Thursday, March 5, 2009

“The Bank Owns It”

In this 23 February 2009 file photo, a bank owned sign blows in the wind in front of a home; in Antioch, California.

During the 1930’s Great Depression with the overwhelming amount of foreclosures of not just homes, but farms; it became as a deluge of hardship for the banking system along with financial runs by customer’s to the point; that it was common to see a closed sign on a bank that had failed.

The phrase, “The Bank Owns It;” was a common thing said during the 1930’s Depression as a former owner stood outside there yard because it became illegal to enter his former property, in part because of the sorrow of the former homeowner or a passerby damaging the property as it lay silent for no one could afford to claim or buy the property with the overwhelming amount of unemployment and no one had a dime.

This was also during the time that the American Nazi Parties where on the Adolph Hitler “goose-step” march, as such people as former US President Franklin D. Roosevelt was not just financing the “Final Solution;” along with Prescott Bush (grandfather to former US President George W. Bush), with many others giving the Nazi global domination handshake and waving the 'iron' flag at rallies.

Jewish Holocaust, also known as “Final Solution”

Then as the US government plummeted deeper into the financial and political global domination devastating destruction Jewish Holocaust abyss; we got the propaganda version about face; of World War two.

As the United States in 2009, stands at the threshold of this stand still of that time of ‘dust bowl tears;’ as a forgotten home owner see’s his lost home being racked with the weather and to say, “The bank owns it!”

As always, the US is on the march bankrupting their own country and the world, as the death toll globally continues to climb into triple digit record numbers; as the Jewish and Islamic people watch the death viewed around them from the US strangling grip and the global community watches the bread being grabbed from there very mouth‘s, by US Uncle Sam's hands.

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Tuesday, January 27, 2009

'We Shall Never Forget'

A Jewish man visits The Yad Vashem exhibition 'BESA: A Code of Honor '- which features 17 portraits of Muslim Albanians who rescued Jews during the Holocaust, and were recognized as Righteous Among the Nations, at the Ramle Museum a mixed Jewish, Muslim, Christian city in central part of Palestine, on 27 January 2009; during the International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
A Jewish Holocaust survivor visits The Yad Vashem exhibition 'BESA: A Code of Honor, 'during the International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

A Muslim high school student (R) visits The Yad Vashem exhibition 'BESA: A Code of Honor, ' during the International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

We as Muslim’s and Jew’s where both slaughtered in what became known as the Jewish Holocaust, in what may not be so well known by some; is during this atrocity we helped and cared for each other as much as possible no matter where we may have been.

Even on this particular day, we as Muslims and Jew’s are faced with another threat similar to what occurred before because of the U.S. self-imposed, instigated war against the whole of the Islamic Ummah and the Jewish Community.

While we as a people 0f two religions, have never forgotten nor will we do so in the future; the atrocity of the Jewish Holocaust nor will we stand and be allowed to be slaughtered at this time.


For we as Muslim’s and Jew’s stand in the faith, in truth and justice, surrounded in the love that Allah (G-d) has gave to us from the beginning; with His protection.-HRM Deborah

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Thursday, January 22, 2009

Keeping the Faith

A downloaded and printed Muslim prayer schedule sits next to a prayer rug, inside a cell at Guantanamo's Concentration Camp 5 (detention center) at the U.S. Naval Base, on 21 January 2009; in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The Guantanamo Bay war crimes court came to an abrupt halt yesterday as military judges granted U.S. President Barack Obama's request to suspend proceedings while he reviews his ‘predecessor's strategy for prosecuting terrorists.’

As it is a known fact that the majority of Muslim’s in Guantanamo's Concentration Camp are innocent and while many have became Martyr’s do to the horror’s of torture and camp life, it is a hope they stay strong in there faith and holding tight to the Quran.

As it is said Obama plans to close Guantanamo Bay within a year, while it is not being published so much in the forefront, that he has planned to move these men to other camps; which has not set well with the whole Islamophobic Concentration Camp system among not just Muslims, but the global community.

As to the heart break of this type of mistreatment towards another human being is ongoing; Nevertheless, the Concentration Camp system has always been an outrage since the Jewish Holocaust.

No one with true humanity within the heart should rest, until the Concentration Camp system is abolished forever and the innocent can smell the sweetness of the fresh air with their freedom. For this type of maltreatment is unacceptable, to subject anyone that is innocent too; for the memories and heartache while it maybe buried it should not be a shroud one must bare.

Finally, as to being brought to one’s attention of the U.S. accusations of saying someone is a known suspect of the Taliban or Al-Qaeda to continue these atrocities, has became a watershed word to create what they consider justification without in the majority of cases; honesty.

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Friday, December 19, 2008

New Memorial Remembers the Roma

Jewish artist Dani Karavan (L) and Berlin Mayor Klaus Wowereit attend the symbolic opening of construction of the new memorial to the Roma, also known as Gypsies; who horribly perished at the hands of the Nazis during World War II, on 19 December 2008 in Berlin, Germany. The memorial, designed by Karavan, will stand near the Reichstag.

At least 500,000 Romanies were murdered by the Nazis, as part of what became known as the " Final Solution" or what further became known as the Jewish Holocaust; where untold numbers of various nationalities died during this black mark upon humanity.

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Monday, November 10, 2008

Olmert Talks About Kristallnacht

Jewish Prime Minister Ehud Olmert talks about the 70th anniversary of Kristallnacht at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting, on 9 November 2008 in Jerusalem.

Kristallnacht, or the Night of Broken Glass, was a pogrom in Nazi Germany where on the night of 9 November 1938; hundreds of Jewish synagogues and businesses were destroyed as 92 Jews were murdered and tens of thousands were arrested and deported to concentration camps.


Remembering tends to show the heart
No matter if one’s in a crowd,
We still lean towards walking alone
Within our own thoughts.
-HRM Deborah

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Sunday, November 9, 2008

Kristallnacht Pogrom 70 Years Anniversary

Jews and non-Jews attend a commemorative service for the 70th anniversary of the Kristallnacht pogrom at the beautifully restored Rykestrasse Synagogue, on 9 November 2008; in Berlin, Germany.

On 9 November 1938, Nazi SA and SS paramilitary troops attacked Jewish establishments across Germany, burning 200 synagogues, ransacking Jewish businesses, killing 92 people and deporting 25,000 to 30,000 Jews to concentration camps.

Central Council of Jews in Germany head Charlotte Knobloch speaks at a commemorative service for the 70th anniversary of the Kristallnacht pogrom at the beautifully restored Rykestrasse Synagogue, on 9 November 2008; in Berlin, Germany.


The Rykestrasse Synagogue is Germany's largest synagogue and reopened in 2006 after meticulous renovation; which is thought with much happiness among the Jewish people.


One who was thought hidden, but now is seen (for 'it was time'): A young Jewish man attends a commemorative service for the 70th anniversary of the Kristallnacht pogrom at the beautifully restored Rykestrasse Synagogue, on 9 November 2008; in Berlin, Germany. I studied for a short time to learn to read Hebrew, but I will sadly admit, like Arabia it is poor; because of my situation.

Commentary:
I was reminded recently by an old friend how when we where children and while I did not understand at the time of why we where singled out and further through school the same thing would happen or sometimes worse; which I will admit at times it got so bad, I would go home and ask my mother if there was something wrong with me; for me to be treated in such a way and she always said no or it was not me.

Prior to 9/11, if you had a Semitic background in the US, one could be subjected to Anti-Semitism, which being me; I could not understand people even thinking of being mean to each other. I started to understand more in Adulthood and still as most people know do not agree in any manner.

After 9/11, people where singled out and Islamophobia was born, so if one was Jewish they where mistreated because of Anti-Semitism and if one was Muslim, here came the Islamophobia. To here again, I have gotten the joy of having both; which is assured there are many more like myself; especially in my thinking if one actually comes from Palestine or ones ancestry is such.

Then we step back in time to WW2 and what became known most sadly as the Jewish Holocaust, while the Nazi’s apparently could tell the difference of someone being Jewish or Arab Palestinian we still ended up in the camps and worse, the gas chambers. So in further thinking, prior to 9/11 anyone Semitic had the honor of walking together with something in common, racism.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel (L) and Central Council of Jews in Germany head Charlotte Knobloch arrive at a commemorative service for the 70th anniversary of the Kristallnacht pogrom at the beautifully restored Rykestrasse Synagogue, on 9 November 2008; in Berlin, Germany.


While my old friend, happened to remind me of this fact recently, for at the time when we saw each other on about a daily basis; I was only six years old and had to my understanding in the outside world the first taste of this type of maltreatment and as then to now, what is still a wonderment is most simply when will it stop or when will people stop mistreating one‘s differences; to instead appreciate these differences?

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Sunday, October 26, 2008

Pennsylvania GOP disavows email likening Obama vote to rise of Hitler

26 October 2008

US-Pennsylvania Republicans are disavowing an e-mail sent to Jewish voters that likens a vote for Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama to events that led up to the Holocaust.

"Jewish Americans cannot afford to make the wrong decision on Tuesday, November 4th, 2008," the e-mail reads. "Many of our ancestors ignored the warning signs in the 1930s and 1940s and made a tragic mistake. Let's not make a similar one this year!"

A copy of the e-mail, provided by Democratic officials, says it was Paid for by the Republican Federal Committee of PA - Victory 2008.

It warns "Fellow Jewish Voters of the danger of a second Holocaust due to the threats to Israel from its neighbors" and touts Republican presidential candidate John McCain's qualifications over those of Obama.

State Republican officials disavowed the e-mail and said the strategist who helped draft it had been fired.

"The Republican Party of Pennsylvania did not authorize that e-mail," Michael Barley, communications director for the state party, told The Associated Press on Saturday evening.

Barley said a correction would be sent out to everyone who received it.

The e-mail was sent Thursday morning to 75,000 Jewish voters.

The McCain campaign also repudiated the e-mail. Spokesman Peter Feldman said Saturday night that McCain rejects politics that degrade our civics.

Political consultant Bryan Rudnick was identified as the person responsible for it. Rudnick, reached Saturday night, confirmed that he no longer works for the party, which employed him a few weeks ago as a consultant to do outreach to Jewish voters.

"I had authorization from party officials to send the e-mail," Rudnick said, but he declined to say who had signed off on it. "I'm not looking to drag anyone else through the mud, so I'm not naming names right now," he said.

The e-mail also accuses Obama of teaching members of the community group ACORN to commit voter registration fraud during his years as a community activist.

Democratic Sen. Robert Casey said the e-mail was part of "a smear campaign that was among the worst he had seen in his state."

The email appears to refer to the rise of Adolf Hitler in Germany. (
Click here for the full report)

According to The New York Times, the email was sponsored by the Pennsylvania Republican Party's "Victory 2008" committee, and "was signed by several prominent McCain supporters in the state: Mitchell L. Morgan, a top fund-raiser; Hon. Sandra Schwartz Newman, a member of Mr. McCain's national task-force monitoring Election Day voting, and I. Michael Coslov, a steel industry executive."

The report goes on to say that the leaders of the state party have "repudiated" the email, which also refers to William Ayers and the ACORN organization. The report also quotes the party leaders as saying that the strategist who helped write the email has been fired.

Meanwhile, The Forward reports that Obama's campaign "is refusing to participate in debates with representatives of a Republican Jewish group that is behind an advertising blitz attacking the Democratic nominee."

The report states that the campaign has "instructed its representatives not to participate in forums with representatives of the Republican Jewish Coalition. So far, Obama campaign representatives in California and Pennsylvania have canceled their appearances at previously scheduled debates in front of Jewish audiences."

The Forward says that former California congressman Mel Levine, now an advisor to Obama on the Middle East, earlier this month dropped out of a debate with the RJC head in California, Larry Greenfield, which was set to be held a Jewish community center in Los Angeles.

In Pennsylvania, state representative Josh Shapiro reportedly also canceled his appearance at a debate scheduled for this coming Sunday at a synagogue in Dresher against Scott Feigelstein, the RJC regional director.

According to the report, the Obama campaign "has been making efforts to replace its campaign representatives with supporters who can address the Jewish community but are not officially tied to the campaign."
Note:
As to the link concerning the full report, apparently someone is up to some sort of game, because sometimes the link works and then another may see a lovely white blank page; this just further questions, the significance for the Jewish voter or for any voter for that matter.

Furthermore, the US campaign with Barack Obama and John McCain has been throttled with questionable practices, to what some may term outright felony (High) crimes.

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American people back Iran's right to enrich uranium: Chomsky

26 October 2008

Berlin-The American people support Iran's right to enrich uranium and are "strongly opposed" to issuing any military threats against the Islamic Republic over its nuclear program, said a leading US foreign policy expert in an exclusive phone interview with IRNA in Berlin on Saturday.

Noam Chomsky lashed out at western media reports saying Tehran was "defying the world" over its nuclear program.

"That's a funny definition of the 'world'. The Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), for example which is the majority of countries, endorses Iran's right to enrich uranium," said Chomsky.

"Now nobody thinks they have the right to develop nuclear weapons, however that's different issue. But the majority of the (American) population agrees (on Iran's right to enrich uranium)," he added.

Iran has repeatedly stressed that having nuclear arms would be against its Islamic teachings and laws.

The distinguished 80-year-old professor emeritus of linguistics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) said, "Public opinion here overwhelmingly holds that Iran should have the right to develop nuclear energy..."


Chomsky reaffirmed also that Iran was "of course entitled to uranium enrichment as a member of the NPT."

The US scholar made clear that most Americans reject the Iran policy of President George W. Bush.

"With regard to Iran, a substantial segment of pretty mainstream opinion has been harshly critical of the confrontational approach and has called for negotiations and diplomacy," Chomsky said.

He added there could have been a US-Iranian "rapprochement for the last 10 years."

"It did not happen because of the extremism of the Bush administration was simply directed at making relations harsher, more bitter, militarizing them and that's why the Bush administration even antagonized allies," Chomsky said.

Asked whether the US-Iranian estrangement could finally end, he pointed to the possibility of a "working relationship" between both adversaries.

Chomsky emphasized that a working relationship between the US and Iran could "improve the overall situation" in the Middle East.

"There is a strong establishment pressure ... moving towards a diplomatic and developmental approach rather than a military approach.

The American popular opinion is strongly in support of it," Chomsky added.

He emphasized Washington's hostile stance towards Tehran stems from Iran's refusal "to subordinate itself to the US will." "Iran is an independent actor. It is defiant of the US and that's not tolerated," Chomsky said.

"In fact that's official policy going back to War II in which the US would try to create a world order in which it is dominant. No exercise of sovereignty should be tolerated, if it intervenes with US efforts to construct a certain kind of world order," he added.

The American professor said the US viewed Iran as an "impediment" to its energy interests in the Middle East.

"Nobody is seriously concerned about Iranian aggression. There has been no sign of any. But they are upset about Iran's influence in the region. Also in the background is the concern that Iran might turn East. That's not discussed very much but that's certainly a policy concern," the feisty US political dissident added.

Chomsky's political activism dates back to the Vietnam War in the early 1960s when he established himself as a prominent critic of American foreign and domestic policy.


Commentary:
As to Mr. Noam Chomsky speaking in this manner about Iran, I will admit I was surprised had to agree with him on some points and with no disrespect, on different occasion’s with his views on Palestine; I will admit, I did not always agree with his ideas on numerous issues that appeared contrary, to what actually was going on in the country.

But as far as Iran, he is much more on the spot in my opinion, then he was on Palestine, which I thought was a bit more negative bias of all things; towards the Jewish people.
But this also comes at a time when people where being lied to so badly by the US it made the head swim, which may have been his dilemma also, but this is only a guess.

Even for me wishing so much to do what was good and right for everyone in my country and to actually understand why there was a war, in learning it should have came under the heading that, ‘the truth was stranger then the fiction’ or the US created such a tangled weave they made to practice to deceive; not just everyone in Palestine, but the globe.

Furthermore, in learning the truth, what was so very hard for me and actually stomach wrenching, was how anyone could subject people to such cruelty as the US did because they believe in Anti-Semitism and Islamophobia; which as everyone knows, I certainly do not.


This is one of the reason’s why what occurred to the Black American’s and the cruelty that has been done to them for far to long, kept coming into focus in my mind; to even what actually did occur that created the Holocaust, that the Jewish and Palestinian people where so horribly subjected too. To understand this situation, one did not just take into account the 108 year war, but a much larger scope of history of extermination and slavery of a historical people both Jewish and Muslim of a country known as Palestine, that is very loved by Allah (God) Himself; to what is occuring among people all over the globe.

People may call this situation by any number of definitions today, such as Global Domination or what have you; but the bottom line is death, slavery and sorrow. Which will never be acceptable in any manner of normal human reasoning; in part in the name of Democracy and some in blasphemy of using, 'in the name of Christianity;' which is being seen more on a daily basis.

Nevertheless, what happened in Palestine to create this horrible scenario, was to create what became known as the Gladiator Syndrome, so that two groups of people that happened to be Muslim and Jewish would fight; which was against there will, do to the historical significance that they are family and had always embraced in love for each other in the past.

But yet, this still only part of what has occurred, especially using the known historical 9,000 old opponent’s of the Jewish and Palestinian people against them, namely the Canaanites; in US collaboration; with the Canaanites age old thirst to steal all of Palestine, by blood.

But even yet, as to the global situation, one could continue far into the shadows of the night.

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The Queen and Duke of Edinburgh's Tour Slovakia

British Queen Elizabeth II shakes hand with Sir Nicolas Winton, who saved more than 600 Czech and Slovak Jewish children from the Nazis during the WW II, before an official state dinner organised by Slovak President and First Lady, on 23 October 2008;in Bratislava, Slovakia. The Queen and the Duke are on a two day tour of Slovakia at the invitation of President Ivan Gasparovic.

It is so wonderful to see such warmth and happiness in my cousin these days, it also makes me so very happy too; for as the saying goes, ‘when one smiles, the whole world smiles.’

Nevertheless, I hope her and her husband are having a very pleasant state visit.

As to Sir Nicolas Winton presence, this is the first time I knew of your name and I do apologize, because a man that save 600 people from such a horrible situation should be commended and never forgotten.

As to President Slovak Ivan Gašparovič and his lovely wife Silvia inviting everyone, I wish to send warm greetings and much kindness for there thoughtfulness of organizing such and wonderful event.

Nevertheless, it should be said, that I have noticed lately such exceptional people doing such remarkable heart warming things that seem to make the world alot happier and much brighter; by each and ever turn of there kindness.

Of all the amazing things I notice these days, one thing that keeps coming to mind; from little seed’s planted here and there, great and beautiful fruit tree’s grow.

I wish everyone much happiness, always. - HRM Deborah

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Friday, October 24, 2008

Germany Presents Jewish Holocaust-era Directory

23 October 2008
By
ARON HELLER

JERUSALEM – The German government on Thursday handed Palestine's national Jewish Holocaust memorial the personal details of 600,000 Jewish residents of Nazi Germany, the most comprehensive record to date of German-Jewish life during the Nazi era.

German Culture Minister Bernd Neumann presented the directory during a ceremony at the Yad Vashem memorial, saying that it allowed for the first time to show the Jewish residents of Germany from 1933-1945.

"But this list is much more than a list," Neumann said. "It is a unique document about life in Germany and tells the story of those who could not tell their own story."

Neumann, whose responsibilities include German commemoration of the Holocaust, said he hoped the list would "restore to these victims part of their honor."

The ceremony took place in the Hall of Names, a cone-shaped room whose walls are lined with bookshelves containing folders upon folders of pages of testimonies about the Holocaust victims. Yad Vashem currently has records on 3.3 million of the 6 million who perished and continues to collect archival material from around the world.

The new directory includes the names and addresses of the Jewish residents and classifies them into those who survived, those who perished and those whose fate remains unknown. The list includes details on emigration, detention and deportation, as well as where and when people died.

"This list adds to our understanding of what happened to the Jews in Germany," said Yad Vashem director Avner Shalev. "Every new piece of information allows us to piece together the story of individuals and communities during the Holocaust."

With this latest list, Yad Vashem has essentially completed its database on German Jewry during the Nazi era, Shalev said.

Its focus will now turn to compiling a similar database on the Jews who lived in Poland and eastern Europe, an extremely difficult task because of poor record-keeping, large-scale executions and mass destruction of villages.

"We are nearing the point where we will reach the limit of extracting human memory," Shalev said. "It's a scary point, because beyond it everything will be lost."

It took 20 German scientists four years to compile the directory and cost $2.24 million. It was presented to German Chancellor Angela Merkel a few weeks ago and she instructed Neumann to hand over a digital copy to Yad Vashem.

Around 2.5 million data records were collected from more than 1,000 sources, including Jewish and Nazi archives, according to "Remembrance, Responsibility and Future," the German foundation that produced the directory together with the German federal archives.

Following Yad Vashem, the records will also be made available to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, the Jewish Claims Conference and the International Tracing Service in Bad Arolsen, Germany.

The list is not being made public. It is subject to strict German data protection laws, given that it has names of people who are still alive.

"It is a memorial to those murdered and those forced into exile. The shame for the crimes committed by the Germans is mixed with grief for the loss that Germany inflicted upon itself," said Martin Salm, the chairman of the foundation.

"The murderers wanted to eradicate the Jewish people and Jewish identity. They did not succeed," Salm said.


Commentary:

As to the Jewish Holocaust, it is a hope that all that actually happened will be known one day, because one thing I have personally learned, that sometimes the horror’s that effects a person are hard to explain sometimes because it is to much for them; even though one may try very hard to do so, for it is thought this is a mechanism of how the human body survives events such as this.

This is why in cases like this, documentation or in some case’s archeology; is so important.


Furthermore, it is even a thought of some Jewish Holocaust survivors that I have met and some became friends for a time, relayed things when they spoke and as I have gotten older completely understand.

For example, I will never forget the anguish of my friend Esther when she spoke of herself and the death’s of her whole family nor her tears and even to this day, when I think of what she said, to her tears; I still cry and remember too.

In further thinking of a remark that was said to me yesterday, that some people apparently think the horrors that I have went through in my own life, are reminiscent to this time and even my process of thinking; which personally, I am not sure. But I will not rule out the possibility that this idea may be so, that I am also a 'victim,' which I never liked that word, of Anti-Semitism and Islamophobia.

If this turns out to be true, I will hold my head up with the millions that are here and now being subject to this form of maltreatment, to those who came before me; especially those who did become martyrs, for they did not nor should not fold to these sort of crimes subjected to any part of humanity.

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Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Jewish artifacts looted on Kristallnacht unearthed near Berlin

Hermann Goering


A Jewish investigative journalist and his crew discover mezuzahs, chiseled windowsills and armrests from destroyed synagogues at Brandenburg waste site; archeological dig required to recover all artifacts, reporter says

22 October 2008
by
Roi Mandel

A Jewish investigative reporter has discovered a large amount of personal and ceremonial artifacts which were looted from Jews during Kristallnacht in 1938.

The items have recently been unearthed by Yaron Svoray at a waste site the size of four soccer fields in Brandenburg, located north of Berlin.

Kristallnacht, also known as the "Night of Broken Glass" or the "Crystal Night pogroms," saw the destruction of more than 200 synagogues and the ransacking of tens of thousands of Jewish businesses and homes. During the Nazi pogrom 92 Jews were murdered and 25,000–30,000 were arrested and deported to concentration camps.

The waste site is located in close proximity to the former home of Hermann Goering, who commanded the German air force (Luftwaffe) during World War II.
Jewish shops vandalized during Kristallnacht.

According to Svoray, the son of the waste site's watchman had told him that remnants from Kristallnacht were dumped there, and after learning of the possible importance of the artifacts from the director of the Kibbutz Lochmei Ha’ Getaot Museum, Simcha Stein, he returned to Germany with a group of volunteers.

"Within an hour of digging with our bare hands we found a bottle embossed with a Star of David," Svoray told Ynet. "We were very excited, because the chances of a bottle surviving a war are so slim.

"Forty meters (approx. 130 feet) from where we unearthed the bottle I discovered a huge metallic swastika. That's when I knew we had a major story on our hands," the journalist said.

Additional artifacts found by Svoray's crew included mezuzahs and chiseled windowsills and armrests from destroyed synagogues. A swastika-shaped ornament was also discovered.

The search for additional artifacts at the site is ongoing under the constant watch of bodyguards, this after Svoray complained of threats made on his life.

Svoray refrained from making his findings public for fear that the site would attract people looking to get their hands on Nazi treasures.

"There are no real treasures here, but there is still a danger that the site will turn into a circus of auctions organized by skinheads," he said, "the site is drawing more and more interest; people are starting to dig."

Svoray stressed that an organized archeological dig will be required in order to unearth all of the Jewish artifacts at the site.

The journalist also reported of a plan to erect a hunting museum in Goering's honor at the site. He said that so far his repeated efforts to scuttle the plan have failed.

Commentary:
For those archeologist’s on the site, is it possible to make it a closed site so others can not destroy the dig?

Furthermore, it is a hope that these archeologist’s find, all they where hoping for.

While I may not know everything from my studies, but it is thought anyone who has learned anything on the Jewish Holocaust; knows about, Kristallnacht.

In my opinion, this particular event of Anti-Semitism was like people went into some type of angry frenzy, due to the Nazi propaganda towards something that was not true.

This is why the use of the media to harm another, not only does mental damage, but does created things such as this, wars and some of the most horrible atrocities known to man; all in the name of a lie.

Furthermore, one can not help to think of the tens of thousands of lives that are lost though this very type of situation, not to mention like what the archeologist are doing; is very possibly finding the truth that may yet be told.

On a more personal note, while numerous events during the holocaust has greatly saddened me, Kristallnacht, has always been one of those extremely sad event’s that I will never forget.

Thinking of a time from my childhood when I first saw the Nazi identification mark on a woman’s holocaust survivor’s arm, for her arm extended a little from her sleeve and while it was obvious not to be something normal; a little time later, I asked my mother if she knew what happened to the woman’s arm.

She did explain to me, several thing’s about the Jewish holocaust and for a little time later in one neighborhood we where living for a time, I saw several people in various places with the same markings and for a young child; this is another event that never leaves one’s thoughts with the compassion I always felt, when I saw those identification markings.

What is even more interesting, is while I was learning the previous events, the Jewish and Arab Palestinians where still thrust in that unwanted, what became the 108 year war. I never had ill feelings towards anyone, just for a time as I have said before, the 'why' there was a war when it made no sense and as it has came to be known; I for one always wished for it to stop and it did.

As I do not know all the feelings of other people about the war ending this year, I do know, I am most grateful.

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Thursday, August 14, 2008

France probes selling of anti-Semitic T-shirts in Paris store

T-shirt with anti-Jewish slogan.

14 August 2008

BBC News says shirts reading 'Jews forbidden from entering the park' in German, Polish sold for $27 each

French prosecutors have launched an investigation after T-shirts carrying anti-Semitic slogans were seen on sale in a shop in Paris, BBC News reported Wednesday.

According to the report, the shirts carried slogans in German and Polish that translate as "Jews forbidden from entering the park" and were reproduced from Nazi signs from 1940 that targeted the Jewish community in the Polish town of Lodz.

Nearly 200,000 Jewish residents of Lodz died in concentration camps during World War II.

BBC News quoted the sales assistant at the Parisian store, in the Belleville district, as saying that one person had bought five of the grey, sleeveless garments for about 18 euros ($27) each, but added that said she did not understand what the inscription meant.

The neighborhood of Belleville in eastern Paris has witnessed ongoing scuffles between groups of Jewish youths and youngsters of North African origin, the report said.

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Saturday, July 26, 2008

'Your best friend, Anne'

Jacqueline Sanders-van Maarsen vor dem Anne Frank Haus, 2003.

26 July 2008

By
Shaul Adar

Amsterdam - The year was 1938, and the portents were clear. German Jewry had been subjected to persecution since the Nazis' rise to power five years earlier, and Hitler's expansionist ambitions were no secret. The danger of war hovered over Europe, but Hyman Van Maarsen - a Jewish book dealer from Amsterdam who was married to Eline, a French Catholic who had undergone a very liberal conversion in Paris - had made up his mind. After years in which the Jewish community had not recognized his wife's conversion, and even though he was secular, he managed to register her as a member of the city's large Jewish community. From that moment on, the family, including the two daughters, was considered Jewish, with all the ramifications that entailed.

Two years later, the Germans occupied Holland and Van Maarsen's achievement became a risk factor. Restrictions were imposed on the Jews: They were barred from entering parks, cinemas, swimming pools and many other public places. They were required to wear yellow patches and children in public schools were forced to transfer to Jewish schools.

In October 1941, Jacqueline Van Maarsen, then 12, returned from her first day at the Jewish school to her home in south Amsterdam. A new classmate joined her, riding on a bike. "My name is Anne," she introduced herself. "Anne Frank."
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It was the start of a close friendship that lasted nine months, until it was interrupted when the Frank family went into hiding on July 6, 1942. The two girls became best friends, in Anne Frank's words, and spent many hours together nearly every day. "Today it's obvious that my father's move was a mistake that endangered our lives," says Jacqueline Van Maarsen, now 89, in her apartment in south Amsterdam. "Holland was neutral in the First World War and he believed, like many other people, that we wouldn't get involved this time, either. But it would have been better if he hadn't registered us as a Jewish family. Still, it was because of this that I got to meet Anne. That was the only positive thing to come out of it."

Van Maarsen lays out on the table the Monopoly board, illustrated with the streets of Amsterdam, that she and Anne once played with; the children's book she received from her as a gift for her 13th birthday; a New Year's Day postcard Anne sent her; and Jacqueline's school yearbook.

"This girl died in the war," says Van Maarsen as she pages through the yearbook. "This one survived." The number of victims exceeds the number of survivors, and in the center of the book there is a dedication with a small picture of Anne Frank:

Amsterdam, 23 March 1942

Dearest Jackie,

Always be a ray of light

And a good student, too

And then, you, my friend

I shall always remember

Remember your dear friend

Anne Frank

Margot's bra

A constant menace hung over the school on the banks of the Amstel River. The number of students and teachers steadily dwindled. Some left to go into hiding, but most were arrested by the police and the Gestapo and transferred to the Westerbrook transit camp in northern Holland. From there they were usually sent to their deaths in Germany or Poland. In one class, only three out of the 50 pupils who began the year were around to take final exams in April 1943, and by the end of the year, only one female pupil remained.

"It was a difficult time, but in a strange way we loved the Jewish school," says Van Maarsen. "Yes, we suddenly felt singled out and we had to leave our regular school, but I had good friends in the school, including Anne, and the teachers and pupils had a sense of shared fate."

It was a strange friendship. Anne was an outgoing girl - attention-seeking, nervy and flirtatious. Jacqueline was shy and quiet. "When she chose me as her friend, I was very surprised," says Van Maarsen. "Maybe she liked my black hair and blue eyes. We were two opposites. She talked all the time, and I didn't talk very much. She excelled at doing her homework and I didn't. I liked geography and history and she thought you could just read the facts in books, and didn't understand why we had to study these subjects. I was a lot better in math and I helped her. We complemented one another."

Van Maarsen says she didn't discern anything special in Anne. "She was funny and a good friend but also annoying at times, the kind of girl who always says what she wants to say even if it's not always nice. We spent a lot of time together - playing, strolling around town, going to the places we were still able to visit, like the ice cream store. She didn't write much in those days. I think that her writing talent only developed from the time she started writing the diary. I can't say that I saw something special in Anne, but she saw something special in herself."

One of the most famous girls of the 20th century, if not the most famous, Anne was intelligent and had a tremendous appetite for life, according to Van Maarsen. "Anne always needed to have people around her," she says. "She really enjoyed life. She organized parties and screenings of films at her house, and games. I never met anyone who enjoyed life as much as she did, but it wasn't always easy being around her. She was possessive and reacted with jealousy if I got close to other girls. In her diary she wrote that I got close to a girl named Ilsa, and became childish and condescending. I thought there was tension between Anne and this girl, who was very pretty, with curls, but then Anne added a few lines later on where she wrote that I was sweet again and that she was sorry for what she wrote before. At the time, I didn't notice all these details in the life of a group of girls. I just lived my little life and didn't care, but sometimes her jealousy was hard for me to deal with."

Those weren't the only difficulties. Anne wrote about in her diary: "I proposed to Jackie that we touch one another's breasts as proof of our friendship. Jackie refused."

Says Van Maarsen: "She wasn't pleased with my refusal and was only satisfied when I let her kiss me on the cheek. I prefer to think that she was just curious. She was flat-chested and filled the bra of Margot, her big sister, with cotton. I didn't need that. Some people think that it went beyond curiosity, but I don't know. It was embarrassing then, too, and I thought that I had to get away from her a little, and she got sad and angry, but I felt a need to set boundaries. She was demanding and this was an opportunity to tell her not to go so far."

Was there competition over who was Anne's best friend?

"Then, there wasn't any competition like that. But today there is. To me, there was no competition, but just a group of girls with Anne at the center - although not always in the way she described in her diary. She said that all the boys fell in love with her, but I didn't notice that. Years later, I met a woman who told me that her father had been in our class and that Anne noted in her diary that he was in love with her, but she found him unbearable. I asked the woman what her father thought of this; she replied that her father said he was never in love with Anne. Anne wrote about a guy named Helo who was also in love with her, but he said he thought Anne was nice and interesting, but Margot was the one he was really in love with."

No farewell letter

Life got harder and harder, but the girls were relatively protected. Their parents tried to shield them from rumors about the fate of the Jews in occupied Europe, and they were able to maintain an almost normal lifestyle, despite the growing restrictions. "I don't dare do anything because I'm always afraid that it's forbidden," Anne quotes Jackie in her diary. "We played ping-pong with other girls," says Van Maarsen. "I remember the books we read together that influenced her, I remember the games of Monopoly, the homework we did together. She was always very diligent. I remember that we cut out pictures of movie stars that she took with her. I remember sitting on the roof and all the chats we had."

On June 12, 1942, Anne celebrated her 13th birthday with a party at her home. A few days before that, she went with her father to a nearby shop and picked out her gift: a diary with a checkered cover. The shop on Rooseveltlaan is still in business at the same location and is included in the guided tours 'in the footsteps of Anne Frank' that pass by every so often. It was Anne's last birthday at home. Less than a month later, Van Maarsen came to the apartment one day and found it empty. Most of the household objects remained there; the bed was unmade, and one of Anne's favorite pairs of shoes had also been left behind. On the door was a note saying the family had moved to Switzerland.

Van Maarsen: "I was surprised, because we had promised one another to write farewell letters, and I thought there would be such a letter in the house, but I didn't find it. I also searched for the diary. I wanted to see what she wrote about us. But, more than anything, I was surprised and thought there must be a good reason why she didn't say goodbye to me. Had the situation been reversed, I think Anne would have been mad at me for disappearing without saying goodbye to her, but I just accepted it. I wanted to take some of Anne's things from the apartment, but it was dangerous."

The four members of the Frank family, together with another four Jews from Amsterdam, had entered a hiding place in the apartment above the office housing the business run by Otto Frank, Anne's father. There, Anne lived and wrote in her diary until the Dutch police, under Austrian command, raided the hideout. That was on August 4, 1944. The eight Jews were transferred to Gestapo headquarters in the south of the city and from there to the Westerbrook camp in the north of the country. A month later, on September 3, 1944, the last transport of Jews left Westerbrook for Auschwitz. All eight were on board. Only one of them, Otto Frank, returned to Amsterdam after the war. The other seven perished at different camps in Europe. Anne and her older sister, Margot, died of hunger and typhus at Bergen-Belsen about three weeks before the British army liberated the camp.

After the raid, books and other possessions of the eight Jews were left scattered on the floor of the hideout. Miep Gies, a family friend who had looked after the needs of the Jews while they were in hiding, picked up Anne's diary and hid it away in a drawer for safekeeping until the girl returned to Amsterdam. Gies did not read the personal diary; she asserted that if she had read it, she would have destroyed it, because of the information it contained about Dutch civilians who assisted the group in hiding - information that could have put their lives at risk. Gies kept the diary for eight months before she was able to return it to Otto Frank. And then Anne's wish to become a famous writer came true.

No one spoke about it

In the winter of 1942, raids by the Gestapo and police increased; young Jews were apprehended and sent to labor camps in Germany. Eline Van Maarsen realized that she had to do something before her family was harmed. The elegant Frenchwoman, who managed the dress department of the city's largest department store, put on her fanciest dress, carefully applied her makeup and boarded the tram for Euterpestraat, site of Gestapo headquarters. (Even today, with the building restored to its original use as a school and the street name changed to Gerrit van der Veenstraat, there is still something menacing about the fortress-like structure. Only a few hundred meters separate it from Jacqueline Van Maarsen's present home. Almost every day, she passes by the place where the fate of so many of her fellow Jews was sealed, while her family was fortunate enough to survive.)

Eline Van Maarsen asked to see the police commander and spoke with him in French. She explained that her husband had registered her and her daughters as Jews without her knowledge or consent. The commander was impressed by her and asked to see documents proving that she was not Jewish. When these arrived - with the help of a relative who ran a restaurant on the Champs-Elysees that was a favorite of high-ranking Nazis in Paris - the status of the females in the family was altered. The yellow patch was removed from their clothing, and Jacqueline and her sister Christine went back to being Catholics and ordinary Dutch citizens.

"My mother made us swear not to tell our father about this until it was official. She knew that he would object, but she was determined to do whatever was necessary in order to save us," says Van Maarsen. "It was a dangerous thing to do. There were people who entered Gestapo headquarters with a similar request and ended up being tortured. It wasn't a place where you wanted to proclaim your connection with Jews. This was a radical change in our lives, but I understood exactly why she made this move. Afterward, too, my father was upset, and my mother forbade me and my sister to talk about it. It created tension at home, but it saved my life and his life." All of Hyman Van Maarsen's relatives were sent to Sobibor, where they were killed in the gas chambers.

"I didn't feel guilty," says his daughter. "There was a sense of relief and concern for friends and family. Not for Anne. I thought she was safe in Switzerland. In the winter of 1944, when there was terrible starvation in Holland and thousands of people were dying of hunger and we were forced to survive on tulip bulbs, I remember that I was jealous of her, because I thought she was living comfortably in Switzerland."

Van Maarsen transferred back to a regular school. "At home we never spoke about a Jewish identity," she says. "The first time I encountered anti-Semitism was when I put on the yellow patch. My big disappointment with the behavior of the Dutch during the war was at the regular school that I transferred to. No one spoke about the Jews, and I was too shy to talk about what was happening to the Jews. My relatives were disappearing one after the other, but I couldn't talk about it in school. There was general indifference."

A little kiss from Anne

In May 1945, Holland was liberated. That summer, Otto Frank returned and went to the home of Miep Gies. He knew that his wife, Edith, was dead, but he still hoped and prayed that his daughters had survived. He met Van Maarsen, who learned then for the first time about the secret annex and the family's deportation to the camps, and they met again a few weeks later. In the meantime, Frank found out that his daughters had died at Bergen-Belsen - sick, bald and with nothing but parasite-infested blankets. The bereaved father wanted to hear again and again about the friendship between the two girls, about the days when Anne was a child like any other and loved her life.

Van Maarsen: "In those months, he came to our house over and over again and cried all the time. It seemed strange to me at the time, because I looked up to him as an adult, and I didn't want to think about the war. It was hard to cope with it all. My friend was dead, and I felt great sorrow for him and for others. My father's entire family died in the Holocaust. My two cousins, who were my age and whom I played with and was close to, were murdered in Sobibor. Otto wanted to talk with me every time about Anne and about our friendship and about those days. It was very hard for me, but I did my best and I think I was able to help him a little by preserving her memory. In those days, I blamed myself for not helping him more, but I don't know how I could have helped him more. I listened to him in his darkest hour and maybe that was some kind of comfort to him."

Despite his grief, Otto Frank was able to find a new purpose in his life. "He told me that he wanted to publish Anne's diary, and I didn't understand why," recalls Van Maarsen. "I didn't think anyone would be interested in reading a book like that. This was right after the war and people wanted to forget. And secondly, I didn't think that the stories of a young girl would interest anyone. Those were my first thoughts, and even after the book started to arouse interest around the world in the 1950s, I didn't want to be too involved. People were popping up, saying that they knew Anne and went to school with Anne, and it angered me. I didn't want to become famous because of a girl I knew who died in such circumstances. I didn't want to spend my life as 'Anne Frank's best friend' and, therefore, for years, I didn't talk about it at all."

Otto Frank gave her a copy of the diary in 1947, the first edition, with a dedication from him. "It was very strange to read it for the first time and I felt very uncomfortable," she says. "I knew that she didn't want me or any of her girlfriends to read the diary and I didn't feel right. It was weird to read about myself, especially when I knew that she was no longer alive."

The book, in which she is called Jopie, is still in her possession. Next to it is a framed copy of two letters that Anne wrote to Jacqueline and never sent. The two letters were written on September 25, 1942.

"I hope we will meet again soon," wrote Anne in the first letter, "but it won't be before the end of the war ... Be good, Jackie. Be well, I hope to receive a sign of life from you very soon and we will meet again.

Your best friend

Anne

P.S. I hope that by the time we meet I will always be your best friend.

Bye"

Anne concluded the second letter with the words: "We are not bored. We have company. That is all I'm allowed to tell about our life. It's scary but interesting, too. I'm not allowed to say more. See you, and a little kiss from Anne."

"This was a very sad and poignant moment," says Van Maarsen. "I thought about how lonely she must have been there and I regretted that I hadn't given her a picture when she asked for one. Anne had a lot of pictures, and I didn't have many, and so I thought there was no need for it, because we saw each other every day anyhow, but after I read the diary I felt terribly guilty and I was sorry that I was unable to at least write to her. Four weeks before Otto's death, he showed me the letter in her handwriting and, again, the sadness was hard to bear."

Not a Jew, not a Catholic

From the 1950s on, Anne Frank became the most widely known victim of the Holocaust. Initially, Otto Frank had trouble finding a publisher. Only after the play was staged on Broadway and a film was made on the basis of the diary, did the girl who had been Van Maarsen's best friend become an international phenomenon. The book sold over 25 million copies, and Anne Frank became a symbol.

Among Dutch Jewry, there is some discomfort over the special status of Anne Frank. Many feel that there has been too much focus on this one girl.

Van Maarsen: "I have Jewish friends and I don't talk with them about Anne, because they feel that all the attention is directed at her, while they lost all or most of their families. So many Jewish children died in the Holocaust and were forgotten, while she is so well known, they say. I don't argue with them, but I can tell you what I feel about Anne. People love her and the book, and the memory of the Holocaust is spread thanks to her. Thanks to Anne, I can write about my cousins, for instance."

Since 1986, Van Maarsen has been giving lectures all over the world about Anne Frank and her legacy, but it wasn't until 1990 that she was publicly revealed as "Jopie" of the diary (In the newer editions, she is referred to by her real name.) Afterward, she wrote the book, "My Name is Anne, She Said, Anne Frank: The Memoirs of Anne Frank's Best Friend,"(Arcadia Books) in which she described their relationship. This year, a new edition of the book was published in English and a new book by Van Maarsen, "Anne Frank's Heritage," will be published next year. She is no longer the timid girl that Anne adopted on her way home, nor is she the naive girl she once was. For one thing, she is outraged by the excessive use of the famous line Anne wrote in her diary, about her belief in people's inherent goodness, in spite of everything. This sentence is often chosen as the final line of documentary programs, plays and films about the Holocaust, emptying them of meaning, she thinks.

"I don't think Anne would have written such a line had she lived," says Van Maarsen. "She wrote this sentence when she was still in hiding, before she experienced the horrors. I am certain she would not have written such a sentence after Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen. I thought the same thing then. I believed that everybody was nice except for the Germans, and that all people were good in their hearts, but since then, I've changed my mind, of course. People's attempts to profit from Anne's memory infuriate me. I don't understand how people can behave this way."

Van Maarsen married Rudy Sanders, a Dutch Jew who survived thanks to a Dutch family that adopted him during the years of persecution (both of his parents also survived, after hiding in various places in Holland throughout the war). They had three children, and over the years she worked as an artistic bookbinder. Her father was the sole survivor of his family after the war, and her mother chose to maintain a distance from the Jewish community.

Even though she is married to a Jew and she loves Israel, Jacqueline Van Maarsen does not feel herself to be Jewish. "After the war, I didn't want to be a Jew anymore," she says. "I suffered a lot because of my Jewishness, though not like most of the Jews of Holland, and I thought - I don't want to be Jew, and I also don't want to be a Catholic. I know that for the Jews, I'm not considered Jewish, and I'm not really a Catholic, but it really doesn't matter to me anymore. I am who I am. I saw the discrimination against the Jews and I felt it, but I can't say that I'm a Jew."W

Commentary
While I have read much as I could on Anne Frank, in my early years of trying to understand the Jewish Holocaust, of course Jacqueline van Maarsen name would appear and one thing I have always wished to know is what happened to Jacqueline after the Holocaust; I had heard many things, but one knows how that goes.

I am grateful, to be able to know more about her.

Because of my studies, I had hoped to meet Jacqueline van Maarsen, one day and be able to talk with her. Not so much about Anne, but about Jacqueline’s life with the hope it is a good and happy one now.

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Thursday, July 24, 2008

Ukraine Jews want Graves Building Halted

Jewish group asks government to stop construction of shopping mall on site of grave containing remains of estimated 26,000 Holocaust victims

24 July 2008
by
AP

A Jewish group asked the Ukrainian government on Wednesday to stop construction on the site of a grave containing the remains of an estimated 26,000 victims of the Holocaust.

The Jewish community in Odessa says a developer has begun building what it believes will be a shopping mall on the site of a burial ground. When construction workers began digging they found bones, skulls and children's toys, said Avrohom Wolf, the chief rabbi for Odessa and southern Ukraine. He said the builder has taken away all the remains it dug out and said he has no clue where to search for them. Wolf would not name the company, in hope of finding a solution.

The victims were executed in the fall of 1941, shortly after German troops invaded the Soviet Union, according to Wolf. The grave — a plot of barren land not far from the center of the city — was marked by several Jewish monuments, but not officially labeled a cemetery.

"It is difficult to describe how horrible it looked — hundreds and hundreds of people, hands, legs, skulls," Wold told the Associated Press.

Wolf and other Jewish leaders sent a letter to Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, asking her to intervene. Wolf said local officials had tried to help but failed.

"Construction on the site where there are bones wherever you dig cannot be called anything but blasphemy and an insult to the memory of the dead," the letter said.

The government declined immediate comment.

Historians say some 1.4 million of Soviet Ukraine's 2.4 million Jews were executed, starved to death or died of disease during the war. Their remains are strewn around the country in common graves, many of them ignored and unmarked.

Jewish cemeteries and burial grounds get little respect in the former Soviet Union. Graves have been disturbed by construction works elsewhere in Ukraine and in neighboring Belarus.

Earlier this spring another developer began construction of an apartment building on a pre-World War II Jewish cemetery in the city of Vinnytsia. The Jewish community had to fight to stop the project.

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Saturday, June 28, 2008

Probe: Jewish graves under Vilnius building?

The Great Synagogue Yard, Vilnius, 1920-1930

28 June 2008

By
DPA

VILNIUS - Israeli experts launched a 10-day research project yesterday to determine if newly constructed offices and apartments sit on an old Jewish cemetery in Lithuania's capital.

Questions about the site's past have caused international controversy. Lithuanian Jews, who opposed the construction work, say the site was a 15th century cemetery. Developers dispute their claim.

Protests from abroad include a letter from then-U.S. presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. The U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee passed a resolution condemning the construction on the possible cemetery site.

Last year, Jews from across Europe rallied in protest outside the headquarters of European Union institutions in Brussels.

Ponary near Wilno (Vilna)/Vilnius, Lithuania, Jewish victims of execution before the mass burial.

The Jewish community in Vilnius - called the Jerusalem of Europe - was almost wiped in the Holocaust during the World War II.

Czarist Russian authorities shut down the cemetery in 1831 and partly built over it. In the 1950s, the Soviets built a stadium and concert hall on part of the site, allowing the remains of the Vilna Gaon to be removed.

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Thursday, June 26, 2008

Will Nazi War Criminal Milivoj Asner Escape Justice?

Efraim Zuroff (C) director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center (SWC) talks with Raimund Fastenbauer (R) Secretary-General of the Federal Association of the Jewish Religious Communities in Austria and Ariel Musicant (L) the president of the Viennese Jewish community before holding a press conference on 26 June 2008 in Vienna.

Austrian prosecutors are still examining psychiatric reports that say alleged Croatian Nazi war criminal Milivoj Asner is unfit to be questioned.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center and the media have questioned the validity of the findings and accused Austrian authorities of protecting former Nazi war criminals.

Asner is accused of having organized the deportation of Serbs, Jews and gypsies to Nazi concentration camps, where most of them died.


Milivoj Asner is even wanted by Interpol, under the war crimes act.

Under the circumstances, inshaallah he is brought to justice.

One thing I have always believed in is upholding the law, especially in cases of murder.

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Monday, June 23, 2008

The Sarkozy's in Remembrance of the Jewish Holocaust

French President Nicolas Sarkozy and his wife Carla Bruni-Sarkozy during a visit in the Hall of Remembrances at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial 23 June 2008 in Jerusalem.
French President's wife Carla Bruni-Sarkozy and Simone Veil, a Holocaust survivor and former French cabinet minister during a visit in the Hall of Remembrances.
Every time I think of the Jewish Holocaust, I get a very heavy, sad heart.
As well as far back, as my great-grandmother wanting to help the Jewish people, so such as this and the previous war would not have happened. - HRM Deborah

French President Nicolas Sarkozy at the Holocaust Memorial at Yad Vashem.

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Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Holocaust Survivors from former USSR Denied Reparations

Chamber of Horrors: Through this tunnel entrance near Nordhausen, Germany, lies a vast underground factory where 60,000 slave laborers; who where forced to build the world's first ballistic missiles for Germany. Prisoners were let out once a week for roll call. Half of them died.

18 June 2008

B
y Anshel Pfeffer

Some 11,000 Holocaust survivors who moved to Israel from the former Soviet Union are not receiving reparations from Germany because the Claims Conference, an international body that grants compensation to survivors, did not translate the payment request regulations into Russian, MK Michael Nudelman (Kadima) charged at a Knesset Immigration and Absorption Committee meeting yesterday.

Nudelman, the committee chairman, said that many Russian-speaking survivors were disqualified from receiving compensation because they filed their requests before they reached the designated age, but were unaware of the problem because they did not understand the regulations.

Reuven Merhav, who heads the Claims Conference's executive committee, acknowledged that it was a mistake not to have translated the regulations, but a conference representative said all the explanatory material has been available in Russian for more than a decade. Merhav also told the Knesset committee that the Claims Conference does not have the funds available to pay reparations to 11,000 additional Holocaust survivors.

On Monday, State Comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss was asked at a State Control Committee discussion of the Claims Conference's conduct to investigate the relationship between the Claims Conference and the government.

However, MK Zevulun Orlev (National Union-National Religious Party) said that since the Claims Conference is officially registered in the United States, it is not under the state comptroller's supervision.

At the meeting, Pensioner Affairs Minister Rafi Eitan said that a small cadre within the Claims Conference was deciding how to distribute the payments, and the other executive committee members were rubber-stamping their decisions. Eitan said the conference was unwilling to review the number and location of living Holocaust survivors so as to reflect that most of them live in Israel. He added that the group was unwilling to discuss an end to its operations once the survivors die out. However, Eitan said he would not ask the German government to reconsider the role played by the Claims Conference.

Three weeks ago, Judge Oded Mudrik ruled that the conference was negligent for failing to inform survivors who had fled to the Soviet Union that they were eligible to receive compensation, and ordered the conference to compensate 1,315 additional survivors.

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Monday, May 5, 2008

For the love of Esther

5 May 2008

by HRM Deborah

In this blog, several times, I have either written about or made reference to a very dear friend named Esther that I have kept in my heart all these years.

I may have mentioned before that I was only about 8-10 years old when I knew her and she just happened to have been one of Oskar Schindler’s Jews.

She seems to come more to mind these days, I am thinking because of the recent holidays for the Jewish people, but also the approaching holiday of the Al-Nakba.

To me in a very short period of time, I feel I had gotten to know her quite well, even if my knowledge at that time of the Jewish Holocaust may have been small, even to this day I must admit I do not know everything.

Several times I had seen a book by Thomas Keneally, called "Schindler’s List" and because of wishing to know more of what happened to my friend and I happen to have seen a movie by the same title doesn’t always tell a person everything they may wish to know; so I got the book today.

For me because my friend did not go in depth to what happened to her, other then she lost all of her family in the Holocaust and she was the only survivor and I was later to get to know someone that could explain more to me about my friend, I did wish to understand what really happened to her. Mainly, because of my love for her even to this day.

One thing at the time that I knew her, has always stayed in my mind and it came the last day I was to ever see her and she said these things to me within her tears. She was crying that day because she was to leave me and she would never see me again.

This has been a puzzle to me every since that day, that she thought the only reason she survived the horrors of what the holocaust did to her and even loosing her family, that she would meet someone like me one day. She said these things to me out of respect and love, while I do not know if it was because of who I would become in my future because of my family or something she saw within me that made her feel at peace.

I hope one day, to know the answer.

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Thursday, May 1, 2008

Olmert Waves

Surrounded by bodyguards Jewish Prime Minister Ehud Olmert waves as he leaves the official Holocaust Memorial Day ceremony at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem on 1 May 2008.

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