So, African Parliament to Discuss Johannesburg Clash Between Jews and Germans

The scuffles which took place between local Jewish youths and German immigrants in a beerhall in Hillbrow, a Johannesburg suburb, will be a subject of discussion by Parliament, it was reported here today. A demand for such a discussion was presented by Gideon Jacobs, a member of the opposition. Meanwhile, the incidents occupied the attention today of Jewish leaders here and evoked a statement from the West German Embassy press attache deploring a salute to Hitler by the immigrants which led to the clashes.

Teddy Schneider, president of the South African Jewish Board of Deputies, told 5,000 participants in a Remembrance Day ceremony for the Jewish victims of the Nazi holocaust that the cataclysm created by Hitlerism must never be forgotten. He cited the Hitler salute which took place in a Hillbrow beerhall. Jewish young people went to the beerhall twice to protest. On the second visit, last Friday, police forcibly evicted the Jewish youths and then used teargas to disperse a large and unruly crowd which gathered outside the beerhall. Several arrests were made.

The press attache statement declared that the Embassy. “as much as any Jew,” deplored the Hitler salute incident. The statement blamed “irresponsible youths who were too young to experience Nazism” for exalting Germany’s Nazi past. The statement also asserted that a majority of German migrants to South Africa wanted “no truck with neo-Nazism.”

Mr. Schneider told the Holocaust Day rite that it was understandable that Jewish feelings would be aroused by such activities, especially those of Jewish youth. He added that every right-minded person deplored violence but that when such incidents as the salute to Hitler took place, the authorities should act against “incipient Nazism.” The event was held at the Jewish communal monument to Martyred European Jewry at Westpark Cemetery here.