July 28



ISRAEL:

Many revile settlers' camp uniform plan


After some Elei Sinai settlers revealed their plan Thursday to greet
evacuating soldiers wearing Nazi death camp uniforms during disengagement,
the settlement's secretary has decided to fire one of the participants
from his position as the settlement's youth coordinator.

The initiative to don uniforms similar to those worn by Jews during the
Holocaust, with yellow Stars of David sewn to their lapels, met with the
expected criticism and disgust Thursday.

Elei Sinai Chairman Sarita Maoz voiced her objection to the plan in an
interview with Army radio. "Most of us object to the initiative," Maoz
said. "But the government must question itself, how has it driven its
people to behave in this manner?"

Settlement secretary Yaniv Ben-Hagai also condemned the initiative. He
said the idea has caused an uproar in the community, as most of its
residents strongly objected to it.

Most of the town's 400 residents plan to leave peacefully, Ben-Hagai
noted, and some residents have already voluntarily moved out.

"This is the silly stupidity of one, maybe two residents. It does not
represent anybody. This is sheer ignorance," Ben-Hagai told Israel Radio
in an emotional interview. "We are going through a great crisis. This
crisis does not resemble the Holocaust or anything else."

It was Ben-Hagai's decision on Thursday night to dismiss Ganish from his
employment, according to Army Radio. Earlier, Ganish had exhibited the
uniform that he ordered from a local sewing shop to Israel Radio
reporters, which included a yellow star of David with Z'hid (the
derogatory Slavic word for Jew) written on it.

Ganish said that, initially, he had intended his whole family to wear the
uniform but later decided to modify his plan out of concern that it would
offend many people.

National Holocaust Memorial Yad Vashem has repeatedly called on opponents
to the Gaza withdrawal plan to leave the Holocaust out of their political
battle.

"People should refrain from unnecessary and wrong comparisons that cause a
perversion of the memory of the victims and events, and may even be
tainted with Holocaust denial," said Estee Yaari, Yad Vashem's
spokeswoman.

Dr. Moti Shalev, head of the school for Holocaust instruction at Yad
Vashem, made his displeasure of any use of Holocaust symbolism plain.

"It is grave, repulsive and unnecessary and it has no historical basis,"
Shalev said. Though he recognized the pain of being forced to move from
one's home, "The [settlers] aren't exactly being sent to death camps and
gas chambers," Shalev remarked to Army Radio.

Itzik Gabai, one of the residents, told Israel Radio that he had decided
to wear the uniform since the government was treating him like a prisoner.
He added that he did not intend to "enter the camps the government set up
for us."

According to Gabai, "The government is prepared for the withdrawal but not
for re-absorbing the settlers, as Disengagement Authority (SELA)
advertisements claim."

(source: Jerusalem Post)





MACEDONIA:

Macedonia Plans Holocaust Memorial Services


Roma in Macedonia will gather to remember the Romany victims who died at
Auschwitz on August 2nd in the National Gallery Daut Pasin Amam in Skopje.


On that day, 61 years earlier, 11,000 Roma children, women and men were
slaughtered when the Nazis decided to liquidate Ziguenerland, the Roma
camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau. Often termed Porrajmos or the Devouring in
Romany, it was the largest single mass murder of Roma during the Nazi
reign of terror.

Over 2 million Roma died during the Holocaust. Many never even made it to
death camps: they were simply shot in their home communities and dumped
into mass graves.

Organized by Roma Community Center Drom, Kumanovo; Macedonian Roma will
have a chance to meet and honor the victims of the Porrajmos and to draw
attention to Roma history and identity. The manifestation is financed by
Pro Helvetia, the Swiss Cultural Programme Macedonia. It starts at 19:00.

(source: Dzeno Association)




HUNGARY:

Holocaust memorial vandalized

4 iron shoes were vandalized in a memorial to victims of WWII Arrow
Cross terror. It is believed the shoes, part of a group of 60,were removed
with a metal rod. One shoe was discovered last week by a policeman, but no
trace has been found of the three others. Police have said they have found
no evidence of racist or anti-semitic motivation for the attack, but Pter
Tordai,of the Federation of Hungarian Jewish Congregations
(MAZsIHISz),told Magyar Hirlap it was unlikely that the shoes were removed
by illegal metal collectors. Exhibited between Parliament and the Chain
Bridge on the Danube quay,the shoes commemorate the predominantly Jewish
victims shot into the Danube in the winter of 1944-45.

Sculptor Gyula Pauer promised to restore the memorial in a week.

(source: The Budapest Sun)





GERMANY:

German high court upholds right to praise Nazis


In a landmark decision, Germany's high court on Thursday upheld the legal
right of a neo-Nazi phone hotline to use original slogans praising the
Waffen SS - so long as they are not historical Nazi slogans.

The website slogan "To the Glory and Honour of the Waffen SS" does not
violate federal laws against using Nazi slogans, according to the Federal
Court of Justice (Bundesgerichtshof), Germany's highest court cases
involving criminal offences.

The recorded message falls within the exercise of free speech, the court
ruled.

The slogan is not identical with historical slogans used by the Nazis
themselves during the Third Reich. The official Waffen SS slogan was
"Our Honour is Steadfastness".

(source: Expatica)