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P«H F»«r
TDK SOUTHERN ISRAELITE
Friday, December 24, 1965
THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE
roJjttshrd weekly by Southern Newspaper Enterprises, 390 (ourtlano
W., N.E., Atlanta Georgia, 30303, TR. 4-8249, TR. 6-8240. Second class
postage paid at Atlanta, Ga. Yearly subscription five dollars. The Southern
Israelite invites literary contributions and correspondence but Is not to be
rsswidrrrrl as sharing the views expressed by writers. DEADLINE Is
i P.M., FRIDAY, but material received earlier will have a much better
chance of publication.
Georgia Press Association
NATIONAL EDITORIAL
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7 Arts Features
Jewish
Telegraphic-
Agency
World Press
Adolph Rosenberg, Editor and Publisher
Kathleen Nease, Jeanne Loeb, Joseph Redlich
Vida Goldgar, Harry Rose, Betty Meyer, Kathy Wood
Second Auschwitz Trial
Opens; Nazi Sobs in Court
FRANKFURT, (JTA) — Wil
helm Burger, 61, an official at
the Auschwitz death camp charg
ed with providing the poison gas
used to kill millions of victims
there, sobbed in self-pity in the
dock as the second trial of
Auschwitz personnel began here
this week.
Wringing his hands, he denied
doing any wrong and stammered
that “I. . . we. . . didn’t know
about all the killing”—a state
ment that moved presiding Judge
Emil Opper to tell the former
Nazi “I don’t believe you.”
Burger is one of three defend
ants in the current trial. The
other two are Gerhardt Neuberg,
56, charged with complicity in
selecting victims and Joseph
Erber, 68, charged with selecting
women for death. Between 3,000,-
000 and 4,000,000 victims, most of
them Jews, died at the death
camp during the war.
Last August, after a trial that
lasted 21 months, six of 20 Aus
chwitz staff members were sen
tenced to life imprisonment at
hard labor, 10 received varying
terms, one received a special
sentence because he was a minor
and three were acquitted. The
indictment charged that Burger
ordered and kept records on the
Zyklon-B gas, as well as with
joining with the other former
SS men in picking victims for
death.
Weeping throughout his testi
mony, Burger testified he had
been without work in 1932 and
thus joined the SS. He sobbed
as he told of his postwar days in
American and Polish jails. Tears
rolled down his cheeks as he
contended he only supplied food
and housing for SS and Gestapo
men stationed at the death camp
in occupied Poland.
West German popular resent
ment over the war crimes trials
and the hostile reactions they
generate in other countries was
manifested in the sparse attend
ance at the opening trial session
when only about one fourth of
spectator seats were filled. The
trial is being conducted in a side
street courtroom. A Jewish sur
vivor who is now residing in the
United States is scheduled to
open prosecution testimony on
December 28. He is Norbert Woll-
heim of Fresh Meadows, N.Y.
Jewish Calendar
• Hanukah
Last day Dec. 28
• Hamishah Assar Bishevat,
February 5
• Fast of Esther, March 3
• Purim, March 6
• Passover, April 5-12
• Lag B’Omer, May 8
• Shavuot, May 25-26
• Tlshah B’Av, July 26
• Fast of Tummuz, July 5
’Holiday Begins Sundown
Previous Day
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Book Review —
Georgia’s Leo Frank Case
— in Perspective of Half a Century
The Leo Frank case was a controversial
matter a half century ago national in scope.
Harry Golden’s “A Little Girl Is Dead” (Wall
Publishing Co. 360 pp. $5.00) seems headed for
a controversial reception though hardly more
than on a local and modified regional level.
Most of the controversy is apt to be con
centrated in Atlanta where some raise the
point of why unearth the case at this time
and others wish to let the outrageous series
of events the case represented in American
history stay hidden like a skeleton in a closet.
But like France’s cause celetfre—the Drey
fus Case—this cause celebre in American
injustice refuses to gather dust in historical
and memory’s archives, and writers like
Golden will periodically trot it out to illustrate
the dangers of anti-Semitism and mob action.
The book then is not primarily local in
genre and contains a universality that must
be told and retold so that the lessons adhering
to the case’s denouement can be understood
and it is hoped surmounted.
“A Little Girl Is Dead,” while ostensibly
a story about Atlanta, is much more and the
new generations which knew not the Frank
case need to read its messages and, what’s
more, study them carefully.
The skilled editor of the Carolina Israelite
of Charlotte does a scholarly and evaluative
job of writing. To be sure, the book tells again
the horrifying and terrifying details of the
case itself. It is an exciting account and to
Atlantans and other Southerners it is local
history. The writer goes beyond and in effect
brings the account up to date, relating the
sequella, good and bad, that ensued largely
because of the public revulsion to the injustice
done to this Jewish man and the affront to
decency effected then in the name of justice.
This reviewer, who came to Atlanta from
a South Georgia community in the early
Thirties, cannot remember when he was not
involved, though peripherally, in some aspect
)f the sequella. He worked side by side with
news personalities who played such a large
part in the case and were still very much on
the active news scene in those years. He work
ed side by side for years with noted sports
writer O. B. Keeler, who returned to the
family the wedding ring (taken from the
lynched body not by him but by some member
of the mob) with Ralph Edmundson, James
Belflower and others involved in covering the
case.
The blighted political career of the Geor
gia governor Slaton who nobly did what he
could in the name of justice to right the
wrongs done to Frank will always be an
example in refutation to the so-called easy
charge of corruption among persons in high
places. The public remembers the fine dra
matization of his actions in the recent TV
series, “Profiles in Courage,” selected by the
late President JFK.
And the magnificent widow of the victim
who lived out her life in dignity with the
heavy burden of the terrible thing done to her
husband. What a monument to tragedy she
represented!
These and many other vivid memories
rush into mind as the pages of Golden’s fine
volume bring back the details and specific
of what took place—and what later emerged.
This is a book not to be read for enjoy
ment—but for education and understanding
and keen awareness of what was involved
here, for coordinating the events in proper
sequence and perspective.
Many Atlantans will find painful remind
ers in the book of their childhoods when this
case was of staggering magnitude, when they
hid with their families in fear of the mob
which came into the city to lynch the Georgia
governor. For a while, it was not known
whether the mob would head for the mansion
or for the then center of the Jewish popula
tion (Capitol Ave. et, al.) where great loss
of life could have resulted, as took place a
few years earlier in a horrible Atlanta race
riot. Some young Jewish girls and mothers
were even sent out of town for safety and
avoidance of the mob temperament which
ruled the public opinion of those times .
Without pulling any punches or mincing
words Golden tells the story straight from the
shoulder and the falling chips do not spare
the newspapers of the day, the general com
munity or the Jewish population of the times.
“A Little Girl Is Dead” is a real literary
contribution to our knowledge of the past of
this section and nation and to a better under
standing of its modern values.
—ADOLPH ROSENBERG
TALMUDIC TREASURES
Collected and Translated
By JACOB L. FRIEND
ABOUT HANUKAH AND LIGHTS
• Rabbi Hanina said: The Tabernacle was
finished on the 25th day of Kislev, but it was
not assembled and put together until the first
day of Nisan so that this migut take place in
the same month when the Exodus took place.
And did that day on this account lose its im
portance? No, for the Maccabeans instituted on
it the Dedication of the restored Holy Temple
in the year 165 B. C. E. on which since then
we celebrate the eight days of Hanukah.
• Seven Hanukoth were inaugurated with
lights: a) The creation with Moonlight (the
first moon after creation appeared on Friday,
according to tradition), b) The Tabernacle in
the desert and c,d) Both the Two Temples
with the lighting of the Mcnorah. e) The Fes
tival of Hanukah with kindling of the lamps
in the temporary receptacles, f) The wall of
Jerusalem with the procession of the Lights,
g) And the Millenium, with the Seven-Fold
Light of the sun.
• On the 25th of Kislev the eight days of
Hanukah begin, and during these days no
funeral oration (Hesped) may be held. Why
is this prohibition? Because a miracle occured
when the Hasmoneans came to kindle the
Temple lights, and only one day’s supply of
ritually pure oil was available but lasted for
eight days. But since the Festival named
Hanukah, Dedication, and the miracle lasted
only seven days, why do we not imitate Moses
and Solomon both of which celebrated the
festival of Dedication only seven days? Be
cause the Maccabeans were occupied with the
work of cleansing and restoring for fully
eight days. The first act of Restoration was
the kindling of the Temple Lights, and because
the Menorah was not yet restored, seven
spears, coated with tin, were used to fashion a
temporary Menorah and lit.
(To Be Continued)
A Joyous Hanukah
and a
Happy New Year
Wines from Israel and all over the world. Complete
line of kosher style delicatessen and foods. Rare
delicacies.
HappytfeWS
2299 CHESIHRE BRIDGE RD., N.E.
ME. 6-1633