University of Virginia Library

Biafran Genocide Compared To Slaughter Of Jews

Physiological psychologists are
still hard put to give a satisfactory
explanation to the phenomenon of
an amputated man who
occasionally feels an itch or a
twinge from his lost limb, from his
missing arm or leg. A trick of the
"imagination?" Whatever the cause,
it must be a maddening irritation.

It is some such irritation to
which Jews are particularly prone.
Suddenly, a twitch or pain will
shoot up from the six million Jews
who were hacked away by the
Nazis from the body of the people
Israel. In recent weeks and months,
many Jews have had the strange
sensation that the hacking process
itself was happening all over again,
and that once more those of us who
were spared, if only by geography,
were helpless to do anything about
it. This nightmarish feeling has been
brought on by the spectacle of
genocide in Biafra.

What is being done to the boys
of Biafra is a particularly acute
reminder of what had been done to
the Jews of Europe a quarter of a
century ago. It also brings home
again the realization of nearly all
Jews that if the Israelis had fared
badly in the June, 1967 war and
had been massacred by the Arabs,
the world at large would surely
have behaved as it does in the
Biafran tragedy: it utters passive
sounds of sympathy for the victims
while extending active aid to the
killers in one form or another.

Yes, Biafra all too painfully
recalls for us Jews our own holocaust.
We remember the way the
Allies, the Western democratic
leaders as well as the director
Stalin, had refused on trumped-up
pleas of expediency to take steps to
slow down the slaughter of the
Jews or to admit the few who
escaped to safety in their countries.
Constant Jewish demands that
Auschwitz be bombed were rejected.
Thousands of Jews, young
and old, fleeing from the gas
chambers and crematoria were
turned back at the frontiers of the
free world and sent back to die like
vermin. We know this. We have not
forgotten.

Because of this memory it was
unthinkable that twenty-five years
later Israelis should stand idly by
while another people, the bos,
were also being exterminated. An
Israeli Aid to Biafra Committee was
set up, including - a rare, if not
unique thing in Israeli history -
representatives of all the political
parties, from the extreme Right to
the Communists. Israelis were
ashamed not to be able to do much
to alleviate let alone stop the mass-murder;
their resources are so much
more limited than the richer and
larger Western nations. But they did
what they could. In towns and
villages up and down the country
Jewish children by the thousands
made collections for the Biafran
children. Planeload after planeload
of food and medical supplies have
been flown from Israel to Biafra.
Israel was even willing to sacrifice
what political leverage it possessed
in the international arena and to
extend diplomatic recognition to
the secessionist territory if this
would be instrumental in ending
the slaughter. To do so would have
severely injured the good relations
which Israel maintained with thirty
African states, half of which habitually
sided with her in United
Nations votes on Middle East affairs.
But Biafra rejected this offer
on the basis that overt amity on the
part of Israel might provoke intensified
hostility from certain Moslem
African States and from the Soviet
Union.

What else but this could Israel
do when the pain and anguish of
her memory offered a plain analogy?
The Kremlin, the State Department,
Whitehall, and even the
Vatican have finally been shamed
into some little gesture of human
solidarity in the face of tragedy.
But so little has been done. The
international political machine lets
its expression of concern first run
through its complex tubes of protocol
and jurisprudence; the final
result of the distillation is so
meagre as to save a few, only a very
few.

We have all been exposed to the
image of the dying Biafran child,
skeletal, with protruding ribs and
swollen belly, with hair gone white,
and the uncomprehending look on
his face: "Why must I suffer? Why
must I die?"

He need not die. Many aid in his
death through he complicity of
silence. All of those who read this:
Raise your voices in anger and
indignation to this callousness. We
must not allow another Holocaust.

UNICEF

The UNICEF - Alpha Phi
Omega appeal for funds to feed
starving children in Biafra and Nigeria
deserves support from students
and faculty. Few among us
really doubt that the disastrous
conditions of women and children
there are as serve as portrayed by
the news media. We also recognize
both sponsoring organizations for
their records of charitable works.

UNICEF's international appeal
makes the local effort part of a
general concern for suffering humanity.
The symbolic fast and the
associated gift of money offer a
minimal opportunity for each of us
to share in the alleviation of suffering.

Just a year ago, these same
organizations remind us, they conducted
a drive for starving people in
India. In the intervening year we
have heard about famine in The
United States and in other parts of
the world. We are also constantly
reminded that the world faces widespread
famine, perhaps even in the
next decade. Against this background
of frequent appeal and
fear-inducing predictions, we
should expect small comfort unless
this University and others initiate a
kind of effort that is most suitable
to their special talents and resources.

Alpha Phi Omega might consider
extending its service commitment
to the world food problems
to develop a University-wide study
of strategy for dealing with this
problem in depth. Such a commitment
would give us more enthusiasm
for participation in even the
token effort now requested.

A general effort must begin
somewhere, however. As with many
appeals that have come earlier, I
shall ask of myself, as shall others,
whether this one offers fresh approaches
to solving underlying
problems.

Fraternity Plans

In order to avoid any misunderstanding
as to the goal of the IFC's
Committee on the Future of Fraternities,
I would like to clarify a
remark made in your article yesterday
to the effect that "one likely
result (of the study) will be the
consolidation of several houses in
one large building."

One of the proposed plans in
1964 utilized the concept of a
complex of buildings connected by
shared facilities, such as dining
areas. The intentions of the models
and drawings made at that time was
merely to provide suggestions and
ideas. In no way did the Long
Range Planning Committee intend
to limit the freedom of individual
houses to select their own designs.

None of the 1964 plans have
been adopted. Rather, those fraternities
which have relocated have
purchased existing structures in the
Rugby Road-Grady Avenue area.

The intention of the present
committee is to provide a coherent
plan for the relocation of several
fraternities in facilities which meet
radically changed requirements for
student housing. It is hoped that
the fraternities will continue to
offer housing for their members
which meets a complexity of
human needs to a greater degree
than do University dormitories.

It is impossible at this time to
predict likely outcomes of the
study. In all probability there will
be no single plan but rather several
suggestions meeting different requirements
under situations such as
coeducation, changed University
residence requirements, continued
expansion of fraternity membership,
changed requirements of the
University for land, etc.

The committee would like to
take this opportunity to invite any
member of the University community
interested in working with
it or in offering suggestions to
contact it at Box IIIX, Newcomb
Hall Station.

Bad Impression

The article on "Freedom: Escape
from Czechoslovakia" that appeared
in your paper on November
26 [reprinted from The Washington
Post] made a bad impression on
me. According to that article, a
Czech couple, Josef and Gabricla,
were vacationing on the Bulgarian
coast on the day of the Soviet
invasion of their homeland. After
seeking refuge in Yugoslavia they
presumably had to sleep on a
church floor and go hungry while
Gabriela developed diarrhoea and
Josef lost twenty pounds, all in two
days of suffering. When they arrived
in Vienna from Yugoslavia
they are said to have "looked like
scarecrows."

It happens that I was in Yugoslavia
at the time of the Soviet
invasion of Czechoslovakia, and I
find this story most implausible. On
the very first day of Soviet occupation,
special Red Cross centers were
established in all of the larger cities
to aid Czechoslovak citizens who
were then (more than 20,000 of
them) in Yugoslavia. Food and
lodging were provided without
charge by workers' collectives and
private individuals in tourist camps,
hotels and private rooms. The aid
was so ample that efforts were
made to seek out Czechs and Slovaks
to receive it. Radio stations
and newspapers began discriminating
information and news in
the Czech language. Financial assistance
was also given, particularly for
transportation fares and gasoline,
many of the Czechoslovaks having
come to Yugoslavia by automobiles.
There was no need for Josef
and Gabriela to sell their camera for
$40 to a Jesuit priest in order to get
to Vienna. Moreover, everybody in
that part of the world knows that a
Czechoslovak citizen had to show
only his flag or another sign indicating
who he was in order to get a
ride in the first car driving by.

The article also speaks of this
couple as "escaping" from Czechoslovakia.
In what sense could it
have been necessary to "escape" in
order to get from Bulgaria to Austria?
Both the Bulgarian-Yugoslav
and the Yugoslav-Austrian border
were open to Czechoslovaks. For a
long time, no visa has been required
for Czechoslovaks to enter or leave
Yugoslavia and an Austrian visa can
be obtained without difficulty. As
far as the Yugoslav immigration
officers are concerned, they allowed
Czechoslovaks to cross the
border to Italy and Austria even
though they did not have proper
visas.

It is certainly pleasant to start a
new life, particularly in freedom. It
is all the more pleasant to start it
with "pravda" or truth.

Concert Band

Trying not to lapse into the
usual cynicism which any such
manifestation of student laziness
and ignorance tend to evoke from
me, I feel compelled to observe that
many students missed a very enjoyable
concert by the University Concert
Band, last Sunday afternoon in
old Cabell. I do not speak to the
wealth of freethinkers at this university,
who had more vital and
stimulating things to do: watching
the tube, sleeping or stumbling
back from down the road. Surely I
am not overly optimistic in
thinking that there must be more
than the twenty-odd students who
attended that enjoy or can appreciate
such music. The performance
was highly competent and easily
enjoyable. The members of the
band, and Mr. James Simmons (the
director), obviously spend considerable
effort in practice and rehearsal;
it seems that such endeavors
are largely for their own
edification, in lieu of the scant
appreciation they receive.

I address not, then, those who
detest symphonic band music. Such
people are missing yet another
aspect of the opportunities for
learning available, and narrow their
educations even further. Many students
are missing some enjoyable
and expanding music, however.
Give the band a chance, give it a
little support. Keep it in mind -
they are here for you.

Reply To Snyder

This is intended as a reply to the
letter of Mr. Richard Snyder (10
December) who, in commending
the recent efforts of the Mary
Washington Bullet, extols the SDS
as the "true saints of today" and
declares himself "proud to be a
Christian and a member of the
SDS."

Should Mr. Snyder peruse the
preaching and deeds of Jesus, as
recorded in the synoptic gospels, he
will find that the ethical ideals and
norms he has arrogated to warrant
his leftist position are like the
proverbial two-edged sword. If, on
the one hand there is repudiation of
moral atrophy in the status quo, in
the name of God's love for all men,
there is also profound emphasis on
the ambiguity before God of every
aspect of human endeavor, including,
especially, organized religion.
The point is that those who
would emulate Jesus must be skeptical
of any human claims to speak
authoritatively and definitively for
that which Jesus called "his
heavenly Father."

It is clear that Mr. Snyder's
idolatrous, self-righteous claims for
the sanctity of the SDS and for his
own affiliation with it, are at least
as reprehensible, from the point of
view of Christian ethics, as the
pharisaic legalism which Jesus rebuked,
or the use of ecclesiastical
position and power to reinforce the
values, attitudes, and practices of
the status quo, instead of challenging
them in the name of a love
too big to find authentic expression
in individuals, groups, and institutions.

CD Mistake

The Cavalier Daily has
committed an unfortunate error in
its Wednesday issue. The story,
"Society for Disrupting Society"
was not written by me, but by
David Miller, a graduate student in
Political Philosophy. Would that I
had written it' I merely brought the
article to The Cavalier Daily office
on behalf of Mr. Miller; a mix-up in
names occurred later in the office.

Mr. Miller's story was satirical,
yet recent statements (Biafra,
Cadre, WASP Elite, etc.) in The
Cavalier Daily by SDSers and their
bedfellows have given the story a
ring of authenticity. U.Va.'s
faithful ideologies on the New Left
have once again demonstrated the
movement's capacity for fact and
reason-defying fanaticism,
wild-eyed assertions and gross
distortions of reality.

Mr. Miller is to be congratulated
for a skillful job of revealing the
absurdities of the New Left. If only
they weren't so tragic and ominous,
their rhetoric and antics would be
laughable.