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Ba, Beti aur Bahu
#54 by harimau
Harry Moe,
Leave Zeena alone. She is too new to be injected with your particular brand of that old hate potion (Zeena, pay no attention to ranting and ravings of the old buddha khusoot!)
Your ability to conduct a wholesale degradation of all classes of people is unmatchable – even in the annals (or entrails) of the chowk sewers! You crank out a few long-ago names from your (fading) memory and name them all chamchas then – like a third-rate magician with a long hat you yank those names out and exclaim:
“Look Ma, here is the problem!”
Your prescription – get rid of this and that – shoot them all, as you say – and lo and behold, all problems solved!
It is a bit like saying – shoot Harimau and a few others on chowk and its hate-mongering will dissipate. It is very simplistic and highly unrealistic. Hate is endemic to the psyche – it needs to be cured – not shot at! Shooting the patient does not get rid of the disease – the germs merely get transmitted.
Plus, dear Moe, there is quite a large pool of fresh supply available from where boot-licking individuals come from – go ask Kaura – he will tell you a thing or two about the “kanjarpana” inhabiting the souls of all desis (except him, of course). So this pool will replenish itself faster than you replenish your supply of adult diapers! The only thing worth shooting down is your arguments – if one were to use the term loosely.
Sonia needs category Z protection perhaps for the same reason that you would – if you were to actually show your real thobra to the vast multitude of chowkies – just imagine what hell will break loose!
Therefore, go back to sipping that coffee and slurping that rasam with your hand dipped into the pot while licking all the way from the bottom of the wrist to the top tip of the middle finger – a practice very “non-Bihari” if I may be bold enough to add!
Posted by
bjkumar
Apr 7, 2006 07:05 am
#54 by harimau
Harry Moe,
Leave Zeena alone. She is too new to be injected with your particular brand of that old hate potion (Zeena, pay no attention to ranting and ravings of the old buddha khusoot!)
Your ability to conduct a wholesale degradation of all classes of people is unmatchable – even in the annals (or entrails) of the chowk sewers! You crank out a few long-ago names from your (fading) memory and name them all chamchas then – like a third-rate magician with a long hat you yank those names out and exclaim:
“Look Ma, here is the problem!”
Your prescription – get rid of this and that – shoot them all, as you say – and lo and behold, all problems solved!
It is a bit like saying – shoot Harimau and a few others on chowk and its hate-mongering will dissipate. It is very simplistic and highly unrealistic. Hate is endemic to the psyche – it needs to be cured – not shot at! Shooting the patient does not get rid of the disease – the germs merely get transmitted.
Plus, dear Moe, there is quite a large pool of fresh supply available from where boot-licking individuals come from – go ask Kaura – he will tell you a thing or two about the “kanjarpana” inhabiting the souls of all desis (except him, of course). So this pool will replenish itself faster than you replenish your supply of adult diapers! The only thing worth shooting down is your arguments – if one were to use the term loosely.
Sonia needs category Z protection perhaps for the same reason that you would – if you were to actually show your real thobra to the vast multitude of chowkies – just imagine what hell will break loose!
Therefore, go back to sipping that coffee and slurping that rasam with your hand dipped into the pot while licking all the way from the bottom of the wrist to the top tip of the middle finger – a practice very “non-Bihari” if I may be bold enough to add!
A Thousand Cuts
#86
[I am sure knowledge and enlightenment can be subtly delivered. ]
How true. Yet how often it takes place in a ``in your face`` manner - especially around these ``shark-infested`` waters.
Posted by
bjkumar
Apr 4, 2006 11:47 am
#86
[I am sure knowledge and enlightenment can be subtly delivered. ]
How true. Yet how often it takes place in a ``in your face`` manner - especially around these ``shark-infested`` waters.
Kibbutz Criminals
(This investigative report appeared in the New York Daily News on March 30, 2003.)
Sowing seeds of hatred
Islamic textbooks scapegoat Jews, Christians
By LARRY COHLER-ESSES
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Textbooks widely used in New York’s Islamic schools contain passages that are blatantly anti-Semitic, condemning Jews as a people, repeating old canards about the Jews wanting to kill Christ and faking their Holy Scriptures to mock God.
The Islamic texts teach that “the Jews” killed their own prophets and betrayed the Prophet Muhammed through their inherent deceitfulness.
The books, obtained during a three-month Daily News investigation that included visits to private Muslim schools, are rife with inaccuracies, sweeping condemnations of Jews and Christians, and triumphalist declarations of Islam’s supremacy. In Long Island City, Queens, for example, fifth- and sixth-graders at the Ideal Islamic School on 12th St. learn that Allah has revealed that “the Jews killed their own prophets and disobeyed Allah.”
At the Muslim Center Elementary School on Geranium Ave. in Flushing, Queens, a textbook for grades 6 through 8 teaches that Jews “subscribe to a belief in racial superiority. … Their religion even teaches them to call down curses upon the worship places of non-Jews whenever they pass by them! They arrogantly refer to anyone who is not Jewish as ‘gentiles,’ equating them with sin.”
The book “What Islam Is All About” states that, “The Christians also worship statues.”
“Many” Jews and Christians, the book says, “lead such decadent and immoral lives that lying, alcohol, nudity, pornography, racism, foul language, premarital sex, homosexuality and everything else are accepted in their society, churches and synagogues.”
Yet a third book, in use at the Ideal school, describes the hostile relations between Jews and the Prophet Muhammed in Medina in the 7th century.
“The reasons for Jewish hostility lies in their general characteristics,” the book says. Numerous Koranic citations follow with negative references to Jews — for example, “You will ever find them deceitful, except for a few of them.”
The textbooks in question are widely cited by Islamic educators as among the most popular in use. They come from two publishing companies specializing in Islamic studies textbooks that, together, appear to dominate this niche market in New York and elsewhere across the U.S.
“These books are dangerous because they continue to demonize Jews, to dehumanize them,” said Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League. At a time when the war in Iraq is inflaming anti-Western Islamic passions, he said, “They build a rationale for hatred that, in the end, can lead to the Holocaust.”
And Eugene Fisher, associate director for interreligious affairs for the National Conference of Catholic Bishops in Washington, commented, “Give me a break. We don’t worship statues. That’s teaching their children misunderstandings about Christianity that will lead them to grow up thinking all that stuff in the Koran about idolaters refers to us, their neighbors.”
Fisher, who has been in charge of purging anti-Semitism from Catholic curriculums for years, said, “Where they get into trouble is not where they say we don’t buy Jewish and Christian beliefs, but the ad hominem attacks against Jews and Christians.”
Law prof demurs
Khaled Abou El-Fadl, a prominent professor of Islamic Law at UCLA, questioned the books’ claims even on Islamic grounds.
“This type of rhetoric, unfortunately, is all too common,” he said. “The crux is, am I disagreeing with ideas or thoughts, or am I finding a fundamental, nearly genetic, ethnic, racist flaw in others? The Koran itself says there are among the Jews those who do good, and they have no reason to fear.
“That is a far cry from saying Jews, as Jews, or Christians, as Christians, are somehow genetically coded to lie, to be corrupt. In fact, the historical experience of Islam challenges all these superstitions.”
One of the publishers, a Chicago-based firm called the IQRA International Educational Foundation Inc. — IQRA means “recite” or “proclaim” in Arabic — got financial support until recently from a Saudi Arabian foundation.
IQRA’s founder and director, Dr. Abidullah al-Ansari Ghazi, who wrote the books in question, acknowledged that they needed to be changed.
“What you’re pointing out, I agree, these passages need to be revised,” he said.
“I wrote these passages 10, 20 years ago,” said Ghazi. “And, to tell you the truth, I based it on the classical sources, which are much harsher than what I wrote here.”
Ghazi promised to revise parts of the text that condemn Jews as a people.
But the other publisher, Yahiya Emerick, who heads the Islamic Foundation of North America, a Queens-based nonprofit curriculum development project, stood by the language in his books, which are printed and distributed by International Books and Tapes Supply, or IBTS.
“Islam, like any belief system, believes its program is better than others. I don’t feel embarrassed to say that,” he said. His books, Emerick stressed, “are directed to kids in a Muslim educational environment. They must learn and appreciate there are differences between what they have and what other religions teach. It’s telling kids that we have our own tradition.” He denied the books were inflammatory.
The 3,000 to 4,000 children now attending New York’s 15 private Islamic schools are a small but growing part of the city’s Muslim student population of about 85,000. Many are from Bangladesh, India or Pakistan as well as the Middle East.
Many of their schools regularly outperform the public schools on state achievement tests. At al-Noor in Brooklyn, the largest Muslim school in the country with 650 students, more than 90 percent of high schoolers go on to college.
A hard row since 9/11
Since 9/11 Muslim students and teachers have had to endure the daily tension of hostility and discrimination on the streets. Families with uncertain immigrant status have been forced to flee the city.
There are no reliable breakdowns on how many local schools use the six books reviewed by The News. But Emerick has sold more than 40,000 copies of “What Islam Is All About.”
About 10 percent of these sales are in New York.
“In Muslim terms, that makes it a best seller,” he said.
Emerick said his books were in “at least half” the city’s Muslim private schools.
Dr. Nidel Abasi, principal of Al-Noor, confirmed the purchase of the book, but said it was not used as part of the school’s regular curriculum.
Shamshad Husain, IQRA’s managing director, said his company has sold 3,000 copies of “Our Prophet,” a book for elementary school students, 1,800 copies of “Mercy to Mankind,” which is aimed at fifth- and sixth-graders and 900 copies of “Messenger of Allah,” targeting students age 12 to 14. He had no breakdowns for New York City distribution.
All three books contain accounts of Prophet Muhammed’s relations with Jews in 7th century Medina that appear to condemn or negatively characterize the conduct of Jews as a people.
Dr. Kurshid Khan, principal of the Ideal school, praised IQRA for its Islamic curriculum development, but stressed that his staff repeatedly warns students that “we can’t generalize” about people’s behavior because of their religion.
“When they hear on TV that a Muslim committed a terrorist act, we say, look, it’s a special group. They’re terrorists. That’s the main focus. ... to inculcate in youth as they grow up a balanced mind.”
As for the books’ depictions of Jews, said Khan, “I’ve oriented my teachers that we must be very careful. We don’t want them to make generalizations. Of course, I’m not in class all the time. But I keep bringing it up to the teachers.”
Muslim class teaches bitter, anti-Semitic lesson
At Ideal Islamic School’s new quarters in Long Island City, Queens, teacher Safia Sarkin’s sixth-grade class was busy studying relations between the first Muslim community and local Jewish tribes in 7th century Medina.
Sarkin, a convert to Islam from an Orthodox Jewish family in New Jersey, had the children take turns reading Chapter 9 of IQRA’s “Mercy to Mankind,” titled “Relations With the Jews Worsen.”
The text cited numerous failings and offenses by “the Jews,” a repeated formulation that blurred the distinction between Medina’s Jewish tribes and, say, the Jews of present-day Israel.
“The Muslims wanted to live in peace with the Jews, but the Jews did not like the Muslims,” recited Sarkin, who was wearing a long-sleeved gray robe and a tan hijab, or head covering. “They did not believe in Muhammed. They thought only a Jew could be a prophet.”
The majority of Sarkin’s 10 students, most of them girls, listened intently. The makeshift classroom was in a converted warehouse, with flimsy partitions separating the sixth-graders from a group of noisy kindergartners. In the back, a couple of boys’ minds seemed to wander.
“The Jews did not want to listen to any preaching from an Arab prophet,” Sarkin continued. “Allah had revealed to Muhammed that the Jews had changed their Book, the Torah, killed their own prophets and disobeyed Allah. And the Jews did not want the Arabs to know about these shameful things.”
“The Jews” in the passage had lived centuries before the Jews of Medina, but Sarkin didn’t miss a beat.
After citing other offenses by “the Jews,” she read, “Because of all this, the Muslims had to fight the Jews as well as other enemies of Islam.” But after winning the ensuing battles, the book noted: “Allah had now given the Muslims power over the Jews and Muhammed made a treaty with them.”
The chapter concluded: “Muslims must live in peace with all those who are willing to live in peace with them.”
Sarkin drove the point home emphatically. “Islam means peace,” she stressed, praising Muhammed’s treaty with the vanquished Jews. When a boy in the back of the classroom began to protest, Sarkin interrupted him to emphasize again the importance of peace in Islam.
Posted by
bjkumar
Mar 26, 2006 02:47 pm
(This investigative report appeared in the New York Daily News on March 30, 2003.)
Islamic textbooks scapegoat Jews, Christians
By LARRY COHLER-ESSES
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Textbooks widely used in New York’s Islamic schools contain passages that are blatantly anti-Semitic, condemning Jews as a people, repeating old canards about the Jews wanting to kill Christ and faking their Holy Scriptures to mock God.
The Islamic texts teach that “the Jews” killed their own prophets and betrayed the Prophet Muhammed through their inherent deceitfulness.
The books, obtained during a three-month Daily News investigation that included visits to private Muslim schools, are rife with inaccuracies, sweeping condemnations of Jews and Christians, and triumphalist declarations of Islam’s supremacy. In Long Island City, Queens, for example, fifth- and sixth-graders at the Ideal Islamic School on 12th St. learn that Allah has revealed that “the Jews killed their own prophets and disobeyed Allah.”
At the Muslim Center Elementary School on Geranium Ave. in Flushing, Queens, a textbook for grades 6 through 8 teaches that Jews “subscribe to a belief in racial superiority. … Their religion even teaches them to call down curses upon the worship places of non-Jews whenever they pass by them! They arrogantly refer to anyone who is not Jewish as ‘gentiles,’ equating them with sin.”
The book “What Islam Is All About” states that, “The Christians also worship statues.”
“Many” Jews and Christians, the book says, “lead such decadent and immoral lives that lying, alcohol, nudity, pornography, racism, foul language, premarital sex, homosexuality and everything else are accepted in their society, churches and synagogues.”
Yet a third book, in use at the Ideal school, describes the hostile relations between Jews and the Prophet Muhammed in Medina in the 7th century.
“The reasons for Jewish hostility lies in their general characteristics,” the book says. Numerous Koranic citations follow with negative references to Jews — for example, “You will ever find them deceitful, except for a few of them.”
The textbooks in question are widely cited by Islamic educators as among the most popular in use. They come from two publishing companies specializing in Islamic studies textbooks that, together, appear to dominate this niche market in New York and elsewhere across the U.S.
“These books are dangerous because they continue to demonize Jews, to dehumanize them,” said Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League. At a time when the war in Iraq is inflaming anti-Western Islamic passions, he said, “They build a rationale for hatred that, in the end, can lead to the Holocaust.”
And Eugene Fisher, associate director for interreligious affairs for the National Conference of Catholic Bishops in Washington, commented, “Give me a break. We don’t worship statues. That’s teaching their children misunderstandings about Christianity that will lead them to grow up thinking all that stuff in the Koran about idolaters refers to us, their neighbors.”
Fisher, who has been in charge of purging anti-Semitism from Catholic curriculums for years, said, “Where they get into trouble is not where they say we don’t buy Jewish and Christian beliefs, but the ad hominem attacks against Jews and Christians.”
Law prof demurs
Khaled Abou El-Fadl, a prominent professor of Islamic Law at UCLA, questioned the books’ claims even on Islamic grounds.
“This type of rhetoric, unfortunately, is all too common,” he said. “The crux is, am I disagreeing with ideas or thoughts, or am I finding a fundamental, nearly genetic, ethnic, racist flaw in others? The Koran itself says there are among the Jews those who do good, and they have no reason to fear.
“That is a far cry from saying Jews, as Jews, or Christians, as Christians, are somehow genetically coded to lie, to be corrupt. In fact, the historical experience of Islam challenges all these superstitions.”
One of the publishers, a Chicago-based firm called the IQRA International Educational Foundation Inc. — IQRA means “recite” or “proclaim” in Arabic — got financial support until recently from a Saudi Arabian foundation.
IQRA’s founder and director, Dr. Abidullah al-Ansari Ghazi, who wrote the books in question, acknowledged that they needed to be changed.
“What you’re pointing out, I agree, these passages need to be revised,” he said.
“I wrote these passages 10, 20 years ago,” said Ghazi. “And, to tell you the truth, I based it on the classical sources, which are much harsher than what I wrote here.”
Ghazi promised to revise parts of the text that condemn Jews as a people.
But the other publisher, Yahiya Emerick, who heads the Islamic Foundation of North America, a Queens-based nonprofit curriculum development project, stood by the language in his books, which are printed and distributed by International Books and Tapes Supply, or IBTS.
“Islam, like any belief system, believes its program is better than others. I don’t feel embarrassed to say that,” he said. His books, Emerick stressed, “are directed to kids in a Muslim educational environment. They must learn and appreciate there are differences between what they have and what other religions teach. It’s telling kids that we have our own tradition.” He denied the books were inflammatory.
The 3,000 to 4,000 children now attending New York’s 15 private Islamic schools are a small but growing part of the city’s Muslim student population of about 85,000. Many are from Bangladesh, India or Pakistan as well as the Middle East.
Many of their schools regularly outperform the public schools on state achievement tests. At al-Noor in Brooklyn, the largest Muslim school in the country with 650 students, more than 90 percent of high schoolers go on to college.
A hard row since 9/11
Since 9/11 Muslim students and teachers have had to endure the daily tension of hostility and discrimination on the streets. Families with uncertain immigrant status have been forced to flee the city.
There are no reliable breakdowns on how many local schools use the six books reviewed by The News. But Emerick has sold more than 40,000 copies of “What Islam Is All About.”
About 10 percent of these sales are in New York.
“In Muslim terms, that makes it a best seller,” he said.
Emerick said his books were in “at least half” the city’s Muslim private schools.
Dr. Nidel Abasi, principal of Al-Noor, confirmed the purchase of the book, but said it was not used as part of the school’s regular curriculum.
Shamshad Husain, IQRA’s managing director, said his company has sold 3,000 copies of “Our Prophet,” a book for elementary school students, 1,800 copies of “Mercy to Mankind,” which is aimed at fifth- and sixth-graders and 900 copies of “Messenger of Allah,” targeting students age 12 to 14. He had no breakdowns for New York City distribution.
All three books contain accounts of Prophet Muhammed’s relations with Jews in 7th century Medina that appear to condemn or negatively characterize the conduct of Jews as a people.
Dr. Kurshid Khan, principal of the Ideal school, praised IQRA for its Islamic curriculum development, but stressed that his staff repeatedly warns students that “we can’t generalize” about people’s behavior because of their religion.
“When they hear on TV that a Muslim committed a terrorist act, we say, look, it’s a special group. They’re terrorists. That’s the main focus. ... to inculcate in youth as they grow up a balanced mind.”
As for the books’ depictions of Jews, said Khan, “I’ve oriented my teachers that we must be very careful. We don’t want them to make generalizations. Of course, I’m not in class all the time. But I keep bringing it up to the teachers.”
Muslim class teaches bitter, anti-Semitic lesson
At Ideal Islamic School’s new quarters in Long Island City, Queens, teacher Safia Sarkin’s sixth-grade class was busy studying relations between the first Muslim community and local Jewish tribes in 7th century Medina.
Sarkin, a convert to Islam from an Orthodox Jewish family in New Jersey, had the children take turns reading Chapter 9 of IQRA’s “Mercy to Mankind,” titled “Relations With the Jews Worsen.”
The text cited numerous failings and offenses by “the Jews,” a repeated formulation that blurred the distinction between Medina’s Jewish tribes and, say, the Jews of present-day Israel.
“The Muslims wanted to live in peace with the Jews, but the Jews did not like the Muslims,” recited Sarkin, who was wearing a long-sleeved gray robe and a tan hijab, or head covering. “They did not believe in Muhammed. They thought only a Jew could be a prophet.”
The majority of Sarkin’s 10 students, most of them girls, listened intently. The makeshift classroom was in a converted warehouse, with flimsy partitions separating the sixth-graders from a group of noisy kindergartners. In the back, a couple of boys’ minds seemed to wander.
“The Jews did not want to listen to any preaching from an Arab prophet,” Sarkin continued. “Allah had revealed to Muhammed that the Jews had changed their Book, the Torah, killed their own prophets and disobeyed Allah. And the Jews did not want the Arabs to know about these shameful things.”
“The Jews” in the passage had lived centuries before the Jews of Medina, but Sarkin didn’t miss a beat.
After citing other offenses by “the Jews,” she read, “Because of all this, the Muslims had to fight the Jews as well as other enemies of Islam.” But after winning the ensuing battles, the book noted: “Allah had now given the Muslims power over the Jews and Muhammed made a treaty with them.”
The chapter concluded: “Muslims must live in peace with all those who are willing to live in peace with them.”
Sarkin drove the point home emphatically. “Islam means peace,” she stressed, praising Muhammed’s treaty with the vanquished Jews. When a boy in the back of the classroom began to protest, Sarkin interrupted him to emphasize again the importance of peace in Islam.
Kibbutz Criminals
(From an article in the magazine “The Village Voice“)
The Chosen One
Journalist Daniel Pearl Was Killed for Being a Jew
by Michael Kamber
February 25th, 2002 6:00 PM
I believed Daniel Pearl was dead all along.
Weeks before the U.S. government confirmed his death, I thought it unlikely he would return alive. I returned from reporting for the Voice from Pakistan in December, exhausted from being stoned, punched, and chased by Islamic fundamentalists. I was burned out—and burned literally—from being pushed into one too many burning George Bush effigies, weary from having to repeatedly explain that Americans do not hate Muslims, and that “no, it’s not true that we enjoy seeing dead Afghan children on TV.”
Naturally, in the back of my mind, there was always some hope that this man—a man exactly my age, like myself a journalist—would escape death. Then a friend said, “Well, of course he’s Jewish, with a name like Daniel Pearl . . . “ And any lingering doubts I had about his fate were erased instantly. Because I returned from Pakistan frustrated from arguing for perhaps the hundredth time that 4000 Jews did not call in sick to work at the World Trade Center on September 11—explaining that Americans do not classify employees by religion, so how would anyone know?—and that “no, the Jews do not run America.”
“My father is a Jew, my mother is a Jew, and I am a Jew” are the last words Daniel Pearl uttered, an instant before his throat was slashed, according to government officials who have viewed the videotape of his murder. At least one of his captors has admitted that the kidnappers were specifically looking for a Jewish victim. Curiously, government officials and Pearl’s family, as well as his employer, The Wall Street Journal, are downplaying this angle, as if drawing attention to what is clearly an anti-Jewish killing would dishonor Pearl, who was not an observant Jew.
Yet his murderers are identified as members of “a fiercely anti-Semitic Islamic terrorist group called Jaish-e-Mohammed.” I can only wonder about what qualifies as “fiercely anti-Semitic” in Pakistan, where anti-Semitism flows as easily as water. For several months following 9-11, the country’s newspapers published frequent editorials calling for an investigation into Jewish involvement in the World Trade Center bombing. In interviews conducted while I was there, government officials would occasionally veer off into long diatribes about the Jews; fundamentalist religious leaders, who educate hundreds of thousands of children in the country’s madrassas, spoke of little else.
In Islamabad, Syed Ubad Ulah Shah, an elderly mullah responsible for the education of hundreds of youngsters, said, “To me, [the bombing of the World Trade Center] seems the design of the Jewish lobby. The Jewish lobby wants to pit Islam against Christianity.” Seeking out more moderate voices, I introduced myself to a religious leader from Pakistan’s much persecuted Shia community. He was a gentle, educated man, the keeper of a holy shrine outside the city. After we had spent some time together and I had met his family, he asked me, “So can you explain to me, why is it that America lets the Jews run everything? They run the government, the newspapers, they turn the American people against us. Why do you let the Jews spoil things between us—we could be friends.” His sentiments were gentler than most.
In Karachi, the southern port city where Daniel Pearl was kidnapped, I hung out at the dilapidated Karachi Press Club and rode off to cover the anti-war rallies on the backs of mopeds with the local photographers. At one such rally, sponsored by Jamaat-I-Islami, a fundamentalist group, the crowd cheered Osama bin Laden’s image and took turns chanting, “Death to Israel” and “Death to America.” Word spread that a Westerner was in the crowd and people became agitated; stones and fists flew my way before my hosts pulled me to safety. These were times you wanted to crawl out of your skin, pretend you were someone else. I tried to buy a fake passport that listed my citizenship as Canadian. Journalists routinely lied when asked if they were American. Fixers, guides, and interpreters introduced their American clients as Swiss or French.
To admit to being Jewish in such a climate would have been unthinkable. On occasion, people asked me point-blank if I was Jewish. I denied it, listing instead my polyglot background, not bothering to explain that my father is in fact Jewish, but that by Jewish law, I am not. I wonder what Daniel Pearl said in response to such questions. A rudimentary amount of research on the Internet might have revealed that Daniel Pearl’s parents emigrated from Israel; his father’s name is Yehuda. Government officials now say that the kidnappers never intended to release him, that he was kidnapped with the express intention of killing him.
The manner in which he was killed—forced to admit to his Jewish identity before having his throat slashed, left to gasp and strangle in his blood, like an animal being sacrificed to the gods—is horrific beyond words. I had wished for Daniel Pearl what I myself would want in such a situation, a quick painless death—a gunshot to the back of the head. They denied him even that.
As is always the case, Pakistan’s anti-Semitism exists in a vacuum; with the exception of the tiny elite who had traveled abroad, no one I knew had actually met a Jew—there simply aren’t any in Pakistan. Of the country’s 140 million inhabitants, 98 percent are Muslim, the remainder Christians and Sikhs. In a country where perhaps three-quarters of the population is illiterate, people take their cues from their religious leaders and politicians. Few understand the difference between Israel’s hawks and doves, or the nuances and differences of opinion between Sephardim and Ashkenazim, American Jews and Israeli Jews. In an uneducated population, where groupthink is the norm (often, a dozen people would converge on a reporter after a rally spouting identical positions, right down to the wording), groupthink is assumed in the enemy.
In such a climate, Daniel Pearl’s kidnappers stripped him of his humanity; the funny, creative, fiddle-playing husband and father-to-be is lost. It is replaced with the enemy, the other, the Jew.
Posted by
bjkumar
Mar 26, 2006 02:31 pm
(From an article in the magazine “The Village Voice“)
Journalist Daniel Pearl Was Killed for Being a Jew
by Michael Kamber
February 25th, 2002 6:00 PM
I believed Daniel Pearl was dead all along.
Weeks before the U.S. government confirmed his death, I thought it unlikely he would return alive. I returned from reporting for the Voice from Pakistan in December, exhausted from being stoned, punched, and chased by Islamic fundamentalists. I was burned out—and burned literally—from being pushed into one too many burning George Bush effigies, weary from having to repeatedly explain that Americans do not hate Muslims, and that “no, it’s not true that we enjoy seeing dead Afghan children on TV.”
Naturally, in the back of my mind, there was always some hope that this man—a man exactly my age, like myself a journalist—would escape death. Then a friend said, “Well, of course he’s Jewish, with a name like Daniel Pearl . . . “ And any lingering doubts I had about his fate were erased instantly. Because I returned from Pakistan frustrated from arguing for perhaps the hundredth time that 4000 Jews did not call in sick to work at the World Trade Center on September 11—explaining that Americans do not classify employees by religion, so how would anyone know?—and that “no, the Jews do not run America.”
“My father is a Jew, my mother is a Jew, and I am a Jew” are the last words Daniel Pearl uttered, an instant before his throat was slashed, according to government officials who have viewed the videotape of his murder. At least one of his captors has admitted that the kidnappers were specifically looking for a Jewish victim. Curiously, government officials and Pearl’s family, as well as his employer, The Wall Street Journal, are downplaying this angle, as if drawing attention to what is clearly an anti-Jewish killing would dishonor Pearl, who was not an observant Jew.
Yet his murderers are identified as members of “a fiercely anti-Semitic Islamic terrorist group called Jaish-e-Mohammed.” I can only wonder about what qualifies as “fiercely anti-Semitic” in Pakistan, where anti-Semitism flows as easily as water. For several months following 9-11, the country’s newspapers published frequent editorials calling for an investigation into Jewish involvement in the World Trade Center bombing. In interviews conducted while I was there, government officials would occasionally veer off into long diatribes about the Jews; fundamentalist religious leaders, who educate hundreds of thousands of children in the country’s madrassas, spoke of little else.
In Islamabad, Syed Ubad Ulah Shah, an elderly mullah responsible for the education of hundreds of youngsters, said, “To me, [the bombing of the World Trade Center] seems the design of the Jewish lobby. The Jewish lobby wants to pit Islam against Christianity.” Seeking out more moderate voices, I introduced myself to a religious leader from Pakistan’s much persecuted Shia community. He was a gentle, educated man, the keeper of a holy shrine outside the city. After we had spent some time together and I had met his family, he asked me, “So can you explain to me, why is it that America lets the Jews run everything? They run the government, the newspapers, they turn the American people against us. Why do you let the Jews spoil things between us—we could be friends.” His sentiments were gentler than most.
In Karachi, the southern port city where Daniel Pearl was kidnapped, I hung out at the dilapidated Karachi Press Club and rode off to cover the anti-war rallies on the backs of mopeds with the local photographers. At one such rally, sponsored by Jamaat-I-Islami, a fundamentalist group, the crowd cheered Osama bin Laden’s image and took turns chanting, “Death to Israel” and “Death to America.” Word spread that a Westerner was in the crowd and people became agitated; stones and fists flew my way before my hosts pulled me to safety. These were times you wanted to crawl out of your skin, pretend you were someone else. I tried to buy a fake passport that listed my citizenship as Canadian. Journalists routinely lied when asked if they were American. Fixers, guides, and interpreters introduced their American clients as Swiss or French.
To admit to being Jewish in such a climate would have been unthinkable. On occasion, people asked me point-blank if I was Jewish. I denied it, listing instead my polyglot background, not bothering to explain that my father is in fact Jewish, but that by Jewish law, I am not. I wonder what Daniel Pearl said in response to such questions. A rudimentary amount of research on the Internet might have revealed that Daniel Pearl’s parents emigrated from Israel; his father’s name is Yehuda. Government officials now say that the kidnappers never intended to release him, that he was kidnapped with the express intention of killing him.
The manner in which he was killed—forced to admit to his Jewish identity before having his throat slashed, left to gasp and strangle in his blood, like an animal being sacrificed to the gods—is horrific beyond words. I had wished for Daniel Pearl what I myself would want in such a situation, a quick painless death—a gunshot to the back of the head. They denied him even that.
As is always the case, Pakistan’s anti-Semitism exists in a vacuum; with the exception of the tiny elite who had traveled abroad, no one I knew had actually met a Jew—there simply aren’t any in Pakistan. Of the country’s 140 million inhabitants, 98 percent are Muslim, the remainder Christians and Sikhs. In a country where perhaps three-quarters of the population is illiterate, people take their cues from their religious leaders and politicians. Few understand the difference between Israel’s hawks and doves, or the nuances and differences of opinion between Sephardim and Ashkenazim, American Jews and Israeli Jews. In an uneducated population, where groupthink is the norm (often, a dozen people would converge on a reporter after a rally spouting identical positions, right down to the wording), groupthink is assumed in the enemy.
In such a climate, Daniel Pearl’s kidnappers stripped him of his humanity; the funny, creative, fiddle-playing husband and father-to-be is lost. It is replaced with the enemy, the other, the Jew.
Kibbutz Criminals
(Note: The Anti-defamation league of the B’nai-Brith (ADL) is a ninety year old organization. According to its charter, as listed on its web-site, its mission’s “ultimate purpose is to secure justice and fair treatment to all citizens alike and to put an end forever to unjust and unfair discrimination against and ridicule of any sect or body of citizens.”
ADL Analysis
Mearsheimer and Walt`s Anti-Israel Screed: A Relentless Assault in Scholarly Guise
Posted: March 24, 2006
The article by John J. Mearsheimer of the University of Chicago and Stephen M. Walt of the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, entitled “The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy” would not be taken seriously if not for the reputations and associations of the authors. They have each written respected scholarly works on government and international relations and occupy important positions at their universities.
The article itself, which was first posted in full on the Kennedy School Web site and then published in executive summary form by the London Review of Books, is a 41-page, amateurish and biased critique of Israel, American Jews, and American policy. It addresses in a perfunctory and all-knowing fashion some of the most important and complicated issues surrounding the Middle East conflict. Nowhere in evidence is a sense of complexity, balance, an examination of the variety of factors that cause an event, or of putting individual comments in perspective – all the appropriate tools for a serious piece of scholarship or journalism.
On every issue, the authors start with unproven, anti-Israel assumptions and then look for isolated examples to justify these assumptions. One does not have to take a pro-Israel position to recognize that the authors, despite their reputations, have no interest in producing a serious, balanced work. The result is a sloppy diatribe.
Here’s how it works. Mearsheimer and Walt start by blaming Israel for everything in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Once establishing Israel’s consistent guilt, from the creation of the state to present day, they then move to asserting that the “Israel lobby” (which is loosely and inconsistently defined) in the United States uses every device and method of pressure politics to stifle criticism of Israel and to ensure America’s pro-Israel policy, against America’s true interests and to serve the interests of the Jewish state.
On Israel’s founding, they cite as truth several of the most extreme anti-Israel perspectives. They write of Israel’s “crimes against the Palestinians” in the creation of the state. They select a single quotation from David Ben Gurion to “prove” that Israel did not accept the partition of Palestine. They present as the primary explanation of the refugee problem that grew out of the War of Independence the theory that Israel deliberately and calculatedly expelled Palestinians.
On all these matters, there is extensive historiographical work developed over decades presenting many perspectives. Criticism of Israeli policies is part of these perspectives. Thus, for example, on the refugee issue, scholars recognize that a certain number of Palestinians were forced from their homes. But, they also recognize that others left at the urging of Arab leaders and most left simply because warfare causes people to flee. The authors, however, are not interested in complex truths because they would undermine their goal to blame Israel for everything.
Similarly, with regard to the issue of peace, the authors “know” that Israel has never been serious about reconciliation with the Palestinians and therefore they must find a way to dismiss Israeli offers to the Palestinians. Most notable is their denigration of Prime Minister Ehud Barak’s (and President Bill Clinton’s) offer to Yasir Arafat at Camp David as not providing the Palestinians the possibility of a state but “Bantustans.” Not only is this selecting the most extreme negative depiction of what happened at Camp David, but it ignores the further concessions made by Israel in the negotiations at Taba several months after the violence of the second Intifada began.
On terrorism, they concede that the murder of civilians is a bad thing, but they rationalize it (read blame Israel) by saying it’s not surprising, “because the Palestinians believe they have no other way to force Israeli concessions.”
All of this sets up their main purpose: to demonize what they describe as the “Israel lobby.” Since Israel is now established as the bad guy, as not serving American interests, the activities of the lobby are by definition working against what is good for America.
The authors make sure to pay lip service to the notion that pro-Israel activists in America have every right in a democracy to lobby their government and that they are not suggesting any conspiracy resembling that offered by the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. But this is merely lip service because the nonstop one-sidedness of their presentation, their gross exaggeration of the power of the “lobby”, the disregard for the consistently broad-based American public support for Israel, the omission of the very many interests that the U.S. has in a strong and safe Israel, and their overriding theme that policymakers are controlled by the “lobby,” adds up to an effort to delegitimize the work of pro-Israel activists and has elements of classic anti-Jewish conspiracy theories. Characteristics of such conspiracies are ideas that Jews have excessive, overarching power; that they are more loyal to an outside party – Israel in this case – than to their own country, America; and that Jews don’t function as individual citizens, but as a cabal.
In order to justify their accusation, they deliberately distort basic realities. They try to make a case that the “lobby” stifles any discussions that might lead to criticism of Israel. That they would focus on the U.S. Congress is not surprising (though false), since there the overwhelming support for Israel at least might give the impression of such a reality. The game is given away, however, when they make the same point with regard to two other U.S. institutions, the media and campuses. To suggest that criticism of Israel in these two places is stifled is laughable, even to those who don’t see these institutions as threatening to Israel. The list of criticisms of Israel both in the media and on campus is encyclopedic.
Similarly, the authors’ claim that the “lobby” prevents appointments in the Executive branch of government of anyone critical of Israel is absurd. Naturally, friends of Israel look to have friends in every administration, but to conclude that they in any way control this process ignores a range of officials such as Brzezinski, Baker, Scowcroft and others who hardly fall into the “in Israel’s pocket” category.
Other examples of the paper’s outlandish distortions and simplemindedness include the “evidence” of the power of the lobby in the establishment of Jewish chairs and programs in universities around the country. Aside from the fact that the authors simply ignore the importance of such scholarship to society and the Jewish community, to speak to this as an indicator of Jewish power without a mention of the millions and millions of dollars being spent by Arab regimes in the Persian Gulf – regimes that themselves do not have a culture of democracy and free expression – to set up massive programs in major universities (including Harvard), is just one more example of how outlandish this work is.
As to anti-Semitism in Europe, which is depicted as another subject the lobby manipulates to gain power and influence, Measheimer and Walt do the expected – accuse the Jews of falsely screaming anti-Semitism at what they suggest is merely legitimate criticism of Israel. The fact that European leaders like Jacques Chirac, Silvio Berlusconi and Joschka Fischer have long ago made clear that there is a serious problem of anti-Semitism makes no impression. Nor that so many in the Jewish community clearly differentiate between legitimate criticism of the Jewish state and the demonization, delegitimization and double standard employed against Israel that is either inherently anti-Semitic or generates an environment of anti-Semitism.
Again, on the Bush Administration’s entry into Iraq there obviously is much room for criticism, including criticism of the neoconservatives. What is unacceptable in this paper is the charge that the neocons encouraged the war totally or primarily to serve Israel’s interests, not America’s. Neoconservatives going back to the Cold War days always had a very particular view of American interests in the world, which they argued strenuously. Whether one agreed with that view or not, there is no basis ever for suggesting then, or now, that Israel’s interests superseded those of the U.S. in their thinking.
And finally, there’s the issue of Iran developing nuclear capability. As in everything else that Mearsheimer and Walt speak to, it is Israel’s alleged interests that drive U.S. policy. The fact that not only the United States, but Europe and even the International Atomic Energy Agency see Iran’s nuclear aspirations as a threat to world peace is lost on them (maybe better so because it might lead them to conclude that the “Israel lobby” now controls the entire international community). The mantra is repeated: American is not in jeopardy, Israel is, and because of the power of the “Israel lobby,” America acts against its own interests.
All of these examples point to the authors’ relentless obsession to see the world through their own narrowly conceived and intentionally distorted prism. It makes for one of the most unprofessional works coming out of respectable quarters. Undoubtedly, the anti-Israel forces will be citing this study for a long time to come. Because of its extremism, however, we can hope that mainstream individuals and institutions will see it for what it is – a classical conspiratorial anti-Semitic analysis invoking the canards of Jewish power and Jewish control.
Posted by
bjkumar
Mar 26, 2006 02:01 pm
(Note: The Anti-defamation league of the B’nai-Brith (ADL) is a ninety year old organization. According to its charter, as listed on its web-site, its mission’s “ultimate purpose is to secure justice and fair treatment to all citizens alike and to put an end forever to unjust and unfair discrimination against and ridicule of any sect or body of citizens.”
Mearsheimer and Walt`s Anti-Israel Screed: A Relentless Assault in Scholarly Guise
Posted: March 24, 2006
The article by John J. Mearsheimer of the University of Chicago and Stephen M. Walt of the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, entitled “The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy” would not be taken seriously if not for the reputations and associations of the authors. They have each written respected scholarly works on government and international relations and occupy important positions at their universities.
The article itself, which was first posted in full on the Kennedy School Web site and then published in executive summary form by the London Review of Books, is a 41-page, amateurish and biased critique of Israel, American Jews, and American policy. It addresses in a perfunctory and all-knowing fashion some of the most important and complicated issues surrounding the Middle East conflict. Nowhere in evidence is a sense of complexity, balance, an examination of the variety of factors that cause an event, or of putting individual comments in perspective – all the appropriate tools for a serious piece of scholarship or journalism.
On every issue, the authors start with unproven, anti-Israel assumptions and then look for isolated examples to justify these assumptions. One does not have to take a pro-Israel position to recognize that the authors, despite their reputations, have no interest in producing a serious, balanced work. The result is a sloppy diatribe.
Here’s how it works. Mearsheimer and Walt start by blaming Israel for everything in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Once establishing Israel’s consistent guilt, from the creation of the state to present day, they then move to asserting that the “Israel lobby” (which is loosely and inconsistently defined) in the United States uses every device and method of pressure politics to stifle criticism of Israel and to ensure America’s pro-Israel policy, against America’s true interests and to serve the interests of the Jewish state.
On Israel’s founding, they cite as truth several of the most extreme anti-Israel perspectives. They write of Israel’s “crimes against the Palestinians” in the creation of the state. They select a single quotation from David Ben Gurion to “prove” that Israel did not accept the partition of Palestine. They present as the primary explanation of the refugee problem that grew out of the War of Independence the theory that Israel deliberately and calculatedly expelled Palestinians.
On all these matters, there is extensive historiographical work developed over decades presenting many perspectives. Criticism of Israeli policies is part of these perspectives. Thus, for example, on the refugee issue, scholars recognize that a certain number of Palestinians were forced from their homes. But, they also recognize that others left at the urging of Arab leaders and most left simply because warfare causes people to flee. The authors, however, are not interested in complex truths because they would undermine their goal to blame Israel for everything.
Similarly, with regard to the issue of peace, the authors “know” that Israel has never been serious about reconciliation with the Palestinians and therefore they must find a way to dismiss Israeli offers to the Palestinians. Most notable is their denigration of Prime Minister Ehud Barak’s (and President Bill Clinton’s) offer to Yasir Arafat at Camp David as not providing the Palestinians the possibility of a state but “Bantustans.” Not only is this selecting the most extreme negative depiction of what happened at Camp David, but it ignores the further concessions made by Israel in the negotiations at Taba several months after the violence of the second Intifada began.
On terrorism, they concede that the murder of civilians is a bad thing, but they rationalize it (read blame Israel) by saying it’s not surprising, “because the Palestinians believe they have no other way to force Israeli concessions.”
All of this sets up their main purpose: to demonize what they describe as the “Israel lobby.” Since Israel is now established as the bad guy, as not serving American interests, the activities of the lobby are by definition working against what is good for America.
The authors make sure to pay lip service to the notion that pro-Israel activists in America have every right in a democracy to lobby their government and that they are not suggesting any conspiracy resembling that offered by the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. But this is merely lip service because the nonstop one-sidedness of their presentation, their gross exaggeration of the power of the “lobby”, the disregard for the consistently broad-based American public support for Israel, the omission of the very many interests that the U.S. has in a strong and safe Israel, and their overriding theme that policymakers are controlled by the “lobby,” adds up to an effort to delegitimize the work of pro-Israel activists and has elements of classic anti-Jewish conspiracy theories. Characteristics of such conspiracies are ideas that Jews have excessive, overarching power; that they are more loyal to an outside party – Israel in this case – than to their own country, America; and that Jews don’t function as individual citizens, but as a cabal.
In order to justify their accusation, they deliberately distort basic realities. They try to make a case that the “lobby” stifles any discussions that might lead to criticism of Israel. That they would focus on the U.S. Congress is not surprising (though false), since there the overwhelming support for Israel at least might give the impression of such a reality. The game is given away, however, when they make the same point with regard to two other U.S. institutions, the media and campuses. To suggest that criticism of Israel in these two places is stifled is laughable, even to those who don’t see these institutions as threatening to Israel. The list of criticisms of Israel both in the media and on campus is encyclopedic.
Similarly, the authors’ claim that the “lobby” prevents appointments in the Executive branch of government of anyone critical of Israel is absurd. Naturally, friends of Israel look to have friends in every administration, but to conclude that they in any way control this process ignores a range of officials such as Brzezinski, Baker, Scowcroft and others who hardly fall into the “in Israel’s pocket” category.
Other examples of the paper’s outlandish distortions and simplemindedness include the “evidence” of the power of the lobby in the establishment of Jewish chairs and programs in universities around the country. Aside from the fact that the authors simply ignore the importance of such scholarship to society and the Jewish community, to speak to this as an indicator of Jewish power without a mention of the millions and millions of dollars being spent by Arab regimes in the Persian Gulf – regimes that themselves do not have a culture of democracy and free expression – to set up massive programs in major universities (including Harvard), is just one more example of how outlandish this work is.
As to anti-Semitism in Europe, which is depicted as another subject the lobby manipulates to gain power and influence, Measheimer and Walt do the expected – accuse the Jews of falsely screaming anti-Semitism at what they suggest is merely legitimate criticism of Israel. The fact that European leaders like Jacques Chirac, Silvio Berlusconi and Joschka Fischer have long ago made clear that there is a serious problem of anti-Semitism makes no impression. Nor that so many in the Jewish community clearly differentiate between legitimate criticism of the Jewish state and the demonization, delegitimization and double standard employed against Israel that is either inherently anti-Semitic or generates an environment of anti-Semitism.
Again, on the Bush Administration’s entry into Iraq there obviously is much room for criticism, including criticism of the neoconservatives. What is unacceptable in this paper is the charge that the neocons encouraged the war totally or primarily to serve Israel’s interests, not America’s. Neoconservatives going back to the Cold War days always had a very particular view of American interests in the world, which they argued strenuously. Whether one agreed with that view or not, there is no basis ever for suggesting then, or now, that Israel’s interests superseded those of the U.S. in their thinking.
And finally, there’s the issue of Iran developing nuclear capability. As in everything else that Mearsheimer and Walt speak to, it is Israel’s alleged interests that drive U.S. policy. The fact that not only the United States, but Europe and even the International Atomic Energy Agency see Iran’s nuclear aspirations as a threat to world peace is lost on them (maybe better so because it might lead them to conclude that the “Israel lobby” now controls the entire international community). The mantra is repeated: American is not in jeopardy, Israel is, and because of the power of the “Israel lobby,” America acts against its own interests.
All of these examples point to the authors’ relentless obsession to see the world through their own narrowly conceived and intentionally distorted prism. It makes for one of the most unprofessional works coming out of respectable quarters. Undoubtedly, the anti-Israel forces will be citing this study for a long time to come. Because of its extremism, however, we can hope that mainstream individuals and institutions will see it for what it is – a classical conspiratorial anti-Semitic analysis invoking the canards of Jewish power and Jewish control.
Kibbutz Criminals
From an editorial published in the e-magazine ``Forward`` - a New York based publication on Jewish affairs. (http://www.forward.com/articles/7532)
Editorial
In Dark Times, Blame the Jews
March 24, 2006
On the face of it, there`s little that`s new in the provocative research paper ``The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy,`` published online last week by two leading political scientists, John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt. Their underlying thesis, that Israel`s advocates have pressured America into an unjustified and damaging alliance with Israel, has been around for decades, flogged with little success by generations of Israel`s detractors. Their more immediate argument, that Israel and its allies manipulated America into war with Iraq, has been simmering at the edges of the debate since before the invasion. By now it`s part of our national background noise.
What is new and startling is the document`s provenance. Its authors are not fringe gadflies but two of America`s most respected foreign-affairs theorists. One, Mearsheimer, is a distinguished professor at the University of Chicago. The other, Walt, is academic dean of the nation`s most prestigious center of political studies, the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. Though it`s tempting, they can`t be dismissed as cranks outside the mainstream. They are the mainstream.
Even more startling, given who they are, is the flimsiness of their work. Countless facts are simply wrong. Long stretches of argument are implausible, at times almost comically so. Much of their research is oddly amateurish, drawn not from credible documents or primary source interviews but from newspaper clippings, including dozens from this newspaper, seemingly dug up in quick Internet word searches aimed at proving a point, not exploring the truth. Some are wildly misquoted. An undergraduate submitting work like this would be laughed out of class. A dean apparently gets to see it posted on Harvard`s Web site.
Considering the authors` credentials, the paper calls for substantive rebuttal by those who disagree. But that, as we`ll see, is a bit like shooting fish in a barrel. The larger, more urgent question is how things came to this pass. What could possibly have led two of the best and brightest foreign policy mandarins to compose and publish such an embarrassment?
Some of Israel`s more overheated defenders were trying this week to diagnose the problem as a character flaw in the authors. Their solution is to counterattack. That`s a mistake. Leaving aside the folly of trying to answer a claim that Israel is a bully by bullying the messenger, the response misses the point. Mearsheimer and Walt are products of their time.
These are dark, poisonous days we live in, and the poison is spreading. In Iraq, America has stumbled into a quagmire of historic proportions, with global consequences that are proving nothing short of catastrophic. If that weren`t enough, our nation is nearly bankrupt, with a national debt nearly equal to our Gross Domestic Product. And the Arctic is melting. The miscalculations seem inexplicable. There must be someone to blame.
We shouldn`t be surprised, then, at the sight of respected professors, and not only professors, coming unhinged.
The Mearsheimer-Walt paper shows how far the notion that Israel is to blame for the Iraq War has moved from the crackpot fringe to the center. Three years ago it was heard mainly from campus radicals. Two years ago it started getting picked up by a handful of Washington insiders, memorably including Senator Ernest Hollings and General Anthony Zinni. Now it`s reached the heart of the academic establishment.
And the notion has grown with the telling. Compared with the professors, Hollings and Zinni now seem modest in their claims. They argued merely that the Iraq War had been fought for Israel`s benefit. In this they were echoing the widespread theory that the war was foisted on the Bush administration by a cabal of mostly Jewish neoconservatives such as Paul Wolfowitz and Douglas Feith. That was a shaky enough argument back in 2004. It was already clear by then, from the disclosures of former Treasury secretary Paul O`Neill and others, that President Bush had Saddam Hussein in his sights from the moment he entered office. It was also clear, or should have been, that Bush and Cheney had assembled an administration of known quantities, including Wolfowitz and Feith, who served their purposes. The notion that a group of Pentagon underlings could bamboozle the White House into an unintended war was ludicrous on its face. Whatever else might be said of George Bush, he knows his mind and is not easily manipulated.
Mearsheimer and Walt, however, have constructed a far more ambitious theory. They mean to indict the entire U.S.-Israel relationship, going back to the point in 1973 when American aid rose into the billions and America became the essential broker in Middle East diplomacy. Since then, they write, ``the centerpiece of U.S. Middle East policy has been its relationship with Israel. The combination of unwavering U.S. support for Israel and the related effort to spread democracy throughout the region has inflamed Arab and Islamic opinion and jeopardized U.S. security.`` Indeed, ``the United States has a terrorism problem in good part because it is so closely allied with Israel.``
But if America`s ties to Israel were the main cause of America`s current troubles in the Muslim world, as Mearsheimer and Walt argue, then Muslim hostility would have been rising steadily since 1973. It has not. There have been periods of conflict and periods of good will. Things were bad during the early 1980s, around the time of the Lebanon War. They picked up in the late 1980s, when America was working actively to broker Israeli-Palestinian dialogue, and improved even more in the 1990s, when Israel was working toward reconciliation with the Palestinians.
Throughout, groups of terrorists sought to attack American targets, including Hezbollah in the 1980s, Al Qaeda beginning in the 1990s. But they did not represent a groundswell of mass rage. No, the groundswell began in 2000 with the outbreak of the televised intifada. It became a firestorm after the invasion of Iraq in 2003.
If America`s support for Israel has been steady since 1973, as the authors say, then it cannot explain a crisis that erupted in 2000 or 2003.
What`s different, of course, is the ``effort to spread democracy throughout the region.`` Mearsheimer and Walt present it as a natural corollary of American support for Israel, but it`s nothing of the sort. Support for Israel is a broadly popular aspect of American policy that goes back decades. Spreading democracy in the Middle East — or, more precisely, imposing it — is an eccentric doctrine taken up, amid intense controversy, by the current administration. Some of its key advocates see democratization as a way of protecting Israel; others, conversely, support Israel as an outgrowth of their vision of democracy. Some elements of the pro-Israel advocacy community back this crusade enthusiastically; most do not.
Mearsheimer and Walt have no time for such subtleties. For them, the cause of Israel is inseparable from the ideological crusade of the past three years. The Israel they depict, in a relentless, selective marshaling of facts, half-truths and occasional untruths, is a moral burden and a strategic liability. It was conceived in racism and founded in ``explicit acts of ethnic cleansing, including executions, massacres, and rapes by Jews.`` It has been bent since 1948 on expansionism and ethnic purification, and since 1967 on tightening its brutal grip on the West Bank and Gaza. The authors claim repeatedly that they do not question Israel`s right to exist, but they spend page after page doing just that, with barely a hint of a counter-argument.
Then, having dismissed the case for Israel, they ask: ``[I]f neither strategic nor moral arguments can account for America`s support for Israel, how are we to explain it?`` Their answer is ``the Israel Lobby.``
Their lobby is a sprawling alliance of Jewish organizations, major newspapers, Democratic and Republican politicians, liberal and conservative think tanks and more Jewish organizations, all single-mindedly determined to help Israel achieve its goals at the expense of American interests. ``The core of the Lobby,`` they write, ``is comprised of American Jews who make a significant effort in their daily lives to bend U.S. foreign policy so that it advances Israel`s interests.`` To be sure, they hasten to add, ``not all Jewish-Americans are part of the Lobby.`` One 2004 survey found that ``roughly 36 percent of Jewish-Americans said they were either `not very` or `not at all` emotionally attached to Israel.`` Good news: No more than 64% of American Jews are out to undermine America.
Here, again, they protest: They do not mean to impugn. There is, they say, ``nothing improper about American Jews and their Christian allies attempting to sway U.S. policy towards Israel.`` They don`t mean to suggest ``the sort of conspiracy depicted in anti-Semitic tracts like the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.``
It`s just that the Lobby has, well, ``a stranglehold on the U.S. Congress,`` controls key access to the executive branch and suppresses dissent throughout society. Its ``not surprising`` goal, they write, is to weaken Israel`s enemies to the point that ``Israel gets a free hand with the Palestinians, and the United States does most of the fighting, dying, rebuilding, and paying.`` Nothing ``improper`` there.
At times their narrative is surprisingly ill-informed. They state, incorrectly, that Israel did not allow Palestinian refugees to return after 1948. They claim, incorrectly, that Israel`s citizenship laws are based on something they call ``blood kinship.``
They state, incredibly and without substantiation, that Israel`s counter-terrorism raids in the 1950s were aimed at territorial expansion. They claim that Yitzhak Rabin, who first endorsed Palestinian statehood in a Yediot Aharonot interview in 1974, was opposed to Palestinian statehood.
At a more basic level, they ignore or gloss over critical distinctions in their effort to portray ``the Lobby`` as a monolith. Supporters of Israel`s cause are depicted as unanimous in backing territorial expansion and opposing concessions to the Palestinians; when the authors happen to notice advocates of compromise, such as Edgar Bronfman and Seymour Reich, they are presented as lonely voices of dissent rather than as leaders of major factions within the organized Jewish community.
The very term ``pro-Israel`` becomes, in their hands, elastic to the point of deceptiveness. One minute it describes those who are sympathetic to Israel; the next minute it denotes those whose main motivation is loyalty to Israel. By switching back and forth, they manage to make the casual sympathizers melt in among the diehards to create the appearance of a vast, terrifying octopus.
The deception is helped along by the cherry-picking of quotes. In one egregious case, they attempt to prove how deeply Paul Wolfowitz is ``committed to Israel`` by quoting the Forward, which ``once described him as `the most hawkishly pro-Israel voice in the Administration.``` A check of the endnotes shows that the words did appear in the Forward, but they were describing the conventional wisdom, not the Forward`s view. The article was about a pro-Israel rally where Wolfowitz was booed for defending Palestinian rights. The point was that the conventional wisdom was wrong.
Some facts need repeating, though they shouldn`t. Israel was founded by majority vote of the United Nations General Assembly. It has faced and continues to face powerful enemies intent on its destruction. Its citizenship is open to all races and creeds, from European Jews to South American Indians and Vietnamese boat people. Tens of thousands of Israelis are West Bank and Gaza Palestinians who gained their citizenship by marrying Israelis.
Most important, Israel has had the support of successive American administrations in large part because it enjoys the sympathy of much of the American people. In part this flows from Christian religious convictions. In part it reflects admiration for Israeli spunk. In part it stems from a perception of shared values. Israel has not always lived up to its own best ideals. But, unlike much of the world, it tries.
Mearsheimer and Walt join a long line of critics who dislike Israel so deeply that they cannot fathom the support it enjoys in America, and so they search for some malign power capable of perverting America`s good sense. They find it, as others have before, in the Jews.
Posted by
bjkumar
Mar 26, 2006 04:34 am
From an editorial published in the e-magazine ``Forward`` - a New York based publication on Jewish affairs. (http://www.forward.com/articles/7532)
In Dark Times, Blame the Jews
March 24, 2006
On the face of it, there`s little that`s new in the provocative research paper ``The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy,`` published online last week by two leading political scientists, John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt. Their underlying thesis, that Israel`s advocates have pressured America into an unjustified and damaging alliance with Israel, has been around for decades, flogged with little success by generations of Israel`s detractors. Their more immediate argument, that Israel and its allies manipulated America into war with Iraq, has been simmering at the edges of the debate since before the invasion. By now it`s part of our national background noise.
What is new and startling is the document`s provenance. Its authors are not fringe gadflies but two of America`s most respected foreign-affairs theorists. One, Mearsheimer, is a distinguished professor at the University of Chicago. The other, Walt, is academic dean of the nation`s most prestigious center of political studies, the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. Though it`s tempting, they can`t be dismissed as cranks outside the mainstream. They are the mainstream.
Even more startling, given who they are, is the flimsiness of their work. Countless facts are simply wrong. Long stretches of argument are implausible, at times almost comically so. Much of their research is oddly amateurish, drawn not from credible documents or primary source interviews but from newspaper clippings, including dozens from this newspaper, seemingly dug up in quick Internet word searches aimed at proving a point, not exploring the truth. Some are wildly misquoted. An undergraduate submitting work like this would be laughed out of class. A dean apparently gets to see it posted on Harvard`s Web site.
Considering the authors` credentials, the paper calls for substantive rebuttal by those who disagree. But that, as we`ll see, is a bit like shooting fish in a barrel. The larger, more urgent question is how things came to this pass. What could possibly have led two of the best and brightest foreign policy mandarins to compose and publish such an embarrassment?
Some of Israel`s more overheated defenders were trying this week to diagnose the problem as a character flaw in the authors. Their solution is to counterattack. That`s a mistake. Leaving aside the folly of trying to answer a claim that Israel is a bully by bullying the messenger, the response misses the point. Mearsheimer and Walt are products of their time.
These are dark, poisonous days we live in, and the poison is spreading. In Iraq, America has stumbled into a quagmire of historic proportions, with global consequences that are proving nothing short of catastrophic. If that weren`t enough, our nation is nearly bankrupt, with a national debt nearly equal to our Gross Domestic Product. And the Arctic is melting. The miscalculations seem inexplicable. There must be someone to blame.
We shouldn`t be surprised, then, at the sight of respected professors, and not only professors, coming unhinged.
The Mearsheimer-Walt paper shows how far the notion that Israel is to blame for the Iraq War has moved from the crackpot fringe to the center. Three years ago it was heard mainly from campus radicals. Two years ago it started getting picked up by a handful of Washington insiders, memorably including Senator Ernest Hollings and General Anthony Zinni. Now it`s reached the heart of the academic establishment.
And the notion has grown with the telling. Compared with the professors, Hollings and Zinni now seem modest in their claims. They argued merely that the Iraq War had been fought for Israel`s benefit. In this they were echoing the widespread theory that the war was foisted on the Bush administration by a cabal of mostly Jewish neoconservatives such as Paul Wolfowitz and Douglas Feith. That was a shaky enough argument back in 2004. It was already clear by then, from the disclosures of former Treasury secretary Paul O`Neill and others, that President Bush had Saddam Hussein in his sights from the moment he entered office. It was also clear, or should have been, that Bush and Cheney had assembled an administration of known quantities, including Wolfowitz and Feith, who served their purposes. The notion that a group of Pentagon underlings could bamboozle the White House into an unintended war was ludicrous on its face. Whatever else might be said of George Bush, he knows his mind and is not easily manipulated.
Mearsheimer and Walt, however, have constructed a far more ambitious theory. They mean to indict the entire U.S.-Israel relationship, going back to the point in 1973 when American aid rose into the billions and America became the essential broker in Middle East diplomacy. Since then, they write, ``the centerpiece of U.S. Middle East policy has been its relationship with Israel. The combination of unwavering U.S. support for Israel and the related effort to spread democracy throughout the region has inflamed Arab and Islamic opinion and jeopardized U.S. security.`` Indeed, ``the United States has a terrorism problem in good part because it is so closely allied with Israel.``
But if America`s ties to Israel were the main cause of America`s current troubles in the Muslim world, as Mearsheimer and Walt argue, then Muslim hostility would have been rising steadily since 1973. It has not. There have been periods of conflict and periods of good will. Things were bad during the early 1980s, around the time of the Lebanon War. They picked up in the late 1980s, when America was working actively to broker Israeli-Palestinian dialogue, and improved even more in the 1990s, when Israel was working toward reconciliation with the Palestinians.
Throughout, groups of terrorists sought to attack American targets, including Hezbollah in the 1980s, Al Qaeda beginning in the 1990s. But they did not represent a groundswell of mass rage. No, the groundswell began in 2000 with the outbreak of the televised intifada. It became a firestorm after the invasion of Iraq in 2003.
If America`s support for Israel has been steady since 1973, as the authors say, then it cannot explain a crisis that erupted in 2000 or 2003.
What`s different, of course, is the ``effort to spread democracy throughout the region.`` Mearsheimer and Walt present it as a natural corollary of American support for Israel, but it`s nothing of the sort. Support for Israel is a broadly popular aspect of American policy that goes back decades. Spreading democracy in the Middle East — or, more precisely, imposing it — is an eccentric doctrine taken up, amid intense controversy, by the current administration. Some of its key advocates see democratization as a way of protecting Israel; others, conversely, support Israel as an outgrowth of their vision of democracy. Some elements of the pro-Israel advocacy community back this crusade enthusiastically; most do not.
Mearsheimer and Walt have no time for such subtleties. For them, the cause of Israel is inseparable from the ideological crusade of the past three years. The Israel they depict, in a relentless, selective marshaling of facts, half-truths and occasional untruths, is a moral burden and a strategic liability. It was conceived in racism and founded in ``explicit acts of ethnic cleansing, including executions, massacres, and rapes by Jews.`` It has been bent since 1948 on expansionism and ethnic purification, and since 1967 on tightening its brutal grip on the West Bank and Gaza. The authors claim repeatedly that they do not question Israel`s right to exist, but they spend page after page doing just that, with barely a hint of a counter-argument.
Then, having dismissed the case for Israel, they ask: ``[I]f neither strategic nor moral arguments can account for America`s support for Israel, how are we to explain it?`` Their answer is ``the Israel Lobby.``
Their lobby is a sprawling alliance of Jewish organizations, major newspapers, Democratic and Republican politicians, liberal and conservative think tanks and more Jewish organizations, all single-mindedly determined to help Israel achieve its goals at the expense of American interests. ``The core of the Lobby,`` they write, ``is comprised of American Jews who make a significant effort in their daily lives to bend U.S. foreign policy so that it advances Israel`s interests.`` To be sure, they hasten to add, ``not all Jewish-Americans are part of the Lobby.`` One 2004 survey found that ``roughly 36 percent of Jewish-Americans said they were either `not very` or `not at all` emotionally attached to Israel.`` Good news: No more than 64% of American Jews are out to undermine America.
Here, again, they protest: They do not mean to impugn. There is, they say, ``nothing improper about American Jews and their Christian allies attempting to sway U.S. policy towards Israel.`` They don`t mean to suggest ``the sort of conspiracy depicted in anti-Semitic tracts like the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.``
It`s just that the Lobby has, well, ``a stranglehold on the U.S. Congress,`` controls key access to the executive branch and suppresses dissent throughout society. Its ``not surprising`` goal, they write, is to weaken Israel`s enemies to the point that ``Israel gets a free hand with the Palestinians, and the United States does most of the fighting, dying, rebuilding, and paying.`` Nothing ``improper`` there.
At times their narrative is surprisingly ill-informed. They state, incorrectly, that Israel did not allow Palestinian refugees to return after 1948. They claim, incorrectly, that Israel`s citizenship laws are based on something they call ``blood kinship.``
They state, incredibly and without substantiation, that Israel`s counter-terrorism raids in the 1950s were aimed at territorial expansion. They claim that Yitzhak Rabin, who first endorsed Palestinian statehood in a Yediot Aharonot interview in 1974, was opposed to Palestinian statehood.
At a more basic level, they ignore or gloss over critical distinctions in their effort to portray ``the Lobby`` as a monolith. Supporters of Israel`s cause are depicted as unanimous in backing territorial expansion and opposing concessions to the Palestinians; when the authors happen to notice advocates of compromise, such as Edgar Bronfman and Seymour Reich, they are presented as lonely voices of dissent rather than as leaders of major factions within the organized Jewish community.
The very term ``pro-Israel`` becomes, in their hands, elastic to the point of deceptiveness. One minute it describes those who are sympathetic to Israel; the next minute it denotes those whose main motivation is loyalty to Israel. By switching back and forth, they manage to make the casual sympathizers melt in among the diehards to create the appearance of a vast, terrifying octopus.
The deception is helped along by the cherry-picking of quotes. In one egregious case, they attempt to prove how deeply Paul Wolfowitz is ``committed to Israel`` by quoting the Forward, which ``once described him as `the most hawkishly pro-Israel voice in the Administration.``` A check of the endnotes shows that the words did appear in the Forward, but they were describing the conventional wisdom, not the Forward`s view. The article was about a pro-Israel rally where Wolfowitz was booed for defending Palestinian rights. The point was that the conventional wisdom was wrong.
Some facts need repeating, though they shouldn`t. Israel was founded by majority vote of the United Nations General Assembly. It has faced and continues to face powerful enemies intent on its destruction. Its citizenship is open to all races and creeds, from European Jews to South American Indians and Vietnamese boat people. Tens of thousands of Israelis are West Bank and Gaza Palestinians who gained their citizenship by marrying Israelis.
Most important, Israel has had the support of successive American administrations in large part because it enjoys the sympathy of much of the American people. In part this flows from Christian religious convictions. In part it reflects admiration for Israeli spunk. In part it stems from a perception of shared values. Israel has not always lived up to its own best ideals. But, unlike much of the world, it tries.
Mearsheimer and Walt join a long line of critics who dislike Israel so deeply that they cannot fathom the support it enjoys in America, and so they search for some malign power capable of perverting America`s good sense. They find it, as others have before, in the Jews.
Kibbutz Criminals
Here are a few facts which underlie the reasons why (1) a Jewish state was needed after two thousand years, and (2) no SANE individual in the world carelessly throws around words like ``holocaust`` or tries to trivialize the series of events that the term symbolizes at any time - or tries to draw any parallels to two-bit contemporary events of the type which form the bread-and-butter for this web-site.
Holocaust Timeline
(Source: www.historyplace.com)
Jan 30, 1933 - Adolf Hitler is appointed Chancellor of Germany - a nation with a Jewish population of 566,000.
Feb 22, 1933 - 40,000 SA and SS men are sworn in as auxiliary police.
Feb 27, 1933 - Nazis burn Reichstag building to create crisis atmosphere.
Feb 28, 1933 - Emergency powers granted to Hitler as a result of the Reichstag fire.
March 22, 1933 - Nazis open Dachau concentration camp near Munich, to be followed by Buchenwald near Weimar in central Germany, Sachsenhausen near Berlin in northern Germany, and Ravensbrück for women.
March 24, 1933 - German Parliament passes Enabling Act giving Hitler dictatorial powers.
April 1, 1933 - Nazis stage boycott of Jewish shops and businesses.
April 11, 1933 - Nazis issue a decree defining a non-Aryan as ``anyone descended from non-Aryan, especially Jewish, parents or grandparents. One parent or grandparent classifies the descendant as non-Aryan...especially if one parent or grandparent was of the Jewish faith.``
April 26, 1933 - The Gestapo is born, created by Hermann Göring in the German state of Prussia.
May 10, 1933 - Burning of books in Berlin and throughout Germany.
July 14, 1933 - Nazi Party is declared the only legal party in Germany; Also, Nazis pass Law to strip Jewish immigrants from Poland of their German citizenship.
In July - Nazis pass law allowing for forced sterilization of those found by a Hereditary Health Court to have genetic defects.
In Sept - Nazis establish Reich Chamber of Culture, then exclude Jews from the Arts.
Sept 29, 1933 - Nazis prohibit Jews from owning land.
Oct 4, 1933 - Jews are prohibited from being newspaper editors.
Nov 24, 1933 - Nazis pass a Law against Habitual and Dangerous Criminals, which allows beggars, the homeless, alcoholics and the unemployed to be sent to concentration camps.
Jan 24, 1934 - Jews are banned from the German Labor Front.
May 17, 1934 - Jews not allowed national health insurance.
June 30, 1934 - The Night of Long Knives occurs as Hitler, Göring and Himmler conduct a purge of the SA (storm trooper) leadership.
July 20, 1934 - The SS (Schutzstaffel) is made an independent organization from the SA.
July 22, 1934 - Jews are prohibited from getting legal qualifications.
Aug 2, 1934 - German President von Hindenburg dies. Hitler becomes Führer.
Aug 19, 1934 - Hitler receives a 90 percent `Yes` vote from German voters approving his new powers.
May 21, 1935 - Nazis ban Jews from serving in the military.
June 26, 1935 - Nazis pass law allowing forced abortions on women to prevent them from passing on hereditary diseases.
Aug 6, 1935 - Nazis force Jewish performers/artists to join Jewish Cultural Unions.
Sept 15, 1935 - Nuremberg Race Laws against Jews decreed.
Feb 10, 1936 - The German Gestapo is placed above the law.
In March - SS Deathshead division is established to guard concentration camps.
March 7, 1936 - Nazis occupy the Rhineland.
June 17, 1936 - Heinrich Himmler is appointed chief of the German Police.
Aug 1, 1936 - Olympic games begin in Berlin. Hitler and top Nazis seek to gain legitimacy through favorable public opinion from foreign visitors and thus temporarily refrain from actions against Jews.
In Aug - Nazis set up an Office for Combating Homosexuality and Abortions (by healthy women).
In Jan - Jews are banned from many professional occupations including teaching Germans, and from being accountants or dentists. They are also denied tax reductions and child allowances.
Nov 8, 1937 - `Eternal Jew` travelling exhibition opens in Munich.
March 12/13, 1938 - Nazi troops enter Austria, which has a population of 200,000 Jews, mainly living in Vienna. Hitler announces Anschluss (union) with Austria.
In March - After the Anschluss, the SS is placed in charge of Jewish affairs in Austria with Adolf Eichmann establishing an Office for Jewish Emigration in Vienna. Himmler then establishes Mauthausen concentration camp near Linz.
April 22, 1938 - Nazis prohibit Aryan `front-ownership` of Jewish businesses.
April 26, 1938 - Nazis order Jews to register wealth and property.
June 14, 1938 - Nazis order Jewish owned businesses to register.
In July - At Evian, France, the U.S. convenes a League of Nations conference with delegates from 32 countries to consider helping Jews fleeing Hitler, but results in inaction as no country will accept them.
July 6, 1938 - Nazis prohibited Jews from trading and providing a variety of specified commercial services.
July 23, 1938 - Nazis order Jews over age 15 to apply for identity cards from the police, to be shown on demand to any police officer.
July 25, 1938 - Jewish doctors prohibited by law from practicing medicine.
Aug 11, 1938 - Nazis destroy the synagogue in Nuremberg.
Aug 17, 1938 - Nazis require Jewish women to add Sarah and men to add Israel to their names on all legal documents including passports.
Sept 27, 1938 - Jews are prohibited from all legal practices.
Oct 5, 1938 - Law requires Jewish passports to be stamped with a large red ``J.``
Oct 15, 1938 - Nazi troops occupy the Sudetenland.
Oct 28, 1938 - Nazis arrest 17,000 Jews of Polish nationality living in Germany, then expel them back to Poland which refuses them entry, leaving them in `no-man`s land` near the Polish border for several months.
Nov 7, 1938 - Ernst vom Rath, third secretary in the German Embassy in Paris, is shot and mortally wounded by Herschel Grynszpan, the 17 year old son of one of the deported Polish Jews. Rath dies on November 9, precipitating Kristallnacht.
Nov 9/10 - Kristallnacht - The Night of Broken Glass.
Nov 12, 1938 - Nazis fine Jews one billion marks for damages related to Kristallnacht.
Nov 15, 1938 - Jewish pupils are expelled from all non-Jewish German schools.
Dec 3, 1938 - Law for compulsory Aryanization of all Jewish businesses.
Dec 14, 1938 - Hermann Göring takes charge of resolving the ``Jewish Question.``
Jan 24, 1939 - SS leader Reinhard Heydrich is ordered by Göring to speed up emigration of Jews.
Jan 30, 1939 - Hitler threatens Jews during Reichstag speech.
Feb 21, 1939 - Nazis force Jews to hand over all gold and silver items.
March 15/16 - Nazi troops seize Czechoslovakia (Jewish pop. 350,000).
April 19, 1939 - Slovakia passes its own version of the Nuremberg Laws.
April 30, 1939 - Jews lose rights as tenants and are relocated into Jewish houses.
In May - The St. Louis, a ship crowded with 930 Jewish refugees, is turned away by Cuba, the United States and other countries and returns to Europe.
July 4, 1939 - German Jews denied the right to hold government jobs.
July 21, 1939 - Adolf Eichmann is appointed director of the Prague Office of Jewish Emigration.
Sept 1, 1939 - Nazis invade Poland (Jewish pop. 3.35 million, the largest in Europe). Beginning of SS activity in Poland.
Sept 1, 1939 - Jews in Germany are forbidden to be outdoors after 8 p.m. in winter and 9 p.m. in summer.
Sept 3, 1939 - England and France declare war on Germany.
Sept 4, 1939 - Warsaw is cut off by the German Army.
Sept 17, 1939 - Soviet troops invade eastern Poland.
Sept 21, 1939 - Heydrich issues instructions to SS Einsatzgruppen (special action squads) in Poland regarding treatment of Jews, stating they are to be gathered into ghettos near railroads for the future ``final goal.`` He also orders a census and the establishment of Jewish administrative councils within the ghettos to implement Nazi policies and decrees.
Sept 23, 1939 - German Jews are forbidden to own wireless (radio) sets.
Sept 27, 1939 - Warsaw surrenders; Heydrich becomes leader of RSHA.
Sept 29, 1939 - Nazis and Soviets divide up Poland. Over two million Jews reside in Nazi controlled areas, leaving 1.3 million in the Soviet area.
In Sept - Quote from Nazi newspaper, Der Stürmer, published by Julius Streicher - ``The Jewish people ought to be exterminated root and branch. Then the plague of pests would have disappeared in Poland at one stroke.``
In Oct - Nazis begin euthanasia on sick and disabled in Germany.
Oct 6, 1939 - Proclamation by Hitler on the isolation of Jews.
Oct 12, 1939 - Evacuation of Jews from Vienna.
Oct 12, 1939 - Hans Frank appointed Nazi Gauleiter (governor) of Poland.
Oct 26, 1939 - Forced labor decree issued for Polish Jews aged 14 to 60.
Nov 23, 1939 - Yellow stars required to be worn by Polish Jews over age 10.
In Dec - Adolf Eichmann takes over section IV B4 of the Gestapo dealing solely with Jewish affairs and evacuations.
Jan 25, 1940 - Nazis choose the town of Oswiecim (Auschwitz) in Poland near Krakow as site of new concentration camp.
In Jan - Quote from Nazi newspaper, Der Stürmer, published by Julius Streicher - ``...The time is near when a machine will go into motion which is going to prepare a grave for the world`s criminal - Judah - from which there will be no resurrection.``
Feb 12, 1940 - First deportation of German Jews into occupied Poland.
April 9, 1940 - Nazis invade Denmark (Jewish pop. 8,000) and Norway (Jewish pop. 2,000).
April 30, 1940 - The Lodz Ghetto in occupied Poland is sealed off from the outside world with 230,000 Jews locked inside.
May 1, 1940 - Rudolf Höss is chosen to be kommandant of Auschwitz.
May 10, 1940 - Nazis invade France (Jewish pop. 350,000), Belgium (Jewish pop. 65,000), Holland (Jewish pop. 140,000), and Luxembourg (Jewish pop. 3,500).
June 14, 1940 - Paris is occupied by the Nazis.
June 22, 1940 - France signs an armistice with Hitler.
In July - Eichmann`s Madagascar Plan presented, proposing to deport all European Jews to the island of Madagascar, off the coast of east Africa.
July 17, 1940 - The first anti-Jewish measures are taken in Vichy France.
Aug 8, 1940 - Romania introduces anti-Jewish measures restricting education and employment, then later begins ``Romanianization`` of Jewish businesses.
Sept 27, 1940 - Tripartite (Axis) Pact signed by Germany, Italy and Japan.
Oct 3, 1940 - Vichy France passes its own version of the Nuremberg Laws.
Oct 7, 1940 - Nazis invade Romania (Jewish pop. 34,000).
Oct 22, 1940 - Deportation of 29,000 German Jews from Baden, the Saar, and Alsace-Lorraine into Vichy France.
In Nov - Hungary, Romania, and Slovakia become Nazi Allies.
In Nov - The Krakow Ghetto is sealed off containing 70,000 Jews.
Nov 15, 1940 - The Warsaw Ghetto, containing over 400,000 Jews, is sealed off.
In 1941 - Hans Frank, Gauleiter of Poland, states, ``I ask nothing of the Jews except that they should disappear.``
In Jan - Quote from Nazi newspaper, Der Stürmer, published by Julius Streicher - ``Now judgment has begun and it will reach its conclusion only when knowledge of the Jews has been erased from the earth.``
In Jan - A pogrom in Romania results in over 2,000 Jews killed.
Feb 22, 1941 - 430 Jewish hostages are deported from Amsterdam after a Dutch Nazi is killed by Jews.
In March - Hitler`s Commissar Order authorizes execution of anyone suspected of being a Communist official in territories about to be seized from the Soviets.
March 1, 1941 - Himmler makes his first visit to Auschwitz, during which he orders Kommandant Höss to begin massive expansion, including a new compound to be built at nearby Birkenau that can hold 100,000 prisoners.
March 2, 1941 - Nazis occupy Bulgaria (Jewish pop. 50,000).
March 7, 1941 - German Jews ordered into forced labor.
March 26, 1941 - The German Army High Command gives approval to RSHA and Heydrich on the tasks of SS murder squads (Einsatzgruppen) in occupied Poland.
March 29, 1941 - A `Commissariat` for Jewish Affairs is set up in Vichy France.
April 6, 1941 - Nazis invade Yugoslavia (Jewish pop. 75,000) and Greece (Jewish pop. 77,000).
May 14, 1941 - 3,600 Jews arrested in Paris.
May 16, 1941 - French Marshal Petain issues a radio broadcast approving collaboration with Hitler.
June 22, 1941 - Nazis invade the Soviet Union (Jewish pop. 3 million).
June 29/30 - Romanian troops conduct a pogrom against Jews in the town of Jassy, killing 10,000.
Summer - Himmler summons Auschwitz Kommandant Höss to Berlin and tells him, ``The Führer has ordered the Final Solution of the Jewish question. We, the SS, have to carry out this order...I have therefore chosen Auschwitz for this purpose.``
In July - As the German Army advances, SS Einsatzgruppen follow along and conduct mass murder of Jews in seized lands.
In July - Ghettos established at Kovno, Minsk, Vitebsk and Zhitomer. Also in July, the government of Vichy France seizes Jewish owned property.
July 17, 1941 - Nazi racial `philosopher` Alfred Rosenberg is appointed Reich Minister for the Eastern Occupied Territories to administer territories seized from the Soviet Union.
July 21, 1941 - In occupied Poland near Lublin, Majdanek concentration camp becomes operational.
July 25/26 - 3,800 Jews killed during a pogrom by Lithuanians in Kovno.
July 31, 1941 - Göring instructs Heydrich to prepare for Final Solution.
In Aug - Jews in Romania forced into Transnistria. By December, 70,000 perish.
In Aug - Ghettos established at Bialystok and Lvov.
Aug 26, 1941 - The Hungarian Army rounds up 18,000 Jews at Kamenets-Podolsk.
Sept 3, 1941 - The first test use of Zyklon-B gas at Auschwitz.
Sept 1, 1941 - German Jews ordered to wear yellow stars.
Sept 6, 1941 - The Vilna Ghetto is established containing 40,000 Jews.
Sept 17, 1941 - Beginning of general deportation of German Jews.
Sept 19, 1941 - Nazis take Kiev.
Sept 27/28 - 23,000 Jews killed at Kamenets-Podolsk, in the Ukraine.
Sept 29/30 - SS Einsatzgruppen murder 33,771 Jews at Babi Yar near Kiev.
In Oct - 35,000 Jews from Odessa shot.
Oct 2, 1941 - Beginning of the German Army drive on Moscow.
Oct 23, 1941 - Nazis forbid emigration of Jews from the Reich.
In Nov - SS Einsatzgruppe B reports a tally of 45,476 Jews killed.
Nov 24, 1941 - Theresienstadt Ghetto is established near Prague, Czechoslovakia. The Nazis will use it as a model ghetto for propaganda purposes.
Nov 30, 1941 - Near Riga, a mass shooting of Latvian and German Jews.
Dec 7, 1941 - Japanese attack United States at Pearl Harbor. The next day the U.S. and Britain declare war on Japan.
Dec 8, 1941 - In occupied Poland, near Lodz, Chelmno extermination camp becomes operational. Jews taken there are placed in mobile gas vans and driven to a burial place while carbon monoxide from the engine exhaust is fed into the sealed rear compartment, killing them. The first gassing victims include 5,000 Gypsies who had been deported from the Reich to Lodz.
Dec 11, 1941 - Hitler declares war on the United States. Roosevelt then declares war on Germany saying, ``Never before has there been a greater challenge to life, liberty and civilization.`` The U.S.A. then enters the war in Europe and will concentrate nearly 90 percent of its military resources to defeat Hitler.
Dec 12, 1941 - The ship ``Struma`` leaves Romania for Palestine carrying 769 Jews but is later denied permission by British authorities to allow the passengers to disembark. In Feb. 1942, it sails back into the Black Sea where it is intercepted by a Soviet submarine and sunk as an ``enemy target.``
Dec 16, 1941 - During a cabinet meeting, Hans Frank, Gauleiter of Poland, states - ``Gentlemen, I must ask you to rid yourselves of all feeling of pity. We must annihilate the Jews wherever we find them and wherever it is possible in order to maintain there the structure of the Reich as a whole...``
1942 Jan - Mass killings of Jews using Zyklon-B begin at Auschwitz-Birkenau in Bunker I (the red farmhouse) in Birkenau with the bodies being buried in mass graves in a nearby meadow.
Jan 20, 1942 - Wannsee Conference to coordinate the ``Final Solution.``
Jan 31, 1942 - SS Einsatzgruppe A reports a tally of 229,052 Jews killed.
In March - In occupied Poland, Belzec extermination camp becomes operational. The camp is fitted with permanent gas chambers using carbon monoxide piped in from engines placed outside the chamber, but will later substitute Zyklon-B.
March 17, 1942 - The deportation of Jews from Lublin to Belzec.
March 24, 1942 - The start of deportation of Slovak Jews to Auschwitz.
March 27, 1942 - The start of deportation of French Jews to Auschwitz.
March 28, 1942 - Fritz Sauckel named Chief of Manpower to expedite recruitment of slave labor.
March 30, 1942 - First trainloads of Jews from Paris arrive at Auschwitz.
In April - First transports of Jews arrive at Majdanek.
April 20, 1942 - German Jews are banned from using public transportation.
In May - In occupied Poland, Sobibor extermination camp becomes operational. The camp is fitted with three gas chambers using carbon monoxide piped in from engines, but will later substitute Zyklon-B.
May 18, 1942 - The New York Times reports on an inside page that Nazis have machine-gunned over 100,000 Jews in the Baltic states, 100,000 in Poland and twice as many in western Russia.
May 27, 1942 - SS leader Heydrich is mortally wounded by Czech Underground agents.
In June - Gas vans used in Riga.
June 1, 1942 - Jews in France, Holland, Belgium, Croatia, Slovakia, Romania ordered to wear yellow stars.
June 4, 1942 - Heydrich dies of his wounds.
June 5, 1942 - SS report 97,000 persons have been ``processed`` in mobile gas vans.
June 10, 1942 - Nazis liquidate Lidice in retaliation for Heydrich`s death.
June 11, 1942 - Eichmann meets with representatives from France, Belgium and Holland to coordinate deportation plans for Jews.
June 30, 1942 - At Auschwitz, a second gas chamber, Bunker II (the white farmhouse), is made operational at Birkenau due to the number of Jews arriving.
June 30 and July 2 - The New York Times reports via the London Daily Telegraph that over 1,000,000 Jews have already been killed by Nazis.
Summer - Swiss representatives of the World Jewish Congress receive information from a German industrialist regarding the Nazi plan to exterminate the Jews. They then pass the information on to London and Washington.
July 2, 1942 - Jews from Berlin sent to Theresienstadt.
July 7, 1942 - Himmler grants permission for sterilization experiments at Auschwitz.
July 14, 1942 - Beginning of deportation of Dutch Jews to Auschwitz.
July 16/17 - 12,887 Jews of Paris are rounded up and sent to Drancy Internment Camp located outside the city. A total of approximately 74,000 Jews, including 11,000 children, will eventually be transported from Drancy to Auschwitz, Majdanek and Sobibor.
July 17/18 - Himmler visits Auschwitz-Birkenau for two days, inspecting all ongoing construction and expansion, then observes the extermination process from start to finish as two trainloads of Jews arrive from Holland. Kommandant Höss is then promoted. Construction includes four large gas chamber/crematories.
July 19, 1942 - Himmler orders Operation Reinhard, mass deportations of Jews in Poland to extermination camps.
July 22, 1942 - Beginning of deportations from the Warsaw Ghetto to the new extermination camp, Treblinka. Also, beginning of the deportation of Belgian Jews to Auschwitz.
July 23, 1942 - Treblinka extermination camp opened in occupied Poland, east of Warsaw. The camp is fitted with two buildings containing 10 gas chambers, each holding 200 persons. Carbon monoxide gas is piped in from engines placed outside the chamber, but Zyklon-B will later be substituted. Bodies are burned in open pits.
In Aug - The start of deportations of Croatian Jews to Auschwitz.
Aug 23, 1942 - Beginning of German Army attack on Stalingrad.
Aug 26-28 - 7,000 Jews arrested in unoccupied France.
Sept 9, 1942 - Open pit burning of bodies begins at Auschwitz in place of burial. The decision is made to dig up and burn those already buried, 107,000 corpses, to prevent fouling of ground water.
Sept 18, 1942 - Reduction of food rations for Jews in Germany.
Sept 26, 1942 - SS begins cashing in possessions and valuables of Jews from Auschwitz and Majdanek. German banknotes are sent to the Reichs Bank. Foreign currency, gold, jewels and other valuables are sent to SS Headquarters of the Economic Administration. Watches, clocks and pens are distributed to troops at the front. Clothing is distributed to German families. By Feb. 1943, over 800 boxcars of confiscated goods will have left Auschwitz.
Oct 5, 1942 - Himmler orders all Jews in concentration camps in Germany to be sent to Auschwitz and Majdanek.
Oct 5, 1942 - A German eyewitness observes SS mass murder.
Oct 14, 1942 - Mass killing of Jews from Mizocz Ghetto in the Ukraine.
Oct 22, 1942 - SS put down a revolt at Sachsenhausen by a group of Jews about to be sent to Auschwitz.
Oct 25, 1942 - Deportations of Jews from Norway to Auschwitz begin.
Oct 28, 1942 - The first transport from Theresienstadt arrives at Auschwitz.
In Nov - The mass killing of 170,000 Jews in the area of Bialystok.
Dec 10, 1942 - The first transport of Jews from Germany arrives at Auschwitz.
In Dec - Exterminations at Belzec cease after an estimated 600,000 Jews have been murdered. The camp is then dismantled, plowed over and planted.
Dec 17, 1942 - British Foreign Secretary Eden tells the British House of Commons the Nazis are ``now carrying into effect Hitler`s oft repeated intention to exterminate the Jewish people of Europe.`` U.S. declares those crimes will be avenged.
Dec 28, 1942 - Sterilization experiments on women at Birkenau begin.
1943 - The number of Jews killed by SS Einsatzgruppen passes one million. Nazis then use special units of slave laborers to dig up and burn the bodies to remove all traces.
Jan 18, 1943 - First resistance by Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto.
Jan 29, 1943 - Nazis order all Gypsies arrested and sent to extermination camps.
Jan 30, 1943 - Ernst Kaltenbrunner succeeds Heydrich as head of RSHA.
In Feb - The Romanian government proposes to the Allies the transfer of 70,000 Jews to Palestine, but receives no response from Britain or the U.S.
In Feb - Greek Jews are ordered into ghettos.
Feb 2, 1943 - Germans surrender at Stalingrad in the first big defeat of Hitler`s armies.
Feb 27, 1943 - Jews working in Berlin armaments industry are sent to Auschwitz.
In March - The start of deportations of Jews from Greece to Auschwitz, lasting until August, totaling 49,900 persons.
March 1, 1943 - In New York, American Jews hold a mass rally at Madison Square Garden to pressure the U.S. government into helping the Jews of Europe
March 14, 1943 - The Krakow Ghetto is liquidated.
March 17, 1943 - Bulgaria states opposition to deportation of its Jews.
March 22, 1943 - Newly built gas chamber/crematory IV opens at Auschwitz.
March 31, 1943 - Newly built gas chamber/crematory II opens at Auschwitz.
April 4, 1943 - Newly built gas chamber/crematory V opens at Auschwitz.
April 9, 1943 - Exterminations at Chelmno cease. The camp will be reactivated in the spring of 1944 to liquidate ghettos. In all, Chelmno will total 300,000 deaths.
April 19-30 - The Bermuda Conference occurs as representatives from the U.S. and Britain discuss the problem of refugees from Nazi-occupied countries, but results in inaction concerning the plight of the Jews.
April 19, 1943 - Waffen SS attacks Jewish Resistance in Warsaw Ghetto.
In May - SS Dr. Josef Mengele arrives at Auschwitz.
May 13, 1943 - German and Italian troops in North Africa surrender to Allies.
May 19, 1943 - Nazis declare Berlin to be Judenfrei (cleansed of Jews).
June 11, 1943 - Himmler orders liquidation of all Jewish ghettos in occupied Poland.
June 25, 1943 - Newly built gas chamber/crematory III opens at Auschwitz. With its completion, the four new crematories at Auschwitz have a daily capacity of 4,756 bodies.
July 9/10 - Allies land in Sicily.
Aug 2, 1943 - Two hundred Jews escape from Treblinka extermination camp during a revolt. Nazis then hunt them down one by one.
Aug 16, 1943 - The Bialystok Ghetto is liquidated.
In Aug - Exterminations cease at Treblinka, after an estimated 870,000 deaths.
In Sept - The Vilna and Minsk Ghettos are liquidated.
Sept 11, 1943 - Germans occupy Rome, after occupying northern and central Italy, containing in all about 35,000 Jews.
Sept 11, 1943 - Beginning of Jewish family transports from Theresienstadt to Auschwitz.
In Oct - The Danish Underground helps transport 7,220 Danish Jews to safety in Sweden by sea.
Oct 4 - Himmler talks openly about the Final Solution at Posen.
Oct 14, 1943 - Massive escape from Sobibor as Jews and Soviet POWs break out, with 300 making it safely into nearby woods. Of those 300, fifty will survive. Exterminations then cease at Sobibor, after over 250,000 deaths. All traces of the death camp are then removed and trees are planted.
Oct 16, 1943 - Jews in Rome rounded up, with over 1,000 sent to Auschwitz.
In Nov - The Riga Ghetto is liquidated.
In Nov - The U.S. Congress holds hearings regarding the U.S. State Department`s inaction regarding European Jews, despite mounting reports of mass extermination.
Nov 3, 1943 - Nazis carry out Operation Harvest Festival in occupied Poland, killing 42,000 Jews.
Nov 4, 1943 - Quote from Nazi newspaper, Der Stürmer, published by Julius Streicher - ``It is actually true that the Jews have, so to speak, disappeared from Europe and that the Jewish `Reservoir of the East` from which the Jewish pestilence has for centuries beset the peoples of Europe has ceased to exist. But the Führer of the German people at the beginning of the war prophesied what has now come to pass.``
Nov 11, 1943 - Auschwitz Kommandant Höss is promoted to chief inspector of concentration camps. The new kommandant, Liebehenschel, then divides up the vast Auschwitz complex of over 30 sub-camps into three main sections.
Dec 2, 1943 - The first transport of Jews from Vienna arrives at Auschwitz.
Dec 16, 1943 - The chief surgeon at Auschwitz reports that 106 castration operations have been performed.
Jan 3, 1944 - Soviet troops reach former Polish border.
Jan 24, 1944 - In response to political pressure to help Jews under Nazi control, Roosevelt creates the War Refugee Board.
Jan 25, 1944 - Diary entry by Hans Frank, Gauleiter of Poland, concerning the fate of 2.5 million Jews originally under his jurisdiction - ``At the present time we still have in the General Government perhaps 100,000 Jews.``
In Feb - Eichmann visits Auschwitz.
March 19, 1944 - Nazis occupy Hungary (Jewish pop. 725,000). Eichmann arrives with Gestapo ``Special Section Commandos.``
March 24, 1944 - President Roosevelt issues a statement condemning German and Japanese ongoing ``crimes against humanity.``
April 5, 1944 - A Jewish inmate, Siegfried Lederer, escapes from Auschwitz-Birkenau and makes it safely to Czechoslovakia. He then warns the Elders of the Council at Theresienstadt about Auschwitz.
April 6, 1944 - Nazis raid a French home for Jewish children.
April 7, 1944 - Two Jewish inmates escape from Auschwitz-Birkenau and make it safely to Czechoslovakia. One of them, Rudolf Vrba, submits a report to the Papal Nuncio in Slovakia which is forwarded to the Vatican, received there in mid June.
April 14, 1944 - First transports of Jews from Athens to Auschwitz, totaling 5,200 persons.
In May - Himmler`s agents secretly propose to the western Allies to trade Jews for trucks, other commodities or money.
May 8, 1944 - Rudolf Höss returns to Auschwitz, ordered by Himmler to oversee the extermination of Hungarian Jews.
May 15, 1944 - Beginning of deportation of Jews from Hungary to Auschwitz.
May 16, 1944 - Jews from Hungary arrive at Auschwitz. Eichmann arrives to personally oversee and speed up the extermination process. By May 24, an estimated 100,000 have been gassed. Between May 16 and May 31, the SS report collecting 88 pounds of gold and white metal from the teeth of those gassed. By the end of June, 381,661 persons - half of the Jews in Hungary - arrive at Auschwitz.
In June - A Red Cross delegation visits Theresienstadt after the Nazis have carefully prepared the camp and the Jewish inmates, resulting in a favorable report.
June 6, 1944 - D-Day: Allied landings in Normandy.
June 12, 1944 - Rosenberg orders Hay Action the kidnapping of 40,000 Polish children aged ten to fourteen for slave labor in the Reich.
Summer - Auschwitz-Birkenau records its highest-ever daily number of persons gassed and burned at just over 9,000. Six huge pits are used to burn bodies, as the number exceeds the capacity of the crematories.
In July - Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg arrives in Budapest, Hungary, and proceeds to save nearly 33,000 Jews by issuing diplomatic papers and establishing `safe houses.`
July 24, 1944 - Soviet troops liberate first concentration camp at Majdanek where over 360,000 had been murdered.
Aug 4, 1944 - Anne Frank and family arrested by Gestapo in Amsterdam, then sent to Auschwitz. Anne and her sister Margot are later sent to Bergen-Belsen where Anne dies of typhus on March 15, 1945.
Aug 6, 1944 - The last Jewish ghetto in Poland, Lodz, is liquidated with 60,000 Jews sent to Auschwitz.
Oct 7, 1944 - A revolt by Sonderkommando (Jewish slave laborers) at Auschwitz-Birkenau results in complete destruction of Crematory IV.
Oct 15, 1944 - Nazis seize control of the Hungarian puppet government, then resume deporting Jews, which had temporarily ceased due to international political pressure to stop Jewish persecutions.
Oct 17, 1944 - Eichmann arrives in Hungary.
Oct 28, 1944 - The last transport of Jews to be gassed, 2,000 from Theresienstadt, arrives at Auschwitz.
Oct 30, 1944 - Last use of gas chambers at Auschwitz.
Nov 8, 1944 - Nazis force 25,000 Jews to walk over 100 miles in rain and snow from Budapest to the Austrian border, followed by a second forced march of 50,000 persons, ending at Mauthausen.
Nov 25, 1944 - Himmler orders the destruction of the crematories at Auschwitz.
Late 1944 - Oskar Schindler saves 1200 Jews by moving them from Plaszow labor camp to his hometown of Brunnlitz.
In 1945 - As the Allies advance, the Nazis conduct death marches of concentration camp inmates away from outlying areas.
Jan 6, 1945 - Soviets liberate Budapest, freeing over 80,000 Jews.
Jan 14, 1945 - Invasion of eastern Germany by Soviet troops.
Jan 17, 1945 - Liberation of Warsaw by the Soviets.
Jan 18, 1945 - Nazis evacuate 66,000 from Auschwitz.
Jan 27, 1945 - Soviet troops liberate Auschwitz. By this time, an estimated 2,000,000 persons, including 1,500,000 Jews, have been murdered there.
April 4, 1945 - Ohrdruf camp is liberated, later visited by General Eisenhower.
April 10, 1945 - Allies liberate Buchenwald.
April 15, 1945 - Approximately 40,000 prisoners freed at Bergen-Belsen by the British, who report ``both inside and outside the huts was a carpet of dead bodies, human excreta, rags and filth.``
April 23, 1945 - Berlin reached by Soviet troops.
April 29, 1945 - U.S. 7th Army liberates Dachau.
April 30, 1945 - Hitler commits suicide in his Berlin bunker.
April 30, 1945 - Americans free 33,000 inmates from concentration camps.
May 2, 1945 - Theresienstadt taken over by the Red Cross.
May 5, 1945 - Mauthausen liberated.
May 7, 1945 - Unconditional German surrender signed by Gen. Jodl at Reims.
May 9, 1945 - Hermann Göring captured by members of U.S. 7th Army.
May 23, 1945 - SS Reichsführer Himmler commits suicide.
Nov 20, 1945 - Opening of the Nuremberg International Military Tribunal.
March 11, 1946 - Former Auschwitz Kommandant Höss, posing as a farm worker, is arrested by the British. He testifies at Nuremberg, then is later tried in Warsaw, found guilty and hanged at Auschwitz, April 16, 1947, near Crematory I. ``History will mark me as the greatest mass murderer of all time,`` Höss writes while in prison, along with his memoirs about Auschwitz.
Oct 16, 1946 - Göring commits suicide two hours before the scheduled execution of the first group of major Nazi war criminals at Nuremberg. During his imprisonment, a (now repentant) Hans Frank states, ``A thousand years will pass and the guilt of Germany will not be erased.`` Frank and the others are hanged and the bodies are brought to Dachau and burned (the final use of the crematories there) with the ashes then scattered into a river.
Dec 9, 1946 - 23 former SS doctors and scientists go on trial before a U.S. Military Tribunal at Nuremberg. Sixteen are found guilty, with 7 being hanged.
Sept 15, 1947 - Twenty one former SS Einsatz leaders go on trial before a U.S. Military Tribunal in Nuremberg. Fourteen are sentenced to death, with only 4 (the group commanders) actually being executed. The other death sentences are commuted.
May 11, 1960 - Adolf Eichmann is captured in Argentina by Israeli secret service.
April 11 - August 14 - Eichmann on trial in Jerusalem for crimes against the Jewish people, crimes against humanity and war crimes. Found guilty and hanged at Ramleh on May 31, 1962. A fellow Nazi reported Eichmann once said ``he would leap laughing into the grave because the feeling that he had five million people on his conscience would be for him a source of extraordinary satisfaction.``
Posted by
bjkumar
Mar 25, 2006 10:06 am
Here are a few facts which underlie the reasons why (1) a Jewish state was needed after two thousand years, and (2) no SANE individual in the world carelessly throws around words like ``holocaust`` or tries to trivialize the series of events that the term symbolizes at any time - or tries to draw any parallels to two-bit contemporary events of the type which form the bread-and-butter for this web-site.
(Source: www.historyplace.com)
Jan 30, 1933 - Adolf Hitler is appointed Chancellor of Germany - a nation with a Jewish population of 566,000.
Feb 22, 1933 - 40,000 SA and SS men are sworn in as auxiliary police.
Feb 27, 1933 - Nazis burn Reichstag building to create crisis atmosphere.
Feb 28, 1933 - Emergency powers granted to Hitler as a result of the Reichstag fire.
March 22, 1933 - Nazis open Dachau concentration camp near Munich, to be followed by Buchenwald near Weimar in central Germany, Sachsenhausen near Berlin in northern Germany, and Ravensbrück for women.
March 24, 1933 - German Parliament passes Enabling Act giving Hitler dictatorial powers.
April 1, 1933 - Nazis stage boycott of Jewish shops and businesses.
April 11, 1933 - Nazis issue a decree defining a non-Aryan as ``anyone descended from non-Aryan, especially Jewish, parents or grandparents. One parent or grandparent classifies the descendant as non-Aryan...especially if one parent or grandparent was of the Jewish faith.``
April 26, 1933 - The Gestapo is born, created by Hermann Göring in the German state of Prussia.
May 10, 1933 - Burning of books in Berlin and throughout Germany.
July 14, 1933 - Nazi Party is declared the only legal party in Germany; Also, Nazis pass Law to strip Jewish immigrants from Poland of their German citizenship.
In July - Nazis pass law allowing for forced sterilization of those found by a Hereditary Health Court to have genetic defects.
In Sept - Nazis establish Reich Chamber of Culture, then exclude Jews from the Arts.
Sept 29, 1933 - Nazis prohibit Jews from owning land.
Oct 4, 1933 - Jews are prohibited from being newspaper editors.
Nov 24, 1933 - Nazis pass a Law against Habitual and Dangerous Criminals, which allows beggars, the homeless, alcoholics and the unemployed to be sent to concentration camps.
Jan 24, 1934 - Jews are banned from the German Labor Front.
May 17, 1934 - Jews not allowed national health insurance.
June 30, 1934 - The Night of Long Knives occurs as Hitler, Göring and Himmler conduct a purge of the SA (storm trooper) leadership.
July 20, 1934 - The SS (Schutzstaffel) is made an independent organization from the SA.
July 22, 1934 - Jews are prohibited from getting legal qualifications.
Aug 2, 1934 - German President von Hindenburg dies. Hitler becomes Führer.
Aug 19, 1934 - Hitler receives a 90 percent `Yes` vote from German voters approving his new powers.
May 21, 1935 - Nazis ban Jews from serving in the military.
June 26, 1935 - Nazis pass law allowing forced abortions on women to prevent them from passing on hereditary diseases.
Aug 6, 1935 - Nazis force Jewish performers/artists to join Jewish Cultural Unions.
Sept 15, 1935 - Nuremberg Race Laws against Jews decreed.
Feb 10, 1936 - The German Gestapo is placed above the law.
In March - SS Deathshead division is established to guard concentration camps.
March 7, 1936 - Nazis occupy the Rhineland.
June 17, 1936 - Heinrich Himmler is appointed chief of the German Police.
Aug 1, 1936 - Olympic games begin in Berlin. Hitler and top Nazis seek to gain legitimacy through favorable public opinion from foreign visitors and thus temporarily refrain from actions against Jews.
In Aug - Nazis set up an Office for Combating Homosexuality and Abortions (by healthy women).
In Jan - Jews are banned from many professional occupations including teaching Germans, and from being accountants or dentists. They are also denied tax reductions and child allowances.
Nov 8, 1937 - `Eternal Jew` travelling exhibition opens in Munich.
March 12/13, 1938 - Nazi troops enter Austria, which has a population of 200,000 Jews, mainly living in Vienna. Hitler announces Anschluss (union) with Austria.
In March - After the Anschluss, the SS is placed in charge of Jewish affairs in Austria with Adolf Eichmann establishing an Office for Jewish Emigration in Vienna. Himmler then establishes Mauthausen concentration camp near Linz.
April 22, 1938 - Nazis prohibit Aryan `front-ownership` of Jewish businesses.
April 26, 1938 - Nazis order Jews to register wealth and property.
June 14, 1938 - Nazis order Jewish owned businesses to register.
In July - At Evian, France, the U.S. convenes a League of Nations conference with delegates from 32 countries to consider helping Jews fleeing Hitler, but results in inaction as no country will accept them.
July 6, 1938 - Nazis prohibited Jews from trading and providing a variety of specified commercial services.
July 23, 1938 - Nazis order Jews over age 15 to apply for identity cards from the police, to be shown on demand to any police officer.
July 25, 1938 - Jewish doctors prohibited by law from practicing medicine.
Aug 11, 1938 - Nazis destroy the synagogue in Nuremberg.
Aug 17, 1938 - Nazis require Jewish women to add Sarah and men to add Israel to their names on all legal documents including passports.
Sept 27, 1938 - Jews are prohibited from all legal practices.
Oct 5, 1938 - Law requires Jewish passports to be stamped with a large red ``J.``
Oct 15, 1938 - Nazi troops occupy the Sudetenland.
Oct 28, 1938 - Nazis arrest 17,000 Jews of Polish nationality living in Germany, then expel them back to Poland which refuses them entry, leaving them in `no-man`s land` near the Polish border for several months.
Nov 7, 1938 - Ernst vom Rath, third secretary in the German Embassy in Paris, is shot and mortally wounded by Herschel Grynszpan, the 17 year old son of one of the deported Polish Jews. Rath dies on November 9, precipitating Kristallnacht.
Nov 9/10 - Kristallnacht - The Night of Broken Glass.
Nov 12, 1938 - Nazis fine Jews one billion marks for damages related to Kristallnacht.
Nov 15, 1938 - Jewish pupils are expelled from all non-Jewish German schools.
Dec 3, 1938 - Law for compulsory Aryanization of all Jewish businesses.
Dec 14, 1938 - Hermann Göring takes charge of resolving the ``Jewish Question.``
Jan 24, 1939 - SS leader Reinhard Heydrich is ordered by Göring to speed up emigration of Jews.
Jan 30, 1939 - Hitler threatens Jews during Reichstag speech.
Feb 21, 1939 - Nazis force Jews to hand over all gold and silver items.
March 15/16 - Nazi troops seize Czechoslovakia (Jewish pop. 350,000).
April 19, 1939 - Slovakia passes its own version of the Nuremberg Laws.
April 30, 1939 - Jews lose rights as tenants and are relocated into Jewish houses.
In May - The St. Louis, a ship crowded with 930 Jewish refugees, is turned away by Cuba, the United States and other countries and returns to Europe.
July 4, 1939 - German Jews denied the right to hold government jobs.
July 21, 1939 - Adolf Eichmann is appointed director of the Prague Office of Jewish Emigration.
Sept 1, 1939 - Nazis invade Poland (Jewish pop. 3.35 million, the largest in Europe). Beginning of SS activity in Poland.
Sept 1, 1939 - Jews in Germany are forbidden to be outdoors after 8 p.m. in winter and 9 p.m. in summer.
Sept 3, 1939 - England and France declare war on Germany.
Sept 4, 1939 - Warsaw is cut off by the German Army.
Sept 17, 1939 - Soviet troops invade eastern Poland.
Sept 21, 1939 - Heydrich issues instructions to SS Einsatzgruppen (special action squads) in Poland regarding treatment of Jews, stating they are to be gathered into ghettos near railroads for the future ``final goal.`` He also orders a census and the establishment of Jewish administrative councils within the ghettos to implement Nazi policies and decrees.
Sept 23, 1939 - German Jews are forbidden to own wireless (radio) sets.
Sept 27, 1939 - Warsaw surrenders; Heydrich becomes leader of RSHA.
Sept 29, 1939 - Nazis and Soviets divide up Poland. Over two million Jews reside in Nazi controlled areas, leaving 1.3 million in the Soviet area.
In Sept - Quote from Nazi newspaper, Der Stürmer, published by Julius Streicher - ``The Jewish people ought to be exterminated root and branch. Then the plague of pests would have disappeared in Poland at one stroke.``
In Oct - Nazis begin euthanasia on sick and disabled in Germany.
Oct 6, 1939 - Proclamation by Hitler on the isolation of Jews.
Oct 12, 1939 - Evacuation of Jews from Vienna.
Oct 12, 1939 - Hans Frank appointed Nazi Gauleiter (governor) of Poland.
Oct 26, 1939 - Forced labor decree issued for Polish Jews aged 14 to 60.
Nov 23, 1939 - Yellow stars required to be worn by Polish Jews over age 10.
In Dec - Adolf Eichmann takes over section IV B4 of the Gestapo dealing solely with Jewish affairs and evacuations.
Jan 25, 1940 - Nazis choose the town of Oswiecim (Auschwitz) in Poland near Krakow as site of new concentration camp.
In Jan - Quote from Nazi newspaper, Der Stürmer, published by Julius Streicher - ``...The time is near when a machine will go into motion which is going to prepare a grave for the world`s criminal - Judah - from which there will be no resurrection.``
Feb 12, 1940 - First deportation of German Jews into occupied Poland.
April 9, 1940 - Nazis invade Denmark (Jewish pop. 8,000) and Norway (Jewish pop. 2,000).
April 30, 1940 - The Lodz Ghetto in occupied Poland is sealed off from the outside world with 230,000 Jews locked inside.
May 1, 1940 - Rudolf Höss is chosen to be kommandant of Auschwitz.
May 10, 1940 - Nazis invade France (Jewish pop. 350,000), Belgium (Jewish pop. 65,000), Holland (Jewish pop. 140,000), and Luxembourg (Jewish pop. 3,500).
June 14, 1940 - Paris is occupied by the Nazis.
June 22, 1940 - France signs an armistice with Hitler.
In July - Eichmann`s Madagascar Plan presented, proposing to deport all European Jews to the island of Madagascar, off the coast of east Africa.
July 17, 1940 - The first anti-Jewish measures are taken in Vichy France.
Aug 8, 1940 - Romania introduces anti-Jewish measures restricting education and employment, then later begins ``Romanianization`` of Jewish businesses.
Sept 27, 1940 - Tripartite (Axis) Pact signed by Germany, Italy and Japan.
Oct 3, 1940 - Vichy France passes its own version of the Nuremberg Laws.
Oct 7, 1940 - Nazis invade Romania (Jewish pop. 34,000).
Oct 22, 1940 - Deportation of 29,000 German Jews from Baden, the Saar, and Alsace-Lorraine into Vichy France.
In Nov - Hungary, Romania, and Slovakia become Nazi Allies.
In Nov - The Krakow Ghetto is sealed off containing 70,000 Jews.
Nov 15, 1940 - The Warsaw Ghetto, containing over 400,000 Jews, is sealed off.
In 1941 - Hans Frank, Gauleiter of Poland, states, ``I ask nothing of the Jews except that they should disappear.``
In Jan - Quote from Nazi newspaper, Der Stürmer, published by Julius Streicher - ``Now judgment has begun and it will reach its conclusion only when knowledge of the Jews has been erased from the earth.``
In Jan - A pogrom in Romania results in over 2,000 Jews killed.
Feb 22, 1941 - 430 Jewish hostages are deported from Amsterdam after a Dutch Nazi is killed by Jews.
In March - Hitler`s Commissar Order authorizes execution of anyone suspected of being a Communist official in territories about to be seized from the Soviets.
March 1, 1941 - Himmler makes his first visit to Auschwitz, during which he orders Kommandant Höss to begin massive expansion, including a new compound to be built at nearby Birkenau that can hold 100,000 prisoners.
March 2, 1941 - Nazis occupy Bulgaria (Jewish pop. 50,000).
March 7, 1941 - German Jews ordered into forced labor.
March 26, 1941 - The German Army High Command gives approval to RSHA and Heydrich on the tasks of SS murder squads (Einsatzgruppen) in occupied Poland.
March 29, 1941 - A `Commissariat` for Jewish Affairs is set up in Vichy France.
April 6, 1941 - Nazis invade Yugoslavia (Jewish pop. 75,000) and Greece (Jewish pop. 77,000).
May 14, 1941 - 3,600 Jews arrested in Paris.
May 16, 1941 - French Marshal Petain issues a radio broadcast approving collaboration with Hitler.
June 22, 1941 - Nazis invade the Soviet Union (Jewish pop. 3 million).
June 29/30 - Romanian troops conduct a pogrom against Jews in the town of Jassy, killing 10,000.
Summer - Himmler summons Auschwitz Kommandant Höss to Berlin and tells him, ``The Führer has ordered the Final Solution of the Jewish question. We, the SS, have to carry out this order...I have therefore chosen Auschwitz for this purpose.``
In July - As the German Army advances, SS Einsatzgruppen follow along and conduct mass murder of Jews in seized lands.
In July - Ghettos established at Kovno, Minsk, Vitebsk and Zhitomer. Also in July, the government of Vichy France seizes Jewish owned property.
July 17, 1941 - Nazi racial `philosopher` Alfred Rosenberg is appointed Reich Minister for the Eastern Occupied Territories to administer territories seized from the Soviet Union.
July 21, 1941 - In occupied Poland near Lublin, Majdanek concentration camp becomes operational.
July 25/26 - 3,800 Jews killed during a pogrom by Lithuanians in Kovno.
July 31, 1941 - Göring instructs Heydrich to prepare for Final Solution.
In Aug - Jews in Romania forced into Transnistria. By December, 70,000 perish.
In Aug - Ghettos established at Bialystok and Lvov.
Aug 26, 1941 - The Hungarian Army rounds up 18,000 Jews at Kamenets-Podolsk.
Sept 3, 1941 - The first test use of Zyklon-B gas at Auschwitz.
Sept 1, 1941 - German Jews ordered to wear yellow stars.
Sept 6, 1941 - The Vilna Ghetto is established containing 40,000 Jews.
Sept 17, 1941 - Beginning of general deportation of German Jews.
Sept 19, 1941 - Nazis take Kiev.
Sept 27/28 - 23,000 Jews killed at Kamenets-Podolsk, in the Ukraine.
Sept 29/30 - SS Einsatzgruppen murder 33,771 Jews at Babi Yar near Kiev.
In Oct - 35,000 Jews from Odessa shot.
Oct 2, 1941 - Beginning of the German Army drive on Moscow.
Oct 23, 1941 - Nazis forbid emigration of Jews from the Reich.
In Nov - SS Einsatzgruppe B reports a tally of 45,476 Jews killed.
Nov 24, 1941 - Theresienstadt Ghetto is established near Prague, Czechoslovakia. The Nazis will use it as a model ghetto for propaganda purposes.
Nov 30, 1941 - Near Riga, a mass shooting of Latvian and German Jews.
Dec 7, 1941 - Japanese attack United States at Pearl Harbor. The next day the U.S. and Britain declare war on Japan.
Dec 8, 1941 - In occupied Poland, near Lodz, Chelmno extermination camp becomes operational. Jews taken there are placed in mobile gas vans and driven to a burial place while carbon monoxide from the engine exhaust is fed into the sealed rear compartment, killing them. The first gassing victims include 5,000 Gypsies who had been deported from the Reich to Lodz.
Dec 11, 1941 - Hitler declares war on the United States. Roosevelt then declares war on Germany saying, ``Never before has there been a greater challenge to life, liberty and civilization.`` The U.S.A. then enters the war in Europe and will concentrate nearly 90 percent of its military resources to defeat Hitler.
Dec 12, 1941 - The ship ``Struma`` leaves Romania for Palestine carrying 769 Jews but is later denied permission by British authorities to allow the passengers to disembark. In Feb. 1942, it sails back into the Black Sea where it is intercepted by a Soviet submarine and sunk as an ``enemy target.``
Dec 16, 1941 - During a cabinet meeting, Hans Frank, Gauleiter of Poland, states - ``Gentlemen, I must ask you to rid yourselves of all feeling of pity. We must annihilate the Jews wherever we find them and wherever it is possible in order to maintain there the structure of the Reich as a whole...``
1942 Jan - Mass killings of Jews using Zyklon-B begin at Auschwitz-Birkenau in Bunker I (the red farmhouse) in Birkenau with the bodies being buried in mass graves in a nearby meadow.
Jan 20, 1942 - Wannsee Conference to coordinate the ``Final Solution.``
Jan 31, 1942 - SS Einsatzgruppe A reports a tally of 229,052 Jews killed.
In March - In occupied Poland, Belzec extermination camp becomes operational. The camp is fitted with permanent gas chambers using carbon monoxide piped in from engines placed outside the chamber, but will later substitute Zyklon-B.
March 17, 1942 - The deportation of Jews from Lublin to Belzec.
March 24, 1942 - The start of deportation of Slovak Jews to Auschwitz.
March 27, 1942 - The start of deportation of French Jews to Auschwitz.
March 28, 1942 - Fritz Sauckel named Chief of Manpower to expedite recruitment of slave labor.
March 30, 1942 - First trainloads of Jews from Paris arrive at Auschwitz.
In April - First transports of Jews arrive at Majdanek.
April 20, 1942 - German Jews are banned from using public transportation.
In May - In occupied Poland, Sobibor extermination camp becomes operational. The camp is fitted with three gas chambers using carbon monoxide piped in from engines, but will later substitute Zyklon-B.
May 18, 1942 - The New York Times reports on an inside page that Nazis have machine-gunned over 100,000 Jews in the Baltic states, 100,000 in Poland and twice as many in western Russia.
May 27, 1942 - SS leader Heydrich is mortally wounded by Czech Underground agents.
In June - Gas vans used in Riga.
June 1, 1942 - Jews in France, Holland, Belgium, Croatia, Slovakia, Romania ordered to wear yellow stars.
June 4, 1942 - Heydrich dies of his wounds.
June 5, 1942 - SS report 97,000 persons have been ``processed`` in mobile gas vans.
June 10, 1942 - Nazis liquidate Lidice in retaliation for Heydrich`s death.
June 11, 1942 - Eichmann meets with representatives from France, Belgium and Holland to coordinate deportation plans for Jews.
June 30, 1942 - At Auschwitz, a second gas chamber, Bunker II (the white farmhouse), is made operational at Birkenau due to the number of Jews arriving.
June 30 and July 2 - The New York Times reports via the London Daily Telegraph that over 1,000,000 Jews have already been killed by Nazis.
Summer - Swiss representatives of the World Jewish Congress receive information from a German industrialist regarding the Nazi plan to exterminate the Jews. They then pass the information on to London and Washington.
July 2, 1942 - Jews from Berlin sent to Theresienstadt.
July 7, 1942 - Himmler grants permission for sterilization experiments at Auschwitz.
July 14, 1942 - Beginning of deportation of Dutch Jews to Auschwitz.
July 16/17 - 12,887 Jews of Paris are rounded up and sent to Drancy Internment Camp located outside the city. A total of approximately 74,000 Jews, including 11,000 children, will eventually be transported from Drancy to Auschwitz, Majdanek and Sobibor.
July 17/18 - Himmler visits Auschwitz-Birkenau for two days, inspecting all ongoing construction and expansion, then observes the extermination process from start to finish as two trainloads of Jews arrive from Holland. Kommandant Höss is then promoted. Construction includes four large gas chamber/crematories.
July 19, 1942 - Himmler orders Operation Reinhard, mass deportations of Jews in Poland to extermination camps.
July 22, 1942 - Beginning of deportations from the Warsaw Ghetto to the new extermination camp, Treblinka. Also, beginning of the deportation of Belgian Jews to Auschwitz.
July 23, 1942 - Treblinka extermination camp opened in occupied Poland, east of Warsaw. The camp is fitted with two buildings containing 10 gas chambers, each holding 200 persons. Carbon monoxide gas is piped in from engines placed outside the chamber, but Zyklon-B will later be substituted. Bodies are burned in open pits.
In Aug - The start of deportations of Croatian Jews to Auschwitz.
Aug 23, 1942 - Beginning of German Army attack on Stalingrad.
Aug 26-28 - 7,000 Jews arrested in unoccupied France.
Sept 9, 1942 - Open pit burning of bodies begins at Auschwitz in place of burial. The decision is made to dig up and burn those already buried, 107,000 corpses, to prevent fouling of ground water.
Sept 18, 1942 - Reduction of food rations for Jews in Germany.
Sept 26, 1942 - SS begins cashing in possessions and valuables of Jews from Auschwitz and Majdanek. German banknotes are sent to the Reichs Bank. Foreign currency, gold, jewels and other valuables are sent to SS Headquarters of the Economic Administration. Watches, clocks and pens are distributed to troops at the front. Clothing is distributed to German families. By Feb. 1943, over 800 boxcars of confiscated goods will have left Auschwitz.
Oct 5, 1942 - Himmler orders all Jews in concentration camps in Germany to be sent to Auschwitz and Majdanek.
Oct 5, 1942 - A German eyewitness observes SS mass murder.
Oct 14, 1942 - Mass killing of Jews from Mizocz Ghetto in the Ukraine.
Oct 22, 1942 - SS put down a revolt at Sachsenhausen by a group of Jews about to be sent to Auschwitz.
Oct 25, 1942 - Deportations of Jews from Norway to Auschwitz begin.
Oct 28, 1942 - The first transport from Theresienstadt arrives at Auschwitz.
In Nov - The mass killing of 170,000 Jews in the area of Bialystok.
Dec 10, 1942 - The first transport of Jews from Germany arrives at Auschwitz.
In Dec - Exterminations at Belzec cease after an estimated 600,000 Jews have been murdered. The camp is then dismantled, plowed over and planted.
Dec 17, 1942 - British Foreign Secretary Eden tells the British House of Commons the Nazis are ``now carrying into effect Hitler`s oft repeated intention to exterminate the Jewish people of Europe.`` U.S. declares those crimes will be avenged.
Dec 28, 1942 - Sterilization experiments on women at Birkenau begin.
1943 - The number of Jews killed by SS Einsatzgruppen passes one million. Nazis then use special units of slave laborers to dig up and burn the bodies to remove all traces.
Jan 18, 1943 - First resistance by Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto.
Jan 29, 1943 - Nazis order all Gypsies arrested and sent to extermination camps.
Jan 30, 1943 - Ernst Kaltenbrunner succeeds Heydrich as head of RSHA.
In Feb - The Romanian government proposes to the Allies the transfer of 70,000 Jews to Palestine, but receives no response from Britain or the U.S.
In Feb - Greek Jews are ordered into ghettos.
Feb 2, 1943 - Germans surrender at Stalingrad in the first big defeat of Hitler`s armies.
Feb 27, 1943 - Jews working in Berlin armaments industry are sent to Auschwitz.
In March - The start of deportations of Jews from Greece to Auschwitz, lasting until August, totaling 49,900 persons.
March 1, 1943 - In New York, American Jews hold a mass rally at Madison Square Garden to pressure the U.S. government into helping the Jews of Europe
March 14, 1943 - The Krakow Ghetto is liquidated.
March 17, 1943 - Bulgaria states opposition to deportation of its Jews.
March 22, 1943 - Newly built gas chamber/crematory IV opens at Auschwitz.
March 31, 1943 - Newly built gas chamber/crematory II opens at Auschwitz.
April 4, 1943 - Newly built gas chamber/crematory V opens at Auschwitz.
April 9, 1943 - Exterminations at Chelmno cease. The camp will be reactivated in the spring of 1944 to liquidate ghettos. In all, Chelmno will total 300,000 deaths.
April 19-30 - The Bermuda Conference occurs as representatives from the U.S. and Britain discuss the problem of refugees from Nazi-occupied countries, but results in inaction concerning the plight of the Jews.
April 19, 1943 - Waffen SS attacks Jewish Resistance in Warsaw Ghetto.
In May - SS Dr. Josef Mengele arrives at Auschwitz.
May 13, 1943 - German and Italian troops in North Africa surrender to Allies.
May 19, 1943 - Nazis declare Berlin to be Judenfrei (cleansed of Jews).
June 11, 1943 - Himmler orders liquidation of all Jewish ghettos in occupied Poland.
June 25, 1943 - Newly built gas chamber/crematory III opens at Auschwitz. With its completion, the four new crematories at Auschwitz have a daily capacity of 4,756 bodies.
July 9/10 - Allies land in Sicily.
Aug 2, 1943 - Two hundred Jews escape from Treblinka extermination camp during a revolt. Nazis then hunt them down one by one.
Aug 16, 1943 - The Bialystok Ghetto is liquidated.
In Aug - Exterminations cease at Treblinka, after an estimated 870,000 deaths.
In Sept - The Vilna and Minsk Ghettos are liquidated.
Sept 11, 1943 - Germans occupy Rome, after occupying northern and central Italy, containing in all about 35,000 Jews.
Sept 11, 1943 - Beginning of Jewish family transports from Theresienstadt to Auschwitz.
In Oct - The Danish Underground helps transport 7,220 Danish Jews to safety in Sweden by sea.
Oct 4 - Himmler talks openly about the Final Solution at Posen.
Oct 14, 1943 - Massive escape from Sobibor as Jews and Soviet POWs break out, with 300 making it safely into nearby woods. Of those 300, fifty will survive. Exterminations then cease at Sobibor, after over 250,000 deaths. All traces of the death camp are then removed and trees are planted.
Oct 16, 1943 - Jews in Rome rounded up, with over 1,000 sent to Auschwitz.
In Nov - The Riga Ghetto is liquidated.
In Nov - The U.S. Congress holds hearings regarding the U.S. State Department`s inaction regarding European Jews, despite mounting reports of mass extermination.
Nov 3, 1943 - Nazis carry out Operation Harvest Festival in occupied Poland, killing 42,000 Jews.
Nov 4, 1943 - Quote from Nazi newspaper, Der Stürmer, published by Julius Streicher - ``It is actually true that the Jews have, so to speak, disappeared from Europe and that the Jewish `Reservoir of the East` from which the Jewish pestilence has for centuries beset the peoples of Europe has ceased to exist. But the Führer of the German people at the beginning of the war prophesied what has now come to pass.``
Nov 11, 1943 - Auschwitz Kommandant Höss is promoted to chief inspector of concentration camps. The new kommandant, Liebehenschel, then divides up the vast Auschwitz complex of over 30 sub-camps into three main sections.
Dec 2, 1943 - The first transport of Jews from Vienna arrives at Auschwitz.
Dec 16, 1943 - The chief surgeon at Auschwitz reports that 106 castration operations have been performed.
Jan 3, 1944 - Soviet troops reach former Polish border.
Jan 24, 1944 - In response to political pressure to help Jews under Nazi control, Roosevelt creates the War Refugee Board.
Jan 25, 1944 - Diary entry by Hans Frank, Gauleiter of Poland, concerning the fate of 2.5 million Jews originally under his jurisdiction - ``At the present time we still have in the General Government perhaps 100,000 Jews.``
In Feb - Eichmann visits Auschwitz.
March 19, 1944 - Nazis occupy Hungary (Jewish pop. 725,000). Eichmann arrives with Gestapo ``Special Section Commandos.``
March 24, 1944 - President Roosevelt issues a statement condemning German and Japanese ongoing ``crimes against humanity.``
April 5, 1944 - A Jewish inmate, Siegfried Lederer, escapes from Auschwitz-Birkenau and makes it safely to Czechoslovakia. He then warns the Elders of the Council at Theresienstadt about Auschwitz.
April 6, 1944 - Nazis raid a French home for Jewish children.
April 7, 1944 - Two Jewish inmates escape from Auschwitz-Birkenau and make it safely to Czechoslovakia. One of them, Rudolf Vrba, submits a report to the Papal Nuncio in Slovakia which is forwarded to the Vatican, received there in mid June.
April 14, 1944 - First transports of Jews from Athens to Auschwitz, totaling 5,200 persons.
In May - Himmler`s agents secretly propose to the western Allies to trade Jews for trucks, other commodities or money.
May 8, 1944 - Rudolf Höss returns to Auschwitz, ordered by Himmler to oversee the extermination of Hungarian Jews.
May 15, 1944 - Beginning of deportation of Jews from Hungary to Auschwitz.
May 16, 1944 - Jews from Hungary arrive at Auschwitz. Eichmann arrives to personally oversee and speed up the extermination process. By May 24, an estimated 100,000 have been gassed. Between May 16 and May 31, the SS report collecting 88 pounds of gold and white metal from the teeth of those gassed. By the end of June, 381,661 persons - half of the Jews in Hungary - arrive at Auschwitz.
In June - A Red Cross delegation visits Theresienstadt after the Nazis have carefully prepared the camp and the Jewish inmates, resulting in a favorable report.
June 6, 1944 - D-Day: Allied landings in Normandy.
June 12, 1944 - Rosenberg orders Hay Action the kidnapping of 40,000 Polish children aged ten to fourteen for slave labor in the Reich.
Summer - Auschwitz-Birkenau records its highest-ever daily number of persons gassed and burned at just over 9,000. Six huge pits are used to burn bodies, as the number exceeds the capacity of the crematories.
In July - Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg arrives in Budapest, Hungary, and proceeds to save nearly 33,000 Jews by issuing diplomatic papers and establishing `safe houses.`
July 24, 1944 - Soviet troops liberate first concentration camp at Majdanek where over 360,000 had been murdered.
Aug 4, 1944 - Anne Frank and family arrested by Gestapo in Amsterdam, then sent to Auschwitz. Anne and her sister Margot are later sent to Bergen-Belsen where Anne dies of typhus on March 15, 1945.
Aug 6, 1944 - The last Jewish ghetto in Poland, Lodz, is liquidated with 60,000 Jews sent to Auschwitz.
Oct 7, 1944 - A revolt by Sonderkommando (Jewish slave laborers) at Auschwitz-Birkenau results in complete destruction of Crematory IV.
Oct 15, 1944 - Nazis seize control of the Hungarian puppet government, then resume deporting Jews, which had temporarily ceased due to international political pressure to stop Jewish persecutions.
Oct 17, 1944 - Eichmann arrives in Hungary.
Oct 28, 1944 - The last transport of Jews to be gassed, 2,000 from Theresienstadt, arrives at Auschwitz.
Oct 30, 1944 - Last use of gas chambers at Auschwitz.
Nov 8, 1944 - Nazis force 25,000 Jews to walk over 100 miles in rain and snow from Budapest to the Austrian border, followed by a second forced march of 50,000 persons, ending at Mauthausen.
Nov 25, 1944 - Himmler orders the destruction of the crematories at Auschwitz.
Late 1944 - Oskar Schindler saves 1200 Jews by moving them from Plaszow labor camp to his hometown of Brunnlitz.
In 1945 - As the Allies advance, the Nazis conduct death marches of concentration camp inmates away from outlying areas.
Jan 6, 1945 - Soviets liberate Budapest, freeing over 80,000 Jews.
Jan 14, 1945 - Invasion of eastern Germany by Soviet troops.
Jan 17, 1945 - Liberation of Warsaw by the Soviets.
Jan 18, 1945 - Nazis evacuate 66,000 from Auschwitz.
Jan 27, 1945 - Soviet troops liberate Auschwitz. By this time, an estimated 2,000,000 persons, including 1,500,000 Jews, have been murdered there.
April 4, 1945 - Ohrdruf camp is liberated, later visited by General Eisenhower.
April 10, 1945 - Allies liberate Buchenwald.
April 15, 1945 - Approximately 40,000 prisoners freed at Bergen-Belsen by the British, who report ``both inside and outside the huts was a carpet of dead bodies, human excreta, rags and filth.``
April 23, 1945 - Berlin reached by Soviet troops.
April 29, 1945 - U.S. 7th Army liberates Dachau.
April 30, 1945 - Hitler commits suicide in his Berlin bunker.
April 30, 1945 - Americans free 33,000 inmates from concentration camps.
May 2, 1945 - Theresienstadt taken over by the Red Cross.
May 5, 1945 - Mauthausen liberated.
May 7, 1945 - Unconditional German surrender signed by Gen. Jodl at Reims.
May 9, 1945 - Hermann Göring captured by members of U.S. 7th Army.
May 23, 1945 - SS Reichsführer Himmler commits suicide.
Nov 20, 1945 - Opening of the Nuremberg International Military Tribunal.
March 11, 1946 - Former Auschwitz Kommandant Höss, posing as a farm worker, is arrested by the British. He testifies at Nuremberg, then is later tried in Warsaw, found guilty and hanged at Auschwitz, April 16, 1947, near Crematory I. ``History will mark me as the greatest mass murderer of all time,`` Höss writes while in prison, along with his memoirs about Auschwitz.
Oct 16, 1946 - Göring commits suicide two hours before the scheduled execution of the first group of major Nazi war criminals at Nuremberg. During his imprisonment, a (now repentant) Hans Frank states, ``A thousand years will pass and the guilt of Germany will not be erased.`` Frank and the others are hanged and the bodies are brought to Dachau and burned (the final use of the crematories there) with the ashes then scattered into a river.
Dec 9, 1946 - 23 former SS doctors and scientists go on trial before a U.S. Military Tribunal at Nuremberg. Sixteen are found guilty, with 7 being hanged.
Sept 15, 1947 - Twenty one former SS Einsatz leaders go on trial before a U.S. Military Tribunal in Nuremberg. Fourteen are sentenced to death, with only 4 (the group commanders) actually being executed. The other death sentences are commuted.
May 11, 1960 - Adolf Eichmann is captured in Argentina by Israeli secret service.
April 11 - August 14 - Eichmann on trial in Jerusalem for crimes against the Jewish people, crimes against humanity and war crimes. Found guilty and hanged at Ramleh on May 31, 1962. A fellow Nazi reported Eichmann once said ``he would leap laughing into the grave because the feeling that he had five million people on his conscience would be for him a source of extraordinary satisfaction.``
Kibbutz Criminals
#297
[...Gandhi at best must be dishonored as among the most incapable, most unmanly, most impotent ...]
What`s Gandhi got to do, got to do with it
What`s Gandhi but a second hand emotion
What`s Gandhi got to do, got to do with it
Who needs a Gandhi when a Gandhi can be broken
He had been taking on a new direction
And I have to say
Not even thinking of his own protection
It scares some to feel that way
What`s Gandhi got to do, got to do with it
What`s Gandhi but a sweet old fashioned notion
What`s Gandhi got to do, got to do with it
Who needs a Gandhi when a Gandhi can be broken
(PS: apologies to Ms. Turner.)
Posted by
bjkumar
Mar 25, 2006 04:13 am
#297
[...Gandhi at best must be dishonored as among the most incapable, most unmanly, most impotent ...]
What`s Gandhi got to do, got to do with it
What`s Gandhi but a second hand emotion
What`s Gandhi got to do, got to do with it
Who needs a Gandhi when a Gandhi can be broken
He had been taking on a new direction
And I have to say
Not even thinking of his own protection
It scares some to feel that way
What`s Gandhi got to do, got to do with it
What`s Gandhi but a sweet old fashioned notion
What`s Gandhi got to do, got to do with it
Who needs a Gandhi when a Gandhi can be broken
(PS: apologies to Ms. Turner.)
In the Dying Light
Come, Tell Me How You Live
Little girl
Come, tell me how you live
With the strikes that you carry as gifts
From ancient lands
Of forever poor
Of wealth, mind, and heart
That very first strike
No heads you turn
The universal strike two
And now the triumphant blast
Calls its final count
Taking sides of your face
Leaving open, cleft nose
Showing bone
Like white petal
In pink rose
A very white spot
On a very brown face
A glazed, unseeing eye
Clutching blood-sucker gauze
You got the sucker punch, sweetheart
You got strike three!
You have come a long way, baby
But you still got to go further
Much, much further
As you limp back
All the way back to the dug-out
You got nothing
But time
So get used to the glances
As people look away
And avert their eyes
Lest they see in you
A bit of themselves
So they shield their children
From shadows that you carry
And the shadows that follow you
Forever you shall walk
And alone you shall walk
Saying again and again to yourself
``Little girl
Come, tell me why you live?!``
Little man
Come, tell me how you live
So green is your lust
That you change brown to red
As those shrapnels rain
And you puff your chest
And you count your gain
And it merges into
The dark of dust
Then little man, you look happy
And you count our dead
Little man
Come, tell me one thing
Just one little thing
Are those virgins just as brown
As this little girl?
And is their flesh just as delectable
As her open flesh?
Ride HER, little man!
Ride your very own virgin
As she cries out in pain
Ride the permanent virgin
In ecstasy, little man
Come tell me, does she give?!
Little people
Come, tell me how you live
Tell me, are those men
Those very little men
Who live among you
As you avert your eyes
And you mouth empty prose
And you prefer not to think
As they eat your bread
And drink your water
Come, tell me how you think
That such little men
Can make YOU feel bigger
Your very essence
Your very own selves
Come, tell me how you live
With your selves
And if you think, little people
That your past is your future
And you can shield the little men
And you can shield the little man
In that very little world
As littler it gets
This world of dark shadows
A pregnant night stares
Whose fiercest children
Only wanted the sun
As littler it gets
This make believe world
Then, does it occur to you
Why the world-at-large turns
And looks in wonder
And asks simply
``Little people,
Come, tell me WHERE you live?!``
(Note: Inspired by the above picture of the injured girl from the temple attack published in The Washington Post on March 8, 2006.)
Posted by
bjkumar
Mar 8, 2006 10:14 pm
Come, Tell Me How You Live
Little girl
Come, tell me how you live
With the strikes that you carry as gifts
From ancient lands
Of forever poor
Of wealth, mind, and heart
That very first strike
No heads you turn
The universal strike two
And now the triumphant blast
Calls its final count
Taking sides of your face
Leaving open, cleft nose
Showing bone
Like white petal
In pink rose
A very white spot
On a very brown face
A glazed, unseeing eye
Clutching blood-sucker gauze
You got the sucker punch, sweetheart
You got strike three!
You have come a long way, baby
But you still got to go further
Much, much further
As you limp back
All the way back to the dug-out
You got nothing
But time
So get used to the glances
As people look away
And avert their eyes
Lest they see in you
A bit of themselves
So they shield their children
From shadows that you carry
And the shadows that follow you
Forever you shall walk
And alone you shall walk
Saying again and again to yourself
``Little girl
Come, tell me why you live?!``
Little man
Come, tell me how you live
So green is your lust
That you change brown to red
As those shrapnels rain
And you puff your chest
And you count your gain
And it merges into
The dark of dust
Then little man, you look happy
And you count our dead
Little man
Come, tell me one thing
Just one little thing
Are those virgins just as brown
As this little girl?
And is their flesh just as delectable
As her open flesh?
Ride HER, little man!
Ride your very own virgin
As she cries out in pain
Ride the permanent virgin
In ecstasy, little man
Come tell me, does she give?!
Little people
Come, tell me how you live
Tell me, are those men
Those very little men
Who live among you
As you avert your eyes
And you mouth empty prose
And you prefer not to think
As they eat your bread
And drink your water
Come, tell me how you think
That such little men
Can make YOU feel bigger
Your very essence
Your very own selves
Come, tell me how you live
With your selves
And if you think, little people
That your past is your future
And you can shield the little men
And you can shield the little man
In that very little world
As littler it gets
This world of dark shadows
A pregnant night stares
Whose fiercest children
Only wanted the sun
As littler it gets
This make believe world
Then, does it occur to you
Why the world-at-large turns
And looks in wonder
And asks simply
``Little people,
Come, tell me WHERE you live?!``
(Note: Inspired by the above picture of the injured girl from the temple attack published in The Washington Post on March 8, 2006.)
Varanasi Explodes
#64 Dilli
I was just looking in - and have little interest in interacting here (in view of the seriousness that I attach to this issue).
Assuming you were not jesting in that interact regarding my identity, the present nick is my only (remaining) nick - honest!
Anirudha the ``Snark`` is a real old interactor here - since long before I ever showed up.
(And since I am here, let me say this - let us try to cool passions rather than to inflame them.
Take an honest look at the face below - do you see a Hindu or Muslim?
I just see a desi girl.
Thank you, all!)
Posted by
bjkumar
Mar 7, 2006 10:07 pm
#64 Dilli
I was just looking in - and have little interest in interacting here (in view of the seriousness that I attach to this issue).
Assuming you were not jesting in that interact regarding my identity, the present nick is my only (remaining) nick - honest!
Anirudha the ``Snark`` is a real old interactor here - since long before I ever showed up.
(And since I am here, let me say this - let us try to cool passions rather than to inflame them.
Take an honest look at the face below - do you see a Hindu or Muslim?
I just see a desi girl.
Thank you, all!)
Husain, Hinduism, Hindustan: Testing Tolerance
#various
Sadna and others.
Obviously, I have not researched the Jinnah topic as long as you people have and not tried to interpret who said what nor tried to gauge their minds and their words and the exact meaning of those words and their body language as they spoke and their facial features and their subliminal communications at the moment they said it and how others from those times tried to do all of those things and then how others from those times sat down and wrote it in their own words and what their own motivations were and what their own self interests were.
Nor do I intend to.
(Ms. Sadna, I do commend you for your patience - apparently spread over the years.)
I go by the actual results - and the results are there for the whole world to see. We know what Jinnah accomplished - and how he accomplished it - and what it led to!
And who paid for it - in blood! (Hint: it was not him.)
Gandhi`s life was an open book - minutely recorded through his own writings - every detail shared with his readers as he evolved. He put it all down - the good, the bad, the ugly - every little bit. That makes it extremely easy for hot-shot little people and hot shot little lawyers to pick and choose (especially from the earlier period of his life) what suits their immediate ``case``.
The simple reality is that this ``gang`` (Manto and HP and perhaps the author of this piece of crap which attacks the venerable Husain) is least concerned about facts. It will pick and choose its own sources - and will find (and if necessary manufacture) evidence - and conveniently ignore everything else.
Gandhi`s life was an open book - a concept alien to the author of this crap who is always crying about being left alone in her own personal ``space`` - and yet goes on and on crying on the web about every little triviality going on in her ``personal`` life!
In my personal opinion - both Manto and HP are highly dishonest individuals, intellectually speaking, of course.
And the author of this piece comes out looking not much better - only perhaps a little bit more cowardly - since she shows no disagreement - makes a token statement about staying away from the Gandhi topic - then makes her ``space`` available to this ``gang`` more willingly than the proverbial ladies of the night open up their legs for a few ``bucks`` - and allows this garbage to go on endlessly - becoming Manto`s very own lecture platform.
Perhaps the author merely lacks the moral fiber to openly say what is in her mind!
All of them stink terrible. I find it all highly disgusting!
Those are my thoughts!
Posted by
bjkumar
Feb 26, 2006 08:35 pm
#various
Sadna and others.
Obviously, I have not researched the Jinnah topic as long as you people have and not tried to interpret who said what nor tried to gauge their minds and their words and the exact meaning of those words and their body language as they spoke and their facial features and their subliminal communications at the moment they said it and how others from those times tried to do all of those things and then how others from those times sat down and wrote it in their own words and what their own motivations were and what their own self interests were.
Nor do I intend to.
(Ms. Sadna, I do commend you for your patience - apparently spread over the years.)
I go by the actual results - and the results are there for the whole world to see. We know what Jinnah accomplished - and how he accomplished it - and what it led to!
And who paid for it - in blood! (Hint: it was not him.)
Gandhi`s life was an open book - minutely recorded through his own writings - every detail shared with his readers as he evolved. He put it all down - the good, the bad, the ugly - every little bit. That makes it extremely easy for hot-shot little people and hot shot little lawyers to pick and choose (especially from the earlier period of his life) what suits their immediate ``case``.
The simple reality is that this ``gang`` (Manto and HP and perhaps the author of this piece of crap which attacks the venerable Husain) is least concerned about facts. It will pick and choose its own sources - and will find (and if necessary manufacture) evidence - and conveniently ignore everything else.
Gandhi`s life was an open book - a concept alien to the author of this crap who is always crying about being left alone in her own personal ``space`` - and yet goes on and on crying on the web about every little triviality going on in her ``personal`` life!
In my personal opinion - both Manto and HP are highly dishonest individuals, intellectually speaking, of course.
And the author of this piece comes out looking not much better - only perhaps a little bit more cowardly - since she shows no disagreement - makes a token statement about staying away from the Gandhi topic - then makes her ``space`` available to this ``gang`` more willingly than the proverbial ladies of the night open up their legs for a few ``bucks`` - and allows this garbage to go on endlessly - becoming Manto`s very own lecture platform.
Perhaps the author merely lacks the moral fiber to openly say what is in her mind!
All of them stink terrible. I find it all highly disgusting!
Those are my thoughts!
Husain, Hinduism, Hindustan: Testing Tolerance
#93
When I see on the board quotes from the past interacts of this writer here - all the way back from 2001, it almost feels like deja-vu. But now that I am a ``more seasoned`` interactor, I am going to talk more calmly on this issue.
I agree that the current chief editor - in her ``previous life`` - has made many statements which in retrospect, were clearly outrageous. But - from my limited reading - mostly of her more recent work - the reality also is that (1) she has always made outrageously provocative statements, (2) the statements quoted here were pre-9/11, it used to be a very different world then and 9/11 has opened the eyes of many, perhaps hers too.
The advantage/disadvantage of this web site is that all the words get archived - they remain present - and they can stare back at us. (Even if chowk deletes them - those words are still around - perhaps cached somewhere, or simply copied from server to server - it is an easier process than most people realize - it only requires some leg work.)
So there is no escaping those words. And people who are like her - who use words a lot - can easily become captives of those same words.
Unlike the politicos who can make ambiguous statements which can always be turned around.
Unlike the khakis who can make any statements they please at any time - with no compulsion or intention to keep to them.
Unlike the mobsters who don`t even have to utter complete statements before they wreak havocs in the lives of innocent little people.
But she is none of those creatures - she is just a writer - and an exceptional one. Putting my ``Indian`` hat on for a moment, and thinking like an Indian, SHE is not the harmful element that one needs to watch out for - there are many other insidious elements which corrode from inside and have been at it in the subcontinent long before she came along.
So what lies ahead?
On one of the earlier boards, a respectable interactor (who does not appear to agree with her on many such issues) stated that she is courageous - I assume the characteristic was attributed to her because of her ability to stand up in India and make statements which can run counter to the mainstream - and to make those statements without relenting.
I disagree.
Talent is talent but stubbornness should not be confused with courage. And there is no real courage in siding with the bad guys.
True courage does not lie in facing up to the world merely for the drama of ``facing up``. True courage does not lie in beating up on those who are being victimized!
And most of all, true courage does not lie in running away from troubling questions! In my view, true courage must include the ability to face the past demons - and to admit when one screws up - and I don`t mean with wishy-washy statements!
It must be done in clear terms and it must leave no doubts. What works for politicians will not work for her. Simple as that!
Does she have that level of courage - perhaps yes, perhaps no.
But I have not given up hope though. Chowkies know that I have tried here several times in the past to invoke her to come ``out`` and deal with that past - in my view, in that act of dealing lies her emancipation - and her salvation - and her ability to rise to what she truly merits and where she truly belongs (in my view, which others may discount as less than objective).
Only she has the ablity to cross that ``Laxman Rekha`` she seems to have drawn around herself - to limit herself!
Will it happen? Can it happen? One can only hope - and wait.
Yehi aas atakyo rahyo
Alee - gulaab ke mool
Whai-hain pheri basant ritu
In daran way phool...
Those are my thoughts, anyway. And I am just another interactor but I do not change my mind easily!
Posted by
bjkumar
Feb 17, 2006 09:29 pm
#93
When I see on the board quotes from the past interacts of this writer here - all the way back from 2001, it almost feels like deja-vu. But now that I am a ``more seasoned`` interactor, I am going to talk more calmly on this issue.
I agree that the current chief editor - in her ``previous life`` - has made many statements which in retrospect, were clearly outrageous. But - from my limited reading - mostly of her more recent work - the reality also is that (1) she has always made outrageously provocative statements, (2) the statements quoted here were pre-9/11, it used to be a very different world then and 9/11 has opened the eyes of many, perhaps hers too.
The advantage/disadvantage of this web site is that all the words get archived - they remain present - and they can stare back at us. (Even if chowk deletes them - those words are still around - perhaps cached somewhere, or simply copied from server to server - it is an easier process than most people realize - it only requires some leg work.)
So there is no escaping those words. And people who are like her - who use words a lot - can easily become captives of those same words.
Unlike the politicos who can make ambiguous statements which can always be turned around.
Unlike the khakis who can make any statements they please at any time - with no compulsion or intention to keep to them.
Unlike the mobsters who don`t even have to utter complete statements before they wreak havocs in the lives of innocent little people.
But she is none of those creatures - she is just a writer - and an exceptional one. Putting my ``Indian`` hat on for a moment, and thinking like an Indian, SHE is not the harmful element that one needs to watch out for - there are many other insidious elements which corrode from inside and have been at it in the subcontinent long before she came along.
So what lies ahead?
On one of the earlier boards, a respectable interactor (who does not appear to agree with her on many such issues) stated that she is courageous - I assume the characteristic was attributed to her because of her ability to stand up in India and make statements which can run counter to the mainstream - and to make those statements without relenting.
I disagree.
Talent is talent but stubbornness should not be confused with courage. And there is no real courage in siding with the bad guys.
True courage does not lie in facing up to the world merely for the drama of ``facing up``. True courage does not lie in beating up on those who are being victimized!
And most of all, true courage does not lie in running away from troubling questions! In my view, true courage must include the ability to face the past demons - and to admit when one screws up - and I don`t mean with wishy-washy statements!
It must be done in clear terms and it must leave no doubts. What works for politicians will not work for her. Simple as that!
Does she have that level of courage - perhaps yes, perhaps no.
But I have not given up hope though. Chowkies know that I have tried here several times in the past to invoke her to come ``out`` and deal with that past - in my view, in that act of dealing lies her emancipation - and her salvation - and her ability to rise to what she truly merits and where she truly belongs (in my view, which others may discount as less than objective).
Only she has the ablity to cross that ``Laxman Rekha`` she seems to have drawn around herself - to limit herself!
Will it happen? Can it happen? One can only hope - and wait.
Yehi aas atakyo rahyo
Alee - gulaab ke mool
Whai-hain pheri basant ritu
In daran way phool...
Those are my thoughts, anyway. And I am just another interactor but I do not change my mind easily!
- bjkumar
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