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Blue Bird Taxis
Dial 3-1611
24-Hour Service — Two-Way Radio
in All Cabs
ASHEVILLE, N. C.
The Miller Printing Co.
PRINTERS
LITHOGRAPHERS — BINDERS
15 Rankin Avenue
ASHEVILLE, N. C.
Blue Ridge Trucking Co.
Office & Terminal
Simpson Street
Koon Development
ASHKVII.LK, NORTH CAROLINA
CAROLINA
Power & Liglil
( ompany
ASHKVII.LK, NORTH CAROLINA
GENNETT LUMBER COMPANY
MANUFACTURERS OF
HARDWOOD LUMBER
Yellow Poplar, Oak, Chestnut and other Hardwoods,
Dimension Oak — Circular Mills Located in Western North
Carolina, Eastern Kentucky and Tennessee. Band Mill
Located at Ellijay, Ga.
Main Office — Professional Building
52 Page Avenue — Asheville, N. C.
Biltwell Sign Company
Neon Lighting — Sales - Service
All Work Guaranteed One Year
3 Louisiana Avenue — .Asheville, N. C.
T. A. MICKLE Dial AL. 3-7317
was confiscated or destroyed, but
also for personal losses, for in
carceration in concentration camps
or slave labor camps, loss of
health, loss of professions, inter
ruption of education, etc. The
government, with complete ap
proval of all political parties, is
trying diligently to compensate
the Jews, morally and financial
ly, for what they had to suffer
during “The Thousand Years,” as
Hitler referred to his regime. The
Jew' is most appreciative of this
but nonetheless is still filled with
apprehension and fear. It is not
easy to erase the memories and
the traumas he has had to bear
and to forget the violent loss and
destruction of his entire family.
The greatest majority of the Jews
are old and there are very few'
young people.
The communities are organized
and services are being rendered.
In community after community
we saw kindergartens and homes
for the aged—some of them re
assuring and some of them de
pressing. The German Govern
ment, both Federal and State,
have given money to the Central
Jewish Welfare Council for the
administration of these services
but the application of these
monies varied with the communi
ty. In some old folks’ homes we
had the feeling of people who
were just waiting for death—in
others the atmospere and climate
w’ere bright and gay. But in no
home W’as any kind of recreational
or occupational program offered.
The only thing these old people
did w r as go “spazieren” on pleas
ant days or watch TV in the eve
nings. Amazingly, w r e found sen-
iles in very few of the homes. I
guess it w’as because only the
strong survived. There are no
group workers, there are no vol
unteers to provide or stimulate
new’ interests. There is an attempt
being made now by the Council
cf Jewish Women of Germany to
institute such programs. There is
a great need for trained workers
in the Jewish communities but
there are no applicants.
The state of some of the Jew
ish communities is very disturb
ing. 40% of the Jew’s now in Ger
many are of Eastern European
origin. They brought w’ith them
not only their traditional national
ist hatied for Germany intensi
fied by the things they had to
endure under Hitler, but also the
traditional hostility of the Eastern
European Jew towards the Ger
man Jews, thus creating tensions
within the Jewish community.
What the prospects are for a
permanent, vital Jewish commun
ity in Germany can not be known.
It is too soon to tell and is de
pendent upon too many factors.
There are signs that presently in
dicate the possibility of a com
munity, although never a large
one. There is a steady though
small immigration back to Ger
many of returnees, primarily from
Israel and South America. They
are coming back for a variety of
reasons—a love for the land of
Germany, inability to adjust to
different mores, difficulty of
learning a new language, ability
to again practice the professions
for which they had been trained
and could not follow’ in the new
country. There appears to be no
doubt, how'ever, that the Jew’ will
never again be a factor in the
economics of the country. They will
always be small business men or
artisans, for in Germany today, it
initially takes large capital to
grow large and the Jew’ had no
financial resources.
I laughed, cried and questioned
my w’ay through Germany. Prob
ably the most vivid memories I
have are the painful ones. When
I visited Dachau, I was shaken,
for the “bake ovens” and the
"gas chambers” are still there,
although “prettied up” with beau
tiful shrubbery, flowers and
plants, even in front of the ovens.
At Bergen-Belsen however, I felt
the full horror even though there
is not a building standing. It is
nothing but underbrush, desola
tion and complete silence; mound
after mound w’ith signs erected
“Here lie buried 500,” “Here lie
buried 5,000,” "Here lie buried
8,000.” There is a small monument
erected to the Jewish dead and
one to the Christian dead. In the
distance, a tall campanile rises to
the sky with a slightly curved
wall as a background. Inscribed
on the wall in 13 different lang
uages are memorials for the na
tionals of 13 nations w’ho w’e:e
exterminated there. The sobbing
that overcame me in Bergen-
Belsen was equalled only by the
shattered feeling I had when I
saw’ “The Diary of Anne Frank"
in Frankfurt .
But notwithstanding the feel
ings of anguish, of hatred, of
tragedy and with a full realiza
tion of what it must mean for a
Jew’ to live in Germany, 1 can
not help but wish that again there
be a strong Jewish community in
Germany. For close to 500 years
we have pointed to Spain as an
example of w’hat happens to a
country where there are no Jew’s.
It declines and it fades. Germany
is not declining. Germany is again
strong and can be a refutation of
the premise we have held so long.
Also I am emotional enough to
want to prove to the world and
Germany, in particular, the in
domitable spirit and the indestruc
tibility of the Jew’.
24
The Southern Israelite