Aug. 15



VATICAN CITY:

Vatican rejects apology in Holocaust case ---- Controversial bishop did
not repudiate views, church says


An apology from a bishop who denied the Holocaust wasn't good enough, the
Vatican said yesterday, adding that he must repudiate his views if he
wants to be a Roman Catholic clergyman.

The statement by Bishop Richard Williamson "doesn't appear to respect the
conditions the Vatican set out for him," said Rev. Federico Lombardi, a
spokesman for the Pope.

In an interview broadcast last month on Swedish state television and in
previous letters and speeches, Bishop Williamson denied that six million
Jews were killed in the Holocaust, saying about 200,000 or 300,000 were
murdered. He said none was gassed.

Bishop Williamson apologized for his remarks on Thursday upon his arrival
in his native Britain after being ordered to leave Argentina. He said he
would never have made them if he had known "the full harm and hurt to
which they would give rise."

But he didn't say he had been wrong or that he no longer believed what he
had said.

Yesterday, German Justice Minister Brigitte Zypries said Germany could
issue a European-wide arrest warrant on hate-crimes charges for Bishop
Williamson since the Swedish TV interview was conducted in Germany.

State prosecutors in Regensburg, Germany, have opened a preliminary
investigation into whether Bishop Williamson broke German laws against
Holocaust denial.

His remarks prompted widespread outrage among Jewish groups and others.
They also embarrassed the Vatican since they were broadcast only days
before the Holy See announced it was lifting Bishop Williamson's
excommunication and that of three other bishops.

The four, members of the traditionalist Society of St. Pius X, had been
excommunicated after being consecrated as bishops without papal consent in
1988.

Bowing to the criticism, the Vatican on Feb. 4 demanded that Bishop
Williamson "absolutely and unequivocally distance himself from his remarks
about the Shoah if he is to be admitted to episcopal functions in the
church." Shoah is the Hebrew term for the Holocaust.

The German-born Pope Benedict XVI also met with Jewish leaders at the
Vatican and told them it was unacceptable for anyone - particularly a
clergyman - to deny or minimize the Holocaust.

In his statement yesterday, Father Lombardi noted that Bishop Williamson's
comments were not addressed to the Pope.

Rather, Bishop Williamson issued a statement that was carried by the Zenit
Catholic news agency and posted on the society's British website and its
news agency.

In it, Bishop Williamson said he was only giving the opinion of a
"non-historian" during the Swedish TV interview. He said that opinion was
"formed 20 years ago on the basis of evidence then available, and rarely
expressed in public since."

"To all souls that took honest scandal from what I said, before God I
apologize."

Jewish groups were not impressed.

T"his is another sham statement that doesn't recant any of his earlier
remarks about the Holocaust," said Abraham Foxman, national director of
the Anti-Defamation League and a Holocaust survivor. "Bishop Williamson
must unequivocally acknowledge the full extent of the Holocaust and
recognize the fact of the existence of the gas chambers."

The American Jewish Committee praised the Vatican for demanding more.

"Until he explicitly says otherwise, he remains in the camp of the
Holocaust deniers," said American Jewish Congress executive director David
Harris. "He is not fooling anyone, least of all the Vatican."

(source: Associated Press)

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

Vatican newspaper says Allied governments did little to stop Holocaust


In a lengthy article, the Vatican newspaper said the U.S. and British
governments had detailed information about the Nazi plan to exterminate
European Jews during World War II, but failed to act for many months and
even suppressed reports about the extent of the Holocaust.

The newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, contrasted Allied inaction with the
quiet efforts undertaken by Pope Pius XII to save as many Jews as possible
through clandestine assistance.

The article, published Aug. 13, reviewed historical information in support
of an argument frequently made by Vatican experts: While critics have
focused on Pope Pius' supposed "silence" on the Holocaust, little
attention has been given to documented evidence that the U.S. and British
governments ignored or minimized reports of extermination plans.

The article quotes heavily from the diary of Henry Morgenthau Jr., U.S.
secretary of the treasury during the war, who said that as early as August
1942 administration officials "knew that the Nazis were planning to
exterminate all the Jews of Europe."

Morgenthau cited a telegram dated Aug. 24, 1942, and passed on to the
State Department, that relayed a report of Hitler's plan to kill between
3.5 million and 4 million Jews, possibly using cyanide poison. The Vatican
newspaper reproduced a copy of the telegram.

Eventually, in early 1944, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt set up the
War Refugee Board that was credited with saving tens of thousands of
Jewish lives. But for 18 months before then, despite increasingly alarming
reports, U.S. officials "dodged their grim responsibility, procrastinated
when concrete rescue schemes were placed before them, and even suppressed
information about atrocities," Morgenthau wrote.

The Vatican newspaper article also cited a series of State Department
orders apparently aimed at preventing reports on Nazi atrocities from
reaching the public, which would have increased pressure on the
administration for action.

When the U.S. government was finally convinced to begin some efforts to
rescue and relocate European Jews, the British government stalled, the
article said. It cited a British Foreign Office cable that warned of "the
difficulties of disposing of any considerable number of Jews should they
be rescued from enemy occupied territory" and advised against allocating
any funds for the project.

Morgenthau described this message as "a satanic combination of British
chill and diplomatic double talk, cold and correct and adding up to a
sentence of death."

The Vatican newspaper said that, while all this was going on, in
Nazi-occupied Rome Pope Pius was carrying out "the only plausible and
practical form of defense of the Jews and other persecuted people" --
hiding them in various church-run institutions. In the end, although more
than 2,000 Jews were deported from Rome and killed, about 10,000 Jews of
Rome were saved, it said.

(source: Catholic News Service)





GERMANY:

German holocaust-denier's jail term upheld


An appeals court has upheld the February conviction of Horst Mahler,
reaffirming his 6-year jail sentence.

A former member of Germany's national Democratic Party is to serve 6
years in prison for denying the Holocaust.

A federal court in Germany has rejected an appeal by the former member of
Germany's national Democratic Party, saying he must serve his sentence for
denying the Holocaust.

The Federal Court of Justice in Karlsruhe recently reaffirmed the six year
sentence of Horst Mahler.

Mahler was last tried in a Munich state court in February.

He has been found guilty for posting videos on the internet denying the
Holocaust and distributing CDs promoting anti-Jewish hatred.

Denying the Holocaust is a crime in Germany.

(source: Press TV)

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

LOST IN TRANSLATION----English Nazi Slogans Are Legal, German Court Rules


Using Nazi symbols and slogans is a punishable crime in Germany. But now
neo-Nazis may have more leeway after a federal German court ruled that
slogans are not illegal if they are translated into another language.

Is a Nazi slogan still a Nazi slogan if it is uttered in English instead
of German? Not necessarily -- at least according to Germany's Federal
Court of Justice.

In a landmark decision Thursday, the Karlsruhe-based court ruled that
using Nazi slogans translated into a language other than German would not,
in general, be a punishable crime.

The ruling is linked to a case in which a neo-Nazi was prosecuted and
fined 4,200 ($6,000) in 2005 for distributing clothing and merchandising
bearing the slogan "Blood and Honour," written in English. With the
ruling, the court overturned the verdict against the neo-Nazi, who was not
named, but said it could still be possible to prosecute him under other
laws relating to right-wing extremism.

Although "Blood and Honour," which is also the name of a banned far-right
organization, alludes to the Hitler Youth motto "Blut und Ehre," the court
ruled that translating the words represented a "fundamental change" in the
slogan, meaning its use was no longer punishable under German law. The
judges said that Nazi slogans were characterized not only by their actual
meaning but also by the fact that they were in German.

Senior judge Jrg-Peter Becker said that the court "is aware that its
decision gives neo-Nazis a degree of leeway to translate their chants and
slogans." However, he added that legislation by itself is not enough to
eliminate Nazi ideas from public discourse.

Giving the Hitler salute or using symbols or slogans associated with
"unconstitutional" organizations such as the Nazi party is a serious crime
in Germany, punishable by up to three years in prison. In 2008, police
launched an investigation after a senior member of the far-right National
Democratic Party (NPD) draped a banned swastika flag across a coffin at a
funeral.

(source: Spiegel)


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


Passage of time helps last Nazis


The trial of a former German infantry commander for Nazi war crimes took
11 months, and ended in what is nowadays a rare conviction.

Josef Scheungraber has been jailed for life after being convicted of the
murder of 10 civilians in an Italian village during World War II.

A Munich state court sentenced the 90-year-old German after a type of
trial that is now quite rare.

The passage of time since the war and the patchy record of governments in
pursuing Nazis and their collaborators mean that, while many Nazis have
faced justice and been convicted, far more have slipped through the net.

In the 1950s and 1960s, German judge and prosecutor Fritz Bauer estimated
there were 100,000 Germans responsible in one way or another for mass
killings of Jews during the war. Other estimates suggested a figure as
high as 300,000.

The judge also said fewer than 5,000 people had been prosecuted and, while
there have been many convictions, there has not been a significantly large
addition to that number in the years since.

Late efforts

Serge Klarsfeld pursued several Nazis and collaborators after WWII,
including Klaus Barbie, Maurice Papon and Paul Touvier. He runs an
organisation called Sons and Daughters of Jews Deported from France.

While welcoming Tuesday's guilty verdict, he expressed doubt that
Scheungraber would ever actually be jailed.

"This reinforces the message that the passage of time in no way
diminishes the crimes of the perpetrator"----Dr Efraim Zuroff, Simon
Wiesenthal Center

"It's good to have such decisions because it helps the families in Italy
and it's a solution to their pain," he said.

"But he will not go to jail, he is too old.

"Today's tendencies are that we can pursue these people because they are
old and they will not go to jail, even if convicted.

"If, decades ago, Nazis had been pursued, they would have been younger and
would have had to be sent to jail. Prosecutors do not want to send old men
to jail."

Nazi trials

Mr Klarsfeld's argument is borne out to some extent by cases such as that
of French Nazi collaborator Maurice Papon.

He was famously convicted of complicity in crimes against humanity for his
role in the collaborationist Vichy government, and sentenced to 10 years
in a French prison in 1998.

But he served only three, on grounds of ill health, and was released in
2002.

Lithuanian Algimantas Dailide was convicted in 2006, aged 85, of
persecuting and arresting two Poles and 12 Jews while a member of the
Nazi-backed police in WWII.

But the judge at his trial in Vilnius did not give him a jail term, saying
he was too old and "no longer a threat to society".

Dr Zuroff says Nazis should be pursued regardless of their age

Erich Priebke, aged in his eighties, was jailed for life in Italy in 1998
for his role in the massacre of 335 Italians in 1944.

But in 1999 he was given leave to serve the remainder of his sentence
under house arrest in his lawyer's home, on grounds of ill health.

He was also later briefly allowed to work at his lawyer's offices in Rome,
before his work permit was cancelled following furious protests.

Mr Klarsfeld does welcome current attempts by Germany to bring Nazis to
justice - the cases of John Demjanjuk and Heinrich Boere are due to be
heard in Germany within months, for example.

But he says these efforts should have been exerted much sooner.

"Germany's efforts today are something that is positive, but at the same
time the same prosecutors should have pursued Nazis 20 or 30 years ago,
because now they are only able to go after people who were often nothing
more than guards and had little responsibility.

"But their superiors, who had more responsibility, were not pursued and
now they are dead."

'No excuse'

Dr Efraim Zuroff, director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, which is based
in Jerusalem, said he was "very pleased" with Scheungraber's conviction.

"This reinforces the message that the passage of time in no way diminishes
the crimes of the perpetrator.

"It's important to bring these people to justice because they are guilty
and deserve to be punished," he said.

"Old age is no excuse for murder."

Dr Zuroff also acknowledged that there had been a "recent distinct
improvement in the efforts made by the German judiciary, which is better
late than never".

"There's a realisation that we're in the final phase of bringing Nazis to
justice. These trials will not be possible in five or seven years' time.
It's important that this is done while it can be done."

However, Dr Zuroff believes there is still enough time for several more
alleged Nazis to be put on trial before their age takes them beyond the
reach of the courts.

"We will see several additional trials, with more non-Germans such as John
Demjanjuk placed on trial.

"We encourage the German judiciary to do as much as they can to bring
these people to justice."

(source: BBC News)

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


Demjanjuk lawyer calls for case to be closed


John Demjanjuk's attorney asked Munich's state court on Friday to close
the case against his client, arguing that Israel has already tried
him on accusations of being a guard at the Nazi's Sobibor death camp.

Demjanjuk has been in German custody since May, when he was transferred
from his home in suburban Cleveland, Ohio, after losing a court battle to
avoid deportation from the United States.

Munich prosecutors formally charged him last month as an accessory to the
murder of 27,900 people at the Sobibor death camp. The Munich court has
yet to decide whether to accept the charges and set a trial date.

Demjanjuk's attorney Ulrich Busch filed a motion arguing that the German
charges should be dropped, citing a 1993 ruling by the Israeli Supreme
Court overturning a 1988 conviction and death sentence in Israel for being
a Nazi guard known as Ivan the Terrible who operated the gas chamber at
the Treblinka death camp.

Munich prosecutors said in their indictment that the Israeli case did not
focus on Demjanjuk's alleged activities at Sobibor. They could not
immediately be reached for comment on Busch's motion.

The Israeli Supreme Court had said in reviewing the Israeli case that
there was strong evidence Demjanjuk had served as a guard at another death
camp in Nazi-occupied Poland, Sobibor.

But Israel's attorney general at the time would not prosecute Demjanjuk on
the Sobibor accusation, saying it could violate the ban on double
jeopardy, or trying him a second time on the same charges.

"Common sense alone should cause anyone interested in this case to wonder
why the Israelis would have let my father return to the USA upon his
acquittal if it were possible to fairly try him again," Demjanjuk's son,
John Demjanjuk Jr. said in an e-mail from the U.S. to the Associated
Press.

Ukrainian-born Demjanjuk denies any wrong doing. He maintains that he was
a Red Army soldier who was held as a prisoner of war by the Germans.

Busch has also filed several other motions asking for the case to be
dismissed, but they are still pending and it was not clear when they would
be heard.

(source: Associated Press)





AUSTRALIA:

Holocaust denier Fredrick Toben jailed in Australia ----Fredrick Toben, an
Australian man who was convicted earlier this year of publishing
anti-Semitic material on the internet, has started a three-month jail term
after his appeal was quashed.


Toben who is wanted in Germany on charges of denying the Holocaust was
found guilty in May of 24 counts of contempt of a 2002 court ruling that
barred him from publishing anti-Semitic material on the website of his
organisation, the Adelaide Institute.

The material found to be in breach of the order included suggestions that
the Holocaust did not happen, that questioned whether there were gas
chambers at the Auschwitz death camp, and that challenged the intelligence
of Jews who questioned Holocaust deniers' beliefs.

In their verdict, the judges of the Federal Court said the case was not
about the Holocaust but about whether Toben had complied with orders of
the court.

"Obedience to the court is not optional," they said in their ruling.

The judges said Toben, 64, had a disregard for the orders of the court and
had acted to undermine the authority of the court.

The 2002 case against Toben stemmed from a discrimination case against him
by Jeremy Jones, a former president of the Executive Council of Australian
Jewry.

Toben participated in Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's 2006
conference called to debate whether the Second World War genocide of Jews
took place, where he argued that the Auschwitz death camp was too small
for the mass murder of Jews to have been carried out there.

He suggested only 2,007 people could have been killed at the camp.

(source: The Telegraph)