Oct. 4



THE NETHERLANDS:

Debate over Anne Frank citizenship


In Amsterdam, a television channel has touched off a debate at the
highest levels by proposing Anne Frank as possibly the greatest
Dutch person in history -- even though the Jewish teenager, who became a
symbol of courage during the Nazi occupation, never had Dutch citizenship.

Members of parliament campaigned over the weekend to grant the young
author of the renowned wartime diary posthumous citizenship. But
Immigration Minister Rita Verdonk said there is no provision in the law
to do so.

Dutch media reported Monday that a majority of the 150 members of
parliament's lawmaking Second Chamber from across the political spectrum
support granting her citizenship, despite the legal barriers.

The question of posthumous citizenship surfaced when the Dutch television
channel KRO listed German-born Anne Frank as one of 202 candidates to
become history's greatest Dutchman in a popular vote of viewers.

Viewers have been voting since April, but the citizenship debate only
emerged in the press over the weekend.

"We knew she wasn't Dutch. But the (nominating) commission found that she
did a lot for the Dutch people and contributed to our country," said KRO
spokeswoman Monique Moeskops.

Alexandra Schutte, a former editor of a popular political magazine who is
promoting Anne's case in the contest, began lobbying Dutch members of
parliament to grant an exception to the rule against giving citizenship to
a deceased person, said Moeskops.

But some historians and even the keepers of Anne Frank's legacy agree
making her a Dutch citizen nearly 60 years after her death would not alter
her place in history. It could also be an unintended denigration of the
tens of thousands of refugees who, like Anne's family, fled the Nazi
regime but would not receive the same recognition.

Some critics ridiculed the idea of giving her citizenship because of a
television program.

Anne Frank was born in Germany in 1929 and came with her family to the
Netherlands in 1933. The Franks became stateless when the Nazis stripped
all Jews living outside Germany of their nationality.

During 25 months in hiding in Amsterdam, she kept a diary of her innermost
thoughts and feelings, among them a wish to become Dutch. The family was
captured, and she died at age 15 of typhus at the Bergen-Belsen
concentration camp in Germany in 1945, just weeks before the end of the
war.

Her father, Otto Frank, the only family member to survive the camps,
returned to Amsterdam and took Dutch nationality. The diary, which he
published in 1949 and was later translated into dozens of languages,
became the first popular account of the Holocaust.

Anne is competing against such historic and current luminaries as the 17th
century artists Rembrandt and Pieter Brueghel; William of Orange, the 16th
century founder of the dynasty of Dutch monarchs; and a few 20th century
sports greats.

"A lot of people have been voting for Anne Frank," Moeskops said. But she
would not reveal whether the diarist was likely to be among the 10
finalists to be announced next week.

The Anne Frank House, which runs the museum established in the canal-side
house where the Frank family hid in a secret annex, said the question is
irrelevant.

"Her legacy is Dutch, she wrote in Dutch, her diary was in Dutch," said
spokeswoman Patricia Bosboom. "She was as Dutch as you can be. Giving her
citizenship would add nothing."

David Barnouw, of the Dutch Institute for War Documentation, said most of
the German Jews and political refugees who fled the Nazi regime expected
to return to their homes after the war, and never considered remaining in
Holland.

Barnouw ridiculed the notion of granting citizenship for the purpose of a
television program, and said it could serve as a precedent for the
descendants of other Nazi victims.

"Why should only Anne Frank get citizenship? Are those other people not
important enough?" he said.

Barnouw also noted that Anne was not the only non-Dutch citizen on the
list.

William of Orange, he said, was also German.

(source: Associated Press)





HUNGARY:

Hungary searches for Holocaust saviors

A Hungarian museum began a search Friday for people who helped save lives
during the Holocaust, when some 550,000 Hungarian Jews and tens of
thousands of Gypsies were killed.

Maria Schmidt, director of the House of Terror Museum, said the Hungarian
society had failed to recognize those who had risked their own and their
families' lives to help the persecuted.

"We can only overcome the Holocaust once we have done our mourning, poured
out our sorrow for the victims, punished the guilty and thanked those who
deserve it," Schmidt was quoted as saying by state-run news wire MTI.

The House of Terror is located in a building which at the end of World War
II was the headquarters of the local pro-Nazi Arrow Cross party and, after
the war, the communist secret police.

Thousands were tortured and scores killed in the building. The
state-sponsored museum commemorating both oppressive regimes opened in
February 2001.

The museum asks people with information about those who acted heroically
during the Holocaust to call a special museum phone line or post a message
on the museum Web page.

Since 1989, Yad Vashem, Israel's Holocaust memorial, has awarded the Medal
of the Righteous to some 600 non-Jewish Hungarians who helped save Jews
during World War II.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center, a Jewish human rights group, recently
launched campaigns in several Eastern European countries, including
Hungary, offering 10,000 Euros (US$12,400) for information leading to the
conviction of Nazi war criminals.

(source: Associated Press)





CANADA:

Holocaust denier a state security threat


Holocaust denier Ernst Zundel has lost another bid to challenge the
federal government's claim that he's a security threat, Canada's National
Post reported Thursday.

The Supreme Court of Canada refused Thursday to hear Zundel's argument
that he's being treated unfairly because some of the evidence against him
remains secret, and ruled that Zundel is involved in terrorists activity
and is a security threat to Canada.

Ottawa filed court papers last year saying Zundel, a German national, was
a threat to engage in terrorism or other violence and should be deported.

The so-called security certificate is based on secret intelligence, some
of which has been shared with a Federal Court judge but hasn't been made
public, the National Post reported. Zundel wanted to force the government
to hand over the whole file.

Zundel is slated to be brought to trial in Germany for neo-Nazi activity
and Holocaust denial, Israel Radio reported.

Zundel has disseminated neo-Nazi material for over three decades, and has
recently made use of the Internet to further promote his ideas.
Zundel remains in custody while the deportation case against him
continues.

(source: Jerusalem Post)





USA:

Holocaust Memorial Director addresses Chico State


Why do we teach about the Holocaust? a director of the United States
Holocaust Memorial Museums Committee on Conscience asked the group of 150
at the Harlen Adams Theatre on Thursday night. To save the future."
"This is the meaning, the lesson, and the consolation for the 6 million
lives that were lost during World War II - if there is to be any."

Jerry Fowler flew to Chico from Washington, D.C., at the request of
Hillel, Chico States Jewish Student Union, and other groups.

Fowler had many stories to tell about the Holocaust itself but there was a
modern focus to his speech.

This is a particularly important time for the message about being
responsive to Holocaust-like atrocities in the world to be heard, Fowler
said.

The Committee on Conscience had declared a genocide emergency because of
the mass murdering and terrorizing of citizens in the Darfur region of
Sudan.

Fowler, who just returned from a visit to the neighboring country of Chad,
had a gripping slide show of suffering and separation to show as evidence
of his trip.

More than 200,000 refugees had crossed the border from Darfur into Chad
after the decimation of over 400 villages, Fowler said.

At the conclusion of the presentation, a member of the audience asked
Fowler why he hadnt mentioned the religious element of the conflict and
the tragic irony of the current situation.

He said that Fowler had made no mention of the fact that both the refugees
and the government-supported groups in Darfur are Muslim, and that the
Muslim world is doing next to nothing to end this genocide.

Most of the support for the refugees is coming from Jewish and Protestant
Christian groups, the audience member said.

In response, Fowler talked about the creation of the Save Darfur
Coalition, which includes several U.S. Muslim groups.

He also offered ways that citizens could help.

Fowler said that people who wish to help in solving genocide and human
rights crises such as these could do so by staying informed, contacting
the media, contacting their government representation, supporting relief
efforts and getting engaged in their communities.

(source: The Orion)