Suitcases that belonged to people deported to Auschwitz. This photograph was taken after Soviet forces liberated the camp. Auschwitz, Poland, after January 1945.
Controversial Jewish speaker sparks Jewish ire as Germany marks Kristallnacht anniversary
A controversial Jewish critic of Israel speaks tonight in Frankfurt on the anniversary of the 1938 Nazi Kristallnacht, or “night of broken glass,” sparking outrage in the Jewish community, but symbolizing for many Germans that the past is further behind them.
Alfred Grosser, a prominent Franco-German intellectual who escaped the Nazi regime in 1933, is known for his work on postwar reconciliation — but has in his eighth decade become a serious critic of Israeli policy toward Palestinians.
He has equated Gaza to a concentration camp, calls for full equality of Arabs and Jews in Israel, has said that Germany should be more critical of Israel, and argues that Israeli policies are most responsible for “promoting anti-Semitism globally.”
Frankfurt mayor Petra Roth invited Mr. Grosser to speak at the Nov. 9 event at St. Paul’s Church as guest of honor for the anniversary of the Nazi ransacking of Jewish temples that left smashed glass on the street outside many Jewish places of worship. Kristallnacht is often remembered as the most visible start of violent Jewish pogroms that led to the Holocaust, the systematic eradication of Jews in Europe.
Grosser himself has hinted that Frankfurt city officials wanted a speaker who wouldn’t ritualistically speak on a subject Germany is well-acquainted with. But the German Council of Jews protested angrily that Grosser’s invitation be revoked, arguing his credentials and attitude are inappropriate for the occasion.
Jewish leaders say they will attend Grosser’s talk, but walk out if he raises the subject of Israel.
As Tom Segev makes plain in his meticulous and forceful new biography, “Simon Wiesenthal: The Life and Legends,” his achievements were real even if his heroic aura was sometimes exaggerated. His work helped lead to the capture of Adolf Eichmann. He tracked down the policeman who arrested Anne Frank. He was resourceful, confident, indefatigable.
“He was involved in efforts to locate and prosecute hundreds of Nazi criminals and assisted in the conviction of dozens,” Mr. Segev writes. “His endeavors were remarkable, especially in view of the fact that after the defeat of the Third Reich, most of those involved in Nazi atrocities had gone unpunished. They had integrated themselves into the lives of their communities in Germany and Austria and other countries and were not called upon to answer for their crimes.”
Wiesenthal, himself a Holocaust survivor, was driven by an unslakable yearning for — as he titled one of his autobiographies — “Justice Not Vengeance.” He imagined meeting the Nazis’ victims in heaven and was determined to speak just four words to them: “I didn’t forget you.” According to Mr. Segev, that phrase was both his animating force and motto.
Book of the Times: Simon Wiesenthal, the Man Who Refused to Forget
New booklet reveals Muslim acts of heroism during Holocaust
(via claerwen)
And yet some guy in Iran thinks that the Holocaust never happened…
Remembering the Six Million
Today is Yom Hashoah, Holocaust Rememberance Day.
As we remember the six million Jews murdered by the Nazis, let us also recommit ourselves to fighting intolerance, injustice, and human rights abuses around the world.
From the NY Times Lens Blog:
Mr. Nabrdalik, who is Polish, began this project because he felt he was part of the last generation that could approach Holocaust survivors.
“They are at the end of their life, which has been greatly influenced by everything that happened in the camps,” he said. “I didn’t want to lose more time. I treat these recollections as a testimony I am obliged to share.”
Click through to read the entire article and see more portraits.
NEVER FORGET Survivors of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp gathered Wednesday at the site in Oswiecim, Poland, to mark the 65th anniversary of its liberation by Soviet troops. (Photo: Peter Andrews / Reuters via the Wall St. Journal)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu looks at an aerial picture of the concentration camp Auschwitz at the headquarters of Axel Springer in Berlin. Netanyahu was given “The Auschwitz Plans”, original blueprints of the concentration camp Auschwitz by editor of the Bild daily Kai Diekmann. The plans will be transferred to the memorial site Yad Vashem in Jerusalem.
Nazi death camp blueprints given to Israel
BERLIN – Sketched on yellowing parchment, the 29 blueprints presented to Israel’s prime minister Thursday lay out the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz in chilling detail, with gas chambers, crematoria, delousing facilities and watch towers drawn to scale.
“There are those who deny that the Holocaust happened,” Benjamin Netanyahu said as he accepted the documents as a gift to Israel’s Holocaust memorial, where they will go on display next year.
“Let them come to Jerusalem and look at these plans, these plans for the factory of death.”
Netanyahu lingered over the large sheets spread on a table. Stamped with the Nazi abbreviation for concentration camp “K.L. Auschwitz,” one of the largest featured multi-colored sketches, with barracks and even latrines drawn in detail. Other smaller sheets showed architectural designs of individual buildings, drawn from various angles.
The Israeli leader was accompanied by his wife, Sara, whose father was the only member of his family to survive the Nazi genocide that killed 6 million Jews during the World War II. She watched somberly as the documents, which date from 1941 to 1943, were unfolded.
President Obama listens to Buchenwald survivor Elie Wiesel at the memorial site for the “Kleines Lager” (Little Camp) inside Buchenwald concentration camp near Weimar, Germany.
“Indifference, to me, is the epitome of evil.” — Elie Wiesel
