j Tuesday, March 31, 1942
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What Killed Stefan Zweigl
?
By Z. M. BERN
From Rio de Janeiro comes this powerful story of what caused the death of Stefan Zweig, revealing the deep significance and meaning' of his death.—The Editor.
All Brazil has been shaken by the double suicide of Stefan Sweig and his wife, two characters who had identified themselves with all that is fine and beautiful in Brazil, Perhaps no event in the whole history of this country has had such repercussions as the death of this great Austrian Jew who sought a haven in Brazil. None of the full significance of the real meaning of Stefan Sweig's leaving of the stage has escaped any of those who do any thinking at all. More than the sinking of Brazilian ships, more than the fall of Singapore, more than the utterances of Roosevelt and Churchill and more than anything Hitler, Mussolini and Tojo have done or said the death of the Sweigs has brought home to Brazilians and foreigners alike what the great vast war really means, what its deep and significant issues really are, what perils to mankind and to eternal values it implies.
There was something grand and majestic in Stefan Zweig's death — something which it is well-nigh impossible to grasp. None of the cliches and words used in similar circumstances is appropriate to describe the event. It was premeditated, planned, orderly, thoughtful and dramatic but actually none of these things because it was neither premeditated nor dramatic in the ordinary sense. Every detail was thought out and prepared in advance —simple and unaffected letters were written, bank deposits and checks were taken care of, pay for the servants was left, just-right thank-you notes were penned and thoughtful-ness for the police and others who might be involved in clearing matters up was evident in the last arrangements. But not a false note, not a maudlin sentiment, not a dramatic gesture or word, not a pitiful cry or wail of anguish, no word of reproach or of condemnation. Stefan and Elizabeth Zweig did not take their lives as a way out. There was no bitter revolt. Only something which remains a message to mankind which must be heeded.
Consider their surroundings and their circumstances. In the quiet beauty of an old quaint city with its slumbering memories of a great Emperor the Zweigs lived beyond the bustle and noise of modern civilization. There are no street cars in Petropolis and horse-drawn coaches still serve as taxis. In the city hor-tensias the Zweigs lived the unassuming life of ordinary people in a simple but comfortable house. No financial worries hounded their doors. Even a fast-approaching war could not have created panic. Par from all possible bombardment by sea; oft the probable routes of marching troops and too high up and hidden in the mountains to fear air attacks the Zweigs were physically more remote from the world of shell and shrapnel than the majority of Brazilians to whom the war still is—despite the sinking of Brazilian ships— an academic question. The Zweigs spent their days following a simple and well-known routine. Friends, romps with the children in the lovely gardens of old imperial palaces, work, meals and snacks of a sandwich and beer in a local restaurant before they retired for their sleep. Loved by the young, admired by the intellectual elites and respected by the Brazilian Government which has defrayed the expenses of their burial, the Zweigs seemed to be, of all the Jewish refugees who have been wandering around the world homeless and unhappy, among the few who had found peace in a friendly place.
Their death reveals once more, tragically, sensationally, explosively and damnably the hideous thing which is Hitler, Nazism and anti-Semitism. Harried from their beloved Austria, moving from place to place, finding temporary solace and rest here and there but always goaded on by visible and invisible relentless persecutors, the Zweigs finally returned to Brazil because, after a visit to this land, they believed that here they would find surcease. Even in Brazil they withdrew from the "world" and sought refuge in Petropolis. But there is no escaping the world. The poison which killed the Zweigs was not the poison they themselves drank on February 23. It was a poison injected into their hearts by a crude and unspeakable beast whose atrocities mow down Aryan and Jew alike; whose filth dirties the gardens of far-off places; whose corroding action ruins the hearts of people wherever thev go. Stefan and Eliz-
abeth Zweig were killed when liberty-loving folk the world over loved their own pleasures and comforts too much to take up arms to stop the brutal and mad animal whose insane lust for the blood of a race he could not tame or buy has led him to murder the whole human race except his own sullied crowd.
We killed Stefan Zweig, We liberals, democrats, lovers of art, music and literature. We scientists, statesmen and soldiers, all of us who appeased or tolerated appeasement, all of us who preferred to let others live so we might live, all of us who did not realize that by allowing Hitler and what he stands for to have his way we ourselves were sealing our doom. Now on the verge of being engulfed and drowned in a maelstrom made by Hitler, we and the Zweigs who still live must see our own responsibility clearly. We must realize that unless we act now and with all the might in our power, not only we ourselves, but other Zweigs and the "human liberty" of which he wrote in his last letter will be murdered and torn to shreds. Stefan Zweig was in no immediate danger. But he saw that we were playing with the most valuable thing in the whole world, that we had not taken seriously the task to which we had set our hand or that we were too impotent to stop the beast in his tracks. Thus, doubly are we responsible for Zweig's death.
Without an iota of sensationalism or bravado, without a word which calls the martyr to mind, without a gesture of the hero Stefan Zweig has rendered all mankind a supremely unselfish service by dramatizing — without histrionism or hysteria—this thing which would doom all mankind—hatred, racial prejudice, the loss of liberty, the enthronement of force over reason, the death of art and beauty. Zweig has proved that physical escape does not mean spiritual escape. Hitlerism is an invisible ugliness which once inoculated gnaws until it kills. It followed Zweig from Austria to Petropolis in Brazil and in one of the most beautiful spots in all of God's creation it beat down a man in the prime of his life, weary with the pilgrimages caused, by an indecent Gestapo and an unscrupulous misruler of men. There is nothing which even hints at cowardice in the act of Zweig and his
wife. Cool and lucid, orderly and thoughtful, calm and collected, painstaking and careful he made his decision and carried it out. No one had the slightest suspicion that deep down in his heart Stefan Zweig had despaired of humanity's ability to save itself. Least of all his neighbors and servants who prepared his morning coffee as usual. Even his farewell notes and goodbyes are so human and simple it is impossible to escape feeling that in his whole life never had his real inner greatness come to the surface as it did when he left this earth. It is in the fact that Zweig underplayed and understated his last resolves that one finds the true greatness of what he has done. If Zweig had wished to make his death an alarm to mankind he probably would have failed. The fact that he did not sound an alarm and merely stepped off the stage because he saw that the play was going so badly is the most alarming of all possible recent signs.
It is up to the rest of mankind to read the handwriting on the wall. Zweig was an Austrian, a Jew, a great literary figure and intellectual and a lover of human liberty. Zweig was not driven by personal despair or by imminent poverty or fear of death by bomb or starvation. Zweig had a home and a lovely wife. He was loved and respected by the people and government of Brazil. He had written a book about this country which would have guaranteed him a living if he had lost all his assets. Living in Petropolis was pleasant, cool and comfortable. The annoyances which drive men mad in big cities did not hound him there. Zweig worked up to the very day of his death. He was not stampeded or panicked nor was he suffering from a mental or nervous break-down. But as a Jew, as an Austrian, as a member of the human race and as a man who understood the full meaning of liberty he felt that life had ceased being worth living, that there were no rays of light on the inner horizon where spiritual values thrive. He saw death coming to human liberty as it had come to the Jews because intelligent men did not realize that the forces back of anti-Semitism were the same forces back of the fight against democracy, Liberalism, LaWj Justice and Human Rights. Without these life is not worth living. Therefore, Zweig ceased to live.
NOTABLE QUOTES OF THE WEEK
EQUALITY OF ALL
"The church must proclaim fellowship. It must be God's will that all the races and nations of mankind shall dwell together in mutual honor and consideration as brethren. However, the appalling fact is that we of the white race are the outstanding guilty sinners in race discrimination. The most telling piece of Japanese propaganda in Malaya, in China, in India and in parts of South America is that white men, and especially English-speaking white men never treat brown, yellow and black folks as equals. Our Negro fellow-citizens, who are among the most loyal and patriotic Americans, can unhappily supply a shocking amount of supporting testimony. We denounce the Nazi treatment of the Jew; but anti-Semitism is rampant in some circles among ourselves. The Christian church has no more pressing duty than to proclaim the message of the equality of folk of all races before God."
—The Rev. Dr. Henry Sloane Coffin, President, Union Theological Seminary.
COURSE OF ACTION
"Our first and most important problem is to do everything that lies in our power to help win this war; the second is to help our fellow Jews abroad, who are the outstanding victims of Nazi cruelty. And this help can be brought to our fellow Jews only if we are truly united and intelligently organized."—Report by the Convention of the Central Conference of American Rabbis.
THE JEWISH CENTRES
"Our community institutions, Jewish centres and Y.M.H.A.'s are the foundations which must withstand the impact of the war emergency. They are the framev/ork upon v/hich we have built our national Army and Navy service program. But, at the same time, we must maintain this civilian program in order to preserve the very things for which we are fighting. This is the problem we must face in the coming months, the problem that we must solve successfully so that in the hour of our military victory the things that distinguish democracy from the forms of government of our enemies will have been preserved on the civilian
front as well. To this the Jewish centre movement dedicates itself."
—Frank L. Weil, president, Jewish Welfare Board.
NAZI WORK OF DESTRUCTION
"The dissolution of the German-American Bund and some other groups should net deceive us into believing that the 20,000 members of the bund gave up their activities. . . Secretly the Nazis are carrying on their work of destruction. They joined patriotic organizations and found their way into defense works. Some will try to be re-elected to Congress. On the other hand, there are the Vichy France press agencies and the Franco Spanish agencies, who act as propaganda centres for Hitler in this country. Furthermore, the American Fascist organizations, the Ku Klux Klan, Pelley's Silver Shirts and Father Coughlin are still operating, trying to spread dissension among the American people."
—Dr. Kurt Rosenfeld, former German Minister of Justice.
100-Mark Offered For Capture of Jews Fleeing Ghettos in Poland
ZURICH (WNS) — Nazi authorities in Poland have announced a re-v/ard of 100 marks for every Jew caught escaping from the ghettos, it was reported here. At the same time, the Nazi administration ottered rewards of 5,000 marks for information leading to the capture of anti-Nazi guerilla fighters.
Jews caught leaving the ghetto without special permission are liable to death sentences. At least 10 Polish Jews have been executed on this charge within the last fortnight. The procedure of offering rewards for the capture of Jews leaving the ghettos will be introduced also in Lithuania and Latvia, it was reported.
The reports added that to date no Pole has come forward to claim the reward. As a matter of fact, Nazi officials have frequently complained that Poles have been aiding Jews to escape from the ghettos and are secretly cooperating with the underground guerilla fighters.
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