Oct. 22



BELGIUM/ISRAEL:

Belgium and the Holocaust

By Jean-Michel Veranneman de Watervliet

Some days ago, I had the honor of receiving from Avner Shalev, chairman of
Yad Vashem, the Encyclopedia of the Belgian citizens who have been granted
the title of "Righteous Among the Nations" by Yad Vashem. Several
Holocaust survivors who were hidden in Belgium during the war years and
later immigrated to Israel were attending the ceremony. This was a moving
moment for me. I paid tribute to my countrymen who, in the darkest hours
in the history of our country, stood up to evil, extended their hand to
their fellow citizens in need, and risked their lives trying to save Jews
from deportation and extermination. I understand Yad Vashem will only
publish four volumes specifically dedicated to a particular country, one
each for Poland, France, the Netherlands and Belgium.

In May 1940, Belgium was occupied by Germany for the second time in 25
years. The elected government went into exile in London. From there it
supported the internal Resistance, sent funds to support the Jews who had
gone into hiding, organized Belgian military units within the British
Armed Forces and generally participated in the Allied war effort.
During the four years of Nazi occupation, the behavior of the Belgian
population was roughly similar to that of the other occupied countries in
Europe: the majority waited things out and tried to survive. However, some
collaborated with the Nazi rulers for economic or ideological reasons,
others joined the SS or the police forces set up by the Germans to assist
them. After the war 87,000 persons were prosecuted in Belgium for treason,
war crimes, having betrayed Resistance fighters or Jews to the Gestapo,
etc. Of those found guilty, about 4,000 received death sentences. Out of
these, 241 were carried out.

But at the same time, tens of thousands of other Belgians resisted the
Nazi occupation by arms, by sabotage, by faking papers, by hiding Jews or
other persons sought by the Germans, by spying for the Allies or by
setting up escape routes for Allied pilots who had been shot down. Timely
action by the Belgian Resistance prevented the retreating German army from
destroying the port of Antwerp, which fell intact into Allied hands in
September 1944, thus shortening the supply lines that had until then
relied on artificial ports in Normandy. Retaking Antwerp was the main
objective of the German offensive in the Ardennes in December 1944, a.k.a.
the Battle of the Bulge. About 17,000 Belgian Resistance fighters were
executed or died at Fort Breendonk prison outside Brussels or in
concentration camps in Germany, mainly Dachau or Ravensbrck. Some of these
Resistance fighters had opposed the first occupation 20 years earlier,
like the leader of the group to which my father belonged.

The 6 million European Jews who were killed by the Nazis during World War
II included about 25,000 Jews of Belgian nationality or Jewish refugees
from other countries. They were deported by train to Auschwitz, leaving
from a central collection point at the Dossin Barracks, between Brussels
and Antwerp. One of these trains was the famous train number XX, which was
attacked by a small group of Resistance fighters. The railway workers
prevented by sabotage the last of those trains from leaving Belgium when
the Allies were arriving in September 1944.

Only a small minority, about 1,200, of the deportees survived the
Holocaust. The Belgian government recognizes that the fact that Belgian
citizens collaborated with the occupying forces and played a part in that
horrific episode remains a blemish on our national record that no one can
erase.

Yet Belgium was one of the few countries occupied by Nazi Germany where a
majority of the Jews -(about 56 percent) who were on Belgian soil when
the occupation began, escaped deportation and annihilation thanks to the
help and devotion of many Belgians: Queen Elisabeth, the grandmother of
our King, whose successful intercessions with the German military
commander resulted in several hundred Jews being saved; the Belgian
Resistance; numerous Catholic priests and nuns who hid and helped Jews out
of Christian mercy; members of traditional families inspired by their
sense of duty; groups led by political, humanitarian or social ideals;
clandestine Jewish groups and ordinary people from all walks of life who
listened to the voice of their conscience and goodness of their heart and
acted accordingly, more often than not risking their own lives.

On the occasion of the publication of the Encyclopedia, Belgian Prime
Minister Guy Verhofstadt sent the following message: "It is a great honor
for our country that so many Belgians have been singled out as ?Righteous
Gentiles? by Yad Vashem. Of course, their recognition does not detract
from the burden of the Holocaust and the shame of collaboration. But it
serves as a reminder that even in such extreme circumstances other
Belgians rebelled by quietly giving their utmost, using the few means at
their disposal to save others. It is only fitting that we in Belgium
should cherish the memory of these heroes and honor them. For remembrance
is a form of hope."

The "Righteous Among the Nations" should serve as role models for moral
conduct for us and for future generations. Therefore the Belgian
government takes an uncompromising stance on anti-Semitism and on all
other forms of racism and discrimination. Both preventive and repressive
measures are being applied at every possible level: legal proceedings,
prosecution of all aggressions of a racist or anti-Semitic nature,
protection of Jewish institutions, etc. Belgium has applied for membership
in the International Cooperation on Holocaust Education, Remembrance and
Research. January 27 is now Belgium?s official remembrance day of the
Holocaust. Education is of prime concern to the Belgian government and a
series of actions have been undertaken in that field. Last April, 20
Belgian teachers participated in a seminar at Yad Vashem on the teaching
of the Holocaust.

These actions are the best tribute we can pay to the "Righteous among the
Nations."

Jean-Michel Veranneman de Watervliet is Belgium's ambassador to Israel.

(source: Ha'aretz)




POLAND:

Lodz remembers its 200,000 Holocaust victims


Net-like sheets of fabric hang from the ceiling of the Radegast train
station on the outskirts of Lodz in central Poland. The fabric depicts
black-and-white pictures of Jews who were once residents of the city -
random photographs of youths, couples, families, and people in the
streets.

Before the Holocaust, these individuals made up around one-third of the
city's population - or, more precisely, 231,000 people. For 200,000
individuals - some of them residents of the Lodz Ghetto, and some of them
Jews brought here from other places - Radegast was the last station on the
way to their death.

On Sunday last week, a number of Polish families, some with young
children, wandered through the Holocaust memorial established this year at
the station. They walked silently through what remains of the original
station building, looked at the transport car on the tracks that led to
the Auschwitz and Chelmno death camps, and walked slowly through the
140-meter tunnel, at the end of which stands a 25-meter-high column,
resembling the chimney of a crematorium - a symbolic representation of the
Jews' final destination.

For 60 years, no one in Poland spoke about the eradication of the Jews of
Lodz - until this site was established.

For the Poles, this is not only a journey to the past of the Jews who were
exterminated on their soil; for many, it is also a journey through time to
their own past. Following years of German occupation, plus another 40
years of what many see as Soviet occupation, they now have a chance to
face their history for the first time.

The idea of setting up the memorial came from Lodz Mayor Jerzy
Kropiwnicki, a Catholic nationalist, and was supported by the Polish
government and outgoing President Aleksander Kwasniewski. The residents of
Lodz, a poor and unemployment-stricken city until recently, did not oppose
the investment of funds in the nonprofit enterprise. Criticism came, here
and there, from an odd coalition of post-Communists and nationalists, who
were unable to sabotage the project.

The authentic location adds a palpable dimension of horror to the site, a
dimension that is sometimes lacking from other memorials and monuments.
"This is exactly what I wanted to achieve," says Polish Jewish architect
Czeslaw Bielecki. "From the first time I went there, it was clear to me
that I wanted to plant the monument in the local industrial landscape. ...
By means of the long tunnel and the crematorium column at its end, I
wanted to show the destination to which the Jews were led, without them
even knowing exactly where they were going. Primarily, it was important to
illustrate the extent of the destruction, the inconceivable number of
people who left from here on their final journey."

Bielecki also made a point of perpetuating the identity of the criminals:
Gothic letters spell out the name of the station in German. This is a
matter of much importance in Poland - "not Polish concentration camps, but
German camps on Polish soil," they make sure to emphasize all the time.

(source: Ha'aretz)

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Krakow gets first rabbi since Holocaust


The first rabbi to serve Krakow full-time since the Holocaust took up his
post Monday, a mission that includes guiding a revival of Jewish life and
helping people rediscover their Jewish heritage forgotten during the
decades of communism.

Rabbi Avraham Flaks, a 38-year-old Russian-born Israeli, has been getting
to know members of Krakow's small Jewish community over the past few
weeks, but officially took up his duties with an evening prayer service
marking the start of the weeklong festival of Sukkot.

Michael Freund, chairman of the Shavei Israel organization sponsoring
Flaks' work, said he hopes the new rabbi will be able to "keep the flame
of Judaism alive" in a city whose rich, centuries-old Jewish community was
nearly wiped out during the Holocaust.

There are about 200 people registered with the community, but an estimated
1,000 Jews are believed to live in Krakow - most of them people who only
recently discovered their Jewish roots following the fall of communism in
1989, Freund told The Associated Press.

There are "quite a number of people who have gone through these
experiences, suddenly learning that they were born Jews," Freund said.
"Many don't know what to do with that information, what to make of it,
what role it should play in their lives."

During the communist era, some Jews hid their religious identities, even
from their children, to avoid discrimination. Many fled the country in
1968, following a government-sponsored anti-Semitic campaign.

(source: Associated Press)






USA//MASSACHUSETTS:

New legislation urged to aid shoah survivors

In Boiston, local Jewish advocacy groups are pushing for legislation that
would compel insurance companies to provide information on the accounts of
Holocaust survivors and victims or risk losing their license to operate in
the state.

The Holocaust Victims Insurance bill, sponsored by Sen. Cynthia
Creem, D-Newton, and Rep. Louis Kafka, D-Sharon, and backed by the Jewish
Community Relations Council, was debated at a State House hearing Oct. 6.
The bill calls on insurance companies to ensure that any involvement they
or their related companies may have had with insurance policies of
Holocaust victims are disclosed to the commonwealth to eliminate the
further victimization of these policyholders and their families.
Failure of insurance companies to provide this information, the bill
states, may result in the company or its subsidiaries losing their license
to operate in Massachusetts.

Rick Mann, a Boston attorney and president of Friends of the New England
Holocaust Memorial, testified at last weeks hearing. He told the Advocate
that the issue for him was a simple matter of justice. This is one more
measure of obtaining justice for survivors and victims of the Holocaust. I
think it is especially poignant that this took place around the time of
Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, a time of accounting, as well as with the
recent death of Simon Wiesenthal, he said.

If the bill is enacted, Mann said, the state insurance commissioner would
need to draw up a list of companies that have ties to European firms that
once operated in Nazi Germany or cooperated with the regime. Ties [between
European and American insurance companies] reach into this country and
have for many years, Mann explained. There are subsidiaries of
subsidiaries, and they all connect somewhere.

A similar version of the Holocaust Victims Insurance bill was proposed by
Sen. Creem two years ago, but was not acted on by the legislature.
Israel Arbeiter, president of the Association of Holocaust Survivors of
Greater Boston, estimates that there are in the state close to a hundred
heirs to insurance policies taken out by victims of the Nazis, himself
included.

As a youth in Plock, Poland, Arbeiter recalled his father explaining the
reason he made weekly payments to an insurance agent who would come to
their door: He said, this is for the future, in case anything bad ever
happens to me.

Some fifty years after the Holocaust, which claimed both of his parents
and a large portion of his extended family, Abeiter heard about the
International Commission on Holocaust Era Insurance Claims, which was
established in 1998 by U.S. regulators, the State of Israel and survivor
groups to process claims to a $120 million fund from European insurance
companies.

Arbeiter filed a claim, but despite ICHEICs stated policy to reply to
claims in 90 days, Arbeiter had yet to receive a response after more than
three years. He testified at hearings in Washington, D.C. that spawned
several state initiatives aimed at expediting settlement claims.
Arbeiter said that legislation is needed to impress upon ICHEIC and the
insurance companies the urgency of paying out claims.

(source: The Jewish Advocate)





GERMANY:

Nazi photos reveal war's lost treasures----An archive created under
Hitler's orders could help restorers



THOUSANDS of colour photographs commissioned by Adolf Hitler have just
been released on the internet, bringing back to life many of Germany's
lost art treasures.

Hitler, worried about damage being wrought by Allied bombers, ordered
photographers to make records of frescoes in churches, monasteries and
palaces across Germany and occupied Europe. The decision, made after the
German defeat at Stalingrad in the winter of 1942-43, suggests that even
Hitler sensed that the war could no longer be won.

About 60 per cent of the photographed church art was destroyed in air
raids. One of the most impressive works lost was The War, painted inside
the Berlin Zeughaus (armoury) by Friedrich Geselschap, the 19th-century
artist.

Other lost works include the ceiling fresco of the Dresden Hofkirche,
painted by Franz Karl Palkos, and Luca Antonio Colombos allegorical
18thcentury fresco Fanfare of the Angels in the Thurn und Taxis Palace in
Frankfurt. Since the Frankfurt palace is set to be turned into an hotel,
the architects will now be able to supply a replica of Colombos work.

The archive is regarded as a sensation in Germany. The painstaking
reconstruction of the interiors of the Dresden Frauenkirche due to be
unveiled on October 30 in the presence of the Duke of Kent could become
the norm across the country.

After the war, bombed churches were either abandoned or rebuilt according
to old architectural plans. The interiors, however, remained stark or were
given a modern makeover, since it was not known exactly how the original
decoration looked.

About 60,000 of the Nazi slides, originally stored in cellars, were handed
over to the Central Institute for Art History in Munich and the Marburg
Photographic Archive. But few architects, designers or church historians
knew of their existence and time was running out. The slides had been
taken on Agfacolour, an innovation of the Nazi era, and the original
colour tones were fading. The archivists started to digitise the pictures,
of about 480 buildings, in 2002.

The photographers were hired by the Propaganda Ministry of Joseph Goebbels
after the order came down from Hitler. At first, in 1943, it was a popular
commission since the photographers were freed from service on the front
and were well paid: 35 reichsmark for each frame, 300 for a ceiling,
enough to live on for a month.

Ralf Peters, of the Central Institute of Art History, said: The cost ran
into several millions. As late as March 1945, the Propaganda Ministry was
still receiving bills for the electricity costs of the photographers.

The teams included university lecturers, art historians and chemists, and
they conducted their work secretly: it would have been obvious to ordinary
Germans that the Nazi leadership was expecting heavy bombardment and even
defeat. Yet open expression of defeatist sentiment could, under Nazi law,
bring the death sentence.

The release of the photographs will be particularly valuable for Wroclaw
in Poland (its German name was Breslau), where art historians have been
puzzling how to tackle some restoration work.

Not all of the frescoes are by famous artists. The photographs also show
brightly painted wooden ceilings of village churches in former eastern
Prussia, now in Russia.

These churches have long since ceased to exist. One art critic said
yesterday that the photographs will help to restore personal memories of a
long-lost world.

The archive can be viewed at www.zi.fotothek.org

(source: The London Times)