NAHOS



NAHOS

OCTOBER 12, 2009

24 TISHREI 5770

Volume 13; No: 5

FROM YOUR EDITOR

Dear Members & Friends:

IS THAT EDUCATION?

COMMEMORATION?

When asked why the C,C.- Claims Conference diverts $18 million annually for non-Social-Services purposes, their executives repeatedly replied that these funds are needed for Holocaust education and for the memorialization of our murdered relatives and other victims.

In the early 2000s we received a 455-pages detailed, internal Claims Conference report listing their institutional allocations during the 1995-1999 period. That record listed names, locations, amounts, bank accounts, etc… of the recipients of C.C.’s largesse. It was handed to us by a former C.C. employee who had been a supervisor of a C.C. department. After a painstaking, 3-weeks long analysis, we uncovered numerous multi-million dollar allocations to institutions or projects that had only very tenuous links to the Holocaust or none at all. In our August 2009 newsletter editorial we reiterated:

“Mr. Berman fails to divulge the multitude of allocations to projects – sponsored by the C.C. board that have hardly any connections to the Holocaust. We published lists of some of these allocations in the past.”

We no longer have access to recent, extensive internal reports (and we doubt that many others see these accounts), although morally and ethically they should be openly available to all those that were directly affected by the horrors and the wholesale robberies. What the world is permitted to see are the multi-colored, non-revealing, public-relations brochures.

The following is a recent example of the Claims Conference’s misguided priorities. From Israel I received a copy of an article written by a Dr. Manfred Gerstenfeld, which was published by the ‘Jerusalem Center For Public Affairs’, August 2009/1 September 2009. The caption of the article reads: “Holocaust Deflection and Whitewashing”. Below are a few of the first few paragraphs of this long article:

** “ Holocaust deflection entails admitting that the Holocaust happened while denying the complicity or various types of participation of countries, specific groups or individuals despite ample evidence to the contrary. Major examples of deflection occur in those countries where, during the war, Germans were helped massively in the killing, deportation, and despoliation of the Jews.

** An important differentiation, however, is between whether the beneficiaries of deflection are major perpetrators such as Germany or Austria or collaborators such as Lithuania, Romania, or Hungary. Nor can the collaboration in a country such as Lithuania, where the collaborators were usually fully integrated in the killing mechanism, be compared with the collaboration of locals in, say, Poland where they were not.

** In Germany, Holocaust deflection has taken specific forms. These include the false claim that the Holocaust was implemented solely by special units, etc…

** Whitewashing is a type of Holocaust distortion that aims at cleansing certain groups of persons of blame regarding the Holocaust without necessarily accusing others.

“ Deflection mechanisms often lead to complex distortions of the Holocaust’s significance. Exposing them frequently requires an extensive study of how history has been corrupted. For many who have not detailed knowledge of the manipulated subject, deflection is difficult to detect. Among the contemporary Holocaust distortions is the one that, to be counteracted, usually requires the most additional study.”

Editor: This goes on for about nine pages. Learned anything of value or new? Why are we reporting this long-winded verbiage? Because the final footnote reveals that the

“Publication of this issue was made possible in part by the support of the Conference of Jewish Material Claims against Germany” (The Claims Conference).

Is that what the Claims Conference considers badly needed Holocaust education or Holocaust remembrance? Is that the kind of powerful education that must be supported with scarce funds? Will this verbosity convince the citizens

of the world of the occurrence or the horrors of the Holocaust? Will

(continued on page 2)

OUR NEXT MEETING:

Where: Park East Synagogue

164 East 68 Street, NYC

When: Sunday, November 22nd

1PM-2PM Social Hour

2PM- 4PM Presentation

Topic: Will be announced in our next newsletter. After November 1st you may inquire with Esther, at

718-998-4307

deniers change their views after this display of prolixity?

Truly convincing Holocaust education is and has been performed during hundreds of thousands of hours spent by Survivors and lecturers in classrooms all over the world. Effective Holocaust education is being provided by hundreds of documentaries and taped interviews, now and after all survivors will be gone. Qualified Holocaust education is being supplied by the tens of thousands of books and personal accounts written by Survivors and witnesses.

Dr, Gerstenfeld’s wordiness might only be of interest to other historians seeking to write articles in refutation of one or other of his tangled viewpoints.

We recognize and value the contributions of many historians, but not this kind of inconsequential endeavor. Many Survivors who volunteer their time in classrooms might not be able to afford their medications, while Claims Conference funds are being spent to fund irrelevant essays. The pinnacle of “Chutzpah” in this case is that Dr. Gerstenfeld is a well-to-do individual and the ‘Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs’ is a wealthy organization..

Shalom U’Bracha; L.R.

THE ABANDONMENT OF EUROPEAN JEWS

On September 13th, about two dozen NAHOS members attended a very interesting, full-day seminar at the Fordham University Law School, titled: “The Failure to Bomb Auschwitz: History, Politics and Controversy.”

In opening remarks, professor Thane Rosenbaum commented on the failure of nations to act and to intervene for humanitarian reasons. He observed that human beings seem programmed not to learn from history. A divorcee usually marries again; mass-killings took place in Bosnia while ‘Schindler’s List’ won nine Academy awards and while the Holocaust Museum was opened and publicized.

The seminar that followed was the first ever conference to focus on the history and implications of the Allies’ refusal to bomb Auschwitz or the railway lines leading to it. Other featured speakers, in addition to T. Rosenbaum, included prof. David Wyman, Dr. Rafael Medoff, and J. Rubin. Video interviews were shown of Eli Wiesel and McGovern.

During the seminar and from the material, attendees learned or were reminded of the historical events which doomed the fate of millions of European Jews. To recapitulate a few of the major occurrences:

-- In July 1938 Roosevelt convened a Conference of various countries in Evian-Les-Bains to explore which nations would be willing to admit Jewish refugees. At that time, Jews were still permitted to leave Germany. None of the attending nations, including the United States was willing to accept any Jews above their established quotas.

-- The British had issued a ‘Balfour Declaration’ which promised to foster the creation of a Jewish National Home in Palestine, but recanted in 1939 by issuing a “White Paper” which restricted Jewish immigration to just 15,000 annually and only for five years. This came at a time – six months after Kristallnacht – when Jews wanted desperately to get out of Europe. Chaim Weitzmann called the ‘White Paper’ a “Death Sentence for the Jewish People” and pleaded with Neville Chamberlain to rescind the rules, to no avail. In the weeks before the publication of the ‘White Paper’, U.S. Zionist leaders urged repeatedly Franklin D. Roosevelt to intervene against the anticipated promulgation. Justice Louis Brandeis and Rabbi Stephen Wise also tried to enlist the help of FDR. He made promises and told the British that the ‘White Paper’ was “something we cannot give approval to.” The British were very dependent on the United States’ help, “but there is a huge difference between not giving approval and expressing forceful, explicit disapproval. The British took note of Roosevelt’s minimalist response and dug their heels in accordingly. (R. Medoff, J.P. 5/13/09). The British ‘White Paper’ went into force and FDR was silent.” “… one of European Jews last avenues of escape was almost completely shut off.”

-- After the November 1938 ‘Kristallnacht’, on January 2nd, 1939, the Jewish Agency’s leader Ben Gurion came to the United States with a plan to save European Jewry. He wanted wealthy American Jews to finance ships and vessels that would carry thousands of Jews to Palestine in open defiance of the British. Labor Zionists and Louis Brandeis supported the idea, but the American non-Zionists and the American Jewish Committee leader Cyrus Adler were strongly opposed. The AJC feared that clamorous Zionist agitation in the United States would cause anti-Semitism and making it seem that Jews were dragging America into overseas conflicts.

B’nai Brith and the Jewish Labor Committee were also opposed to Ben Gurion’s plan. Rabbi Stephen Wise likewise objected to public criticism of the British. During a confrontation, in London, between S. Wise and Ben Gurion, Wise proclaimed that he had been urging Americans to stand shoulder to shoulder with England in the war against fascism. Ben Gurion reportedly retorted: “You are Jews who look out only for your own skins.” Ben Gurion’s visit had been a failure; no ‘World Jewish Conference’ was being organized as Ben Gurion had demanded and American Jews were not writing checks to buy ships.

Editor’s note: ‘Chutzpah”: The same organizations which – because of ignorance or self-interest – were guilty of thwarting the rescue efforts of European Jews, are now board members of the Claims Conference and making decisions on behalf of the remnants of European Jews they had failed to save.

-- In May 1939, the ship St. Louis sailed from Germany with 937 refugees on board and landed in Cuba two weeks later. Cuba, the United States, Canada and South American countries all refused asylum to the refugees. Cecilia Razovsky, a Senior official of the National Council of Jewish Women went to Havana and participated in high-level discussions with Cuban and U.S. officials. Razovsky wrote after the war: “We again at that time tried to get permission from Secretary of State Hull to take them, but our State Dept. was unsympathetic and Franklin Delano was apathetic although Eleanor did everything in her power to change their attitude.” Dr. Rafael Medoff wrote the following comments on July 24, 2009 in the “ 5 Towns Jewish Times”

“FDR could have issued an executive order placing the St. Louis refugees in a temporary detention center until it was safe for them to return to Germany. Or he could have put meaningful pressure on the British to let passengers go to Mandatory Palestine. Or he could have leaned on America’s Latin American allies to take in the refugees. Instead he was, as Razovsky put it, “apathetic” – he turned away, in effect forcing the St.Louis to return to Europe. The same apathy would characterize Roosevelt’s response to the Nazi mass murder of Jews in the years to follow.”

-- In the ‘Jerusalem Post of April 20th, 2009, Dr. Rafael Medoff reports: “After the news that over two million Jews had been murdered by the Nazis was confirmed by the Allies in November 1942, Noah Golinkin and two of his fellow rabbinical students at the Jewish Theological Seminary organized a delegation of rabbinical students – Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform – to meet with Wise a few weeks later. They pleaded with him to launch a public campaign to press the Roosevelt administration to rescue Jews. And they offered to lead such a campaign on college campuses. Wise turned them down cold. He insisted that a bunch of students couldn’t possibly know better than he, a venerated Jewish leader, how to respond to the Holocaust.

-- In October 1943, 400 rabbis participated in Bergson’s march to the White House to plead for a rescue of the Jews of Europe. “Stephen Wise and other Jewish leaders opposed the march and urged president Roosevelt not to meet with the marchers. Rabbi Wise wrote an article condemning the march as a “stunt”.

-- After the Allies gained control of the Foggia air-base in Italy in December 1943, Auschwitz was for the first time within striking distance of Allied planes. In the St. Petersburg Times of January 2005: “

“In June 1944 , U.S. diplomats and Jewish leaders in Switzerland received a detailed report about Auschwitz, prepared by two escapees. They described the mass-murder facilities, and drew diagrams showing where the gas chambers and crematoria were located. As a result, Jewish organizations repeatedly asked the Roosevelt administration to order the bombing of Auschwitz and the railroad lines leading to the camp. The U.S. War Department rejected the proposals as “impracticable”, asserting that such raids would require “considerable diversion of planes needed for the war effort. The U.S. officials claimed to have conducted a “study” that found that bombing Auschwitz was not militarily feasible, but no evidence of the alleged study has ever been found.”

-- On August 22nd, 1944 and on September 13th, the oil-refinery at Buma (40 miles from Auschwitz) was bombed by more than 2,800 heavy bombers. George McGovern was one of the bomber pilots. He repeatedly testified that his squadron could have easily bombed the gas chambers and railway tracks, but did not know, nor were given orders to bomb these sites. The Allies bombed again, on December 8th and on December 16th an industrial complex less than 5 miles from Auschwitz.

McGovern testified that sometimes they had bombs left over which they dumped on random targets, bombs that they easily could have dumped on Auschwitz. Polish partisans and escaped prisoners had given the Allies detailed maps of the camp and the rail lines. Among the rationalizations for not having bombed the camps was the excuse that prisoners could have been hurt or killed. But these prisoners were already ‘doomed to death’. Numerous former camp inmates, including Eli Wiesel, testified that prisoners would have been delighted to witness the bombing of camps regardless of personal risks.

-- In a September 12th, 2009 article in the New York Times, Patricia Cohen reveals that new documents have been uncovered with evidence that Jewish leaders had petitioned FDR to bomb Auschwitz. Some historians had claimed that Ben Gurion and the leadership of the Jewish Agency had opposed the bombing out of fear that prisoners would be killed.

“ The new documents show that after Jewish Agency officials learned more details about the location and capacity of the gas chambers and crematories from escapees, they reversed their earlier decision and began to lobby British and American officials privately to bomb the camps and the railways leading to them.”

When the British were informed, in December 1943 and in January 1944, by Polish couriers of what was going on in the camps, they replied: “No time for gestures” and they maintained that attitude throughout the war.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Editor’s comments: FDR defenders, in their articles and books, contend that FDR had no choice – given the political climate in the U.S.A.- and that he had been instrumental, behind the scenes, in saving many Jews. This seminar debunked many of the excuses. FDR could have given Jewish refugees asylum in U.S. territories such as the Virgin Islands and he could have ordered the bombing of gas chambers and rail lines.

While historians wrangle over who was mostly to blame for the death of millions of our martyred relatives, the remnants of the abandoned European Jews continue to experience the same apathy and insensibility from the Jewish establishment as was exhibited during the Nazi-era.

SUPREME IRONY

Our readers will recall that the national Survivors’ alliance, the “U.S. Holocaust Foundation – HSF” has been fighting for many years to obtain a fair, pro-rata share from the Swiss Banks’ settlement for the U.S. ‘Looted Assets’ Class survivors. A ‘Special Master’, Judah Gribetz had allocated 75% of the funds to Jews in the FSU – the Former Soviet Union. His rationale was that the Jews in the FSU were destitute and that no other sources of funds from within the FSU were available. We pointed out that thousands of survivors in the United States were also impoverished; that charity considerations had to be applied fairly to all survivors in the world wherever they happen to live; that charity begins at home and must be voluntary and that it was highly unprincipled and arbitrary to take someone else’s rightful share to practice philanthropy.

The Judge in the case opined that poverty-stricken survivors in the U.S. ought to obtain assistance from the wealthy Jews in America. We argued that it is the FSU Jews who ought to address themselves to the wealthy Jews in the U.S, and that U.S. survivors should be able to retain their rightful share. We went twice to the U.S. Appellate Court but were rejected. We filed a request with the U.S. Supreme Court; they refused to hear our case.

It is now over 11 years since the signing of the Swiss Banks’ settlement on August 12th, 1998 and there are reportedly close to $200 million still undisbursed under the Judge’s control. In the intervening years, hundreds of thousands of FSU Jews emigrated to Israel, the United States, Germany and numerous other countries, but the biased and skewed allocation formula is still in effect.

We came across an article in the ‘Jewish Week of September 11th, 2009, by Tamar Snyder. In it she reports that five Russian Jewish billionaires have established a Foundation named ‘Genesis Philanthropic Group – GPG’, which will share its riches with Russian-speaking Jews in the FSU. They recently gave 6 million for Jewish schools and camps in the FSU; in March 2009 they announced a $4.5 million grant to the Foundation for Jewish camps and a $10.8 million gift to establish a Brandeis Genesis Institute for Russian speaking Jewry. In April GPG gave $2.7 million to the Wexner Foundation and committed $2.1 million for leadership development for Russian Jews in North America. During the past year, GPG gave reportedly about $15 million within the FSU,

The caption of the article reads:

‘Charity begins at Home’

Well now, is that not what we have been clamoring for, for years? Judge Korman, take note!

A subtitle reads; “ Russian Jewish Philanthropic Titans to keep more of their Giving in the FSU”.

Fine and swell; now how about reversing the biased, misconstrued allocation stream and favor the U.S. and Israeli survivors until all the excess over their fair pro-rata share for the FSU survivors (?) has been reimbursed?

CORRECTION:

In Our August 2009 issue, in the ‘Notices’ column, we published an erroneous e-mail address for contact with former Schlieben prisoners. The correct address for one of the contact-persons is Hnorshel@ ; not Hnorschel@. Sorry for the oversight.

The following Opinion-Article by award-winning reporter Edwin Black, a Special to the Jewish Week of September 9/8/09 is hereby reprinted with permission of the author.

Please note: All articles and/or Letters to the Editor re-published in our NAHOS newsletters are essentially the opinions of the respective writers and are presented in our newsletters as a service and for informational purposes.

‘HOLOCAUST INDUSTRY’ MORE ABOUT MONEY THAN MEMORY. By Edwin Black.

During the first moths of the Hitler regime, in 1933, leaders of the Zionist movement concluded a controversial pact with the Third Reich, which, in its various forms, transferred some 60,000 Jews and $100 million – almost $1.7 billion in 2009 dollars to Jewish Palestine. In return, Zionists would halt the worldwide Jewish-led anti-Nazi boycott that threatened to topple the Hitler regime in its first year. Ultimately, the Transfer Agreement saved lives, rescued assets, and seeded the infrastructure of the Jewish State to be.

Fiery debates instantly ignited throughout the pre-War Jewish world as rumors of the pact leaked out. That acrimony was rekindled in 1984 with the original publication of my book ‘The Transfer Agreement’ – and has never stopped. Why? Simply put, the book came out a decade ahead of its time. When the book first appeared, in 1984, the world was still preoccupied with the enormity of Nazi genocide. The world’s emphasis was on the murderous events of the war years. Organized remembrance was collectively fighting an anti-Semitic revisionist movement that was trying to deny or minimize the Holocaust with rabid pseudo-history. Few had spoken of the financial aspects of the Holocaust until I did.

For perspective, consider that the first network television attempt to treat the Holocaust was a TV series called “The Holocaust” which aired in 1978, the same year neo-Nazis marched through Skokie. The first World Gathering of Holocaust Survivors was only in the planning stage. The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, which received its charter in 1980, was several years and many controversies away from opening. Organized Holocaust education was essentially nonexistent. For society and for survivors, the dominant priority was coming to grips with the genocide – not the assets.

What has changed in 25 years?

Assets are now part of almost every Holocaust discussion. Zionists are compared to Nazis everywhere by anti-Semites and opponents of the State of Israel. Holocaust remembrance has become a business. The survivors’ efforts at recovering assets or restitutions have been expropriated by national and international organizations claiming to speak for them and then pretending to pay homage to them.

Hence, we witness the spectacle of thousands of survivors in Brooklyn and Miami and elsewhere living at or near the poverty level. My Dad in Palm Beach has nothing but a roof over his head. But the well-heeled movers and shakers of communal remembrance travel first class, create vibrant websites, and talk the talk…all on their ‘fair share’ of the diverted recovered assets or restitution of the actual survivors.

Every day the survivors, in their newsletters and online exchanges, rail against the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum for sequestering their access to the all-revealing Bad Arolsen archives while tiny Luxembourg, with few survivors, just gained a full copy.

No one listens.

Prominent national Jewish leaders find it easier to give well-funded communal cover to the perpetrator corporations, including insurance companies, who victimized the Jews. Holocaust historians find it more lucrative to go on the payroll of perpetrator corporations such as General Motors, IBM, I.G. Farben, and Deutsche Bank, murk the facts, and then slam the files shut.

My mother jumped from a moving train on the way to Treblinka into a snow drift, never believing that the next generation speaking for her would quarrel endlessly and often arrogantly about the measure of her misery.

The Holocaust has indeed become an “industry” where the facts are lost, and all too often not faced. The victims have become tertiary to the process. It is no longer about memory; it is more about money. Facing the reality of the Holocaust is no longer about confronting the horrifying decisions Jews and Zionists had to make with a gun to their head. The Transfer agreement was one of those most terrible choices. Hence, the message of the book is unchanged 25 years later ad its searing question asks this of history: “Why must Jews always make such terrible choices?”

(Edwin Black is the award-winning, bestselling author of “IBM and the Holocaust, and his first book “The Transfer Agreement” is now released in a 25th Anniversary edition (Dialog Press). He can be reached at .

LETTERS

[ The following letter published in “The Cutting Edge”, on September 21st, is reprinted with permission.]

If Holocaust Museum Snubs Survivors, Why Doesn’t Obama Throw out the Bosses?

By Sara Lemon, San Diego

“ I was saddened to read the sorry state of affairs at the prestigious Washington Holocaust Museum from Leo Rechter regarding the wartime Bad Arolsen files. He wrote: ‘Unless Holocaust Survivors, Second and Third Generation individuals wake up and start applying pressure and mass protests on the USHM Museum in Washington, D.C. to release its sets of Holocaust files and records to major Jewish museums and libraries all over America, the USHMM will continue to monopolize the data for its own purposes’.

This is simply outrageous. Having looked into other media reports about this abuse of power, it seems the people in charge of the Holocaust Museum have thumbed their nose at just about everybody when asked to share the archives with survivor communities across the country. Indeed, why should elderly victims have to travel across the country and spend money for travel to see their own files. I ask, why doesn’t President Obama simply fire the Holocaust Museum bosses starting at the top and replace them with people who will be more responsive to the survivors’ request for their own files?”

VALUABLE DATA

The USHM Museum in Washington seems unwilling to share widely the data it received from the ‘International Tracing Service – ITS’ in Bad Arolsen on the Internet, but fortunately for Survivors other resources are opening up. The ’National Archives and Records Administration – NARA’ has announced an agreement with ‘’ which reportedly will make hundreds of thousands of Holocaust-related documents searchable online.

NARA officials have stated that the collection contains records: “..about looted assets, concentration camp registers and proceedings of the Nuremberg War Crime Trials.” Initially, 500,000 images of individual documents will be released.

“’ plans to eventually digitize – at no cost to NARA – about one million images of Holocaust related documents. Users will be able to access the documents for a fee through ‘’, but access will be free at NARA research facilities [ in College Park MD] and the documents will be available on ‘’ for no charge during October. The company specializes in making digital records from historic documents.”

[ Editor’s note: Even if a fee is charged to receive a document on the Internet, it might be cheaper than traveling to the USHM Museum in Washington, D.C.]

Journalist Ben Bain writes in the ‘Federal Computer Week’ of September 29th, 2009:

“ in the late 1990s, researchers began taking an active interest in Holocaust-era assets. At first, they focused on dormant Swiss bank accounts and looted gold, but in several years, interest expanded to looted cultural property and artwork, according to NARA. To meet the demand, the agency launched an ambitious project to put on microfilm some 2.3 million pages related to the records, said James Hastings, director of access programs at NARA. ‘’ is doing its digitization work from NARA’s microfilm.” And:

“Once it’s digitized and it’s online and indexed, there’s no limit to the access, so people can come to any of our research rooms and use these materials” Hastings said.”

A senior archivist at NARA, Greg Bradsher, has compiled a 1,200 pages guide for research on Holocaust-era assets.

NARA officials are working with British and German government archives to make other asset records available online, and they hope the French archives will also participate.

BEST WISHES & CONGRATULATIONS

Birthdays:

Breither Edith October 25

Bialek-Tygier, Helena October 25

Hirsch Roslyn October 25

Hrabowska, Maja October 25

Sztybel, Anita October 25

Shwarzstein-Gold, Dora October 26

Adachi, Agnes October 26

Kerner, Vera October 27

Cohen, Eva October 29

Gutman, Irena October 29

Klein, Irene October 30

Srebnik, Charles October 31

Hecht, Eva November 2

Rubin, Pola November 2 Palagy, Steven November 4

Sztybel, Leon November 6

Grysman, Morris November 7

Zellner, Anna November 8

Lorber, Yvonne November 9

Wilner, Henry November 9

Roth, Elise November 10

Gero, Lilly November 11

Birnbaum, Joseph November 12

Langer, Judith November 12

David, Madeleine November 13

Yarden, Paul November 14

Schwarz, Seena November 15

Gold, David November 15

Mandell, William November 15

Chass, Judith November 16

Kaichen, Hans November 16

Sternbach, Martha November 17

Wiesenfeld, Jacob November 18

Mitron, Saul November 18

Konar, Sulamita November 19

Costable, Eva November 20

Weilheimer, Richard November 21

Herman, Miriam November 21

Alexander, Edita November 22

Cohen-Kaplan, Lotte November 22

Hartman, Eugene November 22

Seidner, Herman November 22

Spitz, Andrew November 22

Jawts, Irith November 24

Kenney-Rekowski, Fran. Nov. 24

Palagy, Susanne November 24

Shulman, Lou November 25

Berger, Kathy November 25

Gero, Lilly November 25

SOME HONESTY PLEASE!

NAHOS goes to great lengths to make sure that we have documentary evidence of all our assertions in our newsletters.

Every once in a while, someone connected with the Claims Conference – C.C., or related, or interested in obtaining position or favor, writes an article reproaching anyone voicing criticisms of the C.C. Most of these articles contain inaccuracies, omissions or innuendo because, seemingly, the writers get all their information from the C.C.

One such article was published in July and we chose to ignore it until it reappeared again in a September-October publication. The caption reads: “Stop personal attacks on Claims Conference leaders.”

Now we want to set the record straight. The writer starts with the following observation:

“The recent international Conference of Holocaust Era Assets in Prague highlighted the plight of needy Holocaust survivors throughout the world. For the first time, 46 states endorsed the conclusion that “it is unacceptable that those who suffered so greatly during the earlier part of their lives should live under impoverished circumstances at the end,” and that “a high priority” must be to address “the social welfare needs of the most vulnerable elderly victims of Nazi persecution – such as hunger relief, medicine and home care as required, as well as measures that will encourage intergenerational contact and allow them to overcome their social isolation. These steps will enable them to live in dignity in the years to come.”

That statement is absolutely correct; that resolution was applauded by all. Why the writer decided to put it on top of his article is not quite clear unless the writer mistakenly believes that it came about thanks to the efforts of the Claims Conference and tries to propagate this perception. That paragraph has certainly no connection with the caption which is urging to stop criticizing the C.C.

What the writer omits to mention is that it was thanks to the efforts of the HSF-USA that this topic was included in the official agenda. The initial agenda which had been approved by the C.C. failed altogether to deal with the problem of destitute Holocaust survivors.

HSF-USA intervened with the U.S. State Department and with ambassador Stuart Eizenstat. Thanks to their repeated efforts the topic of poverty among survivors was not only included but moved to the top of the agenda.

Addressing himself eventually to the message in his caption, the writer states: “among the most commonly heard accusations are that the organization’s [C.C.’s] leadership is somehow hostile to Holocaust survivors.”

We are not aware of ever having accused the C.C. of being “hostile”. Yes, the Claims Conference is frequently accused of being impervious to survivors’ needs; it is indeed being accused of using badly needed for funds for their own irrelevant pet-projects; it is being accused of not being democratic and representative of the survivor population; often contemptuous of survivors’ opinions and sometimes just plain inefficient. There is a clear distinction between these criticism and an accusation of being “hostile”.

The writer observes that Roman Kent, the treasurer of the C.C., is a survivor. But he does not mention that – as repeatedly reported in newsletters – the chairman Julius Berman has been ignoring for years Kent’s requests to curtail allocations for non-essential, non-Social Services purposes. He observes that three Survivors organizations “are full members of the Claims Conference”, but he conveniently omits that there are 22 other non-survivors organization (some with hardly any memberships any longer) on that same board, rendering the voices of the three (or two) minority survivors’ organizations meaningless. In a truly democratic and ethical organization, designated to speak for survivors, it is elected survivor leaders who ought to have a clear majority.

The writer states that another well-known survivor is a member of the Claims Conference’s executive committee, but he fails to reveal that he is the son-in-law of that individual. What happened to the vaunted principle of “full disclosure”. That family- relationship - which he also forgot to mention - disqualifies him as a truly impartial commentator.

The writer rises to the defense of chairman Julius Berman; but seems to overlook the fact that Berman had established himself as chairman of all three allocation committees, the U.S., Israel and Europe. Survivors are indeed represented on these and other committees but their minority voices are generally powerless.

Unless and until elected survivors and/or their 2nd generation designates constitute the decisive majority on the C.C. board, the criticisms of the current C.C. leadership are likely to persist. That ought to be the constructive solution the writer is calling for.

TIDINGS & TIDBITS

I: Some time ago we reported on the exceptionally proficient research efforts by the French priest Father Patrick DesBois who recorded over 1,000 video-interviews from witnesses of the mass shooting of Jews in the Ukraine. Father Desbois uncovered dozens and dozens of mass graves; in some of them victims were buried alive. Locals who would normally shy away from talking with Westerners or other strangers about the horrors and murders of WWII, opened up to this simple priest in his religious black garb. Father Desbois made the collection of testimonies his life’s work. By painstakingly comparing recollections of elderly Ukrainians with official German and Soviet records, he was able to fill in gaps in the recorded history of Nazi-atrocities and making an enormous contribution to history. Desbois established a Paris-based Foundation “Yahad-In Unum” which oversees graduate Holocaust studies at the Sorbonne. In 2008 he published an autobiography/travelogue/collection of transcripts “The Holocaust By Bullets.” The written words can be sickening, but during the actual interviews DesBois and his team had to make efforts to remain impassive, in order not to alert the interviewed, even when they were horrified. “Every killer saw his victim; every victim saw his killer.”

This month, Father DesBois will return to Paris to inaugurate a new ‘Yahad-In Unum’ Center, which will house thousands of pages of official Russian and German records and a complete set of his witness video-testimonies.

The director of New York’s Museum of Jewish Heritage. Mr. Marvell stated: “ He brought us these voices; they would have been silenced without him.” Time is working against his project as more and more eyewitnesses pass from this earth. DesBois plans to accelerate his activities by hiring and training new research teams, but witnesses that are willing to open up to a simple priest are less inclined to confide to other interviewers.

II;: In the September 21st issue of the “Cutting Edge” () journalist and author Edwin Black reports on a ‘near criminal’ collusion between Coca Cola and Egyptian authorities which deprived the prominent Egyptian Jewish family of Rafael Bigio of their rightful stake in their bottling company. The openly anti-Semitic regime of Gamal Abdel Nasser in the 1960s engaged in a program of ethnic cleansing and property seizures targeting Jews. In 1962, Coca Cola joined in the cabal by purchasing confiscated property for a relative pittance. Since then “The Egyptian government has long ago ruled that the Nasser-era seizures of the Bigio property was illegal. But Coca Cola refuses to reimburse the Bigios for the factories the Coca Cola’s Overseas Operations took over.”

“Now, after years of litigation and fruitless negotiations, Bigio’s attorneys have filed for a stinging motion for summary judgment, asserting that the un-contradicted facts surrounding Coca Cola’s actions were so blatant that the Court should immediately find the corporation guilty.” The attorneys pointed out that Coca Cola had been engaged – between the 1940s and 1962 – with the Bigio family in a mutually profitable relationship” and therefore had not purchased the property innocently and unaware of the immoral and illegal seizure. In 1959 Coca Cola’s main office in Atlanta had signed a major licensing agreement with the Bigios. Bigio’s attorney stated succinctly: “Coca Cola is, we submit, the occupier of stolen property.”

After the nationalization of their property in 1962, the Bigios, like millions of other Jews in the Arab world, had to leave Egypt with just a few dollars in their pockets and fled to Canada. During Egypt’s re-privatization program in the 1990s, Coca Cola greatly expanded its bottling enterprises.. “Bigio, seeing a gigantic multimillion dollar business achievement that incorporated his business and involved his land, contacted Coca Cola early on. Explaining that he was the rightful owner of the land and factories that were seized in the 1960s,… he asked for back rent and compensation.” Coca Cola rejected his claim and Bigio took Coca Cola to Court.” The recent motion of Bigio’s attorney summarizes the situation as follows: “ Even after a dozen years of litigation and two defeats [by Coca Cola] in the Court of Appeals, Coca Cola professes ignorance of the venality of its conduct in exploiting, for immense profit, property that was robbed by blatant religious governmental bigotry from an Egyptian Jewish family. Instead of acknowledging – as the Egyptian government itself has done – that the Heliopolis property rightfully belongs to the Bigios, and that Coca Cola should compensate them for the occupancy and use of these properties, Coca Cola hides behind artificial and inapplicable legalisms to avoid basic fairness and Justice.”

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(Edwin Black is the NY Times bestselling author of “IBM and the Holocaust” and of “Nazi Nexus.”)

NOTICE:

KRISTALLNACHT BOROUGH-WIDE COMMEMOATION AT QUEENSBOROUGH COLLEGE

HOLOCAUST CENTER!

On Sunday November 8th; 1PM; with: Cantor Moti Fuchs, and

Youth Choir Temple Beth Shalom, and Motyl Chamber Ensemble; and “Kristallnacht” film.

GLOBAL NEWS

(Items you may have overlooked)

United States

** Cantor Isaac Goodfriend of the Ahavat Achim Synagogue in Atlanta, a Holocaust survivor and former charter-member of the USHMM Council, has died. At age 16 he was deported, but escaped and was hidden by a Polish farmer. He sang the national anthem at Carter’s inauguration.

** A former Nazi-collaborator, Ivan Kalymon of Troy, NY, is accused of Killing Jews during his participation in th ‘Great Operation’. He came to the U.S. in 1949 and became a citizen in 1955. The Justice Dept.’s Special Operations, under the leadership of Eli Rosenbaum, has taken steps to have Kalyman deported.

** Because of economic setbacks and the recession, the States of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Nevada, and others are cutting back on Holocaust education.

** Yuri Kanner, president of the Russian Jewish Congress and Rabbi Marc Schneier have engaged in a project to give a dignified burial, according to Jewish Law, to all Shoah victims to be found interred in mass graves in Eastern Europe and the FSU.

** The MSNBC website published a column by Pat Buchanan, a former US presidential candidate, in which he alleged that Hitler did not want war and that the Allies actions were unnecessary. After a National Jewish Democratic Congress protest MSNBC cancelled the column.

** A Holocaust denier, Bradley Smith, had placed an ad in the Harvard Student newspaper asking readers if they could provide proof of a single person killed in a gas chamber in Auschwitz. After a storm of protests the student newspaper cancelled the ad and blamed the publication on “misunderstanding.”

** Two Seattle synagogues were vandalized with red swastikas. More Swastikas and the word “Nazi” were also painted on sidewalks .

** On the day after Yom Kippur, swastikas were painted on a synagogue in Edison, New Jersey.

** Hundreds of 2-inch small flyers with the words “Kill Jews” were found scattered all over the Bay Ridge neighborhood in Brooklyn. The NY police unit of ‘Hate Crimes’ is investigating.

** Congressman Alan Grayson apologized for using the term ‘Holocaust’ when he stated that the health-care system was “a Holocaust in America.” He explained: “In no way did I mean to minimize the Holocaust. I regret the choice of words and will not repeat it.”

Germany:

** Ten independent and unpaid scholars and educators have been appointed to a panel to analyze the extent of anti-Semitism in Germany and to make recommendations on how to combat the problem.

** The German Bundesrat has rehabilitated German citizens, by voiding their war-time convictions, of being “disloyal” to the Nazi regime. That included deserters and individuals convicted of having helped Jews. Some 20,00 ‘disloyals’ had been executed and those that survived suffered job discrimination for decades.

** A German television ad used Hitler’s face to scare viewers from practicing unsafe sex with an accompanying slogan: “Aids is a Mass Murderer.” After numerous complaints, calling the ad “an insult to the victims of the Nazi-era” the ad was pulled from the tune.

** An art expert, watching the German version of “Antiques Roadshow”, recognized a 17th century Flemish painting as likely to have been stolen during WWII. Upon further investigation it was determined that it had been taken from a Jewish family’s gallery in Dresden. So far, no living relatives have turned up to claim the painting.

** Former labor camp ‘Lieberose’, near Berlin, where over 1,300 Jewish prisoners had been killed, has been consecrated as a Jewish cemetery.

** The German town of Dachau, infamous for its concentration camp and the Israeli town of Rosh Ha’ayin have decided to “twin”. They are planning to partner in educational, cultural and economic areas. Rosh Ha’ain Mayor Moshe Sinai defended the project as a way to prevent future anti-Semitisms & Holocausts.

** Austria: During a Holocaust commemoration of the 64th anniversary of the liberation of a concentration camp near Salzburg, survivors and French and Italian tourists were attacked by neo-Nazis and fired upon with plastic bullets. Five masked youths who had fled the scene were later arrested.

Hungary:

**Some 500 neo-Nazis and skinheads invaded Budapest’s Jewish district, tore down signs, started a small fire and shouted threatening anti-Semitic invectives. One British tourist who tried to argue with the rioters was assaulted and had to be rescued by the police. Riot police dispersed the crowd by deploying baton charges and tear gas. Over 30 thugs were arrested.

** An investigation by an Hungarian television news program revealed the existence of a network of at least eight clandestine camps in Hungary which are regularly providing weapons training to neo-Nazis. The Hungarian National Front organization has advertised weapons-training programs for individuals who can prove they are free of Jewish or Gypsy ancestry.

Netherlands:

After the Dutch office of the Arab-European League published a cartoon, which suggested that the Holocaust is a myth, the Public prosecutor of Utrecht warned that anti-Semitic cartoons are an illegal form of discrimination and may warrant a charge for “insulting a group and distributing insulting images.”

Eastern Europe:

** Poland’s Education Ministry has approved a project which will train teachers to educate secondary school students about the Holocaust and how to combat racial bias and xenophobia.

** A national Holocaust Memorial, commemorating Jewish and Gypsy Nazi victims, was dedicated on October 8th in Bucharest, Romania, attended by diplomats, political, social and religious dignitaries. About 380,000 Jews and tens of thousands of Gypsies were killed in the Holocaust.

Russia:

** The Russian Holocaust Center and the Rosspen Publishing House have issued a new encyclopedia which documents the history of the Holocaust in the former Soviet Union. The encyclopedia includes newly discovered and unpublished photos, facts and recollections.

Latin America:

Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, who frequently joins Ahmadinejad in his anti-American ravings, stated that he does not agree with the latter’s assertion that the Holocaust never occurred. However, he expanded on his remarks by commenting that “when Europeans arrived in Latin America there were close to 90 million Indians; 200 years later we only have 4 million remaining. That was a Holocaust and the European denied this Holocaust.”

Jewish World:

** According to a survey by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 83% of non-religious Israeli Jews consider their country’s relations with Germany as ‘normal’, but only 48% of the orthodox felt that way. 95% of all Israelis buy German goods.

** According to a report in the Jerusalem Post, the Volkswagen ‘Beetle’ was designed by a Jew, Josef Ganz, in 1930. Hitler later designated the ‘Beetle’ as the people’s car.

Muslim World

** The United Nation’s Relief and Works Agency – UNWRA is in charge of running schools in Gaza for over 200,000 children. Recently they switched to a new textbook for eight graders which includes a chapter on the Holocaust. Hamas lodged a protest with the United Nations, calling the Holocaust “a lie invented by the Zionists” and “ talk about the Holocaust and the execution of Jews contradicts and is against our culture, our principles and traditions, values and religion.” They declared that they will refuse to let their children study it. So far, John Ging, the director of UNWRA Gaza’s operation stood firm, declaring: “No human rights curriculum is complete without the inclusion of the fact of the Holocaust and its lessons.”

** For the first time in its history, the King Faisal International Prize in medicine, popularly known as the Arab Nobel Prize, was bestowed on a Jew, Stanford professor Ronald Levy who heads the University’s Oncology department. The award included a dinner with King Abdullah. Levy is married to a Israeli wife and one of his daughters was born in Israel. Although their passports were full of Israeli visas, Levy’s family was admitted into Saudi Arabia to attend the ceremony

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Because of shortage of space, various other news had to be postponed to our next issue.

WHERE TO GO

WHAT TO SEE;

Manhattan:

I: At the United Nations, in the Trustee Council Chamber. On November 9th: 6PM, documentary: “As seen through these Eyes.” For info contact mann@

II: At the Center for Jewish History 15 E. 16 Street NYC. Fees. On October 20, 7PM film & discussion: “Rudolf Kasztner: Jewish Wallenberg or Nazi Collaborator?”

Info:

III: At the Austrian Cultural Forum, 11 East 52nd Street, Free:

October 22nd. 4.30PM: “Unraveling the Past: Archival Resources and the Nazi-era. RSVP 1-800-695-3318 or claimsques@banking.state.ny.us

IV: At the Museum of Jewish Heritage, 36 Battery Place. Fees

On October 28th, 7PM; Lecture: The Third Reich in the Ivory Tower Complicity and Conflict on American Campuses. 646-437-2000.

Queens:

(1) At the Kupferberg Holocaust Resource Center Queensborough Community College, Bayside. 222-05 56 Ave. Tel: 718-281-5770

Free parking & admission:

(a) Exhibitions: Current: “American Cartoonists, Nazi Germany and the Holocaust.”

-- Opening October 18th: “The Art of Samuel Bak” 18 original works.

-- Center Arts Program: Thursday October 22nd at 1PM: “Childhood in Vienna”, by Claire Leder.

(b) Lectures:

-- On Sunday October 25th; 1PM “Anti-Nazis in Argentina: Latin American take on Hitler”

-- Sunday November 15th; 1PM

“Designers of Death, German engineers and the Holocaust.”

© Commemoration November 8th

see our “Notices” section.

(2) At the Central Queens YM & YWHA, 67-09 108 St. Forest-Hills;

Lecture November 10th 1.30PM “Emancipation: How liberating the Jews from The Ghetto led to Revolution and Renaissance” by Michael Goldfarb; 718-268-5011

Skokie, Illinois

At the Illinois Holocaust Museum & Educ. Center; 9603 Woods Drive

Tel: 847-967-4889

a) October 18th, at 2PM: “The Lost Cellos of Lev Aronson” Fran Brent

b) November 1st, 1.30PM: “Vilna Ghetto- History, Culture and Song: An afternoon with Maria Krupoves.”

c) November 8th; 1.30PM “Kristall-Nacht, Commemoration & Remembrance For Righteous.” Registr. requested; 847-967-4842, or: Lillian.gerstner@

San Francisco

121 Steuart Street; 415-777-9060

a) November 4th: “Hidden Children of the Holocaust” with author Suzanne Vromen.

b) November 9th: “Kristallnacht” commemoration.

c) November 16th: “Letters to Sala – A Young Woman’s Life in Nazi Labor Camps.”

NAHOS Inc.

The National Association of Jewish

Child Holocaust Survivors, Inc.

P.O.Box 670125, Station C

Main St. Flushing, N.Y. 11367

Fax: (718-820-0859 or e-mail:

estherhamalka@

or leotonirech@

President & Editor:

Leo Rechter

Executive V.P. Public Relations:

Esther Widman

Treasurer:

Gilberte Hunkins

Auditor:

Sol Lipper

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