Friday, January 27, 1995 Page 2
Auschwitz: Fifty years later
OSWIECIM, Poland — A half
century later, it was as if the unburied
dead of Auschwitz-Birkenau were
talking back to the living through
Moshe Stern.
His voice soaring in unbridled
anger, the Israeli cantor’s prayer for
the dead recalled the boys and girls
“killed, destroyed, expunged by the
Nazis and their helpers.”
They were the aunts and uncles
that Rivkah Young never met. They
were the 33 members of Blanche
Major’s family taken away on July 7,
1944, and sent to the cyanide show
ers. They were, by the time the Nazis
were done, 1.5 million brothers, sis
ters, mothers and fathers.
Fifty years after Soviet soldiers
liberated Auschwitz, the world Jew
ish community was holding a cer
emony of its own at the world’s big
gest Jewish graveyard, a place where
human ashes still linger in fields and
ponds.
The main commemorations are
planned for Friday. But they were
organized chiefly by President Lech
Walesa’s office, and many Jews felt
they did not adequately reflect
Auschwitz’s symbolism as the
Holocaust’s chief charnel house.
About 300 people attended
Thursday’s separate ceremony: mostly
Jews, but also Gypsy survivors of
Auschwitz-Birkenau and other con
centration camps. People who were
tortured, starved, humiliated and still
feel fear.
German President Roman Herzog,
a boy during World War II, was the
only head of state. He wore the same
dark suit and fedora as the German
Jewish leaders he accompanied. He
barely spoke, pain etched on his face.
Walesa spoke earlier Thursday in
Krakow at Jagiellonian University,
where 184 professors were seized by
the Nazis in iversity, where 184 pro
fessors were seized by the Nazis in
November 1939 and deported to
Sachsenhausen, a concentration camp
just outside Berlin.
Some Jewish leaders ignored the
university ceremony, including the
president of the European Jewish
Congress, Jean Kahn, and Elie Wiesel,
the Nobel Peace Prize winner who
headed the U.S. delegation.
Likewise, no official Polish repre
sentative attended the Jewish obser
vance, where Kahn accused Walesa’s
office of organizing “a nationalist
celebration” that diminished the
Holocaust’s Jewish dimension.
But prominent Jews including
Wiesel, an Auschwitz survivor, were
determined to mend relations with
Poles and none suggested a boycott of
Friday’s main ceremony.
Wiesel and Israeli Knesset Speaker
Shevach Weiss said they met with
Walesa and agreed that a peace dec
laration to be released at the main
ceremony would acknowledge Jews
were the main target of the Nazi
genocide plan symbolized by
Auschwitz.
Nine in 10 of the 1.5 million people
killed at the largest Nazi camp com
plex — people gassed, starved,
clubbed, hung, shot, worked to death
in outlying armaments and chemical
plants — were Jews.
But half of them were Polish Jews,
and Auschwitz was initially built for
Polish opponents of the Nazis—who
were intent on eradicating Poland as
a state and settling it with the Aryan
race.
After the war, Communist authori
ties in Poland understated the extent
of Jewish suffering under the Nazis.
Bad feelings and misunderstanding
still linger between many Polish
Catholics and Jews.
At Auschwitz-Birkenau on Thurs
day, wrinkled survivors leaned on
canes or sat down on mounds of earth
and tried to steel themselves against
horrific memories.
Where the crematoria once
churned, they heard speeches in Yid
dish, Hebrew, Polish and English.
“I feel the fear and astonishment
as I walk here 50 years later,” said
Wiesel, walking beside the train tracks
where cattle cars full of Jews from all
comers of Nazi-occupied Europe ar
rived for slaughter.
“You cannot imagine what it was
for them to arrive here at night and to
see the immensity, the infinity of this
place. Dogs barking, shots being fired,
people falling to the ground, walk
ing, walking.”
Deadly reach of Auschwitz
More than 1.5 million people were sent to
Auschwitz-Birkenau marked for enslavement or
death. This week marks the 50th anniversary of
the liberation of 5,200 survivors.
r.Y.
■«. «ss&. s *
AUSCHWITZ
Dispute arises over witnesses
prosecuter falls ill, hospitalized
LOS ANGELES — The last
minute defense witnesses who claim
they have evidence that could exoner
ate O.J. Simpson include heroin ad
dicts, thieves, felons and “a court
certified pathological liar,” a pros
ecutor said today.
A dispute over the witnesses and
the sudden illness of a prosecutor
threw the murder trial into turmoil
again, and delayed the rest of the
defense’s opening statement at least
until this afternoon.
Arguing for more time to investi
gate the witnesses, prosecutors bit
terly questioned their honesty and
accusal the defense of misconduct.
Defense attorney Johnnie Cochran
Jr. countered, “They cannot shut me
up.”
Hours before being hospitalized
for chest pains, Deputy District At
torney William Hodgman expressed
outrage Wednesday when Cochran
mentioned the new witnesses that he
claimed could clear Simpson and were
ignored by investigators.
Thumping his finger on a lectern,
District Attorney Christopher Darden
told the judge today: “Had we known
about some of these witnesses, we
could have informed counsel that they
are heroin addicts, thieves, felons,
and that one of these witnesses, one of
their so-called material witnesses, is
the only person I have ever known to
be a court-certified pathological liar.”
A few hours after Wednesday’s
session, Hodgman complained of
chest pains and was taken to Califor
nia Medical Center. He was in good
condition and resting comfortably
today; doctors said more tests were
planned.
Deputy District Attorney Marcia
Clark said the prosecution would be
seeking an interruption in the trial
and a chance for prosecutors to make
additional opening remarks to the
jury to counter surprises in the de
fense presentation.
Cochran angrily responded that
the prosecution was overreacting and
suggested that if prosecutors were
better prepared for trial they wouldn’t
have needed the information turned
over late by the defense.
Simpson
trial update
_ 1hmadtyJm.2B,im
► A hearing on witnesses took up
all Thursday’s court time.
Prosecutors requested a
30-day continuance—an
adjournment—to investigate
witnesses the defense revealed
just this week. Ito recessed the
trial until Monday, although he
may rule on the continuance
Friday.
► William Hodgman, a key
prosecutor, is hospitalized after
complaining of chest pains
Wednesday night.
► Simpson’s book, “I Want to
Tell You," hits bookstores
Friday morning.
AP
Balanced-budget amendment clears test vote
WASHINGTON — In a striking
triumph for the new Republican ma
jority, the House gave tentative ap
proval Thursday night to a balanced
budget amendment to the Constitu
tion designed to eliminate chronic
federal deficits.
The 293-139, bipartisan endorse
ment was five more than the two
thirds majority needed, with a final
vote set for later in the evening that
would send the measure to the Sen
ate.
Supporters expressed confidence
that they would also prevail there,
despite the likelihood of a protracted
battle, and would be able to submit
the measure to the states for final
ratification.
Cheers erupted in the chamber
when Speaker Newt Gingrich, archi
tect of last fall’s GOP election sweep
in the House, announced the results.
The vote came little more than
three weeks after Republicans took
control of the House and launched a
100-day effort to implement their
conservative “Contract With
America,” with its promise of lower
taxes and less government.
The measure drew the support of
221 of 230 Republicans. Among the
Democrats, 72 voted in favor, 129
against.
As a result of years of deficits, said
Republican Leader Dick Armey of
Texas, “Each and every one of our
children today is endowed with 18,000
dollars of federal debt.” Without the
amendment, he said, “that indebted
ness will grow larger and larger and
larger.”
Democratic Leader Dick Gephardt
of Missouri, who opposed the mea
sure, said the decision contained “the
most important votes we will cast
here in our service in the Congress,
no matter how long we’ve been here
or how long we will stay.”
Democrats failed in an effort to
force Republicans to unveil a detailed
program of spending cuts, and failed
again in a politically enticing attempt
to exempt Social Security from spend
ing reductions in the future. Republi
cans insist they plan no Social Secu
rity cuts.
The measure calls for a balanced
budget beginning in 2002, or two
years after ratification by three-quar
ters of the states. It requires a three
fifths vote in both houses to run a
deficit thereafter. A similar three
fifths vote would be required to in
crease the federal debt, which now
approaches $4.7 trillion.
News... _
in a Minute
Influenza adds to quake fatalities
KOBE, Japan — More than 140 new influenza cases were reported
Thursday among earthquake survivors crowded into temporary shel
ters, fueling fears an outbreak of disease could add to the misery of
thousands of homeless Japanese.
> The death toll from the Jan. 17 quake rose to 5,083 today as more
bodies were pulled from the ruins of the shattered port city. Police said
51 people are still missing.
Nearly 300,000 people have been living in government buildings or
sleeping in tents in near-freezing weather since the quake wrecked this
city of 1.4 million people. The government has been criticized as
having responded slowly to the quake.
Lt. Gen. Yusuke Matsushima, army commander for central Japan,
wept openly today as he apologized for delays in rushing large numbers
of troops to help in the rescue effort.
“It was regrettable we could not save more lives,” the general said
as he wiped tears from his eyes during a news conference. “I understand
why people were so upset. People said, 'Why didn’t you come help us
sooner? Why weren’t you there?’ I understand, but it was the situation.”
Salami to be tested for E. coli
WASHINGTON — Salami and other fermented dry sausage prod
ucts will be routinely tested for a virulent strain of E. coli bacteria to
prevent future outbreaks of foodbome illness, the government says.
The Agriculture Department’s Food Safety and Inspection Service
on Wednesday also presented the dry sausage industry with a list of
steps to take assure its finished products are free of E. coli 0157.H7.
The makers may also use heatto kill the bacteria.
The actions followed an outbreak of food poisoning last November
and December that sickened 11 people in Washington and three in
California. The illnesses were traced to the San Francisco Sausage Co.
in San Francisco, which recalled all its products.
The agency said it may never find the exact source of contamination.
The outbreak was the first time a cured meat was implicated in an
outbreak caused by the E. coli strain.
E. coli bacteria are killed by high temperatures in cooking, anywhere
from 150 to 165 degrees, or by high acidity, and is usually a problem
in undercooked beef. But dry salami isn’t cooked.
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