May 4




GERMANY:

Jewish monument in Germany vandalized a second time in days


For the second time in days, neo-Nazi graffiti was scrawled Friday on a
German monument commemorating Jewish women and the thousands of
concentration camp victims killed on forced marches during World War II.

Police in the eastern town of Soemmerda said they had no idea who
had painted swastikas on the pillar during the night.

The monument marks the last terrible act of the Nazis, who forced weakened
inmates of the camps in 1945 to trek away from Allied armies. Thousands
died of exhaustion only days before the German defeat.

Thuringia state police said neo-Nazis had repeatedly attacked the
monument.

Authorities have been regularly scrubbing off the graffiti. Neo-Nazi
graffiti was also daubed on a Left Party office in the town and on walls
of the home of the mayor, Wolfgang Floegel, who is a leftist.

(source: DPA)


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THE LEGACY OF THE SHOAH
Children of Holocaust Survivors Plan Suit against Germany

An Israeli charity is making plans to launch a class action suit against
Germany on behalf of thousands of children of Holocaust survivors who need
psychological treatment. But the German government says it will only make
payments to those directly affected.

Germany has done a lot to try to atone for the Holocaust. But there may be
more to come.

The sums involved have been enormous. For decades, the German government
has paid out billions to Holocaust survivors in an attempt at recompense
for the brutal crimes committed by the Nazis.

But even as the World War II generation is rapidly shrinking, a new
conflict is looming over who is responsible for the suffering of the next
generation. And Germany may soon find itself having to pay millions for
the psychological treatment needed by the children of Holocaust survivors.

The Fisher Fund, an Israeli charity that helps Holocaust survivors, is
currently in unofficial talks with German government officials about
finding money to fund much-needed psychological care for tens of thousands
of survivors' children in Israel. Traumatized by having been raised in
dysfunctional homes and now suffering from depression, anxiety and other
psychological maladies, the Fund says they urgently need help -- but there
is no money available to pay for it. If the talks fail, they plan to
launch a class action suit against Germany -- with thousands of potential
plaintiffs.

Clear-Cut Connection

"We think there should be a solution to this problem and we think that
part of the solution -- maybe the main part -- should come from Germany,"
Baruch Mazor, general director of the Fisher Fund, told SPIEGEL ONLINE.
Germany, he says, is responsible for the suffering of the second
generation: "The connection is clear-cut."

The Fisher Fund, Mazor says, took on the issue after being approached by a
large number of survivors concerned about the next generation. And he
emphasizes that, as only a small minority of survivors' children develop
psychological problems, the sums involved would not be large. The maximum
amount required would be some $10 - 20 million per year and would only be
used for treatment and for an accompanying cultural project where
interviews with children of survivors would be filmed.

"They showed great sympathy for the problem," he says, referring to the
representatives of the German government he has spoken with. "They think
they can help us find the resources."

Few of the affected children of survivors are able to pay for the
treatment themselves, explains Natan Kellermann, a clinical psychologist
who works with Amcha, a non-governmental organization that provides
psychological treatment for Holocaust victims and their children. The
second generation, he says, grew up "under the shadow of impending
catastrophe and constant mourning and we see that they have deep scars and
need treatment," Kellerman explains. "They have not been able to study or
develop a profession because of their condition." If money were available,
he says, it would make "a big, big difference."

But the money is simply not there, and the Israeli government is unlikely
to step in. There is currently an outcry in Israel about the fact that one
third of Holocaust survivors, according to a recent report, are living in
poverty. The second generation is not likely to be on Israel's funding
radar any time soon. And Amcha's biggest benefactor, the Conference on
Jewish Material Claims Against Germany -- which works to secure
compensation for survivors of the Holocaust and heirs of victims -- only
provides support to survivors themselves, not their children.

"Our priority is using our funds to meet the needs of the living
survivors," Gideon Taylor, executive vice president of the Claims
Conference, told SPIEGEL ONLINE, explaining that these needs were "very
significant" and in many cases "unmet."

Unlikely that Germany Will Provide Funds

But despite Mazor's optimism, it seems unlikely that Germany will provide
the money either. In a statement given to SPIEGEL ONLINE, Ingeburg Grning,
a spokesperson for the German Finance Ministry -- which is responsible for
compensation payments to Holocaust survivors -- explained that a
precondition for recompense is that the claimant be a direct victim of
Nazi violence. That criterion has long been part of the principles
accepted by international treaties relating to Holocaust reparations. "An
amendment of the compensation principles is not planned," she said.

Grning emphasized that the "moral and financial reparation of the wrongs
committed by the Nazi regime" has had and continues to have a high
significance for the German government, which has already paid out a total
of around 64 billion to Holocaust survivors. "However, the personal
suffering of millions can not be undone and also can not be made up for in
this way. Hence Germany's largest efforts in terms of reparations are
concentrated on Holocaust survivors who were directly affected."

Regarding the Fisher Fund's plan to take legal action, Grning said "A
class action suit is unlikely to succeed."

A Clear Demand

But Mazor, who repeatedly stressed that he only wanted to find a solution
to an "objective problem" and that he preferred a negotiated agreement to
a court settlement, made it clear that the issue was not going to go away.
He said that there was enormous interest in Israel in the plight of the
second generation due to extensive media coverage of the Fisher Fund's
campaign. "Thousands" of potential plaintiffs have got in touch with the
Fisher Fund, and the case is already being prepared, he says.

The Fisher Fund has not yet chosen a legal partner for the suit, nor the
country where it will be filed. Mazor also did not want to say when the
suit might be brought, but made it clear that "it won't be years."

"If those conversations we are having now are not fruitful, then there
will be a very strong, decisive and clear demand that is 100 percent
supported by the general public here," he says.

(source: Der Spiegel)



USA:

PRESIDENT BUSH APPOINTS NINE MEMBERS TO UNITED STATES HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL
COUNCIL

Fred S. Zeidman and Joel M. Geiderman Re-appointed as Chairman and
Vice-Chairman

WASHINGTON, D.C.(rushprnews) May 3rd,2007 President George W. Bush has
named nine people to the United States Holocaust Memorial Council, the
governing body of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. The members
were sworn-in at a Museum ceremony on Tuesday, April 17 by U.S.

Trade Representative Ambassador Susan Schwab, both of whose parents are
Holocaust survivors. The Council consists of 55 Presidential appointees,
10 Congressional representatives and three ex-officio members from the
departments of Education, Interior and State. Fred S. Zeidman and Joel M.
Geiderman have been re-appointed as Chairman and Vice Chairman,
respectively. Also re-appointed is Tom A. Bernstein. The others are newly
appointed. The appointments are for the remainder of five-year terms
expiring on January 15, 2012.

Fred S. Zeidman, Houston, TX, has served as Council Chairman since being
appointed by President Bush in 2002. A prominent Houston-based business
and civic leader, Mr. Zeidman is the former Chairman of the Board of
Seitel, Inc. and Chairman of Turnaround Partners, Inc. In 2004 he joined
Greenberg Traurig as Senior Managing Director of Governmental Affairs. He
serves on the Jewish National Funds Board of Directors and Executive
Committee. He is also National Board Member, Development Corporation for
Israel; Texas State Chairman, Israel Bonds; and Vice Chairman, Republican
Jewish Coalition. He serves on the Executive Committee of the American
Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). He served on the U.S. delegation
to the 2004 Antisemitism Conference in Berlin, sponsored by the
Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe.

Joel M. Geiderman, M.D., Los Angeles, CA, has served as Council Vice
Chairman since 2005 and has been on the Council since 2002. Dr. Geiderman
is a nationally recognized leader in the specialty of emergency medicine.
He serves on the Board of Directors of the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and
the Professional Council of the Jewish Healthcare Foundation. In 1997 Dr.
Geiderman was honored as Humanitarian of the Year by the United Hostesses
Charities, and in 2004 the Sheba Medical Center in Israel recognized him
with its Medical Visionary award. Dr. Geidermans mother, Helen, survived
the Holocaust and was liberated from Bergen-Belsen in 1945.

Miriam Adelson, M.D., Las Vegas, NV, a specialist in internal medicine and
substance addiction, is the Founder and Chairperson of the Dr. Miriam and
Sheldon G. Adelson Clinic, a heroin addiction treatment facility with
centers in Tel Aviv and Las Vegas. She has served as Emergency Room Head
Physician at Rokach Hospital in Tel Aviv and has published numerous
scientific papers on drug addiction and treatment. She is married to
Sheldon G. Adelson, Chairman of the Board and CEO of Las Vegas Sands
Corporation, who served on the Council from 2002-2007.

Tom A. Bernstein, New York, NY, is Co-Founder and President of Chelsea
Piers Management, Inc., formed in 1992, to develop and operate the Chelsea
Piers Sports and Entertainment Complex. He has been a member of the
Council since 2002 and Chairman of the Museums Committee on Conscience
since February 2003. He serves on the Board of Directors of Human Rights
First, WNYC Radio (New Yorks public radio station), The Fresh Air Fund,
and the Partnership for Public Service. He is a member of the Council on
Foreign Relations.

Carol Cohen, Highland Park, IL, is a long-time supporter of the arts in
Chicago. She serves on the Board of Trustees of the Museum of Contemporary
Art Chicago; the Womens Board of the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan
Chicago; the Jewish Community Centers of Chicago; and the Lynn Sage Cancer
Research Foundation, Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Chicago. She also
serves on the Print and Drawing Committee of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Michael J. Gerson, Alexandria, VA, is a senior fellow at the Council on
Foreign Relations. He also serves on the Museums Committee on Conscience.
Prior to joining the Council, Gerson held several senior positions in
President George W. Bushs administration including assistant to the
President for policy and strategic planning; assistant to the president
for speechwriting and policy advisor; deputy assistant to the President;
and director of presidential speechwriting. He was previously senior
editor covering politics at U.S. News and World Report. Gerson was a
speechwriter and policy advisory for Jack Kemp and a speechwriter for Bob
Dole during the 1996 presidential campaign.

Zvi Gitelman, Ann Arbor, MI, is professor of political science and the
Preston R. Tisch Professor of Judaic Studies at the University of
Michigan, Ann Arbor. He has held prestigious fellowships at universities
worldwide and was the 2005-2006 J.B. and Maurice C. Shapiro Scholar in
Residence at the Museums Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies. He has
authored or edited numerous scholarly articles and several books,
including A Century of Ambivalence: The Jews of Russia and the Soviet
Union since 1881; Bitter Legacy: Confronting the Holocaust in the Soviet
Union; The Emergence of Modern Jewish Politics: Bundism and Zionism in
Eastern Europe; Jewish Life After the USSR; and New Jewish Identities in
Contemporary Europe.

William S. Levine, Paradise Valley, AZ, along with partner Artie Moreno,
founded Outdoor Systems, the largest outdoor media company in the U.S.,
which was acquired by Viacom. Levine is active in real estate investments
and development and operates several business ventures including a
security alarm business and an Arizona-based, privately owned water
utility business. Additionally, he is a minority owner of the Los Angeles
Angels of Anaheim. He is the president of the William S. and Ina Levine
Charitable Foundation which supports Jewish, educational and cultural
organizations nationwide and established the Museums Ina Levine
Invitational Scholarship in 2003 in memory of his wife.

Jeff Wilpon, Greenwich, CT, is the New York Mets Chief Operating Officer.
He is also the Chief Operating Officer of Queens Ballpark Company, L.L.C.,
a wholly owned subsidiary of the New York Mets, responsible for the
planning, design, development and construction of Citi Field, the Mets new
home opening in 2009. He also serves as Executive Vice President at
Sterling Equities and on the Boards of a number of non-profit
organizations and institutions, including the New York Hall of Science;
NYC & Co.; the Greenwich Country Day School; and the Association for a
Better New York.

(source: Rush PR News)



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



The Nazi hunt continues for ex-guards

Decades of political, legal changes shaped U.S. Nazi hunt
Cases closed against former Nazis

Events to honor Holocaust Remembrance Day in Pittsburgh area

The Holocaust: by the numbers


His feet are wasted by diabetes and gout, his fingers gnarled from almost
four decades of hard work at a glove factory.
John Hansl left an Austrian refugee camp in 1955 and settled in Iowa with
his young family. A half-century later, his Nazi past came back to torment
him.

"I am not a monster, what they say I am," said Hansl, 82.

Federal courts stripped the former concentration camp guard of his U.S.
citizenship and Social Security benefits. Now the government can ask an
immigration court to deport him, though it's more likely Hansl will die in
a Des Moines nursing home, as a man without a country.

"Why me?" he asked.

Anton Geiser, 82, of Sharon, Mercer County, faces a similar fate after
almost 50 years as an American citizen.

Geiser, a retired steelworker battling cancer, was a guard in a Nazi SS
Totenkopf -- "Death's Head" -- battalion at Sachsenhausen, a large labor
camp outside Berlin, and Arsolen, a subcamp of Buchenwald. The government
alleges that makes him part of Nazi atrocities committed during World War
II, when 6 million Jews and 5 million Europeans were exterminated.

Geiser and his family moved to Western Pennsylvania in 1956, and he became
a citizen in 1962.

Last year, a federal judge in Pittsburgh revoked his citizenship. Geiser
appealed.

Critics question whether hunting down elderly Nazis is a waste of time and
money. Major decision-makers within the Nazi regime are dead. Former
guards who had no influence remain, they say, and many countries no longer
accept ex-Nazis from the United States.

"(The government) is prosecuting the most low-level nobodies who ever
served in the German military, and they're making it out to be the last
living Nazis," said Joseph McGinnis, a Cleveland lawyer who represented 11
former Nazis. "They are deceiving the American people."

John Loftus, a former Nazi hunter for the U.S. Department of Justice, sees
it differently.

"The Nazis in America got away with it," said Loftus, of Fort Lauderdale,
Fla. "They should have spent their lives in jail or died before a firing
squad."

Nazi hunting, American style

The United States is the only country to receive an "A" from the Simon
Wiesenthal Center for its Nazi-hunting efforts. It again earned the top
grade in the Jewish human rights organization's annual report to be
released today -- Holocaust Remembrance Day.

Since 1979, U.S. investigators have pored over military documents and
immigration records to find as many of the estimated 10,000 Nazis who
could have relocated here since 1945. Those efforts will continue until
the last Nazi in the United States is dead or deported, investigators say.

"There are still Nazi criminals here who are physically healthy," said Eli
Rosenbaum, director of the Justice Department's Office of Special
Investigations, the designated Nazi-hunting squad. "There are still
victims here crying over lost family members, and I think it's clear that
the government feels it has a legal and moral obligation to pursue these
cases."

Over three decades, the Justice Department has investigated 1,700 alleged
Nazis living in the United States. It won cases against 105 people. Of
those, 85 were denaturalized; the other 20 never became citizens.
Sixty-three of the 105 were deported.

Cases are pending against 16 others, including Geiser.

Almost every defendant was a former SS guard or member of a Nazi-backed
police squad accused of lying on visa applications to hide Nazi pasts and
enter the United States illegally. The Justice Department hopes to deport
former Nazis to European countries that could impose harsh penalties.

Rosenbaum said his office files civil lawsuits, because the government
can't file criminal charges in these cases. The war crimes happened when
no law permitted the U.S. government to prosecute non-U.S. citizens for
crimes committed in foreign countries.

"Today, it's not all that hard to find Nazis. What is (difficult) is
getting them into court and prosecuting them," said Efraim Zuroff, who
leads the Simon Wiesenthal Center's worldwide search for Nazi war
criminals. "It's a relatively rare occurrence for people to be prosecuted"
in other countries after deportation, he said.

The United States is finding it increasingly difficult to find countries
willing to accept its Nazi deportees. In October, a judge freed a Michigan
man who spent more than three years in jail while officials searched for a
country to take him. Germany, Romania and Hungary refused.

Eight other defendants are in similar legal limbo.

Never forget, but forgive?

Many Holocaust survivors support the government's efforts, no matter how
modest the results.

Steven Fenves, 78, a retired Carnegie Mellon University engineering
professor, lost his mother at Auschwitz. His father survived the
concentration camps, but died a few months after the war ended.

Fenves chooses not to hate and said he even feels some sympathy for men
such as Geiser, who was a guard at Buchenwald when Fenves was held there
briefly at the end of the war.

"But if he came (to the United States) under illegal means, he deserves to
be deported," Fenves said. "Prosecuting him at his age is probably out of
the question, but I think the intent of the law has to be preserved."

Eva Kor stands out from most Holocaust survivors, advocating forgiveness
and criticizing deportation cases.

Kor, 72, of Terre Haute, Ind., was the focus of the 2006 documentary,
"Forgiving Dr. Mengele," the scientist who oversaw heinous medical
experiments during Adolf Hitler's reign. Kor and her twin sister were
subjected to some of them at Auschwitz. Had Geiser been her guard, she
said, she would forgive him, too.

Better than deportation, she said, would be house arrest and a court order
compelling him to tell everything he did and saw while in the SS. That
could foster understanding and possible healing, she said.

"(Prosecutors) are wearing these judgments as feathers in their caps, but
I'm not very impressed, frankly," Kor said. "I would like them to bask in
the glory that they helped so many victims heal. This would have done a
lot more good."

Irene Szulman, 78, of Shadyside, spent four years imprisoned in a Polish
ghetto and later in concentration camps. She dreamed of killing her
tormentors, she said.

In April 1945, she said, a U.S. soldier offered her a gun and told her she
could shoot anyone. Szulman, then 15, froze, terrified as much by the
weapon as the thought of using it. "Overnight, I was human," she said.

Though she no longer wants them dead, Szulman said she can neither forget
nor forgive. "I can never say that."

Jack Sittsamer, 82, of Squirrel Hill, was the only member of his family to
survive the war. The Nazis killed his parents and four siblings.

"It's hard to forgive the people who did me wrong," he said.

The image of his father, a maimed World War I veteran of the Polish Army,
being shot to death for failing to keep up during a forced march is seared
into Sittsamer's memory.

He vividly remembers Joseph Schwammberger, an SS lieutenant, weaving
through prisoners lined up in a Polish labor camp. Schwammberger pressed a
chrome-plated pistol to the back of each head, including Sittsamer's.

"Sometimes every fifth person, sometimes every eighth person, he pulled
the trigger," Sittsamer said.

Helpless and heartbroken

Unlike Schwammberger, who was convicted in Germany on 32 counts of
homicide, no war crime evidence exists against Hansl or Geiser. Their
lawyers argue the two men -- both ethnic Germans originally from what is
now Croatia -- served as perimeter guards at Sachsenhausen and harmed no
one.

Their visa applications list wartime service in the "German Army," not the
Waffen SS.

Geiser told investigators no one asked whether he was in the SS. His
lawyer thinks the U.S. government must have known. Yugoslavians such as
Geiser, and other foreigners, weren't allowed to serve in the German army,
said Jay Reisinger, Geiser's attorney.

"They knew he was in the Waffen SS," Reisinger said.

The government also knew that to be true of Hansl, said his lawyer, James
Benzoni. Hansl was captured wearing his Nazi uniform, held prisoner by the
U.S. for two years and investigated for war crimes. No evidence was found,
and Hansl was turned over to the French, who investigated and found no
wrongdoing, Benzoni said.

"The whole prosecution of John Hansl by the U.S. government is not
honest," said Benzoni, of Des Moines.

Anne Marie Hansl, 55, said her father presented paperwork for a Nazi medal
he earned when applying for his visa. The U.S. consulate requested his
files from the war crimes investigation.

"It hurts to realize my country is doing this to my father at the end of
his life," she said. "We played by the rules. My parents did what they
were asked to do, way back when. My parents raised us to be good
Americans."

Rosenbaum said he feels sorry for the families, but insists men such as
Geiser and Hansl are responsible for the heartbreak.

"People, particularly over a long period of time, can probably persuade
themselves that they either didn't do anything wrong or they had no
choice," Rosenbaum said. "But people did have choices."

(source: Pittsburgh Tribune-Review)