Retracting the journey to freedom from the Nazis on a bicycle

Paul Alexander was just a toddler when his mother handed him to a volunteer nurse on a train leaving Nazi Germany in 1939.

  Now 81, the former refugee child on Sunday began retracing that journey to freedom—but this time by bicycle as part of a commemorative ride to pay tribute to the Kindertransport scheme that saved him and thousands of Jewish children eight decades ago.

"I did this journey 79 years ago when I came out from the hatred of Nazi Germany to the safety in England. I'm going to do that ride," he told AFP.

Paul Alexander in Berlin (Photo: AP)

 "The thought that came to my head is that this is my answer to Hitler, to sort of prove to myself, to show the world and to express my thanks for succeeding in life and being a happy married man with a family." Alexander will be doing the 600-mile (1,000 km) bike journey with his 34-year-old son and 15-year-old grandson. Besides the trio, 39 other cyclists will be on the six-day journey taking them from Friedrichstrasse in Berlin to Liverpool Street in London, via the Netherlands then aboard an overnight ferry to Harwich in England. Some are descendants of children rescued 80 years ago, while others are cycling in memory of the escapees in the fund-raising ride initiated by the World Jewish Relief, an aid organization that grew out of the agency that carried out the rescue effort. "We have organized this ride as a tribute to the amazing life-saving work of our predecessors," said Rafi Cooper, director of communications for the charity, which maintains historical records from the period. "Tens of thousands of people would not be alive today were it not for their heroism back then."

After the Night of Broken Glass (Kristallnacht) pogroms on November 9, 1938, a group of Protestant, Jewish and Quaker leaders appealed to then British prime minister Neville Chamberlain to allow in unaccompanied Jewish children.

A rescue effort mobilized swiftly, and the first Kindertransport arrived at Harwich on December 2, 1938, carrying 196 children from a Berlin Jewish orphanage which had been torched by the Nazis on Kristallnacht.

Over 18 months, 10,000 children fleeing persecution in Germany, Austria, Poland and what was then Czechoslovakia, were brought to safety in Britain.

(Photo: AP)

Younger children were placed with families while those above 16 were given help to obtain training and employment. The last transport left from the Dutch port of Ymuiden on May 14, 1940—a day before the Netherlands surrendered. For many parents, leaving their children with strangers not knowing if they would see each other again was not an easy decision.

 Alexander's mother, who suffered two stillbirths previously, had agonized over what to do with her only child.

"Sending a child of one year and eight months away, you'll appreciate, is heartrending," said Alexander. What they did not know is that both his parents would soon join him in safety. His father arrived in England 13 days after him and his mother on September 1, 1939, the day the Nazis invaded Poland and launched World War II. The family was finally reunited for good three years later, having all escaped the Holocaust in which six million Jews were exterminated. Alexander himself later trained as a lawyer and married an Israeli living in London. They have three children and nine grandchildren and now live in Israel. The sprightly 81 year old retired from the bank where he worked as its legal counsel in 2002, but still works today as a notary. For him, Sunday's journey is "a symbolic victory ride". "It is a very meaningful and poignant way of celebrating my life. I thought it was poignant to do it with my child and grandson."

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US teacher honored for highlighting Polish Holocaust hero

An American teacher who together with his students shed light on the story of a Polish woman who saved hundreds of Jewish children during the Holocaust has been honored with the award that bears her name.

Irena Sendler and her story were largely unknown until Norman Conard and his high school students in rural Kansas began producing a play about her, “Life in a Jar,” in 1999 as part of a history project on unsung heroes.

The play has since been performed 375 times around the world, movies have been made, schools in Poland and Germany have been named after her and she was nominated for the Nobel Peace prize.

Holocaust survivor Irena Sendler (Photo: AP)

 

Poland’s Culture Ministry and the San Francisco-based Taube Philanthropies presented Conard with the 2018 Irena Sendler Memorial Award in Warsaw’s Royal Castle. Poland has designated 2018 the Year of Irena Sendler, to mark the 10th anniversary of her death at the age of 98.

Culture Minister Piotr Glinski described Sendler as a symbol of the many other brave Poles who risked their lives for others during World War II, many of whose names will never be known.

A social worker, Sendler directed an underground network that saved Jewish children by placing them in orphanages, convents and with Christian families. In many cases, the network’s volunteers smuggled children out of Warsaw’s ghetto after convincing parents it was the children’s only chance of survival.

Sendler and her collaborators buried the names of the children in jars, hoping to later reunite them with their parents. In most cases the parents were murdered in Treblinka.

Though recognized by Yad Vashem in 1965, Sendler was largely unknown before Conard became involved.

Poland’s chief rabbi, Michael Schudrich, said Sendler credited Conard and his students with the recognition she obtained late in life and often referred to the American students as her children.

In a chilling coincidence, the Kansas students began researching Sendler on the same day—Sept. 23, 1999—that Sendler’s beloved son Adam died of heart failure, Conard said. In letters to the students, Sendler used to address them as “my dear and beloved girls, very close to my heart.”

Conard described Sendler as a woman of courage and humility who always sought to deflect attention from herself.

“She would want all of her network to be recognized. And she also said that the real heroes were the Jewish parents and grandparents, who were making decisions that no one should have to make,” Conard told The Associated Press before the ceremony.

“Some of the parents refused to give their children up, and when she went back to talk to them again, the children and parents had been taken away on the trains,” he said.

“This is her award, and it’s to recognize her,” said Conard, now the director of the Lowell Milken Center for Unsung Heroes in Fort Scott, Kansas.

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Jewish artifacts disappear from Damascus in fog of Syria war

Jewish artifacts, including ancient parchment torahs from one of the world's oldest synagogues, have gone missing from the Syrian capital amid the tumult of ongoing civil war, with some precious items reportedly surfacing abroad.

Activists say the artifacts, moved from the now-destroyed Jobar Synagogue in Damascus' eastern Ghouta suburb when it was taken by rebels, were allegedly put into safe keeping to avoid theft and damage in 2013, but twice since then local officials have discovered some are missing.

(Photo: AP)

 

The main missing cache, they say, contained torahs written on gazelle leather as well as tapestries and chandeliers, and was given to a militia by a local council for safekeeping when rebels surrendered the neighborhood to government forces earlier this year. That group, the Islamist-inspired Failaq al-Rahman brigade, later said that it was not in possession of the items after the council arrived at a new rebel base in Syria's north after evacuating earlier this year.

Another set of objects appears to have been stolen by a Syrian guardian entrusted by the local council to hide the items in his home. The man, who officials involved declined to name, disappeared with the artifacts in 2014 before some allegedly resurfaced in Turkey.

Activists say antiquities theft is rife in Syria, and some even cast doubt over whether the missing items, including the valuable torahs, were even original works. 

 

(Photo: AP)

 

"Some of the items that went missing in 2014 and this year have started surfacing now in Turkey," said an activist who lived near the synagogue his whole life until fleeing the area in March after a crushing government offensive. The man, who goes by the name of Hassan al-Dimashqi, said the ensuing government airstrikes and bombardment destroyed most of the synagogue and the surrounding neighborhood, although some of the building's pillars remain standing.

The synagogue, also known as Eliyahu Hanavi, is one of the few Jewish places of worship in Syria that was functioning until shortly before conflict began in March 2011. Residents of the neighborhood remember how less than a dozen Jews, most of them over 50, came quietly once a week to pray.

Videos and photographs from the synagogue taken before the war show a main hall of arches lined with seats and tapestries. Chandeliers and lanterns hang from the ceiling as well as a marble stone with writing in Arabic, Hebrew and Latin. During a visit by an Associated Press photographer to the synagogue in January 2000, Youssef Jajati, a Jewish community leader in Syria at the time, showed the torahs stored in a silver container inside a cupboard. Al-Dimashqi said that for months after rebels seized the neighborhood in 2013, the synagogue was protected by the main local force in Jobar, known at the time as the Haroun al-Rashid Brigade. Later that year local officials formed a committee that decided to empty the building and hide its contents, he added.

 

(Photo: AP)

Some local officials say the man who disappeared in 2014 reached Europe and the artifacts he took ended up in Israel, according to al-Dimashqi, although his ultimate fate and that of the antiquities remain unknown. The whereabouts of the items entrusted with Failaq al-Rahman have not been verified, although al-Dimashqi and the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitor, say some of the pieces, including carpets, chandeliers and historical scripts, have surfaced in Turkey. Turkish state media reported in May that authorities had detained five people in the country's northwest who were trying to sell two old Torahs for 8 million Turkish lira ($1.7 million). It said the manuscripts were written on gazelle leather.

Maamoun Abdul-Karim, who until recently was Syria's director-general of antiquities and museums, has publicly urged the Turks to verify the manuscripts' authenticity. In the 1990s, rumors circulated in Damascus that the originals had been stolen, switched with copies, and smuggled to Israel, he added.

(Photo: AP)

 

Failaq al-Rahman has denied having any role in the artifacts' disappearance, challenging accusers to present proof that would show otherwise. Meanwhile two officials from Jobar's Local Council, which had initially organized the hiding away of the artifacts, refused to speak to the AP, fearing for their safety.

In the Middle Ages, Syria was home to one of the largest Jewish settlements in the world, with most living in the Damascus area. The community dates back to Elijah's Damascus sojourn nearly 3,000 ago, but Jewish life really blossomed in the city after 1099, when Christian armies conquered Jerusalem in the First Crusade and massacred the city's inhabitants. Historians say 50,000 Jews fled to Damascus, making almost one in three Damascenes Jewish almost overnight. Some became government ministers and advisers, and the community grew to around 100,000 by the turn of the 20th century.

Tens of thousands of Jews fled following Israel's creation in 1948, while others held in Syria against their will finally emigrated once they were allowed to when Middle East peace talks began in the 1990s.

(Photo: AP)

  

Syria has accused Israel, with whom it has been in a state of war for 70 years, of stealing the artifacts with the help of Turkey, a more recent enemy. Syria's ambassador to the United Nations, Bashar al-Ja'afari, publicized the accusation with a letter in March, saying the two countries' intelligence services worked with the rebels to smuggle them to Istanbul, where experts confirmed them as "extremely valuable," then New York.

Israel denies involvement and accuses Syria of trying to distract world attention away from the civil war, where the Jewish state has intervened with several strikes that have killed Syrian troops.

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Anne Frank House museum unveils virtual reality tour

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Virtual reality tour 'offers an immersive experience' of the rooms in the Amsterdam house where Anne wrote her diary; VR will benefit people with restricted mobility, who can't climb the narrow stairs, and visitors to Anne Frank centers in Berlin and New York. Anne Frank House museum unveils virtual reality tour : https://ift.tt/2Mvv5sX

Poll shows deep divisions between Israelis and American Jews

An opinion poll published Sunday shows deep divisions between Israelis and American Jews, particularly in relation to US President Donald Trump, highlighting the growing rift between the world's two largest Jewish communities.

The survey of the American Jewish Committee showed 77 percent of Israelis approved of the president's handling of US-Israel relations, while only 34 percent of American Jews did. Fifty-seven percent of US Jews disapproved, while only 10 percent of Israelis did.

The polarizing Trump recently recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital and relocated the American Embassy there, upending decades of US foreign policy and an international consensus that the city's fate should be decided through peace negotiations. The Palestinians, who claim east Jerusalem as their future capital, were outraged by the move and cut all contacts with the US in response.

Trump and Netanyahu during the US president's visit to Israel (Photo: AFP)

Eighty-five percent of Israelis supported the embassy move, while only 46 percent of American Jews did. The AJC surveyed 1,000 Israelis and 1,001 Jewish Americans over the age of 18 and had a margin of error of 3.1 and 3.9 percent, respectively. The survey was released ahead of the opening of the AJC Global Forum in Jerusalem, which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will address later Sunday. Netanyahu has forged a close bond with Trump, and their hard-line policies toward the Palestinians have strong support in Israel and among its Republican backers in the US. But most American Jews are Democrats who are highly critical of Trump and Netanyahu. Experts have been warning for years that the two communities are drifting in opposite directions politically, undermining the kinship between the two groups, which make up the vast majority of Jews in the world.

American Jews protesting outside Palestinian mission in New York (Photo: EPA)

The poll showed 59 percent of Americans favoring the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside Israel but only 44 percent of Israelis supporting the idea. The communities share similar views on the importance of good ties between the "extended family." But they differ greatly on matters of religion and state, particularly on the ultra-Orthodox monopoly over religious affairs in Israel. The vast majority of American Jews identify as either Reform or Conservative, the more liberal streams of Judaism that have a very small foothold in Israel.

Eighty-one percent of American Jews want to see the Orthodox monopoly on marriage, divorce and conversion in Israel broken, while only 49 percent of Israelis support the change in status quo.

In addition, 81 percent of American Jews support civil marriage and divorce, while only 55 percent of Israelis want the same.

On one of the most contentious issues, regarding a mixed-gender prayer area next to Jerusalem's Western Wall, 73 percent of American Jews express support, compared to just 42 percent of Israelis.

Reform Jews pray at the Western Wall (Photo: AP)

"The conclusion from this poll is clear, the Jews in Israel and the Jews in the US are facing fundamental disagreement about fundamental issues," said Avital Leibovich, the director of the AJC in Israel. "If we don't address these issues today and handle the challenges, the distance between the communities could potentially grow, with US Jews feeling no connection to the State of Israel."

She further warned that "a growing part of the young generation in the US feels that the State of Israel doesn't represent any values they believe in. This situation puts the future of Jewish-American support of Israel is clear danger."

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Iraq extradites suspected killer of Jewish girl to Germany

Iraq has extradited a 20-year-old Iraqi suspected of raping and killing a 14-year-old girl in Germany last month, German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer said on Saturday.

"I'm glad that the alleged perpetrator wanted by German authorities is back in Germany," Seehofer said in a statement, adding that the investigation of the case could now be accelerated.

"For the girl's family, that is only a small consolation, and my thoughts are with them during these difficult hours," Seehofer said. "But for the state and our society, it is important that crimes are cleared up and suspects are brought to justice."

 Police in the Kurdistan region of Iraq said on Saturday the Iraqi suspect had admitted to the murder of 14-year-old Susanna Feldman in Germany, where the case has stoked the immigration debate. The Jewish teenager from Mainz near Frankfurt was found dead on Wednesday in a wooded area in Wiesbaden, near a refugee centre where the alleged attacker had lived, German police said. An autopsy showed she had been the victim of a violent and sexual attack. Police said there was no evidence her religion had been a factor and the Central Council of Jews in Germany cautioned against attributing any anti-Semitic motive. Kurdish security forces had taken the suspect, identified by German authorities as Ali Bashar, into custody on Friday after he fled from Germany last week. "Officers in Zakho, in Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdish region, called me and said they had located the suspect and would arrest him as soon as he comes to the city," Dohuk city police chief Tariq Ahmed told Reuters. "He had been staying at a hotel in Dohuk and after realising the police were after him left for Zakho to stay at a relative's house. He was asleep there at night and was arrested in that house at 5:30 AM," Ahmed said.

He said the suspect had confessed to killing the German teenager during interrogation by Kurdish security authorities.

  German media reported earlier that Bashar was expected to be extradited to Germany on Saturday evening and questioned by German investigators on Sunday. German federal police declined to comment on the details emerging from the suspect's arrest or on the report on the timing of extradition. Chancellor Angela Merkel expressed her dismay at the crime and said it should be a reminder to Germans of the need to do whatever possible for the integration of immigrants. "The incredible suffering experienced by the family, the victim, affects everyone, including me," she said on the sidelines of a G7 summit meeting in Canada. "The cooperation in this regard between German and Kurdish security authorities worked well here ... It is good that the alleged perpetrator was caught, that he probably also will be returning to Germany," Merkel said. She added, "This is a reminder to all of us, first, to take the task of integration very seriously, to make our common values very clear, again and again. But also to punish any crime. We can only live together if we all stick to our laws." Merkel's decision to take in large numbers of asylum seekers during Europe's 2015 migrant crisis has stirred a political backlash, with many politicians calling for new rules to make it easier to deport immigrants. Bashar had been living in Germany as a refugee since 2015, German media have reported. German police set up a special call centre for tips from the public and issued releases in Arabic and Turkish. They said on Thursday that Bashar had likely fled to Erbil in the KRG.

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Holocaust survivor Gena Turgel, consoler of Anne Frank, dies

LONDON - Gena Turgel, a Holocaust survivor who comforted Anne Frank at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp before the young diarist's death and the camp's liberation a month later, has died. She was 95.

Turgel died Thursday, Britain's chief rabbi, Ephraim Mirvis, said on Twitter. The news triggered tributes from some of the people the Polish native touched in the decades she shared her World War II experiences, including witnessing the horrors of the Nazi camps at Auschwitz, Buchenwald and Bergen-Belsen. After World War II, Turgel married one of Bergen-Belsen's British liberators, Norman Turgel, earning the nickname "The Bride of Belsen." Her wedding dress, made from parachute silk, is part of the collection of the Imperial War Museum in London.

Gena Turgel (Photo taken from Twitter)

Turgel attended Britain's annual Holocaust remembrance event two months ago, sitting in a wheelchair with a blanket draped over her knees. "My story is the story of one survivor, but it is also the story of 6 million who perished," she said at the event in London's Hyde Park. "Maybe that's why I was spared—so my testimony would serve as a memorial like that candle that I light, for the men, women and children who have no voice." Born in Krakow, Poland as Gena Goldfinger on Feb. 1, 1923, Turgel and her family were forced to move into a Jewish ghetto with only a sack of potatoes, some flour and a few belongings in late 1941. One brother was shot by SS police and another disappeared after trying to escape, according to the Holocaust Educational Trust in London. A sister of hers was shot while trying to smuggle food into a labor camp. In January 1945, Turgel and her mother were forced onto a death march from Auschwitz to Buchenwald, leaving her remaining sister behind. In February 1945, they arrived at Bergen-Belsen in Germany. It was in a hospital at Bergen-Belsen, where Turgel arrived in February 1945, that the 22-year-old Turgel cared for 15-year-old Anne Frank as she was dying from typhus.

"I washed her face, gave her water to drink, and I can still see that face, her hair and how she looked," Turgel once told the BBC.

Anne Frank

Turgel published a memoir, "I Light a Candle," in 1987 and kept retelling her story in schools across Britain until the end of her life. "Gena dedicated her life to sharing her testimony to hundreds of thousands in schools across the country. Her story was difficult to hear—and difficult for her to tell—but no one who heard her speak will ever forget," Karen Pollock, chief executive of the Holocaust Educational Trust, said. London Mayor Sadiq Khan said he met Turgel at the Hyde Park event in April and was "inspired by her lifelong commitment to educating people about the horrors of the Holocaust." "Let us hope for a better future where anti-Semitism and all hatred should be demolished, shouldn't be tolerated," Turgel said at the time. "And I do beg you, don't forget those who are less fortunate than yourselves." She is survived by her three children, as well as grandchildren and great grandchildren.

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