Feb. 16



GERMANY:

Defense lawyers for German charged with denying Holocaust split over
tactics


In mannheim, lawyers for a German man charged with denying the
Holocaust split over tactics Thursday as the judge demanded an apology
from a defense attorney for disrupting proceedings.

Prosecutors accuse Ernst Zundel, 66, of years of anti-Semitic activities,
including repeated denials of the Holocaust -- a crime in Germany -- in
documents and on the Internet. Zundel, an apologist for Hitler who was
deported from Canada last year and has also lived in the U.S. state of
Tennessee, faces up to five years in prison if convicted.

Proceedings have been slowed by a string of motions, objections and
interruptions from defense attorney Sylvia Stolz, prompting presiding
judge Ulrich Meinerzhagen to accuse her of insulting the court and
sabotaging the trial.

The two clashed anew Thursday, with Meinerzhagen saying he suspected Stolz
wanted to "make proceedings impossible so that the trial collapses."

He said the court would file a complaint to the relevant lawyers
association asking them to take unspecified steps against her.

"I didn't want to bend to your will, that was the point," Stolz retorted,
turning to the gallery filled with Zundel sympathizers to accuse
Meinerzhagen of wanting to "put a gag on me."

She didn't respond to the judge's demand that she apologize.

Stolz is one of three defense lawyers who insist the court should examine
evidence for the Holocaust. None of them have contested Zundel's alleged
statements.

However, Zundel is also represented by three court-appointed attorneys,
who have taken a different tack.

Attorney Ludgwig Bock told the court Thursday that it would have to
examine the authorship of dozens of statements submitted by prosecutors.
Meinerzhagen adjourned the trial for three weeks so that the participants
can study the evidence.

Another of the court-appointed lawyers said outside the court that Stolz's
approach was "catastrophic."

"For me it's a betrayal" of Zundel's interests, Hans-Ullrich Beust said.

However, Stolz, who has denounced the court as a "tool of foreign
domination," said she had her client's complete trust.

"The only chance for Mr. Zundel and for Germany is that the arbitrariness
is uncovered," she said outside the court. "The verdict has already been
decided."

Supporters of Zundel, who wrote a book called "The Hitler We Loved and
Why" and distributed neo-Nazi materials from Canada, says he is a peaceful
man being denied his right to free speech.

He has yet to address the court.

(source: Associated Press)


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

Nazis tried to halt Allies in Italy with malaria epidemic attack


The Nazis tried to halt the advance of British and American troops through
Italy in the Second World War by unleashing malaria-carrying mosquitoes in
what is believed to be the only biological warfare attack out in Europe,
according to new research.

The plan was designed to hinder the Allied push from the south and to
punish the Italian population for what the Germans saw as treachery after
they switched sides and joined the Allied powers.

According to Prof Frank Snowden, a history professor at Yale University
whose book The Conquest of Malaria in Italy draws on American archives and
the diaries of Italian soldiers, the scheme was orchestrated in the autumn
of 1943 by Erich Martini, a medical entomologist, Nazi Party member and
friend of the SS commander Heinrich Himmler.

The Germans flooded the marshes that lay on the path into Rome from the
south by reversing the pumps that drained them. They then introduced
millions of larvae of anopheles labranchiae, a species of malaria-carrying
mosquito.

But British and American soldiers, who landed at Anzio just south of the
marshes, survived the biological attack because they were given
anti-malarial drugs.

The First British Infantry Division along with the British Commando
Brigade landed at Anzio in January 1944.

But despite being holed up there in terrible conditions for weeks and huge
casualties being suffered in battles with German troops, there are no
records of a malaria epidemic.

Rates of the disease among the local Italian population returning from the
fields soared, however.

Official malaria cases rose in the area from 1,217 in 1943 to 54,929 in
1944 in a population of 245,000. Unofficial rates, Prof Snowden suggests,
were much higher.

Benito Mussolini drained the Pontine Marshes, an area 30 miles south of
Rome, during the 1930s, an act for which he is still lauded in Italy.

The use of biological weapons and causing "superfluous injury" to
inhabitants broke international conventions on warfare and the Nazis were
keen to hide what they were doing, Prof Snowden claims.

"In September 1943 the German army ordered the evacuation of all remaining
civilians who lived within a radius of 10 kilometres from the shore" he
writes in the book, published in Britain next month. "This removal of the
inhabitants from the war zone ensured there were no eye witnesses to
German actions."

Malaria remained rife in the area until 1950 when the marshes were drained
again and the imported mosquito species died out.

(source: The Telegraph)

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


Nazis tried malaria attack to halt Allied advance in 1943!


During the Second World War, the Nazis tried to stop the advance of
British and American troops through Italy by breeding malaria mosquitoes
in their way, according to a new book The Conquest of Malaria in Italy
being written by Prof Frank Snowden, a history professor at Yale
University. But, British and American soldiers, who landed at Anzio just
south of the marshes, survived the biological attack because they were
given anti-malarial drugs.

The move boomeranged on the local inhabitants, after an epidemic like
situation developed in Italy. According to official figures, malaria cases
rose in the area from 1217 in 1943 to 54,929 in 1944 in a population of
245,000. Though, unofficial figures were much higher.

Malaria remained rife in the area until 1950 when the marshes were drained
again and the imported mosquito species died out.

The book is based on American archives and the diaries of Italian
soldiers. The scheme was reportedly orchestrated in the autumn of 1943 by
Erich Martini, a medical entomologist, Nazi Party member and friend of the
SS commander Heinrich Himmler.

The move of unleashing malaria-carrying mosquitoes was then believed to be
the only biological warfare attack.

The plan was designed to stop the Allied push from the south, and to
punish the Italian population for what the Germans saw as treachery after
they switched sides and joined the Allied powers.

Quoting excerpts from the book, The Telegraph reported that the Germans
flooded the marshes that lay on the path into Rome from the south by
reversing the pumps that drained them. They then introduced millions of
larvae of anopheles labranchiae, a species of malaria-carrying mosquito.

The First British Infantry Division along with the British Commando
Brigade reportedly landed at Anzio in January 1944. But, despite being
holed up there in terrible conditions for weeks and huge casualties being
suffered in battles with German troops, there were no records of a malaria
epidemic.

The use of biological weapons and causing superfluous injury to
inhabitants broke international conventions on warfare and the Nazis were
keen to hide what they were doing. Prof Snowden writes in his book: In
September 1943 the German army ordered the evacuation of all remaining
civilians who lived within a radius of 10 kilometres from the shore. This
removal of the inhabitants from the war zone ensured there were no
eye-witnesses to German actions.

(source: ANI)




PORTUGAL:

Portugal summons Iran envoy over Holocaust remarks


Iran's ambassador to Lisbon was summoned by Portugal's government on
Wednesday after saying in an interview it would have taken the Nazis 15
years to burn the corpses of 6 million people.

The remarks, reflecting similar Holocaust denials by Iranian President
Mahmoud Ahmedinejad, were an unacceptable distortion of history,
Portuguese Foreign Minister Diogo Freitas do Amaral said in a statement.

The statements "seriously offended humanity's collective conscience," the
minister said.

In an interview on Tuesday with Portuguese state radio RDP, Iranian
ambassador Mohammed Taheri said: "When I was ambassador in Warsaw, I
visited Auschwitz and Birkenau twice and made my calculations. To
incinerate 6 million people, 15 years would be necessary."

Freitas do Amaral said Taheri was told his statements and those of his
government's over the Holocaust were unacceptable.

Freitas do Amaral said Iran's statements over the Holocaust, attacks on
embassies in Tehran and Iran's "negative attitude" in its nuclear standoff
with the International Atomic Energy Agency were threatening relations
based on "mutual confidence."

Ahmedinejad has repeatedly denied that the Holocaust, the Nazis' killing
of 6 million Jews during World War Two, took place. He has also called for
Israel to be "wiped off the map."

More than 1.5 million people, mostly Jews, died at Auschwitz-Birkenau, a
death camp set up by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland.

"When our president wants to talk about the Holocaust with historians and
scientists, the whole world is against him," Taheri said, referring to
plans by Ahmedinejad to organize an academic conference on the Holocaust.

"Historians need to get together to give their opinions," the envoy added.

Taheri said the publication by European newspapers of cartoons of the
Prophet Mohammad, outraging many Muslims and provoking widespread
protests, was an Israeli conspiracy designed to cause conflict between
Muslims and Christians.

"We think that this is a conspiracy by Zionists who want to put Muslims
against Christians in Europe," he said.

Iran's best-selling newspaper, Hamshahri, has responded to the Muslim
outrage over published cartoons of the Prophet by organizing a competition
for cartoons about the Holocaust, saying it is a test of the West's
vaunted freedom of speech.

(source: Reuters)




GREECE:

THE PRESIDENTS OF GREECE AND ISRAEL COMMEMORATE THE HOLOCAUST VICTIMS IN
THESSALONIKI


President of Israel Moshe Katsav and Hellenic Republic President Karolos
Papoulias paid homage to the 50,000 Jews of Thessaloniki who perished in
the Nazi concentration camps during WWII in a ceremony held today at the
Holocaust Monument at Eleftherias Square in Thessaloniki.

The two presidents arrived in Thessaloniki by plane coming from Athens and
at 12.23 pm they were at the Holocaust Monument. They were accompanied by
Deputy Foreign Minister Theodoros Kassimis and Israeli ambassador Ram
Aviram. They were welcomed by Minister of Macedonia-Thrace Giorgos
Kalantzis, local government officials and Thessaloniki Jewish Community
President David Saltiel.

A memorial service was held at the monument followed by a wreath laying
ceremony by Presidents Katsav and Papoulias who proceeded to unveil a
memorial plaque. A moment of silence was observed followed by the national
anthems of Israel and Greece.

The ceremony attended German ambassador Wolfgang Schultheiss, Spain's
consul general Sevi Revah, the 3rd Army Corps commander lieutenant general
Elias Petsas, and local government officials.

The two presidents visited the Jewish Culture Museum followed by a formal
luncheon given in their honor by Minister of Macedonia-Thrace Giorgos
Kalantzis.

Later in the afternoon, Mr. Katsav will visit the archaeological site of
Vergina with the royal tombs of the Macedon kings.

(source: Macedonian Press Agency)




AUSTRIA:

Irving tests Europe's free speech


The reputation of David Irving, the Holocaust-denying historian, was
shattered at a libel trial six years ago, to the delight of those
disgusted by his revisionism.

But as Europe proudly flexes its freedom of speech credentials in the
ongoing row over cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, even some of his
enemies are uneasy that he now faces up to 10 years in an Austrian jail
for his unpalatable historical views.

The British academic will go on trial in Vienna next week over two
speeches he made in Austria in 1989, in which he disputed the existence of
gas chambers at Auschwitz.

While a number of European countries have laws against Holocaust denial,
nowhere has the ban been more sacred than in Germany and Austria, whose
very identities have been forged from the rejection of what was
perpetrated in the middle of the 20th Century.

And yet among Vienna's chattering classes, there are the first rumblings
of debate.

At the heart of the matter is whether the distortion of such a fundamental
period of history is a greater problem than the suppression of the right
to express contrary interpretations - however unpleasant, and indeed
inaccurate, they may be.

Democratic censorship?

If Austria wants to prove itself a modern democracy, argues Christian
Fleck, a sociologist at the University of Graz, you use argument not the
law against Holocaust deniers.

"Are we really afraid of someone whose views on the past are palpable
nonsense, at a time when every schoolchild knows of the horrors of the
Holocaust? Are we saying his ideas are so powerful we can't argue with
him?" he asks.

"Irving is a fool. And the best way of dealing with fools is to ignore
them."

If anything, Professor Fleck contends, a trial endows such ideas with a
certain credibility.

"By outlawing such opinions, inevitably we give them the frisson of the
banned. We run the risk of turning them into an attractive proposition."

The sociologist may not be inundated with supporters. "But we are talking
about it," he says, "and that's a start".

Nonetheless, even those in favour of Mr Irving's trial agree that hauling
the man before a court is not a risk-free endeavour - as proven by the
expensive three-month trial which took place in London in April 2000.

'Brilliant performer'

The Briton had brought a libel case against American academic Deborah
Lipstadt, who in her book, Denying the Holocaust: The Growing Assault on
Truth and Memory, branded Mr Irving "one of the most prominent and
dangerous Holocaust deniers".

Arguing that Professor Lipstadt and others were out to silence him by
ruining his professional reputation, Mr Irving mounted his own defence,
surrounded by a mountain of material.

Burrowing through his papers and cross-examining witnesses, he argued that
while the Nazis may have killed up to four million people, there was no
systematic annihilation involving gas chambers.

These, he argued, were used only to de-louse corpses and objects. He
failed - the judge concluded he was an anti-Semitic, active Holocaust
denier - but he illustrated that he was capable of putting up an engaging
fight.

"He loves a show," says Professor Hajo Funke, a German historian who
testified at the 2000 trial. "I just hope the Austrian prosecution knows
what they're up against."

Revising revisionism


It may well transpire that they are not up against all that much.

For all the talk of using his trial to grandstand, Mr Irving may prove
repentant.

According to his lawyer, he no longer believes the gas chambers did not
exist. His strategy may well be to plead guilty, while declaring his
remorse and insisting his views have changed since 1989.

He is due to don the same pin-striped suit he wore for his proceedings in
London's High Court six years ago when he appears next week.

But whether he will prove the same belligerent figure as he did in those
months or a self-effacing ageing gentleman remains to be seen.

Either way, the risk remains that Mr Irving will appear a martyr to free
speech and that his trial will fuel the anger of those who accuse Europe
of double standards - apparently ready to cite freedom of expression when
it comes to printing cartoons offensive to Muslims, while incarcerating
those who insult Jews.

For Professor Funke, that is a risk worth taking.

"In Germany and in Austria there is a moral obligation to fight the kind
of propaganda peddled by Irving. We can't afford the luxury of the
Anglo-Saxon freedom of speech argument in this regard," he says.

"It's not that I don't understand it, it's just not for us. Not yet. Not
for a long time."

(source: BBC News)

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


Austria will return Schiele painting stolen by Nazis
Vienna -- A painting by Austrian icon Egon Schiele looted during the Nazi
era and now in the possession of a provincial museum will be returned to
its owner, Austrian officials said yesterday.

The picture, Hafen von Triest (Trieste Harbour), is the sixth work by a
famed Austrian artist to be returned in recent weeks under restitution
laws mandating such action for art looted by the Nazis from predominantly
Jewish owners.

Last month, an arbitration court ruled that five paintings by Gustav Klimt
-- including one with an estimated value exceeding $120-million (U.S.) --
must be returned by the National Gallery in Vienna to Maria Altmann of
California, an heir of the original Viennese owner.

(source: The (Toronto) Globe and Mail)







USA//ILLINOIS:

Library hosts museum's Nazi censorship exhibit


The Nazi book burnings of the 1930s are explored at the Indian Trails
Public Library in a traveling exhibit that recently opened.

"Fighting the Fires of Hate: America and the Nazi Book Burnings" is on
loan from the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum until March 12 at the
library. The exhibit includes a panel display of the events of May 10,
1933, -- the day university students gathered in many German towns and
proclaimed "action against the un-German spirit" by burning thousands of
books.

"It's an honor to have something from a renowned museum with an incredible
reputation of bringing quality materials and exhibits," said Christine
Gibson, outreach coordinator for the library.

The multimedia exhibit explores not just the book burning events
themselves, but also the authors and works that were targeted. Some of the
targeted authors included Ernest Hemingway, Helen Keller, Jack London,
Upton Sinclair and H.G. Wells.

"You'll be able to look up different authors and which books were burned,"
Gibson said. "There will also be short bios on the authors."

The exhibit also examines the American response to the book burning
events. Anti-fascist organizations, Jewish groups, writers, scholars and
journalists in the United States all proclaimed outrage at the destruction
of the books and their ideas.

The exhibit also takes a peek at the history of book burning, with the
first known examples of book burning dating back to 213 B.C. Book burnings
have continued throughout history, even as recently as 1999 when a church
in New Mexico burned copies of Harry Potter books.

Gibson said the library was interested in bringing the exhibit because the
Nazi book burnings still hold many lessons that can be learned today, such
as the importance of sharing different ideas.

"We want to give access to all ideas and let people make up their own
minds," she said. "One way to do that is to let people see it, whether
it's through books, videos, DVDs, audio books or exhibits like this one."

There will also be many different lectures and discussions held along with
the exhibit. The library has found Holocaust survivors in the Chicago area
willing to talk about their experiences on Sunday afternoons through March
12.

Gibson said she was thrilled to find Holocaust survivors to talk while the
exhibit is in the library.

"When you personalize the experience, it sticks in your mind more," she
said. "It's a good teaching tool."

Judy Levine, a professional book reviewer, visited the library Feb. 8 to
lead a discussion about "Fahrenheit 451," the 1953 Ray Bradbury novel
about military police burning books and purging ideas.

Leon Stein, a history professor from Roosevelt University, will also talk
about the book burning events at 2 p.m. this Sunday, putting them into a
historical context and discussing the social problems in Germany that led
to them. The program requires registration, which can be completed online
at www.itpld.lib.il.us.

The Indian Trails Public Library, 355 S. Schoenbeck Road, Wheeling, will
be the only Illinois stop for the exhibit. The next closest place it will
come is Green Bay, Wis., in 2009.

The exhibit is funded by the Friends of the Indian Trails Public Library.
It will be open to the public in the library's large meeting room during
normal library hours.

For a group visit, arrangements may be made with Gibson by calling the
library at (847) 459-4100.

(source: Pioneer Press)




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

THE EAGLE HAS BEEN LANDED----Graf Spee's Nazi symbol salvaged


THE Nazi eagle from the German battleship Graf Spee has been salvaged
after 66 years on the seabed.

And enthusiasts are fighting to own the macabre piece of history, with
15 million already on the table.

The Admiral Graf Spee was scuttled after the famous Battle of the River
Plate involving four British cruisers during World War II.

The 6ft bronze eagle - designed by Hitler - weighs a third of a ton, has a
9ft wingspan and clutches a wreath containing a huge swastika.

Many Nazi ships carried a similar eagle but this is thought to be the only
one recovered from a wreck.

British marine archaeologist Mensun Bound, 54, who is leading the salvage,
said: "When it came up and I saw the swastika, I knew I was looking at the
heart of darkness.

(source: The Daily Record)


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

Sophie Scholl": The German martyr, now a movie


Sophie Scholl was a rare thing: a Nazi-era hero from Germany. A member of
the Munich student underground resistance organization, the White Rose,
the fun-loving 21-year-old was arrested in 1943 while distributing
anti-Third Reich leaflets at the university in Munich. Six days later she
was executed. Like most Germans, Marc Rothemund knew the basic facts, but
when the story reappeared in the press on the sixtieth anniversary of
Scholl's death, he found himself intrigued all over again. The longtime
assistant director was also looking for the right material for his
directorial debut, and when he unearthed previously unpublished trial,
interrogation and execution reports, in addition to personal letters and
living eyewitnesses, his plan became clear: He would make a movie that
focused on the days Scholl spent imprisoned, when this ordinary young girl
matched wits with a hardened Nazi interrogator so moved by her loyalty and
strength that he offered her a last-minute reprieve. Rothemund cast the
popular actress Julia Jentsch ("The Edukators") and remained fiercely
faithful to history, using a script that reproduces word-for-word sections
of Scholl's trial and interrogation. With the Oscar-nominated "Sophie
Scholl" (in theaters Feb 17), audiences in Germany and beyond have a
chance to experience the emotion and drama of events that until now have
resided in the realm of legend. IFC News' Andrea Meyer asked Rothemund and
Jentsch six questions.

Is Sophie Scholl a historical figure that Germans learn about in school?

Rothemund: You have 190 schools named after Sophie Scholl, several hundred
more named after other members of the White Rose. The biggest German TV
station asked the audience who were the best Germans of all times, [former
Chancellor, Konrad] Adenauer #1, Hans and Sophie Scholl #4, and people
under 30 voted Hans and Sophie Scholl far ahead for #1. They know a lot
about the story, but not about the emotions, where did this strength come
from. That's what they don't teach and that's why the movie is so
successful.

Julia, what made you want to play her?

Jentsch: It's hard to imagine how it would be live under the Nazi regime.
When I read the screenplay, there were coming up so many emotions. I got
so sad and angry again, and I thought I had the possibility to go with her
through all these emotions.

What do you have in common with her?

Rothemund: I can answer this question. Sophie Scholl was always described
as a very honest person, full of empathy. That's how they described her:
"a strong mind and a tender heart." Julia is very honest and full of
empathy, and if you see her playing on the stage for six hours
"Niebelunge" and the next day "Antigone" and the next day "Othello," you
see wow, that's a lot of power. The people who knew her said they almost
couldn't believe this mental strength of Sophie Scholl. For me that was
the similarity.

How faithful were you to the facts?

Rothemund: All the words and actions are true words, the letters, the
interrogation officer, word for word. To make an emotional feature film
out of it and create our own Sophie Scholl that brings the original words
to life so that the audience can share this emotional journey, that was
the challenge.

How did she have such strength in the face of death?

Jentsch: On the one hand there is this possibility of being strong and not
to be impressed or afraid just because it's an older man, a Gestapo man,
and on the other side, of course she's afraid. She has to say, "What's the
right thing? What to say? What to not say? What may happen to her
brother?" She was afraid, but what gave her the strength is the feeling
that this is the right thing to do.

Rothemund: They knew about the mass murders, because the main members of
the White Rose were medical aids at the Eastern front and they were
witnessing the killing of women and children and they reported it to
Scholl. If you have the knowledge that also gives you the strength not to
work with these murderers.

The interrogator is a surprisingly sympathetic Nazi who actually gives
Sophie a chance to save herself and the judge is unbelievably ruthless.
Were these characters accurate or did you heighten their personalities for
effect?

Rothemund: We just followed the true story. The last time I spoke to the
son of the interrogation officer, he said, "What could my father have
done? You cannot quit the Gestapo." Another character was the guard. She
lets them have a last cigarette and says in a very polite way, "Oh Miss
Scholl, we have to go to the execution." For me, that is very important.
Six years later most people believed all Germans were Nazis, all Nazis
were murderers. We were 50 million people. Let's say there were 10 million
murderersterrible, and I'm very thankful for the Americans and the Allies
that they defeated Germany, because the worst thing that could ever happen
is if Hitler wonbut you have to see: 10 million murderers, 40 million
yes-men, and maybe 50 or 100,000 resistance fighters. Hitler was not evil;
he was also a human being. Sophie Scholl was not a heroine; she was also a
human being. So this is the interesting thing: How can one baby become
Hitler and one baby become Sophie Scholl?


"Sophie Scholl: The Last Days" opens in New York on February 17 and in
L.A. on February 24.

(source: IFC TV)


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

Sins of the Fathers: Children of Nazis Dig Up Past in New Books


Six decades after World War II ended, the number of people with firsthand
memories of the Nazi era is dwindling. Many Germans and Austrians of that
generation are reluctant to talk about the rule of Adolf Hitler,
preferring to tell stories of postwar chaos and hardship.

So it's increasingly left to the children of Nazis to explore how their
parents were drawn to a party that carried out some of the worst crimes in
history.

Irmgard Hunt's absorbing memoir, ``On Hitler's Mountain: My Nazi
Childhood'' (Atlantic Books, 15.99 pounds, 322 pages), was written partly
to answer queries from her son, a historian. Austrian journalist Martin
Pollack investigates his father's S.S. and Gestapo past in his harrowing
``The Dead Man in the Bunker'' (Faber and Faber, 14.99 pounds, 216 pages).

Hunt was born in 1934 in Berchtesgaden, on the Bavarian mountain where
Hitler and his henchman had their retreat. Her parents, ordinary
working-class Germans, were enthusiastic supporters: Their proudest moment
was when she was photographed sitting on the Fuhrer's knee. Her father
taught her the ``Heil Hitler'' salute when she was 3.

Nazi Cookies

Drawing on her mother's diary, her own memory and interviews with
relatives and friends, Hunt shows how Hitler's dictatorship penetrated
every aspect of family life. She describes her mother trying to make
Christmas cookies shaped like Nazi-approved symbols -- such as Nordic
``trees of life'' or Celtic runes -- instead of the traditional stars and
hearts.

What scant evidence there was of Nazi crimes against Jews and other groups
in this Alpine idyll was either hushed up or brushed aside. When the
mentally disabled child of a neighbor is taken by health authorities and
``dies of a cold,'' Hunt's mother and her friend Susi discuss it while
doing laundry.

``It's probably true'' that the child died of a cold, says Susi. If Hunt's
mother, Albine Paul, had ``suspected foul play concerning the Dehmel baby,
she would have convinced herself that Hitler himself would not condone
such murder,'' Hunt writes.

During the war, an uncle on leave from the eastern front mentions trains
packed with people heading east. On one, women ``were so desperate to
relieve themselves that they actually did so out of the train windows.''
Hunt, then 9, says she plagued her mother with questions: ``Who sent the
trains? Where were they going?'' Her mother didn't answer.

Betrayal

She describes her anger toward her mother and her sense of betrayal. ``The
guilt of genocide would be upon all of us for generations,'' says Hunt,
who emigrated to the U.S. in 1958. She currently lives in Washington with
her Jewish partner of 17 years, Mike Shor.

Hunt says her mother didn't know about the gas chambers and didn't preach
anti-Semitism. Yet she blinded herself to Nazi crimes and ``never thought
beyond the great immediate need at the end of the twenties for someone,
anyone, to end inflation, unemployment and the nationwide disorder and
violence.''

Hunt, who has had her whole life to come to terms with the past, blames
her mother for sins of omission. Pollack, who was only 3 when his father
died in 1947, has far more to swallow.

Gerhard Bast, whose surname Pollack chose not to adopt, ordered the deaths
of Jews and Poles as head of a Sonderkommando in Poland, the author
learned. Bast also rounded up Jews to be deported and oversaw the
hangings
of Polish workers as head of the Gestapo in the German city of Munster.

Dueling and Murder

The seeds of Bast's extreme nationalism were planted during his childhood
in Slovenia, then part of the Austro-Hungarian empire and a tinderbox of
tensions between ethnic Germans and Slovenes. The family in 1912 moved to
the Austrian town of Amstetten, just across the border from Hitler's
mountain.

While studying law, Bast joined a nationalist fraternity and gained the
dueling scars that would mark him as a Nazi for the rest of his life. He
joined the party in 1931 and remained a member after it was banned in
Austria in 1933.

Pollack's account, translated into English by William Hobson, jumps around
chronologically, making it hard to follow at times. The research is
meticulous, though. Pollack combed archives across the former Reich and
interviewed aging Nazis.

How do you cope with the knowledge that your father was a cold-blooded
murderer? Pollack seems numbed and traumatized.

``The dark shadow of this question has accompanied me for many years and I
know I shall never be able to shake it off.''

(source: Bloomberg News)