Tuesday 31 December 2013

"Top 10" Antisemites of 2013 List Released

FSWC Reports:

From ynetnews.com:

The leaders of Iran and Turkey and musician Roger Waters top the 2013 "anti-Semitic and anti-Israel slurs" list released Monday by the Simon Wiesenthal Center (SWC), a Jewish human rights organization dedicated to fighting anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial. 

The first place was given to Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. According to SWC, even as the world’s top diplomats celebrated the Iranian nuclear deal, few leaders condemned Khamenei for his "unabated public slurs and genocidal threats against the Jewish state."

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Group Representing European Jews Calls on English and European Soccer Federations to Step Up Efforts to Fight Racism and Antisemitism

FSWC Reports:

From the Associated Press via ynetnews.com:

European Jewish Congress President Moshe Kantor is asking football authorities to strengthen their fight against racism and anti-Semitism in the wake of Nicolas Anelka's controversial goal celebration in a Premier League match.

In a letter sent both to the English Football Association chairman Greg Dyke and UEFA president Michel Platini, Kantor wrote that his organization often receives reports of "attacks on Jews, whether verbal or physical, which also include acts of anti-Semitism at matches involving English and European football clubs."

 
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Monday 30 December 2013

French Soccer Player Accused of Making Antisemitic Salute

FSWC Reports:

From News Agencies via ynetnews.com:

French footballer Nicolas Anelka triggered controversy Saturday when he made a post-goal gesture many interpret to be a modified "Nazi-style" salute.

After scoring the first of his two goals in a 3-3 draw at West Ham on Saturday, Anelka appeared to perform a salute used by French comedian Dieudonne M'bala M'bala that Jewish groups in France have linked to anti-Semitic incidents in the country. The comic has been fined seven times for defamation, insult and provocation to hate, and for racial discrimination.

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France Considers Banning Antisemitic Comedian

FSWC Reports:

From Reuters:

France is considering banning performances by a black comedian whose shows have repeatedly insulted the memory of Holocaust victims and could threaten public order, Interior Minister Manuel Valls said on Friday.

He said his ministry is studying legal ways to ban shows by Dieudonne M'bala M'bala, a comedian repeatedly fined for hate speech who ran in the 2009 European Parliament elections at the head of an "Anti-Zionist List" including far-right activists.

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Auschwitz Barracks Returned to Poland

FSWC Reports:

From the Associated Press via ynetnews.com:

Half of a historic Auschwitz-Birkenau barracks that was on loan to the US has been returned to Poland after two decades and long negotiations, officials said Sunday. 

The Nazi barracks was one of the main items at the US Holocaust Museum in Washington, which wanted the lease extended. But Poland asked for it back after adopting new regulations in 2003 that limit the loan of all historical and art works to a maximum of five years. That led to years of negotiations between the museums and US and Polish governments that ended in October, when the Holocaust Museum agreed to return its portion of the barracks.

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Art Historian Finds Nazi-Looted Art in German Parliament

FSWC Reports:

From Reuters:

An art historian has found two art works stolen by the Nazis inside Germany's parliament, a newspaper reported on Monday, in a new embarrassment for authorities after a huge stash of looted art came to light last month.

The Bundestag, in a statement issued after the report in Bild newspaper, said an art historian was reviewing two "suspicious cases", but a spokesman would not confirm the find.
 
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Friday 27 December 2013

Members of Jewish Group Accused of Attacking Suspected Antisemites

FSWC Reports:

From ynetnews.com:

Did the Jewish Defense League (LDJ – Ligue de Défense Juive) in France initiate attacks on French civilians suspected of anti-Semitism? Police in the city of Lyon believe it did and arrested six Jewish members of the local office on Tuesday on suspicion of carrying out two attacks against anti-Semitic activists. 

According to news agency reports, the first assault took place on December 21 in Lyon. The next day, last Sunday, another attack was carried out in Villeurbanne. Police suspect that the local "league" – a right-wing Jewish organization affiliated with the late Rabbi Meir Kahane – is behind these acts, and that the gang tracked down its victims on social networks. 

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Members of Europe's Roma Community Travel to Israel to Learn About Holocaust and How to Raise Awareness of Their Own Genocide

FSWC Reports:

From ynetnews.com:

Yad Vashem is used to seeing emotional visits. But the group that arrived at the International School of Holocaust Studies from Slovakia appeared to be particularly moved. It may have to do with the fellowship of victims, the shared fate of two people singled out by the Nazis for annihilation that are now cooperating in an effort to commemorate the past and educate people about it.

This was the first time that nearly all delegation members, 18 of 20, all teachers, were gypsies from the Roma community. 

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Wednesday 25 December 2013

Works by Jews from Former Soviet Union Commemorating the Holocaust to be Displayed in Jerusalem

FSWC Reports:

From ynetnews.com:

A moving first-of-its-kind exhibition showcasing the works of Jewish artists from the former Soviet Union, memorializing the Holocaust, will be on display and open to the public free of charge in Jerusalem for one month beginning with its opening on Sunday, December 29.

The idea for the exhibit was born during the Limmud FSU Jerusalem festival, which took place last month with the support of the Israel-based Hashava Company and the Menachem Begin Heritage Center, which is hosting the exhibition. 

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Israeli Couple Privately Document 350 Synagogues Used in Pre-Holocaust Europe

FSWC Reports:

From ynetnews.com:

Rivka and Ben-Zion Dorfman, both more than 90 years old, dedicated 70 weeks of their life to photograph and document more than 350 synagogues in Europe that were deserted after the Holocaust.

The couple handed their life's work over to the Yad Vashem Archives, where staff will continue tracing the lost communities through the ruined synagogues. 
 
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Sunday 22 December 2013

Edgar Bronfman Remembered for Advancing the Rights of Jews Around the World

FSWC Reports:

From the Associated Press via ynetnews.com:

Edgar M. Bronfman Sr., the billionaire businessman and longtime president of the World Jewish Congress, which lobbied the Soviets to allow Jews to emigrate and helped spearhead the search for hidden Nazi loot, died Saturday. He was 84.

The Canadian-born Bronfman died at his New York home surrounded by family, according to the family charity he led, The Samuel Bronfman Foundation.
 
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Holocaust Deniers Promote Weakening of Australia's Anti-Racism Laws

FSWC Reports:

From ynetnews.com:

Australia's largest Holocaust denial group expressed support in Tony Abbott's initative to reduce and weaken the laws defining hate crimes, according to a Saturday report in the Australian daily the Sydney Morning Herald.

The report claimed that the Adelaide Institute, founded by Gerald Fredrick Töben – who served two jail sentences for Holocaust denial and anti-Semitism – announced that section C18 of the Racial Discrimination Act and other anti-racism laws have prevented "legitimate" historical discussions.
 
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Cooking Skills Saved Holocaust Survivor's Life

FSWC Reports:

From ynetnews.com:

The Auschwitz death camp: Chaya Hollander is sent to work in the kitchen and cook for Nazi officers. They taste her food, enjoy it and ask for more. That's what saved her life. Now, several years after her death, the booklet containing the recipes which helped her survive the Holocaust has been found.

Hollander, who was born in Hungary, loved spending hours watching her mother cook in the kitchen. No one knew at the time that that is what will later save her life. 

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Friday 20 December 2013

Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra Revokes Honours Given to Prominent Nazis

FSWC Reports:

From Reuters:

The famed Vienna Philharmonic orchestra has revoked awards it made during Hitler's rule to six leading Nazis, as it quietly responds to criticism of the way it has dealt with its past.

The symbolic move, decided in October but not publicly announced, follows the Philharmonic's publication earlier this year of details of its conduct during the Nazi era, which it revealed for the first time.
 
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Thursday 19 December 2013

"Voices of Vigil" Exibition Organized to Remember Efforts to Save Jews Trapped Behind the Iron Curtain

FSWC Reports:

From jn1.tv via ynetnews.com:

It’s a calm winter day outside of what used to be the embassy of the Soviet Union in Washington. But during the 1970s and 1980s, every single day saw a vigil as American activists protested the treatment of Jews trapped behind the Iron Curtain.

Every day for over 20 years, between 12:30 and 12:45 pm, protestors staged some form of demonstration, from dancing "Hava Nagila" to reading Hebrew prayers.
 
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Wednesday 18 December 2013

Long-Lost Diary Used as Evidence in Nuremberg Trials Given to U.S. Holocaust Museum

FSWC Reports:

From Reuters:

The long-lost diary kept by a top aide to Adolf Hitler as he oversaw the genocide against Jews and others during World War Two, a key piece of evidence during the Nuremberg trials, was handed over on Tuesday to the U.S. Holocaust Museum.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents found and seized Alfred Rosenberg's 400-page diary in Wilmington, Delaware this year, ending a nearly 70-year hunt for the diary which disappeared after the Nuremberg trials in 1946.
 
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Germany Refuses to Return Art to Jewish Heirs

FSWC Reports:

From the Associated Press via ynetnews.com:

The German government has refused a request to hand back two paintings once owned by a Jewish businessman persecuted by the Nazis.

Germany's Finance Ministry said it would not return the 18th-century paintings by Bernardo Bellotto to the heirs of Max Emden because he had already fled to Switzerland when he sold them.  

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Sunday 15 December 2013

Three Men Arrested in Britain for Posting Antisemitic Comments on Twitter Following Premier League Soccer Match

FSWC Reports:

From Reuters:

Three men have been arrested for posting anti-Semitic comments on Twitter following Tottenham Hotspur's Premier League match against West Ham United in October, police said on Friday.

Two men, aged 22 and 24, were arrested on Thursday in London and in Wiltshire, while a 48-year-old man was arrested at his home in Canning Town in London last week on suspicion of inciting racial hatred.

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Neo-Nazis Attack Anti-Nazi Demonstration in Sweden

FSWC Reports:

From the Associated Press via ynetnews.com:

Swedish police detained 28 people Sunday after a group of neo-Nazis attacked an anti-Nazism demonstration in a Stockholm suburb by hurling bottles, torches and firecrackers.

Police spokesman Sven-Erik Olsson says two people were hospitalized and a policeman was injured in the back after being hit by a heavy object.   

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Friday 13 December 2013

U.S. Vice President Says Obama Administration Committed to Helping Holocaust Survivors

FSWC Reports:

From the Associated Press via ynetnews.com:

The Obama administration is working to help Holocaust survivors in the United States, many of them living in poverty, by coordinating assistance, working with aid groups and using diplomatic means to help recover property confiscated during the Nazi era. 

Vice President Joe Biden announced the effort this week in a speech to the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee. The administration says 100,000 Holocaust survivors are in the United States, and 25% live below the poverty level.

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Romanian TV Airs Antisemitic Christmas Song

FSWC Reports:

From ynetnews.com and the Associated Press:

A Christmas carol has been aired by Romanian state TV, celebrating the Holocaust and condoning the burning of Jews.

The US Embassy in Romania sharply criticized the country's state television network for broadcasting the anti-Semitic Christmas carol.
 
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Thursday 12 December 2013

German State Nixes Reprint of Hitler's "Mein Kampf"

FSWC Reports:

From Reuters:

The German state of Bavaria announced on Wednesday it had scrapped plans to publish a new academic reprint of Adolf Hitler's "Mein Kampf" with critical commentary when its legal power to ban the book expires in 2015.

The southern German state owns the copyright and has banned any republication. But the copyright expires at the end of 2015, 70 years after the author's death. Bavaria had been planning to then publish a new edition with critical commentary from the Munich-based Institute for Contemporary History (IfZ).
 
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U.S. Court Revives Jewish Family's Attempt to Regain Ownership of Masterpiece Painting Stolen by Nazis

FSWC Reports:

From the Associated Press via ynetnews.com:

A federal appeals court on Monday resurrected a Jewish family's long legal battle to regain ownership of a $20 million masterpiece painting seized in Nazi Germany during World War II.

In doing so, the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals also reinstated a California law allowing lawsuits over art ownership disputes dating back as far as 100 years. The decision reversed a lower court ruling that invalidated the law saying it infringed on the US government's exclusive authority over foreign affairs.
 
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New Nazi Salute Spreads in Europe

FSWC Reports:

From ynetnews.com:

The right hand and its fingers are stretched downwards along the body, while the left hand performs a "salute" movement on the opposite arm. Sound like an aerobic exercise for beginners? According to anti-Semitism researchers, it is actually a clear anti-Semitic symbol, a modern Nazi salute, spreading among Jew haters across Europe. 

In recent months, the researchers warn, anti-Semites have been taking advantage of the lack of public awareness of the new "salute" and taking pictures of themselves performing the salute in particularly symbolic and sensitive places around the world like the Treblinka extermination camp, the Western Wall plaza and next to IDF soldiers, as well as alongside Jews who are unaware of the "trick." They then post the photos on the Internet. 

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Wednesday 11 December 2013

Greek Prime Minister Given Award for Fighting Fascism

FSWC Reports:

From the Associated Press via ynetnews.com:

A European Jewish group has presented Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras with an award following the arrest of leading members of the far-right Golden Dawn party, praising his "courageous leadership."

The Brussels-based European Jewish Congress held its annual executive meeting in Athens on Monday and presented Samaras the award.
 
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Monday 9 December 2013

2 Turkish Citizens Arrested at Auschwitz for Allegedly Making Nazi Salute

FSWC Reports:

From ynetnews.com:

Two tourists from Turkey were arrested by guards at the Auschwitz death camp museum for allegedly making a Nazi salute, news agency JTA reported Monday.

A man and a woman, tourists, both 22, took pictures of each other in front of the gate to the former Nazi death camp under one of the most recognizable signs of the Holocaust, “Arbeit macht frei,” or work will free you, raising their right hands as if performing the Nazi salute. 

 
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Sunday 8 December 2013

Berlin Zoo Seeks Out Former Jewish Shareholders Forced Out by Nazis

FSWC Reports:

From AFP via ynetnews.com:

More than 70 years after the Berlin Zoo forced Jewish shareholders out of its ranks, the institution is trying to come clean about its own dark chapter during the Nazi era.

A Berlin historian is combing through thousands of names to identify members made to sell their shares back to the zoo at a loss under the Third Reich, and has begun tracking down their descendants ahead of publishing her findings.
 
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Thursday 5 December 2013

Holocaust Survivors Saved in "Kindertransport" Escape Tell Their Stories

FSWC Reports:

From the Associated Press via ynetnews.com:

The operation was called Kindertransport – Children's Transport – and it was a passage from hell to freedom.

Kristallnacht had just rocked Nazi Germany. The pogroms killed dozens of Jews, burned hundreds of synagogues and imprisoned tens of thousands in concentration camps. Many historians see them as the start of Hitler's Final Solution.
 
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Wednesday 4 December 2013

After 70 Years, American Holocaust Survivor Reunites with Polish Man Who Saved Him

FSWC Reports:

From AFP via ynetnews.com:

A Jewish boy who hid from the Nazis in a hayloft was recently reunited after 70 years with the son of a couple who risked everything to save him.

Beaming American Holocaust survivor Leon Gersten, 79, embraced and clasped the hand of a visibly moved Czeslaw Polziec, 81, whose Polish parents saved five Jews during World War II.

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Germany Launches Investigation Into Hundreds of Unsolved Murders in Which Neo-Nazis May Have Been Involved

FSWC Reports:

From the Associated Press via ynetnews.com:

Hundreds of unsolved killings and attempted killings in Germany over the past two decades may have been committed by far-right extremists, officials said Wednesday. 
 
The stark admission comes two years after a series of murders German police had linked to immigrant criminal groups. Now, it turns out, that the killings may have been the work of a secretive neo-Nazi group.

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Tuesday 3 December 2013

Controversy Continues Over Singer's Use of Star of David

FSWC Reports:

From the Associated Press via ynetnews.com:

Now that his three-year world tour for "The Wall" has finally come to an end, Roger Waters wants to set the record straight over criticism he's received from Jewish groups regarding his use of the Star of David symbol in the show and his support for a cultural boycott of Israel.

The 70-year old Pink Floyd co-founder says his intention was never to offend the Jewish people. "I worry about it every day. It's a huge concern to me that I would be considered to be a bully," Waters says.
 
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Stone Throwers in Jerusalem Motivated by "Jew-Hatred"

FSWC Reports:

From ynetnews.com:

It was cleared for publication on Tuesday that five teens were arrested in connection to a stone hurling incident in which a 2-year-old girl was injured. Four of the suspects said they have committed the crime because of "Jew-hatred."

The suspects, all residents of the east Jerusalem village of Sur Baher, aged 14 to 17, admitted responsiblity for the incident. 

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Thursday 28 November 2013

Head of Austria's Muslim Community Promises to Promote Holocaust Education

FSWC Reports:

From Reuters: 

New York Rabbi Marc Schneier won a small but significant victory on a recent visit to Vienna – a promise from the head of Austria’s Islamic community to promote Holocaust education among the country’s half a million Muslims.

Invited to an interfaith lunch along with his years-long partner in Jewish-Muslim outreach, Imam Shamsi Ali, Schneier found himself having a “very, very frank exchange” of views with Muslim leader Fuat Sanac, whom the Austrian Jewish community was hosting for the first time.

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Tuesday 26 November 2013

Hunt for Remaining Nazi War Criminals Expanded

FSWC Reports:

From the Associated Press via ynetnews.com:

The Simon Wiesenthal Center is expanding its poster and reward campaign in Germany in its push to track down Nazi war criminals before it is too late, following a strong response to its initial launch.

The center's top Nazi-hunter, Efraim Zuroff, said Monday that Operation Last Chance II, launched in July, resulted in tips on 111 possible suspects from 19 countries.
 
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Tuesday 19 November 2013

Retirement Community a Refuge for Holocaust Survivors

FSWC Reports:

From the Associated Press via ynetnews.com:

Listen to the many harrowing stories of war, suffering and survival, all under one roof:

On the third floor, there's Margie. A prisoner of Nazi labor camps, she hauled backbreaking cement bags and was beaten with clubs. Sometimes, she had only a piece of bread to eat every other day. She weighed 56 pounds (25.4 kilograms) when she was freed.

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Monday 18 November 2013

Hungary Casts Doubt on Recent Poll Measuring Antisemitism

FSWC Reports:

From jn1.tv via ynetnews.com:

Hungarian officials have questioned the methodology behind a survey that showed a greater fear of anti-Semitism among Jews in Hungary than in any other European country.

The head of the Hungarian delegation to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance doubted whether the survey was representative in nature because it did not have a randomly selected sample. 

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Sunday 17 November 2013

U.N. Secretary-General to Visit Auschwitz

FSWC Reports:

From ynetnews.com:

Ban Ki-moon will make history on Monday, being the first United Nations secretary-general to visit the Auschwitz death camp in Poland since the international organization's establishment. 

UN spokesman Martin Nesirky says Ban will visit the camp "to pay tribute to the victims of the Holocaust and to stress the importance of the UN's work for genocide prevention, tolerance and peace." 

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Man Who Concealed Paintings Looted by Nazis Will Fight to Keep Them

FSWC Reports:

From AFP via ynetnews.com:

Cornelius Gurlitt, a German recluse who hid hundreds of paintings believed looted by the Nazis in his Munich flat, says he will not give up the works without a fight, quashing hopes of a quick settlement.

Describing the priceless works as the love of his life, Gurlitt, 80, told Der Spiegel news weekly in an interview that his father, a powerful Nazi-era art dealer, had acquired the paintings legally and that he as his heir sees himself as their rightful owner.

 
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Thursday 14 November 2013

Intersection in Washington, DC Renamed After Bulgarian Lawmaker Who Helped Save Jews During Holocaust

FSWC Reports:

From the Associated Press via ynetnews.com:

A street intersection outside the Bulgarian Embassy in Washington was renamed Tuesday in honor of a lawmaker from that country who is credited with helping spare the lives of tens of thousands of Jews during the Holocaust.

The intersection in the city's Dupont Circle neighborhood will now be known as Dimitar Peshev Plaza, a recognition approved by the DC Council following a campaign by Peshev's supporters.
 
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Norway to Introduce Anti-circumcision Law

FSWC Reports:

From ynetnews.com:

European countries are continuing to promote legislation against circumcision: Norway will advance a law to "regulate ritual circumcision," the Scandinavian country's Health Minister Bent Hoie said following a call by Norway Children’s Ombudswoman Anne Lindboe to ban non-medical circumcision of minors, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) reports.

The country's Jewish community is outraged by the announcement, and the European Jewish Association's general director sought the help of the Israeli government on Wednesday.

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Tuesday 12 November 2013

Jewish Community in Italy Outraged Over "Hitler Prize"

FSWC Reports:

From ynetnews.com:

A trade union in Italy has provoked outrage among the country’s Jewish community after deciding to hold a contest which awards the "Hitler Prize." Within the Feder Fauna union whose members include farmers and animal growers, management called on employees to name those who were frequently hounded by animal activists as potential recipients.

The award is ironically named after Adolf Hitler, who ordered human trials and simultaneously passed a law for the protection of animals. Massimiliano Filippi, general secretary of the association said: “The Hitler Prize represents a condemnation of those who trample on human rights in the name of the ideology of ‘animal rights’!”

 
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Jews in Hungary Consider Emigrating as Antisemitism in the Country Grows

FSWC Reports:

From AFP via ynetnews.com:

Hungary's Jewish community, one of the biggest in Europe, is struggling with a rise in anti-Semitism, according to recent surveys, even as Europe marked the 75th anniversary of Kristallnacht.

A report by the EU Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA) on Friday showed that anti-Semitism has got worse across Europe over the past five years, facilitated by social media and file-sharing websites.
 
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Germany Begins Publishing List of Recently Found Artworks Looted by Nazis

FSWC Reports:

From Reuters:

Germany was to start publishing an online list on Tuesday of works that were discovered in a huge art stash found in a Munich flat last year and believed for the most part to have been stolen or extorted by the Nazis.

A statement from the national and Bavarian regional governments said 25 of the works would initially be displayed on an existing website created to help establish the provenance of works seized by the Nazis, mostly from Jews during the persecution of the Holocaust.

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Sunday 10 November 2013

New Poll by Rights Group Shows European Antisemitism on the Rise

FSWC Reports:

From AFP via ynetnews.com:

Anti-Semitism has worsened in Europe in the past few years with abuse increasingly widespread on the Internet, a survey by the European Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA) showed Friday.

The study – released ahead of the 75th anniversary of Kristallnacht, which saw Nazi thugs smash up Jewish businesses and synagogues – found that 66% of European Jews considered anti-Semitism "a fairly big or very big" problem in their country.
 
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Ceremonies Held to Mark 75th Anniversary of Kristallnacht

FSWC Reports:

From Reuters via ynetnews.com:

Lilly Drukker was 11 years old when two uniformed Nazis barged into her family's Vienna apartment in November 1938 to take her father away to the Dachau concentration camp.

It was the day after Kristallnacht, a state-sponsored spree of looting and destruction of Jewish property across Germany and Austria that marked a turning point in Nazi policy as Adolf Hitler unleashed the general population against the Jews. 
 
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Friday 8 November 2013

New Book Offers Fresh Look at Kristallnacht

FSWC Reports:

From AFP via ynetnews.com:

As Germany prepares to mark the 75th anniversary of Kristallnacht this weekend, a new book calls into question the event long cited as triggering the pogrom.

The attacks of November 9 and 10, 1938, saw Nazi thugs plunder Jewish businesses throughout Germany, torch synagogues and round up about 30,000 Jewish men for deportation to concentration camps.
 
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Thursday 7 November 2013

Pig's Head Placed at Synagogue Being Built in Ukraine

FSWC Reports:

From ynetnews.com:

A pig's head was placed on the threshold of a construction site slated for a three-story Chabad synagogue in Sevastopol, Ukraine. Members of the local Jewish community said that many residents have opposed construction of the neighborhood synagogue, claiming that the site was situated on remnants of a mass grave of non-Jewish Ukrainians who died in World War II.

On Wednesday, the Zarusskiy.org news website reported that the head of the pig had been discovered by members of the Jewish community on Monday. The three floor building on which construction began in 2012 will be able to accommodate 400 worshipers. It is scheduled to open in 2014. 
 
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Wednesday 6 November 2013

Antisemitic Souvenirs Widely Sold in Poland

FSWC Reports:

From ynetnews.com:

A survey commissioned recently by the leadership of the Jewish community in Warsaw revealed that 54% of Poles believe Jews have "too much influence on the global economy."

Amid this troubling finding, representatives of the World Zionist Organization (WZO) who visited former Nazi concentration camps in Poland were amazed to discover anti-Semitic souvenirs sold on the street in almost every tourist site in the country, including paintings and amulets of Jews waving dollars – for people to hang in their homes as a charm for protecting their money. 

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Berlusconi Compares Treatment of His Children to Persecution of Jews by Hitler

FSWC Reports:

From Reuters:

Silvio Berlusconi caused outrage in Italy's Jewish community on Wednesday after the former prime minister said he and his children felt persecuted like Jews in Nazi Germany because of hounding by leftist magistrates.

The comments came from an advance excerpt released on Wednesday of an interview by television journalist Bruno Vespa for his latest book. They were later posted on Berlusconi's Forza Italia party website.

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German Spa Withdraws "Romantic Kristallnacht" Ads Following Outrage on Social Media

FSWC Reports:

From ynetnews.com:

A hotel-spa in Germany apologized Wednesday for offering a "romantic Kristallnacht" just days before the 75th anniversary of the Nazi pogrom of the same name, where hundreds of Jewish businesses were ruined and thousands of Jews were sent to concentration camps in 1938.

Ads promoting a "long, romantic Kristallnacht" at the hotel sparked outrage and protest in social media. The spa apologized Wednesday on its facebook page and pulled the ad. 
 
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Tuesday 5 November 2013

Jewish Group Accuses Germany of Hiding Stolen Art Find

FSWC Reports:

From Reuters:

A Jewish group accused Germany on Monday of moral complicity in concealment of stolen paintings after it emerged authorities failed for two years to report discovery of a trove of art seized by the Nazis, including works by Picasso and Matisse.

Customs officials' chance discovery of 1,500 artworks in a Munich flat owned by the reclusive elderly son of a war-time art dealer, was revealed in a report by news magazine Focus over the weekend.
 
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Sunday 3 November 2013

Poll Finds Antisemitic Attitudes in U.S. Down Slightly

FSWC Reports:

From ynetnews.com:

On the occasion of its centennial, the latest Anti-Defamation League (ADL) survey of the American people found that 12% of Americans harbor deeply entrenched anti-Semitic attitudes. This marks a 3% decline since the League’s previous poll on anti-Semitic attitudes in 2011.

The 2013 Survey of American Attitudes Toward Jews in America, a national telephone survey of 1,200 adults, was conducted October 12-22 by Marttila Strategies of Washington, DC and Boston. The margin of error is +/- 2.8%.
 
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United Nations to Give War Crimes Archive to Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C.

FSWC Reports:

From the Associated Press via ynetnews.com:

US Ambassador Samantha Power announced Thursday that the United Nations has agreed to give the US Holocaust Museum a full copy of the archive documenting thousands of cases against accused World War II criminals in Europe and Asia.

She told the Anti-Defamation League's National Commission Centennial Meeting on Thursday that the archive of the United Nations War Crimes Commission will benefit scholars "at a time when Holocaust denial is embraced by many who prefer diversionary fantasies to inconvenient facts."
 
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eBay Apologizes After Holocaust Memorabilia Found on Site

FSWC Reports:

From Reuters:

EBay has removed from its listings around 30 items of memorabilia from the Nazi Holocaust, including clothes worn by concentration camp victims, after a newspaper investigation discovered they were on sale on the e-commerce website, Britain's Mail on Sunday said.

The newspaper said its reporters found a range of items on the site over the past week, including what was presented by the vendor as a complete Auschwitz uniform worn by a Polish baker who perished in the Nazi death camp.
 
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Nearly 1500 Masterpiece Paintings Looted by Nazis Found in German Apartment

FSWC Reports:

From AFP via ynetnews.com:

Nearly 1,500 paintings including works by Picasso and Matisse that were stolen by the Nazis have been discovered in a German flat, a newspaper reported Sunday, putting their total value at around a billion euros.

German weekly Focus said the paintings were found in an apartment belonging to the octogenarian son of an art collector who had bought them during the 1930s and 1940s. 
 
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Thursday 31 October 2013

Man in U.S. to be Compensated for Years of Antisemitic Abuse by Former Employer

FSWC Reports:

From ynetnews.com:

For years, delivery man Adam Wiercinski suffered anti-semitic insults from his employers at a New York restaurant. This week, the court ruled that the restaurant will pay him a compensation of $900,000.

The attorney of the 50-year-old delivery man told the New York Post, "They would call him a ‘dirty Jew,’ and when he would say, ‘But I took a bath,’ they would laugh and say, ‘No, you still smell like a Jew.’” 

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Former Nazi Gestapo Chief May be Buried in Jewish Cemetary

FSWC Reports:

From AFP via ynetnews.com:

The head of Hitler's Gestapo secret police and one of the organisers of the Holocaust, Heinrich Mueller, was buried in a Jewish cemetery in Berlin in 1945, a German newspaper reported Thursday. For 68 years, the fate of "Gestapo-Mueller" has been unclear but Bild, based on documents found by a historian, said he died at the end of the war and was buried in a common grave in a Jewish cemetery in central Berlin. 
 
"Mueller didn't survive the end of the war," the mass circulation newspaper quoted Johannes Tuchel, head of the Memorial to the German Resistance, as saying. "His body was interred in 1945 in the Jewish cemetery in Berlin-Mitte in a mass grave," he said.

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Tuesday 29 October 2013

Manchester United Apologizes for Using Logo Resembling Nazi Swastika Along with Hitler-Inspired Slogan

FSWC Reports:

From ynetnews.com:

Manchester United, perhaps the most well-known soccer club ever, has issued a public apology for sending out an email to its swarms of dedicated followers recently, which brandished a new logo that strikingly resembles a swastika, and a headline that reads "New Order." 

The headline is a phrase Adolf Hitler used during a campaign in 1941 while trying to create a "European New Order," which meant the elimination of the Jewish people and promoted the prosperity of the Aryan race.  

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Monday 28 October 2013

Stats Show Quebec's Jewish Population Has Stopped Declining

FSWC Reports:

From ynetnews.com:

Despite a growing secularism in Quebec, most recently sparked by a bill that seeks to ban visual religious wear on public employees, the Jewish community’s decades-long exodus from Quebec seems to have plateaud.

An analysis of Canada’s 2011 census suggests that Quebec’s Jewish population had not dropped below the 90,000 threshold, a stat that was a concern for Quebec’s Jewish community.

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Holocaust Survivor's Art Collection Up For Auction

FSWC Reports:

From AFP via ynetnews.com:

The art collection of a Holocaust survivor who became one of the foremost Pablo Picasso dealers goes on sale in New York next month for an expected $170 million.

The 160 drawings, paintings and sculptures owned by Jan Krugier include Old Masters and 20th century European masterpieces, as well as Latin American and African art.
 
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Holocaust Memorial App Launched in Germany

FSWC Reports:

From AFP via ynetnews.com:

Smartphones in Germany are now delivering messages from the past, with a new app launched recently that shows the names and pictures of Holocaust victims to people walking by their former homes.

"What we envision is a virtual, floating museum over Munich," Martina Bachmann, spokeswoman for the app development company based in the southern German city, told AFP.

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Sunday 27 October 2013

Suspected Violent Antisemitic Attack in Australia

FSWC Reports:

From ynetnews.com:

Five Jews were attacked Saturday in Bondi Beach in Sydney. The victims were evacuated to St Vincent's Hospital due to injuries they sustained from the attack.

According to suspicion, eight youths attacked the victims.
 
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Belgian Museum Showcases Ships that Took European Jews Seeking Better Lives to U.S.

FSWC Reports:

From Reuters via ynetnews.com:

They were the ships that took Albert Einstein and Irving Berlin to America, two of the millions who set out from Europe around the turn of the 20th century hoping to leave behind poverty or persecution.

The steam liners of the Red Star Line, commemorated in a new museum in their Belgian home port of Antwerp, carried about two million migrants across the Atlantic between 1873 and 1934, a quarter of them Jews, and all seeking a better life.
 
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Former British Foreign Secretary Blames Jewish Money for Preventing Mideast Peace

FSWC Reports:

From ynetnews.com:

Former British Foreign Secretary and Labor MP Jack Straw made harsh anti-Semitics statements during a British parliament debate last week, Yedioth Ahronoth reported.

Listing the greatest obstacles to peace, Straw said that unlimited” funds available to Jewish organizations and AIPAC in the US are used to control and divert American policy in the region.
 
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