Ohio Jewish chronicle. (Columbus, Ohio), 1983-03-10

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1982   VELMA   AVE.   ;
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l}f\// Serving Columbus and Central Ohio Jewish Community for Over 60 Years    \JP^_
VOL. 61   NO. 10
MARCH 10,1983-ADAR 25
Devoted to American
and Jewish Ideals.  <■
Report Former
lop Nazi Alive
In Polish Prison
LONDON (JTA)-Erich
Koch, one-time Nazi gau-
leiter of the Ukraine, is alive
in a Polish prison despite
having been sentenced to
death in 1959, theDaiJy Telegraph reported last week.
He was sentenced for the
murder of 72,000 Poles arid
the official reason for him
not being executed was that
he was in poor health. But
theDaily Telegraph believes
he may have bargained for
his life in return for a
promise to help locate Nazi
plunder. He is now 85.
Kochi who was also wartime Reich defense commissioner in East Prussia, is believed to be the most senior
Nazi in captivity after
Rudolf Hess, Hitler's deputy,
who is held in Spandau
Prison in West Berlin.
Telegraph reporter Rob-
bin Gedye wrote that Koch is
in a top security prison in the
picturesque village of Barc-
zewo, in Poland's northern
lake district.
Koch was due to take
charge of Moscow had the
Nazis captured it. In the
Soviet Union, he was wanted
for the murder of four million Russians and Jews and
for sending two million people to forced labor.
As. the war ended, he escaped to Denmark before returning to live under an assumed name near Hamburg
in West Germany. The
British found him there in
1949 and handed him over to
the Poles.
According the Daily Telegraph, his wife set up a fund
for him in a Polish bank
worth some 101,000 Pounds
Sterling a year, from which
he has bought the books on
politics and economics
which line the walls of his
cell. A Polish journalist who
visited him last year described him as well-preserved, small, thin and
"sporting a small moustache
like Hitler's."
BEHIND THE HEADLINES
Jewish Religious Items Sent To Israel
BUCHAREST (JTA)—The Federation of Rumanian Jewr
ish Communities has announced that 305 Torah scrolls and
some 9,000 volumes of the Talmud have been shipped to Israel with a special authorization-from the Rumanian government. The Federation said that an additional 30-40,000 books
of Jewish religious interest will be sent to Israel in the next
few months. A Rumanian law prohibits the export of old
books of historic or artistic importance but these shipments
to Israel have been granted a special permission by President Nicolae Ceausescu at the request of Chief Rabbi Moses
.Roseh:''.-.:;.',. .V-v-/.':.. -.-   ■/■•./   ■■ V.   .       ■- .
Letter Urges Cooperation Between U.S., Israel
NEW YORK (JTA)—President Reagan was urged, in an
open letter signed by 130 retired American generals and admirals 'jto revitalize the strategic cooperation between the
United States and Israel, thereby enhancing the safety and
well-being of the free peoples of the world." The letter, which
appeared in the form of a full page advertisement in The New
York Times, drew comment from the Defense Department,
which was also reported in the Times. The Times stated that
"A Defense Department official said .. . that the advertisement appeared to be part of a campaign to persuade the
United States to agree to a memorandum of understanding
with the Israelis that has already been rejected."
ranch Jew Reveals He Had
Opportunity To Kill K. Barbie
TORONTO (JTA)-Michel
Cojot, a former executive in
one of France's most prestigious banking establishments, has revealed that in
1975 he had the opportunity
to kill Klaus Barbie during a
meeting in La Paz, Bolivia.
Barbie, who was the gestapo chief in Lyon, France,
and assumed the name of
Klaus Altmann when he settled in Bolivia after the war,
has now been returned to
France where he faces
charges of "crimes against
humanity."
Cojot, born Goldberg, says
in his book, Namesake, recently published by Yale,
that he resolved to track
down Barbie because during
his days as the gestapo chief,
Barbie had been responsible
for the death of Goldberg's
father and many other
French resistance fighters,
including Jean Moulin, the
head of the resistance movement.
In 1975, disguised as a
French journalist, Goldberg
arrived in La Paz and proceeded to interview Barbie.
Barbie expressed astonishment that the French harbored any ill will against
him.
"Why so much hatred on
the part of the French?" he
asked. "Me, I have nothing
against them. My son is married to a French woman. I
have stayed in touch with
members of the Charlemagne Division—you know,
SPECIAL TO THE JTA
Barbie's Escape From
By Vatican, CIC, International Red Cross
By Charles Allen, Jr.
Part Three
Editor's note: Charles Allen Jr. Is an
internationally published author/
lournalist whose book in the early
tWi.Narl War Criminals Among Us,
provided detailed Information about 38
known and suspectedwar criminals.
He has also been called upon frequently by congressional committees to
testily about activities of former Nazis
now living in the U.S.
Part One appeared in the Feb. M Issue of the Chronicle, Part Two in the
March 3 issue.
NEW YORK .(JTA)-Ac-
cording to my sources, Klaus
Barbie participated as an
advisor for the hunt for the.
Argentinian revolutionary,
Che Guevara, who, along
with Fidel Castro, was a
leader of the Cuban revolution. Guevara was tracked
down in the mountains of Bolivia and murdered by the
Bolivian military.
"The whole operation was
vintage SS," my source told
me. "Bolivian internal
security forces swept peasant ■ villages, interrogated
and tortured the inhabitants,
set up elaborate informer
systems in the towns and cities."   ^':.V--'
Torture and murder are
nothing hew in Latin American politics, any' more so
than other parts of the world.
But there were certain
"refinements" which Barbie
systematically introduced
along with fellow Nazi war
criminals in Latin America.
"He showed them how to
do the 'Nacht und Nebel"
thing," my source stated.
The Nacht and Nebel
Erlass was the infamous
1941 "Night and Fog
Decree" of Hitler directing
that any "persons endanger
ing German security'' were
to be seized without any semblance of due process and
"made to disappear into the
night and fog" without a
trace. Ultimately, the gestapo became the'-major
experts of this terrorist
device. In Latin America,
especially in Argentina, this
technique resulted in thousands of "disappeared
ones."
In Communication With
Wanted War Criminals
Barbie was in constant
communication and organized fascist undertakings
with- the. following wanted
war criminals:
• Edward Roschmann,
called the "Butcher of Riga"
where he directed the
slaughter of some 45,000
Latvian  Jews  during  the
Holocaust. After a 1,977
extradition request by West
Germany, Roschmann was
spirited from Argentina to
safety in Paraguay by the,
(CONTINUED ON PAGE W
the French who volunteered
to join the Waffen SS. I even
took pleasure a few years
ago, in stopping off at Orly
Airport."
"That Wasn't Me"
During the interview,
which was conducted in
Spanish, Barbie told Goldberg that the French in Algeria had engaged in torture
more brutal than his gestapo
people had done. With regard to the deportation of
Frenchmen, including Jews,
Barbie is reported to have
said*.
"That wasn't me, it was
Eichmann. I was responsible
for the struggle against Resistance—in other words
against Communism. The
anti-Jewish struggle was the
work of special commandos
who hardly saluted me on arrival and departure."
Barbie told Goldberg that
deportation and other orders
signed by him were merely
V bureaucratic paperwork and
did not reflect his direct participation in arrests or
executions. Barbie ended the
interview by accusing Jews
of having committed a great
injustice by "settling on
Arab land."
(CONTINUED ON PAGE 9)
'Friends Of Hillel'To Host
Reception For Ashkenazy
Next Tuesday, March 15,
"Friends of Hillel" will host
a private reception with the
internationally acclaimed
pianist Vladimir Ashkenazy
on the stage of Mershon
Auditorium. The reception
follows his 8 p.m. performance, and features a gourmet
dessert menu. A few tickets
are still available for this
event.
Friends of Hillel began its
tradition of hosting an
annual reception of prominent visiting artists in 1982
with a reception for Zubin
Mehta and the members of
the Israel Philharmonic.
Charter members of Friends
of Hillel met Mehta and the
musicians of the Philharmonic on stage after their
performance. Friends of
Hillel  receive  periodic
(CONTINUED ON PAGE 14),
'The Hadassah Woman: A Dreamer, A Doer' To Be Theme Of 1983 Hadassah Donor Luncheon
V
i:
"The Hadassah Woman: A
Dreamer, A Doer'' is the
theme for the 1983 Hadassah
Donor Luncheon. This year's
event, to be held at noon at
the Leo Yassenoff Jewish
Center on March 15, will
allow those women who
attend to fulfill both roles at
once. The afternoon, which
will feature guest soprano
Adda Shur in a program entitled "Heritage in Song,"
will be a dream; the funds
raised will enable'Hadassah
Medical Centers in Israel to
continue to do the kinds of research and patient care that
have elevated them to their
position of eminence in the
medical world.
Adda Shur was born in
Kibbutz Netzer Sereini near
Rehovoth, Israel. When she
was five and one-half years
old, she emigrated to the
United States with her family and grew up in Los
Angeles. Her father, Bonia
Shur, is director of Liturgical Arts for the Hebrew
Union College. Ms. Shur has
studied voice at California
State University and the Det-
mold Music Academy in Det-
mold, Germany. She earned
a bachelor's degree in voice
from  Indiana' University
whertS she is working toward
a master's degree in Opera
Stage Direction and studying
voice with the internationally famous soprano,
Virginia Zeani. She has
served as Cantor at Temple
Sholom in Cincinnati as well
as at Adath Israel in Lexington, Ky., and Bene Israel,
Parkersburg, W.V.
Her well-rounded program
appeals to listeners of all
ages as it includes Israeli
art- and folk-music, Yiddish
songs and hit tunes of well-
known Jewish American
composers. Ms. Shur describes herself as a "recital-
ist who loves to entertain".
Muriel   Derrow,   Donor
Adda Shur
Luncneon cnairwoman,
ex
presses great enthusiasm
about this, project and the
community response to it.
"Hadassah is said to have
one of the top six oncology
departments in the world.
The Pediatric Department
on Mount Scopus has become
a world leader in the investigation of lung disease, the
most common cause of illness and death in a child's
first year. The Ophthalmology Clinic serves not
only the whole of Israel but
patients from Europe as well
as many Middle East countries," she says. She points
out that maintaining these
standards of excellence requires huge sums of money.
A cobalt gun.one of the less-
expensive instruments, costs
about $200,000; each new
echo machine costs about
$40,000. Funds raised
through events like this
make such work possible.
The cost of the luncheon is
$10 in addition to a minimum
gift to Hadassah of $52.
Reservations will still be
accepted. For information,
call Roberta Schwartz or
any group president. For
baby-sitting reservations,
call Renee Reshick at
231-0123.
II