Vol. 34-No.4 ISSN 0892-1571 March/April 2008-Adar II/Nissan 5768 WOMEN OF VALOR THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR YAD VASHEM ANNUAL SPRING LUNCHEON TUESDAY, MAY 20, 2008, NOON GUEST SPEAKER DEBORAH E. LIPSTADT r. Deborah E. Lipstadt is Dorot Professor Advisory Committee on Religious Dof Modern Jewish and Holocaust Studies Freedom Abroad. In this capacity she, at Emory University in Atlanta, where she together with a small group of leaders and directs the Institute for Jewish Studies. Her scholars, advised Secretary of State book, History on Trial: My Day in Court with Madeline Albright on matters of religious David Irving (Ecco/HarperCollins, 2005), is the persecution abroad. story of her libel trial in London against David Dr. Lipstadt has also written Beyond Irving, who sued her for calling him a Holocaust Belief: The American Press and the denier and right-wing extremist. The trial was Coming of the Holocaust (Free described by the Daily Telegraph (London) as Press/MacMillan, 1986, 1993). The book, having “done for the new century what the an examination of how the American press Nuremberg tribunals or the Eichmann trial did covered the news of the persecution of for earlier generations.” The Times (London) European Jewry between the years 1933 described it as “history has had its day in court and 1945, addresses the question “what and scored a crushing victory.” The judge did the American public know and when found David Irving to be a Holocaust denier, a did they know it?” falsifier of history, a racist, an anti-Semite, and he has taught at UCLA and a liar. Her legal battle with Irving lasted approx- SOccidental College in Los Angeles. imately five years. According to The New York She received her B.A. from City College of Times, the trial “put an end to the pretense that New York, and her M.A. and Ph.D. from Mr. Irving is anything but a self-promoting apol- Brandeis University. Professor Lipstadt is ogist for Hitler.” In July 2001, the Court of frequently called upon by the media and Appeal resoundingly rejected Irving’s attempt Jewish interests. She has appeared on to appeal the judgment against him. CNN, CBS’s Sixty Minutes, NBC’s Today Her book, Denying the Holocaust: The Show, ABC’s Good Morning America, Growing Assault on Truth and Memory National Public Radio’s Fresh Air, PBS’s (Free Press/Macmillan, 1993), is the first Charlie Rose Show, and is a frequent con- full-length study of those who attempt to tributor to and is widely quoted in a variety deny the Holocaust. It was the subject of of newspapers, including the Los Angeles simultaneous front-page reviews in The Times, Washington Post, Cleveland Plain New York Times and the Washington Post. Dealer, Atlanta Constitution, Baltimore The book has been published in Germany, Switzerland, Japan, Sun, New York Times, Time, Newsweek, London Times, London Daily Australia and New Zealand. Telegraph, and Chicago Tribune. Lipstadt was an historical consultant to the United States Holocaust Memorial She has received numerous teaching awards, including Emory’s student gov- Museum, and helped design the section of the Museum dedicated to the ernment association’s award for being the teacher most likely to motivate stu- American Response to the Holocaust. She was appointed by President Clinton dents to learn about new and unfamiliar topics, and the Emory Williams award, to the United States Holocaust Memorial Council, on which she served two for her courses on modern Jewish and Holocaust studies. Given to Emory’s out- terms. She was a member of its Executive Committee of the Council, and standing teachers, the award is based on nominations by alumni of the profes- chaired the Educational Committee and Academic Committee of the Holocaust sor who has had the greatest impact on them. She has received an Honorary Museum. Dr. Lipstadt has been called upon by members of the United States Doctorate from Yeshiva University, Bar Ilan University, and Baltimore Hebrew Congress to consult on political responses to Holocaust denial. From 1996 University. The Forward named her number-two on its list of the “Forward Fifty”: through 1999 she served as a member of the United States State Department the fifty top Jewish newsmakers for the year 2000. IN THIS ISSUE The American Society for Yad Vashem Annual Spring Luncheon......................1, 16 Picture may reveal Anne Frank's mysterious love....................................................3 U.S. intelligence and the Nazis.....................................................................................4 Zionism and the Holocaust: Lodz ghetto Jew dreams of statehood..........5 “Deadly medicine” of Holocaust................................................................6 German students confront the Holocaust....................................................................7 Young Leadership Association Winter Gala photo highlights................................8-9 Three days to commemorate the Holocaust?............................................................11 Austria’s film explores Jewish dilemma during the Shoah..................................12 Germany launches comic book on Holocaust..........................................................13 Conductor revives music of Holocaust......................................................................15 Page 2 MARTYRDOM & RESISTANCE March/April 2008 - Adar II/Nissan 5768 HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS BELGIUM TO PAY HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS MARK KRAKOW GHETTO ANNIVERSARY he Belgian government and banks issued instructions authorizing civil ser- n March 16, hundreds of Jews sand Polish Jews. Thave agreed to pay $170 million to vants who stayed to work with the Nazis to Omarked the 65th anniversary of the After the occupying Germans had liqui- Holocaust survivors, families of victims keep services running and prevent the liquidation of the Krakow ghetto with a dated the ghetto in March 1943, gunning and the Jewish community for their mate- economic breakdown that occurred during march commemorating the German busi- down those who resisted, they herded its rial losses during Word War II. the German occupation in WWI. nessman whose efforts had saved Jews survivors into the Plaszow labor camp. Campaigners welcomed the decision to During the war, that often led to Belgian from the Holocaust. “I saw the ghetto being liquidated,” compensate those whose property and officials collaborating with the persecution Some 700 Jews from Poland, Israel said Edward Mosberg of the U.S., now goods in Belgium had been looted by Nazi of Jews, although the resistance move- and other countries marched from the also in his 80s. “I saw hundreds of dead occupiers. Belgium is facing 5,210 out- ment was also strong in Belgium and site of the former ghetto to what had bodies strewn all about — it was a total standing claims for restitution stemming underground networks set up to save been a Nazi German labor camp in the cataclysm.” from the Holocaust. From those, 162 Jews were more successful than in many suburb of Plaszow, many of whose “I have come to bear witness to those amount to more than $30,000. other occupied nations. inmates were days, because the ranks Overall, $54 million will be paid to indi- “In a certain way, justice has been done. employed by Oskar of us survivors are grow- vidual claimants, with the rest going to a Unfortunately there are people who never Schindler. ing extremely thin.” Jewish trust which will help the poor and came back” from the Nazi death camps, “Schindler was Niusia Horowitz- keep the memory of the horrors of the said Eli Ringer, the co-chair of the commit- controversial, per- Karakulska of Krakow Holocaust alive. tee on the restitution of Jewish assets. haps even a bit mad, was only seven when Of the 50,000 Jews who lived in “The nice thing is that the rest of the but he was one of the ghetto was liquidat- Belgium in the 1930s, about half were money, about $100 million, will go in a the few Germans ed, but she and 15 fami- exterminated in the Holocaust. trust for the Jewish community in order to who did such a ly members owed their Last year, Prime Minister Guy help needy people, in order to remember thing,” said 86-year- survival to the German Verhofstadt apologized for Belgian author- the Shoah,” Ringer said. Of the total resti- old Jan Dresner of Holocaust survivor Edward Mosberg talks entrepreneur. ities’ involvement in the deportation of tution payout, $69.8 million will come from Tel Aviv, one of with participants of a march marking the “Schindler was such a Jews to Nazi extermination camps. the Belgian authorities and $85 million some 30 marchers 65th anniversary of the liquidation of the warm, magnificent per- After the Nazi invasion in May 1940, the from banks. Most of the remainder come saved by the facto- Krakow ghetto. son, who had many Belgian government fled to Britain, but from insurance companies. ry-owner. problems of his own but felt human life “This is my first trip to Krakow since must be saved,” Hororowitz-Karakulska, “BRITISH OSKAR SCHINDLER” then, because I was afraid of those 72, told Reuters. IN RUNNING FOR NOBEL PEACE PRIZE memories, but I felt it was my duty to Poland, which was invaded by Nazi come with my wife and daughter to tell Germany and Soviet Russia at the start British man who saved hundreds of late 1980s, after his wife found a scrap- about it.” of World War Two in September 1939, AJewish children from Czechoslovakia book documenting his work in their Schindler, made famous by the 1993 lost six million citizens in the war, half of from the Nazi concentration camps in the attic. In October 2007, 98-year-old Steven Spielberg film, “Schindler’s them Jewish. Holocaust, has been nominated for the Winton was awarded the Cross of Merit List”, had used his influence with fellow Up to 1.5 million perished at the notori- 2008 Nobel Peace Prize. of the 1st class by Czech Defense Nazis as well as bribes and forged doc- ous Nazi extermination camp, Auschwitz, Sir Nicholas Winton, Minister Vlasta Parkanova for uments, to save more than one thou- some 25 miles west of Krakow.