Oct. 29



USA/TEXAS:

Doomed to Repeat?: We've already rejected eugenics policies once


Tarrant County mental health official Dr. Joseph Burkett finds himself
publicly denounced as a racist over a comment he made testifying before a
legislative committee earlier this week. In highlighting the connection
between mental illness and bad parenting, Dr. Burkett said: "A lot of
these kids come from bad gene pools. They don't have stable parents making
good decisions or else many of them, most of them, would not be in foster
care."

The NAACP is now demanding Dr. Burkett's resignation, saying the
psychiatrist's comment "invites racism." That's unfair. Dr. Burkett was
making a point about the role genetics plays in mental illness. He says he
won't resign, and we agree that he should not.

Still, the NAACP was right to sound the alarm about the use of genetics in
public policy debates, particularly to stigmatize certain populations.
What it's really worried about is eugenics, the study of hereditary
improvement of the human race by controlled selective breeding. So are we.

Eugenics was a movement, now largely forgotten, that profoundly affected
American popular culture in the early 20th century and led to policies
that were racist and inhuman. By the 1920s, some leading scientists,
philanthropists and academics warned of the dangers to America if the
genetically inferior were allowed to reproduce.

Even esteemed birth control advocate and women's rights activist Margaret
Sanger fell under the spell of eugenics. Like other progressives of her
day, she favored incentives for the sterilization of people with
untreatable, disabling, hereditary conditions, preventing the
"feebleminded" from immigrating, and confining illiterates, the poor and
others on farms for society's sake. Politicians under sway of these
theories passed laws limiting immigration of Italians, Jews and Slavs, and
forbidding interracial marriage all for the sake of improving society's
"hygiene." (Read the original documents on the historical Web site
www.eugenicsarchive.com.)

The Nazis took all this to its natural conclusion, which, after the
horrors of the death camps were revealed, thoroughly discredited eugenics
in the public's mind. Now it's coming back in a more socially acceptable
form. Like the old days, advocates of better living through genetic
manipulation present it as scientific, rational even progressive. Some
top scientists and bioethicists are calling for genetic manipulation to
improve individuals' quality of life.

The language is different and sensible to modern ears but the principles
are the same. Don't think you can be seduced? Consider that no less a
great leader than W.E.B. DuBois, who founded the NAACP was a eugenics
enthusiast who wanted to keep "ignorant Negroes" from "breed[ing]
carelessly and disastrously."

This road leads not to Utopia, but to Auschwitz.

(source: Editorial, Dallas Morning News)




USA/CALIFORNIA:

FBI seize Picasso looted by Nazis in France


US authorities have seized a long-lost painting by Spanish artist Pablo
Picasso worth about USD 10 million that was looted by Nazis during World
War Two, the FBI said Tuesday.

Federal Bureau of Investigation and US Marshals from Los Angeles seized
the painting, called "Femme en Blanc" from the home of its owner in
Chicago on October 21 following a complaint that it was stolen property.

The painting, also known as "Femme Assise" or "Seated Woman," was
"arrested" on the grounds that it was stolen property that had been
illegally shipped from one US state to another by a Chicago resident,
prosecutors said.

The work was painted by Picasso around 1922 and sold to a German Jew,
Carlota Landsberg, in 1926 or 1927, who sent it to a Paris dealer for
safekeeping during World War Two.

But in 1940, at the start of the German occupation of France, the painting
was allegedly looted from the art dealer and not seen publicly again until
late 2001, when it appeared at a Los Angeles exhibition, court documents
state.

A complaint filed in US federal court in Los Angeles alleges that tracking
by the London based Art Loss Register revealed that the painting was sold
to a Paris art dealer by a collector who was investigated for benefiting
from sales to the Nazis.

In 1975, the art dealer sold the painting to a Paris art gallery that in
turn sold it to American buyers Marilynn Alsdorf and her late husband
James, who lives in Chicago and who has owned it ever since.

After the painting was exhibited in Los Angeles, the gallery that showed
the work sent it to Switzerland in an attempt to sell it on behalf of
Marilynn Alsdorf, the complaint said.

But a routine investigation into its origins revealed it had been stolen
by the Nazis, and Alsdorf and the San Francisco area-based grandson of the
painting's first owner, Landsberg, were informed of its history.

Landsberg's grandson Thomas Bennigson then sued Alsdorf in late 2002 to
recover the painting for his family, but Alsdorf allegedly arranged for
the work to be transported from Los Angeles back to her Chicago home.

"The painting was, therefore, then subject to forfeiture to the United
States as property traceable to unlawful activity in that it was
transported in interstate commerce with knowledge that it was stolen," the
FBI said in a statement.

But Alsdorf's lawyer Roscoe Howard noted that his client had filed a
federal lawsuit in Chicago over the painting's ownership and vowed that
Alsdorf would "clearly respond to anything filed in Los Angeles."

(source: Agence France Presse)






USA:

Turkish Diplomat Ulkumen Commemorated In Holocaust Museum


Turkish diplomat Selahattin Ulkumen, who saved 42 Jewish people from
being sent to concentration and extermination camps during the
Nazi era, was commemorated in Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C. on
Tuesday.

Besides Turkish Ambassador to the United States Faruk Logoglu, Ulkumen's
son Mehmet and his grandson Altug Ulkumen, members of Jewish and Turkish
communities were in attendance at the commemoration for Ulkumen who died
in Istanbul in 2003 at the age of 89.

Speaking at the commemoration, 69-year-old Bernard Turiel, the son of one
of the Jewish families saved by Ulkumen, said that only 151 out of 1,700
Jewish people who were sent from Rhodes to extermination camps survived.
He eulogized Ulkumen's courage.

Ulkumen was the Turkish Consul General on the island of Rhodes, where he
saved 42 Jewish families from being sent to Nazi death camps during the
Second World War.

On July 19 1944, the Gestapo ordered all of Jews in Rhodes to report for
''temporary transportation to a small island nearby'', but in fact to take
them to Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp.

Ulkumen, the 30-year-old Turkish Consul General, approached the German
commander, General von Kleeman, telling him that Turkey was neutral in the
war and demanding that all Jewish Turks on Rhodes, including their
spouses, whether Jewish or not, should be released at once.

Ulkumen's action saved the lives of 42 Jewish families. The rest of the
Jews on the island were deported to Greece and from there to Auschwitz.

Soon after he had saved the Jewish families, two German planes bombed the
Turkish Consulate building, seriously injuring Ulkumen's pregnant wife,
Mihrinissa. In August 1944 she and Ulkumen were deported to Piraeus, where
he spent the remainder of the war in confinement. Mihrinissa died from her
injuries a week after giving birth to their son.

In 1989 Ulkumen, who had become known as ''the Turkish Schindler'', was
awarded the title of ''Righteous Among the Nations'' for his efforts for
the Jews during the war. A tree was planted in his honor at the ''Path of
the Righteous''. In 2001 he was presented with the Supreme Service Medal,
Turkey's highest honor.

(source: Turkish Press)






FRANCE:

French lecturer suspended for doubting Holocaust


A far-right leader has been suspended from teaching for one month at a
French university for allegedly making remarks that cast doubt on the
Holocaust.

Guy Lavorel, president of Jean Moulin University in the southern city of
Lyon, said in a statement that Bruno Gollnisch's suspension would take
effect Friday.

The measure is not disciplinary and "respects the presumption of
innocence," the statement said.

The purpose of the suspension was to avoid "the risk" of any further
problems while Gollnisch's case is being considered. A disciplinary
hearing was to follow to determine whether further action is merited, the
statement said.

Gollnisch, who teaches law and Japanese at the university, also known as
Lyon III, reportedly cast doubt on the impartiality of a report on
Holocaust denial by the historian Henry Rousso.

Gollnisch was quoted at a press conference earlier this month as saying
"historians might question the number of deaths," and "it is up to
historians to decide" on the existence of the gas chambers.

Gollnisch is a leading figure in the extreme right National Front party,
headed by Jean-Marie Le Pen.

(source: Associated Press)





GERMANY----film review

Rosenstrasse: An involving look at WWII struggle


Rosenstrasse

With: Maria Schrader
Directed by: Margarethe von Trotta
Running time: 136 minutes
Playing at: Regal Shadowood 16, 9889 W. Glades Road, Boca Raton,
561-482-2296; Sunrise Cinemas Mizner Park, 301 Plaza Real, Boca Raton,
561-368-7744; Sunrise Cinemas Intracoastal Mall, 3701 NE 163rd St., North
Miami Beach, 305-949-0064.
Rated PG-13: Mature thematic material, violence and brief drug content. In
German and English with partial English subtitles.


Just because a film is based on a true story doesn't mean it's going to
be well done. But Rosenstrasse, the World War II-era story of "Aryan"
wives fighting for their Jewish husbands, was directed by German
filmmaking veteran Margarethe von Trotta. Her deft hand makes Rosenstrasse
a solid, thoughtful, involving drama.

Von Trotta opens with a non-practicing Jewish woman, Ruth, who has decided
to follow traditional Jewish customs for her deceased husband, much to the
consternation of daughter Hannah (Maria Schrader). Hannah tracks down her
mother's German past to uncover an amazing story of peaceful resistance
against the deadly force of the Nazis.

In von Trotta's screenplay, poignant mother-daughter relationships are
explored as well as those of husbands and wives. Flashbacks to 1943 Berlin
tell this emotional Holocaust story (what Holocaust story isn't?). With
their Jewish husbands interned on a street called Rosenstrasse, the
non-Jewish wives stand in protest outside, trying to get their Jewish
husbands freed from the Nazis.

Among them, young Ruth waits for her mother, also interned there. Ruth is
informally adopted by a disgraced baroness, Lena (Katja Riemann), who
married a Jew. It is an aged Lena who tells her story and Ruth's to an
unbelieving Hannah.

Despite the fact this story is based on true events, many may not know the
end to the Rosenstrasse struggle, which makes the drama that much more
intense. Venice rightly embraced Rosenstrasse, awarding Riemann for her
performance and bestowing the film with the UNICEF award.

(source: Sun-Sentinel)




CANADA:

Nazi doll saddens Holocaust survivor
'Painful, not necessary,' says Calgary man. Manufacturer defends toy as
'cool figure'


Dolls depicting members of a Nazi SS combat division originally created
to guard concentration camps are now available in Canadian stores.

Auschwitz death camp survivor Sid Cyngiser is saddened by the toy. He
doesn't think it should be on store shelves.

"It's a painful thing to see that. It's not necessary," said the 80-year-old
Calgary man, whose grandmother, mother, father and sister vanished in the
camps. "It's 60 years after the war and people are still busy with
hatred."

The 'Totenkopf Division doll, sporting military fatigues and the trademark
deaths head insignia on the cap, comes with a Walther pistol and gas mask.
The packaging infers that the division fought in Normandy in 1944 as a
tank unit - which part of the division did.

The Totenkopf was, however, a group originally formed at Dachau, site of
the first concentration camp outside Munich. It opened in 1934.

Martin Kitchen, professor emeritus of history at B.C.s Simon Fraser
University, said the sale of the dolls is "most extraordinary."

Kitchen said it was a "fanatically ideological group" numbering about
40,000 members at its peak.

"They were a nasty bunch," Kitchen said. "They were responsible for a
number of atrocities on the Eastern Front."

The figure is part of a World War II series from Plan-B Toys of Groveport,
Ohio.

Other figures in the doll series include several Waffen SS figures and a
variety of U.S. airborne soldier figures as well as regular Wehrmacht
troops. The Waffen SS sniper comes with a recruitment poster.

The SS was the elite private army initially formed as a bodyguard for Nazi
leader Adolf Hitler. Plan-B co-president Chris Borman said the company did
not set out to offend anyone but was just portraying the Totenkopf troops
that fought in Normandy.

"Everyone knows the Germans were Nazis in World War II," Borman said. "We
picked them because they've got the coolest gear. It makes for a cool
figure.

"There's really no harm in it," he adds. "We won the war. We already know
the outcome.

"That division was involved in some terrible things, but wasn't everyone
during World War II? It's just history."

Leigh Poirier, executive director of the Canadian Toy Testing Council,
said her group wouldn't even look at a toy like this "due to its negative
nature."

"It doesn't promote positive play for children. Our mandate it to
encourage that."

(source: Collelctive Bellaciao)