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‘Auschwitz Trial’ Defendant
Admits Use of Gas
FRANKFURT (JTA)—“Ausch
witz trial” in which 22 defendants
are charged with participation in
torturing and gassing millions of
Jews and others in the notorious
Nazi death camps in Auschwitz
and Treblinka, is entering its
sixth week this week with some
of the defendants still to be ques
tioned prior to hearing testi
monies from several hundred wit
nesses, including Jews from the
United States and Israel, who
were rescued from these camps
by the Allied armies after the
collapse of the Nazi regime.
Defendants who testified dur
ing ths weekend insisted that
when they worked on the staff of
the annihilation camps they knew
nothing about the poison gas kill
ings of inmates there. However,
one of them, Arthur Breitweiser,
a 53-year-old clerk, admitted he
was one of the first SS men to
be instructed in the use of the
Zyklon-B gas used in the killing
of the victims. He denied charges
that he took part in the initial
experiments in the killing of
Jews.
He testified that cne day in
1941 “two civilians came from
Hamburg and they showed us
how to disinfect barracks and
how to wear gasmasks which had
a special fitting against Zyklon-B
gas.” life admitted that the gas
was used to kill inmates “and
worked frightfully quickly.”
Dr Willi Frank, 60, former
chief dentist at the camp, ad
mitted having known that gold
teeth of victims were melted
down m one of his dental sta
tions, adding that “I also melted
down gold plates.” He also ad
mitted he knew about the ster
ilization of women at the camp
but rejected the charge that he
selected inmates for gassing.
Another defendant, Dr. Willi
Schatz, also a dentist, corrobor
ated Dr. Frank’s testimony that
he and his professional associates
did not participate in selecting
prisoners for liquidation. Assert
ing that he had beer, et the camp
about ten times, Dr. Schatz said
he was “looking for dentists and
lor new prisoners who might have
dental tools.”
The Southern Israelite
A Weekly Newspaper for Southern Jewry — Established 1925
Vol. XXXIX
ATLANTA, GEORGIA, FRIDAY, JANUARY 31, 1964
No. 6
IIJA Holds 3-Day Regional
Coni.; 11 States Participate
HOUSTON, (JTA) —A three-
point program for aiding 750,000
Jews in need throughout the
world during 1964 was present
ed by Max M. Fisher, prominent
industrialist and civic leader of
Detroit, at the south-southwest
regional conference of the na
tionwide United Jewish Appeal
which concluded its three-day
sessions here this week. Mr.
Fisher, who is associate general
chairman of the United Jewish
Appeal, was the main speaker
at the conference attended by
more than 300 key Jewish com
munity leaders from 11 states.
Mr. Fisher told the gathering
that “we can all be proud that
we have helped save the lives
of 1,500,000 uprooted Jews since
the inception of UJA in 1939 by
bringing them to haven in Is
rael and other free lands.” He
listed the following three points
“of great challenge and great
opportunity” for American Jews
in 1964:
“First, we have a chance to
save additional thousands of
Jewish lives through immigra
tion, mainly to Israel. Second,
we must help speed the full
absorption into Israel’s life of
one out of every four newcom
ers who still need massive as
sistance to become economically
self-reliant and creative citizens.
Third we must sustain—literally
asure survival—for at least 400,-
000 distressed Jews who are
barely existing in 30 overseas
countries outside of Israel.”
Mr. Fisher stressed that half
of the total of 750,000 persons
who need UJA help this year
throughout the world are chil
dren or youths under 18 years
of age.
UIX Group
Conditions
Inspects Race
in Atlanta
By ADOLPH ROSENBERG
A dozen members of the United
Nations Subcommission on the
Prevention and Protection of Mi
norities made an extraordinary
visit to Atlanta this last' week
end.
Their forty-hour stay in the
city was jam-packed with brief
ing sessions, press interviews,
tours of Negro and white housing
areas, private talks with leaders
in the civil rights movement, con
tact with ebulerant and moderate
colored elements—and an oppor
tunity to see in person the Klan
counter-picketing the Negro
pickets.
The visit, made as individuals
and not as an official investigat
ing group, left nothing hidden
UN Body Certain to Act This Week
On Protection of Religious Rights
UNITED NATIONS, N. Y.
(JTA)—Champions of worldwide
religious freedoms — including
proponents of the unfettered right
of Soviet Jews to practice their
religion—were seen here Tuesday-
on the way to a victory deemed
highly significant. After two
years, during which the Soviet
bloc has been trying to kill con
sideration of a draft Declaration
on the Elimination of all Forms
of Religious Intolerance, all signs
pointed to the adoption of such
document by the Subcommission
on Prevention of Discrimination
and Protection of Minorities
this week.
Among the provisions of the
draft, which contains a long pre
amble declaring among other
things that elimination and pre
vention of all forms of religious
intolerance is “one of the fun
damental objectives of the United
Nations," the draft Declaration
would condemn religious discrim
inations as “an offense to human
dignity ' as well as a violation of
the UN Charter and the Univer
sal Declaration of Human Rights.
The Declaration would forbid
all states to practice such dis
criminations; enjoin all govern
ments to prevent such discrim
inations, passing new legislation
along such lines where necessary;
and give the right to individuals
or groups charging religious dis
crimination to take such, issues to
the national courts. One article in
the draft declares unequivocally
that parents or legal guardians
have the “right to decide upon
the religion or belief in which a
c hild should be brought up.”
. Touching upon rights which the
Soviet Union is accused of deny
ing to Jews in the USSR, the
Declaration states that all persons
or groups “shall be free to wor
ship and profess, in public or in
private” without discrimination;
and that all religious commun
ities must enjoy the right to as
sociate with other individuals or
groups, “on a national regional
oi local basis.”
Other rights that are now
denied to Russian Jews, and
would oe guaranteed by the Dec
laration, would granl full rights
to all religions to “teach and learn
religion or belief” using the
“sacred language” of that religion
—meaning Hebrew in the case of
Soviet Jews; grant the right to
write, print and publish books
and texts required by a religion
—meaning prayer books, calen
dars and other works needed by
leligious Jews; grant the right “to
observe the dietary practices” re
quired by a religion, meaning
kashruth and matzohs in the case
of Russian Jewry; and make it
mandatory upon a state that con
trols means of production to pro
vide such materials as may be
needed by a religious group “and
if necessary to allow them to be
imported.”
Another point affecting Soviet
Jewry provides that it is a “right"
of believers to make pilgrimages
“to sites held in veneration, in
side or outside” the country. That
clause would permit Soviet Jews
to make pilgrimages to Israel. The
right of religious practitioners to
observe their own days of rest
and Holy Days is also guaranteed
in the draft. So, also, are the
rights of religious marriages and
' equal legal protection” to religi
ous groups to observe their own
“funeral or memoria 1 rites" and
to have their own cemeteries.
There have been instances, re
cently, when cemetery rights
were denied to some Jews in large
Soviet cities
The draft further outlaws "all
incitements to hatreds or acts of
violence, whether by individuals
or organizations, against any re
ligious group of persons belonging
to any religious community.”
That provision would affect not
only the Soviet Union but also
South American countries and
other lands where neo-Nazism has
been manifested in recent years.
One clause would bar discrim
inations on religious grounds in
regard to citizenship. The debate
in the subcommission has made it
clear that this clause is aimed at
Iraq, where new regulations barr
ing Jews from citizenship were
promulgated recently.
Right of Jews to Leave
Russia Seen in Adopted
Provision
The draft Declaration expected
to be adopted had been intro
duced, then revised, by Arcot
Krishnaswami, the Indian mem
ber of the 14-man subcommission.
The Communist bloc m the United
Nations has been fighiing for two
years against adoption of a doc
ument forbidding religious dis
criminations, concentrating in
stead on a Convention tor the out-
—turn to page o
from their observation.
They had been invited to the
Gate City of the South by Morris
Abram, a former Georgian and
now the American representative
on the Subcommission, and by
Atlanta Mayor Ivan Allen Jr.
Upon their arrival, delayed by
adverse weather conditions in
New York and Atlanta, they were
brought to the recently deseg
regated Riviera Motel They had
an opportunity of seeing four
orderly and youthful pickets of
the Negro Student Non-Violent
Association. The quartet marched
to and Iro, sheltered from a pelt
ing and driving rain beneath the
motel drive-in awning. The group
was not picketing the motel or the
UN group but protesting condi
tions and asking for “UN” help
in their fight against discrim
ination.
Inside, the representatives of
a dozen different nations heard
Atlanta leaders in the civil rights
movement tell of progress made
so far in the community and in
the South.
Leslie Dunbar of the Southern
Regional Conference told them:
“Gentlemen, what you are going
to see is unique . . . that is a rev
olution that is protected by the
ronstitution and which is going
on under a constitution.”
Most revolutions generally, he
inferred, are waged to “overthrow
governments and constitutions.”
Mayor Allen, Ralph McGill and
Mr Abram were among the
speakers.
Cecil A. Alexander, chairman of
the Atlanta American Jewish
Committee Chapter, was a co-
. hairm.in of arrangements for the
Atlanta visit.
Civil rights leaders piesent in
cluded A T. Walden, son of a
slave and himself a long-time
leader in the betterment of his
race. Sylvan Myers, Jewish ed-
: tor of the Gainesville Daily
Toronto Policemen Who Assaulted
Rabbi Agree to a Settlement
TORONTO, (JTA) — Eight
Metropolitan Toronto policemen,
named in civil action by a New
York rabbi who claimed they
assaulted him in 1962, have
agreed to an out-of-court settle
ment, Austin Cooper, the rab
bi’s attorney, said Tuesday.
Cooper said that the agree
ment requires a written letter
of apology to Rabbi Norbert
Leiner from Police Chief James
Mackay. The attorney declined to
indicate how much money was
involved in the settlement but
another source said Rabbi Lein
er, who had asked $7,000 ac
cepted $4,000.
The defendants in the civil
suit, filed on June 11, 1963, were
two detectives and .six consta
bles. Rabbi Leiner charged he
Rad been unlawfully arrested
and imprisoned, detained in
custody and assaulted, causing
him nervous shock, bruises,
sprains and a broken rib. Arrest
ed on January 26, 1962, the
rabbi had refused to enter a
police car on the Jewish Sab
bath and for the same reason he
had no identification on his
person. He was arrested on
vagrancy charges in an area
where police were seeking a de
viate.
A Royal Commission, headed
by Justice Dalton C. Wells, was
named to investigate the rab
bi’s charges. The Justice found
that the rabbi had been arrested
unlawfully but that both he and
the police were at fault
Times; and others.--
On Saturday, the group toured
Atlanta and visited Atlanta Uni
versity where they were guests
of PresidenfMays and spoke with
leaders of the student non-vio
lent protest movement.
They visited some of the worse
slum housing areas for Negroes
in the area and others where they
inspected housing for colored per
sons in the middle class and
wealthy income brackets.
Sunday morning, the group
met with a body of colored de
segregation leaders incl u d 1 n g
Comedian Dick Gregory, who
later was arrested in a segrega
tion protest demonstration, along
with several score others.
The wave of demonstrations,
which centered arouna a chain of
segregated restaurants operated
by a Jewish man, touched off a
chain reaction which brought out
the most active series of protest
demonstrations Atlanta has seen
in years.
During the height of one phase
of the demonstration, Lester Mad
dox, a defacto leader of the anti
desegregation movement, prop
osed to Klansmen and ether non-
hooded spectators, “Let’s each
donate a dollar to help the res
taurant owner pay for his loss of
business because of the protests.”
Members of the UN Group in
dicated at the final press con
ference in the Delta Golden Room
at the Atlanta Airport they had
beep impressed with what they
had witnessed and believed the
progress made in Atlanta would
be helpful to them in understand
ing America’s racial problem.
Judge Mohamed Mudawi, a
Sudan judge and a member of
the UN group, said the demon
strations indicated a “healthy
sign and a guarantee that this
country will solve its desegrega
tion problem.”
“People who guarantee freedom
of expression will not fail human
ity,” he declared. “I can see hope
in the way people are behaving.”
He noted that “you people are
smiling your way through your
difficulties.”
Herman Santa Cruz of Chile,
chairman of the sub-commission,
told newsmen he was “impressed
by the efforts being made to solve
racial problems here.”
He told of comments made at
Sunday's early discussion with de
segregation leaders who declared
their protests that though At
lanta was moving too slowly in
desegregation, they impressed the
difference between Atlanta and
other cities.
He reported the Negroes said
the main differences were that
“their political rights were as
sured here” and that “the lines
of communication were always
open.”
Mr. Abram told the newsman
that after “viewing the two
groups of opposing pickets, there
ir no doubt about which group
—turn to page S
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