The File by San Charles Haddad

Author:San Charles Haddad
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: N/A
Publisher: Post Hill Press
Published: 2020-01-30T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 9

The Newspaper Incident

1.

While Yosef Yekutieli was preparing to send athletes to India, Waldo Heinrichs was instead dealing with the nefarious Nazi presence at the Jerusalem YMCA. On January 16, 1934, Heinrichs met with the German group advocating for the subscription to the Völkischer Beobachter and the paper’s inclusion in the Jerusalem YMCA Reading Room. Dr. Gruelin agreed to see Dr. Rohrer and Liebmann about it that night.1 Dr. Herbert Rohrer was a thirty-one-year-old teacher in Jerusalem.2 Heinrichs was unaware that he had formally applied to the Nazi Party in 1933 and was two weeks away from being admitted as a formal member.3 He lived in the German Colony and became the Vice-Ortsgruppe Leader in Jerusalem. Liebmann, who had written the original letter requesting the Nazi paper, was another teacher who allegedly became a party member in the spring of 1934, although his membership number is unknown.4

Heinrichs had been dreading the next meeting of the Library Committee because of the intense and bitter feeling created by the Nazi paper.5 Heinrichs felt the Jews were right to object and knew that it would make it impossible for them to cooperate with the Association. But the Germans considered it a point of honor that Jews would not force them into the position of giving way by a threat of resignation. The Germans, in turn, threatened to resign if they did not get their way. In the meeting, Heinrichs said that International Committee in New York wanted goodwill and for no action to work against this goal. Dr. Tawfiq Canaan felt that his honor was affected, resigned from the committee, and abruptly left the room. Heinrichs was sure there had been a misunderstanding. The meeting ended without any decision. MacDonald felt that Canaan had jumped off the deep end and added deliberately to the trouble.6 Heinrichs went to see Canaan but was unable to reconcile him.

The deterioration with the Germans seemed to extend beyond the newspaper issue. Theodor Fast,7 owner of the Fast Hotel, was also upset that the Jerusalem YMCA’s hostel was cutting him out of his share of hotel guests in the city. He objected to the YMCA taking women and tourists unrelated to their business. Heinrichs simply gave him his viewpoint on the matter and moved on to the other German members of the Association. They were meeting to discuss the newspaper question. Heinrichs asked Friedrich Lorenz, an employee of the Syrian Orphanage,8 to get him invited to their meeting so that he could share the YMCA point of view.9 He did not know that Lorenz had also applied to the Nazi Party and was about to become an official member.10 Lorenz was supposed to call Heinrichs at a quarter past eight in the evening but he never called. Dorothy Heinrichs felt that the German group was afraid. Oh, how she was wrong. Within five weeks, her husband would be on a boat back to New York.

The following morning, Lorenz came back to Heinrichs with an ultimatum.11 Twenty-five Germans had

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