Belgia during Holocaust

Posted by lea
December 14, 2011

http://www1.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibitions/this_month/resources/belgium.asp

Citate

“Belgium

Country in Western Europe that was occupied by German forces on May 10, 1940, and surrendered on May 28 on the orders of King Leopold III. The king stayed in Belgium, but the prime minister and many cabinet members fled the country for London where they set up a government-in-exile. The German occupiers formed a military administration, which was replaced by a civil administration in July 1944. While the military had control over Belgium, the SS and its Reich Security Main Office (Reichssicherheitshauptamt, RSHA) tried very hard to extend their power in the country. However, the military administration made all attempts to restrain them.

Shortly after the occupation, 66,000 Jews lived in Belgium; only 10 percent of those were Belgian citizens. The rest were mostly immigrants who had fled to Belgium from Eastern Europe and Germany. The Jewish population was found mostly in Brussels and Antwerp, with large groups also residing in Liege and Charleroi. Of those 66,000 Jews, 34,801 were imprisoned or deported during the Holocaust, and of those, 28,902 perished.

The anti-Jewish policies in Belgium were similar to those in other countries occupied by the Nazis. However, due to the competition for power in Belgium between the German military administration and the SS representatives, anti- Jewish measures were enacted more slowly. In November 1940 Hermann Goering ordered that the Belgian economy be “Aryanized”—that Jewish businesses and property be confiscated and given to Germans. Many German businesses were indeed interested in buying Jewish-owned enterprises, but the Aryanization process only started a year later in late 1941. In fact, “Aryanization” was never fully completed in Belgium: many large Jewish businesses and real estate properties stayed under the control of their Jewish owners. However, the Germans did pillage other types of Jewish property. Those Jews who were deported had their possessions confiscated by Operational Staff Rosenberg (Einstzstab Rosenberg). Operational Staff Rosenberg also pillaged Jewish institutions, libraries, and art collections.

Over the first two years of the occupation, 18 anti-Jewish decrees were issued and carried out by the military administration. These regulations included removing Jews from government positions and the professions, subjecting them to night curfews, forcing them to wear the yellow Jewish badge (see also badge, Jewish), and concentrating them in the four major cities. In November 1941 the Germans instituted a kind of Judenrat called the Association of Jews in Belgium (Association des Juifs en Belgique, AJB), to which every Jew was forced to belong. Soon, all Jewish children were kicked out of the public school system, and the AJB was made to set up its own schools. In January 1942 Jews were forbidden to leave Belgium. In March the Germans instituted a general labor draft, and the Jews of Belgium were subjected to forced labor. Most Belgian Jews engaged in forced labor were sent to build fortifications along the coast of northern France under the auspices of Organization Todt. A total of 2,252 Belgian Jews were forced to work there.

The “final solution” was launched in Belgium in the spring of 1942. At that time, the SS’s RSHA took control of the country’s Jewish affairs. Deportations from Belgium were ordered in the summer of that year. Adolf Eichmann and his Jewish affairs department in the RSHA made the plans for the transports, which began on August 4 and lasted for over a year. The last deportations took place in September 1943 during “Operation Iltis,” when Jews with Belgian citizenship were deported. Until then, only immigrants and refugees had been sent away. The deportees were rounded up by the German military police, and most were sent to their deaths in Auschwitz. Smaller groups were sent to Buchenwald, Ravensbrueck, and Bergen-Belsen.”

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Story of Herbert Levy

Posted by lea
December 10, 2011

Herbert tells of escaping Nazis

WHEN Herbert Levy was 10 years old, he spent a summer in the Bradda Glen holiday camp in Port Erin.

It was 1939 and he was a Second World War Jewish internee sent to the Isle of Man with his mother and many other ‘alien enemies’ in Britain.

Although his Manx days were spent at school with German nuns, watching the Wizard of Oz at the cinema and enjoying the view from Bradda Glen, the turmoil and terror other Jewish people were experiencing in Europe at that time hung over him like a suppressive black cloud.

This week, at the opening of the Anne Frank and You exhibition in Peel, the 80-year-old told Islanders of his journey from Hitler’s Berlin, to being an internee in the Isle of Man and then becoming a free British national.

The guest speaker started his story by saying: ‘Anne Frank was born five weeks before me, so in different circumstances you might have seen an old lady here talking to you. I was very lucky to escape, but only after spending six long years under the Nazi regime.

‘I believed I was a second-class citizen. Not able to do what young boys should do — being able to play with neighbouring children, being able to go to the local swimming pool, the park or the cinema. The Nazis believed there was such a thing as an Aryan superior race — they even had school lessons about the science of race. The Jews, gypsies and blacks were particularly considered to be the lesser races.’

He went on: ‘So it was quite surprising when my aunt took a photo of me and my cousin and the photo developer put a huge print of it in his shop window saying “Two beautiful Aryan children”. So you see the stupidity. These people couldn’t even tell the difference themselves.’

He also recalled again being mistaken for an Aryan boy and being pushed to the front of a crowd watching Hitler leave the 1936 Berlin Olympics. As a six-year-old, he then had to decide whether to hail the leader as he passed by in a limousine.

It was illegal not to hail the Fhrer, but it was also illegal for Jews to hail him.

The confused little boy decided to raise his arm up and so was able to return unnoticed to his fretting mother without incurring any consequences.

He told his audience how the situation subsequently grew worse for Jews in Germany — that his ill 86-year-old grandfather was arrested and probably died within months of capture. Meanwhile his flat had rubbish and faeces pushed through the letter box.

He said: ‘We tried to leave Germany for a long time but other countries just wouldn’t have us. But after Kristallnacht, the night the synagogues were smashed, Britain agreed to take Jewish children on a kindertransport train and I was one of those children who came over.

‘I was lucky because so many children couldn’t get away. In my Jewish school in Berlin there were more than 30 children. Only three of us came to Britain and I’m not sure, but I can only think the others were exterminated.’

He found two of his classmates’ names on a list of people killed in camps. They were 13 when they died.

He made it safely to London and, luckily, his parents arrived the following year, just days before the war started.

The family lived peacefully in London as refugees until Winston Churchill decided to put all German and Austrian ‘aliens’ into internment camps. Mr Levy and his mother were therefore arrested and sent to the Isle of Man.

His father had been taken away several weeks before and they didn’t know where to. It turned out he was in Onchan the whole time that they were in Port Erin. When I arrived in Douglas, a very strange thing happened,’ he said. ‘We got off the boat and a crowd of people were shouting: “Bloody Germans! Bloody Nazis!”

‘Just a few months ago I’d been a “bloody Jew” and now I was a “bloody Nazi”.

‘They didn’t realise we were refugees fleeing the Nazis.’

After making the journey on the steam train to Port Erin, Mr Levy spent most of his summer at a school taught by German nuns, putting on plays, eating in the dining hall and sharing a room with his mother. He said: ‘I had a happy time. It was a beautiful summer and we were able to move around Port Erin freely. In fact, I went to the cinema for the first time there and I saw Wizard of Oz.’

But he added: ‘Most of us were refugees, but some prisoners were actually Nazis. And as everyone thought Hitler was going to invade at any moment, we saw those people being very happy and awaiting freedom, whereas for us we were like sitting ducks, all the Jews rounded up together and waiting for Hitler to find us.’

After four months he and his mother were sent back to London ‘just in time for the Blitz!’ They were kept confined in a girl’s boarding school in Wandsworth but were eventually released and began their life again settling in London and becoming British citizens.

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Bergen-Belsen, Anne Frank

Posted by lea
December 10, 2011

http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/media_nm.php?ModuleId=10005224&MediaId=314

Anne Frank

http://www.ushmm.org/research/library/bibliography/?lang=en&content=anne_frank

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Gilad Schalit return from the captivity in Gaza

Posted by lea
November 6, 2011

That was a real Succoth Time this year. Shlomo_ shlomi!

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A Psalm

Posted by lea
November 6, 2011

ftp://213.8.172.132/Music/kayal_taarog.mp3

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Rosh HaShana , Israelian New Year 5772: 28-30.9.2011

Posted by lea
September 18, 2011

How is Rosh Hashanah Observed?

An Overview of Rosh Hashanah’s Traditions and Customs

http://www.chabad.org/holidays/JewishNewYear/template_cdo/aid/4830/jewish/How-is-Rosh-Hashanah-Observed.htm

Click here for a listing of Rosh Hashanah’s corresponding secular dates for the upcoming years.

The two-day festival of Rosh Hashanah is observed on the 1st and 2nd days of Tishrei.

In Hebrew, Rosh Hashanah means, literally, “Head of the Year,” and as its name indicates, it is the beginning of the Jewish year. The anniversary of the creation of Adam and Eve, it is the birthday of mankind, highlighting the special relationship between G‑d and humanity.

The primary theme of the day is our acceptance of G‑d as our KingThe primary theme of the day is our acceptance of G‑d as our King. The Kabbalists teach that the renewal of G‑d’s desire for the world, and thus the continued existence of the universe, is dependent upon this. We accept G‑d as our King, and G‑d is aroused, once again, with the desire to continue creating the world for one more year.

Much of the day is spent in synagogue. G‑d not only desires to have a world with people, G‑d wants an intimate relationship with each one of us. In addition to the collective aspects of Rosh Hashanah worship, each man and woman personally asks G‑d to accept the coronation, thus creating the bond of “We are Your people and You are our King.”

The central observance of Rosh Hashanah is the sounding of the shofar, the ram’s horn. The shofar is sounded on both days of Rosh Hashanah (unless the first day of the holiday falls on Shabbat, in which case we only sound the shofar on the second day). The sounding of the shofar represents, among other things, the trumpet blast of a people’s coronation of their king. The cry of the shofar is also a call to repentance; for Rosh Hashanah is also the anniversary of man’s first sin and his repentance thereof, and serves as the first of the “Ten Days of Repentance” which will culminate in Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. Altogether, we listen to 100 shofar blasts over the course of the Rosh Hashanah service. Click here for more about the shofar.

Additional Rosh Hashanah observances include:

We eat a piece of apple dipped in honey to symbolize our desire for a sweet year, as well as many other special foods. All have special significance and symbolize sweetness, blessings, and abundance. Click here for more about the special Rosh Hashanah foods.

We bless one another with the words Leshanah tovah tikateiv veteichateim, “May you be inscribed and sealed for a good year.”

We leave our old shortcomings behind us, thus starting the new year with a clean slate We go to a lake, river or to the sea and recite the Tashlich prayers, where we symbolically cast our sins into the water, in evocation of the verse, “And You shall cast their sins into the depths of the sea.” We leave our old shortcomings behind us, thus starting the new year with a clean slate. Click here for more about Tashlich.

And as with every major Jewish holiday, women and girls light candles on each evening of Rosh Hashanah and recite the appropriate blessings. (Click here for candle-lighting times for your location.) After the prayers each night and morning, we recite Kiddush on wine, make a blessing over the challah, and enjoy a festive repast.

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Wikipedia about Latvian history during Holocaust

Posted by lea
August 27, 2011

Latvian Auxiliary Police

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Latvian Auxiliary Police
LiepajaLatvia1941.jpg
Members of the 21st Latvian Police Battalion assemble a group of Jewish women for execution on a beach near Liepaja, December 15, 1941.
Active from July 1941
Engagements Holocaust in Latvia, Anti-partisan operations in Belarus
Commanders
Notable
commanders		 Viktors Arājs
Roberts Bluzmanis

Latvian Auxiliary Police was a paramilitary force created from Latvian volunteers by the Nazi German authorities who occupied the country in June 1941. Composed of local fascists, rightist members of the former military and police, and nationalist students, the organization participated in the Holocaust, looting and killing the local Jewish population. One of its units, the Arajs Kommando, was notorious for killing 26,000 civilians during the war, mostly Jews, but also Communists and Romas.[1]

Contents

Formation of units

The auxiliary police force consisted primarily individuals of police, army, and militia organizations which had been disbanded upon the prior Soviet occupation. Within the first week of the German occupation, the leader of Einsatzgruppe A Franz Walter Stahlecker tasked Lt. Colonel Voldemars Veiss with organising a police force to operate under the command of the SS.[2]

The first Latvian Schutzmannschaft (Police) Battalions were formed, most to serve as combat units, some to carry out raids against partisans and to discharge ghetto guard duties.[3] One of the earliest units formed was in Daugavpils, which German forces reached on June 28, 1941, six days after launching Operation Barbarossa. Roberts Bluzmanis was appointed chief of the Latvian Auxiliary Police in Nazi-occupied Daugavpils.[4] An auxiliary police force was in Riga under Nazi ausipces on July 3, 1941, headed by Latvian captain, Petersons.

Anti-partisan operation, March 1943.

Organization

Owing to the initiative of the EK (Einsatzkommando), the auxiliary police force consisted of 240 men and had been strictly organized. New men were currently being enlisted. They helped the EK as auxiliary police and were on duty in the 6 police districts established so far. Some members had been assigned to Kriminalpolizei and Sicherheitspolizei work. By July 7 the Latvians arrested 1125 Jews, 32 political prisoners, 85 Russian workers, and 2 women criminals, the greater part during the last days. This is due to the EK backing the Latvians. Actions against the Jews were going on in an ever-increasing number. Conforming to a suggestion of the EK, the Jews were being evacuated by the auxiliary police force from all houses still standing. The apartments were being allocated to non-Jewish inhabitants. The food supply was inadequate as nearly all stocks were destroyed by fire. The arrested Jewish men were shot without ceremony and interred in previously prepared mass graves. 400 Jews were killed during pogroms in Riga, since the arrival of EK 2; 300 by the Latvian auxiliary police. By 1944, the occupation power, with the collaboration of the Self-Administration, had formed a total of 33 auxiliary police battalions.[5]

Konrads Kalējs of the Arajs Kommando of Latvian Auxiliary Police, wartime photo.

The Arajs Kommando (also: Sonderkommando Arajs), led by SS-Sturmbannführer Viktors Arājs, was a unit of Latvian Auxiliary Police (German: Lettische Hilfspolizei) subordinated to the SD. It is one of the more well-known and notorious killing units during the Holocaust. The central part of Andrew Ezergailis‘ work details the activities of the Arajs Kommando, the Latvian unit that Brigadeführer Franz Walter Stahlecker organized for the killing of the Jews of Latvia. Numerous Latvian auxiliary police units played a major role in the murdering the Jews.[6]

Police Battalions and Regiments

See also

References

Citations

  1. ^ Michael Mann, The dark side of democracy: explaining ethnic cleansing. Cambridge University Press, 2005. ISBN 0521538548. p. 283
  2. ^ Lumens (2006). p266.
  3. ^ Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression Volume 1. Chapter XII – The Persecution of the Jews
  4. ^ Jacob Gorfinkel, Daugavpils (Dvinsk) Ghetto List – 05-December-1941
  5. ^ Latvians in the Armed Forces of Germany in World War II
  6. ^ Andrew Ezergailis, The Holocaust in Latvia

Bibliography

Lumans, Valdis O. (2006). Latvia in World War II. Fordham Univ Press. ISBN 9780823226276.

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Fossenberg , a German name to a city in Latvia

Posted by lea
August 27, 2011

(Leon Uris kirjassaan Exodus mainitsee keskitysleirien ja tuholeirien luetteloissa myös nimen Fossenberg, jota en ole aiemmin tavannut. Se on Latviassa sijaitseva paikka ja sillä on latvialainen nimi Kesi ja se on Cesis-alueella).

F

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Simon Wiesenthal Center reminding about the history of Jewry in Estland

Posted by lea
July 16, 2011

http://news.err.ee/politics/112f9c01-0c26-48fa-a17d-739a6c0ab9f1

“No one is disputing that the Estonian population suffered under the Soviet Union. But to celebrate the Nazi invasion, in which 99.3 percent of Estonia’s Jews ended up being murdered, is unacceptable,” Zuroff said.

” A ceremony in Viljandi commemorating the German invasion of 1941 as a “liberation” has drawn sharp criticism from the Estonian Jewish community as well as from the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Israel.

The commemorative service, which marked the 70th anniversary of German forces driving Soviet occupation troops from the area, was held on July 8 at the city’s German military cemetery. It was reportedly attended by several dozen people.

Jaanika Kressa, who represents the event’s organizer, a local veterans’ society, said that the group wasn’t trying to create a conflict around the sensitive issue. “We want to thank the remaining soldiers, and tell them they were right to fight against Bolshevism,” she said, as quoted by the local newspaper Sakala.

“The arrival of the Germans is considered the liberation of Estonia, because it was saved from the order introduced in June 1940, when about ten thousand people were deported to Siberia and the local people were impoverished […] The situation of the Estonians became normal again,” she said.

Ala Jacobsen, chairwoman of the Estonian Jewish community, was quick to take issue with the view. “The usual attempt to portray people who collaborated with the Nazi occupational regime as ‘warriors against Bolshevism,’ and furthermore on the day when the mass murder of the citizens of Viljandi and Estonia who belonged to the ‘wrong’ ethnicity began [...] appears completely idiotic,” she said in a statement.

The Wiesenthal Center’s Israel director and Holocaust historian Efraim Zuroff told the Jerusalem Post that Kressa’s statement was “a malicious revision of the sad reality of Estonian history and a heartless affront to the memory of the Estonian Jews murdered by the Nazis and their local collaborators.”

“No one is disputing that the Estonian population suffered under the Soviet Union. But to celebrate the Nazi invasion, in which 99.3 percent of Estonia’s Jews ended up being murdered, is unacceptable,” Zuroff said.

Though the Viljandi event is likely to be a one-time affair, other ceremonies honoring soldiers who supported the June 22 Nazi invasion have been held in Estonia in recent years, sparking resentment each time. Likewise, Red Army veterans in Estonia controversially celebrate the Soviet invasion of September 1944, also referring to it as a “liberation.” Most in Estonia view both invasions as the tides of war replacing one totalitarian occupier with another.”

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About the resurrection

Posted by lea
May 7, 2011

Ludwig  Schneider is writing:
Traditional Church dogma reserves the resurrection of the dead to eternal life for Christians alone and holds out no hope for the Jews unless they convert to Christianity. Yet more and more frequently the question arises, “What happens to the Jews who died as unbelievers in the Holocaust? Will God raise them up from the dead to life eternal?”

In Judaism, the resurrection of the dead (Hebrew, techiyat ha’metim) occurs when the Messiah comes at the end of time. The position taken by the Sadducees that there is no resurrection (Mark 12:18) has no foundation in either the Old or New Testaments. In fact, Yeshua (Jesus) taught the exact same thing as the Pharisees, that there will be a resurrection .

Apostle Paul wrote also about this question:
The Letter to the Romans 11: 15.
There is namely a reciprocal relation between the Congregation of Israel and the congregation from the Goyim before The Lord:
The effective saving of souls from the heathen peoples took all the strength of powers of the Zebaoth of Heavens, so that there was no possibility to maintain Israel on its huge Height. So Israel JERD, was sent to Galuth to Four Corners of the World for to survive during this long time, which still is going on. We call it the time of Mercy for all the peoples of the world. The peoples they are making now ALIYAH.
Paul says, if this, the sending of the Holy, Selected People to Galuth, is already a blessing to the Goyim, what shall be then, when God returns again to take them back into His uppermost mercy, gathering them again back, Is it not a resurrection from the Death ( techiyat ha`meitim)?
The Romans 11: 15.

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