Vol. 37-No.2 ISSN 0892-1571 November/December 2010-Kislev/Tevet 5771 The American & International Societies for Yad Vashem Annual Tribute Dinner

Eli Zborowski: Yitzhak Arad: “OUR WORK IS EMBLEMATIC OF THE UNBROKEN “OUR NATIONAL LESSONS CHAIN OF JEWISH DETERMINATION AND RESILIENCE” SHOULD BE OUR CHAIN OF REMEMBRANCE” n keeping with this year’s theme Sharsheret — Chain — hirty years have passed since we established the Iwe gather to remember the chains of oppression which as- TSociety for Yad Vashem. The pushing force to saulted and pervaded our lives during the Holocaust and the establish the society was Eli Zborowski. The first mem- chains that symbolically link successive generations of the Jew- bers were mainly survivors of the Holocaust; many of ish people and have become a metaphor for our survival. them are no more with us. But I am happy to see here Our 2010 Tribute Dinner honors three generations who have their children and grandchildren, who are continuing made Holocaust remembrance a centrifugal force in their lives. the work their fathers started. This proves more than Dr. Yitzhak Arad, Holocaust survivor, partisan, resistance anything else the success of the Society. fighter, IDF brigadier general, historian, scholar, author, and for- We, the generation of grandfathers, remember the days mer Chairman of the Yad Vashem Directorate, was a central of liberation which we met with deep feelings of joy and figure in the founding of the American Society for Yad Vashem. sadness. Joy of survival and the defeat of Nazi Germany. For more than 20 years, we have worked together to build the The sadness emanated from the fact that only after liber- Society which has become a pillar of Yad Vashem. As an or- ation we began to understand the full extent of our ganization, we owe him a huge debt of gratitude. tragedy, that we remained few and alone, most of our Mark Moskowitz, a son of survivors and a successful busi- families murdered, our communities devastated and de- nessman, has made time in his very busy life to become a devoted member of the Yad stroyed, surrounded by an indifference to our suffering. Vashem family. His recent commitment to the work of the American Society points to the im- For the overwhelming majority of the Jewish people, liberation came too late. They did portance of the continuing vitality of our organization. His participation with us is truly heart- not survive Auschwitz and Treblinka, neither the pits of Ponary and Babi Yar. But we the warming. He is a bearer of the chain of remembrance, and The American Society for Yad survivors have to be grateful, to the Red Army, to the British and American Armies, and to Vashem is pleased to honor Mark Moskowitz this evening. the other Allied forces, for crushing Nazi Germany and liberating us. Many Jews were Of the many endeavors the American Society has undertaken in recent years, none brings among the Liberators. Approximately one and a half million Jews served in the ranks of us more pride than the growth and development of our Young Leadership Associates. Each the Allied armies, and 250,000 of them fell in battle. year, for the past decade, they have sponsored a Professional Educational Conference on Each and every survivor will never forget the date and circumstances of his liberation. I various themes relating to the Holocaust that attracts several hundred teachers from the Tri- was one of the lucky who not only experienced liberation but also fought as a liberator. I State area and beyond. By transmitting the lessons of the Holocaust to present and future fought against Nazi Germany for close to three years, until the last days of the war. I en- generations, YLA members are increasing awareness and fostering sensitivity in reducing countered my liberation step by step. My first feeling of liberty was when I succeeded in hatred, intolerance, and prejudice. smuggling a short-barreled rifle, which I stole from a German store, into the ghetto. It was We are pleased to honor the major leadership of this spectacular 800-member associ- February 1942. Keeping the weapon provided me with a feeling of strength, that I am no ation. The Young Leadership Associates are the guardians of the future and constitute the longer at the mercy of the Nazis, I can fight back. I experienced the feeling of liberty for essential link to ensuring our legacy. the second time. It was when I escaped from the ghetto and joined the partisans in the It is now sixty-five years since the Liberation. In the commonly accepted narrative, the forest. Now I was a fighter. It was March 1943. Holocaust began in 1939 and ended with the defeat of the Third Reich in 1945. But when On July 6th, 1944, I entered my hometown Sventiany, from which I had escaped a year we look at the Holocaust from the perspective of what happened to the Jews, we see a before. Ever since the rainy night when I escaped from the ghetto, I had been dreaming Sharsheret — a chain of events whose impact will extend for generations to come beyond of this moment. And here I was. But I found no more Jews in my shtetl; only the stoves the liberation. It is imperative that efforts be put forth to research and study the post-Holo- and chimneys of the burned wooden houses stood as monuments to a flourishing Jewish caust period throughout the world. community. Outside the township I stood by the pit where the town’s Jews were shot and The first in-depth exploration of this period took place last month at Yad Vashem at the buried, among them dozens of members of my own family. This is what I liberated. inaugural conference of The Diana Zborowski Center for the Study of the Aftermath of the The final stage of experiencing liberation was the night of December 24, 1945, when I Shoah. I would like to acknowledge the support for this endeavor of Avner Shalev, Chair- illegally reached the beaches of the Land of Israel on a small boat, and joined the ranks man of the Yad Vashem Directorate, and recognize the presence of Dr. Bella Gutterman, of the fighters of our independence. Director of the International Institute for Holocaust Research at Yad Vashem, who coordi- Tonight’s dinner focuses on the chain of remembrance. A tree cannot grow without roots, so nated the conference, a truly historic event. we Jews, in order to exist as a people, have to preserve our roots. Among our roots is Holocaust This conference created a model for future study on survivor communities worldwide. remembrance and its implications and lessons. One of the universal lessons gained from the Yad Vashem has lit the lamp on the importance of the post-Holocaust period. For the Holocaust is our duty to fight against racism, narrow-minded nationalism, and anti-Semitism. Holocaust to take its proper place in history, the influence of the chain of events that link We Jews should not forget that Hitler and Nazi Germany aimed to murder all the Jewish us to the past must be documented, understood and accepted. people, to erase and eradicate their very existence. The current Iranian president uses The Yiddish phrase, “di goldene kayt” – the golden chain – is a symbol in Jewish lore the same language. Therefore an additional lesson which we must embrace is our obliga- of the continuity of traditional beliefs and values. By involving successive generations, our tion to preserve and strengthen our Jewish identity, and our links to our ancient historical work in the American Society for Yad Vashem is emblematic of the unbroken chain of Jew- homeland, the land of Israel. These universal and our national lessons should be our chain ish determination and resilience. of remembrance. IN THIS ISSUE American Society for Yad Vashem Annual Tribute Dinner...... 1, 2, 8-9, 16 A hatred that resists exorcism...... 4 The Holocaust and the lost Caribbean paradise...... 5 New online resource debuts for Nazi-era looted art...... 6 Did Stalin condone the Holocaust?...... 7 Even a tolerant country cannot tolerate intolerance...... 7 Myths and truths...... 10 Suspected Nazi war criminal eludes German justice system...... 11 Von Ribbentrop’s watch...... 11 Polish archive, Israeli spar over father’s Holocaust diary...... 13 A Film Unfinished: The Warsaw Ghetto as seen through Nazi eyes...... 14 Page 2 MARTYRDOM & RESISTANCE November/December 2010 - Kislev/Tevet 5771 The American & International Societies for Yad Vashem Annual Tribute Dinner

Jeremy Halpern: Mark Moskowitz: “WE ARE CHOOSING TO FOLLOW YOUR PATH.” “WE ARE A LINK IN AN ENDLESS, feel honored to represent a group of young men and UNBREAKABLE CHAIN.” Iwomen who have taken on the charge to continue n 1948 in Berlin, a man who lost, among other family mem- what our parents and grandparents have started. The third Ibers, his wife and daughter, met and fell in love with a woman generation has an incredible responsibility. The third gen- who lost, among other family members, her parents and twin sis- eration must make a decision. Do we carry forward the ter. They married and had a family. My siblings and I are that heritage and traditions of the past? Or do we go out to family. We are a link in an endless, unbreakable chain. make our own mark on the world? I would like to start by thanking you for this honor, for which The originators, in this case the survivors, our grandpar- I am deeply moved. I also want to congratulate my fellow hon- ents and great grandparents, saw the atrocities and felt orees, and join in their dedication and commitment to Yad the pain themselves. They were forced to learn the incred- Vashem and its mission. ibly hard lessons that came with living through the Holo- Tonight’s theme, sharsheret (a chain), is reflected throughout caust. They reacted and chose to move forward and this room. Collectively, we represent a chain of strength and a reignite the light of the generations that came before history of prevailing as a people. It has been my life’s mission – them. They kept Torah and Yiddishkeit alive. They fought to create the State of Israel. and that of my family — to keep that chain strong and growing, They built communities with synagogues and Jewish day schools. They chose to honor Attending the official Yom Hashoah ceremony at Yad Vashem, in Jerusalem, has become all of those that perished by forging ahead. an integral part of my life. Every year, it is held a week before Yom Hazikaron, the Memorial They formed Yad Vashem and taught us the importance of remembrance and educa- Day for fallen soldiers in Israel, and I am there to observe this most solemn day of remem- tion. brance. Together, these memorials provide a deep and historic connection between Israel Our parents, the second generation, lived through much of the rebirth their parents and Jews worldwide. dreamed about. They saw the hard work and sacrifice firsthand and had a direct un- In sharp contrast, like many other interesting juxtapositions in Israel, Yom Ha’atzmaut, derstanding of the history and faith their parents represented and exemplified. Israel’s Independence Day, follows immediately after. This is the time when we rejoice at We, the third generation, have grown up in an easier world. We have seen the fruits the miracle that is the State of Israel, and we celebrate the unbreakable chain that links our fate as a nation all the way back to Biblical times. of our grandparents’ labor without the majority of the sacrifice. These three events represent sharsheret on many levels. They provide consecutive days Therein lies our challenge. of reflection for us as individuals… as a country… and as a people. The understanding Certainly we have studied the history and attended events that perpetuate our grand- and insight — the spiritual connection — begins at Yad Vashem. This is where we begin parents’ experiences. But are we just being kept warm by the flames of our parents to appreciate the history and ethos of the State of Israel and, in a greater sense, the heart and grandparents? Do we have what it takes to build our own fire? of the Jewish nation. Even more importantly, will our children!? I am the son of survivors. My brothers and sister and I were always strongly aware of G-d willing they will never have to be a firsthand witness to anything like the Holo- our parents’ tragic history and their remarkable survival. Even though our beloved parents, caust. However, that is all the more reason that we must step up and cement the her- Henry ob”m and Rose, suffered unbearable losses, they imbued in us an unlimited sense itage being passed down through our lineage. of hope and determination, and a commitment to helping others achieve the life they found There are but only a few years to teach an entire generation. If we lose the next one, with one another... we lose it all. Yad Vashem has been both an inspiration to me and an unparalleled resource. It has Thank G-d as we stand here tonight, the task is well underway. Eli Zborowsky recog- provided me with context for the stories I heard from my parents while growing up. As in nized this problem many years ago. Over 12 years ago Eli, Caroline Massel and many the case of so many Holocaust survivors, they were understandably reluctant to talk about others set out to confront it. They created the Young Leadership Society of Yad Vashem, all the terrible details with their children. But the bits and pieces of information I gleaned the YLA. Caroline has worked tirelessly to push the agenda and grow the organization. growing up truly came to light, in their horrific truth, at the Museum; like so many individual So how have they done? links coming together, connecting the past with the present. Just look at some of the most active members being honored tonight. Attend one of This remarkable center [Yad Vashem] provides us all with a critical eye on history. It is a the annual YLA gala events to witness an amazing sight. Over 800 young Jewish men history the world must never forget and never deny! In order to move forward as a nation and and women gather to eagerly support Yad Vashem! as a people, it is essential for us to maintain an awareness of the past. We can proudly say that our heritage and faith are strong. That the fire is burning My father believed that a true understanding of what happened during the Holocaust bright and the third and fourth generations have been taught how to make it grow. could be achieved only in the context of being in Israel. And I share that belief, whole- Together, Caroline, the entire YLA and I are proud to stand in front of our parents and heartedly. The fact that Yad Vashem is centered in Jerusalem not only brings us a better grandparents and say Toda Rabah and “Hineni.” We are here. We are choosing to fol- understanding of the roots of the State of Israel and its importance to the Jewish People, low your path. We have learned the lessons, and have started to teach them ourselves. it gives us a destination to view our history…and to secure our future. On behalf of my fellow honorees, I would like to thank Eli Zborowski and the entirety The profound effect that Yad Vashem has had on me defies description. Actively partic- of Yad Vashem and the American Society for Yad Vashem. I would also like to thank ipating in supporting and maintaining this center of history and remembrance has become Caroline Massel for her incredible work and achievements. a true “center” of my life. And being here tonight as part of a chain that is, inherently, de- Most importantly, we thank our parents and grandparents for showing us how to en- fined by strength and spirit — standing amongst my mother, my siblings and some of my sure that the memory and the lessons of the Shoah are never forgotten. We hope to 10 nieces and nephews, the newest links in our strong family chain – is one of the greatest work hand in hand with all of you for many years to come. honors of my life. GREETINGS FROM ISRAEL Dear Friends, Greetings from His Excellency the President of Israel, It gives me great pleasure to send warm Mr. Shimon Peres, greetings on the occasion of the American to the Friends of Yad Vashem and International Societies for Yad Dear Yad Vashem Friends, Vashem's Annual Tribute Dinner. I want to express my warm appreciation Following their liberation, and in the for your long-standing support of Yad shadow of their horrific experiences, the Vashem and its meaningful mission. survivors of the Holocaust set out to re- Given the present trend of Holocaust de- claim and reconstruct not only their own nial, Yad Vashem related activities serve lives, but also to rebuild the Jewish peo- to draw public attention to a dark era that ple and help reestablish the Jewish state. should never be forgotten, and nurture its The survivors taught all humanity that memory in perpetuity. Today, emphasis even the most appalling personal and on Jewish moral and ethical values and collective experiences can become a respect for human life are of the source of inspiration and resolve. essence. The support and dedication of the Ameri- In the true Jewish tradition of mutual re- can and International Societies for Yad sponsibility, whether in Israel or the Dias- Vashem ensures that these experiences pora, it is our collective responsibility to will forever be part of our history. continue bearing the torch of remem- We appreciate your commitment to this brance and passing it on to the genera- important cause. I wish you a meaningful tions to come, in tribute to those who and memorable evening. have perished and those who survived. Sincerely I thank you for joining in this effort. Benjamin Netanyahu Shimon Peres November/December 2010 - Kislev/Tevet 5771 MARTYRDOM & RESISTANCE Page 3

GENETIC SCARS OF THE HOLOCAUST: RUSSIA REFUSES TO TURN OVER JEWISH LIBRARY TO U.S. CHILDREN SUFFER TOO ussia has rejected a United States Schneersohn, had no heirs. Schneersohn up with parents afflicted with the mood Rcourt ruling to turn over a Jewish li- was forced to leave Russia in 1927. BY JEFFREY KLUGER, TIME swings, irritability, jumpiness and hypervig- brary to a Hasidic group in New York. The ministry said the library is available ilance typical of PTSD and you’re likely to A U.S. judge last week ruled against the for scientific study and worship. he Holocaust is a crime that never Russian government for its refusal to re- Chabad-Lubavitch said it feared some seems to quit. Even as the ranks of wind up stressed and high-strung yourself. T Now a new paper adds another dimen- turn thousands of manuscripts that once manuscripts were headed to the black survivors grow smaller each year, the im- belonged to a Chabad-Lubavitch rabbi. market. pact of that dark passage in history contin- sion to the science, suggesting that it’s not just a second generation’s emotional pro- At issue are 12,000 religious books and Chabad sued Russia in 2004 after other ef- ues to be felt. And it’s not just the victims manuscripts seized during the Bolshevik forts had failed in recovering its original texts. file that can be affected by a parent’s who feel the effects; it’s their children too. revolution and the Russian Civil War and The texts had been transported from trauma; it may be their genes too. The Psychologists have long been intrigued 25,000 pages of handwritten teachings Poland to Moscow by the Red Army at the study, published in the journal Biological by the emotional profile of so-called sec- and other writings of religious leaders end of World War II as “trophy documents” Psychiatry, was conducted by a team led ond-generation Holocaust survivors. Par- and “war booty” to the Russian by neurobiologist Isabelle Mansuy of the ents who lived through the camps were State Military Archive. University of Zurich. What she and her col- forever changed by the horrors they wit- In June, the Russian govern- leagues set out to explore went deeper nessed. In the 21st century, many — prob- ment said it would no longer par- than genetics in general, focusing instead ably most — would be recognized as ticipate in the lawsuit, telling a on epigenetics — how genes change as a suffering from posttraumatic stress disor- Washington district court that it der (PTSD). Back then, the absence of result of environmental factors in ways that had “no authority to enter orders such a diagnosis also meant the absence can be passed on to the next generation. with respect to the property of effective treatments. As a result, a gen- The Holocaust is hardly the only life crisis owned by the Russian Federa- eration of children grew up in homes in that can shape behavior and genes. Sur- tion and in its possession.” which one, and sometimes both, parents vivors of Afghanistan, Iraq, or Darfur — or It added that the United States were battling untold emotional demons at even those who grew up in unstable or could deal with the dispute the same time they were going about the abusive homes — can exhibit similar through diplomatic channels and difficult business of trying to raise happy changes. But Holocaust survivors remain Chabad should file suit in a kids. No surprise, they weren’t always en- one of the best study groups available be- Russian court. tirely successful. cause their trauma was so great, their pop- “Russia is showing its con- Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, Russia’s chief rabbi Over the years, a large body of work has ulation is so well known, and so many of tempt and disdain for interna- been devoted to studying PTSD symptoms them have gone on to produce children, Berel Lazar, and president of Jewish communities of Russia Alexander Boroda, from left, visit Jewish library in July 2010. tional law, the American judicial in second-generation survivors, and it has grandchildren, and even great-grandchil- system, and basic principles of found signs of the condition in their behav- dren. Humans, alas, may never run out of seized by the Red Army in Nazi Germany fairness and justice,” Nathan Lewin, a ior and even their blood — with higher lev- ways to behave savagely toward one an- as war booty. lawyer for Chabad, said in a statement. els of the stress hormone cortisol, for other. But the better we can understand Russia’s Foreign Ministry said late The head of Lubavitch in Russia, Rabbi example. The assumption — a perfectly the price paid by the victims — and the ba- Wednesday that the ruling is a rude viola- Berel Lazar, has said he favors a diplo- reasonable one — was always that these bies of the victims — the better we may be tion of international law. matic solution to securing the return of the symptoms were essentially learned. Grow able to treat their wounds. It said the library was nationalized be- collections. “This is probably more efficient cause its owner, Rabbi Joseph Isaac to convince the Russians,” he said. HOUSE RESOLUTION AIMS TO HELP HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS IRANIAN HOLOCAUST-DENYING WEB SITE he House of Representatives has in place in their communities and avoid n Iranian web site that uses cartoons Foxman, ADL’s national director and a T introduced a resolution aimed at institutionalization during their remaining Ato deny the Holocaust was launched Holocaust survivor. “Its pseudo-history helping Holocaust survivors in the United years. by a nongovernmental cultural organiza- makes a mockery of the Holocaust, and States in need of in-home care. Of the approximately 127,000 Holo- tion in the country. the site is little more than a virtual cesspool U.S. Reps. Debbie Wasserman Schultz caust survivors living in the United The HoloCartoon site offers a parallel of anti-Semitism.” (D-Fla.) and Frank Wolf (R-Va.) intro- States, more than three-quarters are version of historical events in Jewish his- The book, which can be seen on the web duced a resolution Sept. 29 to raise older than 75 — a majority are in their tory using cartoons. The material report- site by clicking on a swastika icon to turn awareness of the social service needs of 80s and 90s. Some two-thirds of the sur- edly is based on a cartoon book on the its pages, tells readers that Jews created Holocaust survivors — specifically the vivors in America are living alone, and Holocaust published in Iran in 2008. the idea of the Holocaust and fabricated need for them to be able to age in place. many lack the financial resources for The web site, according to the Anti- the existence of the gas chambers in order The resolution, which was referred to basic necessities such as proper housing Defamation League news release, is rife to receive reparations. the House Education and Labor Commit- and health care. with anti-Semitic imagery, Jewish conspir- The site has English, Arabic and Farsi tee, expresses congressional support for Most Holocaust survivors fall beneath acy theories, Holocaust denial and factual versions. efforts that help Holocaust survivors in the federal poverty threshold that would inaccuracies. The ADL called on the United States America continue to live at home and ap- place them at risk of institutionalization. “HoloCartoon is a pernicious Web site re- to publicly denounce the Iranian plauds nonprofit organizations such as Institutionalized settings are especially plete with vicious anti-Semitism and cari- regime’s blatant anti-Semitism. Iranian The Jewish Federations of North America difficult for Holocaust survivors, research catures of Jews fabricating the Holocaust authorities would have had to approve for their work honoring and assisting has shown, because such environments story to advance their goals, and depic- the creation of the web site but not its Holocaust survivors. reintroduce the sights, sounds, and rou- tions of Jews as murderers and manipula- content, according to the Associated It also urges the Obama administration tines reminiscent of their Holocaust expe- tive money worshippers,” said Abraham Press. and the U.S. Department of Health and riences. Human Services to provide Holocaust Wasserman Schultz said the United HUNGARY, RAIL FIRMS SUED IN U.S. survivors with needed social services States has “a moral obligation to ac- OVER HOLOCAUST ROLE through existing programs, and to de- knowledge the plight and uphold the dig- velop and implement programs that en- nity of Holocaust survivors to ensure their ungarian survivors of the Holocaust A lawyer for the individuals suing, sure Holocaust survivors are able to age well-being in their remaining years.” Hand families of the victims sued the Chuck Fax, said the claims likely total Republic of Hungary and its two rail com- tens of millions of dollars and possibly panies in U.S. court, accusing them of col- more. HOLOCAUST MUSIC CAPTURES CULTURE OF CAMPS laborating with the Nazis to exterminate A Hungarian Embassy spokesman in n ongoing project seeks to preserve Jews during World War II. Washington had no immediate comment Aand perform music written by victims The lawsuit accused the Hungarian gov- on the lawsuit. of the Holocaust and other World War II ernment and rail companies of confiscating The case was brought under two fed- prisoners. property of Jews and transporting them to eral statutes, one that provides excep- A handful of the songs made their ghettos and concentration camps where tions to the Foreign Sovereign Immunities world premiere in Atlanta during “Testa- hundreds of thousands perished in Nazi- Act which allow individuals to sue foreign ments of the Heart,” a program to help occupied Poland and Ukraine. governments that typically have immunity raise money to collect and preserve more “The Jewish victims of the Hungarian from lawsuits. music produced by captives of the Axis Holocaust seek only what is due them — The other statute permits non-U.S. citi- powers. compensation and restitution for the atroc- zens to bring claims against private for- Some songs are slow, emotional, al- ities they suffered at the hands of the de- eign entities in American courts. The most weepy symphonies. Others are driv- fendants,” the lawsuit said. lawsuit targets the government, the Hun- ing and angry pub songs. A few are The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for garian national railway and its cargo rail sarcastic jazz numbers. Francesco Lotoro collected thousands of songs. the District of Columbia, seeks class-action company which was privatized in 2008. Already thousands of the songs have He plans to house the collection in At- status and unspecified damages. It says at Fax said that the lawsuit was still timely been collected by Italian pianist and con- lanta’s Emory University once he raises least 300 survivors have been identified as because Hungary has yet to compensate ductor Francesco Lotoro in a 20-year ef- the money to transfer it to the university’s possible members of the class, but there the survivors or their families or return the fort to ensure the music is preserved. library. could be more than 5,000. assets to them. Page 4 MARTYRDOM & RESISTANCE November/December 2010 - Kislev/Tevet 5771 BOOKBOOK REVIEWSREVIEWS

THE EMERGENCE OF HOLOCAUST EDUCATION IN AMERICAN SCHOOLS The Emergence of Holocaust Education 1970s we learn of the substantive affect classrooms. This, more specific to our dis- tion of whether history should be used to in American Schools. prize-winning writer and Professor Elie cussion, meant that simply transmitting the teach morality. Could it? Should it? By Thomas D. Fallace. Palgrave Macmil- Wiesel had on furthering interest in the facts of the Holocaust was not enough. It Furthermore, there was the question of lan: NY, 2008. 231 pp. $80 hardcover. Holocaust. Finally, we real- meant that Holocaust curric- just who was doing the teaching. Did they know the subject matter well enough? Did REVIEWED BY DR. DIANE CYPKIN ize the tremendous and de- ula would frequently include termined impact the April comparisons to other geno- they have their own agenda? Did this t’s natural to think that the larger the agenda affect the teaching? Just what 1978 NBC miniseries Holo- cides. It meant that Holo- book, the more important information it were students learning? I caust had. Indeed, this caust curricula would often has to offer the reader. But, that’s not nec- At first glance, the teaching of the Holo- miniseries stunningly cap- use the subject to engage essarily so . . . For example, The Emer- caust seems a simple matter. But, there is tured the attention of millions students in a greater study gence of Holocaust Education by Thomas much, much more to it. And this, in fact, of Americans . . . and of morality and ethics. D. Fallace is a slim volume — 231 pages makes The Emergence of Holocaust Edu- squarely focused this atten- In short, complaints about — yet it is chock-full of valuable material cation in American Schools a book that tion on the Holocaust. the curricula came fast and meticulously gleaned by way of conscien- should most especially be read by stu- Not surprisingly, Fallace furiously. For example, tious research, all of it absorbing and often dents of the Holocaust, teachers of the goes on to tell us, concomi- quite thought-provoking. some felt strongly that the Holocaust, and teachers generally. For tant with the above, study of Thus, in Fallace’s work — just as the title Holocaust was “unique” and many issues Fallace focuses on have to do promises — we read the history of exactly the Holocaust grew and with not to be compared to any with the teaching of history generally. how Holocaust education came on the it curricula on how to teach it other genocide in any way. By the way, particularly interesting in all American scene. We see how, immedi- . . . along with problems, To these individuals com- this is the fact that Holocaust education in ately after the war, there was a silence as problems many could never parison was sacrilegious. American public schools was not initiated regards the topic, very like the silence of have imagined. Why? In the meanwhile, others were upset that by any Jewish organization. It was a the victims themselves. Interestingly, we “Genocide consciousness crossed [paths] more genocides weren’t included. And, “grassroots movement” initiated by teach- note how the silence was broken in the with another ideological current called the along the same lines, still others felt that ers themselves. Moreover, those dedi- 1960s as a result of the media’s coverage ‘affective revolution.’” In the 1960s and the Nazis were being unfairly presented as cated to the teaching of the subject have of the Adolf Eichmann trial and Israel’s 1970s this, in pedagogical terms, meant “the only ones who committed crimes included both Jews and non-Jews. subsequent Six-Day War, a war which that teachers were exceptionally con- against humanity and that the Jews were Dr. Diane Cypkin is a Professor of Media, frightened many into thinking that another cerned with making all they taught “rele- the only ones who suffered to any great ex- Communication, and Visual Arts at Pace Holocaust was “imminent.” Then, in the vant” to the lives of the students in their tent.” Then, too, there was the whole ques- University. A HATRED THAT RESISTS EXORCISM IN THE ERA OF THE HOLOCAUST, clients included Diana, Princess of Wales, REVIEWED BY EDWARD ROTHSTEIN, and whose book on T.S. Eliot’s anti-Semi- 29 WHO MADE A DIFFERENCE THE NEW YORK TIMES tism was widely praised for its supple un- Diplomat Heroes of the Holocaust. to safer territories. They accepted fake s there anything left to be said about derstanding. By Dr. Mordecai Paldiel. Introduction by documents or even helped people procure Ianti-Semitism? By now surely the out- urely this attention is a bit over- Ambassador Richard Holbrooke. Preface them. They made up phony stamps and line is clear: how hatred of Jews grew out Swrought? Aren’t we in an age that by Rabbi Arthur Schneier. KTAV, 2006. created new documents to impress local of early Christianity’s attempts to supplant must be “post” all such sentiments — post- 250 pp. $29.50 hardcover. officials and border guards. They bluffed modern, post-Auschwitz, and post-anti-Se- and they threatened and, in many cases, Judaism; how the demonization of Jews in REVIEWED BY PETER STEINFELS the Middle Ages turned violent; how the mitic? Haven’t many anti-Semitic doctrines personally sheltered or hid Jews or accom- he book is called Diplomat Heroes of hatred was given its name by a 19th-cen- (or their consequences) been largely over- panied them to border crossings. the Holocaust, and perhaps the most tury German journalist; and how it reached turned? How many people today would ad- T Defying their own governments’ policies telling thing about it is that it is very slim. cataclysmic fulfillment in vocate ghettos or extermi- against assisting refugees, and especially Richard C. Holbrooke, former ambassa- the Holocaust. nation? Who still believes Jewish refugees, was often as necessary dor to the United Nations, made that point There are other land- that Jews bake Christian as defying German power. Feng Shan Ho, during a ceremony, held at Park East Syn- marks: the expulsion of children’s blood into for example, China’s consul general in Vi- agogue on Manhattan’s the Jews from England, matzo? Many countries enna after Austria be- East Side, to mark the Spain and Portugal; inter- have forbidden hate came part of the Nazi book’s publication. mittent massacres in Mus- speech; hasn’t that en- Reich, earned a repri- During the years of lim lands; the construction forced a decorous social mand and then loss of his Nazi persecution and of European ghettos; the tact? And while it is difficult post for freely issuing then mass murder of pogroms of Russia and to ignore the vulgar ha- visas to Shanghai. Ap- Jews, Mr. Holbrooke Eastern Europe; the Drey- treds expressed by Mus- proximately 18,000 Aus- noted, Europe’s em- fus Affair; the Nazification lim protestors or in the trian Jews actually bassies and consulates of Europe; Stalin’s purges newspapers of the Arab escaped to China, while were filled with thou- and show trials. world or even among others used their visas to sands of officials, but And then, of course, Westerners, aren’t those reach safety elsewhere. very few of them proved there are the triumphs that just frustrated expressions Even stranger was the willing to toss aside pro- act as a kind of remon- of justifiable political griev- success of two diplomats tocol and instructions to in Lithuania, Jan strance: the Enlighten- ances? save the lives of people Zwartendijk, a business- ment success of Jews in Besides, anti-Semitism, threatened with death in man serving as honorary secular European societies, the myriad op- we now understand, is a form of racism. the camps. portunities in the United States, the birth of Dutch consul general in Like all forms of group hatred, it is subject Diplomat Heroes of the modern Hebrew, and, after a half-century Kaunas, and Chiune to reform and to the modern cure of sen- Holocaust is a documen- of settlement, land purchases, and institu- Sugihara, a consul gen- sitivity training. We learn about such ha- tary record of 29 excep- tion building, the creation of Israel, whose eral (and spy) for Japan treds in order to exorcise them. It seems tions. It was written by Mordecai Paldiel, founding principles incorporated both dem- there. The two men issued thousands of every museum exhibition, textbook and director of the department at Yad Vashem ocratic and Judaic ideals. documents providing for the entry of Jews children’s story about racism provides a that designates non-Jewish rescuers of Why then lately have new tomes been into the Dutch-controlled Caribbean island similar moral prescription: tolerance. Jews with the honorific title Righteous of Curaçao and for passage through the published devoted to the hatred of Jews? So isn’t there something a little tasteless Among the Nations. Soviet Union and Japan to get there. A Lethal Obsession: Anti-Semitism from about bringing up anti-Semitism all the Stationed in cities either already or about Needless to say, the beneficiaries of this Antiquity to the Global Jihad (Random time, let alone drumming its theme page to be under the control of the Third Reich, scheme neither had heard of Curaçao nor House) weighs in at about 1,200 pages, a after page? Sure, racism may still flourish, this small minority of determined and in- ended up there. They did, however, es- compendium of a career’s research by but given the modern success of Jews, genious officials issued passports giving cape death in Eastern Europe. Robert S. Wistrich, professor of modern hasn’t this particular form of it become an Jewish refugees new citizenship status, The story of Raoul Wallenberg is now Jewish history at Hebrew University in Is- anomaly? Or worse, hasn’t the term be- sometimes to unlikely places, like El Sal- legendary. The charismatic young envoy rael. And more than 800 pages are de- come a manipulative attempt to deflect vador. was sent from Sweden (with the backing voted just to British anti-Semitic history in judgment? As is often pointed out, criticism They issued exit and entry visas and let- of President Franklin D. Roosevelt) to pro- Trials of the Diaspora (Oxford) by Anthony ters of protection so that Jews could pass (Continued on page 14) Julius, a learned British lawyer whose (Continued on page 15) November/December 2010 - Kislev/Tevet 5771 MARTYRDOM & RESISTANCE Page 5 OLD PHOTOS REVEAL TALE OF JAPAN AND JEWS OF WWII The museum said he gave it about 30 Museums in his home town and in Lithua- Trans-Siberian railroad, a harrowing jour- BY JAY ALABASTER, photographs that he is trying to identify, nia are dedicated to his memory. ney over thousands of miles that could THE ASSOCIATED PRESS and received a list of over 2,000 Jews who In league with Jan Zwartendijk, a Dutch take weeks, into Japanese-controlled ter- received travel papers that enabled them consul in Lithuania, Sugihara worked non- ritory in Manchuria. he young man’s monochrome por- to reach Japan. stop on visas for Jews in the months until hile the diplomat pumped out his trait is at least 70 years old, the T Nissim Ben Shitrit, the Israeli ambassa- Russia annexed Lithuania in August 1940 visas independently, a much more whites all faded to yellow, but it is still clear W dor to Japan, says he has passed on the he had style. His hair is slicked down, eye organized and lesser-known effort was information to Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, arched, suit perfect with matching tie and under way for Jewish refugees once they which tracks and honors victims of the handkerchief. reached Japanese territory – which is Holocaust, and is optimistic some of the in- He also had the good fortune to escape where Osako enters the saga. dividuals can be tracked down. Europe in the early days of World War II. In 1940, the Japan Tourist Bureau, the “I thought that we discovered almost The photo, a gift to the man who helped country’s main tourist agency, agreed to everything about the horror of the Holo- him escape, is one of seven recently dis- help Jews in the U.S. distribute aid money caust,” Shitrit said. “And yet there is more covered snapshots that cast light on a lit- to refugees fleeing Europe. This would to discover.” tle-known subplot of the war – even as allow them to fulfill immigration require- he photos shed further light on the Germany sought to seal Jewish Euro- ments and help them function once inside story of Chiune Sugihara, a Japan- peans in, a small army of tourism officials T Japan. from its main ally, Japan, helped shepherd ese diplomat stationed in Lithuania who The decision was made despite Tokyo’s thousands away to safety. granted transit visas to several thousand close ties to Germany; according to JTB “My best regards to my friend Tatsuo Jews in the early days of the war. In doing records the company had the permission Osako,” is scrawled in French on the back so, he defied strict stipulations from Tokyo of officials in the Foreign Ministry and other of the picture, which is signed “I. Segaloff” that such recipients have proper funds and agencies. and dated March 4, 1941. His fate is un- a clear final destination after Japan. The bureau assigned workers to help known. He was one of a handful of diplomats refugees at various stages of their journey, An effort is under way to find the people such as Sweden’s Raoul Wallenberg and and Osako, in his second year of employ- Hiram Bingham IV of the U.S. who used ment, worked as an escort and clerk on in these portraits or their descendants, all Tatsuo Osako of the Japan Tourist Bureau. of whom are assumed to be Jewish. Per- their bureaucratic machinery, often without ships that took them across the Sea of sonal photos of such refugees, who often their government’s knowledge, to issue the and he was forced to leave the country. He Japan to the island nation. fled with few possessions, are rare. paperwork that would get Jews to safety. issued thousands of documents and con- Most would then go on to the port cities The photos were found in an old diary Dubbed the “Japanese Schindler,” Sugi- tinued to slip blank visas out of the window of Kobe and Yokohama and try to arrange owned by Osako, who was a young em- hara was honored in 1985 by Yad Vashem of his train as it pulled away, according to passage onward. ployee of the Japan Tourist Bureau at the as one of the Righteous Among the Na- accounts of his departure. “Sugihara has been praised around the time, and died in 2003. Akira Kitade, who tions, a high honor reserved for non-Jews Visas issued by Sugihara, who died in world and is held in very high esteem, but worked under Osako and is researching a who saved Jews at their own personal risk 1986 at the age of 86, are estimated to Mr. Sugihara’s great actions were sup- book about him, has contacted Israeli offi- from the Holocaust, Hitler’s destruction of have given around 6,000 Jewish refugees ported by various individuals working un- cials for help and visited the United States 6 million Jews. a lifeline out of Europe, though records are seen, in his shadow, and I’d like Mr. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washing- A short movie about him, “Visas and incomplete. These transit visas enabled Osako’s experiences to be known,” said ton, D.C. Virtue,” won an Academy Award in 1997. them to travel through Russia on the (Continued on page 13) THE HOLOCAUST AND THE LOST CARIBBEAN PARADISE cozy bays. The climate is ideal in the vitation was “consistent with existing law Committee on Political Refugees, Secre- BY WILLIAM R. PERL, IMMIGRATION DAILY spring, fall, and winter, and quite comfort- and unobjectionable from the standpoint of tary of State Cordell Hull declared: “We do able in the summer as the trade winds pro- policy.” know that at this period there are an in- t is widely believed that the Nazi “Final vide a cooling breeze. Temperatures vary It was November 6, 1940, almost two creasing number of people who are drain- Solution” would have claimed fewer vic- I only slightly from the warmest to the years after the announcement of the invi- ing the cup of bitterness and of tims if the free world had shaken off its apa- coolest months. There is a rich diversity of tation, when the Solicitor of the Interior De- disappointment to its very dregs. We do thy and helped the Jews to escape. This native plant and animal life. partment published his 22-page report. know that they are on a level below that of theory, that the world stood passively by as The report concluded that “the proclama- the common animal, which is able to find the genocide was being committed, is now RESOLVED: A HAVEN FOR REFUGEES tion in question is, in all respects, legally something to subsist, to find some place being challenged. Evidence has been pro- s early as November 18, 1938, the unassailable.” The Attorney General, how- where it can relax and sleep.” duced that arrives at the shattering conclu- legislature of the Virgin Islands ever, who on October 16, 1939, was asked Lawrence H. Cramer, Governor of the sion that the Western powers were more A adopted the following resolution: by the Secretary of the Interior for his eval- Virgin Islands, surprised and frustrated by than passive, apathetic bystanders. WHEREAS, world conditions have cre- uation of the legalities, refused on March the turmoil created in Washington by his Contrary to popular belief, the problem ated large refugee groups, and 29, 1940, to study the issue “for the reason legislature’s rescue attempt, finally signed for Jews during the Holocaust was not how WHEREAS, such groups eventually will that the Secretary of State had not invited on November 2, 1940, two years after the to get out, but where to go. The key figures migrate to places of safety, and such an opinion.” resolution had been adopted, a decree ac- in most governments throughout the world, WHEREAS, the Virgin Islands of the cording to which 2,000 families were to be instead of liberalizing their immigration “DELAY AND DELAY” United States being a place of safety can admitted initially. To appease State Depart- laws, closed their borders to the hunted offer surcease from misfortune. uring all that time, people who could ment critics, certain requirements were im- Jews, or at most admitted token numbers NOW THEREFORE, be it resolved by have been rescued and living in a posed, but tens of thousands qualified. only. The Nazis set the house aflame, and D the Legislative Assembly of the Virgin Is- Caribbean paradise remained in the hell of The invitation’s main purpose was to pro- the free world barred the doors. lands of the United States in session as- Nazi Europe until they fell victim to the vide a haven for those who had applied for Some of the measures taken by the free sembled that it be made known to Refugee death camps. The effectiveness of this immigration to the United States and had world that contributed to the deaths of tens peoples of the world that when and if ex- “delay and delay” policy was praised by the obtained a quota number for their registra- of thousands remain little known. Foremost isting barriers are removed that they shall Assistant Secretary of State, Breckinridge tion and eventual processing when their among these was the thwarting by the find surcease from misfortune in the Virgin Long. In a memo dated June 26, 1940, he number came up. Waiting times were usu- United States Department of State of rescue Islands of the United States. wrote: “We can delay and effectively stop ally long, sometimes three years or more. plans that would have brought otherwise AND BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that for a temporary period of indefinite length The Nazis, of course, didn’t abstain from doomed refugees to the Caribbean, specifi- copies of this Resolution be forwarded to the number of immigrants into the United arrests and deportations just because the cally to the sparsely inhabited U.S. Virgin Is- the President of the United States, the States. We could do this by simply advis- victims had quota numbers, and thou- lands as well as the Republic of Haiti. Secretary of State, the Secretary of Labor, ing our consuls to put every obstacle in the sands with such numbers perished. The is- The U.S. Virgin Islands had been ac- the Secretary of the interior, and members way and to resort to various administrative lands were thus to have provided a refuge quired by the United States from Denmark of the Press. advices which would postpone and post- during the dangerous waiting period. As a in 1917 for $25 million. Most people are The State Department immediately pone the granting of the visas.” prerequisite to entry, the refugees were not aware of only three islands: St. Thomas, started action to obstruct the islanders’ hu- This policy was criticized by the General to become public charges—but that would St. Croix, and St. John. The group, how- manitarian efforts and to close this possi- Counsel of the U.S. Treasury, Randolph have been no obstacle since many had rel- ever, consists of 68 islands of diverse ble avenue of escape. On December 15, Paul, as “murder by delay.” He charged atives in the U.S. who were willing to pro- sizes. Although most are tiny, they com- 1939, the Secretary of State sent a letter high officials in the State Department with vide such an affidavit, as were many major prise 86,000 acres. At the time when their to all authorities possibly concerned, call- forming “an American underground move- Jewish welfare organizations. inhabitants invited refugees from Nazi bar- ing this resolution “incompatible with exist- ment . . . to let the Jews be killed.” barism, the islands had a population of ap- A NEW WEAPON ing law.” This strategy was in sharp contrast with proximately 25,000, most of whom were The Department of the Interior and the the public statements of concern made by otwithstanding the thousand miles of very poor and uneducated. Labor Department began a probe of the State Department officials. On October 17, ocean separating the U.S. mainland Many of the islands are quite mountain- N legal issues. The Labor Department an- 1939, at a meeting in the White House, from the Virgin Islands, the State Depart- ous, dotted with picturesque little ports and nounced on February 3, 1940, that the in- speaking before the Intergovernmental (Continued on page 12) Page 6 MARTYRDOM & RESISTANCE November/December 2010 - Kislev/Tevet 5771 SURVIVORS’SURVIVORS’ CORNERCORNER

MY FAITH: YOM KIPPUR 1945, IN A CAMP FOR HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS first victims, since they lacked the physical nessed and experienced in their homes could not understand why all these people BY STANLEY ABRAMOVITCH, CNN strength to withstand the horrors of the and in the camps. stood around her. camps. Few children survived. They, too, They could not reconcile their former be- She, of course, could not know that they n October 1945, I spent Yom Kippur in succumbed quickly. The survivors prayed, liefs and convictions of an All-Merciful, were surprised to find a Jewish child. So the displaced persons camp in Lands- I remembered, wept and found a little com- Almighty Divine Being, with the catastro- they stood, silently, and just looked at this berg in Bavaria, Germany, as the repre- fort in those tears. phe that had struck their communities. miracle of a Jewish child in their midst. sentative of the American Jewish Joint fter morning prayers, I decided to They would not pray. When they heard the They could not tear themselves away from Distribution Committee (JDC), working visit other synagogues and spend recitation of the Kaddish, the special this one child who said nothing and to with displaced persons. A prayer of mourners ex- whom nothing was said. They just stood The liberated Jews who had been impris- pressing praise of the and gaped. oned in the nearby Dachau concentration Lord, they reacted angrily A special prayer is normally recited on camp, as well as those who had been that G-d did not deserve Yom Kippur for the departed members of forced to work in ammunition and other the Kaddish. one’s family. It’s called Yizkor, the memo- factories in Bavaria, were gathered into They were broken in rial prayer. Landsberg and nearby Feldafing camps. spirit. They could not rec- As those people looked at the little girl, Many Jews from other concentration oncile recent events to they remembered their own children, or camps had been force-marched to this part which they were wit- their younger brothers and sisters, the of Germany, where the U.S. Army liberated nesses with the contents nephews and nieces who at one time were them. of the Hebrew prayers. their pride and joy, and who were no more. In Landsberg there was a spacious Ger- These Jews roamed the man Army barracks confiscated by the streets. They wanted to Each one of them looked and remem- U.S. Army, in which some of the liberated express their anger, to bered, recalled the beloved children who Jews were housed. Basic food and med- Stanley Abramovitch (seated, second from right) with American Jew- show G-d that they defied were cruelly exterminated. ical care were provided by the Army, sup- ish Joint Distribution Committee staff at a German displaced persons Him, as he seemed to As they remembered, they recited with- camp circa 1945. plemented by assistance from JDC. have abandoned them. out any words the Yizkor for all those who The Jews elected a committee which as- some time with other groups. I left the syn- Some ate their food on the fast day publicly once were part of their lives and now were sumed responsibility for the internal admin- agogue and walked across the half-empty in the streets, as a gesture of defiance – of gone forever. This was a silent, most mov- istration of the camp. Synagogues were streets. There were many people who re- revolt. ing Yizkor, without words, without prayer organized for the high holidays by different mained in the street and refused to attend n one of the streets, I saw a large group books, recited in that street in Landsberg, groups, often on the basis of the origin of services. They were angry at G-d. Iof people standing in a circle. I ap- by a group of Jewish survivors, watching a the participants. Among them were formerly religious proached nearer to find out what was bewildered little Jewish girl. I attended morning services in the syna- Jews who could not accept the apparent going on. It was the most moving, most eloquent, gogue for Polish Jews. The older genera- indifference of G-d to the suffering, the tor- In the middle of the circle stood a seven- most heartfelt, most silent Yizkor I have tion was almost not there. They were the ture, and the tragedy they had both wit- year-old girl, embarrassed, perplexed. She ever heard. NEW ONLINE RESOURCE DEBUTS FOR NAZI-ERA LOOTED ART he Nazis stripped hundreds of thou- tion and photographs taken of the seized prominent independent provenance re- furnishings, and other objects from Jewish Tsands of artworks from Jews during objects, the groups told The Associated searchers of looted Nazi art. “I think all of families, bookstores, and collections. World War II in one of the biggest cultural Press. those that say there’s not much left to do Records of the looting were disbursed to raids in history, often photographing their he Claims Conference, which helps certainly should think twice.” nearly a dozen countries after the war. spoils and meticulously cataloguing them THolocaust survivors and their rela- Korte has been at the forefront of on typewritten index cards. tives to reclaim property, said it had used the worldwide search for art looted Holocaust survivors and their relatives, the database to estimate that nearly half of by the Nazis, an undertaking that as well as art collectors and museums, can the objects may never have been returned has accelerated over the past two go online at www.errproject.org/jeude- to their rightful owners or their descen- decades, spurring court battles paume to search a free historical database dants or their country of origin. and pitting the descendants of of more than 20,000 art objects stolen in “Most people think or thought that most Jewish families who were forced to German-occupied France and Belgium of these items were repatriated or resti- give up their possession against from 1940 to 1944, including paintings by tuted,” said Wesley A. Fisher, director of re- museums and private collectors. Claude Monet and Marc Chagall. search at the Claims Conference. “It isn’t mong the works listed in the true. Over half of them were Adatabase is a painting by the never repatriated. That in itself Danish artist Philips Wouwerman, is rather interesting histori- which had belonged to the Roth- cally.” schild family and was discovered in Marc Masurovsky, the pro- the secret Zurich vault of Reich art ject’s director at the museum, dealer Bruno Lohse in 2007. said the database was de- Korte, who was asked to develop signed to evolve as new infor- an inventory of the works in the In this May 13, 1945, photo released by the U.S. National mation is gathered. “I hope Lohse vault, said the Wouwerman Archives, U.S. Army Sgt. Harold Maus of Scranton, Pa., looks over an engraving by German artist Albrecht Durer, that the families do consult it painting “was clearly plundered.” which was found among other art treasures at a salt mine and tell us what is right and No one knows exactly how many in Merkers, Germany what is wrong with it,” he objects the Nazis looted and how added. many may still be missing. The database is focused on ERR spoils The database combines The Claims Conference says about shipped to a prewar museum near the records from the U.S. National 650,000 art objects were taken, and thou- Louvre, where they were often catalogued In this April 24, 1945, photo released by the U.S. National Archives in College Park, Md.; sands of items are still lost. and sold back to the market, destroyed or Archives, an American soldier stands among German loot stored the German Bundesarchiv, the But the true number may never be integrated into the lavish private collections in a church at Elligen, Germany. federal archive in Koblenz; known because of lack of documentation, of top Nazi officials — including the military and repatriation and restitution the passage of time and the absence of a chief Hermann Goering. The database is a joint project of the records held by the French government. central arbitration body. Julius Berman, the chairman of the New York-based Conference of Jewish By giving a new view of looted art, the Some museum organizations have ar- Claims Conference, said organizing Nazi Material Claims Against Germany and the database could raise questions about the gued in recent years that most looted art art-looting records was a key step to right- United States Holocaust Memorial Mu- possibly tainted history of works of art in has been identified as researchers focus ing an injustice. seum in Washington, D.C. some of the world’s most important mu- on the provenance of art objects. “It is now the responsibility of museums, The database is unusual because it has seum collections, experts said. The database includes only a slice of the art dealers, and auction houses to check been built around Nazi-era records that “I always tell people we have no idea records generated by the Einsatzstab Re- their holdings against these records to de- were digitized and rendered searchable, how much is out there because nobody ichsleiter Rosenberg, an undertaking of termine whether they might be in posses- showing what was seized and from whom, has ever bothered to take a complete in- Third Reich ideologue Alfred Rosenberg to sion of art stolen from Holocaust victims,” along with data on restitution or repatria- ventory,” said Willi Korte, one of the most seize archives, books, art, Judaica, home he said. November/December 2010 - Kislev/Tevet 5771 MARTYRDOM & RESISTANCE Page 7 DID STALIN CONDONE THE HOLOCAUST? An SS officer named Friedrich Jeckeln But it became increasingly clear to those Besides, for those brought up with a post- BY MICHAEL BURLEIGH, MAIL ONLINE proudly developed a new technique of in charge that new methods would have to Enlightenment belief in human progress, it packing down layers of victims to make the be found before the larger project of killing was a giant emotional and intellectual step to hen a platoon of conquering Ger- best use of trench space. all European Jews could be realized. get from these discrete facts to grasping that man SS soldiers entered a remote W The killing squads started by lining up The scene was set for the next stage of a civilized European country had reverted — village in Russia in 1941, their leader, Alois their victims in front of the graves in the industrialized mass murder — extermina- with the aid of modern technologies — to wip- Knäbel, was told by an informer that the manner of firing squads, but too often this tion camps. ing out an entire race. local cobbler was Jewish. required officers to deliver the coup de In the autumn of 1941, trials began with There were other problems, too, in ana- Knäbel had the man, his wife and three- grace with their pistols. carbon monoxide gas. lyzing the material picked up by the code- year-old daughter brought to him and set They tried shooting A vehicle resembling a breakers. While there was plenty of the adults to work scrubbing his quarters. standing victims from furniture-removal truck was evidence of massacres, the victims were When they had finished, he led them out- behind at close range, developed, into whose air- vaguely referred to as Bolsheviks, plunder- side and, while holding the child’s hand, he but gore flew back into tight interior exhaust gases ers, partisans and so forth, rather than shot them dead. their faces. could be fed. Jews. On the face of it, they did not add up The toddler started screaming, and Knä- After technical dis- But the technical break- to genocide. bel picked her up, stroked her hair and cussions — carried on through came when the Based on intelligence from Bletchley, muttered soothing words to her. Then, as in earshot of the next commandant at Auschwitz Churchill broadcast to the British people in he cradled her to his chest with one hand, victims in line — it was experimented on Russian August 1941 stating what was known — he used the other to shoot her in the neck. deemed easier to PoWs with the pesticide gas that, as Hitler’s armies advanced through His fellow SS troopers were most im- shoot people kneeling Zyklon B. the Soviet Union, “whole districts are being pressed. or lying down within he Holocaust was un- exterminated. Scores of thousands of ex- “Look how finely Knäbel did that,” said the graves, which derway. From now on, ecutions in cold blood are being perpe- one admiringly, “how he first calmed down T made for an easier the fate of millions of men, trated by German police-troops upon the child and then killed her.” clean-up. women and children Russian patriots. . ..” This single, small, sad incident demon- In major operations belched and burned from any Jewish historians are exercised strates why — while I do not think any war — such as the slaugh- tall chimneys. that he did not specifically mention has ever been good — I believe fervently M ter of 33,771 Jews at Tyrant: Soviet leader Josef Stalin. But to what extent did the that most of the victims were Jews. They that World War II was a necessary one. Babi Yar in the Ukraine, which took days to outside world realize what was happening — also complain that the attention he gave to The Nazis and their partners in crime accomplish — mobile field kitchens arrived and could more have been done to stop it? the dire circumstances of Jews throughout tried fundamentally to alter the moral un- with warm food and special rations of This has been fiercely debated ever the war was intermittent to the point of in- derstanding of humanity — and with the schnapps. Some of the units were so since the full horrors of the Holocaust were difference. likes of Alois Knäbel they succeeded. They drunk they were sick while performing ex- uncovered in the last months of war. Some even believe that the Allies were did this by locating their murderous depre- ecutions. Britain and the U.S. are too often por- colluding with Hitler because of an al- dations within a warped moral framework erman Army spectators were wel- trayed as having failed in their moral duty legedly pervasive anti-Semitism, an insin- that defined their violence as purifying, come — since this further con- — guilty of not bombing extermination uation first made by David Ben-Gurion, necessary, and righteous. G tributed to the perpetrators’ sense of camps and guilty of not airdropping arms Israel’s first prime minister. They thought they were a superior breed normality — but one SS officer who so the imprisoned Jews could fight back. But the harsh truth is that Allied policy on a historic mission to eliminate the Jew- brought his pregnant bride along was con- But the reality of what was happening on had one priority — to defeat Nazi Ger- ish race, whose very existence they be- sidered to have crossed the line. That’s the far side of Europe was not obvious at many. Nothing could be allowed to divert lieved posed a threat. They were doing so, how warped their sense of morality was. At the time. The Third Reich’s extermination resources from that absolute aim. they claimed, on behalf of future genera- least 2.9 million Jews were killed by men policy was camouflaged with euphemisms Even when the first concrete reports tions of Germans. standing a few feet away from them. The and shrouded in secrecy. emerged of a coordinated Nazi extermina- In reality, they were participants in what genocidal regime tapped into, and empow- Any murderous orders not conveyed by tion policy, the U.S. State Department Churchill called “the greatest and most hor- ered, the brutal streak of these cowards. word of mouth were read and then burned. made it clear that there would be no devi- rible single crime ever committed in the One such creature was the very drunk Nonetheless, units operating in the field ation from this central purpose. “Whether whole history of the world.” The war against member of the Gestapo seen in a bar with made regular radio reports of their activi- the number of dead amounts to tens of the Nazis was, as the title of my new book a beer mat attached to his tunic, on which ties in a code that was broken by British thousands, or, as these reports state, to says, very much a “moral combat.” he had scrawled “1,000” in red ink. “I’m cel- cryptanalysts at Bletchley Park. millions is not material to the main prob- What still chills me to the marrow is the ebrating the thousandth shot in the neck,” But since only a percentage of messages lem, which is the winning of the war,” it said realization that barbarism soon became an he slurred. He added that he’d shoot his could ever be intercepted and decoded, the emphatically. “Other considerations must industrial process — in which the killers own father if he was ordered to. picture that emerged was patchy. (Continued on page 12) took a perverted craftsman’s pride. EVEN A TOLERANT COUNTRY CANNOT TOLERATE INTOLERANCE ifestation of what is happening elsewhere affairs arisen, and what can be done to ad- many Swedish Muslims inevitably see this RONALD LAUDER , PRESIDENT OF THE in Sweden. dress it? is a green light to unleash their own hostil- WORLD JEWISH CONGRESS et us recall that it was Sweden’s top- he first problem is that Swedish ity toward ordinary Jews. They feel their mainstream hostility to the state of anti-Semitism is acceptable. n July, firecrackers were thrown at the Lselling newspaper, Aftonbladet, that T Israel has clearly begun to cross the line third layer of this problem is the in- only synagogue in the Swedish city of published an anti-Semitic blood libel last I into outright anti-Semitism. Of course, at- creasingly symbiotic alliance be- Malmo, breaking three windows. The day year alleging that Israeli soldiers routinely A tempts to draw a distinction between ha- tween radical Islamist groups in Sweden before, a bomb threat had been left at the murdered Palestinian children and har- tred of Jews and hatred of Israel were and a left that has departed from the hon- building, warning what would happen. Two vested their bodily organs for sale on the never particularly convincing. orable social-democratic traditions for weeks before, there was another attack international black market. The Swedish Israel is a specifically Jewish project, and which the country is famous around the against the same synagogue. government responded with indifference, to join the campaign of delegitimization world. When the Israeli Davis Cup tennis For months, Malmo’s Jews have testified and worse: when the country’s ambassa- dor to Israel put up a note on the em- against the Jewish state is to join a cam- team came to Malmo in 2009, it was forced to an increasingly hostile atmosphere, with to play against its hosts behind closed bassy’s website distancing Sweden from paign of delegitimization against much of many saying they are frightened to go out world Jewry, the vast majority of which ei- doors while a crowd of 6,000 rioted out- such appalling calumnies, her superiors in on the streets wearing anything that might ther lives in Israel or regards it as a central side. With hate for Israel serving as the pri- Stockholm ordered her to take it down. identify them as Jews. Earlier this year, component of Jewish identity. But one par- mary unifying factor, this alliance has It is not just the media and the govern- Daniel Schwammenthal, writing in The ticular section of Sweden’s population has grown into a new and dangerous force for ment fanning the flames of this hatred. In Wall Street Journal, explained why in the never engaged in the pretense that there intolerance within Swedish society. starkest possible terms: “Screaming ‘Sieg January, 2009, church officials in the town is a distinction between hatred of Israel Ultimately, change will not come unless Heil’ and ‘Hitler, Hitler,’ a mostly Muslim of Lulea cancelled a planned torchlight and hatred of Jews. and until Sweden’s leaders address these mob threw bottles and stones at a small procession for Holocaust Memorial Day, Which brings us to the second major problems. Officials and opinion shapers group of Jews peacefully demonstrating for with a spokesman saying that they were issue at play here: Sweden’s Muslim pop- must understand that this perilous state of Israel at this town’s central square last “preoccupied” and “grief-stricken” by Is- ulation. While all manifestations of intoler- affairs will worsen if they fail to take their year. Worshippers on their way to syna- rael’s operation in Gaza. ance against Muslims must be firmly responsibilities more seriously, tone down gogue and Jewish kids in schools are rou- Cancelling Holocaust Memorial Day? resisted, it is also vital to recognize the their rhetoric and adopt a balanced ap- tinely accosted as ‘dirty Jews.’ ” Spreading blood libels, and acquiescing in danger some Muslim immigrants have proach toward Israel. Malmo police say that, of the 115 hate them? Allowing a state of affairs in which brought with them from their home cul- Above all, politicians must speak out crimes recorded in the city in 2009, 52 Jews are frightened to leave their homes? tures: extreme forms of bigotry against when minorities become the target of hate were aimed at Jews or Jewish institutions. This does not sound like the tolerant, fair Jews and Israel. crimes. Even a tolerant country such as Anti-Semitism is back, and what is taking and just society for which Sweden would When mainstream politicians, newspa- Sweden must not tolerate those who place in Malmo is merely an extreme man- like to be known. How has such a state of pers, and churches rail against Israel, preach intolerance. Page 8 MARTYRDOM & RESISTANCE November/December 2010 - Kislev/Tevet 5771 CH שךשךת LIBERATION The American & International Societies

Avner Shalev, Chairman of the Yad Vashem Directorate; Yitzhak Arad, recipient of the 2010 Yad Vashem Remembrance Award; and Eli Zborowski, American & International Societies for Yad Vashem Chairman. Eli Zborowski, Chairman, and Robert Bernstein, YLA Honoree. Eli Zborowski, Chairman, and Na

Eli Zborowski, Chairman; Rebecca Hanus, YLA Honoree; and Eli Zborowski, Chairman; Avi & Nicole Lieberman, YLA Honorees. Eli Zborowski, Chairman; Abbi and Jeremy Halpern, YLA Honorees. Melvin Bukiet, Dinner Chair.

Marilyn Rubenstein, 2010 Annual Tribute Din- Eli Zborowski, American & International Societies for Yad Vashem Chairman; Jean and Eli Zborowski, Chairman; Adam & Iris Lindenbaum, YLA Hon- Eli ner Chair. Eugen Gluck, and their grandsons Matthew Gluck and Michael Gluck. orees. ore November/December 2010 - Kislev/Tevet 5771 MARTYRDOM & RESISTANCE Page 9 HAIN 65 YEARS LATER s for Yad Vashem Annual Tribute Dinner

Eli Zborowski, Chairman; Adina and Lawrence Burian, YLA Avner Shalev, Chairman of the Yad Vashem Directorate; Mark Moskowitz, recipient of the 2010 Yad Vashem adav Besner, YLA Honoree. Honorees. Leadership Award; and Eli Zborowski, American & International Societies for Yad Vashem Chairman.

Mitchell Kahn, YLA Honoree; Eli Zborowski, Chairman; Ilana Eli Zborowski, Chairman; Barry Levine, YLA Honoree; and Melvin Eli Zborowski, Chairman; Ilana Lifshitz, YLA Honoree; and Melvin Kahn, YLA Honoree. Bukiet, Dinner Chair. Bukiet, Dinner Chair.

Zborowski, Chairman; Caroline and Morris Massel, YLA Hon- Eli Zborowski, American & International Societies for Yad Vashem Chairman; Sam Halpern, Leonard Wilf, 2010 Annual Tribute Dinner ees. Cheryl Lifshitz, and Gladys Halpern. Honorary Chairman. Page 10 MARTYRDOM & RESISTANCE November/December 2010 - Kislev/Tevet 5771 REPORTREPORT FROMFROM YADYAD VASHEMVASHEM

FIRST INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON THE AFTERMATH OF THE SHOAH or decades the destruction of Polish war,” said professor Tysh in his speech at attempts to shape adequate forms of com- undertaken in the past two years, and we FJewry has dominated the study of the conference. memoration. The conference ended with a look forward to broadening our scholarly in- the Shoah, but it was only recently that the “The topic of the returning survivors and discussion on Polish-Jewish relations and vestigations as a result of the conference.” unprecedented challenges of the return to the how they were received by residents of attempts to access what remains of the “Our research project would not have life of the surviving Jews have begun to at- their hometowns is important because it of- Polish Jewish community. “The conference been possible without the financial and tract sustained scholarly attention. Thus it fers the key to reconstructing the real so- looked at how Polish society deals with the emotional support of people and institu- was particularly fitting that the first interna- cial and moral circumstances in which the tions,” – said professor Tych tional conference of the Diana Zborowski Holocaust took place,” – continued Felks in his acknowledgement re- Center for the Study of the Aftermath of the Tych. “The series of postwar pogroms in marks. Shoah, held at the beginning of October, Poland, Slovakia and Hungary show how “The first acknowledge- concentrated on the many and different as- far the Holocaust’s shadow reached, and ment belongs to Mr. Eli pects of the repercussions of the Holo- how deeply ran the conviction, birthed from Zborowski, who has been caust in Poland. the years 1941-1945, that a Jew may be our project’s good genius The conference, the initiative of the killed without impunity.” from the beginning. His pa- American Society for Yad Vashem Chair- “I was impressed by the seriousness of tronage gave us certainty man Eli Zborowski and Prof. Feliks Tych of these researchers”, Dr. Zeev Mankowitz, that we will be able to com- the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw, head of Yad Vashem’s Zborowski Center, plete the project, since he was attended by 22 researchers from said in an interview. supported us both emotion- Poland, each of whom has already con- “This is highly significant as it demon- ally and financially. He al- tributed a chapter to the broad collection of strates a wiliness to confront the past, face ways emphasizes that such studies that will make up The Aftermath of it honestly and deal with it. The only way comprehensive research the Holocaust: The Polish Case 1944- you can neutralize some of the deep poi- projects should be under- 2010, due to be published in English and son that has harmed Polish-Jewish rela- taken in every country Polish by the end of the year. Discussions tions is by relating to the collective memory Prof. Jan Tomasz Gross, Princeton University, NJ; Eli Zborowski, where the Nazi genocide were significantly enriched by the pres- of Polish people. The only way for a culture Chairman of the American Society for Yad Vashem; Prof. Antony has occurred and in every ence of two distinguished guests from to probe the depth of its collective memory Polonsky, Brindeis University, MA; Prof. Feliks Tych, Jewish His- country where the survivors North America — Prof. Antony Polanski is for it to be done by the people who be- torical Institute (ZIH), Warsaw. settled.” and Prof. Jan Tomasz Gross — together long to that culture and not by outsiders.” “We also express our grat- with a group of Israeli scholars in the field. he major themes tackled at the con- fact that their country was the main arena itude to Mrs. Nancy Brumm, who has “The postwar effects of the Holocaust, Tference began with the survivors’ for the murders,” explained Dr. Bella Gut- founded and chired the American Society especially in the years 1945 through 1947, first encounters with Polish society, and the terman, Director of the International Insti- of Jewish Heritage in Poland. Another or- require the attention of historians because memory of this period embedded in early tute. “We examined the immediate postwar ganization that recognized the importance it was precisely this period that was the personal letters and in the docudrama events — extreme anti-Semitic expres- of our project and contributed to its finan- most difficult for survivors who were trying Undzere Kinder (Our Children). The focus sions and pogroms — through the Com- cial support is the inter-governmental Task to create for themselves something we was then broadened to embrace Polish at- munist era and then from the fall of Force for International Cooperation on might call a new normality, an attempt at titudes towards the surviving Jews, the first Communism until today. Much of what was Holocaust Education, Remembrance and self-determination after the tribulations of steps in rebuilding Jewish life and the initial presented was new research and findings Research.” MYTHS AND TRUTHS peans captured in the photograph have zens. His research goals, he makes clear, give back properties to the Holocaust sur- BY EETTA PRINCE-GIBSON, been digging through the remains of Holo- are broad and ambitious: to create a new vivors, but were also a reaction to their THE JERUSALEM POST caust victims, hoping to find gold and pre- historiography and, through this, to rewrite own sense of guilt and to the barbarization cious stones that Nazi executioners may the history of the Holocaust. of Polish society inflicted by the Nazis. istorian Jan T. Gross is building a have overlooked, despite carefully check- Gross was born in Poland to an ethnic The facts of the pogroms in Jedwabne new history of the Holocaust, based H ing the body cavities of the murdered Polish mother, who had been a member of and Kielce were known in Poland, but they on relations between Poles and Jews be- Jews… And while the scale of the Tre- the Polish resistance, and a Polish-Jewish had been obscured, both by the Soviet fore, during, and after World War II. blinka excavations was unique, the prac- father. He came to the US with his family regime that created a “permissible” version Jan T. Gross begins his keynote lecture tice of digging up Jewish remains from the in 1968, at the age of 22, as an émigré es- of history and by Polish collective identity, by projecting an old photograph onto the sites of mass murder to strip them of valu- caping the rising anti-Semitic wave of re- which is based on a self-image as victims, screen behind him. He promises to talk ables was common.” pression in Poland. As a student of physics not perpetrators. Poles’ reactions to the about it at the end of the presentation, He continues, “Not only the Poles: many in Warsaw, he had been involved in the publications of Neighbors and “Fear” were knowing that the picture, ostensibly a peoples across the continent have benefited protest movement, expelled from the uni- intense and varied; some saw the revela- somewhat commonplace snapshot of Pol- from the Nazi policies of stripping Jews of versity and jailed for several months. Re- tions as Poland’s opportunity to come to ish peasants resting on their tools behind civic and property rights and eliminating settling in the US, he earned a PhD in terms with its murky past, but others were their harvested crops, is disturbing. The them from public life, and, ultimately, from sociology from Yale University, beginning incensed. Polish officials even investigated picture is fuzzy, and the lunar-like land- life. [I present you with] a question and an his distinguished academic career. the facts of the case in order to consider scape is too desolate, the harvest too mea- answer to frame the photograph: What do a He came to international prominence with prosecution of Gross for defamation of the ger, the colors too gray. Swiss banker and a Polish peasant have in the publication of two books that forced Pol- Polish population, although no charges The overflow audience at Yad Vashem common? And the answer to this question ish citizens to face painfully precise mirrors were ever brought. listens intently to Gross’s lecture, entitled would be, a golden tooth extracted from the of Polish history. In Neighbors, first pub- ross says that he knows that the dis- “Opportunistic Killings and Plunder of Jews jaws of a Jewish corpse.” lished in English in 2001 and in Polish in Gcussion is painful for Poles, but in- By Their Neighbors – A Norm or an Excep- The exercise, like much of Gross’s work, 2002, Gross describes in passionate, almost sists that it is necessary. “My identity as a tion in German-Occupied Europe?” while is powerful and complex, the dramatic ma- vulgarly brutal prose, the massacre of Polish Pole includes a profound sense of siding distracted by the image. nipulation underlining the historical points Jews in the town of Jedwabne, in July 1941. with the persecuted. And few have a better At the end, as promised, he relates to the he makes. Contrary to Polish common wisdom, the right than Poles to feel persecuted. But picture. “Is this not,” he challenges, “a fa- ross, 63, a professor of history at massacre, he shows, was committed by the being Polish, whether we want to or not, miliar scene, a snapshot of summer vaca- GPrinceton University, was in Jews’ Polish neighbors and not by the Ger- carries a responsibility, a need to sort out tions with distant relatives in the Jerusalem, in early October, for an interna- man occupiers. what we have done. We cannot base our countryside?” But then he points to what is tional conference entitled “The Aftermath In 2006, he published Fear: Anti-Semitism self-identity on lies or half-truths. We did only vaguely visible in the enlarged image of the Holocaust: Poland 1944-2010,” in Poland after Auschwitz, in which he ar- these things. They happened in the streets seen from a distance – “the crops scat- which was sponsored by the Diana gues that Poles attacked Jews who returned and villages, where everybody could see. tered in front of the group are skulls and Zborowski Center for the Study of the Af- to Poland after the Holocaust and details the The anti-Semitism is incomprehensible, it bones. In this photograph we see a bunch termath of the Shoah, a part of Yad story of the Kielce pogrom in July 1946, is beyond the pale. It is a blemish on our of peasants standing atop a mount of Vashem’s International Institute for Holo- when ethnic Poles murdered 37 Jews; Fear humanity, a scandal to our minds.” ashes. These are the human ashes of caust Research. was published in Polish in 2008. The events that he describes, Gross says, 800,000 Jews gassed and cremated in the In his lecture Gross discusses his re- Gross’s basic thesis contends that these cannot be dismissed as deviant or marginal Treblinka extermination camp between search, which focuses on the killings and anti-Semitic acts stemmed from the fear of behavior. “‘Regular’ members of the com- July 1942 and October 1943. The Euro- plunder of Polish Jews by their fellow citi- the Polish people that they would have to (Continued on page 15) November/December 2010 - Kislev/Tevet 5771 MARTYRDOM & RESISTANCE Page 11 SUSPECTED NAZI WAR CRIMINAL ELUDES GERMAN JUSTICE SYSTEM Dutch court documents showed that Faber went on to become a constable in bourgeois life in the prosperous West Ger- BY JÖRG DIEHL, SPIEGEL ONLINE Faber volunteered for the Waffen-SS in the state police. In September 1944, he many of the “economic miracle” era. July 1940 of his own accord. was assigned to the SS’s Security Service In 2003, the Dutch government, under he suspected Nazi war criminal During questioning after the war, Faber in Groningen in a support function. Accord- pressure from the victims’ families, re- Klaas Faber, who is number five on T said it was “quickly made clear ... that one ing to statements by several former com- quested that Faber serve in Germany the the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s most- rades, Faber is said to have executed life sentence that he had been given in wanted list, is enjoying a quiet retirement several Dutch resistance fighters during 1947. But the Ingolstadt District Court, in Bavaria. While some alleged former this period. In March 1946 he confessed to which now had jurisdiction over the former Nazis are facing trial in their old age, the his interrogators that he had “shot one of SS member, said the request was inadmis- 87-year-old has managed to slip through the detainees” during an execution in the sible. After all, a German court — in the the cracks in the German justice system. Westerbork transit camp. form of the Düsseldorf District Court in Klaas Faber and his wife were nice peo- fter 1945, a Dutch court initially sen- 1957 — had already let Faber off the hook. ple, the affable neighbor said on the tenced Klaas Faber to death, but Then the Central Office for the Investiga- phone; apparently they “kept themselves A that sentence was later commuted to life tion of Nazi Crimes in Dortmund got in- to themselves” but were “very decent.” imprisonment. But he did not stay in prison volved, as its director Ulrich Maass They went walking a lot, had three sons, for very long. On Dec. 26, 1952, Faber and confirmed. The office’s investigators had and drove around in a red Audi. “He used six other convicted Nazi war criminals es- managed to gather “heaps of material” to work in an office,” the woman says. “He caped from prison in Breda while a film against Faber in Germany and the Nether- can tell you the rest himself.” was being shown. lands. A fresh indictment on the basis of Klaas Faber ranks number five on the They crossed the Dutch-German border this evidence might have been possible, Simon Wiesenthal Center’s list of the 10 at Ubbergen. The following day, the district says Maass. most wanted Nazi war criminals. In 1947, court in Kleve fined the men 10 marks each However, the public prosecutor in Mu- Faber was sentenced by a Dutch court to for illegal entry — but a court employee gave nich that was responsible for the case, who life in prison for multiple murders during them the money and even added a little had received the files on Klaas Faber from Klaas Faber. World War II. But the former Nazi collabo- extra for their onward journey. “They were Maass in 2006, had a different view of the rator escaped from prison with a gang of would be incorporated into the SS when all comrades in the court,” recalled one of matter. In his opinion, Faber had shot his fellow inmates and fled across the border the training came to an end. I did not want the escaped prisoners in a 1997 interview victims in the conviction that he was carry- into Germany. that.” He would later tell prosecutors that with the German magazine Stern. ing out valid death sentences against re- The former menswear salesman, who he had refused to take the oath “to the Two days later, the Dutch authorities in sistance fighters. In Faber’s case, there is was born in Haarlem in the Netherlands, Führer” and had, after a few months, gone Germany again sought the extradition of no evidence of the base motives which, has lived in an apartment building in Ingol- back to the Netherlands. the fugitives – without success. Bonn re- under German law, are a defining charac- stadt in the German state of Bavaria since There, Faber, whose father and brother fused, citing a 1943 decree by Adolf Hitler, teristic of murder, said Thomas Steinkraus- the 1960s. While other suspected Nazi were both also ardent Nazis, joined the according to which all members of the Koch, a spokesman for the Munich public criminals such as Heinrich Boere, 88, and Weerbaarheidsafdeling, which was similar Waffen-SS were automatically German cit- prosecutor. In which case, one had to give Ivan Demjanjuk, 89, have to face charges to the Nazis’ Sturmabteilung (SA) storm izens. But didn’t Faber claim he had re- the defendant the benefit of the doubt and relating to their roles in World War II atroc- troopers in Germany. For 18 guilders a fused to swear the oath of allegiance to the assume it was manslaughter, Steinkraus- ities despite their old age, Faber no longer week, Faber served the Dutch Nazi leader Führer? Was he therefore definitely a Koch explained. But in the case of Faber, has anything to fear from the German jus- Anton Adrian Mussert as a bodyguard and member of the SS or not? The questions the crime of manslaughter would have be- tice system. came across as someone who was suit- remained unanswered. come time-barred in 1990, he added. “I no longer consider this an injustice, but able for higher-level duties. Faber “has Then in 1957, the Düsseldorf District Unless new evidence that supports the a scandal,” Arnold Karskens, who is chair- proved himself to be a conscientious and Court also refused to initiate proceedings suspicion of murder turns up, the case is man of a Dutch foundation that investi- reliable employee,” noted one superior, ac- against the escapees, claiming that there now closed for German investigators, gates war crimes, told Spiegel Online. “He cording to the documents. He did not have was insufficient evidence against them. Steinkraus-Koch said. The Chief Public has kept a low profile for decades and that a problem with “alcohol abuse and/or For Faber it was exactly the kind of free Prosecutor’s Office has repeatedly con- seems to actually have worked. It must be debts,” the document noted, “as far as is pass that he needed. He moved to Ingol- firmed the termination of the proceedings, unbearable for the relatives of his victims.” known.” stadt and lived a suitably respectable, the last time in May 2008. VON RIBBENTROP’S WATCH Art Deco watch and left the shop twenty “I knew Joachim von Ribbentrop was hen Marks told the news to his BY SEAN O'HARE, TELEGRAPH minutes later wearing it on his wrist. Hitler’s friend and fixer, as well as his for- W friend and writing partner Maurice “I couldn’t stop staring at it, though never eign minister. And wasn’t he the man who Gran, Gran said he couldn’t possibly sell hat would you do if you were Jew- once did I wonder who it belonged to or signed the Von Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact, the watch because he would effectively be W ish and had bought a second-hand why it was in the shop window,” he says. pocketing Nazi money. watch for £150, only to find out that it once Returning to London after less than a “As a Jew,” Marks says, “I could see belonged to Hitler’s right-hand man and as year as an expat in LA, Laurence opted for Maurice had a point.” a result was worth £50,000? a change of watch and bought one at auc- “What if I sold it and gave the money to In 1985 British screenwriter Laurence tion, placing the Longines in a safety de- a Jewish charity? A synagogue that needs Marks was given a Hollywood mansion, posit box in a London bank where it stayed a new roof, perhaps? A Jewish youth club wrote comedy for Paramount Studios, for five years. community hall? drove a red convertible, and was deeply Deciding to revive the Longines watch, “I did enquire to one or two Jewish charities unhappy. Marks realized that it had started to lose about making a substantial donation, but time and took it to a City of London repair Von Ribbentrop’s watch, found by Laurence once they heard where the money was going Marks. shop. Three weeks later he received a call to come from, they either said a polite ‘No, asking him to come into the shop. which effectively allowed the start of the thank you,’ or slammed down the phone. “The watch repairer asked me if the Second World War? “And of course I could understand that watch was a family heirloom,” Marks re- “So I asked how much it was worth and the Von Ribbentrop Community Hall at- calls. “I told him it wasn’t, but asked him was told anywhere between £40-50,000, tached to a north London synagogue could why he asked.” maybe more, depending how badly a col- be seen in bad taste. “He removed the back of the watch, lector wanted it. “So I was left with this dilemma for many handed me an eyeglass, and said ‘Well?’ “It didn’t occur to me at that time that this months.” What I saw were the initials ‘JVR.’” watch would attract dormant Nazis, who Maurice Gran finally suggested writing a Nothing strange in that. But in addition to would pay a fortune just to get a little closer play about the dilemma: what does a Jew Laurence Marks, right, and his writing partner, the initials there was a small elegantly en- to a regime that they wished had survived do with a Nazi watch, particularly if he Maurice Gran. graved swastika, under which was en- and flourished. needs the money? He hoped an afternoon’s shopping trip graved a date: 1930. “Apparently, von Ribbentrop, whilst not a “I immediately could envisage what a and the purchase of a $200 second-hand “I asked the watch repairer who JVR first-division Nazi, was very collectable. good play this would make and after three watch on Los Angeles’s Melrose Place was,” says Marks, “but he had no idea. He And the fact that he was the first Nazi or more years of discussion we wrote Von would lift his mood. said that if I was really interested I should hanged at Nuremberg could well increase Ribbentrop’s Watch,” says Marks. “What “I felt isolated. I had everything but I take the watch to Sotheby’s. They would the watch’s value,” Marks says. else could we call it? pined for London, its culture, and my be able to tell me.” How the watch ended up in a second- “I then did as Maurice suggested and put friends. It was the loneliest time of my life After 16 weeks, Sotheby’s Watch and hand watch shop in California is anyone’s the watch away in a safe and there it will and I thought spending some money would Clock department confirmed that the watch guess, although Sotheby’s suggested a remain. No fascist or Nazi sympathizer will cheer me up,” he tells me. was genuine, was bought in Berlin in 1930, US guard may have stolen it from von ever get their hands on it. In the second-hand watch shop’s window belonged to Joachim von Ribbentrop and Ribbentrop as he awaited execution in his “But the bigger question remains: What display, Laurence spied a simple Longines was exceedingly valuable. Nuremberg cell. would you have done in my position?” Page 12 MARTYRDOM & RESISTANCE November/December 2010 - Kislev/Tevet 5771 DID STALIN CONDONE THE HOLOCAUST? (Continued from page 7) One of the Warsaw ghetto leaders the Commons to express the British peo- and most of those who escaped were re- be subordinate thereto.” whose testimony he brought back told him: ple’s “detestation of Germany’s crimes.” captured and shot. The evidence continued to mount of the “I know the English. When you describe to Churchill instructed that anyone associ- ould a Mosquito force have under- evil the Nazis were perpetrating. In addi- them what is happening to the Jews, they ated with such murders should be tracked Ctaken such an operation against tion to intelligence intercepts, another will probably not believe you.” It was an ac- down, tried, and executed. Auschwitz, 750 miles further away? Some trickle of information came from organiza- curate prediction. eanwhile, two remarkable es- argue this would have been morally impor- tions such as the Jewish Agency and the When Karski’s report was given to lead- Mcapees from Auschwitz were on tant even if it had not succeeded. The air World Jewish Congress. ing British civil servants and politicians, in- their way to the West with the first inside crew who would have died might have Based in neutral Switzerland, they col- cluding the Foreign Secretary, Anthony account. Their report reached London in begged to differ. lated reports from across Nazi-occupied Eden, they seemed more interested in the July 1944. In July 1944, with evidence emerging that Europe and relayed them to Jerusalem, heroic details of his es- Jews were being deported in vast numbers London, and New York. cape than in what he had from Hungary, the Western Allies have been n mid-1942, a Polish underground to tell them. accused of culpable negligence for not per- Igroup got a message to their govern- Nonetheless, on De- forming an operation that would almost cer- ment-in-exile in London that 700,000 Jews cember 17, 1942, an in- tainly have ended in disaster, yet the Soviets had been killed there between June 1941 ternational declaration have received a pass for their failure to make the slightest effort to destroy gas and April 1942. This led to the first article condemned Nazi atroci- chambers that were in easy reach. on German mass murders of Jews to ap- ties that had claimed the One thing the Soviets couldn’t claim was pear in any British newspaper. On June 25, lives of “hundreds of thou- an inability to get their heads round what a Daily Telegraph headline declared: “Ger- sands” of Jews. By that was happening. The Holocaust would not mans murder 700,000 Jews in Poland.” A time, in reality, two million have caused Stalin and his associates any few days later, the Daily Mail reported, Jews were dead. difficulties of comprehension. They tor- “Greatest pogrom — one million Jews die.” But there was no refer- tured and murdered people all the time. By the following month, there was testi- ence to Auschwitz, which They knew all about concentration camps, mony that these killings were being cen- was regarded erro- since, in their own gulags, they operated the trally orchestrated by the German neously as a concentra- largest camp system in the world at the time authorities when a dissident German in- tion camp exclusively for and had the equivalent of major urban pop- dustrialist reported to a contact in Geneva Christian Poles. Survivors of Auschwitz after their liberation on January 27, 1945. ulations behind barbed wire. that the Nazis intended to kill all the Jews Besides, what could be done about it? Armchair moralists continue to condemn They were also familiar with deporting in Europe. The two Jewish underground leaders the Allies for inaction after this. But they ig- entire ethnic groups, as the Chechens, In November, a hundred or so Jewish who spoke to Karski wanted the Allies to nore the practical difficulties and the ex- Crimean Tatars, Poles, and Volga Ger- prisoners were exchanged for Germans in- add stopping the killing of the Jews to their tremely remote prospect of success — mans discovered. They also persecuted terned by the Allies. Their stories shattered stated war aims. largely because a raid might only have people for their religious beliefs, as well as any illusions that a continent-wide atrocity They also suggested issuing a public killed those it was intended to save. for their class or nationality. was not underway. warning to the German people that they An inordinate amount of criticism has And by 1944, the Allies’ priority was their That month, too, one of the most coura- would be held collectively responsible for been focused on the Western Allies for not biggest military gamble of the entire war — geous men of the war, Polish underground what was being done in their name. doing anything about the extermination establishing a foothold in France. Ahead of courier Jan Karski, travelled across Occu- If the extermination still did not stop, there camps, yet there has been a remarkable D-Day, Bomber Command was fully occu- pied Europe with a precious key in his should be retaliatory bombing of German dearth of books about the Soviets’ inaction. pied trying to wreck the rail network of north- pocket. Welded inside it was the micro- targets in Poland and the execution of any Every study of the Allies’ response to the ern France to stop German reinforcements filmed testimony of two Jewish leaders, self-proclaimed Nazis held by the Allies. Holocaust either omits the Soviet Union en- arriving. After D-Day, it had a crucial job giv- smuggled out from the Warsaw ghetto, But the RAF pointed out that the extreme tirely or appends the Soviets as an after- about the horrors happening there. distances meant bombers would have to ing air support to the troops on the ground. thought, even though a third of the USSR’s Karski also had his own eyewitness in- carry so much fuel they would be able to The RAF had developed expertise in five million Jews perished at Nazi hands. formation, obtained when he took the enor- deliver only a token payload. As for low-level attacks using the new, fast and No one seems to ask why Stalin did not mous risk of donning a guard’s uniform reprisals against German POWs, this astonishingly versatile Mosquito aircraft. In use his huge air force to bomb the camps and slipping in disguise into a holding would not only violate international law but February 1944, a sortie mounted at the re- or drop paratroops who would have made camp for Jews. They were being mar- lead to retaliation against British POWs. quest of the French resistance smashed short work of the SS men running the shaled there before being sent by train to With direct action ruled out, all that was left the walls of the Gestapo prison at Amiens. death camps. If there are sins of omission camps with gas chambers, such as Sobi- were increasingly threatening warnings. In The outcome was not good. One hun- to be accounted for, then here may well be bor and Treblinka. March 1944, the Foreign Secretary rose in dred prisoners were killed during the raid, where the blame truly lies. THE HOLOCAUST AND THE LOST CARIBBEAN PARADISE (Continued from page 5) Heavy pressure was mobilized against anti-Hitler . . . . Therefore, we regard these Neumann wrote: “We should be very ment went into even higher gear when it Haiti when it planned to admit 100 refugee refugees as suspects and cannot view with much obliged to you, if you could improve learned that Cramer had signed the procla- families. The Haitian President was accused approval their migration from place to our actual situation by giving us the per- mation. Breckinridge Long contacted his of undermining the American war effort and place. I added that since my Government mission to stay in your territory till we can friend Representative Martin Dies, Chair- thus the safety of the United States. The is spending in excess of twelve billion dol- immigrate to U.S.A. We are aware, that we man of the House Committee on Un-Amer- usual contrivance — the claim that there lars for the defense of the United States, do an extraordinary step in applying to you. ican Activities. The weapon they used was would be spies among the refugees — in and the Western Hemisphere, it would be But that is our last chance.” the old canard that spies would arrive the case of Haiti was extended to the misin- unreasonable to expect that we would view On March 25, 1941, Robert Lovett an- among the refugees. That not a single such formation that (although they might not be without concern the uncontrolled move- swered: “I regret to inform you that a proce- case had been proven mattered little to Long straight Hitlerites) all refugees were “at the ment of alien suspects. dure for giving effect to the plan of affording and Dies. President Roosevelt, “informed” least” pro-German. The American Minister During all the time that the State Depart- temporary refuge in the Islands has not by Long of the undoubted arrival of spies to Haiti, on September 30, 1940, received ment was thwarting the refugees, letters been worked out by the State Department among the refugees, was won over. the following telegram from Secretary of arrived from those who had heard of the and the Department of the Interior.” Finally, to clinch the matter, Long had a State Cordell Hull: possibility of escape. On May 20, 1941, Another applicant awaiting deportation brilliant idea. He went to see Admiral Alan The Department desires you to discour- was Walter Bruehl. He wrote: “We are still G. Kirk, Chief of Naval Intelligence. “If the age at every opportunity and in a manner Robert M. Lovett, Acting Governor of the a small number of passengers on the Navy could declare it [the Virgin Islands] a which can leave no doubt in President Vin- Islands (Lawrence Cramer had resigned) restricted area for strictly naval reasons,” cent’s mind all projects for bringing addi- wrote to James McDonald, Chairman of steamboat St. Louis, departing from Ham- Long explained, “[that would] prevent the tional European refugees to Haiti under the the President’s Committee for Refugees: “I burg May 13, 1939 [on the infamous Voy- raising of the political questions involved in circumstances that have prevailed in the have been overwhelmed by correspon- age of the Damned], to Havana, Cuba who this refugee and undesirable citizens traffic past . . . . The Department therefore would dence of a most poignant nature.” after an adventurous crossing were forced to return to Europe . . . . Please, Honorable which is going on [Then] we would have no deplore further interest by the Haitian Gov- “OUR LAST CHANCE” more trouble.” ernment in the admission of refugees Sir, let me know what we can do. I shall act This settled the case. Nobody in wartime among whose numbers will doubtless be f the dozens of pleading letters in immediately in the required direction.” could defend an issue that threatened the found elements prejudicial to the safety of Othe National Archives, one by Ger- On May 20, 1941, Lovett answered: “I re- security of the United States. The attempt the Republic of Haiti and this country . . . . hard Neumann, who writes for himself and gret to inform you that the State Depart- to tear a few thousand of the doomed from The Chargé in Haiti, fully understanding six others, is particularly tragic. The letter, ment has refused permission to put into Moloch’s jaws had been sabotaged. This what his superiors expected of him, lost no dated February 14, 1941, was written from effect the plan proposed for the reception victory by the State Department was time. On October 2 he wrote to the Secre- Camp Gurs, a collecting place in France of the refugees . . . .” achieved 20 months after the Kristallnacht tary of State: for shipment either via the infamous Each of the applicants’ letters, preserved pogrom and nine months after the Nazi I made the following points: One, all Drancy camp, or directly to the annihilation in the National Archives, is a mute witness massacres began in Poland. refugees from Germany are at most only places in the east. to the inhumanity of man against man. November/December 2010 - Kislev/Tevet 5771 MARTYRDOM & RESISTANCE Page 13 POLISH ARCHIVE, ISRAELI SPAR VICHY GOVERNMENT TOUGHENED ANTI-JEWISH OVER FATHER’S HOLOCAUST DIARY LAWS he Israeli daughter of a Holocaust some 3.2 million, or 10 percent of the pop- Milch’s family spent the next few years he head of the French government Tsurvivor who kept a diary in hiding ulation. reconciling the Polish and Hebrew texts. Twhich collaborated with the Nazis during World War II wants it back from a Around half of the six million Holocaust Their edited version was issued in Hebrew during World War II personally made harsh Polish-Jewish archive, but officials refuse. victims were Polish Jews. Most perished in in 1999 and English in 2003, while the orig- anti-Jewish legislation even tougher, a It belongs to the nation, they say. death camps the Nazis set up in Poland, inal was published in Poland in 2002. leading Nazi hunter said, citing a newly un- Composer Ella Milch-Sheriff told AFP such as Auschwitz-Birkenau. Milch-Sheriff said she is determined to veiled document. she was appealing to Warsaw’s Jewish fter the war, many of the few hun- pursue her claim and could turn to the Eu- Serge Klarsfeld, decorated for his work Historical Institute to give her the crucial Adred thousand survivors headed to ropean Court of Human Rights. to bring Nazis to trial, said Philippe Petain chronicle of the Nazi German occupation what is now Israel. Milch and his second olish academic and lawyer Ireneusz penciled harsher measures into a Statute of Poland made by her late father Baruch wife emigrated in 1946, and Milch-Sheriff PKaminski is considering representing on Jews issued by his Vichy regime ex- Milch. was born there. her, saying it is a test case. actly 70 years ago. Milch-Sheriff said she does not want it for Before leaving, he gave his diary to a “While the authorities do regard her as First World War hero Pétain signed an herself, and aims to donate it to Israel’s Polish Jewish group recording Holocaust the heir to her father’s diary, the law pre- armistice with the Nazis in 1940 which di- Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial. history. vided the country, leaving the north in Ger- man hands. Pétain created a government “I would like the diary to be in the best “He realized his records to the south in unoccupied France with its hands and in exhibitions, so that people, constituted an important doc- capital in Vichy. including family members, will be able to ument and that is why he en- According to the Statute, which Klarsfeld see it,” she said. trusted them,” Eleonora said had been handed over anonymously The document is a snapshot of Nazi Bergman, head of the Jewish to the Holocaust Memorial in Paris and au- Germany’s World War II occupation of Historical Insitute, told AFP. thenticated by its experts, Pétain penciled Poland, which became the epicenter of But Milch-Sheriff said her in his own notes drastically worsening con- its drive to wipe out Europe’s Jews. It father had wanted the diary ditions for Jews in France. also bears witness to Milch’s personal kept safe temporarily. “We didn’t know until now that Pétain suffering. In one entry, he recounts the “The only testimony to what had made changes to the text of Oct. 3, shooting death of his three-year-old son happened to his family and 1940, and that he had made it more strict,” — who would have been Milch-Sheriff’s friends was there in his diary, Nazi hunter and founder of the Association half brother. and he was afraid that if he of the Sons and Daughters of Jews De- But Polish officials say they are bound by took it with him, it would get A worker of the Jewish Historical Institute holds part of a diary ported from France Serge Klarsfeld told re- by Holocaust survivor Baruch Milch. strict rules covering historical records — in- lost, damaged or destroyed,” porters. cluding those made by private individuals. she said. vents her from enjoying its ownership,” “The diary of Baruch Milch is important Milch died in 1989. Kaminski said. evidence of the past, a document present- Towards the end of his life, he wrote his “To date, there has been no balance be- ing the life and tragic fate of Polish nation- memoirs in Hebrew and asked Milch-Sher- tween the public good and ownership als of Jewish origin,” national archive chief iff and her late sister Shosh Avigal to have rights which are disproportionately limited,” Slawomir Radon said in a statement. them published. he explained. “It is an archive document and, as such, Shortly after his death, a Polish re- Two years ago, another Holocaust diary cannot be taken from Poland perma- searcher contacted them for permission to sparked controversy. nently,” he said. publish extracts of the Polish-language Written by Ruth Laskier, 14 — who later A long history of war and occupation — manuscript from the archives. died in Auschwitz — it chronicled three and consequent destruction — means “This was the first time my sister and I months of 1943 in the southern town of Poland guards its remaining national heard about the original diary. My mother Bedzin. archives hawkishly. knew about it but never spoke with us A childhood friend, Stanislawa Sapinska, Milch, a doctor, wrote the diary while about it until that moment,” said Milch- kept the diary secretly for decades before being hidden by Poles who faced death if Sheriff. revealing it to a local newspaper, which The French historian Serge Klarsfeld with a found out. In 1990, her sister went to Poland seek- published it in 2006. draft law dated Oct. 3, 1940 and annotated by Between July 1943 and March 1944, he ing the diary, but only got a copy. It was immediately compared to the diary hand by Marshal Philippe Pétain. recounted his pre-war life and also detailed Bergman explained why. of Dutch-Jewish teenager Anne Frank. The Vichy government helped in deport- atrocities which claimed his entire family, “We are always ready to give a family a In 2007, Sapinska donated it to Yad ing about 80,000 Jews to concentration including the tiny son. copy of documents. But the mission of our Vashem on a trip organized by officials camps from France between 1942 and Pre-war Poland was Europe’s Jewish institute is to record history, often based on from Bedzin, who claimed they were un- 1944. heartland, with a thriving community of the private notes of individuals,” she said. aware it was against the law. The amendments “completely redrafted” the nature of an already extremely anti-Se- mitic text, Klarsfeld added. OLD PHOTOS REVEAL TALE OF JAPAN AND JEWS OF WWII “It shows this was the desire of Pétain (Continued from page 5) In 1938, as Germany’s persecution in- Osako’s daughter, Mie Kunimoto, now himself,” he said of the document, which researcher Kitade. creased, government ministers in Tokyo is- 62, was surprised to learn about the went on display a few days earlier. The The messages on the photos given to sued a statement that Japan would treat photos. original text had excluded the descendants Osako are in languages that reflect the the refugees humanely. At the same time, “I never heard about this, and neither of French Jews born or naturalized before Nazi advance through Eu- had my sister. He wasn’t the type of person 1860, but the notes showed Pétain had rope: German, Polish, to talk about the past.” crossed this out, making all Jews targets Norwegian, French. Like many of his generation, Osako didn’t for discrimination. Pétain also widened the exclusion for Kitade said the images talk much about his wartime experiences, al- left a strong impression on Jews in society, barring them completely though he wrote briefly about them in 1995 him. “It was 70 years ago, from jobs in education and the justice sys- for a college alumni publication. so the people in the pic- tem and preventing them from standing for “The Jews that I saw at that time had no tures may no longer be elected posts. alive, but if possible, passports and were stateless, they were Until now, there has been little documen- somehow I’d like to find refugees that had fled Europe and were tation on Pétain’s Vichy government and even their families and generally downcast, some with vacant his stance towards the Jews. show them,” he said. eyes that projected the loneliness of peo- His defenders have always said his poli- Historians have various ple in exile,” Osako wrote. cies aimed to protect French Jews by as- theories as to why Japan But he also had time to make friends along similating them into the local culture and allowed Jews to pass the way – he notes that some were very converting them into Catholics. through, and others to set- helpful in his duties, and he recalls seeing “That argument collapses with this doc- tle in its Manchuria territo- Jewish women “of a rarely seen beauty.” ument,” said Klarsfeld, awarded the Legion ries. Some say it was “A souvenir to a very nice Japanese of Honor by then-President Mitterrand for his work seeking prosecutions for Nazi war done on purely humanitar- This photo given to Japanese tourism official Tatsuo Osako shows a man,” reads the Polish message on an- ian grounds, while others woman and a brief message written on the back of the picture. other of the photos from his diary, this one crimes. say the country wanted to of a dark-haired young lady with a slightly Pétain was tried after the war and sen- gain educated citizenry for its newly con- Japan was slaughtering and enslaving oth- furrowed brow. The signature looks like tenced to death for treason, but his sen- tence was commuted to life imprisonment quered lands and curry favor with the U.S. ers in its territories throughout Asia – ac- “Rozla.” Her fate is also unknown. in the years before the two countries went tions for which postwar Japanese leaders on an island off the Atlantic coast. He died to war. have repeatedly apologized. First published in The Washington Post in 1951. Page 14 MARTYRDOM & RESISTANCE November/December 2010 - Kislev/Tevet 5771 A FILM UNFINISHED: THE WARSAW GHETTO AS SEEN THROUGH NAZI EYES launched a desperate uprising against Yet mysteriously the Nazis’ propaganda men at work). Using an actor, Hersonski BY RICHARD Z. CHESNOFF, their Nazi captors, a battle that ended only film was never finished. For more than 50 has also re-enacted the actual postwar THE HUFFINGTON POST when the overwhelmingly powerful Ger- years, the silent, unedited reels lay hidden testimony of one of the film’s original Ger- man forces leveled the ghetto and reduced in a secret East German film archive in man cameramen (now deceased). side from Auschwitz and other Nazi it to rubble. boxes marked simply, “The Ghetto.” But in this viewer’s mind, the most fasci- death camps, nothing epitomizes A Yet barely a year before, in May 1942 — hen along came Yael Hersonski, a nating parts of the unfinished film are its the horrors of the Holocaust more than the two and half years after the Warsaw young Israeli documentary maker outtakes, which at times clearly show the infamous Warsaw Ghetto. T Ghetto was established and shortly before whose own grandmother had survived the cameramen themselves caught in the shot Surrounded by a barbed-wire-topped 10- the Nazis sent the ghetto’s first 300,000 (see photo at beginning of piece) or foot-high brick wall, it was into this tiny cor- Jews to the extermination camp of Tre- demonstrate how scenes were staged, ner of the Polish capital that the Nazis blinka — the Reich dispatched a crew of then re-shot to produce a “better” anti-Se- German soldiers to film Jewish life mitic result. in the Warsaw Ghetto. Film Unfinished has already won Their perverse propaganda goal: Awell-deserved international plaudits, to record for posterity examples of It was the 2010 Sundance Film Festival the religious practices and “sub- Winner for World Cinema Documentary human culture” of the soon-to-be- Editing, the 2010 Hot Docs Winner for Best eliminated judische Rasse, every- International Feature, and a prime selec- thing from a circumcision cere- tion at Germany’s 2010 Berlinale. mony to a burial service, from the For some obscure reason, the Motion extreme poverty of the many to Picture Association of America – which the supposed lack of concern of lets our youth be bombarded by meaning- those few Jews who still had some less entertainment and violence – has de- assets. Film maker Yael Hersonski. cided to give A Film Unfinished an R rating Parts of this nefarious Nazi prop- Warsaw Ghetto. After gaining access to because of “disturbing images of Holo- aganda film were heart-wrench- the long-abandoned footage via the cur- caust atrocities, including graphic nudity,” ingly real; the Nazis had no rent German government, Hersonski wrote the latter in a Nazi-coerced scene of young Jewish ghetto police round up Jews for the Nazi camera- compunction about showing Jews and directed A Film Unfinished, a stagger- women in a ritual bath. man. suffering. But other parts of it were ing 90-minute documentary of the atroci- The rating, which prevents anyone carefully staged, a German ties of life in the Warsaw Ghetto as filmed under 17 from watching the film unless herded up to 400,000 Jewish prisoners at Potemkin Village movie honed for propa- by the Nazis themselves. accompanied by a parent or adult a time, systematically starving them with ganda and construed to discredit the Jews. Two-thirds of the 31 year old Hersonski’s guardian, will not block the commercial barely 181 calories of rations per day, leav- Horrifying snippets of it have appeared film consists of the original Nazi propa- screening of the film. But it will prevent ing them to die of hunger or disease, or over the years: a starving child dying on ganda footage – including outtakes. The the film from being shown in high school simply leaving them to languish while they the streets of the ghetto while other Jews rest is composed in part of the wrinkled classes as an educational tool, to the par- unknowingly awaited shipment to Hitler’s walk by or still others dine on meals at well faces of a handful of Warsaw Ghetto sur- ticular disappointment of its creator Yael gas chambers. -stocked restaurants that never existed; vivors grimly watching an actual screening Hersonski, who looks barely 17 herself It was here too that in the spring of 1943, Nazi-appointed Jewish ghetto police bru- of the film and offering commentary (some and says she made it “not only for now a small band of heroic Jewish fighters talizing fellow Jews. clearly remember the Whermacht camera- but for future generations.” IN THE ERA OF THE HOLOCAUST, GERMANY’S TOP NAZI-HUNTER FINDS 29 WHO MADE A DIFFERENCE NEW LEAD IN BRAZILIAN ARCHIVE (Continued from page 4) Lisbon was upset and on June 23 erman investigators trying to track chrimm’s unit currently has about 20 tect the Jews in Budapest who had sur- stripped him of his authority. Returning to Gdown Nazi criminals before they die Sinvestigations open. Schrimm’s Cen- vived the annihilation, overseen by Adolf his property in Portugal the next month, may have had their best break in years after tral Office works alongside such organiza- Eichmann, of half a million Hungarian he only disturbed the authorities more by discovering a trove of Brazilian immigration tions as the Los Angeles-based Simon Jews in the course of 1944. With a staff of acknowledging his deeds and defending files more than half a century old. Wiesenthal Center. The Wiesenthal Center hundreds, most of them Jewish, Wallen- them straightforwardly on humanitarian Kurt Schrimm, the top German justice of- graded Germany with a B in its 2009 rank- ficial hunting Nazi fugitives, said his team berg worked night and day distributing and religious grounds. Dismissed from ing of efforts to bring Nazi criminals to jus- stumbled on archives identifying several passports and providing safe housing, food the diplomatic service and with 12 chil- tice. The U.S. received an A. hundred Germans who moved to Brazil in Schrimm dismissed the rating, saying his and medical care while the pro-Nazi Arrow dren to support, he had to sell his family Cross movement committed anti-Semitic the decade after World War II and who Central Office doesn’t like being graded estate and eventually died in poverty, may be linked to Nazi crimes. Though only outrages and the Red Army closed in on like a school kid. supported by an allowance from Lisbon’s a fraction are still likely to be alive, the city. Wallenberg was to disappear for- “As long as there’s a possibility that these Jewish community, where he ate at a Schrimm plans to follow up on the lead ever in the hands of the Soviet forces, his people are alive, we’ll continue our work,” soup kitchen. with Brazilian officials. exact fate debated for decades. Schrimm said in an earlier interview. The book relates its dramatic stories in Previous leads have included sifting But the diplomat hero that Mr. Holbrooke Schrimm, whose team taps on computers relatively undramatic fashion. Rather like through 1945 war trial documents from So- highlighted in his remarks was Aristides de in two work rooms, gave a tour of a legal record, it quotes testimony given viet archives involving German prisoners Sousa Mendes, an aristocratic Portuguese one of the dusty file spaces piled to the ceiling to Yad Vashem; the names and words of of war and Soviet collaborators. A military- with dog-eared documents detailing Nazi consul general in Bordeaux, France, from people who were rescued come and go history archive in Prague was found to crimes that took place more than six decades 1938 to July 1940. In May 1940, he faced contain complete files on the Nazi Waffen- ago. The quiet setting was a far cry from the pitiable crowds of refugees from the Ger- with only a quick glimpse at who they are SS up to 1943. In 1990, Italian court docu- 1960s and 1970s, when the unit was at its man invasion of France, many of them and what became of them later. And yet ments on SS atrocities were discovered busiest tracking down Nazis. Since its foun- Jews camped in the streets and parks and those names are reminders of the pre- after having disappeared in the 1950s. dation in 1958, the Central Office has con- ciousness of each woman, man and child The Brazilian files focus on suspected desperate for visas allowing escape into ducted more than 7,400 investigations. in the ranks of those caught up by the mil- Nazi criminals entering on provisional Spain and Portugal. The case against Demjanjuk came about lions in this nightmare. passports. Schrimm and his team followed He also faced an absolute prohibition by after an investigator accidentally stumbled The book can refer only in passing to up leads from a Brazilian source who came Portugal’s dictator, António de Oliveira on a report on the Internet that the U.S. what motivated its diplomat heroes. across letters warning the authorities of Salazar, against issuing transit visas to was seeking to revoke his passport. Dem- Some spoke of humanitarian duties, oth- Nazis trying to slip into the country with refugees and especially to Jews. janjuk’s name was known because he had In mid-June, the consul general ago- ers of Christian beliefs; both groups cited travel documents issued by the Red Cross. Little was done to bar their entry, been convicted in 1988, charged with nized for several days, cutting himself off simple human feelings. “Our father told being the Treblinka death-camp guard from the world, at one moment agitated, at us that he had heard a voice, that of his Schrimm said. South America became the refuge of known as Ivan the Terrible – only to be ac- the next despondent. Suddenly he pro- conscience or of God,” recalled a son of several high-ranking Nazi officers after the quitted in 1993 by Israel’s Supreme Court ceeded to his office and announced: “I’m Aristides de Sousa Mendes. Third Reich’s collapse, including Holocaust after doubt about his identity emerged. giving everyone visas. There will be no The book also recognizes that the inher- architect Adolf Eichmann, death-camp The Central Office, suspicious about his more nationalities, races, or religions.” ent tension between a diplomatic profes- doctor Josef Mengele and Gestapo mem- true identity, followed up on clues gained The next days were frenzied. All day and sion resting on following instructions and ber Klaus Barbie. from already scheduled visits to Israel and into the night, visas were issued. Fees the moral demands arising from unfore- “As hopeful as we are about the Brazil the U.S. Once Schrimm’s team assembled were waived. No one filled in names. seen and overwhelming human suffering findings, just 5 percent of the suspects what it thought was enough information to Sousa Mendes traveled to the Spanish has not gone away. In his introduction to may still be alive and able to stand trial,” convict, they turned it over to state prose- border to make certain that refugees were the book, Mr. Holbrooke mentions Schrimm said. “The Nazi commanders are cutors. able to cross. He confronted Spanish bor- refugees from Vietnam and Darfur. all dead, but that doesn’t make the crimes “A few years ago nobody talked about der guards when needed — and continued of their younger subordinates any less Demjanjuk any more –- he fell into the to sign visas. First published in The New York Times. prosecutable.” memory hole,” Schrimm said. November/December 2010 - Kislev/Tevet 5771 MARTYRDOM & RESISTANCE Page 15 MYTHS AND TRUTHS (Continued from page 10) Everyone was a witness to horrible vio- The Holocaust, says Gross, if studied at The disbelief was also augmented by the munity took part in them, not miscreants or lence. It was dehumanizing.” all, was not integrated into Polish national memory of the Allies’ propaganda hoaxes ‘marginal people.’ In fact, the participation by Yet, he notes, there were some who history. “For Poles, the history of World in the First World War and the pervasive the local elites and by upstanding members helped and rescued Jews. “There were War II has not included the Holocaust, as demeaning stereotype of the Jews in of the community, who remained in good some who, even though they were anti-Se- if it were a separate part of history. Jewish Christian cultural tradition. standing after the events, bestowed upon mitic, helped Jews. One woman called on historians also kept it separate, as if it were Yet gradually, historians have come to re- these crimes a kind of official imprimatur. only their responsibility, and as if there alize that these testimonies often provide These were quasi-normal events, and even were no interface between Poles and the only information available. They were remained a subject of conversation for years Jews.” deliberately written, Gross contends, “in to come at local gatherings. The plunder This foundation, he says, is simply order to provide an exact account of the was a widespread social practice, sanc- wrong. In rewriting the history of World catastrophe. Since it appeared impossible tioned by norms.” War II in Poland, Gross is also introduc- to save the mass of Jewish people me- After the war, he notes, Western nations ing a new historiography, based on nar- thodically annihilated in the Nazi-organized were able to reflect on what had hap- ratives and testimonies. He is learning, killing process, a sense of obligation grew pened, but Stalinism crushed any public he says, from his own experience. among the Jewish record-keepers to at discussion in Poland about the war, the “I came across the testimony of least preserve the evidence of the very Holocaust, anti-Semitism or Polish culpa- Szmul Wassersztajn, who described process of destruction, to produce an ac- bility, enabling Poles to entrench their view the crime in Jedwabne, by chance. And count of what had happened, without em- of themselves as noble, heroic victims. yet, somehow, I was unable to accept bellishing the story, even having to hroughout his writings, Gross em- her fellow Poles, saying, ‘The Jews are our that it wasn’t an exaggeration, but a pretty overcome their own incredulity at what was Tphasizes greed as a motivating fac- enemy, but in this situation, we, as Chris- faithful description of what had happened. happening around them.” tor for the anti-Semitism. But can greed tians, cannot be passive observers of mur- The events he was describing didn’t regis- To this day, many Jews often repeat that alone provide the explanation? “The direct der.’ A woman in Kielce hid Jews from the ter in my mind. It took me years to compre- “the Poles were worse than the Germans” motive to commit the majority of murders pogrom; she later told a journalist that she hend and accept.” in their treatment of the Jews. Gross sighs and denunciations of Jews hiding in the is a devout Catholic and that when she is not istorians of the Holocaust have as he answers, “Everyone knows that it countryside was the desire to plunder working, she is praying. Htended to rely on institutional docu- was the Germans who invented the Holo- them, to take over their belongings, which “But there were not enough people like ments, following the lead of one of the caust and built the camps. But I think that were imagined to be considerable,” Gross this.” founders of the field of Holocaust studies, the sense of betrayal is much stronger with answers. “This was a pernicious conse- Gross rejects the idea, however, of collec- Raul Hilberg, who dismissed the impor- regard to the Poles. For Jews, relation- quence of a stereotype of Jewish riches. tive responsibility. “There is no such thing as tance of personal testimonies. Further- ships with the Poles are much more com- People imagined that by killing these peo- collective responsibility. I do not bear re- more, says Gross, “Information provided plicated than with the Germans. They were ple, they would get hold of their riches. sponsibility for the actions of the Holocaust. by Jews about the fate they suffered during neighbors. There is a terrible sense of be- “But the barbarism was released by the But we do have a collective sense of identity, the war has been viewed with incredulity – trayal because these were murderous at- Nazis,” he says. “The war in the East was and, as a Pole, that identity must include not this is a consequence of the unbelievable tacks, including torture and unspeakable very different from the war in the West. In only Polish victimhood, but also Poles as scope of the crimes the Nazis committed barbarity, perpetrated by people they the East, it was a more brutalizing experi- perpetrators. It is possible to be both a noble against the Jews. The survivors them- knew. And many Jews also felt a nostalgic ence. The Nazis regarded the Poles with hero and a villain, and we have been both. selves often repeated that they could not love for Poland, which had been their overt contempt, as if they were subhuman. We must accept this.” believe what they had seen.” homeland for so many generations.” A HATRED THAT RESISTS EXORCISM (Continued from page 4) While anti-Semitism has tapped into does not just devour a Christian child’s enough to discern when responsible crit- of Israel is not necessarily anti-Semitic racial hatreds in modern times, Mr. Julius blood, but the blood of all innocent chil- icisms of Israel veer into something rep- any more than criticism of any particular and Mr. Wistrich highlight its traditional re- dren, and more completely, the blood of all rehensible: the structure of anti-Semitic Jew is. liance on conspiracy: the hidden plot. Anti- innocents. belief is not subtle. There is a wildly ex- But spend some time submerged in Semitism isn’t just a matter of asserting s any evidence needed? Appearances aggerated scale of condemnation, in these books — by no means a pleasant or unpleasant or reprehensible attributes. It Iare irrelevant; argument is illusion. which extremes of contempt confront a an easy task — and these notions recede sees the Jew as an antinomian threat, What use is visible fact when the power of country caricatured as the world’s worst into irrelevance. Mr. Wistrich’s volume overturning all ethical laws. The Jew works the Jew is in the web woven below the sur- enemy of peace; such attacks (and the presents itself as an encyclopedic history, in secret, creating invisible alliances, face? Jewish autonomy is itself evidence use of Nazi analogies) are beyond evi- and is so full of details and citations, it pulling elaborate strings, undermining so- of Jewish threat. Moreover, confrontation dence and beyond pragmatic political de- overwhelms. We hear from a 17th-century ciety’s foundations. This is why the Proto- requires courage. Anti-Semitism never bate or protest. Israel’s autonomy — its Viennese preacher (“After Satan Chris- cols of the Elders of Zion has found such sees itself as a hatred; it views itself as a very presence — is the problem. Mr. tians have no greater enemies than the a fertile international revelation. An attack on Julius writes, “Israel is the only state in Jews”), Karl Marx (“What is the worldly cult ground. That 19th-cen- the Jew is never offen- the world whose legitimacy is widely de- of the Jew? Huckstering. What is his tury document purports sive; it is always defen- nied and whose destruction is publicly worldly god? Money”), and the Hezbollah to be the secret minutes sive. This is precisely how advocated and threatened; Israelis are secretary general, Hassan Nasrallah (“If of such a plotting en- the Nazis portrayed it. It is the only citizens of a state whose indis- we searched the entire world for a person semble of Jews. It is the precisely how Islamist criminate murder is widely considered more cowardly, despicable, weak, and fee- counterfeit confirmation ideology does as well, ev- justifiable.” ble in psyche, mind, ideology, and religion, of a long-held belief. ident, for example, in the But even if we leave aside such mani- we would not find anyone like the Jew”). Anti-Semitism is a principles and founding festations, it is clear enough that anti- Mr. Wistrich offers less a history, though, metaphysical passion, documents of Hamas and Semitism requires much deeper than a contemporary indictment with his- not a materialist one. It Hezbollah. understanding than it usually gets. Last torical background. This makes his book doesn’t even require a In a recent book, “Nazi week, for example, Hannah Rosenthal, difficult to read. Its approach is one of cu- Jewish presence. Propaganda for the Arab the United States’ special envoy to mon- mulative examples culminating in jihadists One reason anti-Semi- World” (Yale), the histo- itor and combat anti-Semitism, spoke in and their apologists. Its rosterlike style can tes have been so ob- rian Jeffrey Herf shows Kazakhstan, asserting the similarity of become tedious but the examples are sessed with the issue of how Nazi propagandists anti-Semitism and Islamophobia. powerfully dispiriting. finance in the modern literally taught Arab audi- This is not an uncommon assertion rials of the Diaspora has a similar ef- world is that money is ences the language of (and cases of unwarranted discrimination T fect, though Mr. Julius is more fo- the circulatory system of anti-Semitism through are always similar), but Islamophobia is cused and analytical, dissecting types of capitalist society. It is mysterious, manipu- popular radio programs in Arabic. Nazi ide- a concept developed within the last two enmity, the nature of anti-Semitic myth, lable: the Jew’s perfect instrument. The ology bears many resemblances to that of decades by those who wish to elevate and its influence on the greatest examples Jew, first seen as a theological spoiler, be- contemporary Islamic extremism, some Islam’s reputation in the West; anti-Semi- of English literature. From his analysis, we comes a metaphysical and monetary the consequence of careful teaching. That tism was a concept eagerly embraced begin to see too just how different anti- spoiler. The medieval image of the Jew teaching is still present in the Arab world, and expanded by haters of Jews. One Semitism is from other forms of racism. was related to the vampire, Mr. Julius amplified by political leaders and imams, was constructed by a group’s supporters, Racism attaches negative attributes onto shows; the modern anti-Semitic vision often annexed to denigrations of Jews the other by a group’s enemies. people bearing a particular biological her- sees the Jew as a guzzler of a society’s taken from Islamic sources Moreover, much of what is character- itage. Such characteristics are passed on; lifeblood. The result, Mr. Julius and Mr. Wistrich ized as Islamophobia today arises out of they are inherited. The hatred is focused; This amplifies virulence as well: the Jew, recognize, has been one of the most his- taking seriously the impassioned claims the perceived threat can be excised. In a for the anti-Semite, is not just a danger, but torically noxious forms of anti-Semitic of doctrinal allegiance made by Islamic way, racism is a materialist or physical pas- the greatest danger exerting the greatest mythology, which has also fed into political terrorist groups and their supporters. sion: the problem and the solution are con- powers. In current paradoxical parlance, debates in the West and cannot be over- Anti-Semitism, though, has nothing to do crete. the Jew is, in essence, a Nazi. The Jew looked or easily dismissed. It is easy with any claims at all. International Society for Yad Vashem NON-PROFIT ORG. MARTYRDOM AND RESISTANCE U.S. POST 500 FIFTH AVENUE, 42nd FLOOR PAID NEW YORK, N.Y. 10110-4299 NEW YORK, N.Y. Web site: www.yadvashemusa.org PERMIT NO. 9313 ** ** Editor International Society Eli Zborowski, (212) 220-4304 Editor-in-Chief for Yad Vashem, Inc. Vashem, Yad for EDITORIAL BOARD EDITORIAL New York, NY 10110 NY York, New *Published Bimonthly by the Yefim Krasnyanskiy, M.A., Krasnyanskiy, Yefim 500 Fifth Avenue, 42nd Floor Avenue, 500 Fifth Martyrdom & Resistance *1974-85, as Newsletter for the American *1974-85, as Newsletter for the Federation of Jewish Fighters, Camp In- mates, and Nazi Victims **deceased Eli Zborowski Marvin Zborowski Mark Palmer Sam Skura** Israel Krakowski Mandell William Sam Halpern Isidore Karten Norman Belfer Joseph Bukiet November/December 2010 - Kislev/Tevet 5771 2010 - Kislev/Tevet November/December Eli Zborowski, Chairman; Keren Toledano, YLA Honoree; and Melvin Honoree; YLA Toledano, Chairman; Keren Eli Zborowski, Chair. Bukiet, Dinner Eli Zborowski, Chairman; Gonen and Jaci Paradis, YLA Honorees; and Honorees; YLA Chairman; Gonen and Jaci Paradis, Eli Zborowski, Chair. Melvin Bukiet, Dinner Eli Zborowski, Chairman; Boaz Zborowski, YLA Honoree; and Melvin Honoree; YLA Chairman; Boaz Zborowski, Eli Zborowski, Chair. Bukiet, Dinner MARTYRDOM & RESISTANCE & RESISTANCE MARTYRDOM The American & International Societies for Yad Vashem Annual Tribute Dinner Annual Vashem Yad AmericanThe & International for Societies Eli Zborowski, Chairman; Ariel Zborowski, YLA Honoree; and Melvin Honoree; YLA Ariel Zborowski, Chairman; Eli Zborowski, Chair. Bukiet, Dinner Eli Zborowski, Chairman; Alan and Mindy Schall, YLA Honorees; and Honorees; YLA Alan and Mindy Schall, Chairman; Eli Zborowski, Chair. Melvin Bukiet, Dinner Eli Zborowski, Chairman; Joseph & Nicole Meyer, YLA Honorees. Honorees. YLA Chairman; Joseph & Nicole Meyer, Eli Zborowski, Page 16 Page