July 27


BELGUIM:

Tracing the Holocaust's lost documents


MECHELEN, Belgium -- David Verbeeck, a young Belgian actor, was
searching for material about his family for a theater piece. But almost
everyone had died in Auschwitz, and there was little left to tell him who
they were or what they looked like.

Then he stumbled on a long-lost treasure - his Russian-born
great-grandmother's Belgian identity card, complete with a small
black-and-white head shot.

"This was so huge," he says.

"This old woman she must have been 78 with the star and the big mark
[on the card] saying 'Jew' it was really mind-boggling. Here I had the
only thing that was left of this woman. In my wildest dreams I never
thought I'd have something like that."

Mr. Verbeeck is not alone.

About 3,000 envelopes containing documents belonging to Belgian Jews
deported to Auschwitz whatever they had in their pockets before being
loaded onto trains are being painstakingly opened, digitally copied,
cataloged and preserved by archivists at the Jewish Museum of Deportation
in Mechelen.

The project, which began in June, is part of a broader and, many say,
overdue reassessment of what happened to the 56,000 Jews registered in
Belgium when the Nazis invaded in 1940 and what role Belgians played in
the Holocaust.

"It's a question now of truth more than justice," said Judith
Kronfeld, director of the Central Committee of Jewish Organizations in
Belgium.

"Everything happened a long time ago, and most of the people who were
involved in those matters are dead. So now it's easier to begin the
research and to know what happened."

Official concern about the increasing electoral appeal of nationalist
anti-immigrant parties is spurring the efforts. Although stronger in
Flanders, Belgium's Dutch-speaking northern half, the trend holds across
the country of 10 million people.

The Flemish Bloc in Flanders and the National Front in French-speaking
Wallonia usually direct their anger at the hundreds of thousands of
relatively recent Muslim immigrants. But Belgium's Jews, estimated at
40,000, worry, too.

"I think that they consider us 'adapted,' " said Nathan Ramet, a
Holocaust survivor and president of the Jewish museum. "But they are for
'Blut and Boden' blood and soil. That was the same mentality as the
pro-Nazis had before the war."

In the national elections May 18, the Flemish Bloc won almost 12
percent of the vote in Flanders, its best result in 25 years. It holds 18
seats in the 150-seat lower house of parliament but is ignored by the
mainstream parties.

The Flemish Bloc got 30 percent of the vote in Antwerp the main city
of Flanders, the world's diamond-trading capital, which also has a highly
visible Jewish community.

In Wallonia, the National Front won its first parliament seat ever.

"Indirectly, the growing success of the extreme right is responsible
for demands for historical truth about what happened in the war," said
Rudi Van Doorslaer, senior researcher at the Ceges/Soma institute, which
is doing much of the state-funded work.

"It can't hurt to confront above all the younger generation with the
history of their community."

Following similar initiatives in Switzerland, Germany and elsewhere,
the Belgian government and banks last year agreed to pay more than $100
million in compensation for Jewish property plundered or abandoned during
the war years. That money has yet to be distributed, as the deadline for
claims has been extended until Sept. 9.

Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt also promised an independent inquiry
into the attitudes and role of Belgian authorities in Nazi atrocities
against Jews. King Leopold III stayed in place during the 1940-44
occupation, as did much of the civil service. The government fled to
London.

In April, Parliament voted to grant historians access to classified
government archives, including files regarding military justice, state
security, the government-in-exile and postwar repression of collaborators,
especially in Flanders.

The two-year project should begin in January once the budget is
settled, said Mr. Van Doorslaer, who will lead the team.

According to official figures, about half of the Jews in Belgium in
1940 escaped the Holocaust, most by emigrating or going into hiding, aided
by non-Jews in either case. Of the 25,267 Jews sent to Auschwitz, 1,207
survived.

Those rounded up were held at the Dossin barracks in Mechelen, about
12 miles north of Brussels, before being loaded onto trains.

Helping the Nazis were many Germanic-descended Flemish nationalists,
won over by Adolf Hitler's promise to make Flanders an independent Nazi
region.

Authorities in Antwerp willingly distributed Star of David badges to
Jews, while those in French-speaking Brussels, the other center of Jewish
population, refused, according to a recent inquiry that accompanied the
compensation deal.

Antwerp police also collaborated in interning and arresting Belgian
Jews, the inquiry noted.

After liberation, many Belgians were happy to bury the memory of the
war years. Although a camp for political prisoners just down the road from
Dossin barracks was declared a national memorial in 1947, little attention
was paid to the fate of the Jews.

Only in 1996 did the small, privately run Jewish Museum of Deportation
open in a wing of the barracks, known to survivors as the "antechamber of
death."

The Flemish regional government, which pays the museum's $460,000
annual operating costs, is planning a bigger, $31 million Holocaust museum
across the street by 2009.

The "mini-museum" already stores some archives kept by the Nazis and
their puppet Jewish council, which acted as an intermediary between the
government and individual Jews.

"This is a difficult issue Jews working inside the Nazi plan," said
the museum's director, Ward Adriaens. "Some worked with the resistance;
some took care only of themselves. One guy shot himself in the head when
he realized what he was doing."

It was a Jewish secretary doing intake at the Dossin barracks who
started keeping the personal documents taken from Jews in April 1943, when
the Nazis began rounding up Belgian citizens, Mr. Adriaens said. Those
deported earlier were mainly Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe and
recent refugees from Hitler's Third Reich.

The documents, stuffed into decaying manila envelopes, pertain to
about 4,000 victims - "peanuts compared to Poland, for example," Mr.
Adriaens said. "But because it's so complete, it's of more importance than
the number of people."

The museum is digitally archiving the papers, and beginning in
September descendants will be able to claim the yellowing originals, which
are stored in a climate-controlled room.

Other digitized records have been shared with Yad Vashem, the memorial
to the Holocaust in Jerusalem, the museum at Auschwitz in Poland and the
Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington.

Already, pleas for documents are pouring in.

"People are most interested in pictures or ID cards, because most of
the time they have no souvenir of the person, no face they can remember,"
said Laurence Schram as she and an assistant went through the documents.

"It's very emotional. One woman wrote, 'I would fall to my knees in
gratitude for any document concerning my father.' Unfortunately, there was
nothing on him."

Some envelopes are thin. Others are stuffed with papers such as those
belonging to Abram Akerman, a fresh-faced baker's apprentice, born in
Warsaw in 1918. He was carrying his marriage book and a rationing card and
vaccination certificate for his 1-year-old daughter, Pauline.

The mother of Mr. Verbeeck, the young actor, was 7 when her father hid
her with Belgian farmers and fled to Britain. Now he has received digital
scans of a fake passport belonging to her uncle, medical papers saying he
couldn't work because of a heart condition, letters from a woman who
borrowed a stove, addresses of Jewish acquaintances in New York.

"They're documents without any value, but with which you can make up a
story about these people's condition, their health, where they lived, who
they knew," he said. "For me it's just important to have them. It's part
of my history, my family. I treasure it."

Further information is available on the Internet at the Jewish
Museum of Deportation and the Resistance: www.cicb.be, the Belgian Center
for Historical Research and Documentation on War and Contemporary Society:
www.cegesoma.be, and the Belgian compensation fund: http://premier.fgov.be
(click on Welcome, then Indemnification Commission).

(source: Associated Press)




AUSTRIA:

Nazi-Hunting Center Criticizes Austria



VIENNA, Austria - Austria has an exceptionally poor record in bringing
Nazi war criminals to justice even though numerous suspects still live
there, the Simon Wiesenthal Center said in a new report.

The 40-page report, which was posted Saturday on the organization's Web
site, reviewed Nazi investigations and prosecutions in 39 countries
between April 2002 and this past March.

"Austria has failed to convict a Holocaust perpetrator in more then two
decades and refuses to establish a special prosecution agency despite the
existence of numerous suspects in the country," the center said.

At least a dozen countries, including some in which Holocaust crimes were
committed or which offered refuge to perpetrators, were investigating and
prosecuting suspects, the center said.

Six Nazi war criminals were convicted - five in the United States and one
in Germany, the report said. Legal proceedings were begun against 10 other
suspects in the United States and one in Germany, and there were ongoing
investigations involving nearly 500 suspects worldwide.

"Attempts to investigate and bring to justice Holocaust perpetrators are
still under way in quite a few countries and have yielded highly
significant results," said the report's author, Efraim Zuroff.

"The existence of political will to bring Nazi war criminals to justice is
an absolute prerequisite for the successful prosecution of Holocaust
perpetrators," he said.

The report gives an "A," or "highly successful," grade to the United
States; a "B," indicating some "practical" success, to Germany; and a "C"
for "minimal success" to Canada, Costa Rica, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, the
Netherlands and Poland.

A "D" grade for "insufficient or unsuccessful efforts" went to Argentina,
Australia, Austria, Britain, Croatia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France,
Hungary, Romania, Slovakia and Spain.

Although the center gave an "F" for "total failure" to Colombia, Norway,
Sweden and Syria, its report had especially harsh words for Austria, where
legendary Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal lives and works.

"Austria once again has failed to secure a conviction or file an
indictment against a single Nazi war criminal," the report said. "There
appears to be little will in Vienna ... to prosecute such criminals."

Calls to Austrian government offices seeking comment on the report went
unanswered Saturday.

A separate report issued earlier this year by 160 Austrian historians and
researchers criticized the alpine country's post-World War II governments
for their unwillingness to compensate Holocaust victims, saying Austria
acted "often halfheartedly."

Thousands of Jews - including those sent to concentration camps - were
forced to pay a special "flight tax" and a "Jewish property levy" to leave
the Third Reich, that report said.

Unlike Germany, which has engaged in deep and public soul-searching for
decades, Austria has been slow to admit any responsibility for Nazi-era
crimes or come to grips with its complicity, portraying itself as a victim
rather than a perpetrator.

Historical records show a disproportionately high number of Austrians
played leading roles in the Nazi death machine, and that thousands of
Austrians enriched themselves by stealing or otherwise forcibly taking
Jewish property.

Adolf Eichmann, dubbed the Nazi's "station master of death" for his
central role in the extermination of Jews, was an Austrian. He was
captured, tried and sentenced to death, and hanged in Israel in 1962.

On the Net: Simon Wiesenthal Center, www.wiesenthal.com

(source: Associated Press)





USA//MISSOURI:

Missouri Interested in Holocaust Education Program


Missouri is among the states that have expressed interest in a
program to show teachers how to educate students about the Holocaust.

The Lessons from the Holocaust program is designed to fight racism and
increase tolerance. It was developed by the University of Tennessee and
the Tennessee Holocaust Commission along with the United States Holocaust
Memorial Museum.

One education official says many students can identify with the program
because they feel they have been discriminated against -- either
economically or educationally. The program also stresses diversity and
shows the Holocaust as a worst-case scenario for discrimination. The only
cost for the program is allowing teachers time off to take part.

(source: Associated Press)




USA//ILLINOIS:

Family meets relative lost during Holocaust


Immergluck family members who gathered in Skokie's Lorel Park for their
35th annual picnic Sunday had more to celebrate than usual, as they
reunited with a relative lost since the Nazi Holocaust.

Family members for the first time met their new-found relative from
Poland, Lucja Sektas.

"I'm extremely happy to be here," Sektas said, speaking through a
translator. "It's overwhelming. There are no words to express everything I
feel."

"It is pretty courageous of her to come to a foreign country where she
can't speak the language," Kiya Immergluck said. "I was very excited to
find out she was part of this big family and that she wanted to come and
meet us."

Polish nuns rescued Sektas from the Nazis in 1941 when she was six months
old. She was adopted and raised by a Catholic family in Cracow, Poland.

Sektas' true origin was revealed to her recently by her adopted mother,
speaking from her death bed.

Life has not been easy for Sektas, 62, since she learned her birth name is
Monika Goldwasser and that she is Jewish, she said.

All members of her adopted family have died. Her immediate biological
family in Poland was killed in the Holocaust.

And, upon finding out that she is Jewish, Sektas' husband and son have
left her.

This set Sektas on a mission to find the rest of her family.

"I always thought it would be impossible that I was the only one left,"
Sektas said. "I had a strong belief that there was someone else out
there."

Sektas found her family though a genealogy Web site,
http://www.jewishgen.org/jgff. It allows users to enter their family name
and search for relatives.

Through it she connected with Debbie Kroopkin of Niles. The two are third
cousins, once removed.

"We are the first family she has found on her entire father's side,"
Debbie Kroopkin said. "There's no way I would have found her because I
wouldn't have known her adopted or real last name."

Sektas said it was a tough decision for her to visit the U.S., because she
did not know any of her new family members. But the link to family
overcame her fears.

Within days of finding out she is related to the Immerglucks, Sektas
bought a plane ticket to meet her family.

Sektas arrived in the states on Tuesday and stayed with David and Michelle
Kroopkin in Oak Park. Communication proved to be a challenge because
Sektas does not speak English and the Kroopkins do not speak any Polish.

"There was a lot of gesturing and passing the Polish-English dictionary,"
Michelle Kroopkin said. "However, it was fine. Lucja is very outgoing and
friendly. She seems to be comfortable in any situation."

When Sektas first arrived for Sunday's picnic, there was no one on hand to
translate. But relatives were excited to meet and hug their newest family
member.

Kiya Immergluck, of Chicago, communicated with Sektas through showing her
pictures of the family.

Later, the language barrier fell when family friend, Emma Kowalenko of
Highland Park, arrived to translate.

"It's been a great experience," Kowalenko said. "We have some things in
common. I also found out I was Jewish later in my life, and have been
trying to reconnect."

About 55 people attended the picnic, arranged by Sheila Janek of West
Chicago. Janek has planned the picnic for the past 23 years.

"When I set up the picnic I think about my younger days," Janek said. "I
remember my uncles dancing and my father laughing. Now, everyone looks
forward to our picnic. It's become a tradition."

Although much of the Immergluck family once lived in Skokie, only one
family member remains. Jeanette Immergluck and her husband moved to Skokie
in 1968. Every year she obtains the permit so the family can unite at
Lorel Park.

"There are so many new children," Jeanette Immergluck said. "I don't know
half the people. The family has grown in leaps and bounds."

(source: Pioneer Press)











ISRAEL/ROMANIA:

Romanian's Holocaust Remark Upsets Israel


Israel issued a stern rebuke Friday to Romania after its president was
quoted by a newspaper as saying the Holocaust was "not unique to the
Jews."

Israel summoned the Romanian ambassador to the Foreign Ministry, ministry
spokesman David Saranga said. At the same time, Israel directed its
ambassador in Bucharest to submit a strong protest to that government.

This is the second time in two months that Romanian ambassador Valeria
Mariana Stoica has received an official protest over a statement about the
Holocaust.

On June 13, the Romanian government denied there was a Holocaust within
its borders. Following protests from Israel and Romania's Jewish
community, the government acknowledged that its former leaders deported
and exterminated Jews during World War II.

In an interview with Israel's Haaretz newspaper published Friday, Romanian
President Ion Iliescu said "the Holocaust was not unique to the Jewish
population in Europe. Many others, including Poles, died in the same way."

Iliescu noted his father, a communist, was sent to a camp and died a year
after his release. "In the Romania of the Nazi period both Jews and
communists were treated equally," he said.

Dorel Dorian, a Romanian lawmaker who represents the Jewish community,
said the Holocaust has a precise meaning as the attempted mass destruction
of the Jews.

"It's true that tens of millions of Poles, Ukrainians, communists and
others also died, but for Jews it was a planned process of extermination,"
Dorian said.

Israel asked the Romanian ambassador to clarify whether Iliescu's
statements reflected the view of the Romanian government or just the
president, Saranga said.

Iliescu later said he was surprised by Israel's response to his comments.

"I don't understand the reaction. I said the Holocaust was a phenomenon
that affected the entire Europe. There is no Romanian, or German or Polish
Holocaust. It was a general process, and some of its European components
happened on Romania's territory," Iliescu told Romania's Mediafax news
agency.

Romania was home to 760,000 Jews before World War II. An estimated 420,000
were killed during the war. More than 20,000 Romanian Gypsies also died
after being deported to camps. About 6,000 Jews now live in Romania.

(source: Associated Press)