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The Correspondent
BY CHARLENE LOUIS
Skokians breathe massive sigh of relief
AS I drove into Downtown Skokie around noon,
Sunday, June 25, I was delighted to find it was a typical Sunday afternoon.
There were parishioners
coming out of St. Peter’s
Catholic Church, people
stopping to buy newspapers get something to eat,
and windowshop on Oakton.
Nearly everyone your
Correspondent stopped to
chat with was pleased and
relieved there would be no
Nazi stormtroopers
marching in front of village hall, counterdemonstrators, confrontation or
CHARLENE LOUIS
violence.
A few people even
laughed as we watched a camera crew taking pictures
of the deserted front of village hall. There would be
slim pickings for the television this day.
Driving through the village parking lot on my way
to Niles East high school, where a giant counterdemonstration had been originally scheduled, I found
Vernon Anderson the only soul around. Anderson, who
lives about four blocks from village hall was reading
the Sunday paper.
HE TOLD me he had been concerned about violence erupting in town because of the march but he
said he counted on the police and the troops (the Illinois National Guard was to be called in) to prevent
trouble. He added, if the march had still been on, it
was too bad the heavy morning rains hadn’t continued,
because then the march might have been rained out.
Driving east on Lincoln, I noticed a few cars and a
small van parked in front of the high school. Were
some people still planning to hold a counterdemonstration, I wondered?
Close to a dozen people were ready to participate
in a Nazi protest. Most of them had come from Chicago and were members of the Young Workers Liberation League. There were a couple of blacks from
Chicago hoping to join in the counterdemonstration.
ONE NEW York member of the league was pointed out to me, as Jay Schaffner, a former Skokian. We
talked for a few minutes about his memories of Niles
North and then he bragged about having run for national office on the Communist party ticket.
The group soon left and I stopped to talk to Jerry
Kasper, who lives across from the school and had been
planning to attend the counterrally.
Kasper said he was very glad the Nazi march was
called off because of his fear of violence. He said he
had been trying to put himself in the position of Nazi
concentration camp survivors.
For them, he said: “It had to be either stay away
or kill the Nazis. I was told by survivors they wouldn’t
stay away.”
Kasper also echoed two sentiments repeated to me
over and over on Sunday: Support for the way village
officials, and particularly Mayor Albert Smith, fought
to prevent the Nazi march here and anger at the media for making the march a world-wide event.
RETURNING TO the Lincoln-Oakton area, I wandered into a beauty parlor at 7933 Lincoln. Waiting to
talk to the owner, I was hailed by a women sitting under a dryer, Nitsa Psyhogios, wife of the owner of the
Desiree restaurant, on corner of Lincoln and Oakton.
She recognized me from many late Monday night visits to the resaurant after Skokie village board meetings.
Psyhogios was eager to talk about her reaction to
the Nazis not coming to Skokie. She lived in Greece,
when it was occupied by Nazis during World War II.
“They know how to hurt people,” she said with
uthorit y .
She said she couldn’t blame Skokie people for
wanting to keep Nazis from marching here.
“Thank God they are not coming,” she exclaimed.
“If they had marched here today with their uniforms and swastikas, I don’t know if I could have taken it myself.”
DESIREE WAS one of the businesses along Oakton
that was advised by Skokie police to board up their
windows if the march took place.
Entering into the conversation, Nick Frangos,
owner of the beauty parlor, added his feeling of relief
about cancellation of the march.
“I couldn’t have been open for business today,” he
said. “I wpuld have boarded up, too, even though no
one said I had to.”
Continuing my tour of the area, I talked to Adolph
Pawlan, He said he couldn’t see any good coming from
having the march.
“The Nazis got exactly when they wanted - publicity,” he said with regret. “But somebody has to
fight them,” he concluded. “Hitler started out with
only 20 followers in Germany.”
I also found a few people who favored fighting Nazis - members of the Jewish Defense League and others waiting for buses to return them to their homes in
the New York area.
Among the group was Esther Berman, the New
Jersey nurse who was arrested on Saturday by Chicago police at the rally the Nazis held in Chicago’s Loop.
She said a Chicago magistrate told her to go home and
mail back a $10 fine.
Berman told me she plans to come back for the
July 9 march the Nazis are planning to hold in Marquette park in Chicago. She made it clear she favors
death for the Nazis.
Not everyone agreed. Lillian Weisberger, daughter
of concentration camp survivors, said she was here
“not to kill, but to be counted because she had lived
through the Holocaust with her parents, seeing the
pain in their eyes.”
I REALLY feel the majority of Nazi protesters
want just that - to be counted among the thousand
putting the world on notice. They are ready to oppose
Nazism and all it stands for.
I’m glad we weren’t put to the test in Skokie.
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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Attempted Nazi March in Skokie, 1977 and 1978, Digital Collection
Description
An account of the resource
<p>During the late 1970s, a small group of neo-Nazis based in Chicago attempted to hold a rally in the Village of Skokie, Illinois, a community that was known to have a large Jewish population. Local officials resisted the group’s efforts through by passing a series of ordinances aimed at preventing demonstrations or parades by hate groups. The ordinances were ultimately overturned following a series of state and federal lawsuits because they infringed on the group’s First Amendment rights and the neo-Nazis were issued a permit to demonstrate in Skokie. However, instead of facing the growing number of organized counter-demonstrators, the group held rallies in Federal Plaza and in Marquette Park in Chicago. <br /><br />Visit <a title="Attempted Nazi March in Skokie" href="https://skokiehistory.omeka.net/exhibits/show/attempted-nazi-march/timeline">Skokie Public Library's online exhibit</a> to see the events as they unfolded. The library's digital collection, seen here, includes newspaper articles, editorials, recordings from the Skokie Village Board of Trustees meetings, a memoir written by a local clergywoman, and two documentary films.</p>
<p>For further information, you can find more resources in the library. If you have questions or comments send us an <a title="email Skokie Public Library" href="mailto:tellus@skokielibrary.info">email </a>or call us at 847-673-3733.</p>
Relation
A related resource
<h3><a title="Attempted Nazi March in Skokie" href="https://skokiehistory.omeka.net/exhibits/show/attempted-nazi-march/timeline">Attempted Nazi March in Skokie online exhibit</a></h3>
Subject
The topic of the resource
Skokie History
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Skokie Public Library
Text
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
The Correspondent : Skokians breath massive sigh of relief
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Louis, Charlene
Abstract
A summary of the resource.
Columnist describes the day of the cancelled National Socialist Party of America (Nazi) march in Skokie. Includes interviews with Skokie residents and others who turned up for a possible counterdemonstration.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
6/29/1978
Subject
The topic of the resource
Demonstrations -- Illinois -- Skokie
National Socialist Party of America
Anderson, Vernon
Berman, Esther
Frangos, Nick
Kasper, Jerry
Pawlan, Adolph
Psyhogios, Nitsa
Wiesberger, Lillian
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
Skokie Life, Thursday, June 29, 1978, Lerner Community Newspapers, Lincolnwood, IL
Rights Holder
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©Lerner Publications
Rights
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In Copyright http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
Identifier
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isl780629c.pdf
Language
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eng
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1970s (1970-1979)
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Skokie Public Library, Reference Department
editorials and opinions
newspaper clippings