August 16



ROMANIA:

Romania as part of the new Europe


More than a half a year has elapsed since Romania joined the European
Union. Throughout the country, from the shabbiest village in Oltenia, to
the lovingly restored streets of medieval towns in Tranyslvania, the EU
flag proudly flutters. Other changes are plain to see as Romanians embrace
the idea that they are now "a part of Europe."

All around are the trappings of a burgeoning consumer society. Hordes of
foreign tourists and investors (including not a few Israelis) are
everywhere, having discovered one of Europe's best kept secrets: Romania's
breathtaking natural beauty and seemingly limitless, and very lucrative
business opportunities. All this stands in stark contrast to the
nightmarish misery that was Ceaucescu's Romania.

But, in at least one area of Romania's development, there is cause for
dismay. The brilliant Romanian-born scholar Michael Shafir once
characterized the long-standing Romanian approach to the Holocaust as
"selective negationism" - something far more pernicious than mere
Holocaust denial. The Romanian argument ran something like this: There was
no Holocaust in Romania; if Jews were killed, then it was very few and
Romanians were certainly not to blame; and if Romanians had taken Jewish
lives, then it was only in reaction to Jewish misdeeds.

Four years ago, largely a result of international outcry in the wake of
certain intemperate remarks by then president Ion Iliescu (words to the
effect that no Holocaust had been perpetrated in Romania; that Jews
exaggerated their losses; and that by seeking the restitution of their
property, they were trying to "skin" poor Romanians) a commission was
established to study the extent of Romania's culpability in the Holocaust.

The findings of the committee's inquiry were published in a report that
demonstrated unequivocally that the pro-German Antonescu regime was
directly responsible for the deaths of between 280,000-380,000 Jews in
Romania and in Romanian-occupied parts of Soviet Ukraine. In other words,
Romania had more Jewish deaths on its ledger than any country save
Germany-Austria. After the release of those findings, the Romanians
pledged to right past wrongs, and to teach about the Holocaust in schools.

To be sure, progress has been made. Some schools do teach about the fate
of Romanian Jews; there are university programs in Jewish studies;
Romanian educators participate in courses at Yad Vashem; Elie Wiesel's
family house is preserved, and a Holocaust museum has been established in
a small town synagogue in northern Transylvania. That institution recently
hosted a "Holocaust Remembrance Olympiad." However, to see any real change
one has to look very hard. This suggests that much still needs to be done:

- In the National Military Museum in Bucharest considerable attention is
devoted to battles fought by Romania in World War II. Behind glass cases,
and staring out at legions of school children who come to visit, are
uniforms, flags, firearms, medals, maps and photographs. Outside the
building are tanks and artillery pieces, airplanes and armored cars. But
nowhere is there is even a hint that units of the Romanian armed forces
were responsible for acts of genocide against Jews.

- In an important city in northern Transylvania, the regional history
museum reveals not a single reference to the fact that in 1944, while
under Hungarian rule, the entire Jewish population was deported to
Auschwitz. In fact, there is no mention of Jews at all. Nor is there any
visible monument to remind locals that nearly a fifth of the townspeople
were gassed and burned. This omission is especially curious in light of
the fact that Hungarians were responsible for this crime, not Romanians. A
forlorn synagogue and cemetery do bear silent witness to the Jewish
presence, but it is doubtful if most people are even aware of their
existence.

- On sale in bookshops is a slim volume used by Romanian high school
students to "cram" for matriculation exams in history. There is nothing
about the Jews in the book's treatment of the war years.

A few days ago, Yad Vashem announced that Theodor Criveanu had been
posthumously recognized as a "righteous among the nations." As a reserve
officer in the Romanian army stationed in Czernowitz, Criveanu was
assigned the task of compiling lists of work permits for Jews in the
ghetto. According to the testimony of survivors, he distributed many extra
permits, thus saving Jewish lives. Eventually, he married the daughter of
one of the Jews he saved. "My father's life was based on justness" said
his son, "He was a gift from God for my mother's family and to so many
more." Criveanu was the 53rd Romanian recognized for rescuing Jews.

More than 15 years ago the exiled Romanian king, Mihai I, himself the son
of a "righteous gentile" in her own right, implored his countrymen not to
forget the Jews of Romania who perished in the Holocaust. "They will be
forever our countrymen, our brothers and sisters - I urge you: Remember
them."

Romanians would do well to take those words to heart; and also to cherish
the memory of individuals such as Criveanu and Queen Mother Elena, as
"gifts from God to the Romanian people" - even as they remember the deeds
of their less honorable, and even sinister, brethren, who left an
indelible stain on their nation's history. In so doing, Romanians would
set a courageous example for other Europeans, still afflicted by amnesia.

(source: Column, Dr. Laurence Weinbaum is a lecturer in history at the
Ariel University Center of Samaria and chief editor of the Israel Journal
of Foreign Affairs; Ha'Aretz)





AUSTRIA/UNITED KINGDOM:

Austrian cash for UK survivors


A 90-year-old Holocaust survivor is to be one of the beneficiaries of a
600,000 fund which will provide financial assistance and help meet the
costs of urgent medical attention for Austrian refugees in the UK.

Gerda Lawrence was forced to flee her native Vienna in 1938, after Jews
were hounded out of the university at which she studied. She lost both her
parents in Auschwitz but managed to evade torture herself by escaping to
Greece before illegally making her way by cargo ship to Palestine. Here
she became a nurse, before finally moving to England with her husband.

Today, she lives in sheltered accommodation in Jesmond, Newcastle upon
Tyne, where she has been "safe and sound" for the past five years.

Mrs Lawrence was due to undergo a knee operation this week, and is looked
after by domestic carers. This care and the approaching operation is made
possible for Mrs Lawrence, and many others like her, by the Austrian
Holocaust Survivor Emergency Assistance Programme (AHSEAP).

It was established in 2003 by the Austrian government together with Bank
Austria to help Austrian Holocaust survivors with limited incomes in need
of medical care, homecare and payment of emergency rent to prevent
eviction. They also organise an Austrian state pension.

The Association of Jewish Refugees administers AHSEAP funds on behalf of
an umbrella group of Jewish charities which work with Holocaust survivors
and refugees.

AHSEAPs funds will be distributed throughout the UK between August 2007
and July 2008. This substantial donation reflects the need to assist more
Austrian survivors in the UK.

Mrs Lawrence told the JC: I have had a great amount of help from AJR.
They are a very compassionate organisation.

The AJR can be contacted on 020 8385 3070 or at enquiries@...

(source: The JewishChronicle.com)





HUNGARY:

Hungarian far-right


Hungarian Jewish leaders have called on the Socialist-led coalition
government to ban a new extreme nationalist group with fascist overtones.

The Magyar Garda (Hungarian Guard) has been set up by Jobbik, a small
far-right party. Jobbik plans to inaugurate the Guard, whose members wear
black uniforms and insignia reminiscent of the wartime Nazi Arrow Cross
regime, at a ceremony at the Buda Castle on 25 August.

A spokesman for the Federation of Jewish Communities, Mazsihisz, said: We
trust that the government will find a constitutional way to work against
the existence of this and similar groups and guarantee a peaceful
existence for Hungarian Jews and every Hungarian resident.

The Guards founder, Gabor Vona, claimed that 300 people had applied to
join the group, which plans to take part in rescue and civil defence
activities and safeguard Hungarian culture.

Jobbik is not represented in parliament but has representatives on several
local councils. The Guard has been strongly condemned by Socialists and
Liberals and the centre-right Hungarian Democratic Forum (MDF).

There is no need in Hungary in 2007 for a shadow army like the Magyar
Garda, said a representative of the MDF, expressing disapproval that Lajos
Fur, a former defence minister and former MDF president would be taking
part in the 25 August ceremony.

There is concern among the Jewish community that the main opposition
party, the right-wing Fidesz, refused to condemn the Guard and defended
members right to free association providing they do not endanger the
freedoms of others.

The political atmosphere in Hungary has been sour since last autumn after
widespread riots and civil unrest shook the capital, following Prime
Minister Ferenc Gyurcsanys admission that he had lied to the country about
the state of the economy. Some analysts have warned that while Hungarian
far-right movements may not have grown significantly in terms of numbers,
they have become more confident as well as better organised.

The call to ban the Magyar Garda comes after a survey by the
Anti-Defamation League found Hungary had the highest levels of
antisemitism out of six other European countries. The study, published
last month, showed that 60 per cent of the sample surveyed believed it was
probably true that Jews have too much power in the business world and 58
per cent thought that Jews talk too much about what happened to them in
the Holocaust.

Hungary is home to between 80,000 and 100,000 Jews, including numerous
elderly Holocaust survivors, most of whom live in the capital, Budapest.

(source: The JewishChronicle.com)





USA:

Man, 91, to Be Deported for Aiding Nazis


In Boston, an immigration judge has ordered the deportation of a 91-year-old
retired factory worker because he lied about his part in the Nazi
destruction of Warsaw's Jewish ghetto in 1943, federal prosecutors said
Thursday.

Immigration Judge Wayne R. Iskra ordered Vladas Zajanckauskas sent to his
native Lithuania, according to a news release from Alice S. Fisher,
assistant attorney general for the Justice Department's criminal division.

Zajanckauskas' lawyer, Thomas Butters, did not immediately return a call
Thursday and a personal phone number for Zajanckauskas could not be
located.

The deportation order, issued Aug. 2 and delivered to the Department of
Justice on Tuesday, ended an appeal, but the department said Zajanckauskas
hasn't yet left the country. The order comes more than two years after a
federal judge revoked his U.S. citizenship.

Zajanckauskas, of Sutton, 40 miles east of Boston, denied he was in Warsaw
at the time and said his service was limited to working the bar at the
Nazi training camp in Trawniki, Poland.

Justice Department prosecutors said he was recruited into a Nazi-trained
guard unit called "Trawniki men" and was on a roster of the guard unit's
members who the Nazi SS deployed to help capture Jews in the Warsaw ghetto
to be removed to death camps.

The judge noted that Zajanckauskas admitted that Trawniki men guarded Jews
and prevented their escape when they were being rounded up in the ghetto.
Trawniki men also conducted house-to-house searches for hidden Jews,
fought against resistance fighters and took part in the shooting of some
captured Jews, the judge said.

The Nazis killed thousands and burned down the ghetto, street by street,
after the Jews resisted attempts to deport them to death camps.

Zajanckauskas was a member of the Lithuanian army, then the Soviet army
when that country annexed Lithuania in 1940. He became a German prisoner
of war a year later before being recruited for German service in 1942.

He received Nazi ideological instructions with other members of the
Trawniki unit and got benefits, including home leave, according to the
court ruling.

Zajanckauskas emigrated from Austria in 1950 and became a naturalized U.S.
citizen in 1956. Zajanckauskas said he never told immigration officials
about his Trawniki service because it would jeopardize his chances of
getting into the United States.

(source: Associated Press)





CANADA:

Jewish group asking court to revisit the cases of two alleged war criminals


B'nai Brith Canada has gone to court in an attempt to strip two alleged
Nazi war criminals of their citizenship.

The group is seeking judicial review of a federal cabinet decision not to
revoke the citizenship of Wasyl Odynsky and Vladimir Katriuk after courts
found they lied about their wartime pasts when they came to Canada.

The group claims the war crimes unit of the Justice Department found
grounds for concluding the two men were complicity in Nazi war crimes, but
cabinet decided last May not to revoke their citizenship.

B'nai Brith says crucial evidence from stakeholders - notably the Jewish
community - was not presented to all ministers.

The organization's senior lawyer, David Matas, says he will argue the
process was flawed and that cabinet was prevented from making a fully
informed decision on the matter.

Matas says he has documents showing that ministers were "fed selective
testimony weighting the decision in one direction" while they were denied
access to submissions from Holocaust survivors and their families.

However, the evidence against at least one of the men is far from clear.

A Ukrainian, Odynsky served as a perimeter guard at a forced-labour camp
in Trawniki, defending the camp against attacks by partisans. On Nov. 3 or
4, 1943, a massacre by German SS wiped out most of the Jewish captives in
the area.

Federal Court Judge Andrew MacKay found in March 2001 that Odynsky was
confined to his barracks at the time. The judge also said he had no doubt
Odynsky served involuntarily throughout the war and had never been a Nazi.

Nevertheless, he said that, while evidence was foggy on the point, he
could only conclude that it is more likely than not that Odynsky lied to
immigration officers about his wartime status.

The Federal Court ruled in 1999 that Katriuk obtained Canadian citizenship
by lying about "collaboration with and service to German authorities in
Ukraine and Belorussia, and . . . atrocities against members of the
civilian population in Belorussia," now Belarus.

The court concluded Katriuk had been a voluntary member of a Ukrainian
battalion that had been implicated in numerous atrocities in the Ukraine,
including the deaths of thousands of Jews in Belorussia between 1941 and
1944.

Nearly 12 years after the Katriuk case was launched - even though he lost
at the Federal Court level and exhausted the appeal process - nothing more
has happened.

Both Katriuk and Odynsky testified that immigration officials had never
asked them about their wartime activities.

(source: Canadian Press)



GERMANY:

Net closing in on top Nazi criminal - German magazine

Investigators are closing in on one of the last living top Nazi war
criminals, Germany's Der Spiegel magazine reported on Saturday.

Germany has for decades been searching for Aribert Heim, an SS doctor
accused of having killed hundreds of concentration camp inmates with heart
injections.

Earlier this month, Austria said it was offering a 50,000 euro ($68,260)
reward for information leading to the arrest of Heim and Alois Brunner, an
aide to Adolf Eichmann who helped organise the deportation of Jews to
death camps.

Spiegel magazine said investigators were focusing on Spain and Austria in
their hunt and that they had their sights on friends and relations of
Heim, known as "Dr Death" at the Mauthausen concentration camp.

The magazine did not name its sources.

The 93-year-old is presumed to be living in Spain or Latin America,
according to the Nazi-hunting Simon Wiesenthal Centre.

Germany had offered a 130,000 euro reward for Heim a few years ago but
Austria's move was the first offer it has made for Nazi war criminals.

The Alpine country has been accused for decades of dragging its feet over
prosecuting Nazis and for being lenient when they are brought to court.

(source: Reuters, July 28)