Evening star., 1937-06-16
NEW BOOKS
AT RANDOM
BY MARGARET GERMOND.
IF I FORGET THEE. BY Josef Dunner

Through the experiences of Alexander
| Roth, student at the University of
| Frankfurt, the inside story of student
| life IN postwar Germany, under the
| policy OF intolerance and persecution
lndoctrinated into the system of social
| theology that has stripped human beings
| of their individualism and converted
| them into robots, is herewith unfolded
| by DR.. Josef Dunner in scholarly work
| designated as novel, 1t is in reality
| serious and impressive revelation of
| the truth by victim of the new order
| rather than a piece of fictional enter
| tainment.
Alexander Roth is one of the millions
| OF inexperienced young students who,
| arriving upon the scene of their first
conscious contact with life at a time
| when the world was still trembling from
| the shock of four years of bloodshed,
| became obsessed with the belief that
| the whole order of civilization must be
| scrapped to make way for the creation
of Utopia for which only youth pos
sessed the formula. Alexander, as he
enters the Institute of Economic Re-
search at Frankfurt, is Communist and
actively engaged as a political worker
for the party in Germany. He is also
Jew and, with his parents, is proud
of his orthodoxy.
| On the Frankfurt bound train Alex
| ander meets DeVorah Berg a medical
| student and a Zionist who believes in
| tenSely that the ideals of her race can
be restored to their rightful place in the
| religious, social and economic order of
civilization through the rebuilding of
Palestine by reintegrating Jewish in
dividualism and replanting the roots
OF nationalism deep in it's native soil
The romance which grows out of this
| chance acquaintance on a railroad train
Is destined to endure many sorrows,
though as love story it does not in
trude upon the main theme.
| Nurturlng passionate hatred for the
social and economic structure that had
| evolved through generations Of progress
ing civilization, Alexander and thou
sands OF his fellow students were con-
Verted in countless numbers to the ideals
of communism What Alexander did not
know, and what the great universities ap-
| parently have been neglecting to teach
the sef-willed students of the postwar
period, is the simple fact that mankind,
in the second era of civilization, con-
ceived the idea of a great communal
state in which all goods and all wealth
would be equally divided, only to dis
| cover that in practice it created even
worse suffering and misery than they
had ever known before among the specific
| classes that it was intended to benefit
The PruSSian government must be
| destroyed. AleXander'S political activ-
| ltleS increase as the referendum which
may result in victory for the former
| Austrian house painter draws near.
| communism must win against the NaziS
and the Steel Helmets. But before
that referendum takes place Alexander
IS beginning to doubt Some stark
truths about the experiment in Russia
have begun to filter through the Soviet
smoke screen. He is a bit older His
ability to apply logical analysis to
theoretical dreams has increased. Com
pletely disillusioned, he holds confess
sional with himself:
L thought communism would solve
the Jewish problem, my problem, all
| problems. No more swastikas, no more
hatred. no classes, no privileges. every
body equal. Peace in the world =
| and so l preach on their behalf But
they lie and lie as one of them. Didn't
1 see how the Russian masses live.
dumb-struck as in nightmare? Didn't
l see how a bureaucracy stronger than
them on leash? Where is the
freedom that I seek. that I talk about
so proudly? Freedom Of thought? Don't
l know that Jewish boys like me are
eXiled to Siberia because they want to
talk the language of their people, be-
cause they want to keep it's traditions,
because they ask for something which
other peoples are even encouraged to
take? I want justice I want to
make the weak strong But practice
is far removed from the ideal. The
leaders, like the NazS. SOW hatred.
Lenin began it. And hatred bears only
hatred. And now they want to destroy
the bit of democracy that is left in
this country. Together with the Nazis
against the Social Democrats. With the
Nazis who shout, Judah die"
With Nazi victory comes persecution
and the blood purges that shocked and
horrif1ed the peoples of the earth who
believed that barbarism was no longer
practiced in civilized countries. Alex
ander is forced to flee from Germany
with a price on his head But not be-
fore he has tasted the full flavor of the
bureaucratic power which knows no
humanity, which marks for persecution
as a Polish Jew man whose grand
whose mother was born in the Neither
rhine, who was himself born in Neuss
and had taught five years in an elemen-
tary school before enlisting as volun-
teer in the Great War.
Once OH of Germany, Alexander suf-
fers the humiliation and the hardship
which is the lot of all refugees. Even
tually he secures a commission as spe-
cial correspondent and covers a good
part of the world as writer devoted
to the problems of his race in alien
lands. Devorah, prosecuted on many
trivial charges and imprisoned for an
effort to mail medical thesis out of
Germany, eventually joins Alexander
in exile, and together they seek refuge
and peace in the few European coun-
tries which are not placarded "Jews
Not Allowed" The story closes with
the acceptance by Alexander of an in
vitation to become a professor in a
reputable American university.
Naziism, communism and fascjsm and
all the other isms parading as idealistic
cures for social evils, stripped of their
fallacies and presented in naked truth,
are not beautiful to look upon, nor are
they pleasant to mediate upon as pos
sible substitutes for true democratic
principles of government and for in
| diVidual liberty of RELIGIOUS racial and