#Simon Wiesenthal Center

[recursive360]

[monsters do exist]

[heplev]

Wiesenthal Center veröffentlicht Top Ten-Liste des Antisemitismus für 2022

Wiesenthal Center veröffentlicht Top Ten-Liste des Antisemitismus für 2022

Benjamin Weinthal, JNS.org, 29. Dezember 2022 Nr. 3 auf der SWC-Liste: PA-Führer Mahmud Abbas (links) sagt bei einer Pressekonferenz in Berlin neben Bundeskanzler Scholz stehend, Israel habe „50 Holocausts“ begangen; 16. Aug. 2022 (Quelle: YouTube) Das Simon Wiesenthal Center veröffentlichte am Donnerstag in Jerusalem seine jährliche Weltliste der 10 antisemitischsten Vorfälle. Die Liste des…

[matan4il]

My grandparents were all Holocaust survivors. A large part of my family was murdered in that genocide. I chose to deal with the family trauma by becoming an educator on this subject. I give tours, lectures and workshops on the Holocaust, on antisemitism and on Jewish history.

Intellectually, I'm perfectly aware of how the massacre that Hamas perpetrated is NOT like what the Nazis did. More Jews were murdered over the course of just two days in Babi Yar (33,771 men, women and children), which is just one Nazi shooting pit out of almost two thousand, than during the entire Israeli-Arab conflict. Even after the carnage brought on by Hamas, this is still true. The Nazis were far more systematic (which eventually made them turn industrial) in carrying out the genocide of the Jews than Hamas has been. There's no comparison in terms of scale and industrialization.

And yet emotionally, I can't help but be hit by the similarities in terms of the immediate brutality of the murderers and the experiences of the Jewish victims. Because I am listening to the testimonies and some are so eerily similar to my research, I simply can't process how these are from recent days, not 80 years ago.

Jewish kids hiding from their would be murderers, scared to make a sound for fear of being discovered and killed.

Jewish families completely wiped out.

Jews asking themselves how did they survive and the person next to them did not.

Jewish people executed in droves, their bodies piled up.

Jews begging to be spared, to no avail.

Jewish women raped, most of them then killed.

Jewish babies executed in barbaric ways.

Jews being burned, some after being murdered, some while alive.

Jewish communities devastated. Take kibbutz Be'eri for example. It was founded before the State of Israel. Despite many terrorist attacks, it has continued to thrive in Israel's south. A small, close knit agricultural community. Over 100 people (at least) have been slaughtered there. Homes were destroyed. Everything the kibbutz's economy was based on was laid to waste, too. Be'eri has become synonymous with the worst of the carnage. IDK how they'll build their lives again after the war is over. IDK if they can. A community of almost 80 years, quite likely gone.

Foreign reporters who had been to kibbutz Kfar Azza all talked about the eerie silence and the stench of death rising from the bodies. Eerie silence is exactly how visitors to the sites of the shooting pits describe those places, while the allied soldiers who liberated the Nazi camps talked about the stench of death there.

Some of the reactions to this massacre also remind me of the Holocaust. Even though the Nazis, the murderers themselves, documented their extermination of Jews, there are those who deny the Holocaust happened, painting the Jews as liars. Similarly, even though Hamas documented themselves, and released the footage themselves, there are people going around denying the atrocities, painting the Jews as liars.

Then there's the justification of the mass murder of Jews by insinuating they brought it on themselves... Back in 1943, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, aware of the plight of Jews under the Nazis, told government officials in Allied-liberated North Africa that the number of local Jews in various professions “should be definitely limited” so as to “eliminate the specific and understandable complaints which the Germans bore towards the Jews in Germany.” Understandable complaints. Understandable complaints of Germans against Jews. Roosevelt, the liberal president, said that while Jews were being exterminated by the Germans. In the same manner, we're seeing people justifying the murder of Jews at the hands of Hamas, even though it's a known antisemitic terrorist organization which has repeatedly called for the murder of all Jews in the world. According to the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a reportedly Hamas affiliated Imam declared, "If the Zionist state were to move to the other end of the Mediterranean, our war would not be over, for the enemy is the Jew.

And while I stand by my statement that the scale is nothing alike, the carnage that took place in Israel IS the biggest massacre of Jews since the end of the Holocaust. Not even during Israel's Independence War and some of the massacres of Jews that happened during it (like the Kfar Etzion massacre) were this many Jews murdered during a single day.

Just like so many were silent back then as Jews were being both killed for being Jewish AND blamed for their own murder, many are silent now as well. Don't get me wrong, there are A LOT of amazing people who reached out to their Jewish friends, who showed they care, who took to the streets, who held vigils for the massacre's victims! Many heads of state also condemned this vicious attack. But I'm looking at Tumblr specifically, and it is FULL of posts justifying Hamas' slaughter of Jews. They're being reblogged everywhere, spread in every fandom. People who claim to stand for social justice feel absolutely no shame sharing such de-humanizing posts on their blogs. And what do we do? Are we calling them out? Do we make it clear that it is morally unacceptable to blame Jews for their own murder? Do we unfollow these bloggers, so that at least the dropping numbers send out the message that it is unacceptable to justify the massacre of innocent people?

TLDR:

This massacre is not like the Holocaust, but the cruel antisemitism that motivated it is the same. Let's not let antisemitism thrive here. Please do what you can (whatever that is) to stand for what's right.

(for all of my updates and ask replies regarding Israel, click here)

[zvaigzdelasas]

1997

The Canadian government, with British complicity, admitted more than 2,000 members of a notorious Ukrainian Waffen-SS division in 1950, the Simon Wiesenthal Center has charged. In a related case, the CBS news program "60 Minutes" reported that about 1,000 SS men and Nazi collaborators, mainly from the Baltic states, moved to Canada about the same time. And the German public broadcasting network reported that 50,000 war criminals receive "victim pensions" from the German government. German sources say 1,882 are Canadian residents. Almost all the suspected war criminals and collaborators have lived openly under their own names in Canada for 47 years.[...]

Littman, who has been researching Nazis in Canada since 1980, said the 14th Volunteer Waffen-SS Grenadier Division, aka the Galicia Division, largely comprised Ukrainians who served with Nazi police battalions and death squads. The surviving 9,000 division members surrendered to the British at war's end, and were taken to England. In 1950, Britain appealed to Commonwealth countries to admit them. Canada agreed to take 2,000, after being assured that their backgrounds had been checked and that they were cleared of complicity in war crimes. But according to recently released British documents and interviews with officials who conducted the investigations, they were not screened, partly because none of the interrogators spoke their language, Littman said.[...]

The 2,000 settled in major Canadian cities. About half are still alive. One way of getting into postwar Canada "was by showing the SS tattoo," Canadian historian Irving Abella told "60 Minutes" interviewer Mike Wallace. "This proved that you were an anti-Communist."[...]

the German TV program "Panorama" reported last week that 50,000 war criminals and members of army units who participated in atrocities were receiving monthly bonus pensions, ranging from hundreds to thousands. The so-called "victim pensions" are added to the pensions of those who suffered World War II-linked disabilities, or to their dependents. Although a 1950 German law excludes war criminals living abroad from getting such pensions, the law is apparently not enforced in Canada or the United States. Elan Steinberg, executive director of the World Jewish Congress, has charged that some 3,300 Germans living in the United States receive the pensions.

[eretzyisrael]

Simon Wiesenthal (1908–2005) was an Austrian Holocaust survivor who spent four and a half years in the German concentration camps such as Janowska, Plaszow, and Mauthausen. After the war, he became famous for his work as a Nazi hunter. Wiesenthal dedicated most of his life to tracking down and gathering information on fugitive Nazis so that they could be brought to justice.

In 1999, at a conference of European Rabbis in Bratislava, Wiesenthal, at 91, shared a profound encounter with Rabbi Eliezer Silver after his liberation from Mauthausen. Rabbi Silver, a towering figure in American Jewry who had saved countless lives during and after the war, came to Mauthausen to comfort the survivors and organized a prayer service.

Rabbi Eliezer Silver (1882–1968) was among American Jewry’s foremost religious leaders, and most noted for spearheading efforts in rescuing as many Jews as possible from Europe. He raised funds, requested exemptions on immigration quotas, offered to ransom concentration camp prisoners for cash and tractors — talks that freed hundreds from Bergen-Belsen and other death camps — and organized rallies in Washington. After the war, he traveled to Europe and worked tirelessly on the ground to assist his brethren.

It was in Mauthausen after liberation that Simon Wiesenthal was visited by Rabbi Silver when he had come to help and comfort the survivors. Rabbi Silver had organized a special prayer service and he invited Wiesenthal to join the other survivors in praying. Mr. Wiesenthal declined and explained his position.

“When I was in camp, I saw many different types of people do things. There was one religious man of whom I was in awe. This man had managed to smuggle a Siddur (Jewish prayer book) into the camp. I was amazed that he took the risk of his life in order to bring the Siddur in.

“The next day, to my horror, I realized that this was not a religious man. He was renting the Siddur in exchange for people giving him their last piece of bread. I was so angry with this Jew, how could he take a Siddur and use it to take a person’s last piece of bread away? So I am not going to pray, if this is how religious Jews behave.”

As Wiesenthal turned to walk away, Rabbi Silver tapped him on the shoulder and gently said in Yiddish, “Oy naar, naar.” Wiesenthal was intrigued why had the Rabbi called him childish. The answer wasn’t long in coming.

Rabbi Silver continued, “Why do you look at the manipulative Jew who rented out his Siddur to take away people’s last meals? Why do you look at that less-than-noble person? Why don’t you focus on the dozens of Jews who gave up their last piece of bread in order to be able to use a Siddur? To be able to talk to G-d? Why don’t you look at those awesome people who in spite of all their suffering still felt they can connect to their Creator?

“The Germans deprived them of everything! They had nothing left. The last thing they owned, their courage, hope, faith — that the Germans could not take away from them. Is this inspiring or what?!” Asked Rabbi Silver.

Wiesenthal joined the service that day and shared the story some sixty years later.

(Pictured above: Rabbi Eliezer Silver with Unidentified Rabbi and Surrounded by Students in Europe in 1946 on his Visit to Displaced Persons Camps 1946 | From the Collection of Moshe Gumbo)

— —

Source: Yerachmiel Tilles for shemayisrael.co.il, Talk given by Rabbi YY Jacobson, Yosef Ben-Shlomo HaKohein for Chabad.org, Rabbi Elazar Muskin JewishJournal.com. Story accuracy confirmed by the Simon Weisenthal Center.

Rabbi Yisroel Bernath

[jewish-vents]

“‘from the river to the sea’ is not antisemitic, it’s about palestinians taking back their indigenous homelands from the evil oppressive (((israelis))) and kicking out the dirty (((zionist colonizers)))! taking the Jews’ side here is like siding with the white european settlers who stole and colonialized the united states from native/indigenous americans. you wouldn’t be mad at an Indigenous person for killing their colonizers, would you? israel needs to give the land to palestinians and leave, which will free them from those nasty jewish settlers.”

so jews aren’t native to israel? where the fuck are we supposed to go (which is what zionism actually means, not that anyone would or does actually give a shit)? why are we not good enough to live on the land we came from, and how the hell do you know who it originally and rightly belongs to? moreover who gives you the right to decide?

It’s a false equivalency made to manipulate naive “activist leftists” (a group which I used to consider myself a member of, not anymore) who are too afraid to form a complex opinion on their own and default to what they think is “rooting for the underdog”. They think they’re progressive but they are, and have been the exact same people to say “wow those dirty jews are being really mean to poor little germany right now, fuck those guys. Thank goodness someone is finally standing up to those monsters.” that’s not even a hypothetical fyi that is a stance I have actually seen posted recently. Sorry but personally I think if you’ve ever thought or said “maybe the nazis were right” then you should automatically have to turn in your “leftist card” or whatever. like, oh my god listen to yourself right now. it’s embarrassing and scary as hell. I hope they still have the courage to leave those posts up when the Simon Wiesenthal Center does a 21st century nazi hunt once this war is over.

.

[girlactionfigure]

Simon Wiesenthal, born December 31, 1908. “One day Simon called and said that he would like to celebrate his 90th birthday with a few friends in Vienna. I asked him where he would like to celebrate.

He said, ‘I have one unfulfilled wish, to have a party at the Imperial Hotel.’ He told me that it was Hitler’s favorite hotel and that both Hitler and Himmler had permanent suites there. They built enormous bunkers beneath the hotel, which still exist today, because Hitler thought that this would serve as an ideal headquarters from where he could conduct the Second World War.

During the Third Reich, it would have been unthinkable, Simon said, for a Jew to be seen at the Imperial Hotel. ‘And I want to make sure,’ he said, ‘that all the taboos of the Third Reich are broken and that the record of this hotel would affirm that Simon Wiesenthal celebrated his 90th birthday here with a Kosher dinner.’

On the night of the dinner, when the band played a favorite Yiddish song, ‘Belz, Mein Shtele Belz’ (Belz, My Little Shtetl Belz), he looked up at the ceiling, turned to me, and said: ‘You see even the chandeliers are shaking because this is the first time they have ever heard such music here.

Let the record read,’ he said, ‘that Hitler is no longer here, but even in the Imperial Hotel, Jews are still alive and still singing.’”

- Rabbi Marvin Hier reflecting on Simon Wiesenthal’s birthday.

Source: Simon Wiesenthal Center

Humans of Judaism

[newsfromstolenland]

Over the Canada Day long weekend, 19 Peterborough residents reported receiving flyers promoting anti-Jewish conspiracy theories and white supremacist propaganda, marking the third time in three months that such flyers were distributed to various neighbourhoods in the city.

“It's just not acceptable that our brothers and sisters in the Jewish community have been targeted for this kind of vile hatred,” said Peterborough Mayor Jeff Leal.

The mayor said the hateful conduct originated from the United States and the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center, a Jewish advocacy organization, and others have specifically linked the flyers to the U.S.-based hate group Goyim Defense League (GDL). GDL is described as a “loose” network of individuals on the internet who stream antisemitic content and engage in stunts to harass Jewish people.

Full article

Tagging: @allthecanadianpolitics

[bostonwalks]

  Eve Barlow, Noa Tishby, and Bari Weiss...took part in a panel discussion moderated by award-winning news broadcaster Jamie Gutfreund and hosted by Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies, as part of the organization’s annual State of the Union event. The panelists analyzed how social media has allowed the proliferation of anti-Jewish sentiment and disinformation about Israel, and what the public can do to stop it.

[theculturedmarxist]

Conversations about white supremacy in America today typically center on right-wing media and incendiary politicians who blast out racist dog whistles.

But hate doesn’t need demagogues to get mainstreamed; it has also found an outlet at elite universities.

On June 29, Stanford University hosted a delegation from the Azov Brigade, a neo-Nazi formation in the Ukrainian National Guard. The panel, during which Azov’s neo-Nazi insignia was projected onto the wall, was attended by noted political scientist Francis Fukuyama, who posed for a photograph with the delegation.

This event — and the disturbing lack of reaction from Jewish organizations — showcases the limits of America’s commitment to combating white supremacy.

Call it the Ukraine exception.

Before Russia’s 2022 invasion, nearly every Western institution raised alarms about Azov. Putin’s brazen attack on Ukraine led to a much deserved outpouring of support for the country. Unfortunately, it also led to suppression of those who criticize the dark side of Kyiv: its reliance on far-right military elements, the most prominent example of which is Azov.

Even amid today’s surge of antisemitism globally, Azov has become the Teflon Neo-Nazis: freedom fighters who can do no wrong, celebrated across America, including at prestigious institutions like Stanford.

All too often, this adulation of a neo-Nazi formation has been met with silence by the Jewish community.

From neo-Nazis to heroes 

Azov began in 2014 as a paramilitary battalion formed out of a neo-Nazi street gang; it helped Kyiv fight back against Russian-backed rebels in eastern Ukraine. Azov eventually grew into a brigade in Ukraine’s National Guard. In addition to committing war crimes, the unit is notorious for its recruitment of radicals from around the world, including America.

Azov’s radicalism has been tracked by the Simon Wiesenthal Center and the Anti-Defamation League, banned as a hate group by Facebook and blocked from receiving weapons by Congress.

But then, Russian president Vladimir Putin used Azov as “justification” for his invasion. Moscow needed to sell the war to the public — it exploited Azov’s existence by falsely painting Ukraine as teeming with fascists and Russia’s invasion as a “denazification” mission.

The reaction of the West played in Azov’s favor. The existence of white supremacists certainly doesn’t give Putin the right to invade Ukraine. The Kremlin’s premise of “denazification” also rings hollow, considering there are plenty of neo-Nazis fighting for Moscow.

But for Azov, Moscow’s obsession has been a ticket to the limelight. Buoyed by the notion that If Putin hates them, they must be the good guys, brigade members have been welcomed to Congress and lauded on television.

In addition to an Azov veteran, the Stanford appearance featured Kateryna Prokopenko, whose husband Denys was the brigade’s commander through the spring of 2022.

Denys Prokopenko has been photographed with his platoon’s informal insignia of a bearded Totenkopf, a type of skull-and-crossbones used by the SS. He was also featured on the cover of Azov’s unofficial magazine, which uses the Sonnenrad neo-Nazi rune favored by white terrorists like the perpetrator of last year’s massacre in Buffalo, New York.

Third Reich insignia on an elite campus

Last week’s event wasn’t Azov’s first Stanford tour – a delegation was also welcomed there last fall. Ironically, one of Stanford’s own institutes published a report chronicling Azov’s white supremacy mere months before the brigade’s visit.

When asked about Azov’s return to campus, a university spokesperson told me via email on June 27 that the event was co-sponsored by the Ukrainian Student Association at Stanford at the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures. “The university does not take positions on outside speakers that groups within our community want to hear from,” they added.

But Azov’s visit concerns an issue Stanford has taken a position on: Nazi symbolism.

The flyer advertising the Azov event contains the brigade’s official insignia, which is the wolfsangel, yet another hate symbol used by both the Third Reich and today’s neo-Nazis.

This isn’t the first Stanford incident involving Nazi imagery. However, the lack of response on Azov stands in sharp contrast to Stanford’s actions in previous cases. 

n 2019, Stanford was embroiled in controversy after left-wing cartoonist Eli Valley was invited to speak on campus. Valley, whose artwork features grotesque satire using Nazi imagery, was met with protests. Indeed, it led to university officials issuing a lengthy statement condemning antisemitism.

This March, the school addressed the discovery of swastikas in a dormitory by stating, “Stanford wholeheartedly rejects antisemitism, racism, hatred, and associated symbols, which are reprehensible and will not be tolerated.”

When more antisemitic attacks followed in April, Stanford’s president said: “I want to make it very clear that we will not tolerate antisemitism and the symbols of antisemitism here on campus. It is something we need to eradicate.”

Yet despite these declarations of commitment to combating antisemitism, Stanford has not responded to repeated inquiries about the university’s position regarding the Azov event displaying the wolfsangel.

We seem endlessly surprised at politicians like Donald Trump who refuse to accept responsibility for actions that enable bigotry. It shouldn’t be surprising, considering demagogues don’t bother with responsibility; that’s what makes them demagogues. 

But what about a pillar of education and enlightenment like a prestigious university? What’s Stanford’s excuse? 

Calling out neo-Nazism: Void where prohibited

Our tolerance of Azov seems even more alarming when we consider reactions to neo-Nazism that don’t involve the brigade.

In 2018, Rep. Matt Gaetz was caught inviting a Holocaust denier to the State of the Union. Gaetz’s decision to platform hate on Capitol Hill was condemned by colleagues and the ADL.

But there have been no denunciations of numerous lawmakers who welcomed Azov fighters to Washington. This includes Rep. Marcy Kaptur, who was photographed with an Azov veteran whose Twitter contained pictures of him wearing a shirt with 1488 (neo-Nazi code) and “likes” of a Hitler photo and “Death to Kikes” graffiti. 

Indeed, Azov delegations to Washington proudly advertise their meetings on the Hill. 

Or see how Jewish media and the State Department took the trouble to condemn musician Roger Waters for wearing a fascist uniform during concerts (this is part of Waters’ performance of The Wall, a satire of fascism).

The very same day, The New York Times exposed the prevalence of Nazi symbols in Ukraine’s armed forces, which receive billions in American weapons. You’d imagine this news would be at least as concerning as a musician’s costume. Yet neither the State Department nor Jewish watchdogs reacted to it (and neither the State Department or the ADL have responded to my requests for comment).

The American Jewish community must condemn neo-Nazism without exception, not just when geopolitically convenient. They can start by calling on institutions like Stanford to stop platforming Azov.

[allthecanadianpolitics]

A human rights organization is condemning a recent rally near the National Holocaust Monument in Ottawa, saying it dishonours the memory of the six million Jews killed by Nazi Germany during the Second World War.

Video posted online of the April 2 gathering shows a few dozen people with flags and signs associated with various conspiracy theories protesting in front of the Canadian War Museum.

They then cross the street and wander through the austere monument.

Several carry placards with anti-vaccine messages, while people can be heard comparing the plight of Jews during the Holocaust to the restrictions unvaccinated Canadians faced during the COVID-19 pandemic. [...]

Continue Reading.

Tagging: @politicsofcanada

[antisemitism-us]

Just so we understand how terrible the situation is:

Canadian Jews are asking that people condemn antisemitic incidents.

-----

A coalition of Canadian Jewish organizations is vocalizing the need to address Jew-hatred on campus after multiple incidents at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver.

Allied Voices for Israel, Center for Israel and Jewish Affairs, Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center, Hillel BC, Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver and StandWithUs Canada released a joint statement on Oct. 23 before Simchat Torah—the last of the Jewish fall holidays—on “the sharp rise in antisemitic incidents” at UBC.

The statement said that “since the start of the academic year, Jewish staff, students and faculty have faced an increasingly hostile environment that cannot be allowed to persist.”

“Campus buildings have been vandalized with antisemitic slogans, Jewish faculty members have been targeted in smear campaigns,” the groups stated. “Anti-Israel student clubs promoted violence and disinformation on their social-media platforms.”

The organizations suggested five actions directed towards the administration to counter such behavior: condemning antisemitic incidents; holding student groups accountable; implementing education programs; fostering an inclusive campus environment; and engaging directly with Jewish students.

[zvaigzdelasas]

[CBC is State Funded Media]

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has called the decision to invite an elderly Ukrainian Second World War veteran who fought for Nazi Germany an "egregious error" that "deeply embarrassed Parliament and Canada." On Wednesday, he offered what he called "unreserved apologies" on Canada's behalf for the hurt it caused. Many experts say they're skeptical about the prospect of Canada's political leaders and institutions learning something from the now-infamous episode that capped President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's trip to Canada. Many historians will tell you that what we've witnessed over the last several days is history coming back to bite Canada — specifically over its refusal down the decades to acknowledge or own up to the decisions that allowed Yaroslav Hunka, who served with the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (1st Galician), to immigrate to Canada in the 1950s.[...]

There was a reckoning of sorts in Canada during the 1980s. A public inquiry, headed by Justice Jules Deschênes, attempted to determine if Nazi war criminals and sympathizers ended up making this country their home and, if so, how many there were. The Galician division featured prominently in that investigation. Jewish groups, notably the Nazi-hunting Simon Wiesenthal Center, gave the inquiry a list of 217 former members of the unit who apparently had immigrated to Canada. (The Deschênes commission concluded that 86 per cent of those named never landed in Canada and "no prima facie case has been established against" the 16 under suspicion.)[...]

Trudeau, in his apology, said everyone in the House of Commons regretted "deeply having stood and clapped even though we did so unaware of the context." The old phrase "ignorance is no excuse under the law" might be modified in this instance to include the word "history." After almost eight decades, it would be easy to chalk this up to a history-challenged staffer working somewhere within the labyrinth of the House of Commons, or to failure on the part the now-former speaker Anthony Rota — someone simply ignorant of the complexities and grievances. That may well be part of the political calculation. With Rota gone and with the prime minister having apologized, the reflex may be to rebury the past and carry on to the next political crisis.

But one war crimes researcher and historian says the international stakes, given Russia's use of the event for propaganda, make a thorough investigation — and public airing — indispensable. "I think the Canadian government owes it to itself to determine how on earth this thing happened," said Efraim Zuroff, a director at the Simon Wiesenthal Center's Israel office and a specialist in Nazi war crimes in Eastern Europe.

It's not just about how such an invitation was extended. It's also about the airbrushing of history — Rota's carefully worded tribute mentioned Hunka having fought against Russia, as though Moscow had been the enemy at the time. "People are so ignorant [of] that history, it's pathetic," said Zuroff. "People suffer from such ignorance when it comes to the Holocaust and other things as well ... And it's a complicated subject. It took place in many different countries and played out to a certain extent in different ways."

Aside from the list involving the Galicia division, Zuroff has personally submitted to the Canadian government another 252 names of other suspected Nazis — or Nazi collaborators — from Eastern European countries other than Ukraine who are believed to have come to Canada. Out of that entire list, only one individual was ever charged. Following the Deschênes commission's report, the Criminal Code of Canada was amended to make it easier to go after suspected Nazi war criminals. Much of that work came to a screeching halt with the failed prosecution of Imre Finta, a former Hungarian police commander who was accused of organizing the deportation of over 8,000 Jews to Nazi death camps. He was acquitted on the defence that he was following the orders of a superior. Zuroff said the Canadian courts that accepted that verdict are the only ones in the world that recognize that legal defence — and consequently, no one else has been prosecuted. Since that case was tried in 1990, Canada opted to go after war criminals through the immigration system.

Any meaningful reflection on the Hunka tribute must include an examination of how Canada has dealt with these cases, Zuroff added.

Beyond the legal context, a leading scholar at the University of Ottawa, history professor Jan Grabowski, said the country needs to acknowledge how people like Hunka — who fought with the Nazis for what he hoped would be Ukrainian independence — got into Canada in the first place. Britain and countries like Italy, where some members of the Galicia division ended up, were eager in the late 1940s to be rid of refugees and surrendered soldiers. Canada willingly accepted them and by 1950 had made a special accommodation for Ukrainians. According to the Deschênes report, the prevailing feeling in the government at the time was that these former soldiers "should be subject to special security screening, but should not be rejected on the grounds of their service in the German army."

The context of the time, said Grabokski, is crucial, because when the Cold War began, Canadians shifted to a totally different "frame of mind."

"Anti-communists were prized above everything else," he said. "So we need to understand that this was a totally different political situation and most of the time, the Canadian authorities knew that they were letting in people who were allies of Hitler. But it was not enough, let's say, to make them hesitate." The B'nai Brith demanded this week that Ottawa take this opportunity to finally open all Holocaust-related records to the public, including the second part of the Deschênes commission's report, which has been kept secret for almost 40 years. Instead of reflection, though, Canadians might be in line for more political theatre.

28 Sep 23

[eretzyisrael]

by Dion J. Pierre

A famous theater in the Ontario province of Canada is facing widespread criticism over its “postponement” of the upcoming Hamilton Jewish Film Festival, a decision that many observers have interpreted as a cancelation motivated by anti-Israel animus.

“After receiving numerous security and safety related emails, phone calls, and social media messages, the Playhouse Cinema reached a difficult decision to postpone the Hamilton Jewish Federation’s venue rental,” the Playhouse Cinema, located in the city of Hamilton, said in a statement posted to X/Twitter on Tuesday. “On Saturday, March 16, our decision to postpone this venue rental was reached amid security and safety concerns at this particularly sensitive time.”

Organized by the Hamilton Jewish Federation, the event was slated to feature six films across three days, April 7-9, with each exploring different eras of Jewish history, from life in modern day kibbutzim bordering the Gaza strip to Poland during the communist purges of Jews in the 1960s. Several of the films were written and produced in Israel by Israeli creators.

On Wednesday, the Hamilton Jewish Federation said that Playhouse Cinema, in canceling the festival, has acted dishonorably and adhered to the wishes of antisemites.

“The Hamilton Jewish Federation is outraged by the recent decision made by the Playhouse Cinema to backtrack on its commitment to host the 2024 Hamilton Jewish Film Festival after the theatre received a small number of complaints and threatening emails objecting to the fact that Israeli films are included in this year’s line-up,” the group said. “The decision, coming just weeks before the scheduled event, is a lost opportunity to engage the Greater Hamilton community in a Jewish cultural event during the highest rise of antisemitism we’ve seen in recent history, and in the aftermath of the bloodiest day in Jewish history since the Holocaust.”

Antisemitism has skyrocketed in Canada since the Hamas terror group’s onslaught across southern Israel on Oct. 7.

The Hamilton Jewish Federation added that the films that would have been screened are culturally relevant and valuable for portraying the past and “contemporary Jewish experience,” as well as the “reality of co-existence” between Jews and Arabs living in Israel as neighbors and citizens. One of them, it noted, is the final project of a filmmaker Hamas murdered during its Oct. 7 massacre, a tragedy that has left an indelible scar on Jewish communities throughout the world.

Jewish nonprofits commented on the matter on Tuesday and Wednesday, describing the festival’s scrapping as an injustice and calling on lawmakers to intervene and restore the original agreement between both parities.

“Unacceptable and appalling,” tweeted HonestReporting Canada, a nonprofit that promotes fair media coverage of Israel. “Silencing Jewish voices in a time when Jews are the #1 targeted religious group for hate crimes in Canada is a dangerous precedent and only gives more ammunition to those who hide their antisemitism under the guise of ‘anti-Zionism.'”

Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center, whose mission is to combat antisemitism and spread awareness of the Holocaust, added, “We denounce Playhouse Cinema’s decision to reverse its commitment to host the Hamilton Jewish Film Festival this year, in the latest example of an organization yielding to threats and intimidation from anti-Israel activists.”