Aug. 26



AUSTRIA:

Austrian Holocaust remembrance volunteers languish


Visas for a number of Austrian volunteers seeking placement at U.S.
Holocaust remembrance institutions have been delayed and in one case
denied.

In a report Thursday, the New York Times described recent delays of up to
six months for four interns: one at the Los Angeles Museum of the
Holocaust who was ultimately rejected, two at the Leo Baeck Institute in
New York City and one at the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles. The
Virginia Holocaust Museum in Richmond has given up on the program because
of the difficulties.

Young Austrians may volunteer for a yearlong internship at one of 25
Holocaust rembrance institutions across the world in lieu of military
service.

The problems date back four years, the Times reported. Homeland Security
officials denied there was a trend, and noted that security checks had
increased since the Sept. 11 2001 terrorist attacks.

(source: JTA)

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Austrian Holocaust denier arrested in Spain


An Austrian writer wanted for denying the Holocaust was arrested Thursday
by Spanish police in Malaga, southern Spain.

Gerd Honsik was convicted of neo-Nazi activities in his native Austria in
1992 and sentenced to 18 months in prison, but fled to Spain to avoid
jail.

Honsik has written books denying the Holocaust of Jews during WWII and the
use of gas chambers, including one titled "Absolution for Hitker." He is
currently publishing an anti-Semitic newspaper in Spain.

The National Court in Spain had refused an application by Honsik to be
considered as a political refugee, a decision which was later confirmed by
the Supreme Court.

Holocaust denial is a criminal offense in Austria.

Austria has not yet launched a formal extradition request for Honsik. It
is not clear if it intends to do so.

The Vienna public prosecutors office said Thursday it had issued a
European warrant seeking Honsiks arrest, based on suspicions that he had
committed other offenses since Austria enacted a landmark 1992 law making
it a crime to deny the Holocaust or promote Nazi propaganda.
"Absolution for Hitler," the cover of a book by Gerd Honsik.

Austrian Justice Minister Maria Berger said in a statement she was pleased
with the arrest, calling it part of "the fight against racism and
xenophobia."

In another Austrian Holocaust denial case, British historian David Irving
pleaded guilty in February 2006 but was released from prison later that
year after serving only 13 months of his three-year sentence.

Austria is not the only country to criminalize Holocaust denial.

In February, a German court sentenced anti-Semitic writer Ernst Zundel to
five years in prison after finding him guilty on 14 counts of incitement,
libel and disparaging the dead. Holocaust denial constitutes a crime under
section 130 of the German federal criminal code.

In April, the European Union approved a framework decision criminalizing
the Holocaust denial and other genocides, after six years of intense EU
debate.

(source: European Jewish Press)





USA:

Woman reunites with child she saved from Nazis


Anneke Thompson's parents perished in a Nazi concentration camp decades
ago, when she was just a baby.

This past week in Dartmouth, N.S., she reunited with the woman who saved
her from the same fate.

"It's strange, because I only remember her as a baby -- and now all at
once there's an adult," said Cora Greenaway, who was a courier for the
Dutch underground when she first laid eyes on Anneke in Holland during the
Second World War.

"I thought she'd be much taller ... it's funny what you have in your
mind," Greenaway said.

Anneke's Jewish parents, the Kuunkas, gave the baby to Greenaway when they
were forced to go into hiding to escape persecution.

"They wouldn't allow a baby," Greenaway said. "Babies start to cry when
they shouldn't."

So the couple called on Greenaway, a young student at the time, to come
and get the little girl from their apartment.

The Kuunkas knew they had to let their child go to give her a chance of
surviving -- but Greenaway said she still had to pry the baby from their
hands as precious seconds ticked by.

"Finally, I said, I can't wait any longer -- I have to get to the Hague
(in the Netherlands)," Greenaway said. "I have to deliver this child, and
curfew is at eight o'clock."

Greenaway and Anneke left the apartment and embarked on a dangerous
journey by train, tram and foot, to a rendezvous point, where the child
was to be handed over to a contact.

If Nazi officers discovered Anneke for what she was, Greenaway said she
would have been killed immediately.

But that wasn't the only risk -- if the duo was found out en route, the
young woman would have met a similar fate, because helping Jews was
punishable by death.

Although the stakes were high for them both, Greenaway told CTV's Canada
AM Friday her mind was only on Anneke.

"(My) priority was to save a baby -- you just think 'I've got to do
this...to the best of my ability. I must look quite normal and not cry' --
you just walk like it's your baby," Greenaway said.

Finally, the two were under the light of the third lamppost on an
abandoned roadway.

"Nobody on the street -- not a soul," Greenaway said, recalling how she
found the spot. "Third lamppost -- 1-2-3 -- and sure enough there was a
voice behind me, 'You're late.'"

Greenaway handed the baby over, and it was the last she saw of the child
-- until a friend dug into the past for her and found Anneke in the United
States last spring.

Greenaway called Anneke, who now goes by the last name Thompson, and the
two arranged to meet.

Thompson was excited to hear from her long-lost saviour, but said time
hasn't erased the pain of losing her parents.

"I don't think a day has gone by in my entire life, including as a small
child, when I haven't thought of people going to the gas chamber,"
Thompson said.

After Greenaway delivered the baby, Anneke lived with a family, posing as
the middle child. Her parents were captured and taken to the infamous
concentration camp Auschwitz.

When the war ended, she was sent to live with an aunt in New York after
discovering her parents had died in the Nazi camp, where she tried to move
on, and focused on her studies.

"I was very lucky -- I went to the nicest high school in the world ... in
New York City," Thompson said.

Now married and a grandmother of seven, Thompson sat with Greenaway,
sharing pictures and memories -- and wondering why the woman risked her
life to give a stranger's baby a chance.

"Watching (my grandchildren) develop, I wonder about myself, which I
rarely did -- thinking I was once that age," Thompson said.

"I think the most difficult thing is the feeling that I wasn't the right
child to pick. That all these people went to such risks -- and it's just
me."

When the two women met, Greenaway said she wasn't sure what to do --
because the first time, she just took Anneke into her arms without
thinking twice.

"That's the baby I held in my arms 65 years ago," Greenaway said. "You
don't know what to say. You'd like to get her in your arms, but, well,
would she like that?"

Although Thompson said she the reunion was difficult and joyous at the
same time, there's one emotion she was very sure of -- gratitude.

"After we got to know each other a little bit, I think I've gotten better
at expressing ... how much I appreciate what she did for me and how much I
admire the risks she's taken," Thompson told Canada AM.

"Thank you, thank you to Cora."

(source: CTV)