July 12



POLAND:

Poland wins name change for Auschwitz
U.N. agrees to rename death camp to stress Nazi Germany's responsibility


The United Nations has agreed to rename Auschwitz concentration camp to
stress that Nazi Germans, not Poles, were responsible for the worlds most
notorious death camp, Polands Culture Ministry said on Wednesday.

Auschwitz Concentration Camp, a U.N. heritage site, will be renamed the
Former Nazi German Concentration Camp of Auschwitz, the ministry said.

This decision marks a victory for both Poland and historical truth,
Culture Minister Kazimierz Ujazdowski told a news conference.

Poland asked the U.N. to rename Auschwitz in April. Some 1.5 million
people, mostly Jews, died at the camp during World War Two.

Ujazdowski said Israel and German officials had agreed to the new name.

Warsaw's objections

Warsaw objects to references to Polish gas chambers at the Polish
concentration camp in foreign media. Nearly 3 million non-Jewish Poles
died at Nazi hands, and Poles see themselves as victims of the war.

We hope this will help correct the misconception that Auschwitz is a
Polish death camp, Ujazdowski said.

The role of Poles in the deaths of millions of Polish Jews, and at
Auschwitz, is a sore topic. Some accounts say Poles assisted the Nazis at
Auschwitz, where 6,000 died every day during 1944.

This month, Jewish and Polish officials marked anniversaries of two
massacres of Jews carried out by Poles before and after World War Two.

But Poles say their fellow nationals risked their lives to hide Jews.
Poles are the largest group awarded Israels Righteous Among the Nations
title for helping to save Jews.

Some Jews were angered that Polands communist government portrayed
Auschwitz in the 1940s and 1950s as a place of martyrdom of Poles, too.
Poles, Gypsies, homosexuals and Russians also died at the camp.

(source: Reuters)





USA//ILLINOIS:

Gay Holocaust Exhibit


An exhibit that promises to generate plenty of emotion in the LGBT
community is headed for Chicago.

STICKS + STONES: From Pink Triangles to Gold Medals: Reclaiming Our
Identity will feature a traveling exhibition from the United States
Holocaust Memorial Museum as well as AIDS awareness pins and other
thought-provoking items. Roosevelt Universitys Gage Gallery, 18 S.
Michigan, will host the free exhibit from July 13-Aug. 6.

There is an opening reception July 13, 6-9 p.m. featuring food and
beverages. Ted Phillips, curator of the Nazi exhibit, will speak at that
event as well as at a 12:30 p.m. lecture at the exhibit Friday, July 14.

This unique exhibit, which will be held in conjunction with this summers
Gay Games, has three sections: Nazi Persecution of Homosexuals 19331945, a
traveling exhibition organized and circulated by the United States
Holocaust Memorial Museum; Red Ribbons: To Remind Us All, an extensive
collection of AIDS remembrance pins, buttons, and stamps from Chicagoan
Norman L. Sandfield; and Gold Medals, selected memorabilia from past Gay
Games.

The event is being funded by a private committee and hosted by the Giloury
Institute.

Visit www.sticksandstonesexhibit.com or call 773-871-7610 for sponsorship
information.

(source: Windy City Times)




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


USA//NEW YORK:

Painting looted by Nazis finds new home in New York


Cosmetics magnate Ronald Lauder's love affair with the portrait of Adele
Bloch-Bauer, which was painted in Vienna in 1907, began when Lauder was an
adolescent on his first trip to the Austrian capital.

On Wednesday, the painting by Viennese artist Gustav Klimt - which Lauder
purchased last month for a sum estimated at a record $135 million - will
arrive at the Neue Galerie on Manhattan's Museum Mile, a museum for German
and Austrian art that Lauder cofounded five years ago.

The painting will be installed as part of a special exhibition of five
paintings by Klimt that belonged to the collection of the Jewish-Viennese
couple Ferdinand and Adele Bloch-Bauer. In 1938, the paintings were stolen
by the Nazis.

"For me, this painting was very much about life in early 20th century
Vienna and its thriving Jewish community," Lauder said Monday in an
interview with The Jerusalem Post. Lauder is visiting Israel in his
capacity as president of the Jewish National Fund.

"Over time, I became more and more fascinated by this era, but never
forgot about this portrait," he said.

Lauder said he had visited the painting several times a year for several
decades at its home in the Belvedere Galerie in Vienna.

Nevertheless, he said he knew little about its provenance until eight
years ago, when he become involved in the recovery and restitution of art
looted by the Nazis.

In 1999, Maria Altmann and other heirs of the Bloch-Bauer family began
efforts in the courts to recover the five paintings, which had belonged to
Altmann's aunt, Adele Bloch-Bauer. In January, they finally succeeded in
having the works declared stolen property, and in March, they were
returned to their rightful owners.

"Even after I knew the paintings would be leaving Austria, I found it hard
to believe and held my breath until they arrived in Los Angeles," Lauder
said. "It was a fascinating roller coaster of emotions, filled with
uncertainty about whether they would actually arrive here - it was almost
too good to be true."

Lauder then contacted the legal owners of the portrait, and negotiated its
purchase for the Neue Galerie.

During WWII, the painting - considered one of Klimt's masterpieces - was
renamed Woman in Gold, to hide its Jewish history, Lauder said. It is
characterized by shades and textures of gold.

The painting arrived in New York on Friday, he said.

"For the first time, I had a chance to see it up close with no glass on
it, and realized how many great details it contained," he said.

Adele Bloch-Bauer was the only woman portrayed twice by Klimt in a
full-length portrait, and there has long been speculation that the artist
and his sitter had a love affair. Adele Bloch-Bauer I, as the portrait is
called, was the first of these two portraits.

The painting's new permanent location at the Neue Galerie, Lauder said,
would be on the museum's second floor in a room dedicated to Klimt's work.
On Tuesday, Bloch-Bauer's heirs will arrive in New York to see the
painting installed.

When the painting goes on public display Wednesday, Lauder said, museum
officials expect "enormous crowds." According to Lauder, the Bloch-Bauer's
former residence in Vienna is very similar to the museum building.

"I think she would be delighted," he said when asked how he imagined the
sitter and former owner of this painting would react if she could see it
in its new home.

"New York today is what Vienna was back then," Lauder said. "I believe she
would feel very much at home with us."

(source: Jerusalem Post)




AUSTRALIA//HUNGARY:

Accused Nazi Polgar dies


A MELBOURNE man accused of genocide during World War II has died.
Lajos Polgar was a member of Hungary's Arrow Cross, which was allied to
the Nazis and responsible for the deaths of thousands of Jews in Budapest
during the war.

He died suddenly on Saturday night, aged 89.

The exact cause of death is unknown but the circumstances were not
suspicious.

Leading Nazi hunter Dr Efraim Zuroff, director of the Jerusalem bureau of
the Los Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Centre, claimed in February that
fresh evidence linked Mr Polgar with the atrocities committed by the Arrow
Cross.

Dr Zuroff said he was intensely disappointed that Mr Polgar died before
being thoroughly investigated.

"It's very frustrating, to put it mildly," he said.

"But this man should go down publicly as what he was - someone who was
involved in the genocide and murder of Jews."

The Australian Federal Police recently dropped its case against Mr Polgar,
citing insufficient evidence, while the Hungarian National Bureau of
Investigations turned up no key evidence.

Mr Polgar's son Lou said his father was innocent of war crimes, and was
not aware of any torture or killing.

He said the stress of being "outed" as an alleged war criminal had played
a big part in his death.

"It weighed on him like a bloody lead anchor," he said.

(source: The Australian)