rosh Hashonah they were able to celebrate for five or six years.
Many of these Jews spent all this length of time in horror camps like Belsen and Auschwicz, under pressure of indescribable cruelty. They were brought from Poland and some were forced to work in munitions factories while others were sent to concentration camps. I shall not dwell on their tortures and methods inflicted by the fanatic S.S. because enough publicity in the press and motion pictures has been given to all these crimes.
However, let it suffice when I say, that from what I heard from these Polish Jews, stories written about these atrocities were quite mild in many cases. Amongst all these men and women, boys and girls in that room, there was not a complete family unit.
Later that evening we went to a meeting of all the representative committees of all Jewish D.P.s of Polish, Hungarian, Roumanian and other nationalities. A member of the Military Government presided and on the speakers' stand were several distinguished Jews of different nationalities. These meetings occur frequently so that reports by these various representatives may be made known on the conditions existing in the D.P. camps. Apparently at the meeting that we attended, it seemed as though accommodations for the oncoming winter were very serious.
After the meeting was over, a Rabbi Fingerman from Warsaw, appointed Chaplain by the Military Government for these Jewish people, invited 44 to a little gather-ing nearby in a cafe where ws ate a meal consisting of powdered eggs, potatoes, dark Mack bread, wine and beer. I awt a Polish Jew-ish man in this cafe who served as. I learned later he was pot in
"SomctiMM wh�n p��ple ecnnrc me,
I l�U thrna witfeMt ruc�r That for what it c�rt Hi to to frM,
I might h*T� had mn Mtehcr."
The report oi former United States Immigration Commissioner Earl G. Harrison to President Truman, who sent him to the European continent in July to investigate the condition oi displaced refugees, especially Jews, is too long to publish in the Review but its findings should be known to as many people as possible, and so this column will pick from it those facts which are the most revealing oi the fate of a hapless group of humans. Mr. Harrison says that his report is really only a partial one which he was anxious to get to the President, but it tells enough to give a good idea of the present tragedy. He was accompanied on his mission by Dr. Joseph J. Schwartz, European director of the American Joint Distribution Committee.
Three months after V-E day, in Germany and Austria, Mr. Harrison found many Jews living under guard behind barbed-wire fences, in camps built by the Germans for slave-laborers and Jews, in crowded, unsanitary and grim conditions, in complete idleness, with no chance to communicate with the outside world except on the sly. The death rate has been high, naturally, and one rabbi, an Army chaplain, attended 23,000 burials, ninety percent Jews, at Bergen Belsen alone. Late in July the Jews were wearing concentration camp clothes or German Elite Guard uniforms. They had no program of activity toward rehabilitation and there is little change in their life from what it was under the Germans except that they are not being exterminated. Their great worry is about their families. Their diet is composed chiefly of bread and coffee, and the buildings they are housed in are unfit for winter use.
There are about one hundred thousand of these displaced Jews and their nationalities are Polish, Hungarian, Rumanian, German and Austrian. Their physical and mental condition is far worse than that of other groups and in order to get the special attention they require they should cease to be regarded as members of nationality groups only. Their first need, then, is to be recognized as Jews, for it was as such that they received more barbaric persecution than the non-Jewish portion of their nationality groups. Their second need is for a place to go to stay and and to live. Palestine is the choice of most and many have relatives there. But others have relatives in other countries and some want to return to Hungary and Rumania or to qo to the United States, England, South America, or the British Dominions. Their other needs are those of other people anywhere: clothes, a varied and palatable diet, medicines, beds, and reading materials. They are bitter about their clothes because clothing for the camps is supposed to be requisitioned from the Germans but they have none, whereas the Germans are still the best-dressed population in all of Europe.
Mr. Harrison found that U.N.R.R.A. has not been in a position to help much. It is not sufficiently organized, equipped, or authorized; some workers could not speak English in zones where it was demanded; and the military authorities, because of hous-inq and transportation difficulties), have resisted the entrance of voluntui y agencies representatives no matter now qualified they might be to help.
Those who have suffered most and longest should be given first and not last mention, and the Jews in Germany and Austria should have first claim on the conscience of the people of the United States and Great Britain, Those who wish to return to their countries should be aided to do so without delay and with energy and determination. For the others, the issue of Palestine must be faced, on a purely humanitarian basis with no reference to ide^locrical or political considerations as iar as Palestine is concerned.
In a very few places where fearless and uncomprisinq military officers have either requisitioned a village or compelled the Germans to provide housing for displaced Jews these people live less like criminals or herded sheep, but this is being done on too small a scale. At many places Military Government officers either don't want to take such action or they are afraid to inconvenience the German population. Thus, if a group of Jews has to vacate their temporary quarters for military purposes and there are two possible sites, the German burqomeister readily succeeds in persuading the town maior to allot the shabby buildings with outside toilet and washing facilities to the Jews and to save the block of flats with conveniences for returninq German civilians. It is easier for a German civilian to be em-ploved in Military Government offices than for an equally qualified displaced person. Jews find it hard even to get to speak with military officers because they have to go throuah German employees; and also insufficient use is being made of their services.
Separate camps should be set up for them wherever they can not be housed in villages or billeted with Germans, and as soon as possible the operation of such camps should be turned over to U.N.R.R,A. There should be a review of military personnel selected for camp commandant positions because some are manifestly unsuited for such a job; and there should be more extensive field visitation by Army Group Headquarters. However, the main solution is the evacuation of all non-repatriable Jews because it is inhuman to ask people to continue to live under present conditions,
The Harrison report to the President was made the latter part of August but was not given out for publication until a month later, along with the sharp and angry letter which Mr. Truman sent to General Eisenhower about it. In that letter President Truman not only showed his concern and personal mortification over the way the displaced Jews were being abominably dealt with, but he also put his finger on this condition as part of a larger picture also clearly seen by Mr. Harrison, a leading Philadelphia lawyer, and now head of the University of Pennsylvania Law School Mr. Truman sold: "We must make clear to the German people that we thoroughly abhor the Nazi policies oi hatred and persecution. We have no better opportunity to demonstrate this than by the manner in which we ourselves actually treat the survivors remaining in Germany."
Conditions with regard to the displaced will undoubtedly show some improvement but the fact that it has required presidential intervention and reprimand shows that the attitude of the occupation authorities toward the Germans who are supposed to be held responsible for war and barbarism is lenient and that it even makes the anti-Fascism of these authorities appear lukewarm and f ordeal h is bad for the displaced Jews that the occupation forces neglect aztd ignore them bat then is more to this disgraceful picture whtja the conquerors in the worst war in the world's history seem to be giving the conquered the wink.
U.S. ARMY AIDES
(Continued from Page Oiu)
The headquarters spokesman said that American officials had been hampered for some time in securing adequate housing for Jews and other displaced persons because so much of Germany had been destroyed and because of the masses of troops who had to be billeted.
A nine-point program demanding the redresa of grievances and an open door to Palestine was outlined by leading Jewish relief workers. The program endorsed at a Jewish congress at Belsen recently, made the following demands:
To be regarded as free men, not prisoners, living in exclusively Jewish open camps under Jewish administration and with a Jewish liaison with the Allied authorities.
Better health and housing conditions.
Freedom of expression of opinion on their own problems and the
DOCTOR TELLS
(Continued from P*g� though there were plenty of capable surgeons," he said.
Dr. Leo, whose studious air was in marked contrast to the erao* tional attitudes of previous witnesses, said bullet wound cases were frequent and he saw "great numbers of people shot dead or shot at" for trying to approach the kitchen or trying to escape through the barbed wire.
There was nothing for treatment of such things as tuberculosis, he said. Finally typhus "spread like wildnre� nearly everyone got it.' Disposal of bodies ceased because Nazi forestry officials refused to allow more wood for the pyres to burn them.
right to communicate with the outside world.
The right to remove to where they themselves wish to go and freedom for those Jews who wish to go to Palestine.
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