April 22



USA:

Century - Old Nazi Propaganda Still in Use


A century-old forgery used to justify ill-treatment of Jews in Czarist
Russia and widely circulated by the Nazis is distributed even today in
many languages to stoke hatred of Israel, an exhibit at the Holocaust
Museum says.

Colorfully bound editions of ''The Protocols of the Elders of Zion'' have
appeared recently in Mexico and in Japan, where there are few Jews, says
exhibit historian Daniel Greene. High school texts in Syria, Lebanon and
schools run by the Palestinian authority use the book as history, he says.

Its 24 chapters profess to record discussions by Jewish leaders of plans
to take over the world. Historians have traced parallels in the text to a
19th century French book, directed against supporters of the Emperor
Napoleon III, which does not mention Jews.

''The Internet has about 500,000 sites where the book is discussed --
about half and half for and against,'' Greene estimated.

The exhibit cites a quote from Joseph Goebbels, a decade before he became
Adolf Hitler's propaganda minister:

''I believe that 'The Protocols of the Wise Men of Zion' are a forgery.
(However) I believe in the intrinsic but not in the factual truth of the
`Protocols.'''

In the United States, the exhibit points to the Rev. Charles Coughlin, a
Roman Catholic priest whose popular radio sermons in the late 1930s
opposed war with Nazi Germany. His periodical, ''Social Justice''
serialized the ''Protocols'' in 1938.

When Egyptian government-sponsored TV showed a series based on the
`Protocols' in 2002, the State Department condemned it.

In 2005, a new edition of the book was published in Syria and shown at the
Cairo International Book Fair. The edition suggests, the museum says, that
the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks were organized by a Jewish
conspiracy.

Last October, an Iranian bookseller exhibited an edition published by his
country's Islamic Propaganda Organization at the annual book fair in
Frankfurt, Germany. The Holocaust Museum exhibit said the display violated
German law, which forbids libel against any religious group.

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On the Net: U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum: http://www.ushmm.org

(source: Associated Press)


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Ritual helps keep memory of Holocaust from fading


The number of Holocaust survivors has dwindled since the end of World War
II in 1945, but at this year's annual commemoration 13 survivors will head
to the state Capitol to light candles in remembrance of the more than 6
million Jews who died.

Remembering the Holocaust is an annual event in the Midstate, organized by
Jewish congregations, the Gordon Jewish Community Center and the Tennessee
Holocaust Commission.

"One of the things we've learned in the Jewish community is that the best
way to remember things is to ritualize them," said Rabbi Saul Strosberg of
Congregation Sherith Israel, speaking of the annual worldwide
commemoration ceremonies taking place next week.

"It's painful and it's easy to want to forget it," he said. "This forces
us to remember and contend with tragedy."

An estimated 8,000 Jewish people are in Middle Tennessee. About 70 are
Holocaust survivors, said Ruth Tanner of the Tennessee Holocaust
Commission.

Their ages range from their late 60s to well into the 80s, she said.

"It's an aging and fragile population," Tanner said. Last year, five
survivors living in Memphis died, she said.

In recent years there have been several efforts to keep the memories of
their experiences alive for future generations.

A small middle school in Whitwell, Tenn., decided to collect six million
paper clips to represent the number of Jews killed in the Holocaust.

As word spread, the school ultimately collected 29 million from around the
world. Paperclips, a documentary about their project, will be shown
Sunday.

A new Nashville Holocaust Memorial is being built on the grounds of the
Gordon Jewish Community Center in Bellevue. It will include a walkway with
the names and hometowns of Nashville survivors. The memorial will open
later this year.

A collection of first-hand accounts of 57 Tennessee survivors created by
the Tennessee Holocaust Commission is part of a traveling exhibit now at
the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis. It will move to the
Renaissance Center in Dickson in January.

(source: The Tennessean)