Special Report Fear Expressed That Most of the 1000 Jews Who Have Disappeared in Argentina May Be De

Two officials of the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith expressed the fear today that most of the more than 1000 Jews that have disappeared in Argentina over the last three years may be dead.

Benjamin Epstein, who retired recently as the long-time national director of the ADL, and Rabbi Morton Rosenthal, director of the ADL’s Latin American Affairs Department, said in an interview with the Jewish telegraphic Agency that in particular there was little chance that those missing for long periods were alive.

Since the military junta overthrew the government of Isabella Peron in March 1976, some 20,000 Argentineans have disappeared from their homes, according to Rosenthal. He said while some of them were arrested most were “kidnapped” by secret intelligence squads set up to wipe out leftist guerillas.

These squads, wearing civilian clothes and using unmarked cars, have taken persons from their homes, to interrogation centers or to several detention camps in the country where their prisoners are tortured. Bodies have frequently been found on beaches or on river banks with the heads and hands severed to prevent identification.

Rosenthal said that while many of those arrested include people the government of President Jorge Videla considers subversive, many others are arrested for no reason other than that they were friends of someone who had been arrested.

“Jews are not specifically targeted as Jews.” Rosenthal stressed. “However, the security agents tend to be suspicious of Jews.” The security forces, which include many Nazis, also treat Jews worse than other prisoners, Rosenthal noted. He said prisoners who are released are more likely to be non-Jews.

PLIGHT OF THE FAMILIES

Epstein, who is now executive vice president of the ADL Foundation, recently visited Argentina and said what he found saddest was the families of the missing people. They cannot accept the probability that most of the prisoners are dead, he said, despite the evidence of the bodies that have been found.

The relatives continue to believe strongly that their children, husband or wife are still alive, Epstein said. He said many Jews told him that the American Jewish community could help. They pointed to the efforts for Soviet Jews, Epstein noted.

Both Epstein and Rosenthal said U.S. Jews could help by writing President Carter, the Argentine Ambassador to the United States, and their Senators and Representatives. They noted efforts have been mode by the State Department, the ADL and other Jewish organizations, Catholic and Protestant groups, and other international groups, concerned with human rights. The inter-American Commission on Human Rights, an organ of the Organization of American States, plans to hold hearings in Argentina in May.

The DAIA, the representative body of Argentine Jewry, has made appeals for individual Jews. The most active group in Argentina is the Permanent Assembly on Human Rights which includes Jews among its members. There are also Jews among the “Plaza Mothers,” the group of women who walk silently in downtown Buenos Aires to publicize their missing sons. Recently, 13 of these women, including three nuns, disappeared.

ADL CITES CASES

Rosenthal noted that relatives of prisoners have frequently turned to the ADL for help. He said the ADL was able to compile a list of more than 1000 Jews missing through the help of relatives in Argentina, Israel, the United States and elsewhere. A group of Argentineans in Israel asked Rosenthal for help in finding their missing relatives.

In some cases, the ADL, by making inquiries to the Argentine government, has been able to secure the release of prisoners. One such case was the Deutsch family–Alejandro, 58, Elena, 57, Susana, 23, Elsa Elizabeth, 29 and Liliana, 19, who were kidnapped from their home in Cordoba in 1977 and were freed after an international campaign was launched. They are now living in Los Angeles.

The most celebrated case is that of Jacobo Timerman, the editor and publisher of La Opinion who is under house arrest in Buenos Aires but is not allowed to leave the country although the Argentine Supreme Court has found no grounds for holding him. Many believe that Timerman, who was kidnapped from his home in April 1977, would not be alive if it were not for the international pressure brought on his behalf.

Rosenthal noted another case, that of Jaime Lokman, a Cordoba automobile dealer, who was taken away on the day of the coup in 1976 and has not been heard from since. He is probably the longest-term Jewish prisoner.

GOVERNMENT MUST TAKE RESPONSIBILITY

Epstein and Rosenthal noted that the Argentine government has gone out of its way to deny it is anti-Semitic. Videla has even denied responsibility for the kidnappings. Some observers have claimed each of the three armed services in Argentina has its own hit teams. They point to the discovery last January of Elena Holmberg’s body. A diplomat and close friend of the President, she was killed six months after she returned from Paris where she had been part of the Argentine government’s public relations campaign to deny charges of human rights violations. Many believed she was killed because she learned something about one of the generals in the junta while in Paris.

However, Rosenthal said the government must take responsibility for what is happening in Argentina. He said while the kidnapping has been decried no one has been arrested.

Rosenthal and Epstein noted that there is some effort now at controlling kidnappings. The number decreased in recent months. But Rosenthal said he hoped the government would now identify the prisoners who are being held in the detention camps and that they will either be released or allowed to exercise the “option, “which all prisoners held without charge have in Argentina, that of leaving the country.

Argentina “has great potential” as a country if it returns to law and order, Rosenthal stressed. He said Jews have been in Argentina a long time and they can and want to have a share in helping Argentina reach its potential.