July 22




GERMANY:

REPRIEVE FOR SATIRE----German Gnome Permitted to Give Hitler Salute


The creator of a garden gnome that gives the Hitler salute will not be
prosecuted for displaying banned symbols, prosecutors in Nuremberg have
decided. They agree with the artist that the sculpture is intended to make
Nazis look ridiculous.

The creator of a "Nazi" garden gnome can breathe a sigh of relief after
prosecutors decided to halt an investigation into his satire of the banned
Hitler salute.

The public prosecutor's office in Nuremberg announced on Wednesday that it
was not pursuing an investigation into the artist Ottmar Hrl and the
gallery showing his work. Although the display of any symbols associated
with banned organizations -- such as the Nazi Party -- is expressly banned
in Germany, this does not constitute an offence if it "shows opposition to
the organization and fights against its ideology."

After interviewing both the artist and the gallery owner, the authorities
concluded that neither had used any symbols of banned organized in the
past.

The probe was launched after an anonymous letter arrived at the
prosecutor's office complaining about the 40-centimeter sculpture which
had been on display in a gallery window. Hrl, an art professor who is
president of the Nuremberg Academy of Fine Arts, protested that the work
was clearly meant as satire.

The prosecutors agreed that the intention had been to make the Nazis look
ridiculous. Hrl had made it clear to them that the sculpture had been
created for an exhibition aimed at criticizing the far-right in Belgium.
And the gallery owner confirmed that he had assumed he was selling a piece
of work that was attacking right-wing extremism.

(source: Der Spiegel)


**********************************

Court ups compensation for Nazi victims


A German appeals court has ordered greater compensation for the
American heirs of a Jewish businessman forced to sell his company stock
under the Nazis' "Aryanization" program a ruling that could set a
precedent for dozens of others, their attorney said Wednesday.

The Federal Administrative Court ruled July 17 that the heirs of
businessman Bernhard Hirschmann should be compensated based on the fact
that he and his brother lost their company, not just shares, said Berlin
attorney Robby Fichte, who represented Hirschmann's heirs.

The ruling increases the compensation about 20-fold to some euro700,000
(nearly $1 million), Fichte said.

"I'm happy that after so many years at least the material consequences of
the injustice can be mitigated," heir Peter Fenner of Ohio said in a
statement. Fenner a grandson of Bernhard brought the suit with his
sister, Ruth Fenner-Barash of New York state.

The federal court confirmed the ruling but said no details would be
released until the full written verdict is delivered in six to eight
weeks.

The defendant in the case, Germany's Federal Office for Central Services
and Unresolved Property Issues, said it could not comment on how many
other cases could be affected by it until it saw the entire written
decision.

"We lost, but we don't know why yet," said spokeswoman Ellen Haendler. "So
I can't say anything more until we have the ruling."

Fichte estimated the number in the dozens, however.

"It definitely sets a precedent that's why we had the opportunity to
appeal to the Federal Administrative Court; we are one of many cases, but
it's the first to be decided," he told The Associated Press. "The
authorities haven't decided many cases yet because they were waiting to
see what to do."

Under the Nazi program to strip Jews of property, Hirschmann and his
brother were forced in 1935 to sell their stock in the former Deutsche
Kabelwerke AG, a wire and cable manufacturing company that they founded in
the late 1890s, to Dresdner Bank. Both brothers fled Germany.

The bank then sold the shares at a profit to a company deemed to be
"Aryan" by the Nazis.

At the end of the war, the company based in Berlin with factories in the
surrounding region of Brandenburg was nationalized by communist
authorities.

While people in similar circumstances with assets in West Germany received
compensation in the 1950s and 1960s, the Hirschmann family only received a
payment of 125,000 German marks per brother from the Dresdner Bank a mere
fraction of what their holdings in the company were worth, Fichte said.

After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the family began pursuing full
compensation.

Based on a formula that calculated compensation for having lost stocks
under the Nazis, the Federal Office for Central Services and Unresolved
Property Issues ruled that the claim was worth euro40,000 for each brother
less than Dresdner Bank had already paid.

But the federal appeals court ruled that the compensation had to be based
on a different formula to pay for the two brothers having lost their
company, not just the stocks, Fichte said.

The federal appeal's court ruling awards Bernhard Hirschmann's heirs
euro700,000, or about euro980,000 with interest, Fichte said.

The money will come from funds set aside by Germany to compensate Nazi-era
victims.


****************************


Buchenwald gate part of Bauhaus display


The iron gate at the entrance to Buchenwald has been temporarily removed
to form the centerpiece of an exhibit in tribute to its designer, who was
forced to come up with the concept while an inmate at the Nazi
concentration camp.

Franz Ehrlich, a German Communist Party member and activist, was arrested
in the early 1930s and spent several years at Buchenwald, near the eastern
city of Weimar.

In 1938, SS officials at the camp forced Ehrlich, a designer and
architect, to come up with the design of the gate, which carries the
cynical slogan "Jedem das Seine" or "To Each His Own."

In a subtle act of defiance, Ehrlich used a typeface for the lettering of
the slogan designed by one of his teachers at the Bauhaus school, which
was shut down by the Nazis in 1933. Ehrlich died in 1984.

President Barack Obama used the gate as the backdrop for a news conference
in June after visiting the camp with German Chancellor Angela Merkel,
saying that more than a half a century later "our grief and our outrage
over what happened have not diminished." Some 56,000 people died at the
hands of the Nazis at Buchenwald.

The gate, which was removed Monday, will be on display at Weimar's Neues
Museum from Aug. 2 to Nov. 11. A copy will be in its place at Buchenwald
in the meantime.

It is one of several exhibitions being organized to celebrate the 90th
anniversary of the founding of the Bauhaus school of design, architecture
and applied arts in 1919.

The Bauhaus school was formed immediately following World War I to
transcend the divisions that had separated arts and crafts and emphasize a
new modern aesthetic that could also be mass-produced.

In Berlin, the Martin Gropius Bau museum on Tuesday opened an exhibition
called "Bauhaus: A Conceptual Model," bringing together items from
collections in the cities where the school was located over its 14-year
history Weimar, Dessau and Berlin.

(source for both: Associated Press)

**********************


German court rules Nazi Boere fit for trial


A German court has ruled that another former Nazi SS officer is fit to
stand trial for war crimes.

Tuesday's decision by the regional high court in Cologne regarding
Waffen-SS member Heinrich Boere, 88, comes shortly after a German Supreme
Court decision that Nazi guard John Demjanjuk, 89, is fit to face charges
of assisting in the murder of more than 29,000 Jews. His trial is expected
to start in the fall.

Efraim Zuroff, head of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Jerusalem, said it
was urgent to try Boere quickly, given his age. Boere is charged in the
murders of three Dutch resistance fighters.

Boere told Focus magazine in April that it had been easy to shoot the
three. He also said he was following orders.

"It was not difficult," he said in the interview. "You just had to bend a
finger."

Boere, who had Dutch citizenship, fled to Germany and adopted German
nationality after being found guilty in Holland. A death sentence ordered
in absentia was later commuted to a life sentence. Germany could not
legally extradite him nor have him serve the sentence in Germany.

Attempts to bring Boere to trial in Aachen, Germany, failed in 2008, after
the court declared him unfit. The Cologne court reveresed the decision
after reviewing reports from additional witnesses, including one from
Boere's nursing home.

According to news reports, there will be pauses in the trial, and a doctor
will be present. The court also said that the trial was likely to be less
stressful because Boere would not have to face many living witnesses.

His trial, and that of Demjanjuk, is among the last trials of alleged Nazi
war criminals. Josef Scheungraber, 90, is now facing charges in a Munich
court of having ordered the killings of 14 civilians in Italy in June
1944.

(source: JTA)




LITHUANIA:

Lithuania to stick to compensation plan


Lithuania will not amend a plan to compensate the loss of Jewish property
seized during World War II, despite criticism from Jewish organizations
that it fails to repay the properties' full value, the Baltic state's
justice minister said Tuesday.

"It is very hard, if not impossible, to restore all property rights after
more than half a century, a war and two occupations," the minister,
Remigijus Simasius, told The Associated Press.

"Most of the Jewish population was killed, their ancestors scattered
around the world, and many properties do not have legitimate owners," he
said, referring to buildings that were once owned by Jews but were not
inherited by relatives because of the war.

According to the ministry's plan, which still needs parliamentary
approval, Lithuania will pay 128 million litas (euro37 million, $53
million) to Lithuania's 5,000-strong Jewish community. Part of the payment
will include the return of two buildings, though most of compensation will
comprise cash payments.

Negotiations on the compensation package lasted nearly a decade. Payments
are expected to begin in 2011 with 3 million litas ($1.2 million) to be
paid to Holocaust survivors, and compensation for stolen property to begin
in 2012. A non-governmental organization will be established to distribute
the funds over several years.

The local Jewish community has rejected the proposal as too small, saying
it represents a "mere fraction" of the value of Jewish property seized in
World War II.

"Jewish communal property has to be returned, just like this was done with
property of other communities, including the Catholic Church," said Simon
Gurevichius, executive director of the Jewish Community of Lithuania. "The
present plan is insufficient and unacceptable."

The minister emphasized that the offer would not be reconsidered. He said
Lithuania completed its program of property restitution in 2000, and that
the government would not reopen it. "There will be no additional
restitution process," he said.

Parliament is expected to review the proposal this fall.

Some 95 percent of Lithuania's prewar Jewish population of 220,000 people
was killed by the Nazis and their collaborators during World War II.
Jewish properties were seized and never returned.

After it was taken over by the Soviet Union in 1940, Lithuania was invaded
by Nazi Germany in 1941, and then again by the Soviets in 1944. The Baltic
state remained under Soviet occupation until 1991.

(source: Associated Press)




GLOBAL:

BACKGROUND: The 10 most wanted Nazi war criminals


The 10 most wanted Nazi war criminals as listed by the Simon Wiesenthal
Centre in Jerusalem:

1. Ivan (John) Demjanjuk (US): Born in Ukraine. Believed to have
participated in mass murder of Jews in Sobibor death camp; also served in
Majdanek death camp and Trawniki SS training camp. He was indicted for
murder by German prosecutors on Monday.

2. Sandor Kepiro (Hungary): Hungarian police officer suspected of
involvement in mass murder of more than 1,200 civilians in the Serbian
city of Novi Sad. He was exposed as living in Budapest in 2006, but
although convicted in Hungary in 1944 and apparently in absentia in 1946,
he is still free.

3. Milivoj Asner (Austria): Police chief of Slavonska Pozega, Croatia
throughout World War II. Played active role in persecution and deportation
to death of hundreds of Jews, Gypsies and Serbs. Austria refuses to
extradite him to Croatia to stand trial.

4. Soeren Kam (Germany): Former SS man accused of responsibility for death
of Danish journalist. Stole list of Jewish residents in Denmark, enabling
them to be deported to Nazi concentration camps. Charged in Denmark, but
German court refused to extradite him.

5. Klaas Carl Faber (Germany): Served in the Nazi SS intelligence service
in the Netherlands. He was sentenced to death in Holland for murders of
prisoners at the Westerbork transit camp and Groningen prison in the
autumn of 1944. His sentence was commuted to life imprisonment in 1948,
but he escaped from prison to Germany in 1952.

6. Heinrich Boere (Germany): Member of SS unit unit serving in the
Netherlands. Sentenced to death in absentia by Dutch court in 1949 for
murder of three civilians. German court charged him with the killings in
April 2008.

7. Karoly (Charles) Zentai (Australia): Participated in manhunts,
persecution, and murder of Jews in Budapest in 1944. Hungary has asked
Australia to extradite him.

8. Mikhail Gorshkow (Estonia): Said to have participated in murder of Jews
in Belarus. Lost his US citizenship. Under investigation in Estonia.

9. Algimantas Dailide (Germany): Arrested Jews, who were later murdered by
Nazis and Lithuanian collaborators. Deported from US and convicted by
Lithuania, but has not started prison sentence.

10. Harry Mannil (Venezuela): Arrested Jews and Communists who were
executed by Nazis and Estonian collaborators. Cleared by investigation in
Estonia, but is barred from entry to US.

The Wiesenthal Centre also placed Alois Brunner and Aribert Heim, who had
in the past topped the list, in two separate categories, because they are
believed, but not proven dead.

Alois Brunner: A key operative of Adolf Eichmann allegedly responsible for
the deportation of tens of thousands of Jews from Austria, Greece, France
and Slovakia to Nazi death camps. For decades he had been living in Syria,
which did not cooperate with prosecution efforts despite his conviction in
absentia in France. Last sighting of him was 2006 in Damascus.

Aribert Heim, also known as 'Dr Death': Served as a physician in
Sachsenhausen, Buchenwald and Mauthausen concentration camps. He allegedly
murdered hundreds of camp inmates by lethal injection in Mauthausen. New
evidence suggests he may have died in Cairo in 1992, but the Wiesenthal
Centre said it had 'serious doubts' regarding these findings.

(source: Monsters and Critics)