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P»*« Twenty-Four
TIIE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE
April 5, 1963
Results of Ghetto Psychology
it) ■ -1' exchange a thousand trucks for
t^y A aui I repnian several thousand Jews; was there
(The aothor was born In 1916 Hitler, England, France and cer- roally fear that> the H^usand
In Warsaw, Poland. He attended tainly Mussolini’s Italy were lruc ^ s would perhaps help Hitler
the Rabbinical Seminary ‘Tach- ready to make the Czechs victims w * n war ^
kemoni” In Warsaw and the Ba- on the unholy Nazi altar Bruno Bettelheim cites the Is
tory University in Vllno, Poland. 1 All knew that Czechoslovakia raeh prosecutor Hammer's ques-
Bruno BetteLheim is a German was only a pawn in the continuing t * on to a livm 8 witness at the
Jew now living in the U.S.A. He is bloody play of Hitler. Yet was Eichmann trial, Why did you not
known here as a psychiatrist, au- anything done in those days to revo * t ' ? ^^y, when there were
thor, and is presently director of stop the brownshirted tyrant? No! Hfteen thousand people like you
the Sonia Shenkman School for On the contrary; although what ^ ac ’ n K a mere ^ eri ’ or at Heat a
Orthogenics, of Chicago. Hitler wanted was known, it was Hundred men of the police, why
It is all the more curious, there- not only made easier for him, he H' d you r * A storm them? Why did
fore, why Bruno Bettelheim has was given encouragement to you not revolt?
crowded so many paradoxes, so achieve his goal. Because who 11 is my conviction that this
many erroneous statements, so would have then believed that Q ues tion °I the Israeli prosecutor
many groundless assertions into from Hitler’s program in “Mein was judicially justified because it
his article “Freedom from Ghetto Kampf” to its bloody realization Provoked the witness to a kind of
Thinking” which appeared in the is only a ‘cat’s leap?’ Who could re P* y that would further confound
Spring issue of Midstream. (Pub- imagine? — Did Bettelheim, and aecused Eichmann of his guilt,
lished by the Theodor Herzl Foun- such others who now share his ’^* lfl t is the way we understand
dation; New York, Spring, 1962.) opinion, then have a belief that 30 w ‘ s ^’ H> understand it, because
Bettelheim maintains that the living human beings would be put we * 1 °P e that Gideon Hausner had
Eichmann trial, the Kastner epi- to death wholesale, in gas cham- no °^ er intentions. If, however,
sode and the many literary works, bers? Today everyone knows — Hiat Why of the brilliant prosec
beginning from “The Last of the but then? utor was directed to the hearts
Just” and ending with “Perfidy” Maybe Bettelheim does not an< * mmds of those who were
are evident attestation that our know that tens of thousands of save ^ ; 10 Hie unknown and known
generation is plagued with the Jews who had desired to leave martyrs ’ and t*> our heroes in the
nerve wracking question; “How Germany and the neighboring mass 8 raves > then we say: Hausner
was it possible that six million countries early enough to escape ^ as Hadly HH'ed: Hither because
Jews died? How was it possible could not do so because either ^imaelf was not in Treblinka,
that we did not rush to halt the
slaughter?”
In the “We” of the second ques
tion, Bettelheim includes World
Jewry. To that problem we may
return another time.
First of all, Bettelheim questions
whether the Jews under the Nazis
were altogether innocent victims.
He does not, of course, contend
that they were slaughtered because
of any criminal guilt. They were,
he asserts, culpable ignoramuses,
because they knew what Hitler
intended to do with them and yet
remained in the places, whence
they were led to their extermina
tion.
I want, therefore, to call Bettel
heim’s attention to the fact, that; .
England’s Premier Chamberlain, 1 e en,tian Ghetto.
French Premier Deladier; journa- they had no means or could not preS f d thought a11 who su ™ vod
lists, as well as other able world u. are living corpses, we no longer
lists, as well as otner able world obtain visas, or the countries to T , „„ Jo A ^ oA
renowned personalities, high rank- which they wished to flee would
ing generals of the Third Reich not permit them entrance.
Wtzl^n^w'were'toUi^under^ And later !* , became impossible organizing commando units to
ground were striving to overthrow ^ esca P® Hitlers realm even with parachute into Germany and fight
grouno were striving to overuirow vlsas not Bettelheim know the Nazis
tlUS? Didn ’ 1 hC ^ about ^ To refute Bettelheim’s theories
intended to do to Austria, Czecho- wSJJSJL. Psychology
Slovakia and Poland. Hitler’s nlans &chmann s Aualands Amten • — I herewith cite the following facts,
SX th^tS were Ab ° Ut ** JeWS wHh ViSaS wh ° °ne: On a Warsaw street, on a
clearly formulated in “Mein ^ere registered to emigrate - but bright midday, the Nazi hanged
Kampf,” which was then widely tnuns - which w ere supposed sixteen Polish underground fight-
distributed and read with fear and 10 br ‘ ng th , em to Swltzerland were ers to lamp posts. These streets
palpitating hearts in government ^ ‘‘ Err ° r ’ dls P atched Treblin- were filled with thousands of by-
Cabinets in and outside of Europe. passers. The Gestapo having ac-
Yet, despite the knowledge, We are qulte sure that Cham ‘ complished their bloody chore
Chamberlain ignored Hitler’s berlain did not suffer from Ghetto proceeded on their way, undis-
plans. He didn’t spare himself nor P 5 ^ 010 ^. or that Deladier was turbed. No one attempted to as-
did Deladier- with tense nerves 1)0111 ln a 8 hetto - But Hitler had sault or interfere with the hang-
both ran and’flew, and on bended these K^'emen and subsequently men.
knees pleaded with him not to Hie whole world, cruelly enslaved These Poles were in their own
start a war. In the English Parlia- “l a ghetto. In Hitler’s regime not country among brother Poles, in
ment Chamberlain was given a only Jews lived behind barbed Hie midst of a sympathetic popula-
stormy ovation when he an- wire. Even his bosom pal Musso- lion. (Those acquainted with Po-
nounced that “Herr Hitler agreed Hni would eventually have ended Hah history know that the Pole is
to postpone invasion of Czechoslo- U P in Hitler’s crematorium. an excellent revolutionary. Isn’t it
vakia for forty-eight hours, and he Where was this World, the ‘no Hiem that they lost a lot of
is ready to receive me again in Ghetto World’ of Bruno Bettel- wars ^ but won all of their revolu
Berchtesgaden to further discuss heim? Where was the great and Hons?)
this serious situation.” The Czech generous Roosevelt? Where was Fact 2; Field number two in the
people wailed. President Benes, the genial Churchill? Did they dreaded Kazet Maidanek was a
with a heavy heart, informed his care so very much about the camp of six thousand Russian war
nation, that they were sold to Ghetto walls? Was it too much to prisoners; Soviet soldiers, officers
—- _ and partisans. In that camp a So
viet lieutenant was flogged to
death by two S.S. men, while all
five thousand nine hundred and
ninety-nine Russians were forced
to witness the flogging. After the
unfortunate lieutenant expired on
the death bank, the Russians were
forced to return to their barracks;
nothing happened
Fact 3: The old, noble Polish
Liberal, president of the Polish
Democratic Party, Professor
Michaelowich, was being flogged
in Kazet Gros Rosen by a young
S.S. man, because the professor
didn’t rise fast enough to the
“Achtung” command of the Nazi
officer. The S.S. man kicked him
with his hob-nailed boots until the
or he was in the same frame of
mind as that unknown Sabra, who
after hearing of the mass slaugh
ter remarked: “These can’t have
been Jews. A Jew does not allow
himself to be slaughtered; he
would never passively walk to his
death.”
In connection with the above
cited quotation Bettelheim poses
the following thought: “All peo
ple, Jews or Gentiles, who dare
not defend themselves when they
know they are in the right, who
submit to punishment not because
of what they have done, but be
cause of who they are, are already
dead by their own decision; and
whether or not they survive phys-
A Street In the new quarter of ieally depends on chance.”
According to the above ex-
exist. If so, Bettelheim too is dead.
We have not heard that he, resid
ing safely in America, was busy
poor man’s blood ran. He, upon
whom ail Polish Kazetnicks look
ed on as their leader fainted, yet
over three thousand Polish Kazet-
nicks looked on, and did nothing.
They did make fists, they vowed
vengeance — but, in the mean
while they did nothing but stand
powerless and ashamed.
How many more facts shall we
bring? Everyone who survived,
who had the good fortune to re
main alive, is a witness to “Ghetto
psychology” among non-Jews
That is, Ghetto psychology a la
Bettelheim. Was it really “Ghetto
psychology?”
Rereading Bettelheim’s article
(and I reread it several times) I
have the feeling that he cannot
and is unwilling to understand the
situation of a man forced in chains
from whom he expects active re
sistance.
And yet, despite the heavy
bonds, despite the daily destruc
tion, the hunger, the physical and
mental terror, the Jewish men in
chains were the first to raise the
banner of revolt against the
brownshirted tyrant. The Warsaw
Ghetto was the first organized,
open, face to face revolution
against Hitlerism. Not the people,
residents in their own homelands,
in the neighborhood of their own
mountains and forests, but the
Jews, among unfriendly neigh
bors, the Ghetto Jews, were the
first who collectively went out in
an open struggle against Hitler.
They were the ones who showed
the example. There were hun
dreds, thousands of instances in
the Ghettos, in the concentration
camps, in the work camps, and in
many partisan bands where the
Jews set an example of bravery to
their Christian neighbor in the
fight against the enemy.
How different the Jewish fight
against the Nazis would have been
if only the non-Jews would have
answered the desperate plea “Give
us arms! Sell us arms. Take our
gold and give us grenades!” But
with few exceptions, a deathlike
stillness answered the Jewish call.
And, how encouraged the Jews
would have felt in the ghettos and
Katzeten—and in fact would have
risen in active resistance — if in
America and England or in the
other countries there would have
been organized and armed air
plane attacks over Aushwitz, the
Vllno ghetto or the ghetto in Ben-
din!
It is a fact that the living skele
tons did not beg for breed, but for
guns and ammunition. When these
were not forthcoming, they at
tacked with benzine filled bottles
or with their bare fists. Every Jew
under Hitlerism fought every hour
of his uncertain existence against
the vandals. Even a thousand Bet
telheims cannot negate this fact.
ntiiiNsraenoNTcAtx Ct 7-9694
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