September 3




GERMANY:

Television Treasure----Art Stolen By Nazis Found On German 'Antiques
Roadshow'


Many of the tens of thousands of valuable artworks stolen by the Nazis are
still missing today. Police are now investigating one painting that
recently surfaced on Germany's version of "The Antiques Roadshow," but the
show is refusing to identify the painting's owner.

It is the moment that anyone who has ever watched "Antiques Roadshow," or
one of it's many imitators around the world, has dreamed of. The moment
you present the old painting you found behind some shelves in the garage
and you are told by experts it is a long lost cultural treasure, worth
hundreds of thousands.

This is exactly what happened recently on German television show "Kunst
und Krempel" -- literally "art and junk" -- which estimates the value of
antique items found by Germans. Only the news wasn't all positive. After
watching the show in November, a viewer from Munich called the local
police to tell them that he thought he had seen some stolen art appear on
the show.

He had recognized a piece of art, valued at up to 100,000 ($143,000) that
had once been stolen by the Nazis. The last known owner was most likely
Adolf Hitler himself.

The art in question was a 17th century painting, named "Sermon on the
Mount" by the Flemish baroque painter Frans Francken the Younger. And this
week, Munich's State Office of Criminal Investigation announced that it
was officially looking into the case. It was calling on members of the
public who might know how the valuable piece ended up on TV to come
forward.

Bayrischer Rundfunk (BR), the state public broadcaster that airs the
program -- which can best be described as part treasure hunt, part reality
TV, part history lesson -- has refused to give any information about the
person who brought the painting to the show. They are claiming a
journalist's right to refuse to give evidence in order to protect a
source.

What is not being disputed however, is that Francken belonged to one of
the most celebrated artist families of the 17th century and that the
painting, which is less than a meter long and just 33 centimeters wide,
had been missing since Hitler's Munich headquarters, the Fhrerbau, were
plundered in 1945.

Missing Masterpieces

When the Nazis came to power in 1933, they seized millions of pieces of
art. Hitler himself was an aspiring artist and intended to build the
world's finest art museum in Linz, Austria. He planned to keep the pieces
he had obtained safe in storage until after the war.

Tens of thousands of paintings are still thought to be missing today --
despite a 1998 agreement between 44 countries, including Germany, that
committed signatories to make efforts to identify and return cultural
assets stolen during the Nazi era.

In 2000, Germany also launched an online database listing thousands of
works plundered by the Nazis. Investigators now believe that "Sermon on
the Mount" was one of the paintings intended for Hitler's planned museum
in Linz but that officials had not had time to stow it away before the
American troops seized the building in 1945. It had been missing ever
since.

This is not the first time that stolen art has shown up on Antiques
Roadshow-style series around the world. In 2007, in the US, a painting
found in the garbage in New York was identified as a stolen masterpiece by
Mexican artist Rufino Tamayo worth $1 million after it featured on the
American version of the show. And in the Britain, a Sotheby's auction of a
painting, by American artist Winslow Homer, first spotted on "Antique
Roadshow" was called off in May this year. This was due to a dispute over
whether the artwork, valued at around 100,000 (114,000), was stolen or
not.

(source: Spiegel)





USA----TEXAS:

In recognition of the 70th anniversary of World War II, The Dallas
Holocaust Museum/Center for Education and Tolerance is collaborating with
universities in the Dallas-Fort Worth area on a series of programs and
seminars called "Holocaust Legacies: Shoah as Turning Point." The programs
will explore topics ranging from music composed by Holocaust prisoners to
the theological implications of the Holocaust. Two photography exhibitions
are also planned as part of the series. All events are free and open to
the public. The kick-off event is September 9th. Southern Methodist
University's Human Rights Department is the series' host. Other SMU
organizations--Perkins School of Theology, Dedman's History Department,
Meadows Art History and Music Departments--will participate in the series
along with The University of Dallas and Texas Christian University.

The program's title combines the English and Hebrew scriptural words,
Holocaust and Shoah, both synonymously representing the horrific events,
between 1943 and 1945 that Raphael Lemkin, a Polish lawyer, coined as
"genocide" in 1943.

(source: Religion blog----Dallas Morning News)






SPAIN:

AJC Protests Spanish Newspaper's Portrayal of Holocaust Denier as 'Expert'


AJC protested the decision of El Mundo, one of Spain's leading
newspapers, to publish an interview with the notorious British Holocaust
denier David Irving this weekend, as part of its coverage of the 70th
anniversary of the outbreak of the Second World War.

"David Irving has made a career out of lying," said AJC Executive Director
David Harris. "For El Mundo to bill a Holocaust denier as an 'expert' and
'innovative thinker' heaps shame upon that newspaper."

Following his unsuccessful libel action against American historian Deborah
Lipstadt in 2000 in a British court, Irving was described by Mr. Justice
Gray in his landmark ruling as a "Holocaust denier." Justice Gray also
deemed Irving to be "anti-Semitic and racist. . .he associates with
right-wing extremists who promote neo-Nazism."

"Justice Gray's ruling is the definitive guide to understanding who Irving
really is," said Harris. "Disturbingly, El Mundo appears content to
allow Irving to lie about both the Holocaust and himself in the name of
'free speech.'"

In February 2009, AJC condemned El Mundo for publishing an openly
anti-Semitic column by columnist Antonio Gala which identified "Jewish
greed" as the cause of the persecution of Jews throughout history.

According to the 2008 Pew Global Attitudes Project, Spain has the highest
level of anti-Semitism in Europe, with more Spanish respondents holding
negative than positive views about Jews.

(source: PR Newswire // American Jewish Committee)





UKRAINE:

Ukraine mayor accused of anti-Semitism


Jewish leaders in Ukraine and Russia on Thursday condemned the mayor of a
Ukrainian city who called a presidential hopeful "an impudent little
Jew," and Russia's chief rabbi said he would travel there in a show of
support for the local Jewish community.

The incident was a worrying sign of persistent anti-Semitism in a country
that lost hundreds of thousands of Jews in the Holocaust, but also
evidence of a heated presidential election campaign in a politically
chaotic country and Ukraine's tense relations with neighboring Russia.

Prosecutors have charged Serhiy Ratushnyak, the mayor of the western city
of Uzhhorod, with hooliganism, abuse of office and xenophobia, said
Viktoriya Popovych, a spokeswoman for the regional prosecutor's office.
The investigation was opened after Ratushnyak assailed former parliament
speaker Arseniy Yatsenyuk and attacked one of his campaign workers last
month.

Popovych would not provide further details.

Yatsenyuk accuses Ratushnyak of attacking and injuring a young woman who
campaigned for him in Uzhhorod on Aug. 6. The mayor threw himself at the
woman, grabbed her by the throat and threw her to the ground, causing
bruises and a concussion, according to Yatsenyuk's office.

Later, Ratushnyak called Yatsenyuk "an impudent little Jew" and said the
politician was confusing the January presidential vote in Ukraine with
small town elections in Israel, according to Yatsenyuk.

Yatsenyuk has been vague about his heritage, saying both of his parents
are Ukrainian.

Ratushnyak denied he attacked the campaign activist, calling the incident
a "myth." He did, however, confirm his remarks regarding Yatsenyuk but
said he believed they were not offensive.

"Is everybody obliged to love Jews and Israel? If I don't like Jews and
Israel, does that make me an anti-Semite?" he told The Associated Press in
a telephone interview.

Ratushnyak said that Yatsenyuk has no business running for president of
Ukraine.

"Do you think a Ukrainian would go there (Israel) ... set up tents there
and run for president, and do you think he would not be called an impudent
Ukrainian?" the mayor said.

"So they are allowed to do everything and I on my own land am being told
which word to use and which word not to use. This is what Zionism is."

Jewish leaders said anti-Semitism should have no place in Ukraine, which
lost some 1.4 million of its 2.4 million Jews during the Holocaust, many
of them in western Ukraine, and which strives to integrate with the
European Union.

Russia's chief rabbi, Berel Lazar, said he would visit Uzhhorod near the
Hungarian border on Monday to support the local Jewish community.

Ukraine's chief rabbi, Yakov Blaikh, also condemned Ratushnyak's actions.

"There is no place for him in modern day Ukraine," Blaikh told the AP. "He
is missing the point of multinational Ukraine."

The dispute illustrates the tense relations between Kiev and Moscow.
Russian leaders have fiercely opposed Ukraine's efforts to throw off
Russian influence and join NATO, and have not missed a chance to criticize
Ukraine for domestic problems and a lack of tolerance.

Blaikh said that Lazar was always welcome in Ukraine, but added that he
believed anti-Semitism was more widespread in Russia than in Ukraine.

"Plenty of anti-Semites in Russia can use the help of Berel Lazar before
he worries about anti-Semitism in Ukraine," he said.

(source: Associated Press)




AUSTRIA:

Austrian Wehrmacht deserters campaign for justice
By Gabrielle Grenz (AFP) 21 hours ago

VIENNA In Austria and Nazi Germany during World War II, any soldier who
deserted Hitler's army and was caught faced execution.

"At the front, a man can die, as a deserter he must die," Adolf Hitler
wrote in his epic "Mein Kampf", and the Nazis put around 15,000 deserters
to death, including between 1,200-1,400 Austrians.

One who escaped was Lance Corporal Richard Wadani, now 87, who deserted a
number of times before eventually fleeing to France where he joined the
British allies.

And he recalled how he was received on his return to Austria after the war
ended.

"When I turned up at the employment agency wearing my British army
uniform, I was turned away with the words: 'How could you dare serve in a
foreign army?'," Wadani said.

Some 70 years after the outbreak of World War II, Austria's deserters like
Wadani are still fighting against being branded as cowards and traitors.
An exhibition opened in Vienna this week to once again call attention to
their plight.

Anonymous letters that Wadani received, including a card written in 1988
in which his "neighbours" accused him of being a coward and bombarded him
with insults, form part of the display.

So, too, is a video in which Helga Peskoller Emperger recalls how she and
her mother were arrested by the Gestapo on November 11, 1944, in Villach
in the southern province of Carinthia for sheltering members of the
resistance.

Emperger was just 16 and imprisoned until April 1945. Her mother Maria was
executed on December 23, 1944.

The exhibition, being shown in the Nestroyhof, a former Jewish theatre
shut down by the Nazis after the annexation of Austria in 1938, is
entitled, "The law as it was back then: soldiers and civilians in the
courts of the Wehrmacht."

The WWII deserters "are at the very crux of Austria's post-war lie,
because if the country was, as is still officially claimed, the first
victim of Hitler's Germany, then the Wehrmacht would have been an
occupying army and desertion an act of civil obligation," said Thomas
Geldmacher, organiser of the exhibition and head of a group campaigning
for justice for the deserters.

"We're calling for the annulment of the verdicts of the Nazis' military
tribunals, the rapid settlement of deserters' claims for aid as victims
and a sign of respect for the deserters in the form of a memorial," he
said.

By contrast, many of those who supported the Nazi regime are no longer
stigmatised today.

Photographs showing parades of former Wehrmacht soldiers who still hold
regular reunions in Austria, proudly wearing their uniforms and their Nazi
medals, are also part of the exhibition, a version of which has already
toured several German cities.

Leopold Breitler, who was appointed judge of the Nazi military tribunal in
Vienna in 1944, sentenced 20 soldiers to death for mutilating each other
in order to avoid being sent into battle.

The youths were all executed by firing squad in Kagran, north of Vienna.
The site, now a park, contains no plaque or other sign in memory of their
fate.

But Breitler, who was suspected of participating in crimes against
humanity, merely faced a month's detention after the war. Then in 1946, he
opened a law practice where he worked until he retired in 1963.

Breitler "wasn't a member of the Nazi party, but he helped radicalise
military justice at the time," Geldmacher said.

While Germany is considering a bill to rehabilitate deserters from
Hitler's army and those who refused to serve in the final throes of the
Nazi regime, Wadani says Austria has still not fully come to terms with
its wartime past.

"There was a Recognition Act in 2005 rehabilitating the victims of the
Nazi regime, but not a word was said about deserters."

(source: Agence France-Presse)





BRITAIN:

UK documents reveal hunt for Hitler's deputy


It was one of the greatest mysteries of the collapse of the Third Reich.
As Russian tanks moved into Berlin and Adolf Hitler committed suicide in
his bunker, his brutal and feared private secretary, Martin Bormann,
simply vanished.

Early reports indicated he had been killed by Russian shells, but rumors
persisted that he had fled abroad, and files released by the National
Archives on Tuesday show Britain's security services carefully tracking
possible sightings.

A file from October 1946 notes "reliable reports" that Bormann, the man
held responsible for organizing the logistics of the Holocaust, was
sighted in the Schaffhausen area of Switzerland. Bormann was never found
in Switzerland, but security services continued to be bombarded with
information about possible sightings.

Bormann had been tried and sentenced to death in absentia at the Nuremberg
war crimes tribunal in 1945-46, and security services were growing more
exasperated with people claiming to know Bormann's whereabouts.

"The late but peripatetic Herr Bormann is currently being seen in
Switzerland (the most persistent locale), Bolivia, Italy, Norway and
Brazil in the last country sitting in state on a high mountain beside his
pallid Fuerer," writes one frustrated official in 1947. "The press ... is
doubtless waiting to break the silly season scoop, that he has been seen
riding the Loch Ness monster. That ought to fetch some dollars, or
something."

Historian Andrew Roberts said authorities were desperate to find Bormann
as he was so closely involved in the workings of the Third Reich.

"Bormann was intimately involved in passing orders regarding the Holocaust
from Hitler to Heinrich Himmler," he said. He was the link man between
them and could have given invaluable information about the Fuerer's direct
responsibility in the greatest crime against humanity.

Roberts said Bormann, if captured, would also have proved invaluable in
tracking down other Nazi war criminals. "Nobody in Hitler's close inner
circle knew the Fuehrer as well as Bormann did. He was there every night
taking down Hitler's phrases and words and thoughts, and would have been
extremely helpful to anyone who captured him," he said.

The media helped fuel the mania for sighting Bormann. In 1951, London
correspondent Arthur Veysey for the Chicago Tribune contacted British
police to say he had met a German man claiming to be Bormann who had asked
him to send some documents to the U.S. through a personal courier. Police
were convinced it was a hoax, but asked Veysey to arrange to meet him
again. The meeting never took place, leading police to complain that while
"Veysey is not anti-British, he has the usual 'let the police get on with
it' attitude of the average American."

The mystery behind Bormann's fate settled in 1972 when construction
workers in Berlin dug up a skeleton. Experts concluded the remains were
Bormann's after a five-month examination that included making X-rays of
the bones, studying the teeth, and using the skull as a model to
reconstruct what its face would've looked like. The specialists also
determined that the man had probably died in May 1945, possibly by biting
onto a cyanide capsule. Some still remained unconvinced, but West German
authorities officially declared him dead in 1973.

(source: Associated Press)