Issue link: https://viewer.e-digitaledition.com/i/867410
86 August 31 • 2017 jn Hebrew Free Loan has been providing interest-free loans since 1895. It started in the backroom of a shoemaker's store but soon outgrew the space. By the 1930s, it had an office on East Kirby in Detroit, where this photograph was taken. The 1930s saw an increase in demand, between the Great Depression and Jews fleeing Europe. Some of the most needed items included a mode of transportation, housing and funds to book passage from Europe for family members still stranded. • looking back T he front page of the Sept. 4, 1942, issue had several headlines, but one very large feature. It was an image of a certificate to the JN from the United States Treasury Department for "distinguished services rendered in behalf of the National War Savings Program." It is good to know the JN did its part to achieve victory in World War II. There were, of course, other war-related head- lines on the front page as well as stories on the same topic inside. One brief item was about a subject still controversial today and a source of great debate among historians. An editorial argues that the conclusion from "reliable diplomatic and religious sources" was that Pope Pius XII had taken a firm stand against "atrocities perpetrated by the Hitlerites." In the editorial, it was reported that the Pope had threatened to remove his nuncio, or rep- resentative, from Germany. Pope Pius XII maintained formal diplomatic relations with all the Axis powers during the war and provided clandestine support for the opponents of the Nazis as well as for their vic- tims. He was in a tough spot, to be sure. When the Church openly supported a group of rabbis in Poland early after that nation was occupied, those particular rabbis were rounded-up by the Nazis and sent to concentration camps. But the question remains and is debat- able — did he do enough? As a world reli- gious leader, should the pope have taken a stronger stand? Or would this have resulted in even more deaths? Was he better off working behind the scenes? Rabbis in Italy thanked him for his efforts. I am not an expert in this historical field, but I know that I certainly would not want to have been in his position. • Want to learn more? Go to the DJN Foundation archives, available for free at www.djnfoundation.org. From the DJN Davidson Digital Archive Photographer, Grossman-Knowling, Inc. Courtesy Leonard N. Simons Jewish Community Archives. Historic photos are curated by the Jewish Historical Society of Michigan. Mike Smith Detroit Jewish News Foundation Archivist