March 31, 2009

BERLIN (JTA) — An ad campaign that compared animal slaughterhouses with Nazi extermination camps is illegal, Germany’s high court found.

Germany’s main Jewish group welcomed the March 26 German Supreme Court decision against the 2003 “Holocaust on your Plate” ad campaign by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. The suit against PETA was filed in 2004 by Paul Spiegel, late president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany.

“It is a milestone ruling, stating very clearly that no use of the ‘Holocaust’ and its victims to raise attention for other present political issues, dilemmas or just political demands is acceptable and legal,” Stephan Kramer, secretary general of the Central Council, told JTA in an e-mail.

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Spain: 2 Holocaust survivors testify
By DANIEL WOOLLS – 18 hours ago

MADRID (AP) — Two Spanish Holocaust survivors testified Monday about their Nazi concentration camp ordeals as a judge began gathering evidence in a lawsuit urging the United States to extradite four alleged former death camp guards for genocide.

Judge Ismael Moreno of the National Court heard from Ramiro Santisteban and Jesus Tello, who were both at the Mauthausen camp, for about four hours, according to a court official and the human rights group that filed the lawsuit.

Last July, Moreno agreed to consider the complaint from the Brussels-based group, Equipo Nizkor, which argues the four suspects should be extradited from the United States on charges of genocide under the so-called principle of universal justice.

The doctrine allows particularly heinous offenses — such as crimes against humanity, terrorism and torture — to be prosecuted in Spain even if they are alleged to have been committed elsewhere.

Spain has used it to go after former Chilean ruler Augusto Pinochet in 1998 and Osama bin Laden in 2003, although extraditions and convictions have been extremely rare.

The complaint identifies the four suspects as John Demjanjuk, Anton Tittjung, Josias Kumpf and Johann Leprich, and says they worked as camp guards at Flossenberg and Sachsenhausen, in Germany, or Mauthausen in Nazi-occupied Austria.

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Despite the promises, the bills keep coming

By Orly Vilnai

Shalom Vidar, a 92-year-old Holocaust survivor, weighed 31 kilograms when he was first hospitalized at a geriatric hospital. Vidar was in serious condition. Because of his various illnesses he required full-time medical attention, including a permanent feeding tube.

The Health Ministry considers this complex nursing care. A patient of this kind, unlike a patient who requires “regular” nursing care, needs more than help from family members or caregivers; he has to be hospitalized.

However, there is another factor for complex care patients: The hospitalization is the responsibility of the health maintenance organization, but the patient and his family have to pay for it. A day’s hospitalization costs NIS 97 – and the health ministry does not contribute even one shekel.

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JERUSALEM — Palestinian political activists from the Jenin refugee camp in the northern West Bank on Sunday condemned a camp youth orchestra’s performance for Holocaust survivors in Israel last week, and said they were banning the orchestra’s director, an Israeli Arab woman, from entering the camp.

In an unusual, almost surreal encounter, a group of 13 young musicians from the Jenin camp, aged from 12 to 17, played Wednesday for about 30 elderly Holocaust survivors at a social club in the Israeli town of Holon, just south of Tel Aviv. The hourlong concert was a central event of Israel’s annual Good Deeds Day, sponsored by an Israeli billionaire.

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A NEW DOCUMENTARY BY MICHAEL PORTNOY
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THE AUSCHWITZ ALBUM
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WASHINGTON POST BOOK REVIEW: A MAD DESIRE TO DANCE BY ELIE WIESEL
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WASH POST: CHILDREN OF JENIN SERENADE HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS
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NYTIMES: One Group’s Music, Telling of a Struggle for Survival in the Holocaust
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Top Vatican official rededicates Mass. menorah
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Young Israeli Helps Darfur Muslims Find Refuge in the Jewish State
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