July 27




MOROCCO:

Morocco challenges Mideast Holocaust mind-set


From the western edge of the Muslim world, the King of Morocco has dared
to tackle one of the most inflammatory issues in the Middle East conflict
the Holocaust.

At a time when Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's dismissal of the
Holocaust has made the biggest headlines, King Mohammed VI has called the
Nazi destruction of the Jews "one of the most tragic chapters of modern
history," and has endorsed a Paris-based program aimed at spreading the
word among fellow Muslims.

Many in the Islamic world still ignore or know little about the Nazi
attempt to annihilate the Jews during World War II. Some disbelieve it
outright. Others argue that it was a European crime and imagine it to be
the reason Israel exists and the Palestinians are stateless.

The sentiment was starkly illustrated in March after a Palestinian youth
orchestra performed for Israeli Holocaust survivors, only to be shut down
by angry leaders of the West Bank refugee camp where they live.

"The Holocaust happened, but we are facing a similar massacre by the Jews
themselves," a community leader named Adnan Hindi said at the time. "We
lost our land and we were forced to flee."

Like other moderate Arab leaders, King Mohammed VI must tread carefully.
Islamic fervor is rising in his kingdom, highlighted in 2003 by
al-Qaida-inspired attacks in Casablanca on targets that included Jewish
sites. Forty-five people died.

The king's acknowledgment of the Holocaust, in a speech read out in his
name at a ceremony in Paris in March, appears to further illustrate the
radically different paths that countries like Morocco and Iran are taking.

Morocco has long been a quiet pioneer in Arab-Israeli peace efforts, most
notably when it served as a secret meeting place for the Israeli and
Egyptian officials who set up President Anwar Sadat's groundbreaking
journey to Jerusalem in 1977.

Though Moroccan officials say the timing is coincidental, the Holocaust
speech came at around the same time that Morocco severed diplomatic
relations with Iran, claiming it was infiltrating Shiite Muslim
troublemakers into this Sunni nation.

The speech was read out at a ceremony launching the "Aladdin Project," an
initiative of the Paris-based Foundation for the Memory of the Shoah
(Holocaust) which aims to spread awareness of the genocide among Muslims.

It organizes conferences and has translated key Holocaust writing such as
Anne Frank's diary into Arabic and Farsi. The name refers to Aladdin, the
young man with the genie in his lamp, whose legend, originally Muslim,
became a universally loved tale.

The Holocaust, the king's speech said, is "the universal heritage of
mankind."

It was "a very important political act," said Anne-Marie Revcolevschi,
director of the Shoah foundation. "This is the first time an Arab head of
state takes such a clear stand on the Shoah," she said in a telephone
interview.

While the Israeli-Palestinian conflict often aggravates Arab sentiment
toward Israel, Morocco has a long history of coexistence between Muslims
and Jews.

The recent Israeli military offensive in the Gaza Strip has further
inflamed resentment at Israel's treatment of the Palestinians. But Ahmed
Hasseni, a Casablanca cab driver, echoes a widely held view that it
shouldn't affect relations with Morocco's Jews.

"We're not dumb," he said. "We don't confuse the Israeli army with the
Jewish people," he said.

Jews have lived in Morocco for 2,000 years. Their numbers swelled after
they were expelled from Spain in 1492, and reached 300,000 before World
War II, when yet more fled the German occupation and found refuge in
Morocco, then a French colony.

Today they number just 3,000, most having emigrated to France, North
America or Israel, but they are free to come back to explore their roots,
pray at their ancestors' graves and even settle here.

Simon Levy heads the Jewish Museum in Casablanca, a treasure trove of old
Torah scrolls, garments and jewelry illustrating the rich culture of
Moroccan Jewry.

"That I still run the only Jewish museum in the Arab world is telling," he
said.

Andre Azoulay, a top adviser to the current king, is Jewish and one of six
members of the king's council in a monarchy that oversees all major
decisions. Considered one of Morocco's most powerful men, he views his
country as "a unique case" for the intensity of its Jewish-Muslim
relations. "We don't mix up Judaism and the tragedy of the Middle East,"
he told The Associated Press in an interview.

A founding member of the Aladdin project, Azoulay says part of the
program's goal is to show the West that Muslims aren't hostile to Jews,
and that Morocco was among countries that resisted Nazi plans to
exterminate their Jewish populations. He points to king Mohammed V, the
current ruler's grandfather, who is credited with resisting French
colonial anti-Semitic policies.

Such actions were rare, but not unique in North Africa during World War
II. In Tunisia, the late Khaled Abdelwahhab hid Jews from the Nazis on his
farm, and was the first Arab to be nominated as "Righteous Among the
Nations," a title bestowed by Yad Vashem, Israel's Holocaust memorial, on
those who risked their lives to save Jews in the Holocaust. His case is
still under study.

The Aladdin project is only just beginning. Its work has yet to reach
schools or bookstores in Morocco, although the Shoah foundation's
Revcolevschi said Anne Frank's diary is among Holocaust memoirs available
in Arabic and Farsi on the Internet, and is being sold under the counter
in Iran.

"People speak of a clash of civilizations, but it's more a clash of
ignorance," she said. "We're countering this."

Hakim El Ghissassi, an aide to the senior Islamic Affairs official who
delivered Mohammed's speech, said the king is uniquely positioned to
promote Islam's dialogue with Judaism, because his titles include
"Commander of the believers" meaning he is the paramount authority for
Moroccan Muslims.

"What the king has said on the Holocaust reflects our broader efforts,"
said El Ghissassi, listing such reforms as courses to reinforce Morocco's
tradition of tolerant Islam by familiarizing local imams with Jewish and
Christian holy books.

"We want to make sure everybody can differentiate between unfair Israeli
policies and respect for Judaism," he said.

(source: Associated Press)






GERMANY:

Word of ex-Nazi guard to play crucial role in Demjanjuk trial


The words of former Nazi guard Ignat Danilchenko will haunt John Demjanjuk
one last time.

Danilchenko's decades-old statements to Soviet investigators provide what
are considered the most detailed - and controversial - allegations of
Demjanjuk's work as a guard at the Sobibor death camp in Nazi-occupied
Poland.

German prosecutors this month listed Danilchenko as a witness at
Demjanjuk's war-crimes trial in Munich, which could begin in October. The
listing was an error, as Danilchenko died in 1985, but his state- ments
are expected to play a key role in the case.

Last week, the 89-year-old Demjanjuk, formerly of Seven Hills, was
formally charged with being an accessory to murder in the deaths of
27,900 people at Sobibor in 1943.

His family denies the allegations, saying he spent most of World War II as
a German prisoner, not a Nazi guard.

He was deported in May after years of fighting over his past. U.S. judges
found he served as a Nazi guard and lied about it on his immigration
papers in 1951, when he entered the country.

Ulrich Busch, one of Demjanjuk's German attorneys, said Demjanjuk is too
weak to stand trial, despite the opinions of doctors who say he is
healthy.

Demjanjuk was born as Ivan Demjanjuk in Ukraine, then part of the Soviet
Union.

He was drafted into the Soviet army during the war and captured by the
Germans in 1942.

Demjanjuk says he remained a prisoner of the Germans throughout the war,
but prosecutors have argued - and judges ruled - that Demjanjuk agreed to
work as a guard for the Nazis in exchange for favorable treatment.

His name was first linked to the Germans in 1949 when Danilchenko told the
KGB that he "met and first got to know Ivan Demjanjuk in March 1943 at the
Sobibor death camp."

In 1977, Demjanjuk was accused of being "Ivan the Terrible," a sadistic
guard at the Treblinka death camp, and was deported to Israel. Two years
later, the KGB interviewed Danilchenko again, and he provided them a much
more detailed version of Demjanjuk's duties as a guard, including herding
Jews into the gas chamber.

The 1949 statement was used against Demjanjuk during his trial in Israel,
linking him to Nazi camps in Sobibor and Flossenburg, but not Treblinka.
The second statement was not turned over to defense attorneys, and
Demjanjuk's lawyers argued the document and others that were withheld
could have helped him prove his innocence.

An appeals court later criticized prosecutors over the move.

The retired autoworker was convicted in 1988 and sentenced to hang for his
role at Treblinka.

In 1993, the Israeli Supreme Court overturned the conviction, based on
new, conflicting evidence that pointed to another man as being Ivan the
Terrible.

The Israeli Supreme Court said there was evidence that Demjanjuk served at
Sobibor and other camps, but Demjanjuk was charged only with being the
guard from Treblinka. He was released and returned home to Seven Hills.

Ten years ago, federal prosecutors in Cleveland accused Demjanjuk of
serving at Nazi camps in Sobibor, Majdanek and Flossenburg, the
allegations that led to his deportation. Again, the Danilchenko statements
were brought up, offering that Demjanjuk carried a rifle and patrolled
several parts of the camp.

"Demjanjuk, like all guards in the camp, participated in the mass killing
of Jews," Danilchenko's statement said. ". . . Demjanjuk was considered to
be an experienced and efficient guard. For example, he was repeatedly
assigned by the Germans to get Jews in surrounding ghettos and deliver
them in trucks to the camp to be killed."

Defense attorney Busch said the statements are important, but he said
that, unlike witnesses, they cannot be cross-examined, and Danilchenko
can't be questioned. He stressed that he does not trust the KGB, which he
said tortured former Nazi guards and made them lie to get others. For
years, Demjanjuk's family claimed his guard pass was a Soviet forgery.

It is unclear how German prosecutors will use the statements or how a
Munich court will allow them to be entered into evidence.

What is clear is that Demjanjuk will have to face the allegations, again.

(source: Cleveland Plain Dealer)

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

Jewish group sues Amazon over 'Nazi' books


The American Jewish Committee said on Friday it was suing the German
branch of online retailer Amazon for selling books which it said
questioned the Holocaust and "trivialised" the Nazis.

According to AJC research, around 50 works including "Der Auschwitz-Mythos
Legende oder Wirklichkeit ("The Auschwitz Myth Legend or Reality") by
Wilhelm Staglich were on sale on Amazon.de this month.

Some of these books, the AJC said, were classified by the German
authorities as being unsuitable for under-18s.

It is unacceptable that books are for sale on Amazon.de that normally are
only available under the counter in far-right extremist shops," the AJC
said in a statement.

"We cannot let the spread of internet sales erode laws that ban Holocaust
denial and incitement to hatred of minorities in Germany," it added.

A spokeswoman for Amazon Germany said that "of course" it did not sell any
books that were banned or classified as unsuitable for under-18s.

She added that in the interests of freedom of speech, it was not keen on
stopping selling certain titles.

"We think that the best response to questionable literature is not
removing them but more discussion," a spokeswoman told AFP.

She added that the company had recently tightened up its rules regarding
books that glorify or trivialise the Nazis and that certain books had been
withdrawn from sale as a result.

(source: Daily Telegraph)



FRANCE:

Chanel And The Nazis ----The story not found in the major movies, but in a
film on the net


There are two major feature films released this year about the life of
legendary fashion designer, Coco Chanel. But neither concerns itself with
the most controversial, dramatic time in her life.

The only place you'll find this incident portrayed is in a new animated
short on the net, called 'CHANNEL untold'. It can be seen at
www.callousproductions.com.

During World War Two, Coco Channel lived mostly in The Ritz hotel, where
the Nazis had made their headquarters in Paris. She also took a senior
Nazi party official, Hans Gunther von Dincklage, as her lover.

When the war came to an end, Chanel was arrested by the Committee For
Public Morals. But she was soon released and never faced the punitive head
shaving of other 'collaboratrices horizontales' - or sexual collaborators.
She escaped, it's thought, because of her connections with the Duke Of
Westminster.

The wartime period of Coco Channel's life reveals a lot about her
character,' says the film's director, Hardy Capo. Her troubled early life,
including being left at an orphanage by her father, had turned her into a
survivor. However, this made her so hard-nosed that she was either
unaware, or didn't care, what other people thought of her actions during
the war.

Does this make her any less of a genius? She revolutionised women's
clothing. Freed them from corsets. But I don't believe we should forget
her activities during the war. It's a cautionary tale of how expediency
can lead you down a rocky, amoral road.

Chanel had to leave France for Switzerland after the war and didn't return
till 1954. Following poor reviews for her first collection after her
homecoming, it was only the demand for her clothes in the United States
that saved her business.

The other films released this year are 'Coco Before Chanel', starring the
face of Chanel, Audrey Tautou, This movie features the early life of Coco
Chanel. And there's 'Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky', a film part-fact,
part-fiction, about the affair between the designer and the composer.

"CHANEL untold CREDITS

Coco Chanel....... Simone Schleu

Officer Schwarz........Jorge Campos

Hans Gunther von Dincklage..... Hardy Capo

Written & Directed by....... Hardy Capo

Produced by Callous Productions.

www.callousproductions.com

(source: MR Press Release)