Newspaper Page Text
Woman Collapses Facing Nazi
Who Killed Her Children
HANOVER (JTA)— A woman
.survivor of the Nazi destruction
of the L/>dz Ghetto in occupied
Poland broke down during tes
timony in the Bradvisch-Fuchs
war crimes trial here this week,
screaming “murderer” at Gunther
Fuchs, 52, a former Gestapo of
ficial
Mrs. Ida Weynberg, 51, now a
resident of Paris, told the court
that Fuchs had shot her in the
leg when she begged permission
to go with her two children to a
Nazi death camp. Fuchs and Otto
Bradfisch, Gestapo mayor of
Lodz during the war, are on trial
here on charges of helping to
murder some 86,000 Jews during
the Lodz occupation.
She testified that Gestapo men,
acting under Fuchs orders, tore
her children, then seven and
three, from her arms for trans
port to the Kulmhof death camp
She said the older child, called
to her from the death van, “Mama,
mama, don’t leave us now. ’ Her
voice breaking, Mrs. Weynberg
testified that she managed to
break through the police line and
she begged Fuchs Let me go to
my children—take me, too.”
In response, she testified, Fuchs
drew a gun and shot her in the
leg. She collapsed again when
she showed the judge photo
graphs of her murdered children.
As court aides helped her from
the witness stand, she screamed,
“Give me a gun—that murder**'
that murderer—my inno**'
dren.”
1
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The Southern Israelite
A Weekly Newspaper for Southern Jewry — Established 1925
Voi. XXXVIII
ATLANTA, GEORGIA, FRIDAY, OCTOBER 25, 1963
NO. 43
Herman Protests
Persecution of
Jews in Russia
(Gilrrath Press Service)
Georgia’s U. S. Sen. Herman
E. Talmadge arose in the Senate
the other day and told his col
leagues he is becoming increas
ingly distressed and disturbed”
by reports of religious persecu
tion of Jews in the Soviet Union.
“We cannot allow such a sit
uation to exist without raising
our voices in anger and disgust,”
he declared. “Persecution of the
Jews in Russia is to be denounced.
It is to be condemned and de
plored.
“We cannot in good conscience
look the other way. We must
mount a mighty wave of protest
until an overwhelming tide of
world indignation forces the gov
ernment of the Soviet Union to
recognize the error of its ways.”
Russian Jews, Talmadge said,
“have been systematically vic
timized by the Soviet government
almost to the point of strangu
lation of their faith. They have
been imprisoned and put to death
for alleged economic offenses.
“They have been stripped of
the free and untrammelled exer
cise of their religion and culture.
Jews and their houses of worship
are made objects of vilification
and ridicule in a calculated gov
ernment campaign to destroy Ju-
diasm.”
The Georgian said the world
failed to stop Nazi Germany’s per
secution of Jews in the 1930’s and
“this ghastly lesson of history still
sticks in our throats, and we
must never forget it or permit it
to happen again.”
At the conclusion of his speech,
Sen. Talmadge had inserted in
the Congressional Record a letter
he received from Rabbi Emanuel
Feldman of the Congregation
Beth Jacob in Atlanta. The Sen
ator said Rabbi Feldman “ex
presses the concern that is felt
by all of us in protesting Soviet
discrimination against Jews.”
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JEWISH BOOK MONTH
NOVEMBER 8—DECEMBER 8. 1963
JEWISH BOOK COUNCIL OF AMERICA
SPONSORED BY NATIONAL JEWISH WELFARE BOARD
>45 EAST Mad STREET. NEW YORK 14 NEW YORK
Poster for Jewish Book Month
Jewish Book Month, a cultural event held annually under the
national auspices of the National Jewish Welfare Board’s (JWB)
Jewish Book Council and conducted locally by Jewish Community
Centers, synagogues and other institutions, will be held from Nov.
8 to Dec. 8, as this poster announces. Program materials to help
communities plan and conduct Jewish Book Month events are avail
able from the Jewish Book Connell, JWB, 145 E. 32nd St., New
York 16, New York.
What Does It Mean?
Report 15,000 Moscovites Celebrate
Simhat Torah; 10,000 in Leningrad
BARIS (JTA)— Large Jewish
crowds assembled to eeleorate
Simhat Torah last week in front
of the synagogues of Moscow and
Leningrad, it was reported here
recently in the influential daily,
I a' Monde.
The paper said that in Moscow,
15,000 Jews, a majority of whom
were young people, sang and
danced in front of the synagogue.
The crowd, which, in spite of
official anti-Jewish measures,
tried to openly demonstrate its
attachment to Judaism, was far
larger and more enthusiastic than
in previous years. The open-air
demonstration, which was watch
ed by thousands of onlookers,
reached its climax when the
crowd broke into the Israeli song,
Hevenu Shalom Aleichem (We
Brought Peacej.
In Leningrad, the president of
the local Jewish community an
nounced that the synagogue
would be open only from four
to eight o’clock in the evening.
Some 10,000 persons crowded into
the synagogues and into neighbor
ing streets. Two hours later, 30
to 40 militiamen tried to disperse
the crowd under the pretext that
the noise was disturbing the quiet
of an adjacent hospital. However,
no one was arrested and the
crowd dispersed quietly shortly
before midnight.
Reports that synagogues in
Tashkent abd Alma Atta, in the
Soviet Union, have been shut
down are premature, according to
information from Moscow. Of
ficials of the synagogues in both
cities, it is established, received
eviction notices on grounds that
the structures belonged to pri
vate owners who allegedly had
no legal right to own such struc
tures in the given localities.
However, such eviction notices
can be appealed and in these two
cases appeals were filed and
heard by a “higher authority.”
Results of the hearings have not
yet been made known, according
to the report.
Vatican Says No Decision
Taken on Document on Jews
ROME (JTA) — An official
statement issued here this week
end by the Secretariat for Pro
moting Christian Unity, of which
Augustin Cardinal Bea is the
head, made it clear that no de
cision has been taken as yet In
the Vatican regarding the distri
bution of the draft of a document
on Catholic-Jewish relations, and
nothing has been decided as yet
on the manner In which this doc
ument should be presented to the
Fathers attending the Ecumen
ical Council, which would have to
act on It.
The statement was issued in
—turn to page 5
Gromyko Chides Critics
of Red Policy on Jews
CHICAGO, (JTA)—Jewish spiritual leaders who accuse the
Soviet Union of persecuting Russian Jewry are playing a “shock
ing” and “ugly” role, knowing that their statements about Jewry
in the USSR “are packed with lies,” according to an exclusive inter
view with Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei A. Gromyko, published
here by The Sentinel, Chicago Jewish weekly.
However, an editorial reply by J. 1. Fishbein, editor of TTie
Sentinel, reiterated the charges against the Soviet Union, detailing
the accusations with factual evidence.
The interview with Mr. Gromyko, according to the newspaper,
was obtained recently at the United Nations by Mandel Teonas,
a Chicago businessman who is chairman of the Chicago Council of
American-Soviet Friendship. Present, according to Mr. Terman, was
also Mikhail Menshikov, former Soviet Ambassador to Washington,
who is now Foreign Minister of the Soviet Russian Federated Re
public, largest component of the USSR. Mr. Terman quoted Mr
Gromyko as stating:
“I’m deeply shocked and saddened that at this late date in
history—at a time when the hot fire of the cold war has turned
to ashes—when the future for mankind has not looked as bright
since the cold war began 17 years ago—I see your Jewish spiritual
leaders grasp the dead hand of Adenauer and his revanchist «n8
Hitler’s ex-generals and judges in a bitter end struggle that wn
only lead to the annihilation of the Jewish people everywhere to
gether with the human race. How shocking! What an ugly role to
play at this time! Why do they do this when they know their state
ments about Jewry in the USSR are packed with lies. In the Ten
Commandments it says, I believe, “thou shall not bear false witness
against thy neighbor.’ How spiritual can a man be who poisons the
minds of his worshipers with lies?”
Mr. Menshikov, according to Mr. Terman, asked why the Jew
ish spiritual leaders do not quote a statement on the Jewish ques
tion, “given at great length” by Russia’s Prime Minister Nikita
Khrushchev last March. The former Ambassador also asked why
the Jewish leaders do not mention the naming of a Jew, Venyamin
Dymshits, as vice-chairman of the USSR Council of Ministers and
chairman of the USSR’s Economic Council which, he said, “is one
of the three highest positions in our country.” (Both of these de
velopments had been reported by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.)
Mr Terman reported that he had also asked the Soviet diplo
mats why Mr. Khrushchev does not reply to the statements about
anti-Jewish persecutions made by Jewish leaders. The Chicagoan
reported that Mr. Menshikov cited the Soviet Premier’s replies on
that subject to Lord Bertrand Russel, instead of to Jewish leaders,
because “in short, he doesn’t trust people noted for their hostility
to the Soviet Union, no matter what their religion or faith."
Discussing the Gromyko-Menshikov statements, Mr. Fishbein
declared:
"Despite the turmoil that has raged about this controversy dur
ing the past decade, the Soviets either will not or can not compre
hend our concern. They continue to fall back on the hack-worn
constitutional guarantee against anti-Semitism as if that in itself
should resolve the entire problem for us. Against those Jews who
disagree—which includes 99 and 9/10 percent—they hurl the charge
of “war monger,” “cold war warrior,” “anti-Sovieteer,” etc. 11118 is
supposed to silence world-wide public opinion that has been pro
testing the steady deterioration of Jewish life in the Soviet Union
ever since the closing days of the Stalin terror.
“What the Soviet authorities do not seem to be willing to face
is the special discrimination meted out to the Jewish minority.
Why, for example, after all these years, was it necessary to elimin
ate the baking of matzo? Or why should the baptists and other
religious groups be permitted to print their Bibles while the same
right is denied to Jews? We can testify that, wherever we went
in the Soviet Union, Jews asked us for Hebrew calendars. They
have all kinds of printing presses in that country. How much would
it take to print up 100,000 of these, so that religious Jews can,
know when to say Yiskor?”