Feb. 9



SLOVAKIA:

Slovakia keeps law against Holocaust denial



Slovak lawmakers yesterday rejected a government proposal to decriminalize
Holocaust denial, which is currently punishable by up to three years in
prison. The Slovak Justice Ministry had argued that a 2001 law outlawing
denial of the Holocaust infringed on freedom of speech. Lawmakers launched
a counterproposal to keep the law in place, and their measure was approved
in a 108-1 vote, with 19 abstentions. The ministry's proposal, which was
part of a larger amendment to the penal code, stirred criticism throughout
the country, including from several Jewish groups. Gabor Gal, one of the
lawmakers opposing the government proposal, said the law was important to
ensure that the such crimes were not repeated.

(source: Associated Press)




EUROPE:

Debate Over Swastika Ban Deepens


The European Commission has warned that a European Union-wide ban on Nazi
symbols to be extended to Communist Party symbols as well would be
''unwise''.

European Commissioner for Justice, Freedom and Security Franco Frattini,
said Monday much debate is still needed on how the bloc should tackle
emotive symbols from its darkest past.

But Frattini's spokesperson Friso Roscam Abbing went further in arguing
that such bans are best left to individual European Union member states
rather than the Union as a whole.

''It would be hard to explain and unwise if we were to try to harmonise it
at EU level,'' he told journalists on Tuesday, describing the issue as a
''perfect example'' of where the EU should stay out of its members'
internal affairs.

Abbing recommended that the EU drafts a framework law to outlaw material
''which could lead to racism or xenophobia'', while leaving the details to
its member states.

''I think it would be hard to explain and unwise if we tried to harmonise
it at European level,'' he said. ''It would be up to member states to
decide when and which symbols would lead to such criminal offences.''

Abbing said EU citizens would find it difficult to understand such a ban,
saying the case was one that would be best left to individual member
states, under the principle of subsidiarity.

The EU is considering banning the swastika and other Nazi symbols after
British Prince Harry, the 20-year-old grandson of Queen Elizabeth II, was
photographed wearing a swastika armband to a New Year's Eve fancy dress
party.

German Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) in particular have
demanded action over the Nazi symbols at EU level, although more cautious
British officials say important freedom- of-speech questions were at stake
along with the rights of EU member states.

The proposal, which could include a ban on all Nazi symbols, aims to set
EU-wide standards on fighting racism, anti-Semitism and other forms of
discrimination.

The swastika, adopted as the symbol of Nazism is derived from the Sanskrit
'svastika', which means 'conducive to well-being'.

The European Parliament passed a unanimous resolution late last month
urging a Europe- wide ban on incitement to racial and religious hatred but
the proposals need agreement of all 25 EU governments.

MEPs from central and Eastern Europe also joined the furore last week to
demand that the insignia of the former Soviet Union such as the
hammer-and-sickle be outlawed, noting that the late Soviet ruler Joseph
Stalin was if anything even more murderous than Germany's Adolf Hitler.

Lithuanian MEP Vytautas Landsbergis and Hungarian MEP Jozsef Szajer called
last month on Frattini to press for the former Soviet symbol ban.

The two MEPs said that if Nazi symbols are to be banned at EU level, then
former Soviet symbols ought to be as well.

''We would like to have an equal treatment of the other evil totalitarian
regime of the Communist system,'' said Szajer.

However, Frattini rebuffed these calls in a letter Monday to the two MEPs
who had made the request, calling instead for a ''wide-ranging European
debate'' on the issue.

Frattini's letter to Szajer and Landsbergis said the ''Europe of today was
united and free precisely because it had freed itself of the two great
authoritarian regimes of the 20th century - Nazism and Communism''.

Frattini also pointed out that there had often been disagreement between
historians about whether Soviet and Nazi era crimes could be compared.

''They differed in their origin and fate, but were similar in having
slaughtered perfectly innocent people regarded as objective enemies,'' he
added.

Frattini's latest comments represent a stepping back for the European
Commission, the EU executive. Last month he had spoken generally in favour
of such a ban.

''EU action is urgent and has to forbid very clearly the Nazi symbols in
the European Union,'' the European commissioner said last month.

Many European Union officials say that a EU-wide ban on either Nazi or
former Soviet symbols would be extremely difficult to put into place, as
it would be difficult to legislate the ban. The question is whether
satirical articles or cartoons containing the symbols would also fall foul
of the law.

Justice and interior ministers from the 25 EU nations will discuss the
banning of Nazi symbols at a meeting on Feb. 24.

(source: IPS News)





USA:

Liz Taylor can keep 'stolen' painting


A US federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit by the descendants of a
Holocaust victim who claimed ownership of a painting by Vincent Van Gogh
which actress Elizabeth Taylor bought 40 years ago.

The lawsuit alleges that the Nazi regime seized the 1889 painting "View of
the Asylum and Chapel at Saint-Remy" after its rightful owner Margarete
Mauthner fled from Germany to South Africa in 1939.

In a February 2 ruling made public on Monday, US District Court Judge Gary
Klausner said the state law that applies in the case allows individuals to
sue for up to three years after their property is taken.

The South African and Canadian descendants of Mauthner maintain in their
lawsuit that Taylor must have known when she purchased the painting at an
auction in 1963 for $257 600 that it had been stolen by government
officials of the Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler.

The suit was filed in Los Angeles after the actress in May attempted to
get a local court to declare her the rightful owner of the painting.

Two-times Oscar winner Taylor (72), acquired the painting at a Sotheby's
auction in London at the height of her Hollywood career.

Since then, the Van Gogh has been handing in her Los Angeles mansion.

Mauthner's relatives said the painting was confiscated by the Nazis at the
start of World War II and that Taylor and her representatives were aware
of its origins.

Taylor maintains the Sotheby's catalog of the 1963 auction stated that the
painting at one time had belonged to Mauthner and that after it was shown
in two prestigious art galleries it was sold to Aldred Wolf, another Jew
who fled Nazi Germany for Buenos Aires.

The actress said the Van Gogh belonged to Wolf when she purchased it at
the auction.

(source: Agence France Presse)



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

LA Cardinal: Church Must Repent for Clergy Abuse, Holocaust Era Role


Cardinal Roger Mahony marked the start of Lent Wednesday by
calling for the Catholic Church itself to do penance, in part for the
abuse of children by clergy and for not speaking out "forcefully enough"
against Nazi atrocities.

Mahony, head of the nation's largest Roman Catholic archdiocese, made his
comments in a message to parishioners on the first day of a 40-day season
during which Catholics prepare for Easter by doing penance for sins and
seeking spiritual renewal through prayer, fasting and good works.

"As we begin the Lenten journey this year, it is crucial to face the fact
that the Church has not always been a light in the darkness. And so,
penance and renewal are called for again and again," he wrote.

The sins the cardinal cited included sexual abuse by clergy, the
"insufficient response" of the church, and its failure to speak more
forcefully against the former system of apartheid in South Africa, the
massacres in Rwanda a decade ago and the extermination of millions of
people -- including six million Jews -- during the Nazi Holocaust.

Tod Tamberg, the cardinal's spokesman, said in a telephone interview that
he has no recollection of Mahony having previously addressed the issue of
the role of the church during World War II.

Tamberg said that, as Mahony writes his own messages to Catholics in his
archdiocese, he did not know for certain what prompted the cardinal to
discuss the issue. But he speculated the recent 60th anniversary of the
liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp may have been a factor.

What the Vatican did or did not do to oppose the crimes of the Nazis
during the reign of Pope Pius XII is one of the most controversial issues
confronting the Roman Catholic Church in the modern era.

On one side of a debate that rages to this day are those who say Pius did
everything he reasonably could to protect Jews from the Nazis while not
imperiling Catholics in countries under Nazi control. On the other side
are those who argue that the pope was virtually silent on the plight of
the Jews, making him in effect complicit.

Defenders of the Vatican's World War II activities point to the fact that
in 1944, the chief rabbi of Rome, Israel Eugenio Zolli, converted to
Catholicism, so impressed was he with the charity that Pius had shown.

Those on the other side of the debate cite the Vatican's repeated refusal
-- despite entreaties by American diplomats and others -- to clearly
condemn the Nazis, even after it received evidence, including from an SS
defector, of the crimes being carried out in concentration camps
throughout eastern Europe.

"Our period of penance and renewal is undertaken not just by individuals,
but by the whole Church, because the whole body must be purified, not just
this or that part," Mahony wrote.

"Why? Because all too often so many of us are motivated by world ambition
rather than by the pure desire to shed our blood for love; because we have
not spoken out clearly and forcefully enough against war, against the
Holocaust of the Jews and (millions of) others, against the Rwanda
massacres, against the bitter yoke of apartheid and the many tragic events
on the contemporary scene..."

Mahony's message was delivered at a time when his archdiocese is facing
lawsuits from nearly 500 plaintiffs in the clergy abuse scandal. He
himself has been denounced for ordering two priests accused of child
molestation to leave the country, evading prosecution, when he was bishop
of Stockton two decades ago.

"The Church continues to seek forgiveness and healing because of the
terrible sin of clergy sexual abuse, acknowledging our mistakes and our
insufficient response to the sin," Mahony said in his lenten message.

(source: NBC4 News)



POLAND:

Gays Hit Out Over Lack of Holocaust Memorial Day Recognition


The LGBT community in Poland has criticised organisers of last months
Holocaust Memorial Day for not permitting official recognition of the gay
men who were slaughtered in Auschwitz.

However, two representatives of the LGBT community did manage to "break
in" to Auschwitz on Memorial Day to lay wreaths after being turned away.

Thousands of gay men, often identified by the "pink triangles" they were
forced to wear, were slaughtered by the Nazis in the infamous
concentration camp near Birkenau in south west Poland.

As representatives of Polish LGBT organizations, we wanted our voices to
be heard during the day of crucial importance for so many of us - the day
of 60th anniversary of the liberation of the concentration camp
Auschwitz-Birkenau, a place that was supposed to provide an answer and the
final solution to the "problem" of Jews, Poles, Romas and homosexuals,"
said the three leading LGBT organisations in Poland Lambda Warsaw, The
Campaign Against Homophobia and International Lesbian and Gay Culture
Network - in a joint statement.

"Sixty years later we have learnt about the atrocities of death camps, we
have at our disposal many testimonies of people who survived, historical
documents as well as publications. Nevertheless, our knowledge regarding
the death of the men who wore pink triangles on their prison uniforms,
remains scant and almost non-existent. Those men were sent to the
concentration camps for the sole reason of being homosexual," the
statement
continued.

The three groups suggest that little has been learned from the events of
over 60 years ago. "We are deeply saddened, however, to see how little we
have learnt from history, especially if we look at homophobic utterances
of politicians, the idea of the League of Polish Families to create
reeducational camps for gays and lesbians, arguments about the hierarchy
of importance of Holocaust victims.

We are sorry that there could be no representatives of the LGBT community
during the official celebration of the camps liberation....We really
wanted to celebrate the memory of our brothers and sisters murdered in Nazi
camps. However, our letters asking for permission to participate were
left unanswered. But even though we could not be there, we will remember
about our brothers and sisters marked with the stigma of pink triangle.
May this tragedy never repeated."

The statement was signed by Robert Biedron, Tomasz Szypula (Campaign
Against Homophobia); Yga Kostrzewa (Lambda Warsaw); and Szymon Niemiec
(ILGCN Poland).

According to Gazeta Wyborcza, the largest circulation daily newspaper in
Poland, organisers claim they did not receive a request from
representatives of the gay community.

"I don't know anything about the letter to the museum's curator. There
were no invitations issued. If somebody wanted to participate, they should
have contacted us in order to get permit," Andrzej Przewoznik, secretary
general of Council for the Protection of Memory of Battles and Martyrdom,
who organized the official celebration, told Gazeta Wyborcza.

The newspaper report was under the headline "The Celebration of Liberation
of Auschwitz Without Homosexuals - Gays Not Let In."

"Homosexuals form the only group subjected to organized mass murder in
Auschwitz, whose representatives were not invited to participate in the
celebration of 60th anniversary of liberation of the camp," Gazeta
Wyborcza reported.

(source: UK Gay News)





HUNGARY:

Holocaust film "Fateless" opens in Budapest


The film adaptation of 2002 Nobel Prize winner Imre Kertesz's novel of a
young boy's experience during the Holocaust premiered Tuesday at the
Budapest Film Festival.

"Fateless," which was not part of the competition, was the final feature
of the festival. Among those attending the screening of the movie was
Hungarian President Ferenc Madl and Kertesz, who published his book in
1975.

Fateless cost some 2.74 billion forints (US$14.3 million, ?11.2 million)
to make, a third of which came from state funds, but production was
suspended for three months early last year due to financial difficulties.

"I'm very satisfied that this film was completed at all," the film's
director, Lajos Koltai, said at the premiere. "There was a point when we
were in an impossible situation, when I didn't know how we could go on."

Fateless marks Koltai's debut as director. He was the cinematographer for
Istvan Szabo's "Mephisto," winner of the 1982 Academy Award for best
foreign language film.

Kertesz's book is loosely autobiographical and tells the story of a
14-year-old boy who during World War II is deported from his native
Budapest by the Nazis and sent to a series of concentration camps,
including Auschwitz and Buchenwald.

"I wrote this novel 30 years ago, when no one saw it. Now it has taken on
a life of its own," Kertesz said at the premiere, adding he didn't think
watching the film could substitute for reading the book.

"This is a movie and it's a totally different experience," said Kertesz,
who also wrote the movie's script.

Most of the film's dialogue is in Hungarian, and it was shot largely in
and around Budapest, with some additional scenes filmed in Germany. It
will open in Budapest movie theaters on Thursday and shortly after in
Italy, where distribution rights already have been secured.

Italian composer Ennio Morricone wrote the musical score, which includes
performances by Lisa Gerrard, singer of the Australian band Dead Can
Dance.

(source: Associated Press)




BRITAIN:

Hitler photo forced from auction

A signed photo of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler has been withdrawn from an
auction in Shropshire after complaints of insensitivity from a Jewish
group, the auctioneer says.

The local Jewish group objected to the timing of the sale, coming only
days after world leaders had gathered at Auschwitz on the 60th anniversary
of the liberation of the death camp to remember the 6 million Jews
murdered in the Holocaust.

"It's very much an exception withdrawing them. These documents are
important historical records," said Richard Westwood-Brookes, historical
documents expert at the auctioneers Mullock Madeley in Shropshire.

"I'm not a Nazi sympathizer. Quite the opposite, like many others my
father fought against the Nazis," he told Reuters on Wednesday.

The 1940s postcard portrait of Hitler and a signed biography, entitled
"Adolf Hitler: His Life so Far" and written in 1932, will still be
available for sale privately, Westwood-Brookes added.

He valued the items at between 650 and 1,000 pounds each..

(source: Reuters)








GERMANY:

Hitler postcard forwarded to German parliament


Adolf Hitler may have committed suicide in his bunker in 1945, but
Germany's post office still appears to be looking for him.

A postcard mailed to "Fuehrer Adolf Hitler" was given a post office
address correction and forwarded to Germany's Parliament, a spokeswoman
for the chamber confirmed onWednesday.

Sent from Britain, the card was officially stamped with the "proper"
address by the Deutsche Post and the words: "Mail corrected due to
insufficient address - please alert sender. Ascertained address: Deutsche
Bundestag, 11011 Berlin."

The hand written card, signed only "Herr T." and dated 23 January, begins
"Dear Fuehrer Hitler."

The writer goes on to say: "I love and like you so much. I am your very
best good friend and your SS personnel ... Thank you so much for coming to
see me in your splendid image last night. Please come to see me again.
Please take good care of yourself and look after yourself and enjoy. You
have my life ... and all my money. Yours faithfully, Herr T."

Pictured on the card is a "love spoon" which is explained as a Welsh
tradition to show affection.

(source: Expatica)


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

Luxury and Wellness in Hitler's Alpine Nest


A luxury hotel is about to open near the spot where Nazi dictator Adolf
Hitler once relaxed. Resort officials hope that fancy spa treatments and
an exhibit about the Nazis will help overcome the shadows of the past.

Hermann Goering lived on the site. Hitler wrote part of "Mein Kampf" here
and had his own retreat built nearby. The Nazis made this alpine hideaway
their second capital.

But on March 1, the British-owned InterContinental Resort will try and
plant another reputation on the famous and infamous Alpine area of
Obersalzberg -- that of luxury and wellness. Meanwhile, many are asking if
the resort can or should, successfully do so.

Spa treatments and Nazi history

It's a moot point. The 135-room stone and glass complex with luxurious
rooms and two-level suites is decorated with the carefully chosen art of
Nazi-banned painter, Otto Mller, feng shui methods and alpine panorama.
The hotel has installed modern ski lifts and offers a wide range of spa
services including ones based on Aboriginal healing techniques and eastern
massages.

The hotel is not trying to evade history but to accommodate it. The staff
is available to answer questions on the history of the area and direct
guests to the nearby Obersalzberg Documentation Center which narrates the
region's history including its Nazi chapter.

Nazi hideaway

Berchtesgaden attracted the top Nazi leadership such as Joseph Goebbels,
Hermann Gring, Rudolf Hess and Albert Speer who vacationed in the
mountains and planned the business of the government, including the murder
of millions of Jews.

Besides their houses, the Nazis constructed a landing strip, bunker
complex and green house to supply fresh vegetables.

Almost all buildings were destroyed during Allied bombings in 1945, except
for the Eagle's Nest tea house, Hitler's favorite hangout. In later years,
the area became a pilgrimage site for neo-Nazis marking Hitler's birthday.

Appropriate?

These days, some critics are asking whether it is appropriately to have
such facility on so infamous a site.

"Yes," hotel director Jrg T. Bckeler told dpa news agency. "We, with this
hotel, will begin a new tourist chapter in the history of Berchtesgaden."

But Jewish writer Ralph Giordano criticized the buildings.

"Either these people do not know what Obersalzberg stands for, which would
be bad enough, or they know exactly and do it anyway," he said.

(source: Deutsche Welle)


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

Dresden still a symbol of death and destruction


For most of the Second World War, the city of Dresden was spared the
bombing horrors which had befallen the rest of Germany's cities.

Even the ruling Nazi war strategists had thought that Dresden - dubbed the
"Florence on the Elbe" for its magnificent architecture and cultural
heritage - was being made an exception by the Allies. The view was that
the city was not a "rewarding" target.

But that view was mistaken. On the night of 13 February 1945, less than
three months before Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler would commit suicide in a
Berlin bunker and Germany would capitulate, Dresden's historic centre was
reduced to smoking

rubble in a wave of Royal Air Force carpet bombing.

In just a few hours, the city renowned for its magnificent baroque
architecture and such gems as the Semper Opera House, the royal residence
of the former Saxony monarchy and, most prominently, the mighty
Frauenkirche (Church of Our Lady) were destroyed.

About 35,000 people perished in the destruction.

In the years and decades after the war, Dresden had become a symbol for
the message of peace and reconciliation.

Despite the horrors they suffered, Dresden's people did not forget the
part of the story which led to their city's destruction. Hitler's regime
had first declared "total war" and had staged devastating air attacks on
London, Birmingham and Coventry.

Although both sides had insisted that military targets were the aim of the
bombing raids, there was no sparing of the civilian populations and
buildings of historic-cultural significance.

More so than in any other German city, in Dresden a kind of "culture of
memory" evolved from the pain of the losses even though over time many of
the destroyed landmarks have been rebuilt.

"The city was not prepared for the attack," notes historian Reiner
Pommerin. "In contrast to Cologne, Hamburg and Berlin, Dresden lacked the
daily experience of bombing raids."

As a result, the deadly efficiency of the bombers and the high number of
victims have obscured the thinking of some people.

"Sixty years of recalling the destruction of Dresden also means six
decades of misappropriating this event for one's own political purposes,"
said Matthias Neutzner, a member of the citizens' initiative group "13
February 1945".

As the coming 60th anniversary ceremonies approach, this as has become
blatantly apparent in the rhetoric of the extreme right-wing elements in
Germany.

Deputies of the National Party of Germany (NPD) recently walked out of
ceremonies in the Saxony state parliament in Dresden to commemorate the
victims of the Auschwitz concentration camp. Instead, one of their
speakers used the term "Holocaust" and "Anglo-American gangsterism" to
condemn the bombing of Dresden.

The right-wing elements conveniently ignore the historical connections and
instead spread a simple message accusing the Allies of war crimes and
exaggerating the number of victims on the German side.

Historians like Pommerin or the British researcher Frederick Taylor never
tire of putting the bombing of Dresden into the larger military historical
context in order to make the inconceivable somehow understandable.

"The British wanted to make the advance of the Russian front easier,"
Pommerin said, noting that Dresden served as a railway hub for German
troop reinforcements, thus making it a legitimate target in the eyes of
military planners.

Nor was Dresden alone in being targeted in the waning days of the war,
with other cities in the Saxony region like Chemnitz, Leipzig, Plauen and
Zwickau also struck by carpet bombing.

Altogether, 39 major German cities were targeted by the Allied bombers
during the war, one of the aims being psychological in trying to break the
will of the civilian population and turn people against the Nazi
dictatorship.

But later on, military analysts concluded that the destruction had had
just as little influence on the final outcome of the war as had the blind
"revenge attacks" by German bombers on Antwerp or London earlier on.

In the war from the air, people were the losers. In Dresden's case there
was an added cultural dimension.

"The destruction of Dresden was not only a loss for Germany, but also for
all of mankind," British historian Taylor believes.

(source: Expatica)