| ||
| ||
| Gottorah Forum | ||
| ||
| "Do Jews believe in life after death?" |
 Extra Extra...Read All About ItModerators: Rabbi Y., Mimi Jump to page : 1 2 3 4 5 6 Now viewing page 1 [25 messages per page] | View previous thread :: View next thread |
| General Discussion -> General Discussion | Message format |
Sirrom |
| ||
Extreme Veteran Posts: 466   | I am a collector of historic newspapers. For those who enjoy history it is very exciting to read first hand reports of historic events. There is an anonymous quote that "Journalists write the first draft of history." Over the period of the next month, or so, I would like to post some famous newspaper reports of events that have occurred in Israel and other newspaper reports of interest to Jewish readers. I will edit some of the text for the sake of brevity, but the main thrust of the stories and events will remain. (even with editing they will still be long) As you read these stories try to place yourself at the scene. Think of holding a rifle, or fleeing from a missile, think of the mothers and fathers who lost a child, not because that child wanted to take something from another but, because that child wanted only to protect his home, and culture, and religion from the anti Semitism that has haunted and plagued Judaism for thirty-five hundred years. Become a part of the story and live the story. I do hope you, both those who are Yiddish and those of you who have an affinity for Judaism, will experience the anguish, the hope, the dream, and the victories of Judaism. I do hope you will be instilled with pride and silently pay tribute to those who have fallen to preserve our Jewish religion, our Jewish heritage, and Jewish freedom. All of these reports will come from newspapers that I own. My first report, which follows next, concerns a historic Jewish event that was eventually produced as a movie. Sirrom
| ||
| |||
| michael S. |
| ||
Elite Veteran Posts: 745  Location: The Last Outpost | Hi Sirrom, Maybe you could do some arrangements and add sound bits. This for the few of us out there that don't watch TV if at all possible. I would enjoy the posting of these items. Michael | ||
| |||
| Sirrom |
| ||
Extreme Veteran Posts: 466 | The New York Times Saturday, July 19, 1947 3 Slain on Zionist Vessel As Refugees Fight British by Gene Currivan Haifa, Palestine. July 18 After a prolonged battle at sea with a naval boarding party the largest contingent of unauthorized immigrants ever to reach Palestine shores arrive here today with three of their number dead and scores injured. The boarding party was badly beaten up but only three required hospital treatment. The immigrants were immediately transshipped to the ferry-ship Ocean Vigour for deportation to Cyprus. There were 4,550 men, women, and children aboard the battered 4,000 ton ship which had its sides stoved in from being rammed by British destroyers when an attempt was made to beach her on the lower Palestine coast. The battle was bloody and vicious and lasted for three hours early this morning. A broadcast from the ship to Haganah headquarters in Tel Aviv during the height of the fight said that one was dead at that time, five seriously wounded and 100 inured. There was no official confirmation of these figures. Another death occurred during the voyage from France when a woman died in childbirth and was buried at sea. When the ship arrived here she was a sorry sight. The passengers looked as though they had been through a major battle. (edit) The arrival of this ship, the President Warfield, renamed The Exodus 1947, by Haganah, was the first since the committee came to Palestine. The ship, a one funneled, three deck ancient craft, tried to beach herself when she was approached by a destroyer near Rafah above the Egyptian border. The sea was rough and the destroyers had difficulty in drawing alongside. They finally rammed her from both sides and tore away a large portion of the port side, including more than half of the lower deck. The entire ship was ringed with heavy wire netting to prevent a boarding party from getting aboard. Boarders Repulsed at First Of the fifty sailors in the boarding party, none could get on in the first attempt. The passengers lined the decks, throwing missiles using tear smoke fireworks, smoke bombs, steam jets and then fuel oil sprayed from high pressure hoses. After all these failed and the boarding party was climbing aboard, the immigrants released heavy life rafts suspended above the top deck at a forty five degree angle. These missed the sailors but dropped on the deck of one of the destroyers. Once on board, after the side of the ship had been smashed in, the sailors ran into hand-to-hand fighting and some of them were temporarily "captured." As the fight went on, it was necessary for the men on one destroyer to open fire with small arms when an immigrant threatened to decapitate a Navy man with an axe and another was about to fire a rifle. Both desisted when the destroyer fired. Meanwhile the fight continued for the deck-house and the immigrants finally surrendered when it looked as if one more ramming operation by the destroyers would sink the ship. During the fight two sailors and one of the passengers fell overboard. They were picked up by the destroyers. Radio Describes Battle According to a series of radio messages from the President Warfield received early today at Haganah, headquarters in Tel Aviv, she first intended to make for Tel Aviv. But after the battle and the rammings the captain decided to head for Haifa because the vessel was taking water and there were several wounded on board. The radio reported at 2:50 A.M. "We are being attacked. Shots and tear gas bombs are being hurled at us without warning." Nearly two and a half hours later the radio announced: "We have decided to stop resistance and transfer casualties to a destroyer. The sailors who captured our bridge are now our prisoners. We have disarmed them and thrown their guns into the sea." A later broadcast claimed that fire was opened on the vessel without warning and that "destroyers rammed our ship and breached a hole in our hull with the full impact of their armor." Still later the messages began to get desperate: "Water is pouring into the engine room," one said. "Destroyers are around us and planes are over our heads. The number of British prisoners has reached thirty. We are in danger of drowning. We shall sail full speed for Haifa to save our people." At 5 A.M., however the radio reported that the pumps were working and that the ship was hastening to Haifa with the wounded, some of whom could not be transferred to the bobbing destroyers. edit When the immigrant ship arrived at the quay her passengers were singing the Zionist anthem "Hatikvah" although all their fighting spirit seemed to have gone. There were infants and young mothers and there were aged, bearded men. All looked exhausted. The ship was so badly battered on the port side that an entire section was missing, revealing tiers of bunks within. There was not even a place to set a gang plank and all the passengers had to be taken from the lower hold exits usually used for discharging freight. edit Sirrom | ||
| |||
| Mimi |
| ||
Extreme Veteran Posts: 575 | Thank you, Morris. I shall read them avidly. What a wonderful contribution! | ||
| |||
| michael S. |
| ||
Elite Veteran Posts: 745 Location: The Last Outpost | To add to this post if you google in Israeli war history you will get a few 30 minute yutube programs on the history channel. They will make you stand up and cheer or just cry. I need to get sleep Shalom Edited by michael S. 6/8/2008 12:51 AM | ||
| |||
| michael S. |
| ||
Elite Veteran Posts: 745 Location: The Last Outpost | Hey Sirrom, There is only a few more hours till Shavu'ot, needed is something to think of during idle time. This is one of those Holidays that we always share its meaning with the grandkids.  Now to call someone on the board and tell them I'm not coming in until Wednesday morning.  Shalom Shavu'ot | ||
| |||
| Sirrom |
| ||
Extreme Veteran Posts: 466 | As a student of history I have acquired some firm opinions. If you will graciously allow me to be opinionated please let me express the following: It is my opinion that history is like a Jewish woman. History is most adorned, when unadorned. History does not require make-up. History does not require jewelry. History does not require superfluous accouterments. History, unadulterated, possesses a beauty all its own. It is the pure, untarnished, untouched, and unaltered tale that makes history exciting and leaving me with desiring more. I do not think anyone believes they could improve a Renoir paining by altering the skin tone with a darker hue of color. It is the untainted skin that is the beauty of a Renoir work of art. And, it is the untainted words of history that makes history, also, a work of art. History, like a Jewish woman, should remain clean and pure. History does not require a tattoo. Respectfully, Sirrom | ||
| |||
| michael S. |
| ||
Elite Veteran Posts: 745 Location: The Last Outpost | Hi Sirrom, I always enjoy your posts even the ones I don't totally agree with. You give me something to think about then. Yesterday I was thinking of some of the first posts here thinking about how hard it is to be a teen. Now lookat yourself, you probably sound just like those people that told you to grow up years ago. I'm thinking of how hard a teens life is in the out side world then I think of all the Jewish children out there fighting the same battle we did when we were at the revolting age. Just keep it up you are one in seven million and I still love to read your post. | ||
| |||
| Sirrom |
| ||
Extreme Veteran Posts: 466 | The New York Times Saturday, May 15, 1948 ZIONISTS PROCLAIM NEW STATE OF ISRAEL; TRUMAN RECOGNIZES IT AND HOPES FOR PEACE; TEL AVIV IS BOMBED, EGYPT ORDERS INVASION The Jews Rejoice Some Weep as Quest For Statehood Ends Help of U.N. Asked New Regime Holds out Hand to Arabs-U.S. Gesture Acclaimed Tel Aviv, Palestine, Saturday, May 15 The Jewish state, the world's newest sovereignty, to be known as the State of Israel, came into being in Palestine at midnight upon termination of the British mandate. Recognition of the state by the United States, which had opposed its establishment at this time, came as a complete surprise to the people, who where tense and ready for the threatened invasion by Arab forces and appealed for help by the United Nations. In one of the most hopeful periods of their troubled history the Jewish people here gave a sigh of relief and took a new hold on life when they learned that the greatest national power had accepted them into the international fraternity. Ceremony Simple and Solemn The declaration of the new state by David Ben-Gurion, chairman of the National Council and the first Premier of the reborn Israel, was delivered during a simple and solemn ceremony at 4:00 P.M., and new life was instilled into his people, but from without there was the rumbling of guns, a flashback to other declarations of independence that had not been easily achieved. The first action of the new government was to revoke the Palestine White paper of 1939. which restricted Jewish immigration and land purchase. In the proclamation of the new state the Government appealed to the United Nations "to assist the Jewish people in the building of its state and to admit Israel into the family of nations." The proclamation added: "We offer peace and amity to all neighboring states and their peoples, and invite them to cooperate with the independent Jewish nation for the common good of all. The State of Israel is ready to contribute its full share to the peaceful progress and reconstitution of the Middle East." World Jews Asked to Aid The statement appealed to Jews throughout the world to assist in the task of immigration and development and in the "struggle for the fulfillment of the dream of generations-the redemption of Israel. The setting for the reading of the proclamation was a dropped gallery whose hall held painting by prominent Jewish artists. Many of them depicted the sufferings and joys of the people of the Diaspora, the dispersal of the Jews. The thirteen Ministers of the Government Council sat at a long dais beneath the photograph of Theodor Herzl, who in 1897 envisaged a Jewish state. Vertical pale blue and white flags of the state hung on both sides. To the left of the ministers and below them sat other members of the national administration. There were thirty-seven in all, but some were unable to get here from Jerusalem. At 4:00 P.M. sharp the assemblage rose and sang the Hatikvah, the national anthem. The participants seemed to sing with unusual gusto and inspiration. The voices had hardly subsided when the squat, white-haired, Mr. Ben-Gurion, started to read the proclamation, which in a few hours was to transform most of those present from persons without a county to proud nationals. When he pronounced the words "We hereby proclaim the establishment of the Jewish state in Palestine to be called Israel," there was thunderous applause and not a few damp eyes. Edit The ceremony ended with everyone standing silently while the orchestral strains of the Hatikvah filled the room. Outside the fever of nationalism was spreading with fond embraces, warm handshakes and kisses. Edit The state pledged safeguarding of the sanctity and inviolability of shrines and holy places of all religions. There was great cheering and drinking of toasts in this blacked out city when word was receive that the United States had recognized the provisional Government. The effect on the people, especially those drinking late in Tel Aviv's coffee houses, was electric. They even ran into the blackness of the streets shouting, cheering and toasting the United States. President Acknowledges de Facto Authority of Israel Immediately Washington, May 14-President Truman announced early tonight recognition by the United States of the new Jewish State of Israel. The President acted instantly upon being informed that the new nation had been proclaimed. "This Government" he announced, "has been informed that a Jewish state has been proclaimed in Palestine and recognition has been requested by the provisional government thereof." "The United States recognizes the provisional government as the de facto authority of the new State of Israel." These two paragraphs constituted the text of the President's statement. (NOTE TO READERS) The entire coverage of this event covers four, eight column pages in the New York Times. Therefore, it is beyond my typing skills to include all that was written. There are articles on the reaction of Great Britain, Russia and the United Nations. There are additional stories about the invasion by Egypt, Trans-Jordan, and Syria. Because of the historical and emotional significance of the Declaration of Independence of the State of Israel I have posted that declaration as a separate post following. Sirrom | ||
| |||
| Sirrom |
| ||
Extreme Veteran Posts: 466 | The New York Times Saturday, May 15, 1948 Proclamation of the New Jewish State Tel Aviv, Palestine, May 14 Following is the text of the Declaration of Independence of the Jewish state The land of Israel was the birthplace of the Jewish People. Here their spiritual, religious and national identity was formed. Here they achieved independence and created a culture of national and universal significance. Here they wrote and gave the Bible to the world. Exiled from Palestine, the Jewish people remained faithful to it in all the countries of their dispersion, never ceasing to pray and hope for their return and restoration of their national freedom. Impelled by this historic association, Jews strove throughout the centuries to go back to the land of their fathers and regain statehood. In recent decades they returned in their masses. They reclaimed a wilderness, revived their language, built cities and villages and established a vigorous and ever growing community, with its own economic and cultural life. They sought peace, yet were ever prepared to defend themselves. They brought blessings of progress to all inhabitants of this country. In the year 1897 the first Zionist Congress, inspired by Theodor Herzl's vision of a Jewish state, proclaimed the right of the Jewish people to a national revival in their own country. This right was acknowledged by the Balfour Declaration of November 2, 1917, and reaffirmed by the Mandate of the League of Nations, which gave explicit international recognition of the historic connection of the Jewish people with Palestine and their right to reconstitute their national home. The Nazi holocaust which engulfed millions of Jews in Europe proved anew the urgency of the re-establishment of the Jewish state, which would solve the problem of Jewish homelessness and opening the gates to all Jews and lifting the Jewish people to equality in the family of nations. Survivors of the European catastrophe, as well as Jews from other lands, claiming their right to a life of dignity, freedom and labor, and undeterred by hazards, hardships and obstacles, have tried unceasingly to enter Palestine. In the second World War, the Jewish people in Palestine made a full contribution in the struggle of freedom loving nations against the Nazi evil. The sacrifices of their soldiers and efforts of their workers gained them title to rank with the people who founded the United Nations. On November 29. 1947, the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted a resolution for the re-establishment of an independent Jewish state in Palestine and called upon inhabitants of the country to take such steps as may be necessary on their part to put the plan into effect. This recognition by the United Nations of the right of the Jewish people to establish their independent state may not be revoked. It is moreover, the self evident right of the Jewish people to be a nation, as all other nations. in its own sovereign state. Accordingly we the members of the National Council, representing the Jewish people in Palestine and the Zionist movement of the world, met together in solemn assembly by virtue of the natural and historic right of Jewish people and of resolution of the General Assembly of the United Nations, hereby proclaim the establishment of the Jewish state in Palestine, to be called Israel. We hereby declare that as from the termination of the mandate at midnight this night of the 14th to 15th of May, 1948, and until the setting up of duly elected bodies of the state in accordance with a Constitution to be drawn up by a Constitutional Assembly not later than the first day of October, 1948, the present National Council shall act as the Provisional State Council and its executive organ, the National Administration, shall constitute the Provisional Government of the State of Israel. The state of Israel will promise the development of the country for the benefit of all its inhabitants; will be based on precepts of liberty, justice and peace taught by the Hebrew prophets; will uphold the full social and political equality of all its citizens without distinction of race, creed or sex; will guarantee full freedom of conscience, worship, education and culture; will safeguard the sanctity and inviolability of shrines and holy places of all religions; and will dedicate itself to the principles of the Charter of the United Nations. The State of Israel will be ready to cooperate with the organs and representatives of the United Nations in the implementations of the resolutions of November 29, 1947 and will take steps to bring about an economic union over the whole of Palestine. We appeal to the United Nations to assist the Jewish people in the building of its state and to admit Israel into the family of nations. In the midst of wanton aggression we call upon the Arab inhabitants of the State of Israel to return to the ways of peace and play their part in the development of the state, with full and equal citizenship and due representation in all its bodies and institutions, provisional or permanent. We offer peace and amity to all neighboring states and their people, and invite them to cooperate with the independent Jewish nation for the common good of all. The State of Israel is ready to contribute its full share to the peaceful progress and reconstitution of the Middle East. Our call goes out to the Jewish people all over the world to rally to our side in the task of immigration and development and to stand by us in the great struggle for the fulfillment of the dream of generations - the redemption of Israel. Sirrom T | ||
| |||
| Sirrom |
| ||
Extreme Veteran Posts: 466 | Time Line Nov, 1923............Beer Hall Putsch March, 1933.........The Article Below (note early date) Aug,. 1934...........Hitler becomes dictator as Von Hindenburg Dies Nov., 1938...........Kristallnacht The New York Times Tuesday, March 29, 1933 55,000 HERE STAGE PROTEST OF HITLER ATTACKS ON JEWS; NAZIS ORDER A NEW BOYCOTT Other Faiths Join In Crowd Overflowing the Garden Hears Leaders Assail Persecution Manning, Wise, McConnell and Green Denounce Bigotry - 1,000,000 Meet in Nation Hitlerism, with its anti-Semitic propaganda and persecution of Jews must be dragged out into the open and given the same treatment "we gave the Ku Klux Klan," former Governor Smith told a cheering audience of more that 20,000Jews assembled in Madison Square Garden last night to protest against Hitler's treatment of the Jews in Germany. In a speech lasting about twenty minutes, the former Governor brought the otherwise solemn audience to its feet as he denounced racial and religious bigotry and suppression of civil liberties and appealed to the German people to remember the principles of human love and brotherhood. Mr. Smith absolved the German people from any wrongdoing or sympathy with anti-Semitism, but laid these at the door of those whom he denounced as demagogues and enemies of the German people. Mr. Smith was one of a group of leaders of Jewry and the Christian world who joined in last night's protest. Others who spoke included Senator Robert F. Wagner, Bishop William T. Manning, Bishop Francis T. McConnell, Charles H. Tuttle, Mayor O'Brien, Rabbi Stephen S. Wise and William Green president of the American Federation of Labor. Many Other Meetings While the crowds inside the Garden cheered and applauded the attacks on racial and religious bigotry and persecution, 35,000 others at overflow meetings outside and in Columbus Circle participated in the protest. Those in Forty-eighth Street and Eighth Avenue heard the addresses in the Garden through amplifiers. The speeches were broadcast throughout the land and across the sea. Hundreds of similar meetings were held in all parts of the country. It was estimated that fully 1,000,000 Jews participated in these demonstrations. Responding to the call of their rabbinical leaders Jews here and in other cities spent the day in fasting and prayer for the cessation of the persecutions. The day was concluded with the endorsement of a demand presented in the address of Rabbi Wise at the Madison Square Garden rally, that the persecutions cease. Long before the hour was set for the Madison Square Garden meeting thousands streamed into the edifice and vicinity. The doors of the Garden had to be closed shortly before 8:00 P.M., when every available seat appeared to be filled. Resolution Voted Unanimously The entire audience rose in solemn silence when, preceding the adoption of the protest resolution, Rabbi M. S. Margolies, 80-year-old dean of orthodox rabbis in the United States, read a prayer in Hebrew asking that the persecutions cease and that the hearts of the enemies of Israel be softened. Israel N. Thurman of the American Jewish Congress then read a resolution empowering the congress to appoint a committee to raise a large fund to combat anti-Semitism and protect Jews throughout the world. The resolution was adopted unanimously by stand vote. Edit Wants Protest Continued Bishop McConnell welcomed the protest meeting as likely to "do something to create the kind of sentiment that makes Germany entitled to seek her proper place among the nations." (edit) "We must come to the crystallization of public sentiment. We shall always have something to say as the the conduct of our neighbors." (edit) "Peace, friends, does not mean a sitting down in quietude in the presence of injustice. It does not meant that. It means the springing out for humanity always. The Jewish race, above all , have thought that there is something inalienable and sacred about humanity wherever it is found. For that truth I stand, and in that spirit I come to give what little support I have to this meeting tonight." Goebbels Warns of Action Berlin, March 27, 1933 (AP) Dr. Paul Joseph Goebbels, Nazi Minister of Propaganda, announced today that his department would take "sharp counter-measures" against those responsible for reports of Jewish atrocities. He made this announcement as the result of a conference yesterday with Chancellor Hitler. "Drastic legal proceedings will be undertaken against the atrocity campaign which as been unloosed in America and England by interested Jewish circles against the new German regime." Dr. Goebbels said. "A blow shall be struck at the intellectual movers and beneficiaries of these treasonable machinations, most of whom are Jews of German origin." Hans Kerri, Nazi Prussian Commissioner of Justice, declared in a speech tonight that "the Jew was born from a sin against the Holy Ghost and always has shown himself the servant of decay." (Additional Sub-Heading) Smith Calls for a World Fight On Religious Bigotry Human Tolerance, Not Judaism, Is the Issue, Wagner Declares O'Brien Pay Tribute to Jewish Contribution to German Culture Bishop Manning Denounces Acts of Racial or Religious Persecution Anywhere in the World NOTE The entire story takes up three pages of the New York Times including a large picture of the crowed outside Madison Square Garden. Sirrom | ||
| |||
| Sirrom |
| ||
Extreme Veteran Posts: 466 | The following reports were published by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch over a period of five consecutive days from November 10, 1938 through November 14,1938. Each of the five reports will be posted separately. This is the start of The Holocaust KRISTALLNACHT - DAY ONE St. Louis Post-Dispatch Thursday, November 10, 1938 ANTI-SEMITIC MOBS RIOT THROUGHOUT GERMANY AT KILLING OF NAZI BY JEW Berlin Crowds Smash Shops And Fire Synagogues, Defying Police Demonstrators Charge Into Guards on Friedrichstrasse To Loot and Wreck Stores ____Officers Apparently Unable to Stop Them Violence in Vienna, Munich, Dresden Orders Issued Forbidding Jews to Carry Weapons ____22 Said to Have Killed Themselves in Austrian Capital By the Associated Press Berlin, Nov. 10 - Anti-Jewish mobs smashed shop windows in several German centers today, synagogues were broken into, fires raged in seven of the 20 Berlin synagogues and others in Munich, Dresden and Vienna, in violent demonstrations following the assassination of a German diplomat in Paris by a Jew. Ernst vom Rath, secretary of the German Embassy in Paris, died yesterday of wounds suffered Monday when he as shot by Herschel Crynazpan, 17-year-old Polish Jew who once lived in Hanover, Germany. On receipt of the news of Vom Rath's death, angry and plunder-bent crowds pushed police aside in Friedrichstrasse, in downtown Berlin, and surged into the arcade between Friedrichstrasse and Unterden Linden. The arcade houses many Jewish shops. The mobs began plundering shattered shops as smoke still billowed from synagogues in various parts of the city. Police Helpless They Say The mobs jammed Friedrichstrasse since early in the morning. Police apparently were helpless. They said no extra officers were available to handle the mob, as all had been sent to other trouble spots, especially to burning synagogues. One of Berlin's newest synagogues on Prinz Regenten Strasse was still ablaze at 1:30 P.M. The cupola was burning although the front still was standing. Propaganda Minister Paul Joseph Goebbels issued a brief appeal to the people this afternoon ti desist from further anti-Jewish demonstrations. He said, "the justifiable and understandable indignation of the German people over the cowardly Jewish murder of a German diplomat in Paris has resulted during the past night into extensive demonstrations." About the same time Der Angriff, organ of Goebbels, in a short accounts of the destruction of Jewish stores and synagogues said, "we shed not a single tear for them." "In the Way Long Enough" "They (the synagogues) stood in the way long enough," the paper continued. "We can use the space more usefully than as Jewish fortresses." "In numerous cities and communities of the Reich." said Goebbels, "acts of violence were committed against Jewish buildings and businesses. The entire population is now, however strictly requested to desist immediately from all further demonstrations and actions of whatever nature against Jewdom." The final answer to Jewry will be given in the form of laws or decrees." Responsible Jews expressed fears that a general order would be issued compelling all Jews to leave the country. Goebbels' appeal was issued some 14 hours after violence began in Berlin. Late in the afternoon Goebbels' appeal had no apparent effect. Wrecking gangs toured the Kurfuerstendamm, pulling down hurriedly constructed protection in front of show windows and raiding shops and wrecking everything. Soon after 7 P.M. Goebbels' appeal was repeated by radio. Police quickly appeared on Koenigstrasse, where are Israel's department store and other Jewish shops. They arrested looters and cleared the streets. Edit Jews Forbidden to Have Weapons Heinrich Himmler, Chief of the Secret Police, issued a decree forbidding Jews to carry weapons. Twenty years in concentration camp is the penalty for violation. Police squads made rapid tours of the city in automobiles. Authoritative Nazi quarters said yesterday that violence was officially disapproved. edit Most heavily damaged of the Berlin synagogues was one in Fronzensbaderstrasse in the exclusive suburb of Grunewald. The interior was destroyed and the roof collapsed after the fire spread into the three domes. Disturbances Nation-Wide The nation-wide extent of the anti-Jewish wave was shown by the following telephoned reports from many cities to the Associated Press: Munich - All Jews were told they must leave the country within48 hours. The only remaining Jewish bank, Aufhausers, was raided and its windows smashed. One of its directors and his wife committed suicide, another was taken to a concentration camp. A third, a British subject, was not molested. Nuremberg - Private houses of Jews were entered, children thrown out of their beds, furniture was smashed, carpets torn up. Cologne - Crowds broke windows to nearly every Jewish shop. An entrance to a synagogue was forced, its seats overturned, windows smashed, books torn. One building was set afire, but the blaze was quickly extinguished. A century-old Jewish restaurant was badly damaged. Salzburg - A synagogue was destroyed and its ritual emblems demolished. Shops of small Jewish tradesmen were invaded, demolished and looted. Suicides Reported in Vienna Vienna dispatches reports the total or partial destruction of all of the 21 synagogues in the city. Vienna Jews said 22 Jews had committed suicide. One synagogue was blown up, three others wrecked. Storm Troopers compelled Jews to begin tearing down another. Storm Troopers, black uniformed SS guards and police quickly entered Leopoldstadt. The stopped all Jewish pedestrians and searched them for weapons. Some were taken to a nearly police station. The Jewish asylum for the aged on the Seegasse in Vienna, built in 1892 was raided. The invaders left not a window pane unbroken. The mob returned to the street laden with Jewish prayer books and rolls, piled them up and burned them. Edit The shattering of glass in the shops scratched furniture, soiled articles on display and broke porcelain and fixtures. Assassin, 17, May Be Sent to Guillotine Under French Law Ernst vom Rath, secretary of the Germany Embassy, died yesterday of gunshot wounds inflicted by a young Polish Jew, despite the efforts of two physicians sent by Reichafuehrer Hitler to save him. The assassin, 17-year-old Herschel Grynszpan, lawyers said, would be considered an adult in French courts and would be subject to death on the guillotine if a jury so decided. The youth fired two bullets into vom Rath Monday a the embassy. He said at first he shot the Nazi diplomat to avenge the recent expulsion of Polish Jews from Germany. Later, detectives quoted Grynszpan as saying: "I did not want to kill. I felt I had to do something to show our despair. I lost my head-I have done a horrible things. Part of the French press has used the shooting to bolster a campaign not only against Jewish refugees in France but against all "undesirables" foreigners. Sirrom (Part 2 to follow) | ||
| |||
| Sirrom |
| ||
Extreme Veteran Posts: 466 | KRISTALLNACHT (Night of Broken Glass) DAY TWO St. Louis Post-Dispatch November 11, 1938 700 JEWS SEIZED BY SECRET POLICE IN BERLIN; MORE THAN 1400 IN MUNICH HITLER CONSIDERS ISSUING DECREE TO RESTORE GHETTO Propaganda Minister Goebbels Warns Members of Race Abroad Their Conduct Will React on Co-Religionists in Reich. FOREIGN JEWS PROTECT LOSSES Germans Won't Pay for Damages; on Contrary Victims Must Repair Premises at Their Own Expense By the Associated Press Berlin, Nov. 11 - Secret police arrested an undetermined number of Jews of the upper classes today as well informed Nazis predicted restoration of the ghetto would follow yesterday's wave of anti-Jewish violence in Germany. Jews estimated between 700 and 1000 members of their race had been seized in Berlin since yesterday. Additional arrests in Munich raised the total there to some 1400. Several thousand more Jews were reported in custody in various parts of the country. Propaganda Minister Paul Joseph Goebbels said new restrictions for Jews would be issued shortly and warned that the conduct of Jews outside Germany as well as that of those inside the country would influence Germany's future racial policy. American Jews Protest Three American Jews, whose names were withheld, were among a number of foreign Jews who protested to their consulates against the destruction of their stores in yesterday's demonstrations. Four Netherlands Jews and an unstated number of British Jews likewise asked the assistance fo their respective consulates. Speaking for 45 minutes to the foreign press, Goebbels said yesterday's anti-Jewish outburst, in which synagogues were burned and dynamited and Jewish shops wrecked, was spontaneous. "Whenever any unsavory elements even made a move to seize goods there were always reasonable people about to prevent it," Goebbels said. He insisted there was no looting. Trustworthy eyewitnesses yesterday said they had seen shops looted in the arcade between Friedrichstrasses and Under Den Linden and in other parts of the city. Goebbels, referring to such accounts, said he did not doubt the good faith of the eyewitnesses, but observed that in law courts it is often established that three different eyewitnesses, all honorable person, reported the same event differently. Goebbels argued that the very fact that the demonstrations occurred in different cities and took the same form showed that they were not organized, but represented the primitive reactions of the common people. Expected Uprising "When the death of Vom Rath occurred everybody with a knowledge of the nation's psychology knew something would happen,"Goebbels asserted. "All (Nazi) party leaders were in Munich. Hence so far as I personally was concerned I could take a hand in matters only by long distance telephone. When I did take a hand all anti-Semitic action ceased..."Whether you agree with my propaganda or not, the fact is that the entire German people have become National Socialists thereby and that means also anti-Semitic." "While I would not have done as the people did yesterday, yet I admit that inwardly I stood completely on the side of the people." Goebbels said there were not sufficient police to cope with the situation yesterday. "We did not have 100,000 police men available to put one before every Jewish shop," he asserted. "It is absurd to say that this thing (the demonstration) was organized. I assure you had I organized it, it would have been more successful, more radical and the result would have been quite different." Goebbels closed with a declaration that Germany's future treatment of Jews "depends both on their behavior here and that of Jews abroad." "If Jews abroad have a heart for their co-religionists in Germany let them be truthful in what they say about us," he said. "From their own standpoint I consider them unwise in writing so much about the Jews in Germany. Maybe Americans will learn therefrom (writings about Jews in Germany) what measures to adopt in their own country to solve the Jewish problem." Ghetto May Be Restored The Jews, it was said, would be compelled to live and do business only in the ghetto of the city. Their shops would be tolerated only in sufficent number to supply the needs of Jewish communities. Walled ghettos had their origin in Italy in the sixteenth century. They were known in Germany as Judengasse. The Nazi are confident new decrees will end the Jewish issue in Germany and that there will be no more anti-Jewish outbreaks like those of yesterday in which millions of dollars of damage was done. Hitler Confers on Decrees New decrees were discussed by Chancellor Hitler and his advisers until late last night. Conferring with Hitler were Field Marshal Hermann Wilheim Goering, chief of staff of the four-year plan for economic independence; Rudolf Hess, Hitler's deputy in party affairs Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop and Goebbels. The day of violence had been the worst against Jews since Hitler came to power in 1933, with angry crowds demonstrating in Berlin, Vienna, Munich, Dresden, Cologne, Salzburg and a number of smaller cities. No Reimbursement of Jews There will be no reimbursement for the damage done, prominent Nazis said, because Nazis regarded the action by the crowds as a "force majeure" (literally, "superior force," unescapable as an "act of God."  On the contrary, a Jewish store proprietor renting from an Aryan will be compelled to replace broken windows and repair other damages on the theory a tenant must keep the premises in good condition except for ordinary depreciation. This was cleaning up day for Jews, this time with police protection. Yesterday some shopkeepers tried to pick up debris of shattered window fronts, while a few among watching crowds jeered, but in the afternoon invasion of the interiors of shops considerably increased the damage. Most of the shopkeepers chose to board up their store-fronts rather than try to obtain glass, which is difficult to get under restrictions of the four-year plan. They were quiet and, realizing the chance is slight that they can continue in business, many displayed signs "This firm is being taken over by an Aryan" or "In process of Aryanization." The Jews in Munich were told yesterday they must leave the country within 48 hours, but today they were told the order had been rescinded. Nevertheless, many prepared to leave. An anti-Jewish mass meeting was called for tonight in Munich with District Leader Adolf Wagner as the speaker. Burning and Looting From early morning yesterday, curious throngs milled up and down Berlin streets on which Jewish shops were situated or stood watching burning synagogues. As the day wore on, however, looting began. Unhindered by police, the mobs invaded stores the window of which had been broken and helped themselves to furs, clothes, rugs, toys and other merchandise. No one was able to estimate the monetary extent of the damages. Sounds of breaking glass and shouts of looters died only near midnight. Hundreds of Jews voluntarily spent the night in jails fearing worse violence as reports of burning and looting continued to come from many cities. Edit One group moved a piano from a shop in the street and played popular tunes for onlookers. Before synagogues, demonstratores stood with Jewish prayer books from which they tore leaves as souvenirs for the crowds. Some Shame Manifested Thought a large section of the German population seemed thoroughly ashamed at the exhibition of mob rule, those who participated had a gay time. At the height of the demonstration few police were seen. One detachment of police in the heart of Berlin was charged by a mob which pushed them aside and began plundering. It was estimated 10,000 Jews were arrested in Vienna, but that most of them later were released. In addition to the smashing of shop windows, breaking of furniture and the theft of merchandise stocks a survey showed the following damage to synagogues: Berlin - Seven burned, others damaged. Vienna - 21 burned, or otherwise damaged, including one blown up. Gras - One blown up. Others were burned or raided at Salzbure, Treutlingen, Bamberg, Bayreuth, Munich, Potsdam, Cologne, Hamburg, Dresden, Eberswalde, Brandenburg and Cottbus. World Jewish Congress Say Nazis Provoked Assassination. Geneva, Nov. 11 - The executive committee of the World Jewish Congress called the world's attention yesterday to "new persecution of Jews in Germany" and said the assassination of a German diplomat in Paris by a Jew was a poor excuse for th Nazi campaign. "That crime was not the result of a plot of international Jewry, but of outrageous provocation by Nazis themselves," the statement said. "The real culprit is the stupid and criminal persecution in Germany, where all Jews are condemned without investigation by those who never cease to preach the priority of might over right, of violence and hate." Sirrom | ||
| |||
| Sirrom |
| ||
Extreme Veteran Posts: 466 | KRISTALLNACHT (Night of Broken Glass) DAY THREE NAZIS FINE GERMAN JEWS $400,000,000; NEW DECREES AGAINST THEM GORING BARS THEM IN RETAIL BUSINESS; ORDER EFFECTIVE JAN. 1 Also Forbids Them to Head Factories - Goebbels Prohibits Jews From Theaters, Movies and Concerts. RACE ASSESSED FOR DIPLOMAT'S MURDER Arrests Continue - 800 Prisoners Leave Vienna for Undisclosed Destination - Salzburg Expels 300 Families By Associated Press Berlin, Nov, 12 - A fine of 1,000,000,000, marks ($400,000,000) was imposed on Germany Jews today as a penalty for the murder of Ernst vom Rath, German diplomat in Pris. Field Marshal Herman Whlheim Goering as director of Germany's four-year plan, issued a decree effective Jan. 1, providing the following: (1) Jews are forbidden to conduct retail businesses, mail order and commission hourse and independent handcraft enterprises, and (2) Jews are barred from heading any industrial plant as "betribsfuehrer" (or managing director). Excluded From Theaters Another decree, issued by Propaganda Minister Paul Joseph Goebbels, ordered Jews excluded from theaters, movie houses, concerts and other public presentations. Proprietors of theaters and concert halls will be fined if they allow Jews to enter, the announcement said. These far-reaching measures toward isolating Jews from German national life were issued after a meeting of Goering, Goebbels, Interior Minister Dr. Wilhelm Frick, Justice Minister Dr Franz Guertner, Economics Minister Walther Funk and Finance Lutz Schwerin-Krosigk. An official announcement said the official assembled to "deliberate upon solution of the Jewish question which has become urgently necessary." "Further decisive measures for elimination of Jewry from German economic life and for prevention of provocatory conditions." the announcedment added, "will be issued within the shortest time by decrees and laws." Goering Issues Decree How the 1,000,000,000 marks will be raised was not disclosed. The fine was assessed in a decree issued by Goering. The decree was not published and an official summary of the edict said only" "Above all, a decision was arrived at to place a penalty for the dastardly murder in Pris upon German Jews in their entirety in the form of money fine of 1,000,000,000 reichmarks." All Jewish businesses now must be given up, at least one part of the fine on Jewry was expected to come from the inventories of Jewish businesses. Insurance Claims Confiscated Under a decree of last April 27, moreover, all Jewish bank balance, saving accounts, bonds, stocks, real estate and other property had to be registered. The government, therefore, knows exactly what each Jew possesses and, it is believed, enough of this will be confiscated to pay the fine. The Government confiscated insurance claims by Jews for damages of their properties in the terror that started Thursday and, as a further punitive measure, compelled them to repair the damage at their own expense. Goebbels' order was considered a long step toward preventing Jews from mingling with non-Jews in any way and toward their complete segregation. Nazis already had ousted 3000 Jews according to Goebbels' own figures from the stage and journalism since 1933. Now they are prevented from seeing non-Jews perform. Other Restrictions on Jews Under today's order they must find entertainment within the limits of the Jewish cultural organization, which operates one theater in Berlin but possesses no movies. Jews no longer may attend concerts, dances, lectures or any other public affair of similar nature outside their own culture organization halls. Restaurants also bar them No official order has been issued preventing Jews from entering public eating places but Berlin's principal restaurants have hung out big signs in the last week notifying Jews not to enter. Segregation already had been carried out in parks where yellow benches are provided with the signs, "only for Jews"; in schools and universities, whose doors are shut to Jews; in health resorts, which do not accept Jewish guests. Jews had their own newspapers, magazines and scientific reviews, but these nor are forbidden, at least temporarily. Roundup at Frankfort The city of Frankfort-on-the-Main reported that all male Jews between the ages of 18 and 60 had been rounded up in police stations and confined to a provisional camp in an exhibition hall. It was understood that Jews held in Frankfort were being compelled to pay for food and board and that the Jewish Relief Committee was providing money for those unable to pay for themselves. Some of the arrests in Berlin were said to have been made for the Jews' own protection, others for illegal possession of weapons and still others among alleged criminal elements. Many stayed away from their homes to avoid being taken into custody. Several rabbis are among those under arrest. Thousands in Hiding In some smaller towns the arrest of male Jews appeared to have been 100 percent. The decrees today followed three days of tension throughout Germany during which thousands of Jews fled into hiding and 1600 were said officially to have been arrested in Berlin alone. There was no official indication, however, of what was to be done to them. A drive by secret police here yesterday and today apparently centered on better-known Jewish families, some with international reputations. 800 Prisoners Leave Vienna A train load of about 800 Jewish prisoners left Vienna last night for an undisclosed destination, perhaps to a concentration camp. In Salzburg, Nazi Leader Friedrich Rainer declared 300 Jewish families had been sent to a concentration camp. "As a result of demonstrations against Jews," Rainer announce, "we can report that the Salzburg district now is completely freed from Jews." A decree was promulgated forbidding the possession by Jews of firearms, ammunition and other lethat weapons on penalty of fines and prison terms up to five years. Many foreign Jews who suffered heavy loss in the smashing of store properties, looting and burning of synagogues Thursday asked for help from their respective consulates. Authorities remained silent on the point, but many police officials could be seen visiting demolished shops, apparently to compile lists of losses. British-owned property destroyed was thought to be largest among that of foreigners. Israel's, one of Berlin's largest stores, has British capital. Large plate glass windows in it were shattered. The United State Consulate was crowded today with hundreds of Jews, many in tears, milling around begging for preferred treatment on visa applications. Many were women who, when questioned, said their husbands had been arrested. Consular officials said that Thursday-the day the Nazis smashed windows and burned synagogues-was unusually quiet at the consulate because Jews then did not even venture into the streets. Friday the consulate was closed on account of Armistice day, and today the visa seeker came in throngs. There were not only visa seeker, Consular officials had a definite impression that many of those standing in line patiently hour after hour merely wanted to be under an extraterritorial roof to prevent arrest. 457 Mass Meeting Called The newspaper Fraenkische Tageszeitung, of Julius Streicher, strongly anti-Jewish editor and Governor of Franconia, called 457 mass meetings throughout that district next week. Streicher himself, speaking before 100,000 in Nurnberg, declared; The day is coming for a show-down of the Jewish people." His paper said: "We must neither rest nor cease in enlightening the public of the Jewish question." Streicher predicted that "the time will come when Germans will no longer live in tenements, only Jews" - perhaps a reference to reports that the ghetto of the middle ages would be re-established in Germany for Jews. "Now that Jews will be moving," Streicher said, "we can porvide joy for many prolific families who will be able to celebrate Christmas in a decent apartment, where hitherto others celebrated their festivals." Goebbels told foreign newspaper men yesterday that Jews abroad held the key to the fate of Jews in Germany and he indicated today in Adolf Hitler's newspaper, Voelkischer Beobachter, that there would be more grief in store for German Jews if those abroad do not cease what he called "misrepresentations and distortions" of happenings here. Cardinal's Home Stoned, Windows Smashed by Nazi Mob in Munich Attack on Von Faulhaber's Archiepiscopal Palace Follows District Leader's Speech Telling Churchman to Mend Ways CALLS CATHOLICS "ALLIES OF THE JEWS" Adolf Wagner, Hitler's Bavarian Lieutenant, Denounces Prelate in Public Reply to Request for Police Protection By Associated Press Munich, Nov. 12 - A mob stormed the palace of Michael Cardinal Von Faulhaber today and broke all windows in the building. The attack followe an address last night before 5000 persons by Aldo Wagner, Nazi district leader for Bavaria and Bavarian Minister of Interior, in which he read a letter from the Cardinal asking for police protection in case popular passions should result in attacks on Catholic clergy in the present tense situation. "If Von Faulhaber mends his ways he will be protected better than the police can," Wagner shouted. He added he was offering no excuse for anti-Jewish violence that burst out Thursday. He said he "regretted ordering the pulling down of Munich's principal synagogue a few months ago to make way for a parking place, because it could have been done quicker and easier yesterday." Wagner attacked Catholics to whom he referred as "Roman Catholic allies of Jews." Only last Sunday th 69-year-old Cardinal, the Archbishop of Munich, used a passage from a speech by Reichsfuehrer Adolf Hitler to support a plea for "the God-given rights of personality." He recalled that Hitler had said Germany's greatest assets were her creative personalities. The sermon was greeted by whistling by Nazi listeners. The demonstration today recalled the one made Oct 8 on the palace in Vienna of Theodore Cardinal Innitzer, Archbiship of Vienna. On that occasion furniture was thrown from the building to the streets and the Cardinal was hurt by stones thrown inside. Cardinal Von Faulhaber has often ben at odds with Nazis. As early as Aug. 21, 1934, he denounced Nazi oppositin to Jews. Soon Afterward he expressed dissatisfaction with the Nazi handling of the Church situation. He barred marriages between Catholic and the so-called Nazi Neo-Pagans. Challenger of the Nazis He challenged Nazi attempts to curb Catholic rights. In February, 1935, an audience in Munich shouted "hang him!" But in a subsequent pastoral letter he exhorted Catholics to stand fast in their faith. He deplored what he called the alienation of German youth from the church, pleaded with the Nazis for an evidence of good will, was jeered when he expressed hope, in February, 1937, that the German Government would live up to its accord with the Holy See. Early this year he denounced Nazis, insisted Catholics were being persecuted, and was assailed for his stand by Wagner. (Releases from Foreign Press) Mrs. Walter Elliot, a British Cabinet Member's wife said: "It is impossible to read of happenings of the last three or four days in Central Europe without feeling we must be back again in the Middle Ages. It is appalling, frightening, terrifying that the whole spiritual thought of the world should be subjected to this doctrine of force." Britain's Independent Labor party also took a hand, writing Herbert von Dirksen, the German Ambassador to London denouncing Germany's treatment of Jews as "a throwback to the jungle" by which "the human family has been disgraced." Dr. Chaim Weizmann, President of the World Zionist organization, presiding over a session of the Zionist general council yesterday, in Great Britain, declared the meeting opened "in the light of synagogue bonfires now burning throughout Germany. The Daily Herald said, "the scorn of the world has expressed itself. Even the Nazi mind understands that Germany this week has achieved new dishonorable repute." Sirrom | ||
| |||
| Sirrom |
| ||
Extreme Veteran Posts: 466 | KRISTALLNACHT (Night of Broken Glass) DAYS FOUR AND FIVE St. Louis Post-Dispatch November 13 and 14, 1938 NAZIS EXPEL JEWS FROM ALL SCHOOLS AND UNIVERSITIES GERMAN DECREE TO DEPRIVE RACE OF CHANCE TO GET HIGHER EDUCATION Special Bills up to $60,000 Presented to 100 Wealthy Individuals in Berlin to Pay Damage to Shops Caused by Mobs. GOEBBELS EXPECT FURTHER ACTION Solution to be Satisfactory to 'Nation's Sense of Right' - Catholic Ceremony Jeered, Decorations Torn Down By the Associated Press Berlin Nov. 14 - Minster of Education Bernhard Rust today expelled Jewish student from all universities, technicl schools and other institutions of higher learning in the latest Nazi move against the Jewish race. The Minister of Education telegraphed the directors of all universities ordering them to oust Jewish student immediately and not to permit any more to enter even for lectures which do not involve examination for degrees. He said a decree embodying that order was being prepared and would be issued soon. This means final elimination of Jews of all ages from the German school system. Lower grade pupils from 6 to 14 years old were taken from German schools in 1936 and put into Jewish private schools. Jewish professors had previously been ousted. On Quota Basis Before Since 1935 admittance to higher institutions had been on a quota based on the population of Jews in the various university destricts. Also Jews alrady enrolled had been permitted to continue their studies. Now these students are thrown out with no prospects of completing their education since no Jewish universities exist in Germany. Rust/s order follow Saturday's decrees by Field Marshal Hermann Wilheim Goering and Propaganda Minister Paul Joseph Goebbels eliminating from the nation's economic life, forbidding them to attend theaters and other public entertainment, and placing heavy fines on their wealth. Bills Sent to Rich Jews Special bills up to $60,000 each were presented to about 100 of the wealthiest Jews of Berlin, payable today to repair damage done to Jewish shops by angry crowds in a wave of violence last Thursday. These bills were in addition to the 1,000,000,000 marks penalty decreed upon Jews in general for the murder of Ernst vom Rath, embassy secretary, by a Jewish youth who once lived in Germany. The Berlin stock exchange forbade sales by Jews in order to keep stock from falling. Before some provincial members had been notified of the decision temporarily to reject selling orders from Jews some such orders reached the market and depressed prices. Reports reaching the exchange disclosed there had been heavy selling offers on behalf of Jews in the provinces. There also was some realization on stocks to obtain cash for taking over of Jewish businesses. Compelled to Sell Shops The assassination provoked the Thursday demonstrations, and rising resentment inspired Government decrees compelling Jews to sell their shops and stores by Jan. 1 and barring them from retail, mail order, commission and handicraft businesses. Male Jews were arrested in general raids throughout Germany but today the arrest period apparently had ended. Many who had been jailed were released, if they were over 30. Others who had escaped arrest over the week-end emerged cautiously from places of hiding. Friends advised them to keep out of sight for a few days more. "The People Will it So" Propaganda Minister Goebbels in a speech Sunday gave an indication there would be further action. The Jewish problem, would be solved very shortly, he told 500 social workers at a barley and beef stew dinner for the winter relief fund, "in a manner satisfactory to the nation's sense of what is right and just. The people will it so. And we are only executors of their will." Labor Leader Robert Ley told a similar gathering at Koblenz that "our methods may be rough, but they are thorough. We have been provoked long enough by the sight of rows of Jewish shop signs along the Kurfuerstendamm (a principal west-end boulevard)." Anti-Catholic feeling flared, meanwhile in a brief demonstration Sunday before St. Mary's square in Munich. A small group of youths whistled and jeered, knocked down candles and trampled floral decorations as 5000 Catholics sang a hymn in services celebrating the "Mariensacule" column, erected in honor of the Virgin Mary. Polices cleared the square. Michael Cardinal von Faulhaber did not officiate and it was understood he was avoiding public appearances since crowds smashed windows of his palace on Saturday. While police watch, a youth not in uniform climbed the pedestal of the historic column and tore down the remaining decorations. Indignant shouts went up from onlookers but police did not interfere and departed after he had finished his job. A circular letter signed by Theodore Cardinal Innitzer was read from all Catholic pulpits in Vienna congregations to disregard rumors about a mass withdrawal from the church. The Cardinal said another "malicious" rumor was that heavy church taxes would be levied on those who did not resign their church membership. The letter said while the question of church taxes had not been raised until now, should such taxes ultimately be assessed they probably would not be higher than in the rest of Germany where they were described as only a fraction of other taxation. No Explanation of Fine The Government gave no clear indication how it would collect the huge fine, roughly one-eighty of the total of the estimated wealth of Jews in Germany, including Austria and Sudetenland. Jewish property over 5000 marks ($2000) is registered, however, so the Government easily could make flat assessments. The bulk of Jewish wealth was believed to be in real estate, some of which likely will have to be sold to satisfy the demands. The fine, financial experts said, would average $666 or more for each of the 500,000 to 600,000 Jews in Germany and would require virtually every pfennig of their ready cash. One hundred sixty leaders of the Berlin Jewish community met until dawn Sunday, endeavoring to devise a plan of payment before the Government could decide on one of its own. A spokesman who told of the meeting would not say even where it was held. The wealthy individuals upon whom was levied the special damage penalty were summoned by special delivery letters Sunday morning to the Jewish brotherhood house on Kurfuerstenstrasse. The summons were signed by the brotherhood president, who told the group he acted on Government instructions and present each with a slip informing them how much they must pay. A widow was assessed $20,000, a manufacturer 360,000, and so on. That the Jews rapidly were turning over their stores to Aryan proprietors was indicated in an announcement by Goebbels, warning against further demolition of Jewish stores. These stores now are passing into non-Jewish hands, he said. FRENCH POLICE HOLD KIN OF ASSASSIN OF NAZI IN PARIS Arrest Uncle and Aunt of Jew On Charges of Complicity in Killing Paris, Nov. 12 - The young Polish Jew who killed the secretary of the German Embassy was said by police to have alternately wept and prayed when he learned of the 1,000,000,000 mark fine levied on German Jews because of his act. Police said he cried: "Is this the price for the act of one desperate, foolish man like me?" Previously the prisoner, Herschel Grynszpan, 17 years old, had said he would "pray every Monday for forgiveness for what I have done to my people." He shot Ernst vom Rath last Monday and the diplomat died Thursday. Abraham and Chana Grynszpan, uncle and aunt of the youth, were arrested today on charges of compliance. Commissioner Bonnet and high officials of the German Government attended vom Rath's funeral. The aunt and uncle had just been released after five days' detention on charges of harboring an undesirable foreigner. The time limit under which they could be held under that charge had expired. Police had searched their home and seized paper written in German and Yiddish. The youth had lived with the aunt and uncle until shortly before he shot vom Rath. Vom Rath's body was taken to the German frontier, there to be transferred to a German train and taken to Duesseldorf for burial. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ NOTE: This concludes the reports of Kristallnacht and the start of the Holocaust. Some reports were omitted by me for the sake of brevity. I find it necessary, though, for the sake of accurate history, to remark that the British Government was very outspoken toward the actions taken by the German Government. Additionally, the Catholic Church expressed sincere sympathy toward the plight of the Jewish people in Germany. Individuals in the United States were also outspoken, although there were no reports of any official United States Government protest. Posting these reports has taken an emotional toll on me, as I am sure it has taken on many readers. Many tears have fallen during this reporting of Kristallnacht. To my Jewish brothers and sisters, Noahides, and Christian friends of Got Torah, I conclude, the only lesson we can learn is: ........................................................................NEVER FORGET........NEVER AGAIN.................................................... | ||
| |||
| Sirrom |
| ||
Extreme Veteran Posts: 466 | Los Angeles Mirror December 11, 1961 EICHMANN CONVICTED; FACES DEATH PENALTY Crimes Called 'Unsurpassed' By Thomas A Reddy Associated Press JERUSALEM - Israel convicted Adolf Eichmann of "unsurpassed" crimes against the Jews today and said his role in the Nazi progrom will be remembered "until the end of time." The special three-man tribunal which for four months tried the 55-year old Gestapo lieutenant-colonel handed down a judgment which under Israeli law calls for the death penalty. In a 300-page judgment which they read aloud in turn, the three judges determined that Eichmann was proved to be such an important cog in Hitler's machinery for destroying the Jews that he merited conviction on these major counts. 1) Crimes against the Jews 2) Crimes against humanity 3) War crimes 4) Membership in the criminal Nazi S.S. (Elite Guard) and S.D. (Security Police) organizations. Presiding Judge Moshe Landau started the reading of the findings based on a 15-count indictment and four months of testimony in hte case, which opened April 11, almost a year after Israeli agents flushed Eichmann out of hiding in Argentina and spirited him back to Israel. Eichmann stood in his bullet-proof, glass-enclosed cage as the court intoned judgment. Now bald and bespectacled, Eichmann squared his shoulders and heard the judgment without blinking, as though he fully expected it and was braced for it. Hi had told the court last July he knew he would be found guilty and that he faced the death penalty. Judge Landau, Judge Benjamin Halevy and Judge Izhak Raveh, alternating, fairly raced through the reading of the judgment but Eichmann hung on every word, reaching him through earphones in German, and several times wrote out notes. Wearing a blue suit, white shirt and striped tie, he looked rested and relaxed. It was the same suit and tie his Israeli captors supplied him for his trial. DEATH IS THE maximum penalty under the Nazi and Nazi collaborators law on which Eichmann was tried. bu the court will not announce sentence until the end of this week or the beginning of next. He would be the first man to be executed by Israel. The death penalty provided in the 1950 law has never been invoked. The packed courtroom was deathly silent as the verdict of guilty was pronounced. Many of the 600 spectators had relatives who were victims of the Nazi progrom or are themselves survivors of the death camps. There was not a sigh or ripple at the abrupt one sentence verdict which Judge Landau spoke rapidly before beginning to outline the court's detailed reasoning. The reading of the judgment will continue through today and Tuesday, Atty. Gen. Giudeon Hausner - who prosecuted the case, presenting tons of captures documents and 112 witnesses - will then "advise" the court on the penalty. Defense counsel Robert Servatius of West Germany will make his final plea, and Eichmann is to be allowed to speak in his own behalf. The court rejected Eichmann's defense plea that Israel had no right to try him for crimes committed elsewhere and under a law passed years after the crimes. "THE COURT find the law in the best tradition of international law,: the judgment found. The court said international crimes were tried as far back as the Middle Ages in areas where they guilty were caught. Piracy cases were so conducted on the theory that "all mankind must declare war against" such violations. The Israeli judges said this reasoning applies to Eichmann as well. The tribunal asserted its legal reasoning was backed up by the United Nations itself when it took the stand that genocide - the eradication of any race - is a crime against all international law and thinking. Thus, the court reasoned, Eichmann engaged in genocide. Eichmann was ruled to have been a kingpin in what the Hitler regime labeled "the final solution of the Jewish problem." It was Eichmann's job to round up the Jews, arrange transport to the death camps and see that the human cargo was delivered. Out of that master Nazi plan to wipe out the Jewish race, six million died, more than half of all of Europe's Jewish population. The tribunal welcomed what it called a byproduct of the case - the recording of what happened to individual Jews under the Third Reich. But the court emphasized it was not its duty to have any opinion whether "the ancient disease of anti-Semitism can be cured and by what means." "FOR QUESTIONS of principle which are outside the realm of law,"the court said, "no one has made us judges of them." "The testimony given at this trial by survivors of the catastrophe who poured out their hearts will provide valuable material for research workers and historians. But as far as this court is concerned, they are to be regarded as byproducts of the trial." How Israel Indictment of Nazi Colonel Reads Jerusalem (UPI) - Following are the counts of the indictment under which Adolf Eichmann was convicted today. 1) Crime against the Jewish people. That between 1939 and 1945, as head of the department for Jewish affairs of the Gestapo, and in 1944 as head of the Eichmann special operations unit in Budapest, he was responsible for carrying out the physical destruction of Jews in a scheme known as "the final solution of the Jewish problem," which was intended to destroy the Jewish people. It is charged that Eichmann, with others, "caused the killing of millions of Jews" : a) "By means of extermination camps established and organized for the purpose of carrying out mass murder"; b) "By means of operational groups (Einsatzgruppen) in German-occupied countries of eastern Europe"; c) "In labor camps in Germany and German-occupied countries where Jews were enslaved, starved and tortured"; d) "By means of local concentrations and mass deportations carried out under harsh and inhuman conditions in Germany and other Axis countires, and in areas occupied by them; that is to say in the following countries: Germany, Austria, Italy, Bulgaria, Belgium, U.S.S.R., and Baltic states Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, which were annexed to U.S.S.R.; Denmark, Holland, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Greece, Luxembourg, Monaco, Norway, Pland, Czechoslovakia, France, Romania." 2) Crime against the Jewish people. In same period and capacity as Count 1, with intent to destroy the Jewish people, Eichmann, with others, "placed millions of Jews in living conditions calculated to bring about their physical destruction (A) in forced labor camps; (B) in ghettos; (C) in transit camps and places of concentration; (D) by mass transportation under inhuman conditions." 3) Crimes against the Jewish people. While in the security service of the S.S. to 1939 and in the Gestapo from 1939 to the end of World War 11, with others, "caused serious physical and mental harm to millions of Jews...by enslaving, starving, deporting and persecuting them and by detaining them in ghettos and concentration camps under inhuman conditions of humiliation, starvation, overcrowding, oppression and torture." 4) Crime against the Jewish people. In 1942 in Germany , with others, "devised measures for sterilization of Jews in Germany and German-occupied countries with view to preventing births among Jews...with intent to destroy the Jewish people." 5) Crime against humanity. "Together with others he caused murder, destruction, enslavement and deportation of civilian Jewish population" in Germany and axis controlled nations. 6) Crime against humanity. That the offenses charged in Counts 1 through 5 "persecuted Jews on national, racial, religious and political grounds." 7) Crimes against humanity. "With others he caused spoliation of property of Jews resident in those countries by inhuman measures involving robbery, coercion, terrorism and torture." 8) War crime. "With others he caused ill treatment, deportation and murder of Jewish inhabitants of states occupied by Germany and other Axis states." 9) Crime against humanity. Between 1940 and 1942 "with others he caused deportation of more than half a million Polish civilians with intent to settle German families in those places." Deportees were in part transferred to Germany "under conditions of enslavement, coercion and terrorism, in part transferred to Germany for purposes of re-Germanization." Acts committed under special appointment of December, 1939, as officer in charge of evacuation of civilian population. 10)Crime against humanity. Under special appointment of previous count, in 1944 Yugoslavia "caused deportation of over 14,000 Slovene civilians...to Serbian part of Yugoslavia by coercive, terrorist measures and under inhuman conditions." 11)Crime against humanity. Under same special appointment, during World War 11 in Germany and German occupied areas "caused the deportation from their place of residences of tens of thousands of gypsies...and their transportation to extermination camps...for the purpose of murdering them." 12)Crime against humanity. That in 1942, "with others he caused deportation of approximately 100 children and civilians of the village of Lidice in Czechoslovakia, transportation to Poland and their murder there." 13)Membership in hostile organizations, declared a criminal organization by International Military Tribunal, Oct. 1, 1946 - Schutzstaffeln der N.S.D.A.P. (S.S.), achieving rank of S.S. obersturmharn fuehrer. 14) Membership in Sicherheitadienst des Reichfuehrers S.S. (S.D.) 15) "Membership in secret state police (Geheime Staatspolizei) known as Gestapo and served in it as director of department for Jewish affairs." Sirrom | ||
| |||
| Sirrom |
| ||
Extreme Veteran Posts: 466 | .................................................................................................. NUERNBERG TRIAL ............................................................................................... ..................................................................................."Pity for the Guilty is Treason to the Innocent" ......................................................................... ...................................................................................................... Ayn Rand ......................................................................................................... Fort Worth Star-Telegram Wednesday, October 2, 1946 12 NAZIS GET DEATH, 7 PRISON; 3 FREED Russia Protests Some Verdicts as Too Light Nuernberg, Oct. 1 (AP) - The International War Crimes Tribunal Tuesday decreed death on the gallows for 12 leaders of the Adolf Hitler gang, sentence seven to prison, and - with Russia dissenting - acquitted three defendants. The court, after sentencing to death Hermann Goering, Joachim von Ribbentrop and 10 other Nazi henchmen announced that Russia had protested against the tribunal's acquittal of Franz von Papen, Hjalmar Schacht and Hans Fritsche. The Soviet judge, Maj. Gen. I .T. Nikitchenko also protested that Rudolph Hess should have been hanged instead of receiving the life imprisonment sentence the court handed him, and objected to Monday's acquittal of the general staff and high command. Judges of Britain, The United States and France joined in the majority opinion, which now will be carried out by the Allied Control Council, representing all four Allies. Legal officials of the American Military Government said that if any of the three Nazi leaders acquitted were returned to the U.S. zone of occupation they probably would be tried by Germans under the zone's denazification law. The official said because Schacht and Von Papen owned property in more than one zone it it was conjectural to which they might be returned. Legal experts in Berlin expressed belief the Russians might get custody of Fritsche, whom they arrested in Berlin and delivered to Nuernberg for trial. Justice Robert H. Jackson, chief U.S. prosecutor expressed regret that "the tribunal has felt constrained to acquit Schacht and Von Papen and to decline to declare the criminality of the general staff." He said in a formal statement that "the effect of these acquittals on the further prosecution of industrialist and militarist which have been planned will have to be studied from the text of the opinion." Each defendant was sentenced individually. Goering was first. He strode into the courtroom flanked by two military policemen. He gray suit hung limply about his once ample figure. Chief Justice Lawrence looked sternly down from the bench and sentenced the former No. 2 Nazi to death by hanging. Under the glare of the lights Goering's face was immobile. Gray and sickly, Von Ribbentrop stood stunned as the death sentence was pronounced. He had to be helped out by military policemen. Others sentenced to death were Filed Marshal Wilheim Keitel, Ernest Kaltenbrunner, Alfred Rosenberg, Hans Frank, Wilheim Frick, Julies Streicher, Fritz Sauckel, Col Gen. Alfred Johl, Arthur Seyss-Inquart and Martin Borman (in absentia). Rudolf Hess, third ranking German until his strange wartime flight to Scotland, was sentenced to life imprisonment. Also, sentence to life were Walther Funk and Grand Adm Erich Raeder. Three Acquitted Those acquitted were Von Papen, the old gray diplomat who led intrigues in both world wars, Schacht the German finance wizard, and Fritsche, deputy propaganda minister for Paul Joseph Goebbels, a suicide. Grand Adm. Karl Doenitz, who surrendered Germany and was fuehrer in the last few days of the war, received a 10-year sentence. Baldur von Schirach, Hitler youth leader and Albert Speer, German munitions minister, both were sentenced to 20 years in prison. Constantin von Neurath, former German foreign minister and later "protector of Bohemian and Moravia," was given 15 years. Justice Lawrence announced the dissenting opinion of the Soviet member would be attached to the record and published as soon as possible. The Soviet judge is Maj. Gen. I.T. Nikitchenko. The defendants have four days in which to appeal to the allied control council, their court of last resort. This council, representing the United States, Britain, Russia and France in the government of Germany, has authority over the executions, which are expected Oct. 16 unless an appeal for clemency is granted, and there seemed little chance of that. All defense attorneys had announced they would appeal in the event of death sentences against their clients. The hangings will take place in the jail of the Nuernberg Palace of Justice. Goering and Ribbentrop were convicted on all four counts in the indictment against them, while Hess was convicted of two counts, after being aquitted of the last two, war crimes and crimes against humanity. Eight defendants were convicted on count 1 of the indictment - conspiracy to commit the other three acts charged - the only one common to all 22 defendants. They were, in addition to Goering, Hess and Ribbentrop, Field Marshal Keitel, Rosenberg, Grand Admiral Raeder, Jodl and Von Neurath. Guilty on Four Counts In addition to Goering and Ribbentrop four others - Keitel, Rosenberg,Jodl and Von Neurath - were convicted on all four counts in the indictment. Twelve of the 16 defendants charged under the second count.- crimes against the peace - were convicted. They were Goering, Hess, Ribbentrop, Keitel, Rosengerg, Raeder, Jodl, Neurath, Wilhelm Frick, Walther Funk, Sauckel, SS and SA general; and Albert Speer, former Nazi numitions minister. On the third count - war crimes - 18 defendants were charged and 16 were convicted. (edit) Sixteen of the 18 charged with crimes against humanity - the fourth count - also were convicted. (edit) Leniency for Hess The tribunal stuck hard at Goering in its conclusion, declaring the former Reichsmarshal's guilt "is unique in its enormity." "The record discloses no excuse for this man." the tribunal said. Of Hess, the tribunal had this to say: "That Hess acts in an abnormal manner, suffers from loss of memory and has mentally deteriorated during this trial may be true. But there is nothing to show that he does not realize the nature of the charges against him or is incapable of defending himself. There is no suggestion that Hess was not completely sane when the acts charged against him were committed." Ribbentrop was styled by the tribunal as the willing tool of Hitler, but the opinion convicting him of all four counts added: "It was because Hitler's policies and plans coincided with his own ideas that Ribbentrop served him so willingly to the end." The court brushed aside as "untrue" Ribbentrop's defense that Hitler made all the important decisions. Keitel Defense Hit The tribunal consumed almost 1,000 words in dooming Keitel, who gulped, lowered his sharp Prussian chin a moment as he listened and then stared blankly ahead. The court said Keitel never denied his connection with various acts of Hitler's regime, and then added: "His defense relies on the fact that he is a soldier and on the doctrine of 'superior orders,' prohibited by article eight (of the tribunal's charter) as a defense. "There is nothing in mitigation, where crimes as shocking and extensive have been committed consciously, ruthlessly and without military excuse of justification." Hangman Heydrich's Gestapo successor, Kaltenbrunner, kept nodding his head as Justice Lawrence read his conviction. He still looked the toughest man in the dock. The tribunal, while acquitting Kaltenbrunner of conspiring to wage aggressive war, castigated him for crimes against humanity and war crimes. "He had undoubtedly visited Mauthausen (concentration camp)," it said, "and had seen prisoners killed by various methods of execution - hanging, shooting in the back of the neck and gassing - as part of the demonstration." Rosenberg Wiggles Dealing with the Gestapo chief's denial that he signed many orders sentencing thousands to death, the tribunal said, "It is inconceivable that in matters of such importance his signature could have appeared so many time without his authority." Rosenberg adjusted his spectacles and wriggled nervously as the tribunal turned to him. "Rosenberg is responsible for a system of organized plunder of both public and private property throughout the invaded countries of Europe," the tribunal said. "Rosenberg had knowledge of the brutal treatment and terror to which the eastern peoples were subjected." Justice Biddle then turned to Hans Frank, the tough hatchet man who ruled Poland with blood and iron. While finding Frank innocent of plotting aggressive war, Biddle in measured tones declared: "It is also true that Frank was a willing and knowing participant in the use of terrorism in Poland, in the economic exploitation of Poland and in a way which led to death by starvation of a large number of people; deportations to Germany as slave laborers of over a million Poles, and in a program involving the murder of at least 3,000,000 Jews." Frick Was Avid Nazi Wilhelm Frick, bullet-headed follower of Hitler since 1923, was described bluntly as "an avid Nazi, always rabidly anti-Semitic and drafter of the infamous Nuernberg decrees against Jews. The court said he was responsible for polices in occupied Czechoslovakia and the "Germanization" idea elsewhere. "he had knowledge that insane, sick, and aged people, 'useless eaters,' were being systematically put to death," the verdict asserted. The tribunal frankly discounted Funks's contention that he was unaware that gold teeth of concentration camp victims were deposited in his reichbank vaults. "He either knew what was being received or was deliberately closing his eyes to what was being done, " the court said. Nevertheless, the tribunal considered that Funk was "never a dominant figure in the various programs in which he participated," and this is reckoned "a mitigating fact." Mitigating Circumstances As commander of U-boats, the tribunal said, Doenitz was more than an ordinary figure in war planning. "Doenitz was consulted almost continuously by Hitler," the judgment said. In two instances, the court listed mitigating circumstances for the admiral, saying that in view of all the circumstances of naval warfare, he could not be held guilty for his conduct of submarine warfare and that British naval prisoners of war were treated according to the Geneva Convention. The judgment indicated that Admiral Raeder convicted himself by admitting breaches of the Versailles Treaty. He was blamed for rebuilding the German Navy for war, for carrying out orders to shoot commandos, but was absolved as was Doenitz, of guilt in unrestricted U-boat warfare. The evidence also showed the court went on, that Raeder instigated the Norwegian invasion and the justices refused to believe his story that he was only trying to forestall the British. Baldur von Schirach leaned forward as the tribunal found him innocent of conspiracy but sagged as the court said he was guilty of crimes against humanity as Gauleiter of Vienna. He was held guilty of carrying out deportation of Jews and having knowledge of their death and urging the bombing of a British cultural town in retaliation for the assassination of Reinhardt Heydrich. Deported Jews "There is not doubt that Saukel had over-all responsibility for the slave-labor program," the verdict said. But the court recalled Saukel's own regulation that "all the men must be fed, sheltered and treated in such a way as to exploit them to the highest possible extent at the lowest conceivable degree of expenditure." In Jodl's conviction on all counts the tribunal ruled as it had in that of Keitel, commenting "His defense in the doctrine of superior orders -there is nothing in mitigation. Participation in such crimes as these has never been required of any soldier and he can not now shield himself behind a mythical requirement of soldierly obedience at all costs as his excuse." The missing Martin Bormann was acquitted on the conspiracy count, since the court said, he was comparatively low in the Nazi Party but he was held guilty of participation in the slave labor program, persecution of Jews, shooting of Allied fliers, and other crimes of war, and crimes against humanity. Seyss-Inquart was acquitted only on the conspiracy charge. He was described as "ruthless in applying terrorism to suppress all opposition to the German occupation" in the Netherlands, where he was gauleiter, and convicted of slave deportations and persecution of Jews. The tribunal rejected his plea that he did not know of the crimes committed under his regime in Holland. Suave old Van Papen indulged, the tribunal declared, in "political immorality" in his conduct as ambassador to Austria before anschluss, but in no sense did the evidence justify his conviction as charged. Fritsche, the tribunal said, was "not sufficiently important" to be linked with major crimes. The court said in freeing him, "he sometimes spread false news, but it was not proved he knew if to be so." Sirrom | ||
| |||
| Sirrom |
| ||
Extreme Veteran Posts: 466 | San Francisco Chronicle Wednesday, September 6, 1972 TERROR AT OLYMPICS ALL HOSTAGES SLAIN 11 Israelis, 5 Arabs Dead Battle at Munich Airport Terrorists Gun Down Captives Munich Arab terrorists turned the 1972 Olympic Games into a scene of political murder yesterday that began with a pre-dawn attack on Israeli athletes in the Olympic Village and ended 20 hours later in a bloody airfield shootout. When it was all over, 11 Israelis, 5 Arab terrorists and one West German policeman were dead. The band of Arab guerrillas invaded the Israeli team's quarters at the Olympic ground before dawn yesterday and shot and killed two Israelis. The held nine others hostage through a day of tense negotiations that ended when captors and hostages were taken by helicopter to the airport and a plane that was to fly them to Cairo. Shooting Police sharpshooters opened fire on the Arabs when the helicopters landed, but missed some of them because of the darkness. The guerrillas who escaped the first shots turned their guns on the helicopter with the helpless Israelis inside, authorities said. Five of the Palestinian commandos were killed and three were captured, police said. One policeman was reported killed and a helicopter pilot was seriously wounded. Bavarian Interior Minister Bruno Merck said the Israeli hostages had agreed to go with the Arabs to Cairo. But the German authorities felt "this would have been a certain death sentence for them...We had to take a chance and attempt to free the hostages." Merck said the wreckage of the helicopters was being searched in the hope that one or two of the hostages might still be alive. He said one of the guerrillas killed himself by exploding a hand grenade. It set fire to a helicopter with some of the hostages trapped inside - blindfolded, their hands bound, linked together with ropes. He said the other guerrillas fired on fire engines to keep them from reaching the blazing helicopter. The torment of the entire event was heightened by confusion created in the public mind by contradictory reports from German and Olympic officials after the gunfire erupted at the airport. Merck, in a press conference at 3 A.M. today, said: "in this situation our task and goal to free the hostages was made more difficult by the lack of agreement from Israel to free prisoners or to get guarantees from the Arabs not to take action against the hostages." Offer He said the federal minister of the interior, Hans Dietrich Genscher, had offered to substitute himself and other German officials for the Israeli hostage. This, and money, was rejected by the Arabs. Partial explanation of how the Arabs knew so much about the Israeli compound in the Olympic Village came from Merck. He said that at least one of the terrorists was an official employee in the Village and that there was reason to believe some of his confederates had also obtained accreditation. The idea of trying to liberate the hostages at the Olympic Village was rejected Merck said, because it could have "involved athletes from other nations" living nearby. Genscher said, the Arabs allowed him into the room where the hostage were being held and he found them all bound hand and foot. Guards They were guarded by two Arabs with sub-machine guns. "I was able to see for myself that it would be impossible to rescue them from the Olympic Village," Genscher said. The guerrillas told him that they were ready to shoot one hostage every two hours. This made him realize the seriousness of the situation, he said. "They told me they were not afraid of a shootout because they had taken into account the possibility that they could all be killed, but they would kill all the hostages first," the minister said. Asked who had given the order to shoot at the airport, Merck said that the Munich police chief had been in charge of the operation. But it was carried out in continuous consultation with the federal German government and the Bavarian interior ministry. "The order to fire was given by the police chief, who was at the airport at the time," Merck said. The bloodshed brought suspension of the Olympic Games for the first time in modern history. Early this morning there was doubt about when the international competition would be resumed. These developments concluded a day of almost unbearable tension that saw the dream world that is the Olympic Games abruptly transfromed into a nightmare. The story began early yesterday morning when the Arabs, who later identified themselves as members of the ultra-radical "Black September" terrorist group, managed to slip into Olympic Village and invaded the dormitory housing the Israeli team. In the ensuing struggle, tow Israelis - Moshe Weinberg, 33-year-old wrestling coach, and Yosef Romano, 31, a weightlifter - were shot to death by the Arabs. More than half of the 25 Israelis managed to escape, but nine remained trapped in the hands of their Arab attackers. Negotiations Originally, the Arabs demanded that the Israeli government free 200 Arab prisoners held by Israel. They implied that the hostages would be killed if their demands were not met. What then ensued was a tense 17 1/2-hour, cat and mouse game of negotiation between the Arabs and a small army of negotiators drawn from the officialdom of the West German government and Olympic administrators and the Bonn diplomatic corps. During all this time, while TV cameras carried glimpses of the scene all over the world, the building containing the Arabs and their hostages was surrounded by thousands of heavily armed West German police. Deadlines passed, to be extended and then extended again. During all this time there was a tight blackout on information about what replies had been made to the Arab demands and counter offers they had been given. Then, suddenly at 10 P.M. the Arabs and their nine hostages, with their hands tied behind them, filed out of the building and into a bus that took them to a plaza in Olympic Village. There they boarded the first of two of three waiting military helicopters, an armed Arab sitting behind the pilot in each. The third helicopter was taken by government officials. All three machines then flew off in the direction of the military airfield at Fuerstenfeldbrueck, 20 miles away. There, a Boeing 727 jet borrowed from the German airline, Luthansa, was reported waiting. What happened next is still unclear - although it is known that as the helicopters began to land at the military field, shooting broke out. For the next 1 1/2 hours, the press center at Olympic Park was the scene of a barrage of steady but conflicting rumors. One rumor, for example, said that only four Arabs had left the building, and that three others, severely wounded by knives, had been discovered inside. This proved to be false. Initially, Avery Brundage, president of the International Olympic Committee, and Willi Daume, head of the West German organizing committee, had announced that yesterday's scheduled competitions would proceed according to plan. And, despite a plea from the Israeli government for a suspension, that's how the day began - as an almost t surrealistic spectacle of TV cameras cutting from the scene at the barricaded dormitory to shots of boxing, riding and other sports competition. By mid-afternoon, however, there was a change of heart, and Brundage and Daume released a new statement stating that the games would be suspended as soon as each contest then in progress ended. They also said that a memorial service in memory of the murdered Israelis would be held today at 10:30 A.M. in Olympic Stadium. Brandt In Bonn, the government of Chancellor Willy Brandt, appealed to the leaders of all Arab countries to do everything in their power to help free the hostages. Brandt, obviously shocked and indignant, then flew to Munich to be on the scene. In a TV address last night he repeated his plea and said that while "the joy has been taken from the games" it was unthinkable that he terrorists should be allowed to succeed in their goal of forcing a cancellation. For the West German government, yesterday's events dashed hopes that the Munich games could be kept on a non-political plane that would help to erase memories of the Nazi era. Nothing could have presented the West German government and people with a more nightmarish prospect than for a number of Jews - members of the group most persecuted by Hitler's Germany - to be murdered during the first games in this country since the war. The Israelis announced that their team would withdraw from all further competition in the present games and return home today. In a companion move the team from Israel's bitter Arab enemy, Egypt, also indicated that it would withdraw. Sirrom | ||
| |||
| Starjsr |
| ||
Veteran Posts: 278 Location: Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY | Wow Sirrom, I can't keep up with you, so much great stuff Thank You! | ||
| |||
| Sirrom |
| ||
Extreme Veteran Posts: 466 | The following is a three part series on the Six Day War. I will post the third report before Shabbos. The Springfield Union Tuesday, June 6, 1967 ISRAELI COLUMNS SLASH DEEP INTO GAZA STRIP, CAPTURE BASE Arabs Said to Sustain 'Heavy Losses' Tel Aviv, Israel (UPI) Israeli forces slashes deep into Egypt's Gaza Strip and Sinai Peninsula Monday and captured the main Egyptian base at El Arish, a military communique said early today. Israel claimed its forces inflicted "heavy casualties" on the Egyptians. Casualties Light Gen. Yitzhak Rabin, the Israeli chief of staff, reported shortly before 1 A.M. today that Israeli casualties were comparatively light. He gave no figures for either side. Rabin listed a series of major victories in both the Sinai Peninsula and the Gaza Strip, a narrow finger of Egyptian territory along the Mediterranean Sea. The general said Israeli forces captured a large number of prisoner, and large quantities of weapons, guns and tanks. Israeli troops and tanks drove across the southern end of the Gaza Strip Monday within hours after the first shots were fired in the Mideast war. The thrust trapped several thousand troops of the Egyptian armed Palestine Liberation Army (PLA). Egypt claimed early Monday to have wiped out an attacking Israeli brigade at Kuntilla in the Sinai Peninsula and said Egyptian troops thrust into Israel after heavy fighting. The Arab nations claimed their planes had shot down 158 Israeli aircraft, which would be one third of the entire Israeli air force. El Arish is on the Mediterranean coast about 25 miles west of the Israeli border. In the 1956 Sinai campaign, Israel took El Arish and captured million of dollars worth of Soviet-built equipment found in vast underground storage areas. In this morning's announcement, Rabin said Israeli armored columns captured El Arish Monday, then moved toward the Egyptian strong point of Abu Ageila. It was described as the most remaining Egyptian fortress in the Sinai Peninsula. On Outskirts of Gaza Rabin said Israeli forces were fighting on the outskirts of the city of Gaza and have penetrated the Egyptian positions in the important junction of Um Katef. Israeli Premier Levi Eshkol told Parliament Monday night the Israeli air force was in complete control of the air and the ground fighting in the south was taking place entirely in Egyptian territory. "The enemy is nowhere in sight and our land forces are proceeding as scheduled," Eshkol said. "We are pursuing the enemy." Rabin reported that Israeli forces in the Jerusalem area captured three Jordanian villages and opened the way to the Jordanian town of Jenin. Claim Air Victory Gen Mordechai Hod, commander of the Israeli Air Force, announced that Israeli pilots shot down or destroyed on the ground 374 Egyptian, Jordanian and Syrian planes and probably gagged another 34. Hod said the destroyed planes included about 300 Egyptian craft, 20 Jordanian and 54 Syrian. The Israeli air commander said Israel lost 10 pilots, including eight killed and the others missing or captured. Gen Moshe Dayan, the one-eyed defense minister and hero of the 1956 Sinai campaign, said the Israeli air force had struck a "devastating blow" against the air forces of the three Arab countries. He said it was "an achievement without precedent in military history." Urge Evacuation Dayan said Israel had achieved air superiority in a single day. On the diplomatic front, reliable sources said Israeli Foreign Minister Abba Eban probably would fly to New York today to attend the emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council. The U.S. embassy urged all American citizens to leave Israel at once. It warned there was no assurance the U.S. government would be able to provide transportation "if the situation suddenly deteriorates further." A fast Israeli task force captured Khan Yunis, which controls the escape route from Gaza. Then it began softening up the trapped troops preparatory to forcing a surrender. Capture Gaza Bastion The capture of Khan Yunis sealed off the escape of Palestine Liberation and regular Egyptian army units in the strip. It eliminated a dangerous threat to the Israeli flank. The prime Israeli objective was to clear enemy forces from the Gaza Strip that knifes into Israel, to destroy concentrations in Sinai and the main enemy buildup at the El Arish base and smaller bases at Kuntilla and Quseima, lying athwart the main roads leading to the Israeli border. Fierce fighting erupted between Israel and its Arab neighbors Monday and plunged the Jewish state into a three-front war. Israeli and Egyptian tanks, guns, infantry, and planes slugged it out again in the old Sinai and Negev battlegrounds where this county shipped Egypt in 1956, Fight for Jerusalem In divided Jerusalem, Israeli and Jordanian gunners traded mortar and machine gun fire in day long battle between the old and new cities. The old city is Arab territory; the new is the capital of Israel. Jordanian Arab legionnaires seized the United Nations truce commission team headquarters on the Biblical "Hill of Evil Counsel" in the no-man's land between the two cities. Israel radio later said Israeli forces counterattacked and drove the Arabs from the building. In northern Gaililee Syrian and Jordanian planes attacked Israeli villages and farms. A Syrian claim to have hit the big oil refinery at Haifa was denied by an Israeli military spokesman. Reports from the Arab side said Israeli planes attacked airfields and airports in Egypt and at Damascus, Syriam abd Amman Jordan. There was no immediate official confirmation here. American Jews Rally Support New York (UPI) American Jews mobilized men, money and moral support for Israel Monday. The efforts, which began with the start of the Israeli-Arab crisis three weeks ago, intensified as the Middle East hostilities exploded into open war. Jewish agencies throughout the country appealed for funds to help keep Israel's economy going. A twice a week airlift from New York was begun for American volunteers who will fill jobs left by Israeli's called into military service. A number of organizations called rallies to demonstrate support for Israel. Edit Additional reports include: Russia Tells Israel to End 'Aggression' Cuban Exiles Offer To Aid Israel U.S. Carriers Expected To Hold Present Positions U.S. Neutral, Seeking Ceasefire in Mideast UN Bogs Down On Truce Quest Sirrom | ||
| |||
| Sirrom |
| ||
Extreme Veteran Posts: 466 | Yerushalaim Lyrics: Naomi Shemer The mountain air is clear as wine And the scent of pines Is carried on the breeze of twilight With the sound of bells. And in the slumber of tree and stone Captured in her dream The city that sits solitary And in its midst is a wall. Jerusalem of gold, and of bronze, and of light Behold I am a violin for all your songs. How the cisterns have dried The market-place is empty And no one frequents the Temple Mount In the Old City. And in the caves in the mountain Winds are howling And no one descends to the Dead Sea By way of Jericho. Jerusalem of gold, and of bronze, and of light Behold I am a violin for all yours songs. But as I come to sing to you today, And to adorn crowns to you I am the smallest of the youngest of your children And of the last poet For your name scorches the lips Like the kiss of a seraph If I forget thee, Jerusalem, Which is all gold Jerusalem of gold, and of bronze, and of light Behold I am a violin for all your songs. We have returned to the cisterns To the market and to the market-place A ram's horn calls out on the Temple Mount In the Old City. And in the caves in the mountain Thousands of suns shine We will once again descend to the Dead Sea by way of Jericho! Jerusalem of gold, and of bronze and of light Behold I am a violin for all your songs. The Springfield Union Wednesday, June 7, 1967 JOHNSON BACKS UN CALL FOR CEASE-FIRE AS ISRAELI ARMOR SWEEPS TOWARD SUEZ Fighting Said Raging in Holy Cities 200 Arab Tanks Reported Taken, Destroyed in Desert (By the Associated Press) Israeli armor slashing across Sinai toward the Suez Canal clashed in tough, grim battles with Egyptian tanks but destroyed or captured 200 of them, the Israeli command said Tuesday. In the Holy Land, Jordan reported fighting in Bethlehem, the birth place of Christ, and in Jerusalem, sone of it hand to hand and house to house. As the Middle East war neared the end of its second day there were these developments: - In New York, the United Nations Security Council unanimously approved a call for an immediate cease-fire. The resolution was produced by U.S./Soviet agreement. But as worked out, it amounted to a Russian back down on its demand that the council also ask for a troop withdrawal to positions held Sunday just before the outbreak of fighting. Invites Observers -The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Arthur J. Goldberg, assailed as without foundation Arab charges that U.S. planes had flown from the U.S. 6th fleet to aid Israel. Goldberg invited UN observers to take up posts aboard U.S. aircraft carriers in the Mediterranean to report on operations. -In Cairo, the government of President Gamal Abdel Nasser ordered all American nationals to leave the county following Egypt's break in diplomatic relations with the United States. Syria took similar action and Algeria announced in Washington it was breaking with the United States. The Arabs, claiming only minor gains in the field, were striking back in commerce and diplomacy. They closed the Suez Canal and curtailed oil shipments in Western European addition to wholesale severing of relations with the United States and Britain. 30 Mile Front Israel continued to strike hard in the Sinai Peninsula, driving toward the Suez Canal on a 30 mile front. The Israelis seemed to be aiming at the main Egyptian base in Sinai-Bir Gifgafa - between the Israeli border and the canal. Sharp lighting strikes by armored columns are an Israeli specialty. In the 1956 Suez campaign, it took tough talking, one eyed Gen. Moshe Dayan, now Israel's defense minister, 100 hours to shatter the Egyptian forces in Sinai. An Israeli Defense Ministry spokesman, Lt. Col Moshe Pearhnan, said Israeli forces had destroyed or captured 50 tanks Monday and 150 Tuesday in Sinai and the Gaza strip, but described the fighting as "tough and grim and certainly not easy." Arabs Counterattack The Egyptians counterattacked at several points, but were repulsed, he said. He added that some of the Egyptian armor apparently was withdrawing to higher ground in central Sinai. On their northern front, the Israelis entered the Jordanian center of Old Jerusalem after a fierce batte, struck deep inot Jordan and reported they had hurled back a Syrian tank and infantry attack inside Israel. Israeli planes raided an ir base in Iraq for the second day in a row. Jordan claimed street fighting raged in both sectors of the Holy City of Jerusalem throughout Tuesday, with Arabs and Israeli often grappling in hand to hand combat. Battle of Bethlehem The Amman radio said fighting broke out along the west bank of the Jordan River at Bethlehem, just south of Jerusalem, and Hebron, 10 miles farther south. The radio claimed Israeli attacks were repulsed with heavy Israeli losses. Brightened by claims of military victories, the mood of the Israeli people was cheerful as the nation settled down for a second blackout night. With no air raid alerts sounded for more than 14 hours, Tel Aviv airport reopened to incoming civilian traffic Tuesday night. End of Mideast War, Protection of Israel Asked by Hub Clergy Richard Cardinal Cushing and 18 other Roman Catholic and Protestant clergymen in the Greater Boston area Tuesday called for protection of Israel and an end to the Mideast war. The "Declaration of Christian Principle" asked for a speedy ceasefire in the crisis and recognition of Israel as "a viable nation in the community of nations." Can't Be Indifferent Recognizing that peace based on moral principle is the basic requirement of civilization, the signers declared that "none of us can be indifferent or uninvolved in confronting the moral issues inherent in the current conflict in the Middle East." "We cannot stand by idly at the possibility of Israel's destruction, of decimating the two and a half million Jewish people, many of them survivors of Hitler's holocaust, who are Israel's citizens today." The clergymen placed the responsibility for bringing peace to the Middle East in the United Nations and, efforts failing there, upon the major powers of the world, including the United States. Edit Additional Sub-heads U.S., Egypt Sever Ties Over Bombing Charges President See Hopeful Path From Danger Security Council Asks Truce, Shelves Withdrawal Issue U.S. Embassy Fired By Mob in Cairo U.S. - Russian Leadership May Be Key to Peace Sirrom | ||
| |||
| Sirrom |
| ||
Extreme Veteran Posts: 466 | This the third and final report on the Six Day War. Because of its importance a considerable amount of text is printed. The entire front page of this paper, comprised of eight columns, is all devoted to the subject of the war. There are two additional inside page devoted entirely to this event. The front page contains a picture of Israeli troops on tanks moving in one direction and trucks of Egyptian soldiers in their underwear moving in the opposite direction. There are two other pictures on the front page. One is of an Israeli blowing a shofar with the caption: CELEBRATION - Israeli soldier blows shofar at Jerusalem's Wailing Wall to celebrate victory over Jordan in that city. The other picture is of a rally in Washington DC with Israeli and American flags waving. But, the treasure of this paper is the picture on page four of the now famous and historic scene of Israeli soldiers gazing up at the Wailing Wall with the caption: TROOPS AT THE SHRINE - Israeli soldiers gazed up at the Wailing Wall, the holiest Jewish shrine in Jerusalem yesterday, after earlier victory in Jordanian sector. The Baltimore Sun Friday, June 9, 1967 SYRIA AND EGYPT ACCEPT U.N. CEASE-FIRE DEMAND; 10 KILLED AS ISRAELIS ATTACK U.S. SHIP BY ERROR ARAB NATIONS' PLANES, ARMOR OVERPOWERED IN 4 DAYS OF BATTLE Nassar To Address His Nation Today; Damascus Follows Lead of Amman And Cairo In Quitting Conflict (by the Associated Press) Syria early today joined Egypt and Jordan in accepting a cease-fire in the face of a triumphant Israeli air and tank blitz. The official Damascus Radio said an emergency session of the Council of Ministers decided to take Syria out of a conflict that saw Jordan bow out Wednesday, to be followed yesterday by Egypt, the main Arab combatant. Since the outbreak of the Middle East conflict Monday, Israel's highly mobile troops and airmen had destroyed Arab air power, driven Egyptian armor back to the Suez Canal, reopened the blockaded Gulf of Aqaba, and seized long coveted areas of the Holy Land. The semi-official Egyptian newspaper Al Ahram announced President Gamal Abdel Nasser will address the nation later today. Nasser, who yearned to lead the Arab world, had suffered his second humiliation as President in eleven years at the hands of Israel's air and desert legions. He was a loser to Israel as a field soldier in the war of 1948. U.N. Council Notified Egyptians were bitter as the news was broken to them early Friday morning by the official Cairo Radio. These were the developments in what seemed the closing hours of the war: In New York, U Thant, United Nations Secretary General told the Security Council yesterday afternoon that Egypt had accepted the cease-fire appeal issued by the Council Tuesday and repeated Wednesday. In Cairo, the military high command told of continued fighting and of a battle with Israelis " unprecedented in its ferociousness" in a communique apparently preparing the people for news of disaster. Then, in the early hours today, Cairo Radio read out the announcement of the cease-fire. In Damascus, the Syrians, who had been most vociferous in support of the war, kept up belligerent broadcasts until today, when the official radio beamed out the news of the cease-fire. U.S. Ship Attacked The announcement, at 4:20 A.M. Damascus time, came just five hours after the Egyptian acceptance of the truce had been announced at the United Nations. Earlier in the day, an Israeli spokesman in Tel Aviv declared Israeli tanks and troops had smashed stubborn Egyptian resistance in a series of five battle in the Sinai Desert. A United States Navy ship came under a mistaken Israeli attack that killed 10 Americans and wounded 100 others, the Pentagon said yesterday. The vessel, the Liberty, was strafed and torpedoed by Israeli war planes and boasts off the Egyptian coast. The ship was described as a research vessel that had been helping relay communications from United States installations in the Mideast. A message of apology was received from Tel Aviv. The Israeli Foreign Minister, Abba Eban, told the Security Council that Israel welcomed the Egyptian decision, saying that it "celebrates" the approaching realization of a halt in the fighting. The Security Council announcement came just five minutes before the New York Stock Exchange closed. It set off a flurry that raised the averages. King Hussein of Jordan said in his capital of Amman that overwhelming Israeli air power knocked his Army out of the war. He said the Jordanian soldiers stood no chance under relentless air attack and Jordan suffered tremendous losses. Algerian Troops The Syrian radio said tough troops from Algeria had joined the Egyptians in the battle of the desert. If true, this would bring into the conflict some of the best-trained troops in the Arab world. Radio Algiers said several squadrons of Algerian Russian built MIG's had arrived at an Egyptian airbase. Cairo Radio reported heavy fighting on the northern front and said Israeli casualties were heavy. While claiming victory everywhere, the Tel Aviv Army spokesman did not say that Israeli troops had advanced beyond Rumans, 20 miles east of the canal in the north. Nor did he say Israeli troops had reached the canal. 5 MIG's Shot Down Col. Moshe Pearlman, the spokesman, reported he was unable to say whether Israeli troops had reached the canal. Egyptian Soviet-built MIG's rose to challenge Israeli jets and five were shot down in dogfights over the battlefields, he added. The two major efforts apparently were directed at roads leading to Ismailia, in the center of the canal, and to Suez, at the southern end of the canal. Pearlman said the climactic battle was at Bir Gafgafa, the big junction and Egyptian airbase 45 miles east of the canal at Ismailia. Heavy fighting had been reported here earlier in the day, and he did not make clear whether all the Egyptians were driven out. But he said the Egyptians were driven from Mitla Pass, guarding the road to the city of Suez 20 miles farther west. This also was the scene of severe fighting by earlier accounts. As for the northern front along the Mediterranean coast, the spokesman was less specific, saying only that Israelis had reached Rumana 20 miles from the canal. But the capture of Rumana had been reported Wednesday. Cairo claimed the Egyptians were inflicting severe losses on the Israelis on this front. Two other battles broke out far to the southeast and here, the spokesman said, the Egyptians were routed. The Israeli seized Nakhl, in the desert midway on the road from Israel's port of Elath in the Gulf of Aqaba to Suez. Hakhl is a little more than 50 miles southeast of Mitla Pass. Another Israeli column seized Thamed, on the same road about 35 miles southeast of Nakhl. Israeli Tactics Change Little Since Maccabee and Gideon New York, June 8 (AP) For 3,037 years, and maybe longer, the Jews have fought their enemies in the same way. You can read about it in the Bible. Again and again in the ancient struggles of Judaism to preserve its land, tightly disciplined bands of warriors overcame superior numbers by quick, surprise thrusts and rapid mobility. That's how Gideon drove a horde of Midianities into the Jordan River in 1070 B.B. Maccabee's Guerrillas That's how Judas Maccabee's guerrillas routed 30,000 Syrians in 160 B.B. Today's Israeli still employs the tactics of the ancient israelites. Haganah, the Jewish underground army, was a modern version of the Maccabbes, fighting the British, and the Arabs, as their forebears fought the Syrians. only 11 years ago, the Israeli army struck with such swiftness that it defeated Egypt in 100 hours. And today, only four days after the first shot of a new war, Jewish soldiers have ranged from the the River Jordan to the Suez Canal, from the Gaza Strip to the Strait of Tiran. "For Lord and Gideon" "For the Lord and for Gideon!" rose the battle cry as Gideon's band set to fight an army of such numbers that they were "like locusts" covering the plain of Jezreel. At the instruction of the Lord, Gideon trimmed his army from 22,000 to 300. First, he told the fearful to go home. Then, he weeded out those who failed to deep watch while drinking from a stream. Only those that cupped the water in their hands and drank "as a dog laps," keeping their heads up and eyes open, were retained. Those that knelt to drink were dismissed. Then Gideon divided his 300 into three companies, and had each man get a trumpet and a big jar, with a lighted torch concealed in ti. At midnight they surrounded the enemy camp. On a signal, they simultaneously broke their jars with a great crashing noise, blew their trumpets and waved the torches. The huge enemy force broke and ran, not stopping until they crossed the Jordan. The Maccabbes also relied on abrupt, startling maneuvers to defeat the armies of the mighty Syrian empire. which had banned Jewish worship, ordered sacrifices to idols, and set up a shrine to Zeus in the Temple at Jerusalem. Judas Maccabee, one of five sons of the defiant priest, Mathias Maccabee, organized a close-knit tuerrilla army. Using mountain caves as hideouts, and armed with captured weapons, the Maccabees' lightning jabs wore down the conquerors, restored religious freedom and regained Israel's political independence. Commandos, Then And Now In one encounter, a band of a few hundred launched a surprise night attack that routed a Syrian army of 30,000, including horsemen, archers and spear men. Commando tactics were used by the tough, underground force , Haganah, which pressed the fight in the conflict surrounding the setting up of the Jewish state in 1948. Jewish soldiers drew not only on the battle methods exemplified in Scripture, but used Biblical references to map routes of attack and defense. Bibical Background Several of Israel's military leaders also have been archeological experts, versed in the routes, passes and underground tunnels described in the Bible, which were sometimes used in their military planning. In the fighting over Jerusalem, at the time of the establishment of modern Israel, a Haganah leader once found a secret tunnel, from its mention in the Bible, that enabled his band to escape a trap. Implications of this familiarity with terrain, old shortcuts and sites, along with the fast surprise strtaegy developed in ancient Biblical times, were evident in the style of Israel's present sweep against the Arabs. ISRAEL CONTROLS ARAB JERUSALEM Restore Government; Plan Rebuilding Program Jerusalem, June 8 - an Israeli military governor took command today of the section of Jerusalem captured from Jordan and began restoring services to the population that remained. Gen Chaim Herzog, on assuming control of the "western bank", said that "We want to bring life back to normal so that all faiths can worship freely in the holy city. The Jerusalem City Council establish the Jerusalem fund, which as a goal of $50,000,000 for rebuilding historic monuments in the new part of Jerusalem and in the captured Old City and the surrounding land. Already Collected A total of $2,600,000 was subscribed for the fund tonight by local and international groups. Mayor Teddy Kollek said that the money would be used for such purposes as rebuilding the Old City's Jewish quarter, which was damaged in fighting the Arabs in the 1949-1949 war. He also said it would be used for renovating Solomon's Pool and making parks in what has been a no-man's land between the new and old parts of the city. Mayor Kolleck said he expects to get a lot of money from Jewish and philanthropic organization in America. He said, of Jerusalem, "The eternal city needs rebuilding and beautification." Edit 30,000 Jews Rally In Washington By James MacNees (Washington Bureau of The Sun) Washington, June 8 - Thousands of American Jews cheered, cried and sang in jubilation today when the annuncement was made at their rally here that Egypt had accepted a United Nations cease-fire in the Mideast war. Speechmaking stopped and the enormous throng gathered in Lafayette Park, across the street from the White House, sang the Israeli national anthem "Hatikvah," when Dr. William Wexler, president of B'nai B'rith, broke the news. Crowd of 30,000 There were tears of joy in the eyes of scores standing the the sun in 88 degree weather as Dr. Wexler's voice led the singing. when the anthem was finished, a group near the the speaker's platform spontaneously broke into "God Bless America" and their voices were picked up all across the historic park. A crowd estimated at 30,000 by the District of Columbia police heard speaker afte speaker proclaim support of Israel's sovereignty and integrity. Jews old and young, bearing such signs as "Hitler Couldn't, Sinai Wouldn't, Nasser Won't," demonstrated in a spirit of serious determination, but with good demeanor. Lawmakers' Support Before the rally, delegations of Jewish leaders went to Capital Hill to urge members of the House and Senate to call for a peace based on guaranteed international free passage of the Gulf of Aqaba and the Suez Canal and Israel's permanent presence in the family of nations. Edit Senator Kennedy (D. N.Y.) told a crowd of more that 500 New York Jews crushed into the Senate caucus room that Israel must be given unequivocal recognition, that its borders and commerce must be accorded equal dignity to those of any other country and that its permanence must "never again by open to question." Edit Additional Sub-heads WHITE HOUSE EMPLOYS 'HOT LINE' TO NOTIFY RUSSIANS ABOUT RAID LOSSES HIGH, HUSSEIN SAYS 10 KILLED AS ISRAELIS ATTACK SHIP CAIRO IS SHOCKED OVER CEASE-FIRE MIDEAST AID SCRUTINIZED ISRAEL BARES NASSER 'PLOT' Sirrom | ||
| |||
| Sirrom |
| ||
Extreme Veteran Posts: 466 | The Philadelphia Inquirer Friday, April 13, 1990 EAST GERMANY APOLOGIZES TO JEWS Expresses Shame For Holocaust By Tamara Jones and Tyler Marshall (Los Angele Times) East Berlin - Expressing "sorrow and shame" yesterday, East Germany for the first time shared blame for the Holocaust and begged forgiveness from Israel and "all the Jews of the world." The historic apology to Jews and other victims of the Nazis ended more than 40 years of communist denial as East Germany began its uncertain journey on the road toward reunification with West Germany. It came on the day East Germany swore in its first democratic government, confirming human rights lawyer Lothar de Maiziere as prime minister. The fledgling democracy's first declaration "before the world" boldly confronted the darkest chapters of East German history. The new government also apologized to the Soviet Union for the "terrible suffering" its people endured during World War 11, and thanked Moscow for the East-bloc reforms wrought by perestroika. At the same time, though, it sharply condemned the 1968 Soviet led invasion of Czechoslovakia and lamented that East German troops were used to help the Soviets crush the "Prague Spring" of Czechoslovak reform out of "fear and cowardice." The somber declaration was the first act of the Volkskammer, or parliament, whose 400 deputies approved it with standing ovation and a moment of silence to commemorate victims of the Nazis. The resolution also offered asylum in East Germany to persecuted Jews and sought diplomatic relations with Israel. "We, the first freely elected parliamentarians of the GDR (German Democratic Republic), on behalf of the citizens of this land, admit responsibility for the humiliation, expulsion and murder of Jewish men, women and children. We feel sorrow and shame, and acknowledge this burden of German history." the statement read. "Immeasurable suffering was inflicted on the peoples of the world during the era of National Socialism." it added. "We ask all the Jews of the world to forgive us. We ask the people of Israel to forgive us for the hypocrisy and hostility of official East German policies toward Israel and for the persecution and humiliation of Jewish citizen. in our county after 1945 as well." The watershed statement was read by the Minister-President Sabine Bergman-Pohl, the parliament's speaker, before the chamber formally elected its prime minister and cabinet. De Maiziere, 50, a Christian Democrat, is a classical musician as well as a lawyer. He becomes the country's first non communist leader. The grand coalition that he has fashioned will draft the blueprint for reunification with West Germany, most likely focusing first on, key questions involving East German property and the coming currency union, which will replace the novconvertible East German mark with the powerful deutsche mark. Negotiations over merging the two Germanys are scheduled to begin next week in East Berlin, with economic unity as the first order of business. The new East German government vowed to proceed "swiftly and responsibly" with what de Maiziere described as its main goal of forging "a united German state in a united Europe." The country's new defense and disarmament minister, Rainer Eppelmann, a pacifist pastor once jailed for refusing military service, indicated that East Germany favored NATO membership after reunification. However, he was quoted as telling the official news service ADN that no NATO troops should be stationed on former East German soil. He also conceded that "as long as there are two alliances in Europe, there will also foreseeably be two German armies." The Volkskammer's statement yesterday attempts to erase the half truths and distortions of history that were the legacy of 40 years of communist rule in East Germany. East Germay's communist hierarchy twisted Hitler's hatred of the political left into the framework of a Stalinist state, denying any responsibility for the Holocaust on the ground that East Germany was itself the legacy of victims of the Third Reich. While generations of West Germans agonized over the slaughter of six million Jews and debated the issue of collective guilt, East Germans collectively opted out. Young East German schoolchildren, for example, visited the former Nazi concentration camps on their soil, but left with the impression that mainly communists had suffered there. During a 1984 visit to Buchenwald, an East German teacher led her teenage pupils in front of the ovens and was overheard telling them: "You are the sons and daughters of the victims of Buchenwald. It is your duty to keep our socialist state strong so that nothing like this ever happens again." A museum at the camp is devoted almost exclusively to commemorating the communist victims. Plaques in small villages throughout East Germany pay tribute to local leftists imprisoned by the Nazis. Simple historical realities, such as the fact that Hitler's electoral support was higher in regions now part of East Germany than in the West, were conveniently forgotten. While West Germany has paid about $50 billion in reparations so for either to Israel or to individual Jews, East Germany has paid nothing. The Volkskammer's statement pledged to back all efforts to find "a just form of compensation" for losses the Jews suffered during World War 11. However, no specific plan to pay damages was discussed, and East Germany's crumbling economy is unlikely to be able to bear such a financial burden without help from Bonn. The Israeli government cautiously welcomed the East German apologies. "We have not received the full text of the East German declaration but from what has been quoted in the media, we welcome it and see it as an encouraging change of the East German stand." Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yossi Amihud said. The Central Council of Jews in Germany also praised the Volkskammer's action. Heinz Galinski, chairman of the organization, expressed "deep satisfaction" and said the recognition of responsibility would "open news perspectives." In Washington, Deputy State Department spokesman Richard Boucher commented at a press briefing: "I think there's widespread recognition that this is an important historical statement turning over from the past to looking at the future." Boucher also offered the Bush administration's praise for the new government: "The formation of the new government is the culmination of an historic process of democratization. The achievement is a tribute to the courage and determination of the East German population." The East German government also pledged to respect postwar German borders in a bid to calm Polish worries in the aftermath of Bonn's slowness in promising that a united Germany would not seek to regain its prewar territory. The wording was the same as that finally used by West Germany, whose chancellor, Helmut Kohl, came under heavy criticism in the international arena for dragging his feet on the Polish question. The two Germany's have both now promised not to challenge the right of the Polish people "to live within safe borders" and to respect the boundaries of the rivers Oder and Neisse. Sirrom | ||
| |||
| Sirrom |
| ||
Extreme Veteran Posts: 466 | Our history since 1933 has been one of conflict, tragedy and triumph. Not unlike most of our thirty-five hundred year past. Throughout the events of the above there was one reoccurring expression of Jewish sentiment. The singing of the Israeli National Anthem, Hatikvah. As forty-five hundred Jewish refugees pulled into port in Israel aboard the Exodus, they sang Hatikvah. At the announcement of Israel's Independence in Tel Aviv, Hatikvah was sung. At rallies in New York and Washington D.C. people joined in singing Hatikvah. I find it appropriate to share its words with you. (Written by: Naftali Herz Imber, 1887. Melody composed and arranged by: Samuel Cohen.) As long as in the heart, within A Jewish soul still yearns, And towards the end of the East, An eye still watches toward Zion Our hope of two thousand years, To be a free nation in our land, The land of Zion and Jerusalem. During this period Israel, and Jewish people throughout the world, have faced the Hebron Massacre, The Holocaust, World War Two, The War of Independence, The Six Day War, The Yom Kippur War, and daily battles with the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) The Israeli's and Jewish People have faced enemies such as Hitler and Germany, Nasser and Egypt, the combined might of Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, and other neighboring Arab countries. The threat of Hezbollah, and the PLO. Israeli's and Jewish people have faced, and suffered from, prejudice and hatred throughout the entire twentieth century; and yet, WE ARE HERE. The Spirit of Judaism, like the flame of a Shabbat Candle, never dies. Each week, and each day of the week, our faith and trust in Hashem is rekindled. Each morning we say a simple prayer thanking our L-rd for giving us life. Even as The Holocaust ate away at the limbs of Judaism; OUR HEARTS REMAINED AGLOW WITH THE WARMTH OF HIS CARRYING. Goering and Himmler, Keitel and Ribbentrop, and their gang of thugs, were hung till dead. Others rotted away in prison. Eichmann hung from the gallows. Nasser died, suffering two military defeats at the hands of the Israeli Army. Arafat is dead, and all his ballyhoo came to naught. In concluding this thread, I post the final, and following, newspaper report. It symbolizes the end, not of Judaism, as had been expected, but the end of a reign of murder and terror that will never be forgotten. As long as HISTORY LIVES, so too will the memory of THE HOLOCAUST and ANTI-SEMITISM forever haunt the consciousness of Judaism. Morris | ||
| |||
| Sirrom |
| ||
Extreme Veteran Posts: 466 | St. Louis Globe-Democrat Thursday, May 3, 1945 HITLER AND GOEBBELS KILLED SELVES AS BERLIN FELL IN RUINS General and Other Big Nazis Suicides Propaganda Minister's Deputy, one of Captives, Reveal Action; Gives lie to Hamburg Account of Death During Battle London, May 3 (Thursday) (AP) - Adolf Hitler and Paul Joseph Goebbels committed suicide as Berlin fell in ruins about them, the Soviet communique said today, quoting Dr. Hans Fritsche, the Propaganda Minister's Lieutenant. The Russians said Fritsche was captured as Berlin finally fell to the overwhelming Soviet Army and that he told his captors that a Gen Krebs also took his life with the two high Nazis. The communique, issued past midnight and following Premier Stalin's order of the day announcing the fall of Berlin, was the first Soviet confirmation that Hitler is dead. The Nazi radio at Hamburg had said that Hitler "died a hero's death" in Berlin May 1 "fighting to the last" in his Reicheschancellery Report is Credited Moscow radio had quickly expressed belief that this was "a Fascist trick" to cover Hitler's possible escape. Today, however, the communique reported his suicide. Whether the Russians have as yet had an opportunity to comb the ruins of Berlin's government district for the Fuehrer's body was not known. However, it was regarded as unlikely that the Soviet communique - a highly formal document - would quote a captive on news of such moment, unless the Russians had reason to believe it true. The Soviet communique said that several high officers of the garrison of Berlin were captured and then went on: "Also taken prisoner were Hans Fritsche, first deputy of Goebbels in propaganda and the press, Press Chief Flick and Government Counselor Heinrich Dorsch. During interrogation, Dr. Fritsche stated that Hitler, Goebbels and the newly appointed chief of the general staff, Infantry Gen. Krebs, had committed suicide." Fritsche's report indicated that Goebbels had made good on the statement he made in his last radio address when he declared he would rather commit suicide than live in Germany "under the Bolshevik terror." Edit 70,000 Troops Seized in Capital Commander of Garrison Among Captives; End Comes in Center of Government Building Area, Once Fuehrer's Pride London, May 2 (AP) - Berlin, greatest city of the European Continent and capital of Adolf Hitler's blood-drenched empire, fell to the Russians at 3 P.M. today after 12 days of history's deadliest street fighting. Seventy thousand German troops were captured in the final cleanup as the remnants of the shocked and riven garrison laid down its arms , Premier Stalin announced in an order of the day broadcast from Moscow tonight. The order listed as commander of Berlin an artillery General, named Webling and said he is among those captured. Stalin's order was his third of the day. He had built to the climactic fall of Berlin with orders announcing the death or capture of 120,000 Germans since April 24 with complete destruction of the German Ninth Army southeast of Berlin, and the capture of Germany's last important Baltic port, Rostock, in a 44-mile drive by the Second White Russian Army. For the conquest of Berlin his proclamation called for the top Moscow victory salute of 24 salvos from 324 cannon in tribute to the armies that took Berlin: The First White Russian and First Ukrainian. Those armies, commanded by Marshals G.K. Zhukov and Ivan S. Konev, had jumped across the Oder 16 days previously, and on Apr. 21 fought into Berlin. They encircled the sprawling city, which already had been wrecked by American and British bombers, and tore the remains to bits in some of the bitterest big-scale street fighting of all times. VICTIM OF FANATIC Thus fell the once-mighty capital which Stalin described as "the center of German imperialism and heart of German aggression," and which Hitler had proclaimed as the seat of his "thousand-year Reich" empire - the empire that in less than six years died as it had been born, in blood and suffering. The greatest city ever to fall in battle in the history of warfare, Berlin lay a 341-square mile monument to the diseased ambition of one man: Adolf Hitler. How many persons died there will never be known with accuracy, but before the war that greatest of continental cities had a population of 4,335,000, and only Monday night the Russians announced that the fanatical Nazi defenders were killing many of the civilians with their fire. The fury of that defense was everything that Hitler had sad it would be, and even Wednesday afternoon his dwindling cohorts had contended via the Hamburg radio that resistance in Berlin was "not yet broken," even while admitting that the garrison had been riped into isolated pockets. The garrison surrendered at 3 P.M. European time, according to Stalin's announcement, and by 9 P.M. 70,000 men had been numbered as prisoners. HITLER'S PRIDE FALLS The finale came in the innermost heart of the city, in the government district that had been Hitler's pride, and in the pillboxes and underground fortifications of the once-attractive Tiergarten. Russians announced few details of the last day of the German capital But during the days of siege and isolation, both they and the Germans had told of a gigantic, never-waning conflict that raged in the air, on the rooftops, in houses and in the streets, and in cellars and the extensive subway tunnels - a conflict that progressed yard by yard as Nazi fanatics shot any person who even mentioned the words "surrender" of "retreat." Yet surrender they did at last, to Russians who had fought across a continent, 1560 miles from the ruins of Stalingrad since the Nazi tide reached the flood at that Volga city in January, 1943. Whatever feebly flickering hopes the ragged, hollowed-eyed survivors of Berlin may have had of miraculous last-minute salvation were snuffed out when Stalin announced the destruction of the German Ninth Army, which had been encircled for a week southeast of Berlin and that tried in vain to break back into the capital. With sincerest respect for Israel and Jewish people of the ages I remain Respectfully yours, Morris | ||
| |||
| Jump to page : 1 2 3 4 5 6 Now viewing page 1 [25 messages per page] |
| Search this forum Printer friendly version E-mail a link to this thread |
| (Delete all cookies set by this site) | |
