May 13

USA:

Report: After war, U.S. turned blind eye to Nazis---FBI did not dig deep
for the truth because of Cold War needs


The government is opening thousands of records showing the FBI and other
agencies turned their heads from the murky pasts of alleged Nazi
collaborators living in the United States.

Government historian Norman J.W. Goda, in a collaborative book based on
records being released Thursday at the National Archives, said the FBI did
not dig deep for the truth on these people because it wanted them on
America's side in the Cold War.

Among them was Viorel Trifa, an alleged student leader in Romania's fascist
Iron Guard movement who became bishop of the Romanian Orthodox Church in
the United States and once led prayers in Congress.

In the thousands of files released, the CIA also is shown seeking the
Immigration and Naturalization Services help in easing travel in and out
of America for Mykola Lebed, a Ukrainian accused of aiding German storm
troopers in brutal suppression of local resistance during World War II.

The INS found some basis for at least some of these allegations, according
to a 1953 letter from the agency seeking direction from the Justice
Department. If they were true, the agency said, Lebed should be deported.

But INS called off its investigation of Lebed at the CIAs request, even
while declining at that time to give him freedom to leave and return to
the United States at will.

I do not feel that we are in any position to give such assurance, since
there is a strong likelihood that subject is inadmissible under the
immigration laws, the INS commissioner wrote.

Asleep at the switch?

Goda said Lebed was hired by the U.S. Army Counter Intelligence Corps,
then in 1948, by the CIA. He entered the United States under the cover of
the Displaced Persons Act.

Goda said the documents show the INS was not, as long thought, asleep at
the switch during the years when many Nazi sympathizers made it into the
country. They tried to institute proceedings against these people, he
said, only to be thwarted by the FBI, CIA or others in government.

With Lebed, he said, the CIA was strong-arming INS to allow him to stay,
and leave on CIA business and come back.

As for Trifa, the CIA cited in a 1953 document evidence that he had been a
moving spirit in the 1941 Iron Guard rebellion and pointed to his
manifesto openly calling for the pro-Nazi movement to prevail. Trifa
denied being part of the group while acknowledging he was close to its
leaders.

The FBI understood Trifas background, Goda said, but FBI Director J. Edgar
Hoover considered him a very desirable part of the landscape during the
Cold War.

Men like him kept emigre communities from being sympathetic to communist
governments back home, he said.

Trifa was stripped of his U.S. citizenship and deported in 1984, and the
Portuguese government took him, Goda said.

8 million pages

The Nazi War Crimes and Japanese Imperial Government Records Interagency
Working Group is releasing the book by its historians Thursday. Called
U.S. Intelligence and the Nazis, it details declassified documents
released by the CIA, FBI, Army, State Department and other U.S. agencies
under the Nazi War Crimes Disclosure Act.

The group has overseen the declassification and release of roughly 8
million pages of U.S. government records related to war criminals and
crimes committed by the Nazi and Japanese Imperial Government during World
War II.

In another case, former Croatian interior minister Andrija Artukovic
slipped into the United States under a false name in 1948. Goda said he
had authorized anti-Serb and anti-Jewish legislation in Croatia, as well
as mass shootings, deportations and creation of concentration camps.

He said the Justice and State departments stymied Yugoslavias attempts to
have him extradited for years, and Hoover believed he had great potential
propaganda value. But he was finally extradited in 1986, sentenced to
death, and died awaiting execution.

The papers also detail the case of John Avdzej, a Byelorussian who was
installed as a Polish mayor by the Germans during the war and came to
America in 1950. Goda said Avdzej was thought to have participated in the
execution of thousands of Jews.

When this background emerged, the FBI field office in Newark, N.J., at
first wanted to interview him to see whether he was a threat to U.S.
security, but then asked headquarters to consider him as a double agent
who could infiltrate immigrant circles in New Jersey.

Hoover said a review of Avdzejs file revealed no substantial subversive
activity or potential as an informant, and closed the case. But it did not
stay closed. Like Trifa, Avdzej was forced to leave the country and lost
his citizenship in 1984.

(source: Associated Press)


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

USA//NEW YORK:

'Cartoonists Against the Holocaust': Unusual Exhibit to Debut In New York
City

Contact: The David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies, 215-635-5622
or rafaelmedoff@...

News Advisory:

An extraordinary exhibit of 1940s editorial cartoons that challenged
America's response to news of the Holocaust will debut in New York City on
May 16, 2004.

The exhibit, "Cartoonists Against the Holocaust: Art in the Service of
Humanity," will be unveiled for the first time at a conference on
"Teaching and Learning About America's Response to the Holocaust,"
sponsored by The David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies.

The conference will take place on Sunday, May 16, 2004, in the Ramaz Lower
School building, 125 East 85th Street, New York City, from 10 a.m. to 5
p.m. The exhibit will be open to the public during those hours.

The exhibit's logo and illustrated introduction have been designed by
legendary comic book artist Joe Kubert, whose own critically-acclaimed new
book, Yossel: April 19, 1943, has broken new ground in the use of comic
art to teach about the Holocaust.

A special press event with Joe Kubert will be held at 5 p.m., on Sunday,
May 16, 2004, at the exhibit site. He will comment on the exhibit and
answer questions. His son Adam Kubert, also a prominent comic book artist,
will be on hand as well.

(Note: Journalists who are unable to attend the event may arrange a
telephone interview with Joe Kubert by calling Prof. Rob Stolzer of the
Wyman Institute at 715-341-9820.)

"At a time when many Americans were indifferent to the plight of Europe's
Jews, these courageous artists used their talents to try to rouse
America's conscience," said Dr. Rafael Medoff, director of the Wyman
Institute.

The exhibit features the work of editorial cartoonists Eric Godal, Arthur
Szyk, Stan Mac Govern, A.W. MacKenzie and Pulitzer Prize winner Charles
Werner.

NOTE: Sample images of the cartoons are available for publication. To
receive a jpg or pdf with samples of the cartoons in the exhibit, please
write to: rstolzer@...

------

ABOUT THE WYMAN INSTITUTE: The David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust
Studies, located on the campus of Gratz College (near Philadelphia), is a
research and education institute focusing on America's response to the
Holocaust. It is named in honor of the eminent historian and author of the
1984 best-seller The Abandonment of the Jews, the most important and
influential book concerning the U.S. response to the Nazi genocide.

The Institute's Advisory Committee includes Nobel Peace Prize Laureate
Elie Wiesel, Members of Congress, and other luminaries.

The Institute's Academic Council includes 45 leading professors of the
Holocaust, American history, and Jewish history.

The Institute's Arts & Letters Council, chaired by Cynthia Ozick, includes
prominent artists, writers, musicians, and filmmakers.

(source: US Newswire)





AUSTRIA:

Thousands mark liberation of Nazi concentration camp


More than 11,000 people gathered in the town of Mauthausen in northern
Austria yesterday to commemorate the 59th anniversary of the liberation of
the notorious Nazi Mauthausen concentration camp, organizers of the
ceremony said.

The crowds listened to several addresses from representatives of former
prisoners, more than 100,000 of whom were murdered by the Nazis before the
camp was liberated by the U.S. army on May 9, 1945. The main speaker was
to have been 89-year-old Hans Marsalek, who was imprisoned at Mauthausen
in 1942. However, Marsalek was ill. His address was read by the chairman
of the Austrian Mauthausen committee, Willi Mernyi.

In his written address, Marsalek warned that even with the recent European
Union enlargement, the 19th and 20th century traditions of national
arrogance, chauvinism, xenophobia, "Fuehrer" cult and anti-Semitism had
not been overcome.

The president of the International Mauthausen Committee, Walter Beck, said
liberation ceremonies were a contribution to peace across generations.

Former prisoners of the Nazi era would not be present at these ceremonies
for very much longer, he said. They wished all the more that a "world of
free people" would not remain a dream.

(source: Ha'aretz, May 10)







ESTONIA:

Estonia compiles book on damage of Nazi, Soviet occupations


Estonia's commission investigating the Nazi and Soviet occupations has
compiled a book on the damage caused by the two regimes from 1940 to
1991.

The commission's chairman Vello Salo told Interfax that "we will hand over
the commission's book, which took 12 years to compile, to Parliamentary
Speaker Ene Ergma and Parliamentary Constitutional Commission Chairman
Urmas Reinsalu."

"We will submit a report about the damage caused to Estonia both in Soviet
times and during Germany's occupation. But, since the German occupation
continued for a relatively short period of time, we mostly centered on the
Soviet period," said Salo, who is a professor at the University of
Toronto.

"Scientists will have to work for at least another ten years" to collect
more detailed data, he added.

"Nevertheless, we can already speak about the enormous negative
consequences for our small people. Thus, we lost 180,000, 90,000 of whom
were killed. The rest were taken out of the country and went missing,"
Salo said.

He expressed his regret that "Russia has not provided information on
Estonians who served in the Soviet army and were killed."

"The presence of the Soviet army in Estonia cost the country $4 billion.
But our task is only to estimate the size and cost of these losses. It is
up to the government to decide whether to seek financial compensation or
not," Salo said.

(source: Interfax)





FRANCE:

Entr'acte: Whatever happened to the art the Nazis stole?

For almost half a century, Europe overlooked the art treasures that
were looted from Jewish homes by the Nazis and were never returned. Then,
as mid-20th-century European history resurfaced in the 1990s, the
political climate changed. Suddenly, missing art became a moral issue and
red-faced governments, museums and auction houses hurriedly promised to
make amends. In the glare of publicity, no one wanted to be seen profiting
from the Holocaust.

Yet, despite all the headlines, relatively little of this looted art has
so far been restituted. True, it represents only a small proportion of
what the Nazis stole from Jews. After World War II, hundreds of thousands
of works were recovered by Allied forces and duly returned to their owners
or their heirs.

The issue today relates to art that was recovered but was not restituted
and art that was resold during the war and ended up in museums and private
collections.

In theory, a structure is in place to address the problem. Many European
countries have formed commissions to study restitution claims, while
museums have agreed to review the provenance of art acquired since 1933.
In most countries, some artworks have been returned to families of
original owners. Everywhere, it would seem, there is awareness that
private collections and museums own Nazi-tainted art.

But in practice, this wound of history is proving difficult to repair.
Looted art in private collections is hard to trace until it enters the
marketplace. An auction house that identifies a looted work may then
simply return it to the vendor rather than disclose its background. Many
European museums have also been slow to carry out provenance research and
publish the results. And they are reluctant to surrender important
paintings unless confronted by irrefutable claims.

Claimants, too, face obstacles. Three generations after the war, it is
often impossible to find documentary evidence to support restitution
claims, particularly if families were shattered or dispersed by the
Holocaust. Heirs may also not speak, say, the Czech, Polish or German of
their grandparents. And bureaucratic procedures and legal alternatives for
restitution vary by country.

"Many claimants are elderly and don't have much money to pay for
research," said Sarah Jackson, a researcher at the Art Loss Registry in
London, which includes looted art on its database. "It's desperately
time-consuming and difficult to search in the archives. Sometimes the
paper trail goes through six or seven countries. Going to court is also
very expensive. There just isn't any blanket way of dealing with these
cases."

In the United States, the search for looted art is driven by Jewish
organizations and individual museums, with lawsuits the ultimate recourse.
But in Europe, despite moves by the European Union to harmonize practices,
almost every country has adopted a different approach.

"There are thousands of looted works of art in public collections
throughout Europe," said Anne Webber, co-chairwoman of the Commission for
Looted Art in Europe, based in London. "Many of them have not been
publicly identified, and of those which have, it is not always easy for
heirs to recover them."

In Britain, 66 museums have identified hundreds of works of uncertain
provenance. "But we haven't had the wave of claims we expected," said Sean
Bullick, secretary to the National Museum Directors' Conference. Of five
claims to date, only one - for a painting in the Tate collection - has
been upheld by a Spoliation Advisory Panel. However, pending a promised
new law, Britain can only pay compensation for - and not restitute -
looted art.

Britain is also an important art market. While in the past Sotheby's and
Christie's were considered lax in researching works put up for sale, both
now have provenance experts. But The Guardian newspaper recently accused
Christie's of a cover-up when it identified a looted old master and
neglected to alert the original owner's heirs. In other cases, works have
been withdrawn after being spotted in auction catalogs.

In Germany, an Art Coordination Office based in Magdeburg has a data base
listing 70,000 missing objects covering both the Nazi regime and art
seized by the Soviet Army. Of these, about 1,800 works are being sought by
90 Jewish families. However, Michael Franz, director of the coordination
office, said he was aware of only about 10 restitutions from this list.

Few German museums have completed provenance researches: of about 6,000
museums, 18 have so far published reports, identifying 20,000 objects of
dubious provenance. In contrast, according to Wolfgang Marcus, director of
restitution in the Culture Ministry, only five works have so far been
returned by federal museums and some 15 by regional museums, although some
claims are resolved without publicity.

Austria, annexed by Germany in 1938, was nudged into addressing the
problem by the seizure of two Schiele paintings sent to a show in New York
in 1997. But in 1998 it passed an Art Restitution Act and since then it
has reviewed its national collections and resolved 92 restitution cases
involving 2,659 works of art (including paintings, coins, books and
porcelain). As in Germany, though, many of its research reports are
available only in German.

"The government is clearly not keen to make this a public issue," said
Sophie Lillie, who has just published "What Was," a 1,500-page study of
148 prewar Austrian Jewish collections. "I feel there is a deliberate
effort to make it an elitist issue, rather than a moral imperative.
Strangely, the government does more than it wants to take credit for."

Instead, public attention has focused on the Bloch-Bauer case, which is
being heard in the United States because claimants cannot use Austrian
courts to challenge a negative ruling. In this case, the heir of Ferdinand
Bloch-Bauer, a prominent Austrian Jewish collector, is suing in the United
States for the return of six Klimt paintings in a Vienna museum. The
Supreme Court in Washington is expected to rule soon on whether American
courts have jurisdiction.

In the Netherlands, where several major Jewish art collections were seized
by the Nazis, the government initially showed reluctance to return works
long ensconced in national museums. In January 2002, however, a
Restitutions Committee was created to study individual cases. In its first
two years of work, it studied 16 applications and ruled on 12,
recommending restitution in nine cases and rejection in three.

In France, it was a book, "The Lost Museum," by an American journalist,
Hector Feliciano, that first drew attention to 2,143 looted artworks that
the French government recovered after the war and retained. Feliciano's
charge that France had made little effort to trace the rightful owners
eventually embarrassed the government into holding exhibitions and
creating a Web site in 1997 to publicize the works.

Since 1999, 25 of these works, including "Nymphas" by Monet, have been
restituted. But France has so far refused to carry out a thorough
provenance research of its major collections. To demonstrate goodwill,
though, the French government is debating lending some 14 works from its
"recuperated" collection to the Israel Museum in Jerusalem.

What is becoming apparent, however, is that much of the art "lost" by
Jewish families and not returned after World War II may be lost forever.
Some heirs still have faded prewar photographs of art treasures on
Grandpa's sitting-room wall, but finding the works is not enough. The
burden is on the claimant to prove ownership, not on the museum to explain
mysterious gaps in provenance between 1933 and 1945. And that suits the
museums just fine.

(source: International Herald Tribune)


USA/POLAND:

U.S., Poland sign Holocaust preservation pact

The United States and Poland signed an agreement Tuesday to preserve
Jewish cultural sites remaining from the World War II Nazi occupation of
Poland.

Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage said the pact demonstrates that
Poland is "a partner, a friend and an ally in all things." He said it is
an important move toward preservation of the ancestral heritage of Jews
who fled Poland during the Holocaust and became Americans.

Polish Ambassador Przemyslaw Grudzinski said the agreement showed a
commitment to paying tribute to victims of the Holocaust. He said Poland
has made progress toward confronting its role in World War II by returning
cultural sites to Jews and laying plans for a museum devoted to Jewish
history. Some of the Nazis' most notorious death camps were in Poland.

Tuesday's agreement was negotiated between the Polish government and the
U.S. Commission for the Preservation of America's Heritage Abroad, an
agency that aims to identify historic sites around the world that relate
to the heritage of American ethnic groups. So far, it has linked U.S.
preservation efforts with 16 European nations since 1992.

Grudzinski said the United States and Poland already have worked together
to raise money for an English-language translation of a history of the
Auschwitz concentration camp. The U.S. also has worked with Poland to help
acquire Jewish cemeteries in recent years, commission Chairman William
Miller said.

More than 3 million Jews lived in Poland before World War II. Today, only
a few thousand live there. After the war, Poland's communist government
left religious sites to deteriorate and crumble, Miller said.

"The efforts of our governments, working together as partners with the
private sector, are needed to ensure that the remnants of a great culture
survive in a country from which a majority of American Jews trace their
heritage," Miller said at a ceremony in the White House's Eisenhower
Executive Office Building.

On the Net:

U.S. Commission for the Preservation of America's Heritage Abroad:
www.heritageabroad.gov/

(source: Associated Press)