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| ekathimerini.com , Thursday February 10, 2011 (22:29) |
Sabtu, 12 Februari 2011
Policeman probed over 'SS' symbol on helmet Officers says he scrawled his initials, not Nazi sign
Athens backs villagers' fight for German compensation over 1944 SS massacre George Papandreou's decision to support claims at International Court of Justice risks row with Berlin when its financial help is needed
A Nazi massacre remembered by Greeks as one of the worst atrocities of the second world war is threatening to plunge relations between Athens and Berlin to a new low amid rising criticism of Germany's failure to pay compensation.
The diplomatic dispute erupted last month after the Greek prime minister, George Papandreou, pledged his government would support the compensation claims of survivors and relatives of the massacre in the village of Distomo in June 1944, which left 218 people dead.
No previous administration has dared touch the case for fear of tensions with Germany. "This is about history. This is not anti-German," the Socialist leader told the Observer. "It is about something that happened over 60 years ago, of honouring the memory of Greek citizens who were sacrificed for their country."
At a time when Athens is fighting off bankruptcy with austerity measures – demanded by international creditors after the biggest bailout in history – Papandreou's move is popular.
Under Nazi occupation from April 1941, more than 300,000 Greeks starved to death, 130,000 were executed in reprisals, and most of the Jewish community was sent to the gas chambers.
The tragedy at Distomo, near Delphi, is ingrained in the national consciousness. Children are taught that on 10 June 1944 some 218 men, women and children were slaughtered by a Waffen-SS unit in reprisal for an ambush on German troops outside the village. It occurred on the same day as the SS massacre at Oradour-sur-Glane in France.
Bodies were found dangling from trees by the road to the village when a Red Cross team visited days later. The veteran leftwinger Manolis Glezos, who in the first defiance against the Nazis tore down the swastika at the Acropolis in May 1941, said: "Quite rightly, and very belatedly, they are asking for €165m (£140m) in compensation." The victims' remains are now housed in an ossuary at the site. Even Papandreou's critics have hailed his response – with the Greek state formally supporting a claim for compensation at the International Court of Justice – as statesmanlike.
At a time when Athens is so reliant on German largesse, the move has left many bewildered. Berlin is the biggest contributor to the €110bn EU and IMF-sponsored rescue package propping up the Greek economy. Resolution of the debt woes will depend greatly on German flexibility in granting extra time and financial aid to repay the loans. "I don't have any understanding of the Greek decision," the German foreign minister, Guido Westerwelle, said after Athens said it would back the reparation claim. "We are emphatically sticking to our position, and are confident that our legal opinion will prevail in court."
Germany has long argued that it settled the issue with a bilateral agreement in March 1960 that gave the Greek state the equivalent of €59m in damages for loss of life, looting and "enforced" loans, including gold seized from the central bank. But the villagers have always claimed they were never compensated. Campaigners say that under the deal they were left to believe they could file individual claims at a later date. They took the battle to a Greek district court, which backed their claims in 1997, then to the supreme court, which ordered that German assets in Greece be seized (an act no Greek justice minister has been willing to carry out). Relatives of the victims then joined Italian plaintiffs also seeking damages. Last year, after an Italian tribunal upheld the Greek court's ruling, Berlin retorted by taking the case to the international court.
Visiting Athens last week, Germany's former foreign minister Joschka Fischer defended chancellor Angela Merkel ("which I never thought I would do") before an audience of academics, diplomats and thinkers who found it hard to contain their frustration with Berlin.
Papandreou insists that, while dealing with the painful legacy of a historical event is one thing, meeting Berlin on matters of the economy is quite another. "We have excellent relations with Germany," he said. "They are our friends."
The diplomatic dispute erupted last month after the Greek prime minister, George Papandreou, pledged his government would support the compensation claims of survivors and relatives of the massacre in the village of Distomo in June 1944, which left 218 people dead.
No previous administration has dared touch the case for fear of tensions with Germany. "This is about history. This is not anti-German," the Socialist leader told the Observer. "It is about something that happened over 60 years ago, of honouring the memory of Greek citizens who were sacrificed for their country."
At a time when Athens is fighting off bankruptcy with austerity measures – demanded by international creditors after the biggest bailout in history – Papandreou's move is popular.
Under Nazi occupation from April 1941, more than 300,000 Greeks starved to death, 130,000 were executed in reprisals, and most of the Jewish community was sent to the gas chambers.
The tragedy at Distomo, near Delphi, is ingrained in the national consciousness. Children are taught that on 10 June 1944 some 218 men, women and children were slaughtered by a Waffen-SS unit in reprisal for an ambush on German troops outside the village. It occurred on the same day as the SS massacre at Oradour-sur-Glane in France.
Bodies were found dangling from trees by the road to the village when a Red Cross team visited days later. The veteran leftwinger Manolis Glezos, who in the first defiance against the Nazis tore down the swastika at the Acropolis in May 1941, said: "Quite rightly, and very belatedly, they are asking for €165m (£140m) in compensation." The victims' remains are now housed in an ossuary at the site. Even Papandreou's critics have hailed his response – with the Greek state formally supporting a claim for compensation at the International Court of Justice – as statesmanlike.
At a time when Athens is so reliant on German largesse, the move has left many bewildered. Berlin is the biggest contributor to the €110bn EU and IMF-sponsored rescue package propping up the Greek economy. Resolution of the debt woes will depend greatly on German flexibility in granting extra time and financial aid to repay the loans. "I don't have any understanding of the Greek decision," the German foreign minister, Guido Westerwelle, said after Athens said it would back the reparation claim. "We are emphatically sticking to our position, and are confident that our legal opinion will prevail in court."
Germany has long argued that it settled the issue with a bilateral agreement in March 1960 that gave the Greek state the equivalent of €59m in damages for loss of life, looting and "enforced" loans, including gold seized from the central bank. But the villagers have always claimed they were never compensated. Campaigners say that under the deal they were left to believe they could file individual claims at a later date. They took the battle to a Greek district court, which backed their claims in 1997, then to the supreme court, which ordered that German assets in Greece be seized (an act no Greek justice minister has been willing to carry out). Relatives of the victims then joined Italian plaintiffs also seeking damages. Last year, after an Italian tribunal upheld the Greek court's ruling, Berlin retorted by taking the case to the international court.
Visiting Athens last week, Germany's former foreign minister Joschka Fischer defended chancellor Angela Merkel ("which I never thought I would do") before an audience of academics, diplomats and thinkers who found it hard to contain their frustration with Berlin.
Rabu, 02 Februari 2011
Poland asks Nazi camp museums to drop .pl websites
WARSAW — Poland's culture minister said Tuesday he had asked museums at former Nazi death camps to drop their Polish .pl Internet suffix to help counter the false impression they were Polish-run.
The minister, Bogdan Zdrojewski, told Polish news agency PAP he had written to the directors of three museums in Poland asking them to use other suffixes for their websites, such as the more neutral, pan-European .eu.
The three memorial museums, run and largely financed by the Polish state, are Auschwitz-Birkenau (www.auschwitz.org.pl), Majdanek (www.majdanek.pl) and Stutthof (www.stutthof.pl).
"I've asked them to use the appropriate term systematically," Zdrojewski said.
Warsaw keenly watches the global media for descriptions of such camps as "Polish" because it says the term -- even if used simply as a geographical indicator -- can give the impression that Poland bore responsibility for Nazi Germany's World War II genocide.
The majority of the six million Jews who perished during the Holocaust were murdered in death camps set up and entirely controlled by Germany in occupied Poland.
A million of them died at Auschwitz-Birkenau, which has become the era's most enduring symbol.
Poland was home to Europe's largest pre-war Jewish population, some 3.5 million people. Polish Jews represented around half the Nazis' victims.
Around three million non-Jewish Poles were also killed over the six years that followed the Nazis' 1939 invasion, many of them in death camps.
In 1979, Auschwitz-Birkenau was added to the World Heritage List, which covers historically important sites recognised by UNESCO, the United Nations' cultural agency.
In 2007, at Poland's behest, UNESCO approved a formal name change from "Auschwitz Concentration Camp" to "Auschwitz-Birkenau German Nazi Concentration and Extermination Camp".
The minister, Bogdan Zdrojewski, told Polish news agency PAP he had written to the directors of three museums in Poland asking them to use other suffixes for their websites, such as the more neutral, pan-European .eu.
The three memorial museums, run and largely financed by the Polish state, are Auschwitz-Birkenau (www.auschwitz.org.pl), Majdanek (www.majdanek.pl) and Stutthof (www.stutthof.pl).
"I've asked them to use the appropriate term systematically," Zdrojewski said.
Warsaw keenly watches the global media for descriptions of such camps as "Polish" because it says the term -- even if used simply as a geographical indicator -- can give the impression that Poland bore responsibility for Nazi Germany's World War II genocide.
The majority of the six million Jews who perished during the Holocaust were murdered in death camps set up and entirely controlled by Germany in occupied Poland.
A million of them died at Auschwitz-Birkenau, which has become the era's most enduring symbol.
Poland was home to Europe's largest pre-war Jewish population, some 3.5 million people. Polish Jews represented around half the Nazis' victims.
Around three million non-Jewish Poles were also killed over the six years that followed the Nazis' 1939 invasion, many of them in death camps.
In 1979, Auschwitz-Birkenau was added to the World Heritage List, which covers historically important sites recognised by UNESCO, the United Nations' cultural agency.
In 2007, at Poland's behest, UNESCO approved a formal name change from "Auschwitz Concentration Camp" to "Auschwitz-Birkenau German Nazi Concentration and Extermination Camp".
Alleged Nazi dies before trial date
BELLEVUE, Wash., Feb. 2 (UPI) -- A Washington state man, facing deportation and loss of U.S. citizenship because he allegedly was a Nazi war criminal, died of natural causes, an official said.
Peter Egner of Bellevue was 88 when he died last Wednesday, The Seattle Times reported Tuesday.
Egner was scheduled for trial Feb. 22 for allegedly lying to the government about his World War II activities, the Times reported.
Authorities said Egner was a member of the Einsatzgruppen, which spearheaded German leader Adolf Hitler's attempt to kill Europe's Jews and others the Nazis considered undesirable, the Times reported.
Serbian officials also wanted to extradite Egner to prosecute him as a war criminal who rounded up tens of thousands of Serbs, sending many to die in prison camps and torturing and killing others, the Times reported.
Egner lived in Portland for 40 years before Department of Justice investigators caught up with him, the newspaper said.
Egner, who first insisted he took no part in any war crimes and didn't know what went on in the camps, finally swore in depositions he was a guard in several transports that took people to death camps.
"We feel cheated by Egner's death. This was a complex case, but one where there was going to be a good resolution. Serbia had agreed to take (Egner) and prosecute him for his crimes," said Dr. Efraim Zuroff, Nazi hunter and the Israeli director for the Simon Wiesenthal Center based in Los Angeles.
Peter Egner of Bellevue was 88 when he died last Wednesday, The Seattle Times reported Tuesday.
Egner was scheduled for trial Feb. 22 for allegedly lying to the government about his World War II activities, the Times reported.
Authorities said Egner was a member of the Einsatzgruppen, which spearheaded German leader Adolf Hitler's attempt to kill Europe's Jews and others the Nazis considered undesirable, the Times reported.
Serbian officials also wanted to extradite Egner to prosecute him as a war criminal who rounded up tens of thousands of Serbs, sending many to die in prison camps and torturing and killing others, the Times reported.
Egner lived in Portland for 40 years before Department of Justice investigators caught up with him, the newspaper said.
Egner, who first insisted he took no part in any war crimes and didn't know what went on in the camps, finally swore in depositions he was a guard in several transports that took people to death camps.
"We feel cheated by Egner's death. This was a complex case, but one where there was going to be a good resolution. Serbia had agreed to take (Egner) and prosecute him for his crimes," said Dr. Efraim Zuroff, Nazi hunter and the Israeli director for the Simon Wiesenthal Center based in Los Angeles.
immigration kicks Ex-nazi out of the country
(CN) - An 89-year-old former Nazi who shot Jews in World War II will be deported from Detroit "to Germany, Ukraine, Poland or any other country that will admit him," the Justice Department said Wednesday.
John Kalymon, who also goes by Ivan, voluntarily served two years as a Ukrainian Auxiliary Police officer in the Nazi-occupied city of L'viv, Ukraine, an immigration judge found.
Evidence at the trial included an Aug. 14, 1942 report, handwritten by Kalymon, in which he informed supervisors that he personally killed one Jew and wounded another that day, authorities say.
Kalymon has reportedly insisted that he did not shoot anybody, and that his job primarily involved guarding coal from looters. He says he concealed his service in the Ukrainian police force on applications for an immigration visa to avoid being sent to the Soviet Union.
"I love this country because it's my country. I'm going to die here," he told the Associated Press in 2009. "They want to remove me, an old man. I never was arrested, pay my taxes. I don't know anyone as honest as me."
The Justice Department says Kalymon immigrated to the United States from Germany in 1949 and became a U.S. citizen in 1955.
A federal judge revoked that citizenship, following a trial, in 2007. Kalymon had reportedly worked as an auto engineer in the Detroit area.
The immigration judge, who authored the removal order on Jan. 31, considered surviving records from the Ukrainian police to establish that Kalymon's duties included helping the Germans round up Jews and send them to death camps.
"Ivan Kalymon was part and parcel of the Nazi machinery of persecution that ended the lives of more than 100,000 men, women and children in L'viv," Justice Department director Eli Rosenbaum said.
Immigration Judge Elizabeth Hacker ordered Kalymon to be deported to Germany, Ukraine, Poland or any other country that will admit him.
John Kalymon, who also goes by Ivan, voluntarily served two years as a Ukrainian Auxiliary Police officer in the Nazi-occupied city of L'viv, Ukraine, an immigration judge found.
Evidence at the trial included an Aug. 14, 1942 report, handwritten by Kalymon, in which he informed supervisors that he personally killed one Jew and wounded another that day, authorities say.
Kalymon has reportedly insisted that he did not shoot anybody, and that his job primarily involved guarding coal from looters. He says he concealed his service in the Ukrainian police force on applications for an immigration visa to avoid being sent to the Soviet Union.
"I love this country because it's my country. I'm going to die here," he told the Associated Press in 2009. "They want to remove me, an old man. I never was arrested, pay my taxes. I don't know anyone as honest as me."
The Justice Department says Kalymon immigrated to the United States from Germany in 1949 and became a U.S. citizen in 1955.
A federal judge revoked that citizenship, following a trial, in 2007. Kalymon had reportedly worked as an auto engineer in the Detroit area.
The immigration judge, who authored the removal order on Jan. 31, considered surviving records from the Ukrainian police to establish that Kalymon's duties included helping the Germans round up Jews and send them to death camps.
"Ivan Kalymon was part and parcel of the Nazi machinery of persecution that ended the lives of more than 100,000 men, women and children in L'viv," Justice Department director Eli Rosenbaum said.
Immigration Judge Elizabeth Hacker ordered Kalymon to be deported to Germany, Ukraine, Poland or any other country that will admit him.
Polish Culture Minister Asks Nazi Museums to Drop '.pl' Suffix From URLs
Poland is home to a handful of museums at former Nazi concentration camps, but the country's culture minister doesn't want anyone to get the wrong idea about who put them there to begin with.
Yesterday, Bogdan Zdrojewski told the Polish news agency PAP that he'd written to the directors of three World War II-era museums in the country, asking them to drop the ".pl" suffix from their URLs. The three museums, Auschwitz-Birkenau, Majdanek, and Stutthof, are all run and primarily financed by the Polish state, but Zdrojewski doesn't want anyone to get the impression that Poland was at all responsible for the Nazi genocide. Instead, the minister suggests that they use the more neutral ".eu" suffix, which is used across Europe.
The Polish government closely watches the media for any descriptions of the Nazi camps as "Polish," even if the adjective is used simply to identify the museum's location. And, considering all of the unspeakable horrors that those camps facilitated, the country's concern is certainly understandable.
Yesterday, Bogdan Zdrojewski told the Polish news agency PAP that he'd written to the directors of three World War II-era museums in the country, asking them to drop the ".pl" suffix from their URLs. The three museums, Auschwitz-Birkenau, Majdanek, and Stutthof, are all run and primarily financed by the Polish state, but Zdrojewski doesn't want anyone to get the impression that Poland was at all responsible for the Nazi genocide. Instead, the minister suggests that they use the more neutral ".eu" suffix, which is used across Europe.
The Polish government closely watches the media for any descriptions of the Nazi camps as "Polish," even if the adjective is used simply to identify the museum's location. And, considering all of the unspeakable horrors that those camps facilitated, the country's concern is certainly understandable.
history of nazi
Nazi Germany, or the Third Reich,[4] refers to Germany from 1933 to 1945 when it was governed by Adolf Hitler and the National Socialist German Workers' Party (Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, abbreviated NSDAP),[5][6] commonly known in English as the Nazi Party (from the German Nazi, abbreviated from the pronunciation of Nationalsozialist[7])
On 30 January 1933, Adolf Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany.[8][page needed] Although he initially headed a coalition government, he quickly eliminated his government partners. The Nazi regime restored economic prosperity and ended mass unemployment using heavy spending on the military, while suppressing labor unions and strikes. The return of prosperity gave it enormous popularity, and no serious opposition ever emerged (apart from an assassination attempt by aristocrats in the army in 1944). The Gestapo (secret state police) under Heinrich Himmler destroyed the liberal, Socialist and Communist opposition and persecuted the Jews, trying to force them into exile, while taking their property. The Party took control of the courts, local government, and all civic organizations except the Protestant and Catholic churches.[9][page needed] All expressions of public opinion were controlled by Hitler's propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels, who made effective use of film, mass rallies, and Hitler's hypnotic speaking.[10] The Nazi state idolized Hitler as its Führer (leader), putting all powers in his hands. Nazi propaganda centered on Hitler and was quite effective in creating what historians called the "Hitler Myth"--that Hitler was all-wise and that any mistakes or failures by others would be corrected when brought to his attention. In fact Hitler had a narrow range of interests and decision making was diffused among overlapping, feuding power centers; on some issues he was passive, simply assenting to pressures from whomever had his ear. All top officials reported to Hitler and followed his basic policies, but they had considerable autonomy on a daily basis.[11][page needed]
Hitler's diplomatic strategy in the 1930s was to make seemingly reasonable demands, threatening war if they were not met. When opponents tried to appease him, he accepted the gains that were offered, then went to the next target. That aggressive strategy worked as Germany pulled out of the League of Nations (1933), rejected the Versailles Treaty and began to re-arm (1935), won back the Saar (1935), remilitarized the Rhineland (1936), formed an alliance ("axis") with Mussolini's Italy (1936), sent massive military aid to Franco in the Spanish Civil War (1936–39), annexed Austria (1938), took over Czechoslovakia after the British and French appeasement of the Munich Agreement of 1938, formed a peace pact with the Soviet Union in August 1939, and finally invaded Poland in September 1939. Britain and France declared war and World War II began—somewhat sooner than the Nazis expected or were ready for.[12][page needed]
During the war, Germany conquered or controlled most of Europe and Northern Africa. The Nazis persecuted and killed millions of Jews, Romani people and others in the Holocaust Final Solution. Despite its Axis alliance with other nations, mainly Italy and Japan, by 8 May 1945 Germany had been defeated by the Allied Powers, and was occupied by the Soviet Union, United States, UK and France.
On 30 January 1933, Adolf Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany.[8][page needed] Although he initially headed a coalition government, he quickly eliminated his government partners. The Nazi regime restored economic prosperity and ended mass unemployment using heavy spending on the military, while suppressing labor unions and strikes. The return of prosperity gave it enormous popularity, and no serious opposition ever emerged (apart from an assassination attempt by aristocrats in the army in 1944). The Gestapo (secret state police) under Heinrich Himmler destroyed the liberal, Socialist and Communist opposition and persecuted the Jews, trying to force them into exile, while taking their property. The Party took control of the courts, local government, and all civic organizations except the Protestant and Catholic churches.[9][page needed] All expressions of public opinion were controlled by Hitler's propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels, who made effective use of film, mass rallies, and Hitler's hypnotic speaking.[10] The Nazi state idolized Hitler as its Führer (leader), putting all powers in his hands. Nazi propaganda centered on Hitler and was quite effective in creating what historians called the "Hitler Myth"--that Hitler was all-wise and that any mistakes or failures by others would be corrected when brought to his attention. In fact Hitler had a narrow range of interests and decision making was diffused among overlapping, feuding power centers; on some issues he was passive, simply assenting to pressures from whomever had his ear. All top officials reported to Hitler and followed his basic policies, but they had considerable autonomy on a daily basis.[11][page needed]
Hitler's diplomatic strategy in the 1930s was to make seemingly reasonable demands, threatening war if they were not met. When opponents tried to appease him, he accepted the gains that were offered, then went to the next target. That aggressive strategy worked as Germany pulled out of the League of Nations (1933), rejected the Versailles Treaty and began to re-arm (1935), won back the Saar (1935), remilitarized the Rhineland (1936), formed an alliance ("axis") with Mussolini's Italy (1936), sent massive military aid to Franco in the Spanish Civil War (1936–39), annexed Austria (1938), took over Czechoslovakia after the British and French appeasement of the Munich Agreement of 1938, formed a peace pact with the Soviet Union in August 1939, and finally invaded Poland in September 1939. Britain and France declared war and World War II began—somewhat sooner than the Nazis expected or were ready for.[12][page needed]
During the war, Germany conquered or controlled most of Europe and Northern Africa. The Nazis persecuted and killed millions of Jews, Romani people and others in the Holocaust Final Solution. Despite its Axis alliance with other nations, mainly Italy and Japan, by 8 May 1945 Germany had been defeated by the Allied Powers, and was occupied by the Soviet Union, United States, UK and France.
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