#so why is she named after a Swedish and/or Finnish area that is itself named after a slur

[fishing-lesbian-catgirl]

Some time last year I had a bizarrely vivid dream about blogging through the aftermath of a post blowing up about how Skadi’s name was, in the dream, an ethnic slur for a group of Northern European/Icelandic (it wasn’t clear in the dream) indigenous people. (She’s actually named after the Norse goddess Skaði). The rest of the dream involved all the various responses to the post, like the people who defended the name and wanted to keep using it, the people who tried coming up with alternate names for her and then argued with each other over which name should be the one everyone uses, and the people who saw it as justification to harass everyone who ever referred to her by name and posted in the tag for her name. The defenders were rancid, the alt name debates got really heated, and the harassers ended up driving a ton of fan artists who don’t speak English off the website who were getting harassed but didn’t know why. There was all sorts of discourse about whether or not we should even talk about her anymore even though it was only her name, not her design, that was offensive. Some people tried to get the devs to change her name but never got a response. The entire time I was sitting there feeling bad for having used it and thinking “Hey, why the fuck did they name her that???”

When I woke up, i felt stressed and tired having dreamt about tumblr discourse. I went looked up what her name meant to make sure that was just in the dream, and then posted about it like I do for most of my weird dreams. I didn’t expect anyone to respond. Instead I had a number of replies telling me that most of that actually happened/happens every once in a while, and that my subconscious just picked the wrong character.

Hey, why the fuck did they name Miss Saluzzo that?

[pellicano-sanguino]

Finland’s most famous graveyard must be Hietaniemi Cemetery. Many famous people are buried there, including presidents. And a whole bunch of artists. They have a separate area for them, the “artist’s hill.” But one famous artist didn’t get to be buried there among other great painters, sculptors and writers.

Helene Schjerfbeck. 

One of the most famous Finnish artists wasn’t buried in the artist’s hill. She did get a grave in another part of Hietaniemi Cemetery, though. And that grave? Until very recently, was left unattended, growing weeds. It was only because there’s a movie coming out about Schjerfbeck that someone pointed out the sorry state of her grave. Everyone excited about the movie was making great speeches how her art being so loved internationally brought Finns national pride, and someone wrote an angry comment in the newspaper, pointing that it’s disrespectful for politicians and art patrons to claim they love and appreciate her work while her grave grows nettles and we can’t be bothered to pay for the caring of her grave from public sources. 

Some organisation took taking care of Schjerfbeck’s grave as their responsibility. But it was still very disturbing to me how a female artist was treated so differently, even in death. 

The reason I’m writing this is because I went to see Portrait of a Lady on Fire recently. The movie left me an emotional wreck, it touched me on such a basic, almost subconscious level that I’m not sure I’m able to write anything coherent about my feelings. But I will try. Though I think this is a movie one must see for oneself, nothing I say about it will be able to describe the experience properly.

This post contains spoilers for the movie.

The movie is set in 1770 France. A time when female artists were forbidden from painting men, but allowed to paint portraits of women. The protagonist Marianne is one such exceptional lady who had a father open minded enough to allow her an artist’s career instead of choosing from the remaining three options. 

The remaining options? Convent, marriage or suicide.

The plot revolves around a woman, Heloise, who chose convent, but has that choice forcibly taken away from her after her sister chose suicide over arranged marriage and the family now needs to go for plan B and sell their second daughter to some man she has never met. Her mother needs a portrait of her to use as a selling tool, showing it to the man she intends to make her marry. Heloise resists and refuses to pose for an artist. So her mother hires Marianne, who is to pretend to be someone hired for keeping Heloise company, but secretly she is painting her portrait. 

I admit I don’t often enjoy watching movies. It’s just not my medium of choice. But then again, most of the movies I’ve seen are Hollywood stuff or pretentious artsy films, and both of those can be too much for someone as sensitive as I am. I can’t handle violence or unnecessary sex scenes. Also, the vast majority of movies are stories made by men, about men, for men. Even the women in movies are seen through the eyes of men.

But this movie is made by women, about women, for women.

The absence of man’s eyes is notable in small details. How there are no important male characters in this movie, men only show up in the very beginning and end and even then they are just background extras. The fact that we don’t get sex scenes (a male director could never resist doing that when handling a story about lesbians). The fact that both leading ladies look rather plain, ordinary women instead of your typical Hollywood barbie-dolls. The last time I saw a woman in a movie with unshaved armpits was back in highschool when during Swedish lesson we watched some Swedish flick that had a loudly feminist character who made a point of not shaving. 

There’s a scene where a woman goes to an old lady to get an abortion done. If this scene was done by a man, if it had been filmed in Hollywood, they would have made her scream in pain and showed the blood and discharge and feasted on every gruesome detail of the procedure. But the scene is calm, peaceful and intimately respectful. We don’t need to see any details. Focusing on what’s going on between her legs is unnecessary, seeing her face trying to keep calm but breaking into silent, suffocated cries is enough.

Women suffer silently. We have all been taught to grin and bear it, the harder it hurts, the harder you must smile.

The movie isn’t gloomy and depressing. The unpleasant truths jab at your heart without you noticing. Because they let the story speak for itself. No one needs to point out the unfairness of women’s fate in a world ruled by men. The doomed romance between Marianne and Heloise speaks loud enough. Their knowledge that once the portrait is finished, it’s all over. Heloise’s family home is situated on an island with steep cliffs around its shores and surrounded by the restless, ice cold waters of the sea. It’s all very symbolic. There is no escape.

The story builds slowly, patiently. I shouldn’t constantly compare this to Hollywood movies, but in an American movie you could never have this few spoken lines and take this long before the romance buds. Marianne knows she only has few days to finish the portrait, but she and Heloise don’t rush anything and live like they had all the time in the world. They are powerless to do anything to the fate looming ahead and instead spend their last days together without worrying about it. But the viewer is constantly aware of what is going to happen in the end. The tension builds, invisible hands are placed on my throat and slowly tighten their grip. When the last scene begins, I feel so choked by catharsis that I have to breathe through parted lips. I was happy for the movie theater’s darkness, so that neither of my friends sitting beside me could see the tears flowing down my cheek. Women suffer silently, I have been taught to hide my tears and be ashamed if they are discovered.

My friends gave me a ride back home and we talked about the movie. Tigel mentioned that she’d probably have to search the net for fix-it-fics to help her deal with her feelings. I responded that I probably have to call my mother and thank her for letting me choose my own fate and loving me just as I am.

I had to make a phone call like that once before. It was when I was reading Well of Loneliness by Radclyffe Hall. At first I didn’t even like the book, or the main character. But slowly I began to notice similarities between myself and Stephen. They felt so familiar, so much more personal than any of the things het characters in other books did or said. I became frighteningly aware that this book wasn’t just about one specific person, it was about my people. I knew that the story wouldn’t have a happy ending (with a name like Well of Loneliness, what do you expect?) but I couldn’t stop reading. I felt as if I had a responsibility to read on, that I owed it to my past fellow lesbians. Stephen was a fictional character, but she was made to speak for us, to speak for the unfairness of a homosexual’s fate in a world ruled by heteros. For the silent suffering of women who were rejected by society.

When I got to the part where Stephen’s mother tells her that she wished she had never been born, I had to stop. The pain became unbearable. I had to put the book away and call my mother, seeking relief from the invisible hands choking me. I don’t remember that call very well, because I was an emotional mess during it. I remember telling her over and over again that I don’t take for granted the fact that she loves me despite knowing I’m a lesbian. That I am painfully aware that many have not been as fortunate as me. Even today, even in modern, civilized countries like Finland, there are countless gays and lesbians who are rejected by their parents. When you’re homosexual, being loved by your parent isn’t a default, it’s a matter of luck. I have been so very, very lucky.

Both the Well of Loneliness and Portrait of a Lady on Fire have touched me by making me aware of the history of my people. While some parts of our history is celebrated (all the great artists and other historic figures who were one of us), there’s the heavy weight of knowledge about our oppression, how in order for lesbians to live happily ever after in the past they had to be sneaky and so very, very lucky. Not all lesbians were Anne Listers, whose family was ok with not pressuring her to marry. I feel pain thinking how many women there must have been who were forced to suffer just like Stephen, just like Heloise. 

Another reason why our history lies heavy on my mind is because so much of it is lost, hidden, denied and shamed because of heteros. They burned Sappho’s poems. Fire also claimed the love letters men sent to Philippe, brother of Ludwig XIV. While gay men were sentenced openly, lesbianism wasn’t even spoken out loud, out of fear that women couldn’t commit such a sin if they were unaware of its existence. Oscar Wilde was sentenced to prison and died in France, his legacy to the art of writing unappreciated by his countrymen. How many of our graves grew nettles, because we were the dirty secret that everyone wanted to forget? How many of us had uncared graves because the only thing lesser than a woman is a woman who refuses to center her life around a man?

Now I’m going to voice an unpopular opinion that’s probably going to give me hatemail but I’m going to voice it anyway. I don’t like it when people posthumously push trans identity to people who did not identify as trans in life. There’s no way around it, I find it disrespectful. The reason I’m mentioning this is, that despite not liking it, I completely understand why they do it. Trans folks long for a history. They want their own Sapphos and Oscar Wildes. They want great historic characters to look up to and think “We have always been here and despite the world being against us, we could achieve great things.” The weight of lesbian and gay history can be a painful burden, but it will also give us comfort, knowing that people like us have always been and will always be there, that even when heteros made attempts to silence us or wipe us out of existence, we clung to the surviving parts of our history and treasured them. We will never know what the full poem behind the fragment “Someone will remember us/I say/even in another time” was like, but even so those words are precious to us. I do not blame trans folks for wishing for a history, even small fragments to reach through time and give them comfort. 

In case I will receive hatemail for this, I will make an announcement. I have no obligation to react to any message, comment or reblog sent my way. This is my blog, my house, my personal space. I decide who is invited in and who is not. If someone tries to contact me and I see they want to debate, before even reading what they’ve written to me, I will check their blog. A quick glance will usually be enough to reveal if the person in question is capable of intelligent and mature conversation or if engaging in debate with them will just be playing chess with a pigeon (the pigeon will knock the pawns over, bite your nose, shit on the board and then fly to boast to its fellow pigeons how well it won you in a game of chess). If I deem you a pigeon chess player, you will be ignored. I have no time to waste on useless debate. All terfhunters will be ignored as well, I do not wish to interact with the likes of them. However, just like not all gender criticals are radical feminists, not all trans folks are terfhunters. I am willing to speak with people I disagree with, but I will be choosing who I wish to speak with and who I won’t. If I see that you can’t behave, you are not welcome here.

[berlinaura]

I’m slowly but surely starting to get settled down here. Apart from English and German, my courses started this week. In this post I am going to share a few “what the fuck” moments I’ve had during these 2,5 weeks and also just tell what’s up. 

Right now we are supposed to go to the first lectures of courses that seem interesting and try them out. As no official registration to courses is needed, we can try everything out and make our decisions after we have gotten an idea what the course is about and what the lecturer is like. This system has its advantages but then again it doesn’t differ much from what I am used to. The only difference in Finland is that you indeed need to register for the course but if you feel like giving up, it’s no problem to just leave.

Right now two of my courses are overlapping. Normally this wouldn’t be no problem whatsoever but here the lectures aren’t recorded nor can it be assumed that the lecturer posts the lecture material online. After a long time I have finally found interesting courses I am excited about but simultaneously I am not looking for having any of this extra stress. It would be bad enough to spend the evenings of my exchange year self-studying the material from missed lessons but now I wouldn’t have even an idea what they are talking about in the lessons (there’s not even a semester plan provided!). It’s just not worth guessing, googling, begging for lecture notes from other students twice a week.

I also heard that some teachers have problems accepting Erasmus students to their courses. If the international office in Berlin accepts the courses then there shouldn’t be any question if Erasmus students can attend the course! And even better - the info should already be provided on the course catalog when we are expected to choose courses. It’s just as I said earlier, some things are made difficult for no reason and the staff of TUB even knows this. Still nobody does any changes and and the frustration just repeats itself every semester.

From the info we got on the orientation week I understood that every professor might have their own “rules” and ways of working and nobody can stop them. They might just deny a student from their course and the head of the international office told us that the most efficient way to get proper treatment when a teacher acts up is to CRY IN FRONT OF THEM to make them uncomfortable. We were also told to “make sure you see that the professor is writing your name down when you tell them you’d like to participate. Otherwise they might just forget it when they go to a coffee break!”. Why the hell is this our responsibility? If you want to have a system where students can’t sign up for courses online and make sure they have a place, then the paper hell and struggle of keeping up with names is on you. 

Even the printing here is relatively hard. You have a few places where you can print. I’ve done it in the library and let me tell you, it ain’t that simple. First of all you need to leave your bag and jacket to a locker (to which you need to bring your own lock) or you can take your most important belongings our of your bag and leave everything else to a public space. Then you go to a computer (that looks like it’s from 2004) and download the thing you need to print to the computer. Also, the only accepted file is a pdf so you can’t for example just print an email, you need to copy it, paste it it Word and convert it into a pdf file. Then you put money to your name and go to a certain website to where you can pick a printer - or more accurately: you can choose the ROOM where it gets printed out. Next you’ll search all of the printers in the room while the printers print every students’ documents at the same time. Today I was hunting down some documents there and there was random people’s documents in between mine and I had no idea which printer is going to do the printing so I had to keep an eye of three printers for like 5 minutes until some of them finally printed out my document. Also, printing 1 black and white page costs 5 cents which eventually adds up because German people have some kind of fetish to forms and filling things out by hand.

Just like probably every capital, Berlin is not a “student city”. So naturally what I sort of miss here are student events. For a few times I have already got to explain the student life in Finland and everybody seems so interested and jealous of sittnings, saunas and the tech student culture, overalls, caps, traditions... An ESN club that organizes events and has a club room would be really great. Not that there is any student culture for the club to show (yikes :D) but hey, there is a very strong Berlin culture instead. 

We do have the buddy program here that is somewhat responsible of organizing a few events for us but I heard they are having a hard time coming up with fun things to arrange. Me and a Swedish exchange student volunteered to organize international sittnings here! The buddies also differ from the Finnish “tutors” because they’ve had barely any training or instructions and everybody is just there to hang out and have friends. Which is of course great and welcomed but exchange students are also full of questions and buddies are the people they want to ask them. Informing the buddies of basics (how exchange students sign up for stuff, what they need to take care of upon arriving etc) would add so much value to the buddy program. Luckily some of the buddies are more involved than others, and are there to meet, help and answer questions as well. 

While there might be a lack of student life and culture, Berlin is still an ideal place for students and young people. There are so many things to do and the city never sleeps. Last night (Tuesday-Wednesday night) I was out at 2 am and the whole city is just so lively. People are out and willing to have a conversation unlike in Finland. There’s plenty of events, music, dancing, bowling, clubs, pubs, sport opportunities, museums, flea markets, karaoke, restaurants, historical places, parks, christmas markets, sights... And the opening times are so much better than what I’m used to! Seriously, nobody chooses Berlin for the university, we choose Berlin for Berlin. 

Last year around this time I was at an international sittning in Tampere and talked with the international students about differences they find between their home country and Finland. This is probably my all time favorite topic to talk about. This one girl from Hamburg said “It is incredible how the atmosphere here in Finland is so peaceful. Nobody’s in a hurry. Look, you might have red lights on traffic but that’s okay, you’ll just wait until it turns green. You walk like you don’t need to be anywhere, just taking your time”. I wasn’t sure what she was talking about but now I know exactly what she was talking about. 

Everybody in Berlin is in such a hurry all the time. They’ll run 200 meters to the tram without giving shit about the traffic and then cram themselves in even though we can already see the next tram coming behind the corner. There’s a lot of people in Berlin and everybody makes room for themselves whereas I would just rather wait until the people on my way will pass. I get a bit anxious when I need to follow a Berliner in a crowd because they will walk twice as fast as me and they don’t want to take that needed 5 seconds to figure out if the first walking route they see is the most reasonable way to go through. To be honest there’s a few times I just wanted to shake my buddy and be like “Why can’t you notice that there’s a kid running towards you from your right and you’re going to pump into each other in 3 seconds if you keep on walking to that direction as if we were in a horrible hurry!! You can’t just walk with this tunnel vision, ignoring other people and expect me to keep up”. I’ll probably become less aware of the surroundings as I get more used to it. Can’t expect to have personal space and consideration from people in a busy and crowded city like this.

Although this post is a bit negative, I wake up every day with such gratitude to be here. Two days ago I walked like three hours just browsing Berlin and enjoying its beauty. I almost wanted to cry out of happiness when I got to Hackescher Markt because I felt like my soul is resting here. Hackescher Markt area is one of my favorite places here so far. I’m grateful of the interesting courses they offer at TUB. I love living in Prenzlauer berg and I truly had luck with the apartment. I am reminded of this every time I hear experiences of others. Yesterday I was hanging out in pubs in Kreuzberg and had a memorable night with people I just met. The atmosphere is so open and it’s not weird to just go talk to people. On Saturday I’ll go to visit Dresden, on Sunday I’ll go to Mauerpark (if the weather is nice) and next week there’s a concert I’m so looking forward to! 

[nataliesnews]

Please send this on    Maybe someone will contact her and she deserves to be recognized by those she helped  Natanya The Wartime Rescue You’ve Never Heard About, Told by the 100-year-old Jewish Woman Who Led It

In March 1941, a young Swedish nurse called Ilse Ganz Koppel helped escort 60 Jewish children from Stockholm to Mandatory Palestine. Now she is sharing her story for the first time

Ilse Ganz Koppel in her apartment in a retirement community outside of Jerusalem, July 2019.Emil Salman

·      

Exposing the skeletons in Sweden’s World War II closet

·      

Finnish soldiers participated in mass murders of Jews during World War II, report finds

·      

Why the mysterious Swede who drew up Israel's map favored the Jews

On a cold morning in March 1941, when it was still very much winter in Sweden and Hitler was gaining ground across Europe, a 22-year-old nurse named Ilse Ganz Koppel boarded a train in her hometown of Stockholm together with 60 Jewish refugee children. Along with three other adult chaperones, they set out over land and sea toward British Mandatory Palestine.

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“Everybody was engaged to help. You don’t know what it is to have a Nazi regime around you,” says Ganz Koppel, who at the age of 100 has decided to publicly share her account of the dangerous rescue mission that took 16 nerve-fraying days and covered some 3,500 miles (5,630 kilometers).

Ganz Koppel grew up in a prominent Jewish family in the Swedish capital, part of a 7,000-strong community. Many, including Ganz Koppel’s parents, were involved in refugee aid and relief work for their fellow European Jews. She says her father supported her taking on the mission. Most of the community stayed in Sweden, hoping the country’s neutrality would keep them safe despite fears of a possible German invasion.

She recalls that the children, who had arrived in Stockholm through Copenhagen from Germany, Poland, Austria and what was then Czechoslovakia, were sent by parents desperately hoping this would be their way to safety. Their route first took them to Haparanda in the northern reaches of Sweden, then to Helsinki and Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg), and then southward to Odessa. From there, they crossed the Black Sea by boat, stopping in a Bulgarian port before sailing to Istanbul. They then took a train through Syria and Lebanon. When they finally disembarked in Beirut, cars were waiting to take them to kibbutzim inside the areas of Jewish settlement in Mandate Palestine.

Standing under 5 feet (1.5 meters) tall, with snow-white hair, Ganz Koppel is remarkably agile for 100. She walks briskly despite her slight frame. Speaking from her apartment in a retirement community outside of Jerusalem, she can recall some of the memories with especially sharp detail. In each new country, she says, their group had to disembark and apply for travel visas in order to pass through it. She recalls the Finns being “very unfriendly” to the children, making them empty out the contents of their backpacks onto a big table at the customs office for inspection. She says it was painful watching them pull out “the very dear things from their parents, including photos and personal things … they had their whole lives in their bags.”

There was also a close call in Bulgaria. Ganz Koppel says that when they reached the port (she cannot remember the name of the city), she and the other chaperones noticed Nazi soldiers patrolling the docks. They quickly told the children to stay inside the boat so they would not be seen. She remembers too how relieved she was when their boat was not inspected by the Nazis and they were able to continue on to Istanbul.

A young Ilse Ganz Koppel (date and location of picture unknown).Emil Salman

She remembers the youths — in her memory, they were mostly in their early teens but there were younger children as well — as being strikingly stoic, with no tears and an understanding of how dire the situation was. “They knew exactly what they were doing,” she says.

“The children were unbelievable, nice, thankful and grown-up. And they were [just] children, and they helped each other,” she recounts.

As for herself, she reflects, “I had the responsibility for these kids — I could not be scared.”

Intensities of life

Just before commencing the trip, Ganz Koppel married Hans Schuman, one of the three other adults accompanying the youngsters. She did not know him before the fake marriage, but needed to share his resident status in Mandatory Palestine in order to legally travel there. She recalls that the two other adults were doctors.

After accompanying the children on the arduous journey, Ganz Koppel could no longer get back to Sweden, as she had initially planned. Many borders had since closed because of the war and she ended up staying here. Already a specialist in X-ray technology, she would go on to help establish the X-ray department at Afula’s Haemek Hospital and later worked at Tel Hashomer Hospital (now Sheba Medical Center).

A portrait of members of the Ganz Koppel family, including Ilse on the left.Emil Salman

The intensities of life quickly took over, she says. She lost contact with Schuman after the trip ended, went on to marry twice and was widowed both times. She has no children but does have stepchildren and step-grandchildren from her second marriage. She didn’t stay in touch with the children she brought over, who today would be in their 80s and 90s. She hopes this article might help connect her to some of them before she dies.

Ganz Koppel says the person who raised the funds and helped arrange this rescue mission was Eva Warburg, a member of Stockholm’s Jewish community and also a family friend. In fact, Warburg is known for overseeing the efforts to bring hundreds of European Jewish children to the Jewish community in pre-state Israel.

Warburg’s work was part of a wider undertaking of the Youth Aliyah organization to bring over Jewish children and teenagers in the Mandate period. Historian Orna Keren-Carmel, a specialist in Scandinavian history at the Hebrew University, says the trip Ganz Koppel describes would almost certainly have been part of these Youth Aliyah endeavors, which brought several hundred Jewish youths out of Europe, including through Denmark and Sweden. Even though by 1941 Denmark had been conquered by the Nazis, the occupation was unique for most of its duration in that it allowed free passage — even for Jews — through the country into neighboring neutral Sweden.

Keren-Carmel, whose doctoral thesis is on the rescue of Danish Jewry during World War II, is not familiar with the specific journey Ganz Koppel describes. But she and other historians say there were several such missions. The Jewish refugee children would usually first spend time on farms in Denmark, undergoing agricultural training to prepare themselves for new lives on kibbutzim. “This solved two problems: It saved Jewish youth from their home countries; and prepared them for farming work until they got visas to come to the Yishuv,” she says, using the term for the Jewish community in Mandatory Palestine.

She says the trip led by Ganz Koppel in 1941 would have been one of the last chances to get out of Europe. Soon after, successive borders stated to close, making such a journey impossible.

The historian adds: “These initiatives show there were people then who understood what was happening and how critical it was to get the youth out, and that even in these last moments that it was possible, so people were able to save lives. They managed to take action.”

A portrait shot of the Ganz Koppel family (date unknown), with Ilse on the right.Emil Salman

The Swedish connection

The Youth Aliyah’s Stockholm branch, led by Warburg, operated out of her parents’ home, says Pontus Rudberg, a historian and expert in Swedish Jewish history who is currently a post-doctoral research fellow at Sweden’s Uppsala University.

German-born Warburg was the daughter of Fritz Warburg, one of the heirs to M. M. Warburg & Co., the famous Hamburg bank. She left Germany for Sweden in 1938; after that November’s Kristallnacht, she immediately became involved in the relief efforts of Stockholm’s Jewish community.

After the Night of Broken Glass, Rudberg says that Jewish community leaders persuaded the Swedish government — which had been highly restrictive toward admitting Jewish refugees into the country — to create a quota for 500 Jewish refugee children. Most of them arrived in 1939. Warburg arranged for a collective home for some of these children in the Swedish countryside, where they were educated and taught life skills in preparation for their resettlement in Mandatory Palestine.

One group of 50 children arrived from the Baltic states in March 1940, on specially chartered planes. From Stockholm they were taken to Copenhagen, then Amsterdam, and then by train to Marseille. From there, they journeyed to Mandate Palestine by boat. Another group traveled through Finland, Russia, Turkey and Syria to reach Palestine. All of these groups escaped thanks to the efforts of Eva Warburg.

“The difficulties in obtaining visas to travel through these countries were enormous,” Rudberg says.

The children Ganz Koppel led out of Europe would have been either part of this quota or been allowed to temporarily pass through Sweden.

Undated black and white file photo showing Sweden's envoy to Nazi-occupied Hungary, Raoul Wallenberg, who saved tens of thousands of Hungarian Jews from being sent to concentration camps.AP

Complicated neutrality

Both Rudberg and Keren-Carmel acknowledge that Sweden’s role in World War II was complicated.

Like the other Scandinavian countries it declared itself neutral at the outbreak of the war, but unlike the others managed to hold onto this status — although it did give Germany some concessions in order to stay out of the war. After Norway and Denmark were invaded in April 1940, Sweden let the Nazis transport their troops on its railways and through its territorial waters. It also sold its much sought-after iron ore to Germany. But at the same time, it helped the Allies through intelligence-sharing and espionage. And once the threat of a German invasion passed, it started to cooperate even more with the Allies and participate in humanitarian efforts.

“This was, of course, partly opportunistic, as they had given concessions to the Germans and they needed goodwill from the Western Allies. But the public opinion in Sweden toward Germany had gradually shifted with the German invasion of the Scandinavian neighboring countries and increasing knowledge about German brutality,” Rudberg explained in an email.

The deportation of Norwegian Jews in November 1942 is considered the definitive turning point, because people in Sweden saw them as fellow Scandinavians. The deportation deeply upset the Swedes.

Toward the end of the war, Sweden also assisted with the rescue efforts in Budapest spearheaded by Raoul Wallenberg, the brave young Swedish diplomat who is believed to have saved tens of thousands of Hungarian Jews from being sent to concentration camps. And in 1945, Sweden helped rescue some 15,000 prisoners from Nazi concentration camps and brought them back to Sweden to recover as part of the so-called White Buses operation.

By 1945, there were some 200,000 war refugees in Sweden, Keren-Carmel says.

She was moved to hear the account of Ganz Koppel’s journey, which comes to light 78 years after the events themselves.

“People have these stories. But if they don’t share them, their stories vanish,” Keren-Carmel says. She encourages others who have not shared their accounts to do so through the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem.

“We are dealing with something so massive: the Holocaust and World War II,” she says. “As long as people are alive, new stories will come out that people should know about.”

Dina Kraft

Haaretz Contributor

   Natanya Natalie Ginsburg

Henrietta Szold 2

Migdal Nofim Room 708

Jerusalem 9650230

Tel 0528-375593

Nofim Tel 972-(0)2-6580222

Home 972 (2)6418387 no messages

Cellphone preferable

[investmart007]

LONDON | The Latest: Trump, May differ on effects of immigration

New Post has been published on https://is.gd/U8kXCs

LONDON | The Latest: Trump, May differ on effects of immigration

LONDON — The Latest on President Donald Trump’s trip to Europe (all times local): 2:30 p.m.

U.S. President Donald Trump and British Prime Minister Theresa May are expressing differing views on the benefits of immigration to Europe.

Trump says during a joint news conference that immigration has been “very bad” for Europe and is changing the culture of the continent.

May says the United Kingdom has a “proud history” of welcoming people to its country, and immigration has been “good” for the U.K. May says people of different backgrounds have contributed to her country’s society, but it’s important to have a “set of rules” when it comes to immigration.

The two leaders were asked about Trump’s interview with The Sun newspaper in which he argued that Europe is “losing its culture” because of immigration. ___ 2:25 p.m.

U.S. President Donald Trump says not to expect a “Perry Mason” moment when he and Russian President Vladimir Putin meet early next week.

Trump says he’ll raise the issue of Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election with Putin. But he says he doesn’t think Putin will say “you got me.”

U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded that Russia meddled in the election to try to help Trump get elected. Putin denies interfering. Trump has also reiterated Putin’s denials.

Perry Mason was an attorney who defended falsely accused people in a long-running U.S. television drama that carried the character’s name.

Trump add that he’ll discuss other issues with Putin, mentioning Ukraine, Syria, other areas of the Middle East and nuclear proliferation.

The leaders are scheduled to hold talks Monday in Helsinki. ___ 2:15 p.m.

U.S. President Donald Trump is asserting that he didn’t criticize British Prime Minister Theresa May during an interview this week with The Sun newspaper in which he questioned May’s handling of Brexit.

Trump says during a joint news conference with May: “I have a lot of respect for the prime minister.”

The president says the newspaper didn’t include the “tremendous things” he said about May in the interview.

Trump said May would make a decision on how to handle Brexit, but he wants to ensure the U.S. “can trade and we don’t have any restrictions” on commerce with the United Kingdom.

The two leaders say they hope to soon pursue a bilateral trade agreement. ___ 2:10 p.m.

U.S. President Donald Trump says the U.S. supports the British people’s decision to “realize full self-government” as it negotiates an exit from the European Union.

Of the negotiations toward an exit, Trump says: “We will see how that goes.”

He calls it a “very complicated negotiation.” A slim majority of Britons voted in 2016 to break from the EU.

Trump criticized May’s handling of the so-called Brexit negotiations in an interview with a British tabloid published on Thursday.

Trump also thanked May for her “very gracious hospitality.” The prime minister welcomed the American president to her official residences outside of London.

The leaders are holding a news conference following meetings Friday at Chequers, May’s official country estate. ___ 2:10 p.m.

British Prime Minister Theresa May has disagreed —politely— with U.S. President Donald Trump’s warning that her Brexit plans could scuttle a U.S.-U.K. free trade deal after the U.K. leaves the European Union.

May says her plan “provides the platform for Donald and me” to strike an “ambitious” trade deal.

Trump and May are holding a news conference after talks at the prime minister’s country residence, Chequers, and after Trump gave an interview to The Sun newspaper slamming her and praising her rival Boris Johnson.

May praised the strength of the U.S.-U.K. bond. But in a gentle rebuke, May said “it is all of our responsibility to ensure that trans-Atlantic unity endures.” ___ 2:15 p.m.

Germany’s current and former foreign ministers are criticizing comments made by U.S. President Donald Trump about their country and European allies.

In extracts of an interview with German weekly Der Spiegel published Friday, Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said Trump’s verbal attacks against Germany endangered the West’s security.

Spiegel quoted Maas saying that “Europe can’t accept that what’s been built up over many years is intentionally damaged for the thrill of being provocative.”

Trump had claimed at a Wednesday breakfast with NATO’s secretary general that a new natural gas pipeline to Russia has left

Germany “captive” to Moscow. Maas told Spiegel that “we aren’t prisoners, neither to Russia nor to the U.S.”

His predecessor, Sigmar Gabriel, told the magazine that “Trump endangers world peace by consciously splitting the Western alliance and disregarding its values. ___ 12:15 p.m.

London Mayor Sadiq Khan has told Sky News that it is up to President Donald Trump to explain why he keeps singling out the mayor for criticism.

London’s first Muslim mayor says Friday that many major cities, including Paris, Brussels and Berlin, have suffered terrorism attacks but that Trump has chosen to only criticize him. He says it’s for Trump to explain why he focuses only on Khan.

The mayor also challenges Trump’s claim that Europe is “losing its culture” because of immigration. Khan says immigration has brought “huge” social, economic and cultural benefits to London and to Britain.

Trump heavily criticized Khan in an interview published Thursday in The Sun newspaper. ___ 11:55 a.m.

President Donald Trump says his relationship with British Prime Minister Theresa May is “very, very strong” even after a published interview in which he questioned her handling of Brexit.

Trump says alongside May at Chequers, the prime minister’s country estate, that during their dinner “we probably never developed a better relationship than last night.”

He says they’re discussing trade and military issues and is calling their relationship “very, very strong. We really have a very good relationship.”

May notes the U.S. is “our longest-standing and deepest security and defense partner” and credits Trump for pushing NATO partners to increase their defense spending.

Trump questions May’s handling of Brexit in an interview with The Sun newspaper and says May’s former foreign secretary, Boris Johnson, would make an “excellent” prime minister. __ 11:45 a.m.

European Union and Schengen-area member Finland says it has temporarily introduced checks on its internal borders due to the upcoming summit by U.S and Russian leaders in Helsinki The government said Friday’s decision is a security measure related to the meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin in Helsinki on July 16.

Tightened control is valid for four days starting 0900 GMT Friday until 0900 GMT Tuesday with focus on the airports of Helsinki and the western city of Turku.

International passenger harbors in both cities will also under tighter scrutiny by police and border guard.

Officials said random checks would be done as necessary on the Finnish-Swedish and the Finnish-Norwegian border points. Trump and Putin have met twice earlier on the sidelines of international meetings. __ 11:15 a.m.

President Donald Trump has viewed a joint military exercise along with British Prime Minister Theresa May at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst.

Trump’s visit to the military academy on Friday morning was closed to the media. The military demonstration involving American and British officers came after Trump criticized May’s Brexit plans in an interview published by The Sun newspaper late Thursday night.

Trump and May later traveled to Chequers, the prime minister’s country retreat. Trump told reporters briefly that he and May worked together on NATO spending and spoke Thursday night.

The two leaders will hold one-on-one talks, a working lunch and a joint news conference at May’s house, which is 40 miles (65 kms) from London. __ 10:45 a.m.

U.S. first lady Melania Trump is visiting the Royal Hospital Chelsea, a historic London retirement home for hundreds of former British soldiers.

Mrs. Trump split off from her husband Friday morning for the solo outing to the hospital, which dates from over 300 years ago to the reign of King Charles II.

The first lady was hosted by British Prime Minister Theresa May’s husband, Philip May.

She will meet local schoolchildren and mingle with the hospital’s resident veterans, known as Chelsea Pensioners.

Her trip to Europe with U.S. President Donald Trump marked the former model’s return to the international stage after she was hospitalized for a kidney condition in May and dropped out of public sight for nearly a month. __ 9:40 a.m.

France’s foreign minister says Europe will stand up to U.S. President Donald Trump’s efforts to “destabilize” the EU and derail international cooperation.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said Friday on BFM television that Trump “can’t tolerate that there is an ensemble called the European Union.” But, he added, “Europe will not let itself be destabilized.”

The top French diplomat spoke as Trump is paying a tumultuous trip to Europe.

Le Drian says Trump only believes in conflictual relationships, and accused him of trying to destroy multilateral efforts to encourage trade, fight climate change and Iran’s nuclear activities.

Trump angered European allies at a NATO summit this week and then accused British Prime Minister Theresa May of being too soft with the EU on Brexit negotiations. __ 9 a.m.

President Donald Trump is continuing to court controversy during his trip to Europe.

Trump is in London, where his day will start with a viewing of a military demonstration before he heads to meetings with British Prime Minister Theresa May at Chequers, May’s country house.

The meetings are expected to be unusually tense after Trump trashed May’s Brexit plans in a diplomacy-wrecking interview with The Sun newspaper that published late Thursday night.

The president will also be paying a visit to Windsor Castle where he and first lady Melania Trump will have tea with Queen Elizabeth II. Large anti-Trump protests are expected to follow Trump throughout the day. __ 7:56 a.m.

President Donald Trump is dishing up a fresh dose of chaos on his European tour, blasting British Prime Minister Theresa May in a published interview.

Trump is questioning May’s handling of Brexit in an interview with The Sun newspaper and blaming London’s mayor for terror attacks against the city. The president is also arguing that Europe is “losing its culture” because of immigration.

Trump told the newspaper he felt unwelcome in London because of protests, including plans to fly a giant balloon depicting him as an angry baby.

Trump says May’s former foreign secretary, Boris Johnson, would make an “excellent” prime minister, speaking just days after Johnson resigned his position in protest of May’s Brexit plans.

By  Associated Press