Peri4dio Reports on

THE JEWISH POSIT ION

published by

THE INSTITUTE OF JEWISH AFFAIRS

VOL. II Number 11 November, 1981

Institute of Jewish Affairs 1 World Jewish Congress 15 East 84th Street New York 28~ N. Y. TABLE OF CONTENTS

I. RECENT EVENTS IN THE SOVIET UNION •••••••••••••• 4••••••••••••••••••• 1

II. RECENT NEO-NAZ! AND PAN-GERMA.N ACTIVITIES IN AUSTRIA._. ••••••• 6J• ••• • 3

III. THE STRANGE CASE OF LAZAR VRACARIC••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 5

IV • ANT I-\.ITEWIS H ACT IV IT IES • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •• -• ••••••• -• • • • • • • • 7

1. Austria ••••••••••••••••• 7 10. Japan•••••••••••••••••••• 10 2. Be lgi urn...... 8 11. L-e bMon ••••••••••••• ~ •••· • 11 3. Bra~il•••••••••••••••••• R 12. Libya. •••••••••••••••••••• 11 4. Canada ••••• , •••••••••••• 8 13. Poland••••••••••••••• ~ ••• ll 5. Egypt ...... 8 14. South Afriea. ••• ~••••••••• 12 6. France •••••••••••••••••• 9 15. Switzerland ••••••• ~.~•••• 12 7,. Germany ••••••••••••••••• 9 16. United Arab Republio~~.~. 12 B. Great Britain ••••••••••• lO 17. USSR•·••••••••••••••••••• 12 9. Italy ...... lO 18. USA•f•••••~~•••••••~••••• 14 19 .. Uruguay •••••••••••• l5 ·

V. PRCSECmTION OF WAR CRIMINALS •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 15

1. Austria •••••••••••••••• 15 3. Poland••••••••••••••••••• 17 2. Germany •••••••••••••••• 15 4. Switzerland •••••••••••• ·•• 17

VI. MISCELLANEOUS EVENTS ••• ,. •••••••••• •••••••••••• .'•••• ·••••••••••••••• l'l

1. Algeria•••••••••••••••• 17 16. Germany••••-·•••••••••••• 23 2 •. Australia. •••••••••••••• 19 17. Great Britain•••••••••••• 25 s~ Austria •••••••••••••••• 19 18. Greeee••••••••••••••••·•• 25 4. Belgium•••••••••••••••• 19 19. Holland•••••••••••••••••• 25 s. Brazil••••••••••••••••• 19 20. India. •••••••••••••• ~ ••••• 25 6. Canada ••••••••••••••••• 19 21. Italy•••••••• · ••••••••• • •• 26 7. Czeohoalov~kia ••••••••• 20 22. Jamaica•••••••••••••••••• 26 B. Denmark ...... 20 23. Moroooo •••••••••••••.••••• 26 9. Dutoh West Indies •••••• 20 24. North America •••••••••••• 27 10. East Germany •••.•••••••• 20 25. Poland ...... 27 11. Egypt•••••••••••••••••• 21 26. Rhcdesia ••••••••••••••••• 28 12. Europe ••••••••••••••••• 22 27. South Afrioa••••••••••••• 28 13. Finland•••••••••••••••• 22 28. Spain•••••••••••••••••••• 28 14. France ••••••••••••••••• 22 29. USSR ••••••••••••••••••••• 28 15. General•••••••••••••••• 23 30. USA •••••••• , ••••••••••••• 30 -1-

I. RECENT EVENTS IN THE SOVIET UNION

A. Arrests and Trials

The first report about recent arrests and trials of Jews was published bn N~vember 6, 1961, in the ~Y~rk Herald Tribune.

Aooording to the Herald Tribune's corresp.ondent, Rewland Evans Jr., Gedalia Peehersky was elected Chairman of the Leningr~d Jewish (religious) community after Stalin's death, with the approval of the Leningrad Head for Religious Affairs. He was demoted in 195o to the post of deputy chairman- apparently beeause of his stub~ born battle for "Jewish rights"t he sueeeeded in having the synagogue premises re­ paired, in establishing ritual slaughter of fowls and obtaining per.mission to bake matzoth. In 1957, Mr. Peohersk,y was stripped of all official duties but remained a prominent figure among Leningrad Jews.

Pechersky was arrested in Jtine and tried and sentenced to twelve years im­ prisonment on Oetober 9-13 for "treasonable activities" in ''oons~rting with foreign a.gents." Together with Peehersky there were arrested two other, lesser, Jewish leaders of Leningrad: E. s. Dynkin and T. A. Kaganov, both over 70 years of ageJ they were sentenoed to seven years in prison each but, on account of their age, the sentence was redueed by three years in each ease. An appeal from the conviction was lodged with the Supreme Court. The JTA reported from Londen6 that some 12,000 Jews, together with an orchestra, had gathered around the Leningrad synagogue on Simchat Torah and that this ~iroumstance was believed to·have ndded to the severity o£ the sentenees. It was at first reported that the trial was held in seoret, but it was later revealed that this was an error - the trial was open but only few persons were ad­ mitted. There was also some confusion concerning the "foreign power": it was first reported by UPI, on the basis of a preliminary study of the reports in the Lenin­ gradskay~ Fravda, that referenee was made there to Israel. but the full text of the report contained no such reference. The reference in the paper was to "a oertain eapi ta.listio country." However, the Tass commentator, Orlov, s ai. d in the statements referred to below that Israel agents had ,.involved some Soviet eitizens of Jewish nationality into their espionage activities," they (the sentenced Jews) had provided the Israel Embassy with information used abroad to the detriment of the Soviet State~ had reoeived "anti-Soviet material" from the Embassy and distributed it. Ac­ cording to a report from Paris, printed in the JTA of November 29, Peohereky was, during the trial, shown photographs in whioh he was pietured conversing with members of the Israel Embassy. Pechersky testified that the photographs were taken at a formal reception, which he had attended in his oapaoity as Jewish community repre­ sentative with the knowledge of Soviet authorities. He rejected the charges of es­ pionage; when asked by the prosecutor if he was a Zionist, he replied that he did not belong to any party or organization, but as an Orthodox Jew it was mandatory for him to pray daily for the restoration of Zion. The erroneous impression about Israel's involvement, as mentioned abeve, was ereated beeause the UPI's report did not make it clear that the reterenoe to Israel waG not by the Lenin~radskaya Pravda but by Soviet journalists who had attended the trial. They told UPI that the defendants were charged with collecting anti-soviet data. on behalf o£ the Israel Embassy.

The espionage charges were termed "£o.ntastie" by Yalcov Sha.rett, who had some time earlier been ttexpelled" from the Soviet Union {he was allegedly one of the Is• raeli agents). He claimed that~ during his tenure in Moscow, he met hundreds of So- -2-

viet Jewn but never a aid to them anything more than "Shalom Aleiohem. tt

On November 10 the New York Times and on November 19 the New York Herald Tribune reported that, in addition to the three Leningrad Jews, three Moscow Jews were said to have been arrested in June and sentenced on "treason charges" (oontaet with a f~reign embassy) in October. One of the three Moseow Jews, Gregor Rashal, was deseribed as an engineer and to have been the moat prominent of the three. He was reported to have been one~ arrested in the years 1948-49, during Stalin's anti­ Jewish e~paign, and to have served eight years in a f~reed labor oamp, before he waa freed in 1955. In addition to the three-year prison term, he was reported t~ have been eondemned to four years of forced residence after the expiration of his prison term (others reported a seven-year hard labor sentence). The seeond man was identified only ae Goldberg and reported to have received a prison term of three years; the third's name and his sgntenee were not given at all.

B. The Reaotion

The reports about the trial and sentenom of the Peohersky group and the Mos­ eow Jews provoked wide-spread apprehension. The World Jewish Congress in New York and Tel Aviv called for the release of the Jews. The Brooklyn Jewish Community Council~ representing 850 Jewish organizations with a membership of over a million, deMeribed the sentenee aa a shoek to American Jews and ealled on November 9 for the release of Pe~hersky. "Deep regret and increasing apprehension" were voieed by the American Jewish Congress. The Jewish Labor Committee protested the sentences uwith deep bitterness." The Board of Deputies of British Jewa appealed to the Soviet Union to stop the harsh aete against the Jewish religion and eulture. The Anglo­ Jewish Association president termed the reference to espionage "a reminder of the cruel restrictions whieh the Soviet Government has imposed on Russian Jewa. '' Simi­ lar pr~tasts were made in Canada and other countries. The debate in the Knesset moved along the lines of "always seeking the friendship o£ the Soviet Union" but e.l­ ao pr~testing against the arrests. On November 201 the Israel Government officially rejeoted the aforementioned allegations by Tass as "libelous and without any founda­ tion. n

c. Other Aets

The reports about the arrests were followed by other disturbing news. Label A. Katz, President of the B1 nai B'rith~ reported to the ll8th annual meeting of the organization1 aooording to the New York Times and the JTA cf November 13, that the Board of the Moscow Seminary (there were only 12 students in this seminary) had been disbanded. Mr. Katz 1 who returned recently from the USSR, declared that Jews in Moscow and Leningrad were interpreting the trials as ''an effort to suppress what is already a. sadly diminished practice of Judaism in the Soviet Union." On November 27, Rowland Evans Jr. reported in the New York Herald Tribune that five Jewish leaders were removed by the Soviet Government from their position as chairmen of religious eongregations in the capitals of five republios~ by orders of the respective De­ partments of Religious Affairs~ and that synagogues in at least a doten Soviet ci­ ties were closed t'to diminish the influence of J&wish communal life in the Soviet

Union. 't The paper identified them as ( l) Bardokh in Kiev 1 (2) Fried in Minsk~ (3) Ka.ob in Wilna, (4) Yeruzalinski in Tashkent, and {5) Zylberman in Riga.. The pietures of Bardokh, Kaob and Zylberman were published. According to the Day-Jewish Journ~l of December 7 1 the five were deposed in June or July and Fried had been at­ tacked in the Pravda of Minsk on April 4th, together with two other Jews, Ber Soka­ lowsky and Meier Soloweitschiok apd aeeused of a series of orimes, sueh as theft, ate. 1 -3- D. Soviet Reaotion

On November 17 the Soviet Union rejeeted the eharges that So~iet Jews were being subjected to a eampaign of anti-Semitism. Igor ~rlov# a Tass oommentator, in an artiele distributed in English for Westerners in Moseow (Tass 8aid that there were no plans to distribute it in Russian) said, aeeording to dispatches from Moscow in tha New York Times of November 18 and Herald Tribune of November 196 that the Western press had seized upon the Leningrad trial to start a eampa.ign about "a wave of victimization of Soviet JewB;" these reports 1 he said, were an insult "to the honor and dignity of hundreds of thousands of Soviet Jews who work in all branches of the national eoonomy, seienee, culture, and the arts." A lengthy ootrllle.nte.ry by Orlov was also broadeast from Moaoow to listeners abroad. In this broadoast Orlov denied that the arrested Jews oecupied ~ny leading positions and accused the Jewish and non-Jewish press abroad of having revived "old mildewed .f'a.bles" about anti­ Semitism in Russia (the Jewish Chronicle, November 24, 1961). The New York Times reported, in this eonneetion, that "observers in Moseow have not been aware of any change in recent weeks in the official Soviet attitude toward Jews, 11 while the New York Herald Tribune dispatch e~ntended that - according to informed sources - ---­ "sentencing of the leaders has caused apprehension to grip the Jewish community in Moscow" and that "there were fears there may· be more arrests."

E. Other Trials

A few days later rep~rts from the Leningradskaya. Pravda were distributed by Reuters (see, for instance, the Jerusalem Post of November 20}# according to which a Leningrad court sentenced three men with eonspiouously Jewish names - R. s. Oiser­ man, A. G. Kaplun, and s. R. Shapiro - to death by shooting £or large-seale curren­ cy speculation in gold, foreign currency; and valuables. In addition to .these three, six others were sentenced to a total of 41 years for the same erime. Among the six were - aeoording to the New York Times of December 10 - L. I. Levit (ten years in prison), B. M. Khaikin (eight years) and S. z. Markovich (five years). Ee.rli~r, the death sentence of a Jew, one Kreizman, fo·r illegal aets in "social property" was announced by Tase. His two helpers, Sheinin and Mnushkin (apparently also Jews) received ten years in prison each (the Day-Jewish Journal 1 November 17).

According to the Georgia newspaper Dawn of the East, six currency speculators were tried in Tblisi. Th~ "leader11 of the band was one Mordaeh Kokiashvili (or Kukashvili), who possessed a ~ 1.,000 note, hidden in "the binding of a Pentateuch, n. book containing parts o:f the Bible and a history of the Jewish faith," which ob­ viously branded him, in addition to some other re:ferences (tc Sabbath), as a Jew. The band was allegedly connected with simila.r bands in Moseow and the ~ 1,000 note was allegedly previously (')Wned by speculators in Riga, Leningrad and Moscow (the Jerusalem P~st, December 3 nnd the Day-Jewish Journal, Deo9mber 7). Acoording to the (Moscow) Pravda1 Kokiashvili (wilc)se personal deals allegedly involved more than 2.5 million rubles) was sentenced to death~ while the others received jail sentenees (the Jerusalem Post, December 13).

II. RECENT NEO-NAZI AND PAN-GERMAN ACTIVITIES IN AUSTig,!

According to various reports, in particular by the Vienna corresp~ndent o£ the Zurich paper Die Tat {issue of November 24), the Austrian security authorities have discovered a secret (underground) neo-Nazi organization whioh - judging :from the arrests made in Vienna, Graz, and Innsbruek - not only exists in Austria, but also h~s illegal connections as far as Munich, the capital of Bavaria. In this way the existence of all-Austrian secret associations was proven which - in this extent·· had previously been denied by the authorities. The arrests wh~eh took place in the last years and months were always e~plained as due to "Le.usbubenstuecke" (acts of -4-

young soamp~) by individual persons. The same explanations were offered when daub­ er~ of swastikas and passers of anti-semitic and National-Socialist literature were dieco~ered. Now the situation appears to hAve changed. The Ministry of the Interior and the State Poliee described the affair as very serious.

The diseovery of the secret organizations was due to arrests by the police of tP,ree students belonging to a. German-national fraternity (Bursehensehaf't)~ Olympia, in Vienna, who sang on the street the Na.tional-Soeia.list song, "Es zittern die mor­ sehen Knochen" (The r~tten bones tremble) • When the police wanted to impose fjn these three students~ Herbert Fritz, Roman Pilz, and Hannes Schillinger, the usual fine of Soh. 50 (about $2) for disturbing the peace, they became violent and were taken to the ·poliee station. The police found in their pockets lists which hinted at secret ~onnections. e~rrespondenee, minutes of meetings, etc. Among the persons on the lists were the ohief of the Tyrol snow aval~nehe servio9,0tto Sehimpp (wh~ is sus­ pected of baing the leader ~f the ne~-Nazi group in Tyrol), and an assistant at the Taehnieal College of Graz, Thomas B~hn. Bohn, who was suspected of being the con" tact ma.n with a. secret organization in the Steierm.ark, was arrested in bed. A day later, the German national, Hans Hubert Sauer, who, on his part, was in contact with an assistant at the University of Innsbruok, Dr. Burger~ was arrested •. Another name on the list was that of Guenther Sehweiriberger1 ·an Austrian, who belongs to a German National extremist organization, whioh has already been proven to be responsible for ~rganizing and implementing bomb outrages in South Tyrol. Schweinberger - who ie regarded as the chief of a aeoret organization whose eonneetions reach f~om Vienna through Munich to South Tyrnl - eould not be found, but the 20-year-old Johanna Jungh, whe is suspected ~f having helped Schweinberger to escape, was arrested in Vienn~. A close oollaborator of Schweinberger was the aforementioned Hans Hubert Sauer. All in all, eleven leaders of the neo-Nazi organization were arrested.,

Aa the corresp~ndent of the Neue Zuercher Zeitung (November 25, 1961) re­ ported, the Austrian police are looking· for connections between the seeret organi­ zation thus discovered and the bemb outrages in South Tyrol. The personality of Sohimpp hinted at a connection with the transp~rtation of explosives from Austri& to Italy. (On December 7 three men and a woman were sent to prison on charges o£ having procured and transported dynamite to Italy.) Personal connections were es­ tablished to have existed between the arrested students and the youthful perpetra­ tors of unsuooessful Molotov-eocktail attempts on Italian railroad stations. Howev­ er, it has n·ot yet been es.tablished whether the arrested students were identical with the perpetrators of the bombing attempts of last June and July• .The Committee for the Liberation o~ South Tyrol~ on its part, d~nied that its actions are to be as~ribed to Fa~cists, National-Socialists. or ,Communists.

The correspondent of the Neue Zuereher Zeitung eontends that to the extremist student organizations ''Ring freiheitlioher Studenten" and "Verbe.nd deutscher Bur­ sohensehaften in Oesterreich," South Tyrol is a welcome field of German-National activity rather than an Austrian affair. The propagation of the idea of Austria as th~ "second German State'' and the denj.al of an Austrian national consciousness are combined in their ''philosophy" with explicit Nazi views.

A~eording to the police (JTA, November 29), the evaluation e£ the material aaized during the arrest of the eleven Nazis indicated that the Austrian neo-Nazi ring was receiving orders from Munich and Nuremberg. Police found a nine-point pro­ gr~ ready for distribution to 1,000 recipients, to launch a nationwide smear and Placard campaign against Jews, slated for the beginning of December. The program provided detailed instructions on where to smear the slogana, how to affix the pla­ oards, eto. In addition~ the document called for a conference in Vienna. of "all eountries eonoerned to discuss other neo-Nazi activities.," The police believes that -5- the ring has been smashed by the arrests.

By order of the Minister of the Interior. the Olympia student organization was dissolved.

Even before the arrest of the three students there was a conviction (The Jewish Chronicle, November 10) that the neo-Nazi elements in Austria are a serious problem. The Minister of the Interior announced that Austrian security servio~s were instruoted to tak~ energetic measures against all persons who violate the ba­ sic principles of freed~m, demoeraoy, and neutrality in the country; all suspicioua organizations were carefully watched, and the circulation of neo-Nazi broadsheets etc. would be dealt with severely. Despite these statements, the Jewish section of the Central Cemetery in Innsbruck was desecrated and tombstones destroyed on November 21 (New York Times, November 23 and Christian Scienee Monitor, November 24). A few days later the chairman of the Jewish community received an anonymous letter threatening to blow up the synagogue.

III. THE STRANGE CASE OF LAZAR VRACARIC

On November 2 a Yugoslav businessman, on a trip to Germany, was a~rested in Munich as a war criminal. Tw() days later, Vraoarie Wt\S released.

The ~aae has created an unbelievable rumount of excitement, hostility, publi­ eity. diplomatic embarrassment, and friction both within Germany and between West Germany and her neighbors. On the German Nationalist side, it has led to the most violent assault so far on the war orimes -trials now being condueted by West Germany; East Germany has seen in the conduct of West Germany another irrefutable proof of German neo-FaseismJ Yugoslavia has filed diplomatic protests; Denmark, France, and other formerly oeoupied countries have warned against trips of their nationals t~ West Germany, ete., etc.

Among the headlines the case gave rise to in the ne~-Nazi press, were the following: "Justice Is At Stake • Is the Murder of German Soldiers Punishable?" "Bonn Capitulates Before Belgrade - No Prosecution and No Judges for Tito's Murder Gangs"; "The Vraoarie Case: A Punch Below the Belt for -German Justice"; "Are German Soldiers Outlawed? Indemnification for the Murderer." Even some middle-o.f .... the-road paper~ maintain that the Vraearie ease has knocked the bottom out of any further war crimes trials of German Nazis.

According to the comparatively neutral though tongue-in-the•cheeek report in Dar Spiegel of November 15# La~ar Vraeario1 born in Milwaukee 1 U.S.A., a Tito par­ tisan during the war and now the manager of a metal gadget faotory, had aroused the curiosity of the Swiss seoret service by making too many business trips from Yugo­ sl~via t~ Switzerland and Germany. Given a hearing by the Swiss cantonal police a year ago, Vraoario stated that he was simply a businessman and~ besides, a well­ known anti-Fascist. The Swiss polioe released Vraeario, but the Swiss Counteres­ pionage Serviea asked for more information from the German police~ at the same· time referring t~ a German police leaflet of October 301 19411 which contained a warrant againat Vraoario 1 because he had ahot do~~ two members of the German occupation army in Zagreb.

While sueh lists of "criminals" from the Nazi period are now not used aotive­ ly~ the German justice ~achinery started rolling as a result of the Swiss request. 'l'h~t F ederal attorney designated the eourt at Constance as the court to investigate he onseJ that court subsequently issued a warrant for the arrest of Vracarie, ap­ parently without giving much thought to the basic questions involved. As a result, -6·

Vr~e~r1e was arrested in a bearding heuse in Munieh during the night ot Novew~er 2. Aoeording tn the S~ie~el, not only Vrac~rie but the resistance fighters ef all na­ tions wer~ "aroused," and newspapers in Holland, Italy1 aad Norw~y ~tt~eked the ar­ rest a8 "German re'V"enge on partiAan fighters," a "heritage ot the Gftsta.po time," ~nd s~ ~n. In ~elgrade there were demenstrationB before the German C~nsulate asking for Vraearie'a releasa. Xhe ConRtanoe public prosecutor hurried to interview Vra­ carie in pris~n and was tftld by him that h~, together with. two eolleaguea 1 had been walking in oivili~ dress through a Zagreb street in 1941, wh~n they m~t three Ger• mAn fliers whom they shot to de~th.

Aa a reault either of the vielent Yugesla~ pretest er ot aeeGnd thoughts ot the West German FAderal Pros~eution oftiee. Vraeari~ wna released two &aya after he ha.d 'been arrested. Aoeording to the Spi~gel# the poliet~t alec, upon request of the Yugesla.v Consula.t~, destroyed the photos and fingerpTints taken CJt Vraeario .. al­ l~gedly ~n indioation that he actually is a aeor~t serviee agent.

While the strange ea~e of Lazar Vraearie was thuA nipped in the bud, it ia interesting to oenaider some of the eomment it g,nerated. Reeklin&hauaer Zeitun5• otherwiag a comparati~ely liberal paper, says that the apelogy addressed tft Vraearie should eerta.inly put an And to th~ ease, and ecntinues r "'If Greeee, Fr@\nee~ anti eth8r eeunt~ies whieh were epponents of the German Reieh during the war still con~ sider it quite natural te ~~rest Germans new as •war criminals• without inoiting a st~rm ~t proteat, one should not be amazed that the Federal Republio uses the same st~ndards •• -It would be wrong not t~ say that it is painful that tcday, 16 yearg a.rter the end of the war, •war erim.illals' are still being arrested. That 1a true not only tor the Germans, but also for the others who a~ tar have not pr~test9d thase arrests. It is tn be wished th~t the Vraearic ease will finally put an end to ~uch n.rrests. All or us in Europe should cease to peke about in the ashes of the S8eond World War. We should rather try to prevent & third Werld Warl"

Und~r the title ''Hfllre 's to Murder - Germans Ask fer the Beunding ot Other G3r.m~ns 1 " the n~o-Na~i Deutsche Weehenteitun~ ot Nov~mber 18 give& the tellowing moving pieture ot the German oooupaticn on the one hand, and th8 resistanee fighters ~n the other h~dt"1942 - a town in Denmark, Norway, H~lland, Belgium# Franee cr Behemia. The population ia busy taking eare of its jobs. The German oecupnti~n force, after some initial hesitation, has been accepted with good will. The girls arg flirting with the eel~iera. The eeono~ is in full gear. Suddenly - there is a 8hot in ~ atreet full of people. A German officer falls dcwn. While en the gr~und, he draws his pistol. takes aim, but the eAsaasin disappeared among w~~n and ~hildren. The gun t~lls from the hand ot the dying German offieer.~ •• The war ot th~ 8ni~ers~ the ass~~sination from &mbuah is militarily as futil~ as terror·b~mb­ ing. It ie the hateful, hate-generating deed of the e~ward, which tears down the frontiers of a knightly order and elevates the basene~s of the perpetratcr t~ tho ruling law of total war. It ia the weapon of the anarchist. It is oharaoteristie ~f ~x. Fr~-Brandt (Mayor Willy Brandt or Berlin) that he wr~te a whole book in pra1a~ of sniping when he wa.s e.n emigrant ...... Atter the war it is the victor wh8 deoidas what is good and what is bad. German peasants who slew the murderers of the ~1r war were hanged. Frenchmen and Belgians who, from an ambush, killed German sol• diers or the regular army Wf.!tre deoorated. 11

While m~t of the German preaa eonsidered the arrest of Vraeario an unrortu­ nats slip and was eager to apol~gize for the error and in favor of inde~ifying the viettm, there were quite a. few editorials, even in liberal papers, whioh also ~iressed tha ambiguity ot the situation from the point of view of the German ael• qrs. Thus~ the Rheinische Merkur of November 17 says that aoeerding to Vraearie's ~~ words~ he 3hot de~n the two unwa~ soldiers ~der condition8 whieh in nermal mea would be considered murder. While admitting that under the impact of the -7- emotions released by Hitler, the resistance fighters had little feeling for the borderline b€tween warlike ~ action and criminal aetion, the paper says that the se.me subjective .excuse n:uat be granted to those German seldiers who als" crossed this borderline in reaction to actions such as the one of whioh Vraeario was guilty. Amnesties on both sides are thus recommended by this and other papers~

The oase was the topic ~f a discussion in the Bavarian Diet where speakers 1tressed th~~ Vraoa.ri~ aetually had committed murder which, however, oould not be prosecuted beoause of the contractual agreement between the Western Allies and West Germany, which ended the oocupation. The arrest, however, did not mean that the

German authorities were following Nazi practices. In the same debate 1 a deputy o£ the All-German Party (Geaammtdeutsche Partei) accused the Yugoslav Consul in Munich of murders in several hundred cases.

Other comments in the We.st German press stressed, on the one, hand. that the dictatorial regi~e o£ Yugoslavia had no right to attaok German justi~e. and~ on the other hand, eonsidered it extremely, disquieting that a warrant issued in 1941 by a Nazi court should• under whatever circumstances. be made the basis o£ legal aotion in the Germany of 1981. The East German press was filled for days with reports of the ease, attacks on West Germany whioh even surpassed the _normal polemics in acidity ("Himmler's henchmen reign in Bonn") and printed a specia). message of greeting to the German Democratic Republic sent by Lazar Vracario.

IV. ANT I -JEVliS H ACT IV IT IES

1. Austria

(a) Forty headstones in the Jewish section o£ the Central Cemetery in Innsbruok have been vandalized and the president of the local Jewish oorr~unity has received an anon­ ymous telephone call threatening that the synagogue would be blown up.

(New York Times, November 23; Christian Seienee Monitor, November 24)

(b) Josef Afritsch, Minister of the Interior, has stated in a reply to a written Parliamentary question that the security services have been instructed to take en­ ergetic measures against all persons W:lo violate the basic principles o£ freedom, demoeraoy, and neutrality in Austria, with particular emphasis on the suppression ~f neo-Nazi activities.

(Jewish Chronicle, November 10)

(e) The ' authorities have uncovered a clandestine Nazi organization ~ich seems to extend over the entire territory o£ Austria and to have close ties with Munioh. The organization may be responsible for most o£ the Nazi activities which have taken plaee during the last few years in the Rep~blio, such as daubings of swastikas and distribution of anti-Jewish nnd neo-Nazi literature. Furthermore, it is now assumed that important clues will be discovered as to the perpetrators of the systematio bombings ~n South Tyrol and Italy in general during recent months.

The disclosure followed the arrest of three students near the Vienna Opera ~ouse who refused to pay a small fine for publicly singing Nazi songs. After try­ ~ng to resist the police, they were finally overwhelmed and searched. Papers found on their persons incriminated a number of people, including Thomas Bohn, an assist­ ant at Graz Technical University. and Dr. otto Sohimpp, an official in the technical -a- service of Tyrol~ A third man~ Guenther Sohweinberger~ an Austrian of Bavarian origin, is still at large. He is supposedly hiding in the Austrian Alps. Still another member of the group was one Hans Herbert Sauer who was arrested last Septem­ ber in Vienna..

In eonnection with these events~ the Gover.nment is going to dissolve the Pan­ German students' association Olympia.

(Neue Buendner Zeitung, Chur, November 25; Neue Zuercher Zeitung, November 26)

(d) One of the leaders of the secret neo-Nazi organizations of Austria, Guenther Sehweinberger, 31, against whom a warrant had been ~ut, has surrendered.

(Remsoheider General-Anzeiger, November 25)

2~ Belgium

A Flemish weekly has criticized King Baudouin of the Belgians for visiting ~ Jewish-owned diamond cutting coneern.

(Unzer Wort~ November 16)

3. Brazil

{a) More than thirty tombstones have been destroyed in the Jewish ~emetery at Curi­ tiba, south of Sao Paolo.

Police investigations have not yet led to the apprehensi"n of anyone respon­ sible for the attacks.

(WJ Affairs 1 Bulletin #836. November 16)

(b) Several dozens gravestones in the Jewish cemetery of Porto Alegre 1 third largest Jewish community in Brazil~ were smeared with swastikas and inscribed with "Heil Hitler," while others were ov-erturned.

( JTA, November 30)

4. Canadn

An artiole questioning the loyalty to their oountries of all Jews in landa out­ s ide Israel, attacking Is rae 1 for the "injustioett to Adolf Eiohmann1 and exous ing the leadership of Nazi Germany for its program of anti-semitism, has appeared in the Huron Church News, the official publication of the Anglican Church in London, On­ tario. The article was written by an Anglioan priest, the Rev. H. R. Rokeby-Thomas. The Right Rev. George Luxton, Anglican Bishop of the diocese, has said that the views expressed in the article were the author's own and that it was not the bishop's duty to condone or denounoe them.

(JTA, November 8) 5. Egypt

.President Nasser has offered his full support of the extreme anti~Jewish South Afr1.oan organization 11 Boerenasie," e.oeording to a.n admission by its "Commander Gen­ eral." K. Rudman. They are said to work together towards the fulfillment o£ the -9- so-ea.lJe d {Nazi) Madagascar Plan., under which all Jews would be exiled to that is­ land after Israel had been t&ken over by the Arabs.

(Madagasear is today the independent Republie of ,Malagasy. Egypt has severed its diplomatic relations with South Afriea. -Edit.)

(Jewish Chronicle, November 17) s. France Pierre Poujade has resppeared on the public seene. He is again holding meetings and has recently visited the Paris market halls and harangued the butchers who have grievances.

Poujade's party received 2,450,000 votes in the French general elections of January, 1956, which dwindled to about 1001 000 in Mareh. 1960. At the oantona1 elections held in June~ 1961, he personally could not get more than 207 votes in his electoral district o£ Luzeoh (Dept. Lot).

Now he thinks the time is ripe for a eomeba.ok.

(Paris Presse, November 25)

7. Germany

(a) A salesman, convicted for the second time o£ libeling Jews. was senten~ed to two months of imprisonment~ after having gotten off the first time with three weeks. Another salesman., who had sung Nazi songs in publio# was fined 1400 marks.

(Das Andere Deutsehland, No~ember 1)

(b) A s al~on-keeper in West Berlin was fined 500 marks and given a suspended three­ monthst jail sentence when he was convicted of insulting Jews.

He bad greeted Jewish oust~mers with "Heil Hitler" and with the ass~rtion that ' 1 n~ Jewish louts will ever be served in rrt'J" inn."

( JTA, November 9)

(e) Ten former members of various outlawed anti-Semitie and neo-Nazi student aaso­ ~iations were arrested in West Berlin when they showed up at a meeting for the pur­ pose of organizing a new right-wing group.

(JTA, November 9)

(d) During a showing of the film "Exodus" in West Berlin, a tear-gas bomb was thrown. The perpetrator was arrested and several neo-Nazi leaflets were found on h~.

(Allgemeine Wochenzeitung, November 10)

(e) A warrant was issued for the arrest of four leaders of a sttall group or right­ ist juveniles in West Berlin. The group is headed by a 21-year-old clerical employe, Karl Heinz Panteleit. The gr~up had been responsible for throwing tear gas bombs during a showing of the anti-Nazi film "Lebensborn." In this oonneotion, a 23-yea.r­ old ohemiat was arrested on suspicion or having stolen the tear gas bombs from his firm. (Allgemeine Woohenzeitung, November 10) -10-

(f) Unknown oulprits have deseerated the ooneentration eamp memorial near Hersbruck on the night following the National Mourning Day. The inscription on the stone ~rosa was in part ohiseled off and, in its stead1 a huge swastika and ~ SS rune were chiseled in. The Publi~ Prosecutor in Nuremberg immediately started an investiga- tion. (Bild-Zeitung, Hamburg, November 21)

(g) Lutt-Diater Bruening1 a 24-year-old laboratory worker, has reeeived a suspended four-month jail sentence in West Berlin for shouting in the street "Sieg Heil Adolf Eichmann. All Jevws must be sho~. tt

(New York Post, November 22)

(h) Camouflaged as important contributions to contemporary history designed for scientists and writers. Nazi literature, ineluding material from the Reioh1 the Stuermer, Schwarzes Korps, eto., is being sent out from Nuremberg by a man called Karl R. Pawlas. His cireulars promoting this Na~i literature are made up in a way ("not for juveniles under 21") to suggest pornographic reading matter._

(Vorwaerts, Bonn, November 29)

8. Great Britain

(a) Anti-Jewish slogans (sueh as "Jew go- home.- up Mosley") ehalked on the black­ board in e. school by teenage hooligans were mentioned by the Conservative MP Vi. R. Rees-Davies in the House of Commons.

He demanded disciplinary measures against these unruly elements.

(Jewish Chroniele. November 10)

(b) Thieves who took oash and jewelry from a Jewish home at Stanmore and slashed all the furniture in the house 1 scrawled on the wall of the hall an anti-Jewish slGgan as well as the symbol of the {Fasoist) British Union Movement, a flash inside a oirele. {Jewish Chronicle, November 24)

9. Italy

Following the murder of 13 Italian airmen by rebellious troops in the Congo, members of the Giovane Italie. movement demonstrated in the Jewish district of Rome against the Jews and attacked also an American Negro t'

(Jewish Chroniele, November 24) 10. Japan

In a letter to the Editor of the Jewish Chronicle, Professor Masayuki Kobayashi or Waseda University, Tokyo, gives illuminating information on anti-semitism in Japan in the recent past. He writes inter aliat

(1) That, from official Japanese documents which he has exrumined, it appears that at one stage of the Sino-Japanese War, one member of the three-man "Special Cozmnittee on the Jews and Moslems" in the late 1930s suggested exploiting Jewish ~efugeea from Nazi Germany. This ''expert on the Jewish problem" thought of it as a. means to extort from Jewish communities abroad, especially in America. valuable ~terial resources needed by Japan in the war on China. This expert was a naval -11-

officer~ but his views were not shared by many Japanese generals or admirals. '1The Eichmann idea. of 'Lorries for Lives'," writes Professor Kobayashi~ "seems to have been beyond the imagination of even the top leaders of' anti-semitism in Tokyo and Shanghai. In addition, the relevant period was not the time after Ja an entered the Second World War, but before Pearl Harbor. mainly during 1937-41. Italics by Editor of Periodic Reports).

(2) Since the aarly 1920s there had been in Japan a. stream of monstrous and mil­ itant anti-Jewish propaganda.# and, later on a nation-wide and well-financed anti­ Semitic organization was established, the Society for Studies in International Poli• tics and Eoonomios (Kokusai•Seikei-Gakkai). Professor Kobayashi points out that 11 it did not need the presence of many Jews to produce an anti-semite," but that in spite of its vicious nature and ugly expressions~ Japanese anti-Semitism remained "anti~ Semitism on paper and in words only," and that physical attacks on Jewish persons as such were not made in Japan.

(Jewish Chronicle, November 3)

11. Lebanon

Aooording to the Arab News Agency, the Lebanon authorities are taking under se­ rious consideration the expulsion of Jews and other foreigners, "to prevent subver­ sive activities."

Later news indicates that this measure will also involve Arab refugees who, in the course of the past few years, have infiltrated into the country. are not regis­ tered with the authorities, and details of ~hose whereabouts, places of work, and other eiroumBta.nces are not known- Th~ new Minister of the Interior Kamal Jumbalat, & Druse, is •aid to have made this announcement. The number of these refugees is

estimated at about 301 000 to 40,000.

(Jerusalem Post~ November 2 and November 27)

12. Libya The American Jewish Committee has appealed to the u. s. Government and to the UN to protest against Libya's religious. cultural, and eoonomio discrimination against its Jewish citizens. Among the discriminatory practices cited area Jews can­ not vote, cannot hold public office, cannot serve in the police or in the army, cannot acquire new property, do not receive passports, etc. According to the Ameri­ can Jewish Committee report, there are now 6,500 Jews left o£ 40,000 in 1948.

(Allgemeine Wochenzeitung, November 10)

13. Poland

Na.ftali Herta Kahn, noted Yiddish writer, will go on trial in Poland on oharges of ttcalumny against the Soviet Union" after having been arrested almost a year ago when he returned from Rumania to Poland.

He had been originally charged by the Soviet Union with treason and espionage. Poland has, however, rejected the extradition request of the USSR and is going t~ try him on the lesser eharge of "calumny. n

(JTA, November 28) -12-

14. South Africa.

Resolutions calling for the appointment o£ Protestant teachers in schools and for the removal of the "Conscience Clause" at all South African universities have been approved by the Synod of the Cape Nederduitse Gereformeerde Kerk, the most powerful of the Dutch Reformed Churches iri South Africa,

(The "conscience Clause" prevents provisions in the constitutions of South Afri­ ean universities which would stipulate that professors, lecturers, and students must belong to a particular religious denomination.)

Potehef'atroom University has already dropped its "Conscience Clause" and Orange Free State University awaits only formal approval by Parliament for deleting ~t from its constitution.

(Jewish Chronicle, November 17)

15. Switzerland

Jewish and Socialist youth organizations in Ba.sle stated l~rge protest demon­ strations against the showing of the motion pieture The Third Sex by the German f'ilm director Veit Harlan. who, under the Nazi regime, produeed the notorious film Jew Suess. Though the authorities were at first reluctant to withdraw permission to show the film, they later on induced the management of' the theater concerned to discon­ tinue the showing.

{Basler Arbeiterzeitung, November 20)

16. United Arab Republic

L'Crient, Damascus, has published an article according to which 29 members of' the former Nazi Gestapo and dozens of German minor offioi:e.lS. had organized four ­ branehes of the Egyptian polioe services 1 namely1 general information, .. propaganda, investigations, and espionage.

In Syria, at the time it was part of the United Arab Republic, the investigation service was under the direotion of Marouane Sebahi, . an associate of Colonel Abdel Hamid Serra.j; he commanded 5,600 agents. There were 18 secr.et centers in Damascus a.lone.

The service of general information was directly under-the President of theRe­ public in Cairo (Nasser), with Colonel Bourhan Adam in charge •. There also existed a. military information service,_ headed by Mohamed Stambouli, major in the general eta.rr, who ha.d been a direct subordinate of' Marshal Akim Amer.

(Le Monde,. November 1) 17 • -USSR (a) At the 22nd Congress of the Communist Party, Khrushchev has denoun~ed La~ar Ks.ga.novitoh as tta. sadist who murdered many innocent Ukrainians."

While he praised many of the Russian leaders who were liquidated during the -13- reign of Stalin, he failed to mention any of the Jewsr like Zinoviev, Krumenev and Ra.dek. (Jew.ish Chronicle, November 3) (b) Gedalia R. Peohersky was sentenoed to twelve years in prison. The other defend• ants~ named E. s. Dynkin and T. A. Kaganov. both septuagenarians. were sentenoed to seven years each;. of which three years were reduced so they will serve four years only. (Christian Science Monito~, November 9)

(o) Three leaders of the Moscow Jewish Community, Goldberg, Engineer Roshal, and a third. unidenti:'ied person, hsve been sentenced to th:r·ee-year prison terms on charges whioh haYe no·t been disclosed.

(New York Times, November 10) (d) The Counoil of the Moscow Yeshiva, the only Jewish theological seminar.y in the Soviet Union, has been dissolved, which, in effeot, means that the institution will have to close. (New York Tj.mes, November 13)

(e) Following press reports that Le~ingradskaya Pravda had linked the defendants in the trial of three local Jewish leadars wi·th two Israel diplomats (Messrs. Yaakov Sharett and Eliahu Hazan)# it is now stated th~t the paper, in fa0t, did not mention either Israel or these diplomats, but spoke only of "a certain capitalist country~"

{New York Herald Tribune, November 15)

(f) Five Jewish leaders in widely distant parts of the Soviet Union have now been removed by the Departments of Religious Cults in the individual Soviet republics concerned. Their r.~.ames e.re given as; Fried of Mlnsk (ltfuite R\~ssia.), Ba.rd~kh of Kiev (Ukraine), Kaob of Vilnyus (Vilna. Lithuania), Yeruza.linsky (Tashkent), and Zilberman of Riga (Latvia).

Simultaneously, synegogues in thirteen Soviet towns are reported as having been recently closed., (Sta.lino, Kasaviu~t .. Kob,·.leti~ Sarato7, Rez:i.na, F.:remenchuk, Polte.­ va, Viliki-Luki, Soroka, Novgorod-Volinski, Kalinovitz, Tukkum near Riga, and Czernowitz. (New York Herald Tribune, November 27)

(g) According to the government paper Izvestsia 54 persons will be tried in the Kir­ gis ian Soviet Republic~ they are beingaccused of having participated in large­ scale black markot activities in textiles, which allegedly took place in the oapi­ tal of the Repuolio, Frunse.

Some of the defendants are Jewish~ such as the director of the Frunse textile works., Goldmann. and two men from the West Ukrainian town of Czernowit£., Ganzen­ frantz and Epelbaum by name., who are supposed to have been the leading spiritsa as well as one Natanson. (Neue Zuercher Zeitung, November 28)

(h) ~# the offioia.l Soviet press agency {in a statement in English, distributed only for Westernera) rejected charges that Soviet Jews were subjected to a campaign of' anti-Semitism and declared that these ¥/estern reports "were an insult to the honor and dignity of thousands of Soviet Jews who work in all branches of the -14-

national eeonomy~ soience, culture, and the arts.'' However, Tass has now pointed out that "Israeli agents had involved some Soviet citizens of Jewish nationality in their espionage activities."

(New York Times, November 18)

(i) Leningradskaya Pr~ has reported that three men with conspicuously Jewish names (Oiserman, Ka.plun and Shapiro) have been sentenoed to death by shooting for large-scale currency speculation.

Six other members of the group have received prison terms totaling 41 years.

(Jerusalem Post, November 20) 18. -USA {a) Forty-one tombstones in a Jewish cemetery in Passaic County, New Jersey, hAve been daubed with red swastikas.

(Day-Jewish Journal, November 14)

(b) A study on anti-Jewish job discrimination by the eight leading banks in New York City has shown that ~ong a total of 844 officers of the rank of bank vice-presidents and above, only 30 are of the Jewish faith and that of these 301 twenty-two are in two banks and seven in a third. A fourth bank has one Jewish high executive and the remaining four had none. There are three Jews among 197 persons on the boards of the eight banks. {JTA~ November 3)

( o) After derogatory de.fini t ions of the word u Jew" in the new (third) edition o£ Webster's International Dictionary had provoked inquiries~ the managing editor H.

B. Wolf1 has deelared that it was the philosophy of the editorial staff that· any dictionary that is supposed to present a. record of the English language as it is used in the year of publication should present most ourrent usages of words. It has been confirmed that the offending definitions had indeed been eliminated from the aeeond edition in 1949 but this had been done "to make room for new words related to jet pr~pulsion and not because of any feeling that the definitions should be removed because they might be offensive."

(JTA .. November 17)

(d) The United States Supreme Court has denied a petition by Newbold Morris, New

York City Park Commissioner1 for a review of the ease of George Linooln Rookwell~ presidant of the American Nazi Party.

This deois ion confirms a ruling by the Appellate Division which had earlier found that Rookwall cannot be denied a permit to spea~ in Union Square.

(New York Times~ November 14) (e) A letter to the Editor of the New York Times from a reader in Arlington, Vir~ ginia, maintains that this town, seat of the headquarters of Rockwell's American Nazi Party, has now 11 hoodlums armed with blaokja.oks and brass knuolcl.es" who daf~Ge signs ttwith profanity unprintable'' and molest neighbors to inoite assault. The minds of 8- a.nd 10-yea.r-old ehildren "have been contaminated" at several schools in the area. -15- The letter questions the policy of the Department of Justice whioh has re­ frained from putting the American Nazi Party on the Attorney General's list of sub­ vera ives. (New York Times~ November 25)

(f) Victims of the crash of a private plane in California were found to have been carrying arms and one of the two was clad in a Nazi Party uniform, while another suoh uniform, swastika armbands, and a swastika flag were found in the wreckage.

Investigating authorities are of the opinion that the plane had been en route to Fresno where 400 leaders of the Minute Men movement in California had assembled. The gr·oup is being organized in various states to deal with "domestic tra~tors" in the event of a nuclear attack and allegedly itllcludas former FBI agents and attorneys. Their leader is Robert B. DePugh of Missouri.

(Sentinel, Chicago, November 16)

19. Uruguay

Anti-Jewish and Nazi slogans as well as swastikas have been daubed on walls in Montevideo. (Unzer Fraint, Montevideo, October 15)

V. PROSECUTION OF WAR CRIMINALS

1 .. Austria

(a) After hearing an appeal in the case of the war criminal Dr. Egs.n Schoenp:rlug1 who had been sentenced on June 30th to nine years of hard labor for shooting Jews, the higher court in Linz increased the penalty to 12 years of hard labor. Schoen­ pflug was the leader of an Einsatzgruppe in th& territory of Minsk and Mohilev.

(Allgemeine Woohenzeitu~,- November 10)

(b) Josef Hoeblinger, 41, a former member of the Nazi security police, has been charged in a Vienna court with having taken part in the sh~oting or 90 to 100 Jews f~om Hungary in Lower Austria on April 16 1 1945, though he did not belong to the SS and was not under their orders.

The aocused denied the charges.

(Jerusalem Post~ Navember 23) 2. Germany (a) The West German Central War Crimes Commission in Stuttgart has reported that a total of 351 legal proceedings are still pending against suspected Nazi war cr~­ inala. Preliminary investigations are also being conducted into 270 other oases.

(JTA, November 10) (b) Dietrich Zeug, a member of the West German Center for the Investigation of Nazi Crimes, has deolared that about 200,000 West Germans ha~e been questioned during the last three years about their part in the mass murder of Jews.

(Jewish Chronicle., November 24) -16-

(o) The remainder or the estate of Max Amann., president of the Nazi Reich Press Chamber (died in 1957), valued at 635,000 Mark (about $133.,000) was ordered oon£is­ oated by the West Berlin Denazification Court,. His other assets were oonfisoa.ted in Munich in 1948. Amann is survived by six children.

(New York Times., November 2 J Muenohner Merkur, November 2)

(d) Dr. Bruno Bourweig, a. physician now employed by the West German Defense Ministry at the Military Hospital Institute in Freiburg, is under investigation for alleged participation in the euthanasia program, directed by Dr. Werner Heyde during World War II. (JTA, November 2)

(e) The former SS Standartenfuehrer Ludwig Hahn, who was involved in mass murders of Jews in Warsaw, Treblinka, and other localities, and who ia now an executive of a Hamburg insurance firm, has been allegedly released from custody pending investi­ gation of his case in spite of the submission of incriminating evidence by the Go­ vernments of Poland and Israel. (~: Periodic Reports, Vol. I# No. 6., P• 16)

(Morning Freiheit., November 2)

(f) The eppeal of Karl Chmielewski from the life sentence imposed on him for his crimes in the concentration crump of Gusen, was rejected. {Allgemeine Woohenzeitung, November 10)

(g) During the trial o£ Erich Ehrlinger and confederates# one of the latter., Dr. Hans Schumacher# broke into tears and admitted to having gassed 100 Jews and participating in ten executions in Kiev. S~humacher 1 s testimony was the first t~ gravely implicate his former superior Ehrlinger. .,- who, he said, personally killed Jewish children. (Weatdeutsche__,__. Allgemeine., November 16) (h) The former General of the Waffen-SS, Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski, was given a few more months of imprisonment for perjury# in addition to the earlier 4~ years jail sentence for manslaughter.

(Muenchner Merkur, November 21)

(i) Ilse Koch, the notorious wife of the Corr~~ndant of the Buchenwald concentration camp, who was sentenced to life imprisonment~ has asked the Commission for Human Rights of the European Council in Strasbourg for a revision of the sentence. It is understood that there is little chance that her application will be successful.

(Ruhr Naohrichten, November 22)

(j) The forffier high SS officer Kleinhenn, now the ~wner of a restaurant# was sen­ tenced to two years of hard labor for participation in the attempt to murder a siek Polish concentration crunp inmate in 1943-44.

(Hildener Zeitung~ November 24) (k) During the trial in Muenster of three forffier concentration crunp doetors, Dr. Heinz Baumkoetter# Dr. Aloia Gaberle, and Dr. Otto Adam, Dr. Baumkoetter ad• mitted to having taken part in medical experj~ents on i~~ates of the Sachsenhausen ooncentration crump. The three physicians are charged with participation in the mur­ der of numerous concentration eamp inmates. The trial continues. (Muenchner Merkur, November 27) -17-

(1) The highest court of Cologne has confirmed a warrant against the former high SS officer Wilhelm Koppe, alias Lehmann, who is charged with sharing responsibility for the death of 3501 000 Jews and Poles.

(Muenchner Merkur, November 28)

(m) The son of the former high SS officer Wilhelm Koppe, against whom proceedings are now being prepared for part~cipati9n in - th~ murder of 2501 000 Jews, was granted his request to continue carrying the name under whioh his father had hidden since the end of the war. The decision, made by the North-Rhine Westphalia Interior Min­ istry,. was motivated by the fact that the son, now 30 years of age, would be harmed if he had to continue to bear the real nruma of his father.

(Allgemeine Wochenzeitung~ November 3)

3. Poland

(a) Aleksander Mazur, a Pole, ~as sentenced to death in Chojnice for collaboration with the Germans ~n crimes against Poles. Mazur is alleged to have become a Garman gendarme and to have persecuted Poles.

(Allgemeine Wochenzeitung, November 10)

(b) The trial of a certain Karpowitch who is accused of atrocities committed against Jewish and non-Jewish partisans during the war, has .opened in Wroolav (Breslau). The defendant waa a member of the German police force.

(Folks-Bztyme~ November 18 and 23)

4. Switzerland

Prof. Kurt Leibbrand1. who was arrested in Germany on suspieion o£ war orimes 1 had been a teacher at the Technical University of Zurich. In answer to a parliamen­ tary question, the Swiss Government declared he had not been dismissed from his po­ sition, but only given a leave of absence.

(Neue Presse, November 6)

VI. MISCELLANEOu~ EVENTS

1. Algeria

(a) El Moudjahid, organ of the FLN, has assured in an editorial that those Europeans and Jews who will be willing to cooperate "will be offered a plaoe in the Algeria of tomorrow."

Human rights, as well as freedom of conscience, thought, and expression, will be guaranteed. The same will be true as to the free practice of all religions. There Will be no discrimination based on race, religion, or sex.

(Le Mende, October 3)

(b) Secret negotiations between the French Government and the FLN (Algerian Nation­ alists) are said to have resulted in French recognition of the impossibility to se­ oure for Europeans (and Jews) a special status in an independent Algeria. The most that can be expected is the recognition of dual citizenship for these groups whioh -18-

~ould remain dormant as long as the persons concerned dwell in the country.

Only if Europeans and Jews leave Algeria. for good, would French nationality be revived and they would be given French passports.

(Israelitisohes Wochenblatt, November 3)

(c) In a. broadcast from Tunis, the Algerian Nationalist radio has accused the OAS of "Fascist racism" and anti-Semitism.

This coincided with the desecration of the Jewish cemetery in Algiers on the occasion of the burial of William Levy. Headstones near his grave had been knocked over and marked with swastikas.

(New York Times, November 23)

(d) The FLN has issued an appeal to the Algerian population to refrain from acquir­ ing Jewish houses or shops which would make the buyers liable to punishment in an independent Algeria., because they would thus facilitate Jewish emigration to Israel. (A European company has been formed in Algeria. for the purpose of acquiring Jewish properties at minimal prices.)

It is assumed, therefore, that one of the first measures o£ an independent Al­ gerian Government would be an interdiction of Jewish emigration to Israel.

(Israelitisches Wochenblatt, November 24)

(e) David Zerma.ti, president of the Jewish Community of Setif, and Dr. J~aeph C~hen, a. physician in Algiers, have been killed and a. third Jew, Yossef Perez, warden of the synagogue in the Casbah of Algiers, has been injured by unknow.n persons, said to belong to the OAS.

Within one week at least 20 plastic bombs out of 50 which were exploded, were aimed at Jewish shops in the Ba.b-El-Oued district of Algiers. (JTA, November 6)

(f) Camille Levy, president of the Taxidriverst Syndicate of Algiers, has been mur­ dered by Moslems at the entrance to his house.

(Jewish Chronicle, November 17)

(g) Willirum Levy, Secretary-General of the Algiers regional organization of the French Socialist Party, has been shot to death.

He had received several threats from the OAS. Moslem terrorists killed one of his sons four years ago.

(New York Times~ November 23)

(h) Moslem students in Tlemcen beat up their Jewish colleagues and forced them to kiss swastikas daubed on walls. Christian students were also beaten up.

Moslems form a majority of ninety per cent at this particular sohool.

(Jerusalem Post, November 19) -19- 2. Australia.

(a) Rift~ has informed the Australian Jewish Welfare Society that there ~re about 2,ono holders of permits in Eastern Europe awaiting clearance and transportation to Australia.

More than 1 1 000 Jewish immigrants came to Australia during the year ending August, 1961, hailing from Western Europe, Hungary, Poland, Rumania• Egypt, China, Indonesia, Israel, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union.

(Jewish Chronicle, November 24)

(b) Brigadier General Paul A. Cullen has been promoted t~ the rank of Major General, being the seeond Australian Jew to reach this position, the first having been the late John Monash in 1916.

Cullen was commissioned a lieutenant in 1931 and has eeen active serviee in the Middle East, Libya~ Greece, Crete, Syria, Ceylon, and the Southwest Paoifio.

(Australian Jewish News, Melbourne~ November 17)

3. Austria (a) The German-Austrian Indemnification Agreement was signed in the Bonn Foreign Office on November 27. It pr~vides for the payment of 330 million marks to Austri~ to cover all Austrian claims including those of victims of Nazism# expellees- mi­ grants, as well as claims on Germany by Austrian social insurance agencies~

(General~Anzeiger, Bonn, November 28)

(b) The Austrian resistance movement has founded a cooperative ccmmission to fight neo-Naziam in Austria.

(Frankfurter Neue Presse 1 November 16)

4. Belgium David Soheinert, a Jewish writer, has received the highest literary award of the eountry, the 1961 Victor Ressel Prize, for his novel The Flemish with Long Ears.

(JTA, November 30)

5. Brazil

A street in Sao Paolo will be renamed for Theodor Herzl, according to an an­ nouncement by the local mayor.

(JTA, November 29)

6. Ce.nada

(a) The number of Jewish immigrants to Canada during the January-September, 1961, Period fell to 1,077 compared with 1,810 who arrived in the c·orresponding nine m~nths of 1960. A total of 190 Jews came to Canada in the third quarter of 1961.

The fall apparently reflects a general dip in immigration to Canada, whieh is "running at an all-tiflle low •." ( JTA, November 22) -20-

(b) According to the Office of J~wish Education in Montreal, the five Jewish Day

Schools in the country have now a total enrollment of 10,0001 an inoreas·e of 500 over last year.

In 19501 there were only two Dny Schools with a total of 31 700 pupils. (Folks-Sztyme, Warsaw, November 21)

(o) The director of the Jewish Public Library in Montreal, David Rome, has been ap­ pointed to membership in the Government-sponsored Council for Arts of Quebec Province.

The appointment is viewed as recognition of Yiddish and Hebrew culture by the Quebec Government.

(JTA, November 28)

1. Czechoslovakia

The Historical Institute of the Slovak Academy of Sciences in Pressburg has ap­ pointed a working group for the study of the German question. The collection of ma­ terial on Nazi war crimes will be one of the first assignments of the new working group.

(Allgemeine Wochenzeitun~, November 10)

B. Denmark

Professor Guido Pontecorvo, ·holder of the Chair of Genatioa at Glasgow Univer­ sity and Fellow of the Royal Society, has been awarded the Emil Christian Hansen Prize by Denmark for work done in the field of microbiological genetics.

(Jewish Chronicle, November 3)

9. Dutch West Indies

There are now only about 700 Jews in Curacao, some descendants of the original Jewish settlers (who established the Sephardic Orthodox Congregation Mikwe Israel in 1654 and built a. synagogue in 1732 which still is in use), and s~me Polish Jews who arrived in the comparatively recent past.

The island boasts today a Sephardic Reform congregation in addition to an Ash­ kenazic Orthodox congregation.

(National Jewish Post and Opinion# November 10)

10. East Germany (a) A new Jewish community building was recently dedicated in Karl-Marx-Stadt (Chemnitz). It is understood. that the East German Government donated 315,000 East marks for the construotion of the building.·

(Allgemeine WoohenzeitungJ November 3)

(b) The sohochet of West Berlin is at pre~ent the only member of the local Jewish -21-

Cornrrunity who is permitted to enter East Berlin once ~very week f~r ritual slaughter­ ing in that part of the divided city.

(Juedisohe Rundschau# Basle, November 10)

(c) Dr. Kurt Goldstaub# Dutch-Jewish lawyer1 who wns arrested for erossing into East Berlin, has been released. (See: Periodic Reports, Vol. II, No. 10, P• 19)

(Jewish Chronicle, November 3)

11. Egypt

(a) According t~ latest news from Beiruth1 there are only about 3,000 to 4 1 000 Jewa left i~Egypt,all of them Egyptian citizens after the emigration of Jewish nationals of other states and of stateless Jews.

(Israelitisches Woohenblatt, November 3)

(b) Journal du Commerce et de la Marine, C~iro-Al~xandria, prints four li~ts of par­ sons whose a3sets hnve been confiscat-ed by the Government. It seems that about forty per cent of those concerned are Jewish; one list consists practically of Jewish names only. The total number of confiscations amounts now to about 800.

(Journal du Commerce et de la Mar~, October 23 and 31, November 8 and 27)

(c) The Goverttffient has announced the confiscation of estates and assets belonging to about 225 wealthy families, including many Jewish, such as the Smouha1 Ades, Gear, Cattaoui, Aripol, Franco, and Wahba families•

The tot~l value of Jewish assets and estates confiscated is expected to be as rruch as ~ 11,5001 000 (about $32,200,COO)a (Jewish Chronicle, November 3)

(d) Orders have been issued whereby private safes in banks rented by the wives of individuals named on the lists of persons whose properties have been confiscated, are also to be put under sequestration and a. similar measure is to be applied to joint accounts, until the unsequestrated partner can prove ownership o£ his share of the funds to the authorities' satisfaction.

(Times, London, November 10)

(e)Tha Egyptian secret police have allegedly arrested about 8CO Jews and non-Jews on charges of being "speoulators and bourgeois elements" and as such responsible for the economic difficulties of the country.

(Unzer Wort, Paris, November 8)

(f) Egyptian Jews and foreign Jews in Egypt whose properties have been sequestrated recently, flre forbidden to leave Egypt "until certain formalities are completed."

The victims will be paid monthly a.ll~wanoes out of their bank a.coounts upr('por­ tional to their needsu and are not permitted to discharge servants in order not to worsen the unemployment situation.

(JTA, November 22) -22-

(g) According t~ Israel sour~es, nearly 7,000 Nazis ~re today living in Egypt. The regime is reported to be recruiting specialists through a Swiss agenoy and offering them high salaries.

(Sunday Express, London, November 12)

·12. Europe

(a) The Third Conference of European Rabbis, held in Paris, has discussed a propo­ sal to establish a strong Federation of European Rabbis to safeguard traditional Judaism against Reformist influences.

A paper read at the o~nferenoe criticized also "the attempt which is nowaday~ being made by American Conservatism to sell its brand of Judaism to Europeen Jew­ ries." Such an attempt, it continued, could add only to the existing divisions and confusion and neven those who are most tolerant cannot but react by asking it (i.e., American Conservatism) to keep its hands of£ the c~mparatively small European Jew­ ries.n

Chief Rabbi Brodie of the British Commonwealth was in the chair and Chie£ Rab­ bis from Denmark, France, Holland, Ireland~ Italy, Rumania, and Sw~tzerland were rumong the participants.

(Jewish Chronicle, November l7)

(b) In October, 1961~ 200 representatives o£ the European Jewish youth movement met in Paris. ftJnong them were delegates of Zionist youth, of various Orthodox groups, etc. The largest delegations oaree from England and France. The meeting was addressed by Walter Eytan, Eliahu Dobkin, and Mosha Sharett, who called on Jewish youth for aliyah to Israel.

(Allgemeine Woohenzeitung, November 10}

13. Finland

President Urho K. Kekkonen has attended the dedication of a new Jewish eommunity center in Helsinki• where 1,300 Jews are now living.

Construction of the building has been made possible through a long-term loan .from the American Jewish Joint Distributicn Committee, a Finnish Government grant, and the gift of the land by the Helsinki municipality.

(JTA, November 20)

14. France

(a) An exhibition on the life and revolt of the Warsaw Ghetto and other East Eur~­ pean ghettos has opened in Paris.

At the ceremony the French Government was represented by its Minister f~r War Veterans and Invalids,. The Ambassadors of Israel~ Poland, Hungary_, and Yugnsla.via attended, as well as representatives of the Jewish Co~munities of Hungary, Rumania, Poland, and Yugoslavia . General David Dragunsky, representing the Sovi~t Union, failed to arrive in tiree.

(Jewish Chron1.ole, November 10) -23-

(b) Rabbi Gershon Liebman, head of a yeshiva in a suburb of Paris, has ealled atten­ tion to the fact that missionaries are very active among the Jewish refugees now pouring into rretropolitan France from the North African countries. They concentrate their activities on the children of destitute Sephardio families.

(Day-Jewish Journal, November 28)

(c) Two Jews are among eleven Europeans who have been arrested in France charged with illegal support of the FLN.

They are the industrialist Moshe Hamburger, a native of Poland, and Chawa Grum­ bach, a law student. They are accused of having collected money from Algerian work­ ers which they then forwarded to FLN headquarters in Tunis.

(Iaraelitisches Wochenblatt, November 24)

(d) The International League against Racism and Anti-semitism and the Administrative Council of the Association of Auschwitz Depcrtees have issued protests against the treatment of Moslems in the Paris region.

(Le Mende, November 5)

15. General

According to a study Face to Face with the Nazi Enemy, just published by the "Association of Invalids of the War Against the Nazis" in Tel Aviv, more than 500,000 Jews served in the Soviet Army during World War II, of whom 67,000 received decorations f'or bravery, including fifty "Heroes of the Soviet Union."

There were more than 150,000 Jews in the Polish Army ~n 1939.

The Nazis took as prisoners 61,000 Jewish reeEbers of the armed forees o£ the Allies. (JTA, November 20)

16. Germany (a) Prof. Dr. Kurt Wilhelm started a class within the Faculty of Philosophy o£ the University of Frankfurt on the history of the Jews of Frankfurt.

(Frankfurter Neue Presse, November 2)

(b) The former synagogue of Essen, completed in 1913 and considered one of the most beautiful synagogues in Europe, which was in part destroyed during the Crystal Night and which, although restored, has become much too large for the tiny Jewish communi­ ty of Essen, is now being used for exhibitions of industrial products.

(Hildener Zeitung, November 24) (c) In an interview given to World Jewry, the monthly issued in London by the World Jewish Congress, Willy Brandt, the Mayor of Berlin, stated that there was no real danger of political extremism of the Left or Right in present-day Germany.

(All~~-~.ne Woohenzeitung, November 10)

(d) In a special session the Berlin Diet paid tribute to Dr. Paul Hert~, Berlin -24-

Sen~tor for Economy and Credit, who died on October 23. Paul Hertz, a Soeialist, returned to Germany from the u. s. after the war. (Allgeffieine Wochenzeitung, November 10)

(a) On November 11 a conference of educators called by several Societies for Chris­ tian-Jewish Cooperation took place in Wiesbaden. They stated that although some history textbooks were better than was usually assumed, there were still some text­ books left in which nof 18 pages devoted to Hitler's Second World War, only 8 lines dealt with anti-Semitism." The participants in the meeting found that in more re­ cent editions, the relative weight given to Hitler's crimes had been improved. The conference also dealt with the question of how the Eichmann trial had impressed German youth. It was agreed that in the future, elementary school teachers should, wherever possible, be familiarized, during their training, with the necessity of confronting young people with the testimony of the past. A conference of professors of teachers' seminaries should be called for this p~rpose.

(Frankfurter Allgemeine, November 13)

(f) Thousands of Garman youths gathered for memorial meetings ealled by the Union on the sites of the Da.chau and Flossenburg concentration camps.

(Muenohner Uerkur 6 November 14)

(g) All townships ~f Baden-Wuerttemberg have made studies on the fate of their for­ mer Jewish fellow-citir.ens and conveyed the results to the Protestant Society of' Stuttgart. The collection of facts and figures will be passed on to the schools of the State. Recently it was suggested that other German States should follow the ~xample of BAden-Wuerttemberg. and inquire into the fate of their Jewish fellow­ citizens. (Allgemeine Wochenzeitung. November 10)

(h) Under the title "Nothing but a Social Question," the paper named below -oe.rrias a long editorial asking for indemnification for people who innocently and in good faith acquired Jewish property under the Nazis. So many others, the article de­ clares, who have suffered damages through the Third Reich, at least got partial in­ demnification; why should people who legally acquired former Jew~sh property be forced to return it without indettnification?

(Rhein-Zeittmg, Koblenz, November 17)

(i) Moat of the German press has harsh words to say about a recently-published vol• ume tTJuly 20th - Reflection of a Conspiracy," oonsist.ing of the Geeta.po ·reports by Kaltenbrunner addressed to Fitler and Bormann after the assassination attempt. An otherwise unknown ttArchive Peter" signs as responsible for the publication. The criticism mostly deals with the fact that the strongly-colored Gestapo reports are given, without commentary, as historic truth.

(Muenchner Merkur~ November 4 1 and others)

(j) Under the title t'Fear of Documents; the Naked Fear of the Naked Truth; the Double Morality of Biased Historian," the neo-Nazi Reiohsru:r denounced the unfavor­ able reviews of the above-mentioned Kaltenbrunner volume whioh, the paper ~intai~, renders the full and documented objective truth.

(Reicharuf, November 4) -25-

(k) The Catholi~ Ao~demy in Bavaria had invited the German juridical elite1 well­ known university teachers~ judges, prosecutors. and lawyers to discuss~ in e~nne~­ tion with the Eichmann trial~ the topic ~Possibilities and limits for dealing with historic and political guilt in court trials." According to the article in the pa­ per named below, ten years a£ter the Nuremberg Trials, German juris~ hav~ not changed their views. Cnly one of the assistanta. o:f the u. s. Prosecution in Nuremberg,

Dr. Max Mandellaub1 and a Catholic professor of penal law, Karl Peters, had some­ thing good to say about the Nuremberg Trial and similar trials. All other partici­ pants repeated the old arguments that once the victors held court over the v~­ quished, right was no longer on the side of might. They all agreed that the idea of a.n aggressive war could not be defined juridically and that Germany eertainly was not proven to have started an aggressive war, except perhaps against Russia which1 on the other hand, was absolutely mecessary, as demonstrated by later developments. Dr. Karl Bader, now of Zurich~ stated that the Nuremberg, as well as the Eichmann trials violated tri~l procedures, and that so~ebody who was politically or histori­ eally guilty, should only be punished if what he did conflicted with existing laws. Everything else was illegal. Prof. Peters finally saidJ nBy and by, one feels that one is nothing but a traitor when one dares to characterize Hitler's criminal pil­ laging expeditions as aggressive wars."

(Frankfurter Rundsohau, November 21)

17. Great Britain

(a) A baronetcy has been conferred on Sir Bernard Waley-Cohen on his retirement as Lord Mayor of London. (Jewish Chronicle, November 17)

(b) Lord Cohen of Birkenhead, Professor of Medicine at Liverpool University# has been elected President of the General Medical Council,

He is a Governor of the Hebrew University.

(Jewish Chronicle, November 24)

18. Greece

Rabbi Isaao Gabai, who has served in Casablanca and Barcelona~ has been appointed rabbi of the Jewish community of Athens following the resignation of Rabbi Elias Barzilai three months ago.

(Jewish Chronicle# November 17)

19. Holland

Four synagogues in the old Amsterdam ghetto~ whieh were destroyed by the Nazis, are to be rebuilt a.s museumB with the financial aid of the Dutch Government and the Amsterdam City Couneil. The rebuilding will cost more than half a million dollars, gn per oent of whioh will be provided by the Government.

(JTA, November 16)

20. India

The remaining 300 members o£ the Cooh~ Jewish eommunity will all be brought to Israel by the Jewish Agenoy. (JTA, November 15) -26-

21. Italy

(a) The first Ashkenazic synagogue in Rome was consecrated recently. About a hundred Ashkenazi families are now living in the Italian capital.

Funds for the construction of the Synagogue were made available by the Jewish Community of Rome, the Claims Conference, and the American Jewish Joint Distributibn Committee, ~bile the ritual objects came from three synagogues belonging to communi• ties that became extinct during the last century, namely, the Castilian, Sieilian, and Catalan. (Jewish Chronicle, November 10)

(b) The Italian Senate has started debates on a bill whioh aims at the dissolution of the nee-Fascist Movimento Sociale Italiano (NSI).

The bill has been introduced by Ferruoio Parri, a former Prime Minister of Italy and leader of the Italian p~rtisan movement during the war~

(Neue Zuercher Zeitung, November SO)

22. Jamaica

Neville Ashenheim~ a Jewish la~~er, industrialist, and chairman of the board of the oldest paper in the West Indies, the Daily Gleaner, has been appointed to the five~member Select Committee which is t~ draft a oonatitution for the independent state of Jamaio.a, following the island's decision not to remain in the West Indian Federation.

He is a past president of the Jewish Congregation of Kingston.

(Jewish Chronicle, November 3)

23. Moroeoo

{a) Differences of opinion have oome to the fore as to the future organization of the Community Committees (Boards of the Jewish Communities).

In La Voix des Communautes 1 the organ of the Council of the Israelite Communi­ ties of Morocco, David Amar~ its Secretary-General, has advocated a revision of the regulations governing these committees (dating back to the time of the Protectorate) in the light of present conditions~

These discussions influenced a meeting of Jewdsh notables of Casablanoa with the looal Governor, Colonel Drise Ben Amar, in the course of which Marc Sabbah, Vice• President of the Committee for Casablanca, tendered his resignation. He had been un­ der attack since his partioipation1 last August, in the executive meeting of the World Jewish Congress in Geneva. It was finally indioated that a provisional com­ mittee for Casablanca would be constituted, pending the decision of the competent Minister of the Interior as to the future organization of the committees.

(Information~ Algiers, November 1961)

(b) Jewish groups in Morocco have publicly taken a stand against French Right-Wing extremists in Algeria and in favor of Jewish-Moslem eooperation in North Africa.

These opinions have been voiced by the Jewish paper The Voiee of the Communities, -27- as well as by a group of Le.f't-Wing and strongly anti-Zionist Jewish oiv11 servants.

(New York Times~ · November 8) (o) Two Jews, Sohriqui and Sebbag, have been arrested in Casa.blanea on charges of belonging t~ a Zionist network.

(JTA, November 1) (d) The Istiqlal Party has 'oharged that 'ORT sohools in Moroocd were training tech­ nicians and sending them to Israel.

The ORT school in Tetuan is said to have sent two ~slems to continue their studies in Tel Aviv~ provided they embraee Israel nationality. The students are re­ ported to have left the country for Gibraltar where they boarded an Israel ship.

Jewish oiroles in Rabat describe this report as "the product of some so-ealled reporter's fancy." (JTA, November 17; Jewish Chronicle, November 24) (e) The Ministry of Finances has introdtieed a new, discriminatory emdgration tax ranging between ten and fifteen per cent te be paid only by Jews in ease they leave the country .. (Unzer Wort, November 16)

(f) Ruben Levy has been appointed dire~tor of the Cabinet for Casablanoa in the Ministry of National Economy.

At the same t,.ma another Jew, M. Oha.na, chief' of' Cabinet in the Ministry of Commerce, has been removed from his post and replaced by a Moslem.

(JTA, November 29}

24. North America

Eighty-three new Jewish Community Centers an~ YM-YWHA buildings have been erected in the United States and in Canada in the fifteen years since the end of World War II, with aggregate outlays for this new oonstruotion amouzrting to eighty million dollars. ( JTA, November 2 9)

25. Poland

(a) In Lodz there are today 400 subscribers to the Folks~Sztyme~ 160 to Yiddishe Shrif'ten, about 200 to the Yiddish Buch, and 70 to the Bulletin of' the Jewish His­ torical Institute in Warsaw. (Folks-Sztyme, November 30)

(b) Jewish ohildrents Clubs are now being established in all to~ with a sizable Jewish population, as, for example, in Czenstoohov1 Kattowitz, Sosnowioe, and Bielsko. (Folks~sztyme~ November 1)

(o) Folka.Sztyme, Wa~saw, reports about~he reception tendered by the British Section -28- of the World Jewish Ccngress to the members of the Yiddish State Theater of Warsaw under the dire~tion o£ Mme Ida Kaminska~ whieh has now given several performances in London. (Folks-Sztyme, November 1)

(d) Professor Leopold Infeld, Polish Minister of At~i~ Energy~ has taught physio3 at a private Jewish high school in Warsaw du~ing the Twenties.

(Day-Jewish Journal, November 28)

26. Rhodesia.

Mayoral services have been held at the Salisbury synagogue for the new Mayor and Mayoress, Councillor and N~s. Ivcr Pitoh~ when they were formally installed in office.

Members of' Betar and Habonim formed a guard of honor. Am_ong those who attend&d were the Prime Minister Sir Roy Welensky (a Jew)~ Lord Alport., the High Con:mission­ er of the United Kingdom, several Cabinet members, and the Doyen of the Dipl~tio Corps. {Jewish Chronicle~ November 3)

27. South Africa.

Premier Hendrik F. Verwoerd has told South Africa's Jewish community that his Government has never been anti-Semitic and that he wants no anti-Semitism in his ruling Nationalist Ps::rty, though he had sharply criticized Israel for voting against South Africa at the United Nations.

(Christian Science Monitor, November 24)

28. Spain

(a) There are now only three Jews on the Island of Majorca. Among the Chuetas (Mar­ ranos) o~ Majorca actual practice of Jewish ritual has ended, but all of them are still well aware of their Jewish origin and many show genuine interest in the State of Israel.

There are various estimates of the numerical strength of the Chuetas. Accord­ ing to popular belief, they form "a half of Faln:.a," contribute 2,000 to the popula­ tion of Muro (9,000), while 20,000 live among a total population of 50,000 in :Uana­ cor, and 5,000 out of 14~000 in Fuebla.

(Jerusalem Post, November 29) (b) See Page 30 * 29. USSR

(a) According to a list publ1.shed by Pravda, the '22nd Party Congress has elected two Jewish members to the Central Revision Corrmittee. They are Colonel General Yakov Krei.zer, Commander of the Soviet Forces in the Far East, and W. E. Dimahitz, Vice­ Minister and First Vice-President of the Central Planning Committee for Econcmio Affairs which has submitted to the Party Congress a twenty-year plan for building Communism. (Morning Freiheit, November 13)

{b) Five Jewish delegates took part in the 22nd Congress of the Communist Party~ -29- four of them represented Bir~bidzhan~ the fifth being Colonel General Yakov Krai~er, Hero of the Soviet Union and Commander of the Soviet Forces in the Far East.

(Jewish Chronicle, November 3)

(c) Forty-one Jewish Soviet writers and poets fell in battle during the Second World War, Soviet Heimland reports in its second issue.

(Jewish Chronicle, November 10)

(d) Dr. Nahum Goldmann, President of the World Jewish Ccngress, said in New York that his organization was ready to discuss the situation of the Jews in the Soviet Union with high Soviet officials and that such a discussion - which could take place in Russia. or anywhere else - could help "to rel~eve apprehensions and promote mutual understanding." (Jewish Chronicle~ November 17)

(e) Literature and Life, the organ of the writers in the Mcseow region, has announoec the resignation of its editor-in-chief Poltoratsky.

He recently eritioized twiee the poet Yvgenie Yevtushenko1 author of the Odn­ troversial poem uBabi-Yar."

(Franee-soir~ November 17)

(f) General Dragunsky, a Jewish high~tanking officer of the Soviet Army, who ar­ rived belatedly in Paris to represent the Soviet Union at the Warsaw Ghetto exhibi­ tion and brought with him several panel6 of photographs and statistics whioh were put on display immediately, declared that the Leningr ~ d and Moscow Jewish leaders recently arrested and sentenced, '\~ere tried a.s criminals 1 not as Jews."

( JTA, November 22)

(g) During his visit to Paris: General Dragunsky held a press e~nferenoe and de­ clared that '1 disappearence of the Soviet Union ~ a three million Je~s through assimi­ lation was inevitable ... " Diaspore. Jewry in the West, too, he said, was d•omed to 7anish through assimilation.

Dragunsky is a member of the Supreme Soviet and had been a delegate to the la­ test Soviet Communist Party Congress.

(Je:r"usalem. Post, November 26)

(h) A film, Stars (Mo e;e n Do--ri ds), writton by the Bulgarian Jew Anshel Wageru;eil and directed by Koil.::- ad Vlo:.... f (s c:l-of the well-known Germa:1-Jewis h director Frederik Wolf who vva.s re..; ponsi'!::>le fo~ the film Professor Mrunlock) has been shown in Riga and other Soviet cities with much success.

The film deals with the rrartyrdom of the Jews of Salonika1 their deportation by the Nazis 1 and their end at Auschwitz. (Vochenblatt, Toronto, September 7) (i) The State Theater in Odessa has given performances of Sholem Aleiohem's play Tevye der Milchiger.

(Folks-Sztyme, November 4) -30-

(j) A series of Yiddish recitals have been given with great sueeess at Baku.

(Morning Freiheit~ November 14)

(k) A number of ngw records featuring Yiddish songs have been issued in M~oow.

(Morning Freiheit~ November 16)

30. USA

(a) The United States Supreme Court has ended a long legal struggle, whioh began in 1957, by denying an appeal by a group of members of Congregation Chevra Tillim in New Orleans against the ruling of a lower court whioh permitted mixed seating in their synagogue. ( JTA, November 2)

(b) Approval of ordination of women as rabbis was urged at the biennial assembly of the National Federation of Temple Sisterhoods, the major women's organization of Reform Judaism. (JTA, November 15)

(o) Dr. Melvin Calvin, Professor at the University -of California.; has been awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry1 while Professor Robert Hofstadter of Stanford Univer­ sity is co-winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics. Both are Jewish. Dr. Hofstadter is a native of New York CityJ Dr. Calvin was born in St. Paul1 Minnes"ta, the son of Elias Kalvarisky, an immigrant from Lithuania.

(Christian Science Monitor, November 3r i!!!::., November 3J JTA, November 9)

(d) Dr. L. J. Ravitz, Professor of Sociology a.t Wayne State University., be~ame the first Jew to be elected to the Detroit Common Council since 1920, after e.n Orthodox Jewish leader had served en the first nine-man oounoil from 1918 • 1920.

(JTA, November 10)

(e) Riohard Cardinal Cushing, Archbishop of Boston~ is aiding in the establishment of a community of nuns, the Congregation of Our Lady of' Zj.on .. dedicated tc helping Jews and promoting good will toward them.

This Congregation was founded in Paris 118 years ago, was introduced in the Uni­ ted States in 1892 and is now active in Kansas City and Detroit. (Hew York Herald Tribune, November 24)

* Spain (b) A Christian-Jewish action group to promote understanding and better relations between Catholics and Jews has been for.med in Spain. Among the participants are the leaders of the Madrid Jewish Corr.munity Louis Blitz and Max Ma.zin; Father Serano1 rep--· resenting the Hierarchy of Madrid; Father Antonio Deral, Arias Mental InatituteJ and the Mother ·superior of the Order of Our Lady of Zion.

(JTA, November 30)

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