Germany opens first Reform synagogue since WWII

The synagogue in the northern city of Hameln was built on the foundation of its predecessor, which was destroyed by the Nazis during 'Kristallnacht' in 1938

Germany opened its first new reform synagogue since the Holocaust on Sunday, marking a
major step in the revival of Reform Judaism, which traces its roots to the country. The synagogue in the northern city of Hameln was built on the foundation of its predecessor, which was destroyed by the Nazis during the "Kristallnacht" pogrom in 1938. The congregation received financial backing for the synagogue primarily from local and state government.

"It's incredible that, after the Shoah, in Germany a synagogue could be built with money that came from German political organisations," the congregation's president Rachel Dohme told Reuters.

The city's reform congregation was founded in 1997 and has some 200 members, the majority of which are from the former Soviet Union. Reform, or liberal, Judaism was pioneered in Germany by Israel Jacobson two centuries ago. It holds the equality of sexes for rights and responsibilities and allows for sermons in local languages. About 20 percent of Jews in Germany currently follow Reform Judaism, a figure Dohme said highlights a growing pluralism in the German-Jewish community in the past decade.

"People are moving away from Orthodox Judaism and looking for a modern Judaism", Dohme said. "In the next couple of decades there will be a major switch."

Germany's Jewish population has grown quickly since the collapse of the Soviet Union two decades ago brought an influx of Jews from Eastern Europe. The country's Jewish population is around 200,000 -- most of which are emigres from the former Soviet Union. There were more than a half-million Jews in Germany before Adolf Hitler took power in 1933.

Haaretz

Thanks to NewsHound for the heads-up

Stand up to hatred for Holocaust Memorial Day 2009

Hate. We think we know it, but most of us will never face it. Hatred is a corrosive force, able to ruin lives, wreck co-operation, destroy communities, or races, or nations. It is present in small ways in daily life, but it is at its most lethal in prejudice, discrimination, racism, anti-Semitism and Islamaphobia.

In this lethal form it was the driving force in Nazi Germany, in Pol Pot’s Cambodia, in Rwanda in 100 days in 1994, in Bosnia and in other places at other times. And so it is in Darfur today. The past is powerful, from it we can learn to protect ourselves and our communities from the forces of hatred.

Britain today is not Nazi Germany, nor Cambodia, nor Bosnia at the time of genocide. But the evils of prejudice, discrimination and intolerance are still with us. We categorise, stereotype, discriminate, exclude, bully, persecute, attack - because of race, religion, disability, sexuality. We damage, and are damaged, as a result of our refusal to accept our common humanity. Acts of hatred always involve making a choice. We choose to attack, to abuse, to exclude, to stand back and do nothing - or we choose to resist, to respect, to protect.

Holocaust Memorial Day 2009 (HMD09) challenges us all to Stand Up To Hatred. It urges all of us to look at our behaviour to others; to understand how hate is directed against different minorities in Britain today; to explore how each of us can help make our communities stronger and safer.

HMD09 is an opportunity to forge links across ALL the diverse strands of local community lives, to build understanding and to unite in a common cause.

Expressing Hatred

Germany between 1918 and 1932 was wracked by turmoil, civil wars, coups and endemic violence. It was rife with discrimination against Jews.

Psychiatrists canvassed the ideas of forced sterilisation and euthanasia. During periods of economic crisis inmates of asylums and sanatoria were virtually starved and work was increasingly required as both ‘therapy’ and a reason for feeding.

So, the seeds of the rise of the Nazi Party were set. But that same German Government also liberalised the law and, for some of the communities soon to be targeted by the Nazi regime, this was a period of growth and cultural achievement. Many Jews played important roles in art, music, architecture and politics. Jewish politicians were members of the German government including Hugo Preuss, Minister of the Interior and Walter Rathenau. Despite homosexuality remaining illegal and arrests taking place, there was a distinctive gay scene in Berlin. The German Gay and Lesbian Community of the 1920s published newspapers, ran public education work and was active in political campaigning. Disabled and deaf people formed associations and in August 1932 the deaf community released a film entitled Verkannte Menschen (Misjudged People). Progressive trends in mental health treatment and care, although not dominant, began.

Diverse communities were developing their own culture and, at the same time, the Nazi Party was growing in popularity. In 1925 Adolf Hitler’s “Mein Kampf” was published laying out the ideology of racial supremacy. After the Nazis were elected in 1933 racist and anti-Semitic campaigns became widespread and theories of racial superiority were expressed in posters, newspapers, school and medical text books and even children’s literature and games. Anti-Jewish propaganda became common. The hatreds which had previously been confined to speeches and political literature now became mainstream, with posters calling for the protection of racial purity.

The weekly newspaper Der Sturmer was best known for its anti-Semitic articles and cartoons, but also anti-Catholic and anti-Communist propaganda. Its popularity grew from 27,000 copies a week in 1927 to 480,000 copies a week in 1935. Hatred had become normal.

The Role of Law and the State

The laws and agencies of a nation can be used either to fan the flames of hatred and discrimination or to quench them and encourage equality, fair treatment and respect.

As soon as the Nazi Party came to power in Germany in 1933 legislation aimed at preserving racial purity and attacking those considered as “untermenschen” (sub-human) was passed. The Nuremberg Laws of 1935 explicitly removed Jews from German citizenship and prevented marriage between Jews and non-Jews. These laws were also applied to Germany’s Gypsy population. New laws allowing for the forced sterilisation of disabled and Black people were also introduced.

In Cambodia legislation was introduced to bring about the Khmer Rouge ideal of a one-class state. All religions were outlawed, banking, finance and currency were abolished and private property was confiscated. While the Interahamwe in Rwanda were not members of Government, the state-owned radio station broadcast encouragement and incitement to attack Tutsis. The US Government, and others, hold the Sudanese Government directly responsible for genocidal attacks in Darfur.

Since 1945, the idea that Governments have a duty to protect citizens against racism or discrimination has gathered force. After WW2, Britain played a key role in developing the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Since the late 60s there has been a slow process of progressive law reform, gradually affording rights and protections on the basis of gender, race, disability, sexuality, faith, and age.

In many countries, including the UK, laws exist making incitement and expression of hatred towards particular groups a “hate crime”. This is any crime committed against a person, or property, that is motivated by hatred because of:

• Race, colour, ethnic origin, nationality or national origins
• Religion
• Gender or gender identity
• Sexual orientation
• Disability

However, it was only in 1999, after years of struggle, that the Public Inquiry into the racist murder of Stephen Lawrence finally brought to national consciousness the extent of institutional racism in the police and led to root and branch reform across the country.

The UK and Devolved Governments have indicated their intention to equalise the protection against hatreds offered to different groups and individuals. But many groups and communities in the UK still face prejudice, discrimination and exclusion, law or no law.

The Impact of Hate

Hate takes many forms, it can be specific, it can be based on experience, it can be felt and not acted on. It can be focused against a group, it can be political, it can be racist, anti-Semitic or Islamaphobic.

Hundreds of thousands of people in Britain live with hate activity, individuals are damaged by it and communities are scarred. Over the past five years:

• Johnny Delaney, a fifteen year old traveller from the North West of England was kicked to death - 2003.
• Kriss Donald was murdered in Glasgow by a gang looking to attack a white person – 2004.
• Brent Martin had severe learning disabilities and was killed in Sunderland - 2007.
• David Morley, a gay man was murdered in London - 2004.
• Anthony Walker was murdered in Merseyside for being black – 2005. His killers spray painted Nazi symbols on local walls after the attack.

50,000 hate crimes were reported to the police in 2006, but estimates put the true figure closer to 260,000. 712 individual hate crimes take place every single day of the year. Every time a shop window is broken because of the nationality of the owner, every time graffiti is sprayed on a place of worship, every time someone is verbally abused for being different a hate crime has been committed.

Islamaphobia is widely regarded as the most common form of religious and racial hatred in the UK today. The Community Security Trust records that anti-Semitic incidents have increased from 219 in 1997 to 594 in 2006. 1,097 Homophobic hate crimes were reported to the Metropolitan Police in 2007. 16% of disabled people in the Scottish Highlands reported that they had been physically abused because of their disability.

Political rhetoric has been used to highlight differences between different communities. Enoch Powell’s “Rivers of Blood” speech in 1968 is still referenced by anti-immigration campaigners 40 years on. Reaction to the Wolfenden Report’s recommendations on the decriminalisation of homosexuality included newspapers claiming "Freeing adult males from any penalties could only succeed in intensifying and multiplying this form of depravity.” Today newspapers and political parties continue to express views attacking travellers and campaigning against the building of mosques.

Laws do not have to be broken for hatred to be expressed. Often long before crimes occur and laws are broken, hatred has been allowed to flourish and discrimination against minorities has become normal.

Resistance

In Germany, Jews resisted the attempt to exterminate and, mostly, perished in the attempt. Groups such as the White Rose student group distributed political literature which challenged Nazi policies. Individual Jews joined partisan groups or fought in the Warsaw Ghetto uprising. Jehovah’s Witnesses refused to renounce their faith despite the danger to themselves.

Dutch Communists organised a strike to protest the treatment of Jews. To date 21,758 individuals have been recognised as “Righteous among the Nations” by Israel for risking their lives to rescue Jews.

In Rwanda, Tutsis were hidden by neighbours including Beata Uwazaninka who was shielded by a Muslim neighbour who refused to hand Beata to the Interahamwe despite the threats to his own family.

In the UK, we face a much less threatening and extreme time. But we can still challenge hatred, prejudice and discrimination. Stonewall was established by a number of gay and lesbian activists including Sir Ian McKellan who were campaigning against Section 28 - the only example of a post-war British government passing a law which did not in some way liberalise the rights of a minority. After the murder of Stephen Lawrence his mother Doreen campaigned to have the issue of institutionalised racism in British society recognised and tackled. Disabled activists and groups such as the Disabled People’s Council have campaigned for equal employment rights.

Today in Britain we can all choose to Stand Up To Hatred and:

• Refuse to stand by and allow others to commit acts of hatred
• Recognise the language of hatred.
• Challenge newspapers and public figures when they are using the language of hatred.
• Stop using language which is discriminatory and stop others when we hear them doing the same.
• Recognise when hate crime is taking place and report it
• Recognise that a crime does not have to be committed for hatred to be expressed
• Learn from history that the ultimate result of unchecked and unchallenged hatred, prejudice, discrimination and racism is genocide.

On Holocaust Memorial Day 2009 make the choice to Stand Up To Hatred.

Go to www.hmd.org.uk for more information or to watch ‘The Hate Game’.

Kristallnacht 70 years on

Seventy years after the terror and cruelty of Kristallnacht, the event should not be simply consigned to our history books writes Karen Pollock of the Holocaust Educational Trust

Can you imagine your neighbours being attacked and dragged away – and you doing nothing? Seeing their houses looted and torched – and you saying nothing?

Seventy years ago on Sunday 9th November the Nazi government sanctioned widespread destruction of property and wanton terror and violence against the Jewish communities of Germany and Austria. In the space of a few hours more than 1000 synagogues were torched, tens and thousands of Jewish businesses and homes ransacked and destroyed, 91 people murdered and more than 30,000 Jewish men were arrested and sent to concentration camps.

The name given to this night of terror was Kristallnacht or Night of Broken Glass in reference to the shattered glass that carpeted the streets – a testimony – even a trophy to the perpetrators ‘achievement’ in causing widespread destruction.

In the years that followed Kristallnacht, it came to mean so much more than mere broken glass. Kristallnacht came to represent broken lives, broken families, the collapse of civilisation and humanity. It signalled the prelude to the annihilation of six million Jewish people and millions of others, including from the Roma and gay community, disabled people and political opponents. It signalled the prelude to the Holocaust.

Dr Arthur Flehinger, a German eyewitness to Kristallnacht claimed that during that night of state-sponsored violence, many people privately wept behind their curtains at the destruction – full of sorrow at the tide of racial violence, but powerless to stop it. Indeed this was not dissimilar to the world’s reaction to what was the most publicised event at the time in the history of the fate of European Jewry. If this glimpse into the future horrified so many people worldwide, why was their outrage not translated into action?

If we are to learn anything from Kristallnacht it is a reminder to us all of where unchecked racism and intolerance can lead and underscores our responsibility as human beings to ensure that such evil is always confronted whenever and wherever it occurs. The Holocaust did not begin with the gas chambers at Auschwitz, it did not even begin with Kristallnacht – it began with words and was reacted to with silence. The extermination of European Jewry took place at the end of a long road, a long history marked by centuries of age-old antisemitism and prejudice dating back to the middle ages and most significantly it was a long road marked by indifference. Nor was the Holocaust a mere symptom of the time; the era. As we have seen repeatedly in the years that have followed the Holocaust genocide and atrocities have plagued every corner of the globe and continue to do so.

We cannot and must not consign the terror and cruelty of that night to our history books or fool ourselves into believing that it was a history belonging to a different era. To remove ourselves in this way is to remove our own responsibility in fighting racism and intolerance today.

This year, many of us have no doubt felt helpless as far-right parties continue to gain a foothold in local councils, and even in the London Assembly – the body representing one of the most diverse cities in the world. And make no mistake about it - these are politicians who exploit community divisions, and whose ideology is based on the same racism and prejudice exhibited during the Holocaust.

But we do have the ability to halt racism in its tracks. This is a belief that goes right to the heart of our work at the Holocaust Educational Trust. Founded by Lord Greville Janner and the late Lord Merlyn Rees in 1988, we work in schools and local communities across the UK to ensure the Holocaust is not only learnt for its own sake, but also that its vital lessons for today are learnt, disseminated and acted upon. We believe that if we are to ever achieve a future free from antisemitism, racism and discrimination, if we are to say ‘never again’ and actually mean it – we must ensure that future generations are equipped with the knowledge and confidence to face such evils head on.

Through our piloted Think Equal Project which we plan to take nationwide we have reached disaffected young people in communities which are experiencing problems of racial tensions and which are also being targeted by the far-right . By working within the Citizenship Curriculum and helping them to understand the importance of their role in society, and the responsibility that they have as citizens to actively oppose hatred and prejudice they literally become ambassadors for conveying the lessons of the past; ambassadors for a better future. Not bystanders but agents of change.

This Sunday – seventy years since that night of brutality; that night where millions of lives were forever changed and soon to be wiped out, let us not shed tears behind drawn curtains but instead let us all become agents of change. Let us commit ourselves to ensuring that no one anywhere should ever face the fear or discrimination experienced by those during Kristallnacht; let us commit ourselves to ensuring we stop the far-right from gaining a foothold in our political system before it is too late; let us commit ourselves to ensuring a future we can be proud of free from genocide and crimes against humanity.

Karen Pollock is the Chief Executive of the Holocaust Educational Trust. More information about the work of the Holocaust Educational Trust is available at http://www.het.org.uk.

New Statesman

Blind survivor tells of Holocaust

The UK is holding its first memorial to disabled holocaust victims. One survivor who will be attending is 85-year-old Hans Cohn (pictured left, with his wife) from Willesden Green, north-west London

Born in Berlin in 1923, Hans Cohn was blinded after he was hit in the school playground by a member of the Hitler Youth because he was Jewish. The single blow caused a retinal detachment in one eye.

As a Jew, no ophthalmic specialist in Germany would treat him, so by the time he underwent two, unsuccessful, operations in the Netherlands it was too late. A year later he developed sympathetic ophthalmia in the other eye. He was blind by the age of 12.

Because no German school would take him, his father, a lawyer and World War I veteran, decided to send him to a school for the blind - Worcester College - in England. It was a decision which saved Hans' life. His father was not so lucky. He died in Theresienstadt concentration camp in 1942 "from the consequences of a medical experiment".

But Mr Cohn's memories of his early years in Berlin are not ones of persecution.

"I was always very sheltered, so I didn't experience any unpleasantness. We were sheltered from the worst. Because my father had an office, not a shop, he wasn't obviously Jewish - we weren't conspicuous."

Indeed, his summer holidays in Berlin in 1938 were not out of the ordinary. But it would be the last time he saw his father alive, and just a year later his mother would have joined him in England, as a "domestic".

In November 1938 Kristallnacht - the night of systematic violence against Jews which served as a prelude to the Holocaust - was carried out across Germany.

"I was never told what happened to my parents during Kristallnacht. My mother never told me and I never asked," says Mr Cohn.

His mother fled, but his father resolved to stay. As a lawyer he would have found it hard to find work abroad and he wanted to pay his son's school fees for as long as possible.

After the outbreak of war, these fees were paid through the International Red Cross. And it was through the Red Cross that Mr Cohn and his mother learned his father had been sent to a concentration camp in 1942.

Now a semi-retired physiotherapist, Mr Cohn will be visiting the Holocaust Centre in Nottinghamshire on Sunday to remember the disabled victims of the Holocaust. He knows several blind people in Germany forcibly sterilised by the Nazis, he says.

One was blinded in a road accident, "So there was no reason why he should have blind children," Mr Cohn notes.

He feels, he has his part to play in making sure the Holocaust's victims are not forgotten.

"I am one of the decreasing number of survivors and I want to do my bit and do what I can."

BBC

Neo-Nazis clash near Prague’s Jewish quarter

1,400 police deploy but fail to stop rival demonstrators from fighting

Neo-Nazis trying to march through the Jewish quarter of Prague on Saturday clashed with groups trying to stop them, and at least 80 people were arrested in outbreaks of violence around the capital.

Police seized weapons including a gas gun, axes and sticks as the extremists tried to reach the Jewish quarter, police spokesman Ladislav Bernasek said. At least six people, including one policeman, suffered head injuries, said Prague rescue service spokeswoman Jirina Ernestova.

The march was scheduled a day after the anniversary of Kristallnacht, the night in 1938 when the Nazis attacked synagogues and Jewish homes and businesses throughout Germany and parts of Austria. Authorities banned the march, and about 1,400 police were deployed in the capital, including riot police and officers on horses to prevent it. Equipped with armored vehicles and water cannons, they sealed off most of the historic Jewish quarter.

In a major clash downtown, a group of about two dozen neo-Nazis was attacked by people who said they were in the streets to prevent the march, Bernasek said. About 50 left-wing extremists attacked police with cobble stones in another area. In total about 80 people were detained around the city, including 10 German-speaking left-wing extremists armed with sticks, Bernasek said.

Jewish leaders and Czech politicians condemned the planned march as an insult to the victims of the Holocaust. Hundreds of Jews and others gathered in the historic Jewish quarter to commemorate the Nazi pogrom, protest the march and be ready, if it went ahead, to prevent it from going through the neighborhood.

We are here "to protest attempts of neo-Nazi groups to publicly promote anti-Semitic, racist and other abusive ideas," said Jiri Danicek, head of the federation of Jewish communities.

The march was organized by the Young National Democrats, which is linked to the National Resistance, a neo-Nazi group.

MSNBC

N9S rebrands itself - though it's still nazi

Oh dear. The very smart though utterly hopeless leader of N9S, Kevin Quinn, must be getting desperate. Following countless months of stagnation and a complete lack of ideas, he's fallen back on the mainstay that sees most far-right parties through extended periods of inactivity - he's changed the party's name.

The chubby Quinn obviously sees some advantage in naming his party after the fast-failing England First Party, recently two councillors lighter after the defections of the party leader and one of his drinking buddies, so has renamed N9S the British First Party.

The old name, N9S, was a direct reference to Kristallnacht, which referred to the events that took place in Germany and Austria on the night of November 9–10, 1938, when Jewish homes were ransacked in numerous German cities along with 8,000 Jewish shops, towns and villages, as ordinary citizens and stormtroopers destroyed buildings with sledgehammers, leaving the streets covered in smashed windows — the origin of the name 'Night of Broken Glass'. Jews were beaten to death; 30,000 Jewish men were taken to concentration camps; and 1,668 synagogues ransacked with 267 set on fire.

Which shows pretty clearly where Quinn and his micro-party stand on the subject of Jews.

It's not too difficult to guess then where Quinn and co stand on the subject of blacks, Asians and gays either. And your guess would be correct. Back in February 2006, N9S was infiltrated by a Sunday Mirror reporter, Stewart Maclean, who reported;

During my time with the hate-filled skinheads, there were organised street fights, random violent attacks and paramilitary training camps. Evil leader Kevin Quinn, a father-of-four from Bedford, is serving a nine-month suspended prison sentence after admitting possessing violent Nazi literature.

But the threat of prison didn't stop him from a verbal attack on a Jew in the street last week, which I witnessed after joining the gang for an afternoon rally in Central London.

As I secretly filmed, the bully, 40, picked out a young passer-by in broad daylight and yelled: "Juden Raus!", a Nazi slogan meaning "Jew out". Another party member - dad-of-two Jason Okane, 36, from Hastings, East Sussex - yelled: "A Jew! What shall we do, get the noose?"

The shocked victim crossed the street to avoid a fight. Later unmarried Quinn made it clear he preferred to use violence to enforce his evil message.

He told me: "We need to fight any way we can. I'm all Nazi, a total Nazi. We've got to look after ourselves and we need to get people trained up. Now we've got the Muslims and the blacks here we need to stop it. Let's fucking do it. I'll fight for Britain forever."

Maclean's report goes on;

The highlight of their social calendar is a celebration of Hitler's life - held in a secret location every April. They wear Nazi uniforms, swear allegiance to National Socialism and read passages from Hitler's Mein Kampf. Eaton told me: "What he done was right, he just done so much right, didn't he?"

The Electoral Commission, with whom the N9S/British First Party (BFP) are registered, holds the party's latest submitted accounts, which only go as far as December 2004. This peculiar document showed that in the twelve months to that date, the party delivered or handed out 100,000 leaflets. At the end of the year, it had achieved the grand total of 32 members (if the accounts are to be believed, £320 was received in membership subscriptions at £10 a go) though another part of the accounts states that;

In 2004, the membership rose from 350 people to 980 when we introduced a free membership period, this hopefully will generate income when members pay their yearly subs.

Apparently not.

Quinn's ridiculous little nazi party also seems to encourage youngsters into it. According to Maclean, some members of the forum were as young as twelve - certainly too young to vote, too young to belong to a political party and way too young to be hanging around with a bunch of nazi thugs.

The name change is only part of what the BFP is up to. As far as we could see there are no longer any mentions of national socialism, no swastikas and all the verbal attacks have been toned down and will soon, no doubt, disappear altogether from the website.

All this is very reminiscent of the way Nick Griffin has rebranded the BNP. The old hatred, violence and criminality are all still there but, like Griffin, Quinn has swept them under the carpet in an attempt to fool the public into believing that their respective parties are respectable. They're not. They are both, the leaders and the parties they represent, the BNP and the BFP, Holocaust-denying fascist criminals.