INFORMATION ISSUED by Rhf ASSOCIATION of JEWISH REFUGEES in GREAT BRITAIN a FAIRFAX MANSIONS, FINCHLEY RD
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Vol. XVIII No. 7 July, 1963 INFORMATION ISSUED BY rHf_ ASSOCIATION OF JEWISH REFUGEES IN GREAT BRITAIN a FAIRFAX MANSIONS, FINCHLEY RD. (corner Fairfax Rd). London, N.W.S Office and Consulting Hours: Telephone : MAIda Vale 9096/7 (General Office and Welfare for the Aged), Monday to Tiiursday 10 a.m.—l p.m. 3—6 p.n MAIda Vale 4449 (Empioyment Agency, annually licensed by the L.C.C., and Social Services Dept.) Friday 10 a.m.—l p.m. '*^- W. Simpson and however strong may be her traditional links with and interest in Western Europe she cannot overlook the proximity of Eastern POLISH RETROSPECT Germany nor ignore the views of Eastern Germans about their West German neighbours. The Rev. W. W. Simpson, General Secretary of the Council of Christians and It was in no way surprising, therefore, that Jews, paid a visit to Poland on the occasion of the Twentieth Anniversary of the speeches delivered at the official ceremonies ^Varsaw Ghetto Uprising. We are greatly indebted to him for having kindly put the in connection with the Commemoration were following article at our disposal.—The Ed. critical of the West in general and of Western Germany in particular, especially in respect of Going through some old files in anticipation those who once lived under Nazi domination, the " failure" of the West to respond to oi a recent move, I came across some photo can hardly begin to appreciate. appeals for help at the time of the uprising, graphs I took in Warsaw in 1934. They were It was in the light of these memories and and of the continuance in offlce in Western Neither very many nor verj' good, but at least impressions that I found myself a few months Germany of former Nazi leaders. they served to bring to mind again some of ago considering an invitation to visit Warsaw Another aspect of the Commemoration the vivid impressions I formed at the time of yet again, this time to attend the Commemora which caused embarrassment and disappoint the sorry plight of many Jews in pre-war tion of the Twentieth Anniversary of the ment to some at least of the visitors from this Poland who managed to eke out a precarious Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. The most obvious country was the completely secular nature of existence in conditions of almost indescribable and immediate issues to be faced, of course, the official ceremonies. True, there was a Poverty. They reminded me, too, of a Sabbath- were political. Was the Commemoration religious service in the Jewish cemetery at Wiorning visit to one of Warsaw's great syna politically inspired ? Would it be used for Warsaw, but this was of a purely domestic gogues and of the great congregation which political ends ? And would those who took character and was not greatly helped by the (Crowded every part of it. part in it find themselves in any way politi obvious lack of effective liaison between repre Twenty-five years later in the summer of cally compromised ? sentatives of the Warsaw Jewish community i959 I visited Warsaw a second time. Already and some of their visitors from overseas and Ine terrifying scars of total war were giving especially from this country. This service, H'ace to new buildings on the grand scale, Political Implications however, was in no way publicised as being f^ut there was no longer any trace either of part of the official commemoration. In the 'he Jewish quarter of pre-war days or of the These are no idle Cjuestions, and it is two major public demonstrations, one in the shetto set up by the Nazis in 1942. In the important to recognise in the first instance Palace of Culture and the other at the Ghetto ^^ntre of what had been the ghetto area there that in the so-called " Iron Curtain " countries Memorial itself, there was nothing whatever "lands a deeply impressive memorial to the nothing can happen of a public character of a specifically religious character, nor, so far {•^roes of the uprising of March, 1943, and to unless it enjoys at least the sanction of the as I could see, were the religious bodies in the victims of a holocaust which beggars political authorities and is capable of being any way represented. ^^scription as it defies imagination. By what used, if need be, for political ends. The Jnust be one of the strangest ironies of history answer to the question as to how far the indi vidual traveller may find himself politically Religion in "Communist" Countries j's memorial is constructed of grey stone said compromised depends largely on his own in ."^^6 been brought to Warsaw on the appreciation of the situation in which he is This, again, was hardly to be wondered at '•istruetion of Hitler himself to be used in the likely to find himself. In this connection I when one recalls the conditions obtaining in t"e(:ting of a monument to commemorate the believe that better briefing of many visitors to respect of religious teaching and observance in '>ttbjugation of Poland by the Nazis! these countries might well prove mutually the " Communist" countries. It is true, of course, that in all these countries there is "Museum of the Ghetto" helpful. The would-be visitor should not only be informed of some of the more obvious officially freedom to worship—or not to Wh- ^^° visited the " Museum of the Ghetto ". differences and difficulties he is likely to meet, worship—according to the dictates of one's g."tcn is housed in the Institute of Jewish but he should be given also a much more posi conscience. All too often, however, the faith tudies, a museum which, having regard to the tive understanding and appreciation of the ful of whatever community find themselves "^Snitude of the horrors it exists to com- ideals and achievements of the people he is to hindered by administrative procedures in all ^^tnorate, impressed me by its restraint, visit. sorts of ways, and particularly in respect of thp T'^ I commented on this to the Director of religious education. Even in Poland, where tw ^^'•'ttite, who showed me round, he made The present case was no exception. Thus, the Catholic Church is stronger both by tradi nip° y^^-' interesting and very significant com for example, it ought to have been more tion and in present practice than in any other be ^^ ^^^ ^^^^ place, he explained, it had obvious than perhaps it was, certainly in country of Eastern Europe, and where on Sun (..^•t felt advisable to exercise restraint lest anticipation, to some of the visitors from other days the parish churches in town and countrj' sh /°t-ceful a presentation of the horror countries, that in 1963 any public speeches or alike are filled to overflowing, increasing diffi j"°tild have the effect of stimulating anti- ceremonies in connection with the Commem culties are placed in the way of religious be feeling on the ground that there must oration of the ghetto uprising were bound education. And if that is true of so strong a pp^ornething about these people that they to have a certain political tendence. Having community, how much more so is it in the con ^1 ^ such extreme reactions ! The second regard to the whole history of Poland itself, case of the minority communities, including ^^rgi^'deration was that their main objective with its tangled pattern of independence and the Jewish. In these circumstances, it is not suoh preserve the memory of the tragedy in partition, of subjection and liberation, it could for visitors from outside to be critical of Mtt ^ ^^^' ^^ ^^^ ^° create or to perpetuate hardly be expected that her statesmen today what thev may feel to be shortcomings in en„,'"t^^ss against its instigators, but rather to could disregard either the pressures of the Jewish religious education and observance, or 3gai ^ that such a thing should not happen past or the tensions of the present. Thus at a indeed of the apparent indifference of the time when the Soviet Union was being accused great majority of Jews in Poland today to in the West of growing antisemitism it could religious matters in general. Rather should iggq ^f.e were other impressions, too, of that hardly have been well seen that her nearest thev seek everv opportunity of trying to the v^'*'- '"'^^ realisation, for example, that neighbour should open her doors wide to Jews understand the difficulties of those who main- learn- '°^^ whose students and whose from all over the world, encourage contact t'lin. however inadequate, a witness in the face Po]i«v,°u ^^^ enriched and buttressed not only between them and the Jews of Poland in a of great discouragement, of encouraging them onlv world Jewrj- were no more : that language (Yiddish) which only Jews under in the stand they take and of interpreting that '''^^, svnagogue remained in Warsaw and stand, as well as focus world attention on the their situation to those to whom the oppor hoj' stich Jewish culture as had survived the courage of the Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto in tunity of visiting these countries is not given. With Q^st ^^^ secular rather than religious, rising against the Nazis at a time and under its r. ^""^61" Aleichem rather than Moses as conditions in which no one else was prepared There are two other points which, as I look fgj^Prophet! And all—or most—of this, one to do so. back over this most recent visit to Poland, Scion T^^L (^Gtermined consciouslv or uncon- stand out in my mind.