Feb. 26


USA//NEW YORK:

Lawyer's $4.1 Million Fee Angers Holocaust Survivors


From 1996 to 1998, Burt Neuborne represented Holocaust survivors in a
historic lawsuit that accused Swiss banks of helping the Nazis loot
hundreds of millions of dollars worth of Jewish holdings. His labors
helped win a $1.25 billion settlement.

A respected civil rights lawyer and law school professor, Mr. Neuborne did
the work without asking a fee, and was widely praised for his central role
in the case.

Then in 1999, Mr. Neuborne took on an expanded role as lead lawyer for
the thousands of Holocaust survivors worldwide. But over these seven
years, as the complex settlement played out and the judge made the
difficult decisions about which survivors would get how much money,
bitterness grew and became anger.

Now the anger, within a small American group of Holocaust survivors, is
seething. And it is directed at Mr. Neuborne. The 18 members of the group,
who were already unhappy because they felt shortchanged by the settlement,
are outraged that he filed a bill for nearly $4.1 million for his most
recent work .

Several of the survivors said in interviews this week that they had
thought Mr. Neuborne was still working pro bono. And now a lawyer for the
group has filed a formal objection to Mr. Neuborne's fee.

For his part, Mr. Neuborne fiercely defended both his work and his bill,
which he submitted in Federal District Court in Brooklyn in December. He
said he had never promised that his most recent work by his count, 8,000
hours over the seven years would be free.

Yesterday, Mr. Neuborne filed court papers that seek to refute objections
about his fee request from the group of American survivors. Mr. Neuborne
also asked Judge Edward R. Korman, who is overseeing the case, to hold a
hearing on his fee.

Several survivors, who met with the judge to complain about the fee
request, pointing to a $4.3 million fee he received in another Holocaust
case and noting that that money did not come from funds that could have
gone to survivors as would that for Mr. Neuborne's current fee.

Several also said in interviews that they had heard Mr. Neuborne say his
post-settlement work was pro bono. And their Miami lawyer, Samuel J.
Dubbin, cited several statements by Mr. Neuborne in court documents,
hearings and elsewhere that he said showed Mr. Neuborne wearing his pro
bono status as a badge of honor.

Mr. Neuborne dismissed those arguments, saying that Mr. Dubbin had
misconstrued his statements.

But for the survivors who have objected, regardless of the outcome of any
hearing, the bill was a betrayal, doubly so coming on the heels of what
they say was Mr. Neuborne's failure to represent their interests.

"No. 1 that he was telling us all along that he will not get paid," said
David Mermelstein, 77, who was sent to Auschwitz from a small town in the
Carpathian Mountains and saw his parents, five brothers and a sister
killed there. "And No. 2, to take away this money from the needy survivors
is a crime."

Some of the survivors have fiercely objected to the distribution of part
of the $1.25 billion fund set up for social service needs for poor Jewish
survivors whose assets were looted. Judge Korman ruled in 2000 that a
great majority of that fund initially $100 million, which has since more
than doubled would go to Holocaust survivors in Russia because of what he
said was the grinding poverty there and the greater need. About 4 percent
was earmarked for American survivors.

But Mr. Mermelstein, who spoke in a telephone interview from his home in
Miami, and several of the other survivors who have objected to the fee,
said studies show that many American survivors are struggling to buy food
and medicine.

Mr. Dubbin said that survivors in the United States, collectively through
social service agencies, will receive about $700,000 a year from that fund
for the 10-year life of the settlement. Survivors in the former Soviet
Union will receive more than $16 million a year, he said.

Mr. Dubbin contended that Mr. Neuborne cited his pro bono status as
evidence that he did not have a financial interest in the outcome of the
case, thus suggesting he was neutral and fair which Mr. Dubbin contends
is not the case.

But Mr. Neuborne said that such status was important only before the
settlement was reached.

Mr. Neuborne said that he had increased the value of the settlement fund
by $50 million and that he was hurt by the objections of the survivors. He
noted that half a dozen other lawyers had filed affidavits supporting his
fee request. One lawyer filed an affidavit objecting to the fees.

"It was a grueling job that nobody else wanted, and that I have done
faithfully and successfully for seven years," Mr. Neuborne said. "There
has to be a special application of the rule that no good deed goes
unpunished for someone to say that because I voluntarily gave up my fees
for getting the settlement and that would be $10 million somehow I'm not
allowed to be paid for seven years' work in successfully carrying it out."

(source: New York Times)

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

USA://WISCONISIN:

Former Nazi guard loses appeal, faces deportation


An 81-year-old Caledonia man who served as a guard at Nazi concentration
camps during World War II has lost his appeal, clearing the way for his
deportation.

The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Thursday that Josias Kumpf,
who came to the United States in 1956, broke the law when he did not
disclose his work at the camps.

It upheld a ruling by U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman, who said Kumpf's
citizenship should be revoked because it violated the Refugee Relief Act
of 1953. That law says people who have persecuted others are not allowed
to enter the country.

Kumpf admitted after a federal civil action was filed in 2003 seeking to
revoke his citizenship that he had stood guard at the perimeter of the
Trawniki Training Camp in Nazi-occupied Poland, and the Sachsenhausen
Concentration Camp near Berlin. But he contended he was forced into the SS
and feared he would be killed if he left. He also said he never hurt or
killed anyone.

(source: Associated Press)



AUSTRIA:

From his cell, just two days after he recanted his views on the Holocaust,
David Irving reverts to extremism

As he starts a three-year sentence in Austria, the historian continues to
voice his controversial views



Far-right author David Irving's repudiation of his views on the Holocaust
and Hitler's role in it has not lasted very long. In a prison interview
just days after he told an Austrian court he had been wrong to deny the
Holocaust, he reverted to insisting that the slaughter in Nazi death camps
was exaggerated, and that Jews "bear blame for what happened".

His latest statements, made just two days after he was convicted of
Holocaust denial, could see him end up back in court. Prosecutors are
demanding an increase in his jail sentence, and the Austrian supreme court
must now decide whether he goes down for the full 10 years.

Speaking through a telephone behind a thick glass panel in a visitors'
room at the Josefstadt prison in central Vienna, Irving, who is appealing
against his three-year prison sentence, appeared unrepentant and referred
to himself as a political prisoner. As he entered the visitors' room,
unshaven and wearing a prison-issue blue shirt, shabby trousers and a pair
of old trainers, he was escorted by a burly, uniformed prison warden.

But he appeared in high spirits and denied he was having personal
difficulties, insisting that his Danish partner, Bente Hogh, could not
visit him because she was sick. A series of interviews she has given to
the British press in recent days appear to belie this.

A shortage of money now means Ms Hogh and the couple's 12-year-old
daughter Jessica face eviction from their expensive London flat. She told
the Daily Mail that Jessica now carries a copy of Anne Frank's Diary to
make plain her disagreement with her father. "She hates his views. She is
a lovely girl, bright and clever, and it is not her fault who her father
is. It is easier for her when he is not around."

The author was jailed on Monday for three years for denying the Holocaust
during two lectures and in a newspaper interview in Austria nearly 17
years ago. But despite the conviction, the 67-year-old did not shy away
from the subject. Irving complained that the Jews held far too much power
and predicted their disproportionate control in the US would see a second
Holocaust "in 20 to 30 years".

Just days after he told the Viennese court "I've changed my views", he
said it was part of the human condition to dislike Jews and that they were
at least in part to blame for the 3,000 years of hatred they had had to
endure.

Irving is locked up for 23 hours a day and is taking medication for a
heart condition. He gets one hour's exercise a day - "in a yard half the
size of my drawing room in Queen Anne's Gate, walking around with 70 other
men who are robbers, rapists, swindlers, murderers and cocaine dealers".

Meanwhile, in Wiltshire, his elder brother, John, campaigns against
exactly the sort of prejudice that Irving displays. John Irving, 75, is
chairman of Wiltshire Racial Equality Council and a devout Muslim. Living
on a pig farm in Trowbridge, Wiltshire, John Irving is also, probably,
Britain's only Muslim pig farmer. He converted to Islam in 1981 while
commanding troops for the Sultan of Oman and now attends Trowbridge's
mosque on a regular basis.

When asked about his brother, John refers to Genesis, chapter four, verse
nine: "Then the Lord said to Cain, 'Where is Abel, your brother?' And he
said, "I do not know. Am I my brother's keeper?' I value family harmony,"
he said. "He is my brother and that is all there is to say about it. My
primary concerns are for racial harmony in Wiltshire." The two do still
talk.

(source: The Independent)





GERMANY:

The Final 4 Days of an Anti-Nazi's Life


Sometimes, all it takes to reveal a key moment in history is an
inquisitive mind, a telephone and a dollar.

German film director Marc Rothemund, at the time best known for directing
a teen comedy wherein a 15-year-old boy's nether regions begin talking to
him, was reading coverage on the 60th anniversary of the execution of
national hero Sophie Scholl.

A prominent member of the White Rose society, a World War II student
resistance group in Rothemund's hometown of Munich, Scholl and other White
Rose members were arrested in February 1943 for distributing anti-Nazi
leaflets. Rothemund read that Scholl had been executed on the fourth day
after her arrest in 1943. He had thought -- as many in Germany did -- that
she was arrested and executed on the same day.

What happened during those four days? No one seemed to know. It was not in
history books or the coverage on the anniversary of her death. So
Rothemund called the German Archive in Berlin.

Rothemund, in town last month for the Berlin & Beyond festival at the
Castro, summarized the conversation: " 'Do you have documents about the
White Rose time and the Gestapo?' 'Yes.' 'Could I see them?' 'Yes.' 'Can I
make copies?' 'Yes, it costs one euro.' And suddenly, I had interrogation
reports of Sophie Scholl and members of the White Rose and friends of the
White Rose. I had documents about the court and execution documents."

And that is how the director of the German equivalent of "American Pie"
did a career 180 and came up with "Sophie Scholl -- The Final Days," which
is up for best foreign film at next Sunday's Academy Awards. The film has
been a sensation in Germany, where the pitch-perfect embodiment of the
21-year-old Scholl, Julia Jentsch, won best actress awards at the Berlin
International Film Festival -- where Rothemund won best director -- and
the German Film Awards. It has earned more than a million admissions in
Deutschland and has been well received in other parts of Europe.

Scholl's interrogation documents had never been part of official history
because the documents had been sent to the German chancellery and, after
the fall of Berlin, ended up in Russian hands. The Soviets gave the file
to the Stasi, the omnipresent police force of the Communist German
Democratic Republic, or East Germany.

With the reunification of Germany in 1990, the documents landed at the
German Archive -- but so did a mountain of other material. There the
Scholl file sat, unread.

One of the revelations was that Scholl initially denied her involvement in
the White Rose group -- which included her brother, Hans (Fabian Hinrichs)
-- contrary to popular legend that she proudly admitted her role in
distributing anti-Hitler and anti-war leaflets.

Rothemund believes the documents show "she was not a born heroine. She
grew into the task."

They also revealed something else.

"She was the only one who could have saved her life," Rothemund said. "She
did not write the leaflets, and only distributed them. But she refused to
cooperate and was the only woman (of the White Rose group) who got
executed."

"Sophie Scholl" is one of several recent German films (including
"Downfall" and "Rosenstrasse") to tackle hard questions about the German
character during World War II. Rothemund, 37, believes there will be more
because the number of survivors of that era is dwindling, and they're
talking.

"There were anti-Nazi movies by the children's generation -- 'The Tin
Drum' and 'The White Rose' -- and now the grandchildren's generation makes
their own movies because they also have questions about this time of their
grandparents," Rothemund said. "What is very common in Germany -- there
are the murderers, of course -- but the majority of the Germans, the
followers and the yes-men, who said 'Heil Hitler' and profited but were
not murderers, but were guilty for not wanting to know and helping Hitler
(stay in power). They refuse to talk about their time because of a bad
conscience -- they didn't talk to their children.

"My grandmother was a Nazi too. She and my father were never close because
of that. But she was a sports lady. The dream of her life was to take part
in the 1940 Olympics. The Nazis trained her and gave her money and
pampered her -- and she had a great life. I inherited her medals with
swastikas. ... She felt guilty and wouldn't talk about it later.

"The grandchildren are asking questions, and now they are starting to
talk. Because we are really the last generation that can ask eyewitnesses.
Pretty soon, there will be no more murderers. No more victims, no more
follow-men."

Perhaps that's why Rothemund worked exceptionally hard to develop the
complicated character of Sophie's interrogator (Gerald Alexander Held). He
is a man who came to sympathize with Sophie and tried to keep her from
being executed. But he, too, followed orders.

"He's a Nazi who started thinking," Rothemund said.

It's a lesson that is resonating anew in Germany.

(source: San Francisco Chronicle)




THE NETHERLANDS:

Nazi style helmets conquer Europe


Replica Nazi stormtrooper helmets threaten to become hit of 2006 world Cup
in Germany. Dutch manufacturer says helmets 'just a joke'


Israeli soccer fans set to flood Germany in the coming summer for the 2006
World Cup may be in for an unpleasant surprise: thousands of fellow
European soccer fans will apparently show up for the matches wearing
helmets styled on Second World War Nazi uniforms.

The helmets, mass-produced by a Dutch manufacturer, are made in different
colors and bear slogans to fit the different countries attending the
tournament.

Designer Weno Geerts said they were meant as a joke. "We just want to
support our team and tease the Germans. Nothing else," he explained.

Geerts said the Holland-based company had received only a few complaints
and expected to sell another 100,000 helmets before the finals this
summer.

"They are meant for the supporters who watch the games on television, and
in the pub, and also those who are traveling to Germany," he said.

The manufacturer of the helmets said the German police recently informed
him they intend to allow fans to wear the helmets during the games,
because they were not adorned with Nazi symbols.

"Germany should prepare for an invasion," he said jokingly.

(source: Ynetnews)



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

USA//OHIO:

US Nazi-hunting chief vows to persist in deportation of 85-year-old
suspected Nazi camp guard


In Cleveland, the head of the Justice Department's Nazi-hunting office
vowed to persist in efforts to depart an 85-year-old Ukrainian-born man
reputed to have been a Nazi death camp guard even if it takes years.

Eli M. Rosenbaum, director of the Justice Department's Office of Special
Investigations, which has brought successful cases against more than 100
men with Nazi pasts, said there is little he can say specifically about
the case against John Demjanjuk because it is still in the legal system.

But he said the government intends to persist.

"There are people still crying for lost siblings and parents. People
responsible for the misery should not be here," said Rosenbaum, a guest
lecturer at a human rights seminar at Case Western Reserve University's
law school.

Rosenbaum's office last year was given additional authority to make cases
against people who became U.S. citizens after participating in more recent
genocides in various parts of the world.

Demjanjuk, a former auto worker living in the Cleveland suburb of Seven
Hills, lost his citizenship in 2002 based on documents identifying him as
a guard at several Nazi death or forced labor camps during World War II.
The government's case against him dates to 1977.

Demjanjuk, who came to the United States in 1952, has denied he was ever a
Nazi guard. The nation's chief immigration judge has ordered him deported,
but Demjanjuk has appealed to the Board of Immigration Appeals.

His Washington lawyer, John Broadly, said Wednesday that both sides are
waiting for a briefing schedule from the board and that there have been no
significant developments recently.

Rosenbaum confirmed the case is in a procedural pause. Once preparation is
complete, the board will have 180 days to make a decision. But after that,
Rosenbaum said, the case could end up in a federal appeals court and then
even before the U.S. Supreme Court.

"It's one of the frustrations of the job. But our goal in all of these
cases is to accomplish removal as expeditiously as we can," he said in a
brief interview before his lecture at the law school.

The government has requested that Demjanjuk be sent to Ukraine, which is
his homeland, or to Poland or Germany. Rosenbaum would not say whether the
Justice Department has a commitment from any nation to take him.

"Time will tell," he said. "We have had a great deal of difficulty
persuading European countries to discharge their moral obligation and in
some cases their legal obligation to accept return of Nazi criminals. I
can't address while this is in litigation whether that will have a bearing
on resolution on this case."

Authorities first tried to deport Demjanjuk in 1977, accusing him of being
a notoriously brutal guard known as Ivan the Terrible at the Treblinka
concentration camp in Poland. In 1986, Demjanjuk was extradited to Israel,
where he was convicted and sentenced to death after a dramatic, televised
trial. But after a five-year legal battle, the conviction was thrown out
when the Israeli Supreme Court found in 1993 that someone else apparently
was Ivan the Terrible.

Demjanjuk returned to the United States and his U.S. citizenship was
restored before being lifted again.


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

Chief Nazi prosecutor firm on Demjanjuk deportation


The government's long case against an 85-year-old Ohio man reputed to
have been a Nazi death camp guard during World War II could
last months to years more, and then there may be an issue where to send
him, a Justice Department official said Wednesday.

Eli M. Rosenbaum, director of the Justice Department's Office of Special
Investigations, which has made successful cases against 101 men with Nazi
pasts, said there is little he can say specifically about the case against
John Demjanjuk because it is still in the legal system.

But he said the government intends to persist.

"There are people still crying for lost siblings and parents. People
responsible for the misery should not be here," said Rosenbaum, a guest
lecturer for one day at a human rights seminar at Case Western Reserve
University's law school.

Rosenbaum's Nazi-hunting office last year as given additional authority to
make cases against people who became U.S. citizens after participating in
more recent genocides in various parts of the world.

Demjanjuk, a former auto worker living in suburban Seven Hills, lost his
citizenship in 2002 based on documents identifying him as a guard at
several Nazi death or forced labor camps during the war. The government's
case against him dates to 1977.

Demjanjuk has denied he was ever a Nazi guard. The nation's chief
immigration judge has ordered him deported, but Demjanjuk has appealed to
the Board of Immigration Appeals.

His Washington lawyer, John Broadly, said Wednesday both sides are waiting
for a briefing schedule from the board and that there have been no
significant developments recently.

Rosenbaum confirmed the case is in a procedural pause. Once preparation is
complete, the board will have 180 days to make a decision. But after that,
Rosenbaum said, the case could end up in a federal appeals court and then
even in the U.S. Supreme Court.

"It's one of the frustrations of the job. But our goal in all of these
cases is to accomplish removal as expeditiously as we can," he said in a
brief interview before his lecture at the law school.

The government has requested Demjanjuk be sent to Ukraine, which is his
homeland, or to Poland or Germany. Rosenbaum would not say whether the
Justice Department has a commitment from any nation to take him.

"Time will tell," he said. "We have had a great deal of difficulty
persuading European countries to discharge their moral obligation and in
some cases their legal obligation to accept return of Nazi criminals. I
can't address while this is in litigation whether that will have a bearing
on resolution on this case."

(source for both: Associated Press)


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


USA//PENNSYLVANIA:

Former Nazi guard finds little sympathy


Anton Geiser reacted the way most people would when he watched a
concentration camp prisoner step out of line and get riddled with bullets.
"I was very upset. I did not like it," the former guard in a Nazi SS
Death's Head Battalion told federal authorities in an interview last year,
according to a transcript released this month. "I thought to myself, 'We
all have good days, some days are maybe not as good. So that poor soul
maybe had something he couldn't take no more.'"

The U.S. government is unmoved. Federal prosecutors asked Judge David S.
Cercone on Feb. 6 to rule on a civil lawsuit they filed seeking to have
Geiser, 81, of Sharon, Mercer County, stripped of his citizenship and
deported for having served in the SS.

Geiser's lawyers plan to ask the judge soon to allow Geiser to remain in
the country he has called home for 50 years. He worked 31 of those years
at Sharon Steel and reared three sons with his wife, Theresia. They have
lived in their Cedar Street home in Sharon since 1960.

The home he knew before the war is gone, said his Downtown attorney, Jay
Reisinger. Geiser, an ethnic German, grew up on a farm in rural Yugoslavia
-- a country that no longer exists. His hometown now is in Croatia.

"He came here because he couldn't go back home," Reisinger said. "He had
no choice."

The government says Geiser lied about his military service when he applied
to come to the U.S. as a refugee. He never would have been admitted had he
told the truth about his involvement with the SS, and the passage of a
half-century doesn't change anything, U.S. Attorney Mary Beth Buchanan
said.

"Although the remedy is harsh, the conduct of Anton Geiser during the Nazi
regime was horrendous," Buchanan said. "The millions of victims of this
regime are not forgotten, and the pain these families suffered has not
diminished as the result of time."

The Nazis killed an estimated six million Jews during World War II. Most
of them died in concentration camps.

Geiser was drafted into the German army in September 1942, a month shy of
his 18th birthday. He was proud to fight the communists and protect his
family, he told federal investigators May 4 during a daylong deposition at
the U.S. Attorney's Office in Pittsburgh.

He was assigned to the Waffen SS and trained to be a prison guard. He was
required to take classes in Nazi ideology and swear an oath to Adolf
Hitler.

"But what they were saying, it didn't penetrate my heart," Geiser told
federal authorities.

Geiser, a private, was given his first assignment in 1943 as an SS guard
at Sachsenhausen, a concentration camp where nearly 100,000 people died
from exhaustion, disease, malnutrition, pneumonia or in medical
experiments between 1936 and 1945.

Reisinger says his client did not kill or mistreat anyone. He simply did
what he was told, and that was to stand guard.

"Anton Geiser did not personally persecute anyone based on their race,
religion or ethnicity," Reisinger said. "There are no allegations from the
government that he committed any atrocities."

The government contends that Geiser's service as a guard made him
ineligible to become a naturalized citizen under the Refugee Relief Act of
1953, regardless of whether he refrained from killing people.

"Death was the responsibility of everyone," said Allan A. Ryan, former
director of the U.S. Justice Department's Office of Special
Investigations, which investigates former Nazis and war criminals. "It's
not necessary for there to be some known fact of murder or other
atrocity."

Claiming innocence for having been an SS guard who didn't kill anyone is a
defense U.S. courts have rejected routinely, Ryan said. He said it's
enough in these cases to show that someone voluntarily served as part of a
camp staff.

Reisinger does not agree.

"We think it requires more than just being there, but that it requires
actual participation," Reisinger said.

Geiser spent less than a year at Sachsenhausen and said he witnessed only
one killing -- of the prisoner who stepped out of the line and tried to
walk away. The guards immediately opened fire. Geiser said he was not
among them.

"That life could have been saved," Geiser said he thought to himself at
the time. The prisoner could have been stopped instead of shot, he
thought.

"I did not like it then, and I hate it today, but there's nothing I could
do," he told federal authorities. "If I could do anything, I maybe (get)
shot myself."

In the fall of 1943, Geiser was transferred to Arolsen, a sub-camp of the
Buchenwald concentration camp that housed an SS officer training school.

Geiser said he befriended some of the approximately 70 prisoners at
Arolsen. One prisoner he got to know well was the prison secretary -- "Mr.
Novotny from Prague, the Czech, very nice, intelligent man. ... He's one
of the finest, and he was -- we were close, we were friends."

Guards were under orders to shoot prisoners who tried to escape. When
federal investigators asked if he would have shot Novotny, Geiser replied:
"Couldn't do it."

Geiser stayed in Germany after the war until 1948, before going to Austria
and then to the U.S. in 1956 with his wife, two sons and his in-laws.

The family settled in Western Pennsylvania because Geiser had cousins
here, including the late Josef Kaizer, and Peter Schibli and Josef
Schibli, both of Hermitage, Mercer County. He has a sister in Chicago.
Three other siblings live in Germany.

Geiser lied on his visa application by stating he served in the German
army, not the SS. He acknowledged that the two were different but
explained to federal investigators that no one asked him whether he had
served in the SS.

"He lied and he has to suffer for it," said Jack Sittsamer, 80, of
Squirrel Hill, who survived imprisonment at six concentration camps and is
president of the Holocaust Survivors of Greater Pittsburgh.

He has no sympathy for Geiser and others who served in the Nazi regime.

"The reason they lied is because they were hiding something," Sittsamer
said. "They should be thankful for all these years here. They raised
families and lived good lives. Now it all caught up with them."

The government file on the initial investigation into Geiser's visa
application was destroyed decades ago, Reisinger said.

But it is undisputed that Geiser served in the SS, Buchanan said, and the
Refugee Relief Act prohibits visas from being issued to "any person who
personally advocated or assisted in the persecution of a person or group
of people because of race, religion or national origin."

Reisinger said the government has no evidence that Geiser mistreated or
persecuted any prisoners before coming to the U.S. and living a productive
life.

"He loves this country, worked hard for this country and this is what he
gets," Reisinger said. "Quite frankly, it's a disgrace and the U.S.
government should be ashamed of itself."

Buchanan said it's a matter of law.

"The law may prevent us from bringing criminal charges against him for the
heinous acts he committed in the 1940s, but it doesn't prevent us from
revoking the citizenship he illegally obtained," she said.

Ryan believes about 10,000 Nazis came to the U.S. after the war. The
Department of Justice has brought cases against nearly 100. Geiser, whose
case is the first in Western Pennsylvania, was discovered when federal
investigators cross-referenced German war documents with U.S. immigration
records.

In his deposition, Geiser provided federal authorities with the names of
two other men still living in the area who he said served with the SS.

Time is running out to catch former Nazi soldiers in the United States as
they grow older and die, but the government won't stop looking.

"As long as there are people like that here, the job goes on," Ryan said.

(source: Pittsburgh Tribune-Review)


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


Nazi symbols in Ramapo art exhibit called offensive and hurtful by ADL


Coming at a time when sensitivities over graphic depictions of religious
images are in a highly inflamed state, a painting in an exhibition at
Ramapo College depicting Nazi symbols emblazoned on a Torah scroll has
elicited swift and strong response by Jewish and school communities.

The picture - The Old and New Testament by Deborah Grant - is part of Fine
Art, a new exhibit in the Kresge Gallery, located in the Berrie Center for
the Performing and Visual Arts on the Mahwah campus.

Dr. Michael Riff, director of Ramapo's Center for Holocaust and Genocide
Studies, attended the opening of the exhibition. When he first realized
what he was seeing, he said, "I was stirred to my very core. He told the
staff member who had hung the picture that it was very problematic....
It's going to disturb other people, too. You better be ready."

"To be honest, I had to leave quickly, because it was so disturbing."

Riff contacted Ramapo's president, Peter Mercer, to express his concern,
and the two men visited the gallery together the next day. Riff
characterized Mercers reaction to the picture as similarly distressed.

Riff also contacted the New Jersey regional office of the Anti-Defamation
League in West Orange, which released a statement calling the display of
Grant's work "offensive and hurtful." Etzion Neuer, ADL's regional
director, said such an image - the Nazi eagle and a swastika - "profanes
Judaism's most sacred symbol and denigrates the memory of the six million
Jews killed by the Nazis."

"We understand that artists have freedom of expression, and we do not deny
Ms. Grants liberty to create what she chooses," Neuer said. "However, we
cannot fathom what statement the artist was attempting to convey with this
picture. What we do know is that the result is offensive and hurtful. The
artist chose to depict Judaism's most venerated symbol and associate it
with a swastika, the symbol that represents the destruction of European
Jewry."

In a telephone interview with NJ Jewish News, Neuer said that despite his
revulsion, he was not asking that the piece be removed. Rather, he said,
"we would have preferred the gallery exercise better judgment [and]
recognize that the image is offensive and deliberately provocative. At
that point, it could have been left in the packing crate and not end up on
the wall."

Over the past several weeks, Muslims across Europe have demonstrated - at
times violently - in response to cartoon portrayals of the prophet
Mohammad as a terrorist by a Danish newspaper.

"I don't think the analogy is perfect," said Neuer. "In both cases we do
see exercises in poor judgment. In one case its by a newspaper editor who
chose to run something that was known to be offensive and provocative, and
here we have a similar case as well. But I'm not convinced that newspaper
cartoons are the same as art hanging in galleries."

Neuer referred to a statement issued by Mercer on the Grant artwork.
Mercer, said Neuer, "writes that the piece is bound to be inflammatory
and offensive. We would have preferred if he came with a stronger
statement and said so directly, clearly, and unequivocally."

Like Neuer, Riff was stunned with the poor decision-making by gallery
administrators but did not call for the pictures removal. "I feel
censorship is a very steep and slippery slope. Judgment should have been
used before the fact. Once something is hung in an exhibition, to remove
it is a very serious undertaking."

Riff said he believes it would be helpful and "important" for Grant - a
native of Toronto currently residing in New York - to explain her work to
the Ramapo community.

"I think this incident will not only sensitize the Ramapo community to the
specific issues involved about the hurt that can be caused by [the
symbols] of genocide and oppression," said Riff, "but also will result in
procedures being adopted that perhaps will result in better judgment being
brought into play."

According to Bonnie Franklin, assistant vice president for institutional
relations at Ramapo, statements on the incident have been distributed to
the Ramapo community. Mercer's response will be posted at the entrance to
the gallery. A statement by Dr. Isolde Brielmaier, guest curator for the
exhibit, which appears next to the artists work, states, in part, "Grant
pairs familiar and often disturbing images with provocative text. Her work
is intentionally ambiguous and open-ended and has been interpreted in
diverse ways over the course of her exhibition career. Grant's work is
meant to provoke and not intended to be defamation.

"Among the themes that Grant frequently engages are critiques of pop
culture and politics, issues of race, neo-colonialism, oppression,
violence against women, and the history of fascism. With regard to this
last topic, she has explored the filmmaking of Leni Riefenstahl as well as
the history of the Nazi regime. The image shown here is part of a larger
group of worksthat critique the deplorable history of fascism and
structure of power."

A letter from the faculty of the visual arts department appeared in the
college newspaper, noting its commitment "to Ramapo's vision of a community
that is inclusive, safe, and free of prejudice. We are also committed to
free and lively artistic expression. On occasions when these principles
come into conflict, we must act to foster dialogue so that silence is not
perceived as indifference. We regret any unintended hurt that may have
been caused and hope corrective measures taken will restore any shaken
confidence that may have been felt by some."

****

President's message

Ramapo president Peter Mercer issued the following statement on the
inclusion of Deborah Grants picture The Old and New Testament as part of
an exhibition in the schools Kresge Gallery.


"SOME MEMBERS of our community have expressed to me their anger and
distress about a work of art currently on display in the Kresge Gallerys
Fine Print exhibit. After viewing the piece (by artist Deborah Grant), I
concluded that the juxtaposition of symbols in the work is bound to be
inflammatory and offensive. This is especially true for those whose
friends and family members were victims of the Holocaust.

The artist was contacted by gallery director Sydney Jenkins to see if she
wished to add any specific information about her work. She responded that
her work is open to varied interpretations but that she was in no way
aiming for shock value.

While I am not asking that the piece be removed I believe that a college
must uphold freedom of expression even when the views or ideas being
expressed are not ones that the college would endorse I agree with Dr.
Michael Riff, Director of the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies,
who said, If we feel that a work of art is offensive, please let us say so
and not mince our words. Otherwise, we will live to regret it."

(source: New Jersey Jewish News)





NEW ZEALAND:

Nazi war criminals unlikely to be in NZ


The German community believes it is highly unlikely Nazi war criminals are
living in New Zealand.

Israeli Nazi-hunter Efraim Zuroff believes some could be hiding out in New
Zealand. He is in the country publicising the Simon Wiesenthal Centre's
Operation Last Chance, which is an attempt to round up surviving Nazi war
criminals.

But German Society of New Zealand President Inge Attenberger says it is
far fetched. She says the society has no reason to be concerned as there
are no men who are in their eighties who could have been in the Second
World War. Ms Attenberger says the oldest member of the community in New
Zealand is a woman in her eighties.

A $10,000 reward is being offered for information leading to the arrest
and prosecution of war criminals.

(source: New Zealand Herald)







TURKEY:

Nazis had Killed 1,000 Turks


The allegations that Turkish citizens were held in the Nazi camps
established in Germany during the II World War were forwarded to the
Turkish Parliament.

Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul responded to the proposal from the
Republican Peoples Party (CHP) Mugla deputy Fahrettin Ustun about the
number of Turkish citizens who were held in Nazi camps and killed during
the years of the Second World War. Gul told that no information was found
in the official records about the Turks in Nazi camps. A survey of the
current records of the ministry about the issue revealed no information
about the number of Turkish citizens who were held and killed in the Nazi
camps. Gul informed that some independent sources have dwelled on the
issue in a restricted way. In the 128th page of the theses named Die Trkei
und der Holocaust, which was prepared by Mirjam Schmidt and presented to
Professor Wolfgang Wippermann and Professor Gerhard Baader from Berlin
Independent University, it notes that almost 1,000 Turkish nationals were
killed by the Nazis within the borders of Germany.

Investigating the allegations about the Turks who were killed in the Nazi
camps, Fahrettin Ustun asserted that he was amazed Turkey had no
information about the issue. In his statement to Zaman, Ustun said he
visited a Nazi camp during a visit to Germany recently. During my visit in
the Nazi camp, I encountered the names of Turkish citizens among those
killed in the Nazi camp in Munich. I was amazed when I first saw them. I
counted approximately 100 Turkish names, he told.

Ustun told that he had no idea so far about the Turkish nationals who were
killed by the Nazis. There is no information about the Turks killed in the
Nazi camps in history books. While giving my proposal, my aim was to make
people investigate the issue and reveal the facts. Yet, the answer sent to
me, has no remarkable information, he concluded.

(source: Zaman Daily News)