UN marks Holocaust Remembrance Day

At the United Nations ceremony marking International Holocaust Remembrance Day, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said that, "The Holocaust did not occur in a vacuum."

 

Guterres began his speech by mentioning the Holocaust survivors attending the ceremony—Thomas Buergenthal, who survived Auschwitz and Sachsenhausen and served as a judge of the International Court of Justice and as a professor at George Washington University Law School and Eva Lavi, the youngest survivor on Schindler’s List.

 

Danon (R), Guterres (second left) and Eva Lavi (L) (Photo: Nir Arieli)

Guterres said, "As (former) prime minister of Portugal and UN secretary general, I feel that it has been my duty to do all I can to combat anti-Semitism. This day is about the past, but also the future. It is about Jews, but also all others who find themselves struggling with discrimination and defamation because of who they are." Guterres said we have two tasks: "to remember the Holocaust and its victims and to stand guard against hate today. Genocide does not occur in a vacuum." He added, "The Holocaust was the culmination of thousands of years of Jew hatred. It was a planned, systematic extermination and it was done with the encouragement of pseudo-scientific information and propaganda that poisoned millions of minds. Step after step the social order collapsed, a society known for its cultural accomplishments lost its moral anchor. "The international order collapsed as well. Nations still did not manage to recover from the First World War; the League of Nations was revealed to be a failure, borders proved vulnerable to aggression," he continued. "And then, total tragedy—Nazi concentration camps and gas chambers in Poland, under the German occupation, killing fields in the east, known today as Holocaust by bullets. We must not forget these facts," Guterres said. Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon spoke at the event as well and said, "We should tell our children the unfathomable tales of that time so that such a tragedy is not repeated. We must prevent legislation that denies the truth and rewrites history. Just as we remember the brave who stood against evil and saved Jews from death, we must not forget those who collaborated with the Nazis." Danon denounced the UN Human Rights Report released Wednesday, "For hundreds of years, anti-Semites boycotted Jewish businesses; they forbade commerce with Jews and marked them for isolation. The report issued by the Human Rights Commission is a direct continuation of that. They join an infamous list of anti-Semites who failed in breaking the (spirit of) the Jews."

Eva Lavi (Photo: UN Photo)

At Danon's request, Eva Lavi was brought in as a guest from Israel to speak at the ceremony. Lavi, 81, survived the war together with her parents thanks to Oskar Schindler, who himself convinced the Nazis that the young girl was crucial to the operations of his factory.

Lavi told her story at the podium and said, "Children our age had no childhood, we saw and heard all that the Nazis did: sadistic behavior towards infants, the elderly and the disabled, with laughter and glee on their face. The image of my young cousins being shot haunts me until today." Lavi said that she did not forget who saved her from the Nazi hell—God, Schindler and her mother. They were on their way to his factory when they were sent to Auschwitz, but Schindler managed to extricate them from there. Lavi concluded, "Today I am a proud Israeli citizen, I and all of my family served in the IDF. The Holocaust must serve as a warning to us all of what can happen when racism and anti-Semitism spread throughout the world. We ought to learn to live together, we were all created equal."

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Recipient of Polish award returns honor over death camp legislation

An Israeli historian of Jewish-Israeli heritage who was awarded in 2012 the Knight's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic from the then Polish president for his contribution to promoting the memory—and increasing awareness of—the Polish Righteous Among the Nations, has returned his award in protest against “demonic” legislation that Israel has argued is an attempt to downplay Poland’s role in Nazi atrocities. The legislation, that has been approved by Poland’s lower house of Parliament, prescribes prison time for defaming the Polish nation by using phrases such as "Polish death camps" to refer to the killing sites Nazi Germany operated in occupied Poland during World War II. “This is hypocrisy and a distortion of history, and it’s something I can’t agree with,” Israel Gal said in an interview with Ynet. Gal, also a scholar of literature, acquired the rights to the book “People and Animals” which tells the story of Jan Żabiński, and his wife Antonina, who saved about three hundred Jews brought out of the Warsaw ghetto in a zoo in the city, and in 2011, he published his Hebrew version of the book.

Israel Gal (Photo: Amit Huber)

“I received this award of honor from the then Polish president Bronisław Komorowski through the Polish Embassy,” Gal said. “This brave and humane family saved dozens, perhaps even hundreds of Jews and underground Polish fighters.” Asked why he had decided to return the award, Gal pointed to the less liberal stance that had gripped the current Polish government. “I did it because the new government in Poland is acting in an almost completely opposite fashion to the government in 2012, that was a lot more liberal,” Gal responded. “We must not be tempted by the current government’s agenda—to elevate the Polish Righteous Among the Nations, and rightly so, but to hide the many murderous acts against Jews and the looting of property by Poles,” he added. “I met with the deputy Polish ambassador and I told him what I think about this hypocrisy and about the distortion of history,” Gal said, who added that the deputy ambassador had urged him to reconsider his decision. “He said what he had to say, asked me to reconsider and I told him I’m waiting to see the results of this hostile and demonic legislation,” he continued.

(Photo: Amit Huber)

“I added that I expect to see actions and investigations by Polish and international researchers, who will expose the bitter truth about the murder of Jews by the Poles, without and connection to, or dependence on, the actions of the criminal Nazis.”

On Monday, President Andrzej Duda doubled down on the matter, saying that there was no institutionalized participation by Poland or its people in the Holocaust, but he acknowledged that individual Poles took “wicked” actions against Jewish neighbors.

But despite Duda’s attempt to soften the blow to Israelis and Holocaust survivors outraged over the legislation, Gal’s act of protest joined a chorus of bitter criticism that had emanated from the Israeli political and academic establishment.

Before Duda’s announcement, President Reuven Rivlin said during remarks in Athens the legislation is "a reminder that it is still beholden upon us to fight for the memory of the Holocaust, as it happened,” and added that Israel would never forget the atrocities carried out by some Poles of their own accord and on orders from Germany.

Assaf Kamar, Attila Somfalvi and Alexandra Lukash contributed to this report.

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Pope denounces Holocaust 'indifference' amid Polish uproar

Pope Francis said Monday that countries have a responsibility to fight anti-Semitism and the "virus of indifference" that threatens to erase the memory of the Holocaust. Francis' comments to an international conference on anti-Semitism came as the largely Roman Catholic Poland considers legislation that would outlaw blaming Poles for the crimes of the Holocaust. The proposed legislation has sparked an outcry in Israel. Francis didn't mention the dispute but he did speak of his 2016 visit to the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp in German-occupied Poland, saying he remembered "the roar of the deafening silence" that the left room for only tears, prayer and requests for forgiveness.

Pope Francis at Rome conference on the responsibility of states to fight anti-Semitism (Photo: EPA)

He called for Christians and Jews to build a "common memory" of the Holocaust, saying "it is our responsibility to hand it on in a dignified way to young generations." "The enemy against which we fight is not only hatred in all of its forms, but even more fundamentally indifference, for it is indifference that paralyzes and impedes us from doing what is right even when we know that it is right," he said. The anti-Semitism conference, hosted by the Italian foreign ministry in cooperation with the OSCE and Italy's Jewish communities, was timed to correspond to International Holocaust Remembrance Day. On the eve of the commemoration, Poland's lower house parliament approved a bill calling for prison time for referring to "Polish death camps" and criminalizes the mention of Polish complicity in the Holocaust. Many Poles believe such phrasing implies that Poles had a role in running the camps. But critics worry it could be used to stifle research and debate on topics that are anathema to Poland's nationalistic authorities, particularly the painful issue of Poles who blackmailed Jews or denounced them to the Nazis during the war. In his remarks, Francis called for a "culture of responsibility" among nations to establish an "alliance against indifference" about the Holocaust.

"We need urgently to educate young generations to be actively involved in the struggle against hatred and discrimination, but also in overcoming conflicting positions in the past, and never grow tired of seeking out the other," he said.

(Photo: EPA)

Quoting his predecessor, Pope John Paul, Francis said everyone should work for a future where "the unspeakable iniquity of the Shoah will never again be possible." Shoah is the Hebrew word for the Holocaust.

Poland, where Auschwitz is located, has also seen acts of anti-Semitism recently.

One, exposed by a television station, showed people in a forest last year chanting "Sieg Heil" on what would have been Adolf Hitler's 128th birthday.

About 60,000 people, some carrying banners with slogans such as "pure blood, clear mind," marched in a far-right demonstration in Warsaw in November and arsonists set fire to a synagogue in Sweden last month.

Ronald Lauder, president of the World Jewish Congress, said: "In country after country, we are watching a growing wave of far-right, ultra-national, and in some cases neo-Nazi parties gaining strength."

Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

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Last known Sobibor death camp survivor dies in Ukraine

Arkady Weisspapier, the last known survivor of the Nazis' Sobibor death camp, has died in Ukraine. He was 96.

 

The Berlin-based Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe said Monday that Waispapir died January 11 in Kiev.

Arkady Weisspapier (Photo: Alan Heath/Youtube)

Born in southern Ukraine in 1921, Weisspapier was captured by the Germans while serving in the Soviet Army and eventually shipped to the Nazis' Sobibor camp in occupied Poland in 1943 because he was Jewish. He was one of a few inmates spared immediate death in Sobibor's gas chambers, and instead ordered to a work detail. In October 1943, prisoners organized an uprising against the guards and succeeded in killing nearly a dozen. Weisspapier was one of the eight main organizers of the uprising, who used their training as soldiers to help devise their plan. In the end, about half of the camp's 600 prisoners managed to escape, although about 100 were caught almost immediately. Of the 200 who made it further, only 47, including Weisspapier, survived the war. Following the uprising, the Nazi guards shot the remaining prisoners and razed the camp. Between March 1942 and October 1943, about 167,000 people were killed in Sobibor, almost entirely Jews, according to the US Holocaust Memorial Museum. Weisspapier lost his entire family during the Nazi occupation of Ukraine, according to the German Holocaust memorial. He married after the war and had two sons, the memorial said, without providing further details. Weisspapier lived and worked in eastern Ukraine until retiring in 1994 and moving to Kiev.

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Envelopes reveal Polish support for Nazis during World War Two

The National Library of Israel unveiled Monday a collection of 59 bone-chilling letters sent to the different branches of a Jewish social assistance organization from the organization's Krakow chairman Michał Weichert, on the backdrop of the contentious Polish bill outlawing references to "Polish death camps."

 

Weichert's organization, Yidishe Sotsyale Aleynhilf—meaning "Jewish Social Self-Help"—was a legal organization that organized aid for Jews in camps and ghettos during World War Two.

The letters in question were mailed between September 1940 and May 1941 in order to try and ascertain the situation in Jewish communities across Poland, but the country's mail service returned them to sender adding various handwritten comments on the envelopes, which deftly point to Polish collaboration with the Nazi regime.

The envelopes from Weichert's collection

 Among the inscriptions written on the envelopes by Polish mailmen were remarks such as "The Jew no longer exists," "The Jew has left the address," "The Jews have been expelled," and "The Jewish council no longer exists."

It seems reasonable to assume, then, that the Polish mailmen were well aware of what befell the letters' recipients when they returned them to sender with the aforementioned remarks.

Weichert was shaken by the returned letters, surmising that the mailmen's remarks hinted at the annihilation of an entire community.

The envelopes, some of which were stamped in Polish with "Victory for the Germans on all fronts!", were taken by Weichert as proof of many Poles' collaboration and unequivocal identification with the Nazis' goals and actions. The organization's head therefore decided to secrete the missives in a hiding place, along with additional documentation from the same period. When the war ended, he removed the material from its hiding place and added it to his personal archive.

While his archives were transferred to the National Library some 50 years ago, the collection of envelopes remained in his family's hands and only last April did Michał's son Yosef Weichert decide to hand them over to the National Library as well. "Now is the time to deliver these historical items into your hands," the junior Weichert told the National Library officials. "It's important for the world to know the story and remember and be aware that Poles took part in the Germans' cruel actions during the Holocaust, and for everyone to know of their horrors." The Jewish Social Self-Help organization that Weichert founded was based in Krakow and starting May 1940 disseminated funds raised by the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee in the United States to Poland's Jewish communities, with German assent. Alongside Weichert, the organization's administration also included Marek Bieberstein, head of the Krakow Ghetto's Judenrat. The organization's relatively close ties to the Nazi authorities were considered by many to be deplorable, and at the end of the war caused Weichert to be accused of collaborationism himself.

The allegations greatly wounded Weichert, who then devoted many years to clearing his name and proving his innocence. Weichert, his wife, and son survived the Holocaust, and came to Israel in 1958 carrying a large and invaluable trove of uniquely important documentation for Holocaust studies. The envelopes of the letters returned to Weichert from the different branches of the organization he headed were unassailable testimony as to the period's events, as it was effectively the Polish mailmen who notified Weichert of successive Jewish communities being decimated all across Poland. The letters are now preserved at the National Library, where they are available for researchers and historians.

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Don’t compromise your values, first Hasidic female judge tells fellow women

NEW YORK—On December 22, 2016, Rachel Freier made history when she was sworn in as the first female Hasidic Jewish civil court judge in New York State. She is also the first Hasidic woman to hold public office in the United States.

She didn’t do it alone. She was backed by Brooklyn’s ultra-Orthodox community which voted for her and helped secure her victory in the three-way race.

A year later, Freier is sitting in the Criminal Court in Brooklyn and is well aware of her historic role. In a special interview with Ynet, she talks about the clear path she sees before her eyes, the values she has no intention of compromising on, and the status of women in the US Haredi community, whom she proudly represents.

Under the distinguished gown and the representative wig, Freier is a talented and articulate woman. Before her groundbreaking achievement as a judge, which received national media coverage in the US, she was one of the founders of the Ezras Nashim, an all-female Orthodox Jewish volunteer EMT ambulance service which was formed following a request to add a female corps of EMT volunteers to the all-male Hatzalah organization. The group was established with the goal of preserving women's modesty in emergency medical situations, especially childbirth.

But when she is asked to introduce herself, Freier said she is first of all a Haredi woman, like any other woman in Mea Shearim or Bnei Brak.

“First and foremost, I am a girl from Borough Park,” she said. “I am a wife and a mother and, God bless, a grandmother. Raising my family really is my primary role, and what I do in addition to that is I work in the legal profession.”

Freier has come a long way since her childhood in Borough Park to her inauguration ceremony, with famed Hasidic singer Lipa Schmeltzer singing the US national anthem with bits of Yiddish.

She studied in the Bais Yaakov schools, went to a seminary, married a Bobov Hasid and had six children. While raising her family, she decided to fulfill her dreams one by one.

Rachel Freier with her family. ‘My husband is the first Hasid that supported his wife, financed my campaign and didn’t stop until I won the election’ (Photo: Eli Mandelbaum)

 

She started out as a legal secretary, and then wanted to advance and became a paralegal. After earning a degree from Touro College, which offers academic programs for Haredim, she became a lawyer.

“My dream always was to become a judge, but what I didn’t realize was that I would end up becoming the first woman who is from a Hasidic background and a Hasidic family that would become a judge.”

When Freier began her rise to the top, she had very few women by her side. “There are a lot of women who are studying,” she said, “but the difference is they are really quiet, they don’t really take a public position.

“I did take a public position years ago, when I felt that it was important that the public know about my community. Because if you don’t go out and say who we are, then people are only going to see what they see in the media or in newspapers. Things that are negative that get out there, but the positive won’t get out to the public.

“So I took a position a number of years ago, back in 2007, when I was working as a new attorney in Monroe, so I could reach out to the media and tell them who we are, and I found that it was effective.

With Bill and Hillary Clinton. ‘If you don’t go out and say who we are, people are only going to see what they see in the media, and the positive won’t get out to the public’ (Photo: Eli Mandelbaum)

 

“At first, I was really nervous, because it’s not really done. Hasidic women do not go out into the forefront, into the media, but I felt it was a time to stand up. There will come a time when you’ll see that our Torah values are trampled and it’s wrong, because it’s not who we are as a community. So I came out and I took a public position.

“But there are many, many women who are trained, who are doing things they wouldn't have years ago. You just don’t know about them. But I knew.”

Nevertheless, how has the American Haredi community changed in recent years, being able to produce Haredi female judges—something Israel can only dream about?

“The Hasidic community hasn’t really changed. We still preserve our values very strongly. What has changed is the opportunities we have. Today, there are schools that are adapted to the Haredi community. There are many opportunities for a degree without compromising our values.

“Years ago, when someone wanted to go to college, they had to go to a non-Jewish, mixed institution with values that differ from ours, and study things that aren’t acceptable by our standards. Now, it’s changed. So in the American Hasidic community today there are more children who study and earn degrees, simply because the opportunities have changed, we haven’t. The world acknowledged that we have values and that it has to cater to our needs.”

Freier is everything Americans love: A woman from a cultural minority who managed to break the glass ceiling, aiming as high as possible. As a result, her victory in the September 2016 Democratic primary election for Civil Court Judge of the Kings County 5th judicial district, received wide coverage in the national American press, as she garnered 41 percent of the votes despite pessimistic forecasts.

"My priority always was that I didn’t want to compromise,” she said. “I wanted to bake challah for Shabbat, I wanted to still daven three times a day, I wanted to still be the mother for my children. I wanted nothing to change, even though I wanted to do something else.”

Freier. ‘The Hasidic community still preserves its values very strongly, but the opportunities have changed’ (Photo: Eli Mandelbaum)

Behind every Haredi woman who breaks a glass ceiling stands a supportive husband. “Without my husband helping me every step of the way, I couldn’t have gotten to this point,” Freier said, smiling. “In fact, I always say, people make a big deal I’m the first Hasidic woman, but the real big deal is my husband, because he’s the first Hasid that supported his wife, financed my campaign and didn’t stop until I won the election. So he’s really the hero of the story.”

As a member of the Bobov Hasidic community, Freier received her rabbis’ blessing on her road to success. “My husband ran around to rabbis and got endorsements for me,” she said, but stresses that “I never felt it was something I had to ask for.

“My husband would say, ‘My wife is studying, she wants a bracha, and she wants to help people.’ That really was my goal. My goal was that I should be able to use my legal background and my legal degree to help people. And I was, thank God, able to do that.

“I always worked together with rabbanim. My clients were Hasidim, and I was able to bridge the gap, fill in that space that was missing between my people and the professional world.”

While the Israeli High Court of Justice has to deal with petitions filed by Haredi woman who wish to take part in politics but are excluded by their parties, the gap between the communities here and there is quite impressive.

“My community is very excited,” Freier said. “You know, they voted for me. My position didn’t just come to me. I had to run. There was an election, and I had two opponents running against me. My community voted for me. This isn’t just something that happened by itself. My community made it happen. They’re very excited, very proud, the men and the women, and I’m very thankful to them.”

Freier's swearing-in ceremony

Freier believes that hard work pays off. “My message to everybody is: don’t compromise your values—not your religious values, not your family values. Be proud of who you are, and you can still be successful. It may take you longer—it took me over 20 years—but ultimately that’s the truth, that’s what will withstand the test of time.

“People have to know that just wanting to do the right thing doesn’t mean it’s going to be easy. You want to do something that is right? Expect challenges, expect it to be difficult. People think it was easy for me, but even today I still have challenges. There are things I’m still trying to achieve, like with the Ezras Nashim organization.

“In fact,” she said, “in Israel I could have been much more effective, because they already have a Hatzalah organization for women there. But here in Brooklyn, it’s much more difficult. But if something is difficult, it must be worth the effort.”

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Polish death camp bill divides Holocaust survivors

The new Polish legislation that prescribes prison time for defaming the Polish nation by using phrases such as "Polish death camps" to refer to the killing sites Nazi Germany operated in occupied Poland during World War II, has sparked a dispute among Holocaust survivors. Forced to confront one against their shared past, the legislation has created a division among the survivors. One the one hand, some have expressed understanding for the Polish move and emphasized that clear distinctions have to be drawn between the conduct of Polish citizenry and the Nazis.

Auschwitz death camp (Photo: AP)

Others stress that the vast majority of Poles “turned a blind eye” to the horrors that befell European Jewry on their soil, insisting that the majority were complicit with Nazi Germany's extermination program.

“During the war Poland was an occupied country, and there was a government in exile in London, and it obviously didn’t encourage the murder of Jews or collaborate with the Nazis,” said Holocaust survivor Lilly Haber, who today serves as the chairwoman of the Forum of Polish Immigrants and Members of The Presidium of the International Auschwitz Committee (IAC). “But there is culpability for the Poles themselves as individuals and I’m not talking about one or two, but a large percentage of the population. This is something the Poles should have faced long after the war, and not just gloried, honored, and praised the 6,500 Righteous Among the Nations,” she added. “What about the tens of millions who stood on the side or actively assisted in the killings? They acted to achieve the result for the Germans which they wanted—the destruction of the Jews. They assisted in the Final Solution and that can’t be denied,” Haber concluded.

Lilly Haber

Moreover, Haber noted that the Poles were not mere accomplices to the Nazis’ liquidation of Jews and their atrocities, but also initiated murderous acts without prompting from Berlin. “When they’re glorifying the rescue of Jews, they have forgotten, for example, that the Kielce Pogrom was one year later,” she said in reference to the 1946 pogrom in the Polish city which claimed the lives of dozens of Jewish refugees. “A few months ago the Polish minister of culture said it was hooligans who did it. Who are these hooligans? Creatures from outer space? They were Polish citizens,” Haber stressed. “And these are Polish citizens of one kind, the Catholics, who massacred Polish citizens. And when they talk about Poles who were murdered because they helped in hiding Jews—in most cases the Gestapo knew how to get to them because of Polish denunciation.” The Poles, she added, should have learned from the Germans and taken responsibility. “Seventy-three years after the war, we were sure we wouldn't have to deal with what happened in the Holocaust other than what we learned from it, but it turns out we were wrong. It turns out that the Polish government still needs to teach history.” Similarly, another Holocaust survivor, Yehudah Maimon, opined that the law was inappropriate. “I don’t blame the Polish nation. Not all Poles are to blame, but if the Polish government seriously wants to cleanse itself, it needs to introduce legislation against those who collaborated with the Germans. There were Poles who killed Jews at ‘the festive occasion’ when the Germans killed,” he said. On the other side of the aisle are Polish Holocaust survivors such as Shraga Milstein, who was six years old when the Second World War broke out. Taken with his family a ghetto and later to the Buchenwald concentration camp and Bergen-Belsen, today he believes that it is not Israel’s place to interfere or weigh in on such issues.

Shraga Milstein

“What does it matter what the Poles legislate? They were also under occupation and it bothers them that no distinction is drawn between them and the German Nazis who were there,” Milstein pointed out. “We are now 73 years after the end of the war and the liberation of the camps, our relations as Jews and the State of Israel with Poland are good today as they are with Germany. That says something. We as a state need to deal with the Poles of today as we do with the Germans of today, and not to attribute the crimes of forefathers to the third and fourth generations.” For Tommy Shaham, whose family was almost entirely wiped out in the Holocaust, the Polish law is laughable. “In Poland they were collaborators and even today there’s anti-Semitism,” he insists. Shama passed through Auschwitz death camp and was liberated in Poland 73 years ago. According to him, the Poles were responsible for some of the atrocities that took place there and often demonstrated more zeal than the Germans in inflicting suffering on their Jewish victims. “The capo at Auschwitz was a Polish woman and she was more cruel than the Germans. She did more than what she needed to do,” he recalled. The aim of the Polish Law, Tommy argued, is to “erase history. But we remember it well. We have evidence and there is no court that will be able to erase the history. The map, Auschwitz is on Polish, not German, soil.”

While Shaham pointed out that “there were anti-Semitic Poles just like in every other country,” he said it was also “important to remember that the Germans were the ones who did it. There were anti-Semites in Poland, but they weren’t worse than the Nazis. The Germans were the ones who at the end of the day gave the orders.

Amir Alon, Itamar Eichner, Alexandra Lukash, Nir Cohen, Yale Friedson, Telem Yahav, Israel Moskowitz and Eitan Glickman contributed to this report.

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World remembers Holocaust amid signs of rising hatred

Elderly survivors were gathering Saturday at the former Auschwitz death camp and political leaders warned that the Nazi genocide must continue to serve as a warning as the world marked International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

In Warsaw, Poland, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson paid his respects in a solemn ceremony at a memorial to the Jews who died revolting against German forces in the doomed Warsaw Ghetto Uprising of 1943.

Tillerson trailed two uniformed Polish military officers and readjusted a wreath underneath the monument, a hulking structure located in what was once the Warsaw Ghetto.

The former Auschwitz death camp (Photo: Reuters)

The head of Warsaw's Jewish community read a prayer and Tillerson made brief remarks about the importance of not forgetting the horrors of the Holocaust. "On this occasion it reminds us that we can never, we can never, be indifferent to the face of evil," Tillerson said. "The western alliance which emerged from World War II has committed itself to the assuring the security of all, that this would never happen again," he said. "As we mark this day in solemn remembrance, let us repeat the words of our own commitment: Never again. Never again." His words came amid signs in Europe and beyond that ultra-nationalism and extreme right-wing groups are on the rise. In Germany and Austria, the nations that perpetrated the killing of 6 million Jews and millions of others during World War II, far-right parties with their roots in the Nazi era are gaining strength. The anti-migrant, anti-Muslim AfD party won seats in the German parliament for the first time last year, while in Austria the nationalist, anti-migrant Freedom Party is in the government. Both parties have had issues with members making anti-Semitic remarks.

Rex Tillerson (Photo: Reuters)

Even Poland—which was occupied and terrorized by Hitler's regime—was convulsed this week by revelations of a fringe neo-Nazi group that honors Hitler. Other ultranationalist parties that espouse anti-Jewish and anti-Muslim views seem increasingly emboldened as well. In Europe, that support is partially a backlash to the large influx of mostly Muslim migrants to Europe that peaked in 2015. Some of those migrants, especially from Arab countries, have brought their own brand of anti-Semitism with them. In Germany, many Jews have reported feeling threatened by anti-Semitism—both from native far-right groups and from Arabs—and Jewish institutions across the country have increased security. Meanwhile, Muslim immigrants have been the target of German far-right attacks or threats. Hanni Levy, a 93-year-old Holocaust survivor from Berlin, criticized anti-migrant hatred during a speech at a Greens party convention in Hannover. "In the past, the Jews were found guilty of everything. Today it's the refugees," said Levy, who survived thanks to the Germans who hid her. "One should never forget how difficult it is to leave behind everything just to survive."

(Photo: Reuters)

German Chancellor Angela Merkel marked the day by addressing the rising anti-Semitism in her weekly Saturday podcast. She said that schools, which already teach about the country's Nazi past, need to work harder at that especially so immigrant students from Arab countries will not "exercise anti-Semitism." She called it "incomprehensible and a disgrace that no Jewish institution can exist without police security—whether it is a school, a kindergarten or a synagogue." Commemorations are set to take place on Saturday after dusk, after the end of the Jewish Sabbath, to mark the 73rd anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, located in southern Poland. The United Nations recognized January 27 as International Holocaust Remembrance Day in 2005.

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Between two worlds: French Jews at a crossroads

Every normative Jewish family living in France questions its future in the country, according to the leader of an umbrella organization for French immigrants in Israel.

“Some 500,000 Jews are at a crossroads. There are better days, there are worse days, but they face concerns about the future on a daily basis,” says Qualita CEO Ariel Kandel, who is very familiar with the French Jewry’s dilemmas.

On the one hand, things seem to have slightly calmed down since Emmanuel Macron was elected president. As a result, only 3,500 French immigrated to Israel in 2017—a considerable drop from previous years. On the other hand, France’s Jewish community is in distress and is constantly thinking about the next generation, about its children’s future.

Only 3,500 French immigrated to Israel in 2017—a considerable drop from previous years (Photo: Motti Kimchi)

“According to a comprehensive study conducted by the French government, 60,000 to 100,000 French Jews want to come to Israel,” says Kandel. “In other words, we have a huge opportunity here to bring a strong, high-quality immigration, rather than lose it in favor of the United States or Canada. I believe that in the event of cuts in the social benefits that are granted in France today, we’ll immediately see a considerable immigration. Many are staying simply because they’re afraid of losing their social rights.”

A symposium held by the Institute for Immigration and Social Integration at the Ruppin Academic Center, however, led to the troubling conclusion that the State of Israel is about to miss out on a huge wave of Jewish immigration from France.

According to some of the speakers at the conference, nearly a decade after the start of French aliyah, the State of Israel is insufficiently prepared to take in the immigrants and has yet to define a strategic plan that would make it possible to absorb tens of thousands of immigrants in the most optimal manner.

What is the main obstacle facing potential immigrants?“First and foremost, employment. People often talk about mental differences and language issues, but these things can be solved and can be overcome with the advantages offered by Israel as a Jewish and advanced state. The employment issue is more significant. One of the solutions is to live in Israel and keep working in France. “There are many people who fly to Paris every Monday morning and return to Israel on Thursday evening. It helps doctors, lawyers and other professionals hold on to their clientele in France but live in Israel. On the other hand, it takes a heavy toll on family life and makes it difficult to undergo a real immigrant absorption. Others succeed in managing their businesses from afar and flying to France only once a month or two.”

Qualita activists. ‘France’s Jewish community is in a state of distress and is constantly thinking about the next generation’ (Photo: Qualita)

Another solution found by other immigrants, especially those with a business background, is to start new businesses in Israel. Entrepreneur Alexander Margi, for example, started a chain of “French-style” pharmacies and drugstores. According to Kandel, other big investors (like Laurent Levy, who created Music Square in central Jerusalem) are looking for business opportunities in Israel. The successful entry of French sporting goods chain Decathlon may prompt other French businesses to expand to Israel.

One of the problems the immigrants are dealing with has nothing to do with Israel, but rather with fiscal changes. The sharp drop in euro exchange rates has somewhat affected new immigrants’ purchasing power.

Up until a few years ago, some of the new immigrants could afford to buy an apartment in Ra’anana or Herzliya. Now, some of them are moving to other cities like Hadera in the north or Ashdod in the south. Kandel says some even choose peripheral cities like Netivot or Ashkelon. “The drop in the euro exchange rates has another impact, which is hardly considered—the pensioner population. Their entire pension comes from France, and after receiving X euros a month in previous years, they are now forced to settle for much less after converting the pension to shekels,” Kandel explains. One of the problems in Israel, and immigrants feel it very well because they have something to compare it to, is the cost of living.“Yes, that’s quite a difficult problem. People have gotten used to cheap prices in France for food and vacations and other things, and then they come here and have to pay much more for the same stuff. It’s true that things are somewhat easier for kashrut observers, because kosher meat in France is expensive, but in general they pay much more here. “The answer to that, apart from proper financial planning and finding a way to earn a living, is that the current generation must realize it is sacrificing itself for its children. It must change its perception and understand that all the investment, efforts and sacrifice are primarily for the young generation. If you truly understand that your children have no future in France, you must provide them with other opportunities—and that can be found in Israel.”

One of the main debates concerning aliyah focuses on the state’s need to invest in it. In other words, what do we gain from it? For example, shouldn’t the “absorption basket” grant and the other benefits received by new immigrants be given to needy people in Israel instead?

Apart from the basic answer—the State of Israel was founded to serve as a home for every interested Jew—there is an economic answer too. A study conducted at Bar-Ilan University reveals that the Israeli economy is expected to gain about NIS 65 billion (roughly $19 billion) in the years 2014-2026 from the absorption of French immigrants. The study’s assumption is that some 100,000 immigrants will have arrived from France by 2026. According to the study, “While the average budgetary cost for encouraging the immigration and absorption of an immigrant is about NIS 43,000, the average benefit per immigrant in terms of an addition to the GDP is estimated at NIS 644,000, and the additional income from taxes as a result is NIS 161,000.”

For years, medical professionals were forced to take certification tests upon arriving in Israel. There are thousands of doctors, nurses, dentists and pharmacists in Israel who were unable to keep working in their professions because they didn’t pass the local certificate tests.

On the one hand, the state insisted that people who were not certified in Israel could not be given a license to work in medical professions. On the other hand, new immigrants with certificates and decades of experience were banned from practicing their profession in Israel.

Qualita event. ‘Sometimes I feel it may have not been worth coming, but if you look at the full picture and at the children’s absorption and future—the balance is positive after all’ (Photo: Qualita)

  

After years of struggles, most of the problems have been solved, but some professions have yet to be recognized by the Israeli authorities. One of them is nursing. According to Kandel, some 100 Jewish French nurses are still waiting to be recognized by the Health Ministry. Only following long battles, the ministry decided that the nurses would have to pass a practical test, after which they would be trained to work in Israel. Pascal Cohen, who has been in Israel for three years, faced difficult bureaucratic barriers too. “I’m a family medicine specialist with decades of experience,” she says. “I knew there would be a number of stages before I could work in Israel, but I never thought it would be so difficult. I studied for a year at Tel Aviv University and did another internship year, but the Scientific Council still refuses to recognize the ‘family physician’ title. They agree to recognize the certificates of people who received their degree after 2007, but not earlier, and they’re demanding that we take another test.” Cohen, who works today as a de-facto family physician, is offended by the fact that she hasn’t earned the status and salary that should be attached to her professional position and years of experience. “On the one hand, I’m practicing my profession, but on the other hand, the discrimination in recognizing the degrees is unbearable, and so is the fact that after everything I’ve been through they still want me to take another test. I’m 50 years old, I have a job and a family. I can’t afford to study for a test like a young student. We may have to seek the High Court’s help in the end to solve this problem.” Have you had second thoughts about your decision to make aliyah?“Sometimes I feel it may have not been worth coming, but if you look at the full picture and at the children’s absorption and future—the balance is positive after all. It’s without a doubt more difficult than I expected, but there are big advantages here, and it’s easier and nicer to be a religious Jew in Israel today than in Paris.”

The Qualita organization is trying to solve the employment barrier by creating a new center with hundreds of job offers. Its members connect the immigrants to different workplaces and try to make successful matches.

Another solution, which is mainly available in cities with a large French population like Netanya and Ashdod, is to live here and work for companies there. These cities have dozens of call centers that provide services to French companies. The centers employ thousands of new immigrants in sales and customer service jobs for businesses in France. For example, selling insurance or a newspaper subscription to customers in France from Ashdod.

Almost a decade after French aliyah began, the State of Israel isn’t sufficiently prepared to take in the immigrants (Photo: Motti Kimchi)

In a recent symposium, Dr. Karin Amit of the Institute for Immigration and Social Integration at the Ruppin Academic Center presented a study on immigrants who keep working in their native language. “This is a relatively new phenomenon, which we haven’t seen before,” she says. “In the 1990s, immigrants from the Soviet Union worked in low-paying jobs, and advanced in the employment world only after learning Hebrew. Now, some French immigrants keep working in French and skip entering the Israeli labor market. “On the one hand, globalization has made it possible to work from far away and maybe even earn a nice living, but on the other hand, it’s a sort of honey trap. You don’t bother making an effort to really integrate into the Israeli market, and it has its implications. “Another problem is that there are immigrants from high-skilled professions who find themselves in these call centers, either because they didn’t have the energy to go through the whole process of translating their degrees for the Israeli market, or because of how easy and convenient it is to find a job and make a living in these places.” Why is it a problem that immigrants find quick employment solutions?“Making a living is important, but there are other aspects too. These are unstable places, where the managers can ask employees to do things that are not as acceptable in organized and stable workplaces. Furthermore, the fact that the parent generation doesn’t learn Hebrew affects the children too and the quality of their absorption into the Israeli society. The immigrants aren’t really disconnecting from their native country. They’re both here and there—moving between the two worlds.” But if they don’t learn Hebrew, it’s their own responsibility.“I agree that every immigrant is responsible for his own fate. They made a decision to come to Israel and there are things they can do to ease and help their absorption. Clearly, absorption failures cannot be blamed on the state alone, but because people come here with different backgrounds and different abilities, it’s clear that not everyone will take advantage of the resources offered by the state. Some of them, due to lack of ability or knowledge, will face difficulties.”

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Polish neo-Nazis praising Hitler spark revulsion and debate

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Holocaust survivors pay visit to Schindler's grave

Just like in the final haunting scene of Schindler's List, a group of Holocaust survivors who owe their lives to the German industrialist, and their descendants, paid a visit to the gravesite of Oskar Schindler Thursday in preparation for International Holocaust Remembrance Day this coming Saturday.

 

The scene shown in the movie was filmed 25 years ago and the number of survivors is decreasing each year, but the families keep the memory alive and continue to pay respect to the man to whom they owe their lives.

Oskar Schindler, who saved the lives of 1,200 Polish Jews and was recognized as a Righteous Gentile by Yad Vashem, is buried on Mount Zion in Jerusalem. Dozens of survivors, together with rabbis, representatives of the Vatican and of the Franciscan Order of Jerusalem visited the site Thursday.

Schindler gravd (Photo: Eli Mandelbaum)

Visitors placed small stones on Schindler's grave in the Catholic-Franciscan cemetery and recited prayers for his soul. Afterwards, they held a small ceremony in the nearby Chamber of the Holocaust museum where they dedicated a plaque to Schindler. The event was initiated by Limmud FSU (former Soviet Union), an organization dedicated to revitalizing and restoring Jewish identity and learning; the Claims Conference against Germany (for Holocaust restitution); the March of the Living and the Chamber of the Holocaust museum on Mount Zion. "This event is especially emotional for me," said Bronia Shkolnik, 86, a Holocaust survivor, during the candle lighting ceremony. "To be here, in the State of Israel, and pay tribute to those who saved so many lives—it cannot be taken for granted." Lily Heber, Director of the Organization for Survivors of Cracow, grew up in the shadow of the Holocaust. Her father, Yaakov Lazar was saved by Schindler. She stressed that Schindler also saved the thousands of descendents of those 1,200 Jews he saved and that we must remember the heroes who risked their lives to save Jews. Lazar was born in Austria-Hungary and was transported to the Cracow Ghetto with his family in 1941. With the liquidation of the ghetto, he was transferred to the Plaszow camp where he was lucky enough to find work at Schindler's factory, together with two siblings, that saved his life.

(Photo: AFP)

Rabbi Yitzhak Goldstein, Rabbi of Mount Zion and Director of The Chamber of the Holocaust read the El Malei Rachamim (Oh God full of mercy) prayer and laid flowers on the grave. "If not for him those Jews would have been killed. His soul is very special," said Goldstein. When Schindler passed away in 1974, he was buried, as per his request, in the Catholic cemetery on Mount Zion next to the country's first Holocaust museum. The cemetery became a pilgrimage point for the survivors who decorated the walls of the museum with plaques commemorating their communities destroyed by the Nazis. The ashes of 250,000 victims were also brought there from 20 different concentration camps. Father Alberto, the representative of the Franciscan Order told Ynet the group "wants to remember the Christians who understood the importance of rescuing Jews and overturning history." Chaim Chesler, the founder of Limmud FSU said: "(Schindler) was the biggest rescuer of Jews. The goal of International Holocaust Remembrance Day is that we do not forget the non-Jews who saved Jews."

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Ukraine’s new heroes: Anti-Semites and murderers of Jews

KIEV—A statue in memory of Symon Petliura was unveiled several months ago in the Jewish neighborhood of Vinnitsa. The monument was initiated and erected by the Ukraine authorities. Petliura, by the way, is linked to the massacre of as many as 100,000 innocent Jews during the 1918-1920 civil war.

And he’s not alone. Meet Ukraine’s new heroes: Anti-Semitic murderers who massacred Jews and are being commemorated as part of a “decommunization” (a process of dismantling the legacies of communism) in the streets and city squares.

Avenues and streets have been named after Stepan Bandera and his partners, who collaborated with the Nazis and massacred Jews during the Holocaust. Ironically, the avenue leading to Moscow and to Babi Yar (the site of massacres carried out by German forces and local Ukrainian collaborators) is named after Bandera.

The Symon Petliura statue. Connected to the massacre of as many as 100,000 innocent Jews (Photo: Myvin.com.ua)

It’s no wonder Ukraine’s Jews are angry and troubled, living in a country where anti-Semitic murderers are backed by the authorities and spraying hate graffiti is routine. During Catholic Christmas, for example, hate graffiti were sprayed in three Jewish sites—the gates of the Holocaust museum in Odessa, a Jewish cultural center and an inactive synagogue in the city.

So security around Jewish institutions is being boosted, but at the same time—according to Jewish sources in the country—the authorities are encouraging a glorification of anti-Semites. “My call on the president and prime minister of Ukraine to condemn the acts has yet to be answered,” the chief rabbi of Odessa and South Ukraine, Avraham Wolff, said in response to the graffiti. He expressed his confidence, however, that the condemnation would eventually arrive. “It’s very important to prevent it to begin with, because unfortunately everyone knows where it begins and where it ends.” The acts were strongly condemned by the European Parliament, which rushed to send Rabi Wolff a letter calling on President Petro Poroshenko and Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman to denounce the acts and monitor the investigation.

Eduard Dolinsky, executive director of Ukrainian Jewish Committee, is waging an all-out war on this alarming trend. He is often forced to confront a long list of angry nationalists on the country’s most popular current affairs program, but his performances have turned him into a popular blogger and a leader in the Jewish community.

An official ceremony in memory of Petliura in the Jewish neighborhood of Vinnitsa (Photo: Myvin.com.ua)

If you’re wondering how all this is happening in a country led by a man called Groysman, Dolinsky explains that “the prime minister wasn’t elected as a Jew and he is doing his non-Jewish job, so his Jewishness has no influence whatsoever on the agenda.” As for the anti-Semites’ successful integration into Ukraine’s legitimate mainstream, Dolinsky explains that the nationalists have a lot of influence. “They helped senior officials rise to power, and they owe them quite a bit. The second reason is the impact of the conflict with Russia. Glorifying the anti-Semites is an ideological and practical way of recruiting the population. In other words, in a bid to enlist the public against the aggressor, they have to create an agenda of ‘heroes’ who fought for our country with weapons in their hands. This is also happening under the nationalists’ influence.” Dolinsky says Ukraine is basically shooting itself in the foot with its policy of glorifying anti-Semite criminals. “It has already led to a serious conflict with Poland, which has barred some of the government workers involved in this policy from entering the country, and they are also working to prevent it from joining the European Union. In other words, these issues are already serving as an obstacle for Ukraine’s integration in Europe.”

Earlier this month, on Stepan Bandera’s birthday, the anti-Semites held a torch parade just like they did last year, when they chanted, ‘Jews Out.”

Dolinsky accuses his country of denying the Holocaust and warns that “a conflict with Israel, Germany and the United States is inevitable. “These countries are keeping silent for now, because of the conflict with Russia, but they’ll never accept a glorification of the Nazis’ collaborators.

Graffiti scrawled on the Holocaust museum gate in Odessa on Christmas eve: ‘First toast for the Holocaust’

“The Ukrainian government,” he says, “participates in memorial events, like the one marking 75 years since the Babi Yar massacre, but at the same time it places signs in Babi Yar in memory of the Ukrainian nationalists who helped target the Jews, whether ideologically or practically. “There is a sign there, for example, for Ivan Rohach, the editor-in-chief of aa newspaper which called for the murder of Jews at around the same time of the Babi Yar massacre, but you won’t read anything about that on the memorial plaque. Both the murderers and their victims are commemorated at Babi Yar, in one place. This is morally unacceptable. It’s a case of abusing the memory of the annihilated Jews, rewriting history and denying the Holocaust.” Dolinsky mentions other incidents, like the erection of a Petliura statue at the center of the Jewish neighborhood of Vinnitsa. “They are trying to impose one ideology on the Ukrainian public. This group, which is organized around the Institute of National Remembrance, the nationalist and anti-Semitic parties like Svoboda, and others, is creating activities that infiltrate the government bodies and the public.

“For example, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the UPA (the Ukrainian Insurgent Army), the Ukrainian president’s office issued a special document to local authorities on how to mark the event, including instructions on ‘how to respond’ to claims of anti-Semitism in the organization and its denial. They presented a series of

examples of Jews’ participation in the organization, but all their examples were in fact false. Some were of Jewish doctors who were forcefully held by the UPA, and some were of people who never even existed. These examples were aimed at whitewashing the criminals who played a part in the Holocaust.”

Dolinsky clarifies that “the Jewish community has a unified stance on this issue against the glorification of murderers and collaborators of the Nazis who took part in the Holocaust. I’m talking about the entire Jewish community and the Jewish organizations.

“Having said that, there are few Jewish activists who have an opposite opinion, but they only represent themselves.”

Eduard Dolinsky. ‘Both the murderers and their victims are commemorated at Babi Yar’

What are the chances of winning this battle against the falsification of history?“I think the pressure on Ukraine will increase both internationally and internally. The thing is that most of the country’s residents are related to millions of Ukrainians who fought against the Nazis in the Soviet army. These people are very unhappy with policy of glorifying that small group of the OUN-UPA, which was mainly active in western Ukraine and is now becoming the main historical agenda. There is a concern, however, that the damage has already been done and that the youth has been successfully brainwashed.” Dolinsky pins his hopes on the international pressure. “We can’t announce that we accept the European values, and at the same time declare people who collaborated with the Nazis as heroes, while completely denying those exact same values. Ukraine will have to make a choice: Either to become an enlightened European state or to sink into the mud of historical contradictions and nationalism.”

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Holocaust remembrance initiative 'WeRemember' launches

As the International Holocaust Remembrance Day approaches this Saturday, a massive international campaign that seeks to memorialize the Holocaust was kicked-off Wednesday at the Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp.

 

In what organizers are calling the largest Holocaust remembrance campaign in the world, photos of survivors, together with those of participating web users from all over the world, will be projected onto the walls of the death camp, holding a sign saying #WeRemember, until Sunday evening.

 

The World Jewish Congress (WJC) is behind the initiative, which has been dubbed the WeRemember campaign.

Tovby Levy

Toby Levy was only eight when she had to hide in her aunt's attic. "I want you to be my witnesses," she implored. "I was born the year Hitler came to power, 1933, when the Germans came, they immediately gave us orders." Levy will never forget the horrifying images she witnessed as the Jews were rounded up. "One Jew was taken aside, they shaved his short beard and proceed to push him to the ground; a German placed his foot on his back saying: 'You are now finished, you have no more rights.'" Toby, together with eight family members, hid in the attic, but her grandfather refused to hide and his family heard as the Germans shouted at him to come along; he refused and was shot. And then there was silence. "My mom asked: what are we going to do now? And my dad said: we will find someone to hide us." Her name was Stefani Strak, but after a run in with the police, Stefany feared for the life of her children (16 and 19) and asked Tova's family to leave. Toby says she understood his fear, but the 16 year-old son Tajek beseeched his mother saying that the family would not survive alone and helped lead the family to safety in the forest.

 

Despite the many years that have passed, Levy remembers everything. "We never called Stefani by her name, we called her 'the queen' or the' the savior.'" The family lived off of the kindness of Stefani and Tajek for 23 months and survived the war.

Toby Levy is now participating in the international remembrance campaign that is asking people to make the "#WeRemember" signs and publish them on social networks. Joining her are dozens of Knesset members, influential figures and religious leaders from all over the world; football and basketball players are joining with youth groups to be photographed with the sign. The WJC say that more than 250 million people were exposed to the campaign last year. They are hoping to double that amount this year. "Anti-Semitism, Holocaust denial and xenophobia continue to rear their ugly head," says Ronald Lauder, President of the WJC. "We must remember the Holocaust because the number of survivors among us drops every year. In a few decades there will be no more. It is the duty of the young generation to teach their friends about the horrors of hate." "International Holocaust Remembrance Day is an opportunity to spread the message: Never Again," said Robert Zinger, Director of the WJC at its NY headquarters. "We therefore launched the"#WeRemember" campaign with the symbolic goal of reaching six million people."

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German corporations join Holocaust remembrance campaign

Heads of the enormous German corporations that supported the Nazi regime during World War Two joined the World Jewish Congress (WJC)'s international Holocaust memorialization initiative, dubbed, #WeRemember, in anticipation of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, marked January 27. The leaders of German juggernauts Volkswagen, BMW and Siemens, all of which supported Adolf Hitler's regime during the Holocaust, declared Tuesday that they too were joining the WJC's WeRemember initiative.

Volkswagen Chairman of the Supervisory Board Hans Dieter Pötsch and the company's CEO Matthias Müller were photographed holding placards with the campaign's slogan, as did Siemens CEO Joe Kaeser and BMW CEO Harald Krüger.

Volkswagen CEO Matthias Muller (L) and Chairman of the Supervisory Board Hans Dieter Potsch participated in the WeRemember campaign (Photo: World Jewish Congress)

 The WeRemember initiative is an international campaign as part of which photos uploaded to social media networks with the slogan will then be screened at the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp before and during International Holocaust Remembrance Day. "Volkswagen recognizes its historic responsibility and is committed to acting out against intolerance, racism and anti-Semitism, as well as to engender international understanding and humanity," said the company's CEO Müller. "Today, learning from history is a significant portion of our organizational culture. It has been a difficult and painful process for the company, but we will never abandon this value," he vowed.

Siemens CEO Joe Kaeser (Photo: World Jewish Congress)

WJC CEO Robert Singer added, "The world will be marking International Holocaust Remembrance Day Saturday. This day is an opportunity to spread the message that never again truly does mean never again." The WeRemember project is the largest such initiative to be undertaken in the world, whose origins date back to last year's International Holocaust Remembrance Day. The 2018 campaign will operate in 45 countries around the world and in 23 languages. More than 250 million people have been exposed to the project worldwide, and more than 150 million have already uploaded photos of themselves holding the WeRemember sign.

BMW CEO Harald Kruger (Photo: World Jewish Congress)

Photos of the campaign's participants have begun to be screened on the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp's walls Tuesday and will continue to be screened until Saturday. The photos will also be inundating social networks in an effort to drum up awareness for anti-Semitism and hatred the world over. In only several weeks' time, WeRemember has become the number one hashtag on social networks in Germany and elsewhere. WJC President Ronald Lauder said, "Anti-Semitism, Holocaust denial and hatred towards the 'other' continue rearing their ugly heads even today. We have to remember the Holocaust, because the number of living survivors is dwindling and in mere decades, they will all be gone."

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Neo-Nazis vandalize Holocaust monument in Greece

A Holocaust memorial was found vandalized in Thessaloniki, Greece this week, just days ahead of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, marked worldwide on January 27. The memorial was apparently vandalized by local neo-Nazis, who sprayed it with the words "Golden Dawn," the name of the country's far-right party.

  The monument, erected to commemorate the memory of the city's Jews who were sent to concentration camps during the Holocaust. The incident took place during the extremist party's demonstration against a compromise between Greece and Macedonia over the latter country's name—which is identical to a geographical region in Greece—in which tens of thousands of people participated.

The defaced monument in Thessaloniki

Golden Dawn activists sprayed their party's name on the memorial during the protest. Days later, unknown parties sprayed "Free Palestine" on the memorial. To add insult to injury, neo-Nazi activists handed out anti-Semitic flyers to passersby Wednesday near the White Tower, one of the city's most recognizable symbols, aimed against Thessaloniki Mayor Yiannis Boutaris, who was dubbed "a slave to Jews." Sabby Mionis, a Greek Jew who made Aliyah to Israel 12 years ago and serves as the joint chairman of the Jewish Agency's taskforce for combating anti-Semitism, said, "Despite this government and Prime Minister (Alexis) Tsipras's staunch stance against anti-Semitism, racist activists still pollute many Greek institutions. "Everyone knows Golden Dawn is a neo-Nazi party, but what's even more dangerous is anti-Semites who—motivated by their hatred of Jews—work behind the scenes to sabotage the two countries' relationship. According to a study by the Anti-Defamation League, Greek is still the most anti-Semitic (country) in the non-Muslim world."

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Hungarian mass honoring Nazi ally cancelled after Jewish protests

A Budapest church has called off a memorial mass it was planning to hold in honor of a former Hungarian leader and Nazi ally on Saturday—International Holocaust Remembrance Day—after protests from Hungarian Jews and the World Jewish Congress.

 

Parliament's deputy speaker who is member of the ruling Fidesz party of Prime Minister Viktor Orban, had been due to speak at the event called in memory of interwar Governor Miklos Horthy.

Hungarian PM Orban (R) with Netanyahu (Photo: Reuters)

The planned ceremony for Horthy, an admiral who led Hungary for 24 years until 1944 and handed over hundreds of thousands of Jews to the Nazis, triggered strong objections from Jewish organizations.

With the WJC declaring it a provocative measure honoring an "unabashed anti-Semite", the Budapest church which had organized the Catholic ceremony, cancelled the event on Thursday.

The affair, ahead of a parliamentary election on April 8, has thrown a spotlight again on the policies of Orban who has an ambivalent track record on anti-Semitism.

He has repeatedly pledged zero tolerance for anti-Semitism, though he has called Horthy an "exceptional statesman." He has risked angering Israel and Jewish people with remarks about "ethnic homogeneity" apparently aimed at radical right-wing voters ahead of the April 8 election.

He has also used a massive billboard campaign against US billionaire George Soros, a Hungarian-born Jew, to promote an anti-immigrant agenda that critics, including Soros, say harks back to the 1930s. The government strongly rejects this.

Zoltan Osztie, the priest of the Budapest church, said the church had a tradition of organizing a mass for Horthy each year and nobody had noticed that Saturday was also International Holocaust Remembrance marking the day in 1945 when the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp was liberated.

Anti Soros campaign (Photo: Reuters)

"We could be blamed for this perhaps, but these two events cannot be juxtaposed. Nonetheless, after discussion with church leaders a decision has been made that neither the memorial ceremony nor the mass will take place," he told szemlelek.blog.hu.

WJC President Ronald S. Lauder asked Orban to intervene, calling the event "nothing short of a provocative measure."

"The terror that Admiral Horthy, an unabashed anti-Semite, inflicted on the Jewish community of Hungary ... and his role in the deportation and murder of hundreds of thousands of Jews must never be forgotten and can never be excused," Lauder wrote in a letter to Orban.

The government did not reply to Reuters questions.

Sandor Lezsak, deputy parliament speaker and a member of Fidesz party, had been due to speak at the ceremony, stirring protests from the Hungarian Jewish communities federation.

After Hungary's occupation by Germany in March 1944, still under Horthy's rule, Hungarian gendarmes and state organizations collaborated in the deportation of close to half a million Jews. Horthy stopped the deportations only in July 1944.

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