Polish Tragady in London -The Death of a Man
DENNEN, LEON
Polish Tragady in London -The Death of a Man By LEON DENNEN • ? ? 4 *V If Olli ?????? ????? the blood of our youth flow* freely ** «a the battlefields of the world, the suicide of one man in...
...But only for a moment...
...Men, ia their convulsive moving about, step over them...
...A child is lying with its face towards the roof...
...New York, on June 12...
...In short, the modern ideal of American democracy is that the citizen shall have no rights which any wretched little nonentity in a swivel-che ir at Washington is bound to respect...
...The failure of tat Bermuda Conference, he wrote friends fa New York, killed hie Jest hope...
...The reports reaching us from London—as is the nature of impersonal newspaper accounts— are cold, terse and to the...
...frrt ft w&tM""\^ Samte, am —' — — * * •ama*Aadma"4laW «EmV BBS ? T6w»#CfTI«T7lF...
...Bemal Zygelbojm—or Arthur as he was nicknamed by his comrades of the General Jewish Workers Union of Poland—was both a pupil and intimate friend of Henryk Erlieh and Victor Alter, the two great Polish-Jewish socialists and aawi fascists, whose execution by Stalin's G.P.U...
...Then the bodies were ur.hMdai, the train was cleaned and returned to the cam for a fresh cargo...
...He knew life end did not fear it Be had no pergonal problems to solve...
...The team of Rasbob-Nock and Hart are functioning en a national scale...
...yea are skeptical...
...A witness at the trial of John Epghan Kelly, Christian Fronter, and agent for Franco, in a Washington, D. C, court revealed that Kelly had visited Hart frequently...
...From among the scores of thousands who throughout these Twenty years have fought, directly or Indirectly, against Fascism, the Italian people will be able to make its choice...
...At present he is on the staff of the Graduate FacnKy at Fordham University...
...But even while this 1 military government of the United Nations continues, the conditions will have to be sedulously and actively fostered which will permit the free expression of Italy's political will, once the need for a military government has been removed...
...cannot 1k*-»?»??????1...
...the doors and the tram nvnvee into...
...in the United States...
...end Michael Gold contributed 'to Zygrfbojm's decision to take his life...
...completely failed to comprehend the deeper meaning of the tragedy that has been, the lot of oar generation—we cannot ignore the suicide recently of Annul Zygelbojm, leader of the heroic Jewish workers of Poland, and...
...They are no longer in the image of man: skeletons, with eyes dead with resignation, naked, frightened, they are fat constant motion with convulsive, nervous steps...
...It is up to Mm to make his stand dear...
...It was a gruesome message altogether beyond the imagination of civilized men and women...
...I saMttt...
...4. It may be doubted whether any very significant contribution can be made, as far as Italy is concerned, by Italo-Americah institutions, as such...
...t John J. Raskob, Albert Jay Nock Joir New Merwin K. Hart Organization By WALTER K. LEWIS Merwin K. Hart, pro-Franco apologist, admirer of reactionaries, booster of reactionary legislation, has re-organized til Economic Council on a national basis...
...Ho* mini adooreonn de yea think this Fascist organization has, after two and a half years of eecapatiea, ia...
...Einaudi...
...And Ae question of what the programs of these men will he, is •ot one to which the United Nations need apply themselves...
...They vanish from their homes...
...Thea eaafa the news of the heroic armed resistance ef the Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto...
...since childhood, for many years a leader oi_Jewi*h labor in Poland, his was the school ef brutal experience...
...It follows that we are at war with the system which has fostered aggressive nationalism and imperialism, with the system which has attempted to destroy our beliefs in the dignity and freedom of man...
...This is especially true of the universities, j This does not mean that the shock which will accompany the fall of Fascism will not be terrible for a dlsfflusionea and weary'" ? lb trotten grown.up fat the artificial both owe of the dictatorship Bat the task of aery necessary reforming of modei of thought can-net he undertaken by anybody hut the Italians themselves Italy, as Supreme Court Justice Douglas recalled recently, most he considered as an integral and essential port of Western culture and civilisation...
...It wee a huge barrack, only half oi which wee covered with a roof, housing about 5,000 men, women and children...
...Or are they hHHr it the mountains or with some friend * In this regard I could write you * hundrel letters shout the magnificent aoHdartty ef the French people, which has never been me* real or more active than today For It fa ah fab* story that a pariah priest in N. Ml and...
...Zygelbojm knew this...
...But the future historian will discern behind the suicide of this one man A tragedy in the heroic proportions of that of the Greek drama...
...Every day sees the number of these candidate* for efat gratiea increase, while at the same 9m Ufa number of those who decree...
...might conceivably be given to any group which «an best cooperate in the final stages of the battle for Italy...
...Hert'e Economic Council has employed as editor of its monthly Bconomic Council Review of Books Albert Jay Nock, an old-time "individualist" who aroused nationwide interest in articles on anti-Semitism in 1941...
...Jb|»^P_^Pe...
...He did his utmost to carry tk* appeal from the Jews of Poland to tat civilised world...
...In a letter dated November 1, 1988, Campbell wrote to Mc-Whirter that he had spent an afternoon with Capehart discussing the failure of the Cornfield Conference which had been organized >by Capehart as a dramatic protest against the New Deal...
...The Bermuda delegates met and adjourned...
...After tee imt aw dred had entered the ear the others were banal in on their heads and shoulders In ah fan_ men...
...1 spot amidst this indisdingniehabie mass an old man completely Bade...
...The fact is that the worker who is being forced to go (for the moment he is doing everything possible—hiding under a false name, seeking refuge abroad, going to the countryside—to escape being taken) will harbor a hatred—and what a hatred!—not only against the political instigators of these round-ups, hut also against his employer...
...Not like the Jews languishing in the Nazi &i_entratton camps and torture chambers, Zygelbojm was convinced that the civilised world wee not interested in their fete...
...The task, however, of eliminating these obnoxious elements from the political life of the Italy of tomorrow, may not prove as difficult and as protracted as in other countries...
...As far as our domestic war effort is concerned, I would like to see less emphasis placed en the appellative "Italo-American," and more energy displayed in the final rejection of the leadership of all the faint-hearted Pearl Harbor anti-fascists...
...Initially, we most envisage a military government of the United Nations or of the chief occupying country, using, for purposes of local administration, reliable Italian elements, selected, as far as possible, on the basis of their being free of any Fascist taint...
...But thW was Only the first attfS bW-M journey towards death...
...number of *4»oeid*e emfaronts...
...Szmul Zygelbojm felt that his place was nth those with whom he lived and hoped all bit life Last week, as his last appeal to a cslfeb world, he took poison...
...2. The choice will have to be a spontaneous one...
...Reservations should be sent fa David Puataskyat the office of the Coatweni* 9 Eeat etth 8teeat, Mhw York...
...Who will ever be able to tell how much the ¦ , death of O»ese two noble spirits condoned ?? ¦ .^dsWMieiftjBjjr...
...I will tell yoi that tat Vichy government recently cae—acted ? discreet inquiry for the porpaop Of Indiag eat hew mach actual jam art ea es the Deriet movement has in the large cities ef the occupied" tone...
...The floors were moistened and lit so that jm suffocating femes slowly killed the oecepeevfc about a week...
...This is a choice which can only be made by the Italian people...
...floatage) herded 1M Jews...
...victims were herded into the railroad stamm In panic the Jews rushed towards the a__ platform, thronging the narrow...
...5. Defeat is a harsh taskmaster and the Italian people itself will be quick to take note of its lesson...
...Note:—The foUovng t* en eeeerpt from a letter smuggled out from Marseille* to a correspondent of Woridamer...
...poahtag and struggling...
...In the latter part of...
...g» sponsorship of WflRafa Green...
...for a Polish family of si* for « whole toea* without accepting a cent—a family wMeh WU threatened with...
...maintained wide contact with James Campbell, a friend ef fascist George Deatherage and a hanker of General George Van Horn Mosely...
...But Szmul Zygelbojm's tragedy wee deeper...
...The present board of directors reads like a socialite's industrial Who's Who...
...A morning session on "Labor and the Peace," will hear Clinton S. Golden, Assistant to the President, United Stool workers of America, C.I.O^and Oscar Jaszi, Profeeeor al History, Oberlin College, Oberlih, Ohio...
...The hope is weTt-foanded, I think, that Italy will be the first of the defeated Axis countries to resume in full her role as a law-abiding member of the community of nations...
...They failed to give even a my of hope—to bring some solace and faith to the tormented of Hitter's hejL . ? ??YGELBOJM was haunted by the cries of his " fellow-Jews...
...With few exceptions, any peculiar understanding on their part of Italy's problems should probably be discounted...
...It wee O-ere that his real trieb began...
...iSWOft.,,81w|i...
...t . j at>__ an >?9...
...without saying good-bye...
...The American government must make better nse AT it ? should be made similarly clear that Italy will be accepted, on a basis of equality, within the fold of the United Nations, once a clean sweep has been made, to our satisfaction, of the Fascist structure and ideology...
...Campbell said that Cape-hart would consult further with McWhirter on political plans...
...He wee probably stripped of hie rags by the Gestapo...
...the member of a distinguished Italian family, fa an Italian exile who has been teaching in this country for several years...
...This conscription, at the present moment, is of the most vital concern to as, and many see in it, with horror, the dreadful germ cf a civil war of tomorrow...
...MarsrHMs, Nice, Lyons, ate foO of men and women of d ages who desperately search for a boat to tati them no matter where, or a guide who know...
...They hardly notice the dead...
...Long before war was even thought of the government and its lustful eye on every potato-patch, soda-fountain and peanut-stand in the Country...
...Raskob who is associated with du Pont interests was one of the organizers of the anti-Roosevelt American Liberty League in 1935...
...t*t more wiling elAjg*" American Labor Conference to Hold First Annual Meeting in June The first annual meeting of the American Labor Conference on International Affairs wHl be held at the Hotel Commodore...
...It is easy to see what they might plan for 1944...
...of 2...
...I have heen discussing only political support, quite apart from any military help, which, at the proper time...
...Recently e hero of the Polish underground movement, one of whose many aliases is Witold JacxynSki, arrived in London direct from Poland...
...inhabitant** Exactly 1U no more, no teas...
...tat hidden paths across this or that frontier...
...Of course the closest possible exchange of men aad ideas between Italy ami the Waat fa to he eneenragef had wlfiMtei...
...this unequal struggle...
...When I speak of the "role" of France, I am abliged to reckon first of all with the labor conscription...
...Then—silence...
...He has moved...
...or" llPMUtU...
...her conception...
...His death was a cry in the wilderness—the last desperate act of a man, who from the relative safety of s London residence, saw all those whom he loved and ell that he cherished, ruthlessly crushed end wiped out...
...When the Nazis occupied Poland he fought side-by-side with the immortal defenders of Warsaw...
...And yet sot fir jjJtBjl for the cries of Ida suffering Jewish brothers net to reach him daily: I. tonA Ji ?- ____¦____ jb__ i4V e ill¦» ?? __¦____>¦ _e_—r ***** by Zygeibejm to the Jewish Labor Committee...
...Fr a nee fa not dead, and ft fa even mock lern sick than some wwati have yea hljtiea...
...Louis Adamic's suggestion that immigrant groups be organized in the United States to help in the reconstruction of their various mother countries, appears, with regard to Italy, to have rather limited possibilities...
...Rahba« Abramovitch, Member, Labor aad Sootetfat ? ttmtbnil ?*???» far *il»Ui«i -_______- 1 1 N Dr...
...But the Herald Tribune story does not show that several years ago Homer Capehart had dealings with leading pro-fascist promoters in the country -;lastiii yiUUIULCI.l Iii LUC vuuuuv who sought to utilize him to lead a political movement Mr...
...Even under Fascism the reluctance Of school teachers to pay more then perfunctory and ineffective lip service to Fascist doctrine, will be found to have been remarkable when the whole story con he told...
...In testimony before the Dies Committee, Campbell stated that he first approached Capehart ova matter of selling musical instruments hat then broached the Wee ef a political Career...
...Hitler has killed over two ailliea Jr*i ef Europe...
...laantan I tag ^as^afaam4feammawk Th% fahmt Wrotnve...
...The guards keep on shooting at the throng...
...Disguised as a Polish policeman Jaezynski visited a Nazi internment camp near the city of Belzec...
...He...
...the hut remnants of a population of *MMh...
...Cttntan Professor Pahl Briasehden, Columbia Pi*»-sity, Joseph P. Chamberlain, Professor ot national Low at Columbia Uolverfaffj** Dewey, Fernando de los Rios, farmer "?»·»*· dor ot the Spanish Republic, presently * ? New School for Social Research...
...His nearest neighbor, John J. Raskob, who holds an official position with the Empire State BuiMing Corporation, is also a member of the board of dinactort of Hart's new National Economic Council...
...After a brief sojourn in New York he was sent to London to represent Polish-Jewish labor in the Polish National Council...
...It throw* light on the stefe of mind ef the people in southern France—people who may be among the firtt to vritneee the arrival of AHied troope.] VOL' ask me what events are foremost in the * minds of the people in the southern departments of the "free" zone and what problems meet concern them...
...He has taught Government at Harvard University, the New School for Social Research and other places...
...ntparated by a sea of Meet eld Hmaa saffettag...
...aroused the wrath and indignation of decent human beings everywhere...
...In reviewing "Time to Inquire" fay Samuel Crowther m the May 15 issue of the new book review, Nock writes: 'The government is faking ia American liberties with both hands and confiscating them to Hi Own uses...
...BUCn ? _ TTtrftted ifAtvTtts csYintft ^2...
...women and children were packed «%»_ cars of a single train Then the Gestapo...
...It ia humanly impossible to convey," relates Jaezynski...
...Into each of the 2 ing freight ears of a capacity of 40...
...ghetto, yet so far...
...The American Labor Genferenc* am 1"·» national Affairs fa Ml urgaiHmHiim *e «??> the problems of the war ami the futere heofa from the point of view or maalied labor »«1 to carry on an edarntfonel program » fields...
...The meeting will explore the possibility of establishing a directorate of 46 members...
...A story in this Sunday's Herald Tribune reviewing the political eituation in Indiana saw Senator Van Nuya as falling hside and Capehart winning...
...Each one ends with the same appeal: "Help ehr brothers hi the ghettos...
...The floor of eaeh ear- was covered with bun...
...It should be remembered that Italian schools, both high and ' low, have never indulged m historical falsifications or excessive nationalistic teachings...
...Nattens for a just anJ _) fffifcc, but of their •teep't^^^ff to *<?*?* * vorti>pije ^WSiaW fem...
...deportation because el it* religion...
...teem small end unimportant ' And yet, unless we have become totally calloused— unless we...
...The second smge^S...
...It is in the last agony of death...
...m '"ft ** uuvv ?? aw IV iiiciiiutiB- aae«7 iioij vi ? ?? ?? ? ? ? ·· . aanaa, Capfchart, OOP Senatorial Hope, Had Pro-Fascist Ties WASHINGTON, D. C. — Homer Capehart, New Deal-baiting Indiana industrialist, is being carefully touted by Republican forces as the next U. S. Senator from Indiana...
...In the afternoon, there will be a session on "International Planning in the Poet-War World," with Carter Goodrich...
...On April 17, no longer able to endure tear tortures, 38,000 Jews of the Warsaw Cbetftv...
...Chairman of the Governing Body of the International Lahor Office, Alvin H. Hansen, special economic advisor to the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, and Arthur J. Altmeyer, Chairman, Federal Security Aeencv...
...the blood of our youth flow* freely ** «a the battlefields of the world, the suicide of one man in protest against the misHfae and indignities inflicted upon his defenseless people...
...It was founded this year...
...Corpses ere scattered everywhere...
...The jotters he left behind amply testify to this...
...ft«riai Security Board...
...over this...
...The letters he left behind him addresses ? the President of fhjfafat «ftd others >sv« m, message SAVE THE JEWS IN THI 4*_ CO Of THUS FROM TOTAL EXTBRaffifo...
...Many individuals pretested that his remarks were unfair to the Jews...
...Zygelbojm did not commit suicide because he was a tender and soft-hearted intellectual...
...Capehart's past associations make his qualifications dubious...
...I know also that the people of ? IrTtte village near Lyons harbored over a period #T several weeks a group of fifteen refugees frots the North and from Belgium who had goo* ami sufficient reason to leave their homes, lift villagers fed them, clothed them, gave them atom* and finally helped the macros* a certain frentier...
...Hart has called the first annual meeting of his reorganized organisation ire Thursday afternoon, June 3, at the Empire State headquarters...
...Jaezynski himself saw this, standing near a fenced-in path leading 30 yards from the camp to the railroad station...
...In the first place, of course, stands the war, about the outcome of which there is not a shadow of doubt in the thoughts of nine-tenths of my compatriots...
...No one peys any attention: to him The eld man makes no impression upos the people that surround him...
...In vain...
...Exploiting this theory for aj column...
...Amt even that has just about reached the point where he will have the choice of voting Ja —or else...
...This and no more...
...It is the workers who are the forgotten children and the disinherited of this new regime...
...It was also revealed that Hart and Kelly had arranged for a "pro-American mass meeting" at the Seventh Regiment Armory in February of 1939...
...mentors...
...It was only upon the urgent requests of his party that he went abroad...
...That culture ? as not been obliterated by twenty years of Fascism, and it is fdlpoesible to view with equanimity any eng-gestion that Italy should fie subjected to a prosesu ot re-education from abroad...
...Maria Einaudi looks at the problems of Italy not as a politician or publicist but as a scholar...
...Are they arrfahfad cV ing en unlucky attempt...
...After Messotim—What ? Italians Must Choose Own Regime By MARiO EINAUDI 1. The United Nations are, of course, not at war with one man only, but with a political system which is the oldest totalitarian dictatorship in Western Europe and one of those most heavily responsible for the crisis which now confronts us...
...To say that all this is only a matter of 'war economy' is nonsense...
...If certain preliminary, conditions, as discussed below, ere satisfied...
...This means that the help oar government can render to the an ti-Fascist groups in Italy dace not have to take the form of support given to this or that group, to tafa or that part klar program, to the monarchists or the republicans, to the upholders of gradualism or of revolution...
...ft loft building near East 42nd Street to the swanky Empire State Building...
...tat people...
...Capehart, who' is now connected with the Warlitzer Mask Co...
...For a moment it seemed to him—As it to most of us— that the Bermuda Refugee Conference would ' actually do something to rescue the Jews in the Axis countries...
...which can be made t« —r cation of the Italian peepie^w* ward their accrptane* ? ? fag and effective t'.iO t*"0* democracy arid Iu^el'aiien' ? law, will come otft dtpaW termine: strivinc...
...A...
...That is the only right he has...
...Himself" a Polish gentile, he came to Zygelbojm with a message from Polish Jewry...
...There cannot be any peace or compromise with any man or group in Italy which is not clearly immune from these doctrines...
...But this is odfte a Unterer* proposition from that of di rectiag h ***** *t rfeot*-eatfafa from the outoWe...
...It is a real miracle that a worker with three or four children pane not literally die of hunger...
...For a while reyoite reached us abet...
...one of the two Jewish members of the Polish National Council in London...
...Bat no oae pays any attention to it...
...the impreeeion that thee* 5,0e* people made ape* me...
...point: "A coroners jury in London has found that" Szmul Zygelbojm, a member of the Polish National Council and ltader of the Polish-Jewish Socialists, has committed suicide...
...Davit tfajm^'fl' President of the International Ladies OtrWW-Workers Union, Matthew .Won, SecondI t1a> President of the A. F. of 1...
...took up arms, furnished them by the Pehft underground movement, against their Ntr...
...Bow easy it has been in recent years to point to the alleged lack of capable successors to Mussolini to justify in many minds the need for the continuation of the Fascist system...
...Little fear need be entertained that adequate political leadership will,not be available after the war...
...Nock then says: "Today democracy means a state of things where the citizen Me a vote-4hat is, he has the right to ehoose which ef two rival gangs shall roh, dragoon and pester him...
...They earn lees than 50 per cent of their pre-war wages, and at a time when the cost of Hving has risen well ever 106 per cent They live in the greet towns which are, by a wide margin, the worst provisioned in all of France...
...Perhaps, as one wag put it to us, another Liberty League...
...However, every few hours new transports of Jews, young and old, would arrive for their hut journey towards death...
...3. The best help which our government can render, not only to the underground groups but to the Italian people at large, is that of strengthening the somewhat vague assurances hitherto of the metropolitan territory of * .* ¦„ . The Atlantic Charter is a powerful weapon of war...
...program afaeot wlich...
...Another aspect of southern Prance at tins time which should be recorded is the...
...This will be followed by a luncheon session, at which William Green, President of the American Federation of Labor, will speak...
...Campbell had an extensive correspondence with Felix Mc-Whirter, mid-west pro-fascist exposed last year by the New York Feet, about building up Capehart as a political figure and organizing a party run Capehart for President...
...Lr.fBtehaii is kfaawn to readers of The New beaafat as ? friend an* translator of Don Luigi Stnrzo...
...Bot the latv fact does not...
...From Marseilles: 'France Is Not as Sick as Some Would Believe...
...tU sponsors...
...Together with his comrades he tasted the life of a Nasi ghetto...
Vol. 26 • May 1943 • No. 21
