Lacking Report

From the DW:

"German military lacks equipment and recruits, says damning report"

The German Bundeswehr is still underequipped, understaffed and overly bureaucratic, a new parliamentary report has revealed. Opposition politicians also say it is ignoring its problem with far-right extremism. German soldiers sometimes have to rely on civilian helicopters to transport them around in Afghanistan, while vital equipment such as body armor has to be borrowed, according to the parliament's new Bundeswehr report presented to the government on Tuesday. The annual study also detailed a rise in reports of sexual harassment and some instances of far-right extremism among soldiers. "I'd like to report: It's spring, everything will be new. But the truth is: It's still winter," the report's author, Bundestag military commissioner Hans-Peter Bartels, said as he presented the document at a press conference in Berlin. The biggest problem that Bundeswehr soldiers complained about was the lack of equipment, despite repeated government promises, dating back to a 2014 NATO summit, of a change in direction.

Lack of heavy equipment

This is particularly true of heavy equipment: Bartels found that often less than 50 percent of the Bundeswehr's tanks, ships and aircraft were available at any one time, either for training or operational purposes. That counts as an unsurprising development, considering the barrage of poor press the German military has been facing.  "Spare parts are still missing; maintenance in industry is dragging; the training programs are suffering," Social Democrat Bartels said. "An absolute must is the acceleration of procurement."  The problem, he added, was not necessarily a lack of money — he noted with approval that Germany's defense budget has risen by €5 billion to €43.2 billion ($49.3 billion) this year — but the "bureaucracy monster" that the army has become. "Too much work is being done twice or against other work," he said. "Too much work time is being wasted on poor structures. And not every expensive digitalization project is always a help." German military experts could only agree. "Despite efforts made by the current administration, observing significant progress remains difficult," Sebastian Schulte, chief editor of German defense and security publication griephan, told DW. In response to the report, Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen insisted the army was moving in the right direction. "We must take the long view and move forward strongly," she said in a statement, before adding that the army was modernizing rapidly.

Recruitment troubles

Another worry for the Defense Ministry is the stagnation of its post-conscription recruitment drive, which began after Germany scrapped compulsory military service in 2011. Though the Bundeswehr is expanding overall (the report found a net gain of 4,000 professional soldiers), most of these were won by extending existing contracts. In other words, the German military is aging. The government has promised 198,500 active personnel by 2025, up from the current 181,000, but the number of new recruits dropped from 23,000 in 2017 to 20,000 last year.  The report also detailed the German army's struggles to fill key specialist positions, a shortage of skilled labor that is reflected across the country's job market. Germany's highest ranking soldier, Inspector General Eberhard Zorn, admitted on Tuesday that there were "rather large gaps" in the military's IT departments, medical staff, personnel management and logistics. But Zorn insisted that this was "no reason to panic, either because of the figures or the quality of the applicants," he told the newspaper network RND. 

Far-right networks and Me Too 

 The German military is also facing crises elsewhere: The number of reports of sexual harassment in the military, or reports "on suspicion of crimes against sexual self-determination" as the report put it, rose to 288 in 2018, up from 235 the year before. Bartels put this down to more awareness of the issue, thanks to what he called the "Me Too debate," as well as the widely reported incidents at the Pfullendorf military base in southern Germany in 2017, where female soldiers were made to pole dance at a private party and recruits were subject to "sadistic sexual practices" and bizarre hazing rituals. "More than before, the Bundeswehr should work towards creating a climate that allows no room for sexually-motivated misbehavior," Bartels said in the report. But the commissioner failed to address reports of far-right networks within the German military, following the high-profile story of a far-right prepper scene around  the soldier Andre S, aka Hannibal. Bartels insisted that such investigations were beyond his remit. "We must assume that the military is always in danger of getting people who shouldn't be there," he said, before insisting that the Bundeswehr was being "alert and consistent" in its pursuit of extremism. The number of far-right incidents, as reported by the military intelligence service MAD, fell from 343 in 2017 to 270 last year. "There can be no doubt that with the increase of far-right political positions and parties across the whole of Europe, there are people who think like this to be found in the country's military," said Schulte. "However it is important to note that those people who make it in the Bundeswehr are operating in isolation and not openly. That is because they do not align with nor represent the core values of the Bundeswehr." But that was not the interpretation of the Bundestag's opposition parties. "The existence of far-right extremist networks is being denied and presented as a series of isolated cases," said socialist Left party spokesperson Christine Buchholz in a statement. "It's disappointing that Mr. Bartels is participating in the downplaying of the problem of far-right activity in the Bundeswehr."

^ It is a sad and disturbing fact when a country (like Germany) has so many basic problems: lack or equipment, lack of support, lack of recruits, etc. This is not the first report to show how under-prepared the German military is. Of course I think the main reason they lack recruits is because of this and other reports stating what things the German military is lacking. No one wants to join a place that is known to not support it's employees (in this case soldiers.) Fix the supply issues and the recruiting issues will most likely go away. ^

https://www.dw.com/en/german-military-lacks-equipment-and-recruits-says-damning-report/a-47281996

Snowy Bowl

From the PE:

"Atlanta braces for snow and cold during Super Bowl week"

Five years after cars, trucks and school buses became marooned on Atlanta freeways in what became known as ”snow jam ,” another winter storm is threatening the city — just as thousands of fans begin pouring into town for Super Bowl 53.  A winter storm watch goes into effect at 4 a.m. Tuesday for Atlanta, a city known for grinding to a halt even in relatively light snowfalls.  Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp on Monday said state offices in more than 30 counties in the northern part of the state would be closed Tuesday, including those in the Atlanta area. And Delta Air Lines canceled about 170 flights from Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in anticipation of snow and icy conditions Tuesday, the company said in a statement on its website.  The National Weather Service projects that up to an inch (2.5 centimeters) of snow is possible Tuesday in Atlanta, with up to 2 inches (5 centimeters) in far northern suburbs. Forecasters warn of the possibility of ice-glazed roads and highways.  New England Patriots fan Pamela Wales of Quincy, Massachusetts said it’s the potential for ice that concerns her most. During her visit to Atlanta this week, local television footage reminded her that Atlanta and ice don’t mix well.  “They were showing all kinds of pictures on TV from 2014 when everyone got stuck,” Wales said as she toured Super Bowl exhibits at the Georgia World Congress Center Monday afternoon.  The potential for black ice is also “the overriding concern” among emergency officials, said Homer Bryson, director of the Georgia Emergency Management and Homeland Security Agency.  “Temperatures are going to plummet,” the governor said at a Monday news conference.  “It’s very similar to what we saw in 2014 where the roadways will not have time to dry off before the moisture or precipitation on them refreezes,” Kemp said. “And that’s when you have black ice, and that’s what causes wrecks, which causes gridlock and public safety issues, injuries.”  Road crews on Monday began treating major interstates, state routes and overpasses in north Georgia with brine — a liquid salt mixture — in anticipation of the storm.  The routes that both the New England Patriots and Los Angeles Rams must use to travel to and from practice venues will also be pre-treated, the Georgia Department of Transportation said in a statement.  Sunday’s Super Bowl will be played in downtown Atlanta in Mercedes-Benz Stadium, which has a roof. The roof will be open if weather permits, officials have said.  There’s a 40 percent chance of showers Sunday, but highs will be near 58 degrees (14 Celsius). That’s slightly warmer than average for Feb. 3 in Atlanta, climate records show.  But forecasters say the more immediate threat is Tuesday, when roads could be treacherous.  “It is often easy to pass judgment on how we in Georgia deal with snow and ice, but for those from the north what you do know is that an ice event is very different than a snow event,” Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms said Monday. “And because we don’t want a repeat of 2014, we have already begun to pretreat our streets and are paying particularly attention to our sidewalks because we do know that we will have many visitors in our tourist areas.”  About 1,900 employees were on call and more than 420 pieces of snow removal equipment were ready, the state Department of Transportation said.  Forecasters were uncertain how widespread the snowfall will be.  “Some uncertainty continues regarding amounts of snow accumulations and how far south and east the threat may extend,” the weather service said in a Monday update on the approaching storm.  Past Super Bowl weeks have been marred by wintry weather, including the 2011 game in Arlington, Texas. Ice coated roads around metro Dallas during the week before Green Bay defeated Pittsburgh that year. Chunks of ice also tumbled from the roof of Cowboys Stadium, hurting six workers on the ground. None of the injuries were considered life-threatening.  In 2000, the St. Louis Rams and Tennessee Titans arrived in Atlanta shortly after an ice storm brought traffic in the city to a standstill.  Unseasonably cold temperatures followed, and both teams had to practice outdoors since the Georgia Dome was being used for Super Bowl pregame and halftime rehearsals. The Rams wore winter jackets and thermal underwear in the biting cold.  “It’s ridiculous,” Rams coach Dick Vermeil said at the time. “But there’s nothing you can do about it except try to survive.”

^ Maybe it wasn't the brightest idea to hold an outdoor sporting event in the Winter - just saying. Although I do like hearing people in Georgia say on TV that this is a "100 year snow event" when they had something very similar just 5 years ago - their memory can't be that bad: 5 years vs. 100 years. And if you are wondering who I want to win on Sunday its the NY Rangers I am routing for. ^

https://www.pe.com/2019/01/28/atlanta-braces-for-snow-and-cold-during-super-bowl-week/?fbclid=IwAR2wiX7W_DCeAhBcjACXLKLOIbD2Yj43GqiWrRI18BNNzDG3XypzJU2P0Zo

Heavy Sarcasm

No German Limit

From the DW:

"German government rules out autobahn speed limit"

Germany's federal government has rejected proposals to impose speed limits on the country's autobahn network. Leaked proposals to introduce restrictions had triggered a heated debate in the car-loving country.  Germany confirmed on Monday the country will not be introducing a speed limit on its autobahn road network anytime soon.  "There are more intelligent control mechanisms than a general speed limit," government spokesman Steffen Seifert told reporters in Berlin. Proposals by a government-appointed committee on the future of mobility to impose a 130 kph (80 mph) limit were recently leaked to the media. Seibert pointed out that the panel had not finished yet. Its proposals are to be finalized by the end of March. Proponents said reducing the speed would also reduce air pollution, help fight climate change and reduce the number of collisions. The country's transport minister, Andreas Scheuer, said he vehemently opposes the idea, saying it "goes against all common sense." The conservative lawmaker told Bild am Sonntag newspaper that the principal of freedom has proven itself. "Whoever wants to drive 120 can drive 120, and those who want to go faster can do that too. Why this constant micromanagement?"  However prominent Green Party lawmaker Cem Ozdemir defended the speed limit proposal, calling it an "act of reason Germany is the only country in Europe with no official speed limit on highways. Some drivers hurtle along at speeds of over 200 kph. However, there are restrictions on some stretches, especially in and around cities and at roadworks. The country could face EU penalties if it fails to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and poisonous nitrogen oxides. Observers consider the transport sector as a key to meeting emissions reduction targets. 

^ I called it! ^

https://www.dw.com/en/german-government-rules-out-autobahn-speed-limit/a-47265764

AGT

Out of the 8 contestants that have made it through so far on "America's Got Talent: The Champions" 6 of them are singers and 3 of those 8 advanced immediately to the finals. With all the singing shows already out there it would be nice if for once a talent competition banned all singers so we could see something new and exciting.

Polar Vortex

From USA Today:

"'Minimize talking' outside: Polar vortex bears down on North as Deep South braces for snow"

A major snowstorm lashing parts of the Midwest on Monday will give way to record-smashing cold this week as a powerful Polar Vortex drives a deep freeze across the nation, forecasters say.  A snowstorm will also wreak havoc across the Deep South on Tuesday. The bitter cold will bring below-zero temperatures to a quarter of the continental U.S. The National Weather Service in Des Moines, Iowa, warned that "this is the coldest air many of us will have ever experienced" and, if outside, "avoid taking deep breaths, and minimize talking." Schools could be closed in Iowa as buses may struggle to start, the weather service said. Wednesday could be the coldest day ever recorded in Chicago, with a forecast high of only 14 below zero, the weather service said. "Some locations in the Midwest will be below zero continuously for 48-72 hours," according to AccuWeather meteorologist Mike Doll.  Weather.us meteorologist Ryan Maue said a "blend of models" shows that 55 million people in 24 percent of the continental U.S. land could be at zero degrees or lower Wednesday morning. In Chicago, wind chills as low as 55 below zero are "likely" midweek, the weather service said. Some areas in the northern Plains could see wind chills of 64 degrees below zero. On Monday, parts of the Upper Midwest were under siege from a major snowstorm coupled with wind gusts of up to 40 mph to create blizzard-like conditions. In parts of Wisconsin, snow was falling at a rate of 1 to 2 inches per hour.  Almost a foot had fallen in Hartford, Wisconsin, as of early Monday.  Behind the storm comes the deep freeze. The polar vortex – a vast area of cold air high up in the atmosphere that normally spins over the North Pole – will move from the Arctic Circle down over the Great Lakes. Low temperatures Tuesday night will dip to 30 below zero across much of North Dakota, South Dakota and Minnesota. Temperatures in Chicago could drop to 25 below zero for the first time since the mid-1980s, AccuWeather warned. Highs on Wednesday may not exceed 10 below zero from Fargo, North Dakota, to Minneapolis and Chicago. Single-digits will have people shivering from Kansas City, Missouri, to St. Louis to Cincinnati, Ohio, and Pittsburgh, AccuWeather said. All-time record wind chills of near 50 below are possible in northern Indiana. The East Coast will get only a modest reprieve – lows Wednesday night will reach 6 degrees in New York,  7 degrees in Philadelphia and a "balmy" 9 degrees in Washington, D.C. As cold and snow slam into the North, a snowstorm will also paste the Deep South on Tuesday and Wednesday.  "A couple inches of snow can fall in Jackson, Mississippi; Birmingham, Alabama; and Chattanooga, Tennessee," AccuWeather meteorologist Kristina Pydynowski said. "Travel can become slippery and treacherous as roads rapidly turn from wet to slushy and icy." AccuWeather meteorologist Rob Richards said "Atlanta could even receive a coating to an inch of snow." On Sunday, a prelude to the polar plunge slammed into the Upper Midwest with temperatures reaching below zero in the morning. The low of 45-below zero in International Falls, Minnesota, smashed a record that stood for more than half a century. But the worst is yet to come, Doll said. “I cannot stress how dangerously cold it will be,” he said. "An entire generation has gone by without experiencing this type of cold." Shelly Sarasin, co-founder of Street Angels Milwaukee Outreach, said her members have already been hitting the streets, looking for people in need of warmth. "We have been out every night until at least midnight, picking people up from their homeless camp or emergency room pickups," she said. "It's been lifesaving for many people."

^ We are expecting 10-12 inches of snow here tomorrow/Wednesday and then lows of -3 F. ^

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/01/28/cold-weather-polar-vortex-drive-record-smashing-cold-across-nation/2698747002/

Cold Checking

77% Oppose

From the MT:

"77% of Russians Oppose Ceding Kuril Islands to Japan, Poll Says"

Over three-quarters of Russians have said they oppose handing a chain of Pacific islands to Japan as the countries seek to resolve a long-standing territorial row, according to a state-funded poll released on Monday.  Tokyo has been seeking the return of the Kuril Islands — known in Japan as the Northern Territories — since Soviet troops seized them at the end of World War II. Russia and Japan have still not formally signed a peace treaty to the war because of the dispute.  According to the state-funded VTsIOM pollster, 77 percent of Russian respondents say they oppose giving the Kuril Islands to Japan.   Another 14 percent of respondents said they would favor the transfer of the islands. “Any hint that the islands will be given to Japan causes, as a rule, outrage in society,” Valery Fyodorov, the head of VTsIOM, said in comments about the survey. After meeting Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe last Tuesday, President Vladimir Putin said that any deal to end the territorial row with Japan would need public backing. The survey was conducted among 1,600 Russian respondents on Nov. 26.

^ I bet if you asked Russians to tell you where the Kuril Islands were that 99% of them couldn't answer the question. ^

https://themoscowtimes.com/news/77-percent-russians-oppose-ceding-kuril-islands-japan-poll-says-64302

Afghan Talks

From the BBC:

"Taliban talks: Draft framework for Afghanistan peace 'agreed'"

US and Taliban negotiators have agreed on a draft framework for a peace deal seeking to put an end to the 17-year conflict in Afghanistan, Washington's top negotiator has said. US negotiators held six days of talks with the Taliban in Qatar last week.  The Afghan president has made a new call for direct talks with the Islamist group, but they have so far refused, dismissing the government as "puppets". The group ruled the country from 1996-2001 and remain a top insurgent force. Their rule ended when the US invaded Afghanistan after al-Qaeda - which had used the country as a base - carried out the 9/11 attacks in the US. Analysts say it could be years before a substantive peace deal is reached. Zalmay Khalilzad, the US Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation, was in Kabul to brief the Afghan government about the talks.  "We have a draft of the framework that has to be fleshed out before it becomes an agreement," he told The New York Times in an interview, adding that as part of the proposed deal the Taliban would vow to prevent Afghanistan being used as a hub for terrorism. The Trump administration's strategy has been to put pressure on the Taliban to negotiate with the Afghan government. It is exploring a full withdrawal of US troops - in return for a ceasefire and a commitment by the Taliban to these direct talks. The Taliban say they will only begin negotiations with the government once a firm date for troop withdrawal has been agreed. The 17-year conflict has caused huge loss of life. According to UN figures, between 6,000 and 11,000 civilians have been killed every year since 2009.

What was said at the talks?

In the New York Times interview, Mr Khalilzad said the Taliban had pledged not to give terrorist groups like al-Qaeda safe haven - a key demand from Washington if it pulls out troops. "The Taliban have committed, to our satisfaction, to do what is necessary that would prevent Afghanistan from ever becoming a platform for international terrorist groups or individuals," he said. Until the interview, the US envoy had only released a series of tweets about the talks - saying "significant progress" had been made but without providing details. The discussions clearly remain at a provisional stage - and a long way from agreement on the broader issues required for lasting peace in Afghanistan - but after years of stalemate, it's welcome progress, says the BBC's South Asia editor Jill McGivering. A senior Taliban official who attended the talks told the BBC over the weekend that both sides had agreed to form two committees to draw up detailed plans on how to implement agreements in principle on two key issues: 

- When will American-led forces be withdrawn from Afghanistan?

- A commitment from the Taliban that the group will not allow international jihadist groups like al-Qaeda to use the country as a base in the future

The Taliban official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the committees would "identify routes for the withdrawal, and how much time is needed. We suggested six months, but are flexible".

What does the government say?

On Monday, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani issued a fresh plea to the Taliban to talk directly to his government.  He alluded to fears that freedoms could be lost if the Taliban were to share power. Women's rights activists have expressed particular concern due to the militants' brutal treatment of women when they ran the country. "We are committed to ensuring peace," he said. "But there are values which are non-negotiable, for example national unity, national sovereignty, territorial integrity, a powerful and competent central government and basic rights of the citizens of the country." According to Mr Ghani's office, in a meeting on Sunday, Mr Khalilzad denied that there had been any discussions with the Taliban about future governance arrangements in Kabul.

What is the current situation in Afghanistan?

The Taliban's power and reach have surged since foreign combat troops left Afghanistan in 2014. Thousands of Nato-led troops remain in training, support and counter-terrorism roles.  The US has the largest contingent, with 14,000. US President Donald Trump is reportedly considering withdrawing half of these. About 8,000 from another 38 countries are also present. On Friday, Mr Ghani said more than 45,000 members of the country's security forces had been killed since he became leader in 2014. It is estimated that about 15 million people - half the Afghan population - are living in areas either controlled by the Taliban or where the militants are openly present and regularly mount attacks.

^ This sounds a lot like what Nixon did with South Vietnam in the 1970s and we all know how that ended (North Vietnam broke the terms and eventually took over South Vietnam in 1975 and created a reunited Vietnam - Communist. The difference between that and Afghanistan today is that we have seen how the Taliban rules and it is not something we should ever let happen again. Hopefully these talks are just the beginning to a very long set of talks and that the US doesn't simply just throw in the towel after 18 years. ^

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-47028177

Malaysia Stripped

From the DW:

"Malaysia stripped of Paralympic swimming event over Israel ban"

The IPC said Malaysia failed to guarantee that Israeli swimmers could safely participate in the upcoming Paralympic world championship. Malaysia recently barred Israelis from taking part in any event held in the country. A major Paralympic swimming event will no longer take place in Malaysia due to that government's ban on Israeli athletes taking part in events, the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) said on Sunday. Malaysia was due to host the 2019 World Para Swimming Championships, a qualifying event for the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics. In a statement, the IPC said the decision to strip Malaysia of the right to host the event was taken after the Home Ministry "failed to provide the necessary guarantees that Israeli Para swimmers could participate, free from discrimination, and safely in the Championships." "When a host country excludes athletes from a particular nation, for political reasons, then we have absolutely no alternative but to look for a new Championships host," IPC President Andrew Parson said. The IPC said it is currently looking for an alternative site to host the event, which was due to take place from July 29 through August 4. Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon praised the IPC's decision, saying that it was "a victory of values over hatred and bigotry, a strong statement in favor of freedom and equality." Malaysia, a majority-Muslim country that does not have diplomatic relations with Israel, announced earlier in January that Israelis would be barred from participating in events held in the country. Israel condemned the ban, saying it was likely prompted by Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad's "rabid anti-Semitism." Mahathir, 93, has been repeatedly accused of anti-Semitism for his comments against Jewish people, including an interview last October in which he described Jews as "hook-nosed" and blamed them for conflicts in the Middle East Despite the IPC's decision on Sunday, Malaysian officials defended the decision to bar Israelis, with the country's minister of youth and sports saying that the move was to show solidarity with Palestinians. "If hosting an international sporting event is more important than standing up for our Palestinian brothers and sisters who get murdered, maimed and tortured by the Netanyahu regime, that means Malaysia has truly lost its moral compass," Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman said in a statement. The IPC said that when Malaysia was awarded the event in 2017, it had received assurances from the government that all countries would be allowed to participate, but a "change of political leadership" meant "the new Malaysian government has different ideas." "Politics and sport are never a good mix and we are disappointed that Israeli athletes would not have been allowed to compete in Malaysia," IPC head Parson said.

^ It's important that every athlete (disabled or not) from every nation that is participating in an international event be kept as safe and not be discriminated against. When a nation refuses to protect a certain group then that nation should loose the right to host the event. Malaysia and countries like it need to move away from their backward-thinking and start moving towards a modern, 21st Century way of doing things. Until they do they should not be allowed to host any international events. ^

https://www.dw.com/en/malaysia-stripped-of-paralympic-swimming-event-over-israel-ban/a-47257971

Never Apologize

Germany Holding-On

From the DW:

"Eurozone banks stop issuing €500 notes, but cash-loving Germany delays"

Germans love their cash and many were not happy when the European Central Bank decided to stop issuing the €500 note. As the rest of the Eurozone says goodbye, Germany is delaying its final farewell until April. Central banks in 17 of the Eurozone's 19 economies stopped issuing €500 ($570) notes on Sunday, but cash-loving Germany and Austria are delaying the move until later this year. The German Bundesbank and the Austria's Oesterreichische Nationalbank said they needed more time to "ensure a smooth transition" toward a system in which €200 will be the largest denomination note. The European Central Bank stopped producing the large, violet-colored €500 note in 2016, citing its use in "illicit activities" such as money laundering, tax evasion and terrorism financing. The note is known as the "Bin Laden," the former head of the jihadist terrorist group Al-Qaida, because of how easy it is for criminals to transport large amounts of it in a compact space. But while other countries' reaction to the abolition has been muted, anxiety and criticism were widespread within Germany, where some fondly remember the 1,000 Deutschmark before euro notes were introduced in 2002. Bundesbank chief Jens Weidemann denounced the decision, saying it would have little impact in combating crime and instead "damage confidence" in the euro. A columnist in Die Welt newspaper lamented that the note's abolition would "restricts citizens' freedom," while weekly magazine Der Spiegel ran the headline: "The end of the 500 euro note: Is this the end of cash? The reaction was perhaps not surprising. Although most Germans rarely pay with a €500 note, they've been far more stubborn than consumers in other EU countries in dropping cash for alternative payment systems. An ECB study found the average German carries more than €100 in their wallet. The bank also found that only 19 percent of cashless payments were made with cards in 2016. In the United Kingdom and France, the figure was 53 and 65 percent. And that stubbornness doesn't seem to be going anywhere soon. In a recent Bundesbank poll, some 88 percent of respondents said they still wanted to pay with cash in the future. The head of the Center for Economic Studies (CES) in Munich, Clemens Fuest, said the ECB wanted to make it harder for banks to avoid paying negative interest rates by parking their money in cash. "The abolition of €500 notes undermines confidence in the ECB," Fuest said. "It creates the impression that the move's primary goal is bringing interest rates further into negative territory. The ECB says any €500 notes that remain in circulation will still be considered legal tender after April Medical technician Rolf from the town of Marburg told AFP news agency that its eventual disappearance was "hard to accept." The 61-year-old said he liked using the violet notes to pay for his car. I prefer using cash for large payments," he said. "It doesn't mean I'm involved in anything dodgy."

^ It seems the EU (especially concerning the Euro) is constantly changing and withdrawing different notes. That doesn't show a strong sense of stability. ^

https://www.dw.com/en/eurozone-banks-stop-issuing-500-notes-but-cash-loving-germany-delays/a-47253814

Listening

75: Leningrad Siege

From the MT:

"St. Petersburg marks 75 years since Nazi siege of Leningrad"

More than a million people died of hunger, cold or disease or were killed during Nazi bombardments of the city. Germany's foreign minister has pledged €12 million for the siege's remaining survivors.  More than 2,500 soldiers and 80 military units paraded through St. Petersburg's Palace Square on Sunday as the city marked 75 years since the end of a devastating siege by Nazi German forces during World War II. World War II-era Soviet vehicles including the iconic T-34 tank rolled through the city alongside several modern weapon systems as snow fell and temperatures hit -18 degrees Celsius (0 Fahrenheit). Nazi leader Adolf Hitler ordered the siege of the city, then called Leningrad, which began on September 8, 1941. At least a million residents — a third of the population — died of disease, cold, starvation or in aerial bombardments. The Soviet army ousted Nazi forces on January 27, 1944, on its way to defeating Germany in May 1945. Germany has pledged to donate €12 million ($13.7 million) to the siege's remaining survivors. The donation "not only shows that we are aware of our responsibility, but it is also a signal that this must never happen again," said German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas. Some of the money is expected to be used to modernize a hospital for Russian veterans, where some of the 108,000 war veterans and siege survivors receive treatment. The German government wants to use the rest to finance a German-Russian culture center. "We're confident that this voluntary action will improve the quality of life of the survivors," Maas said. Accepting the donation, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakhareva said that the donation "does not close the issue" of Germany providing individual compensation to all remaining siege survivors. Russian President Vladimir Putin was not present at the parade, but he is expected to visit a nearby cemetery and attend a memorial concert. The Russian leader's older brother died during the siege and his mother almost died of starvation. To mark the anniversary of the end of the siege, soldiers are also scheduled to conduct a gun salute on Sunday evening.

^ I have been to St. Petersburg and have seen the memorials and the physical scars to the Siege. It amazes me what the people of the city went through during the Siege. I think it is fitting for Germany to help those that survived the Siege and would now like to see Germany help the individuals that suffered from the deadest siege in modern-day history. ^

https://www.dw.com/en/st-petersburg-marks-75-years-since-nazi-siege-of-leningrad/a-47254112

Gearing-Up

From the AP:

"U.S. government agencies gear up to restart operations Monday"

U.S. government agencies that had largely shuttered operations for five weeks during a budget standoff said on Saturday they were moving swiftly to resume operations and compensate employees for missed paychecks.  The White House held a conference call with Cabinet department financial officers late Friday to discuss the resumption of government operations, while agencies began to grapple with a backlog of management and policy issues. The partial government shutdown - at 35 days the longest in U.S. history - led to some 800,000 federal workers going unpaid, including 380,000 furloughed workers. President Donald Trump on Friday signed a measure to fund the government for three weeks as congressional negotiators try to hammer out a bill to fund the federal government through Sept. 30. Trump had demanded $5.7 billion in funding for a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border, but Democratic legislators refused to include the money.  The White House Office of Management and Budget’s acting chief, Russell Vought, told agencies in a memo to reopen “in a prompt and orderly manner.” Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb wrote Saturday on Twitter that the agency would send back pay to staffers no later than Thursday.  Gottlieb told employees the FDA would hold an all-hands meeting on Tuesday. “There will be impacts from this prolonged lapse in funding,” he wrote. “But this agency has always faced challenge.” The Coast Guard told personnel it was “working through the weekend to process your pay as quickly as possible” and said back pay should be received by Thursday.  Federal workers are owed about $6 billion in back pay, according to a study released last week. It will take agencies days to dig out from weeks of unread emails and deal with other logistical issues like expired email passwords or ID badges, agency officials said. Furloughed workers were told not to read emails or answer phone calls while off duty The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) asked employees for “patience and attention, especially during the first 48 hours,” noting that the vast majority of employees’ laptops and smartphones have been inactive for more than a month and have not had “critical, regularly scheduled maintenance.” During the shutdown, some government agencies did not complete contracts for grants, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) stopped reviewing and making public new auto safety recalls, and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) stopped certifying some new aircraft and routes.  The Smithsonian Institution said museums in Washington and the National Zoo will reopen on Tuesday. In Philadelphia, Independence National Historical Park - which includes a center that houses the Liberty Bell, a symbol of American independence - reopened on Saturday. Other sites are reopening on Sunday, including Ford’s Theatre in Washington. Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Jay Clayton said on Saturday in a statement that the agency is “continuing to assess how to most effectively transition to normal operations.” He said some SEC units, including those devoted to corporate finance, trading and markets, and investment management and the Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations, “will be publishing statements in the coming days regarding their transition plans.” The SEC has been unable to approve initial public offerings during the shutdown, and some analysts had suggested the issue could delay IPOs in 2019.  It will take the Federal Register, which publishes government regulatory actions, weeks to catch up with the backlog of documents, which will delay the start of public comments on some proposals. The shutdown is also likely to delay the rollout of Trump’s 2020 budget proposal and congressional hearings on the budget. It is not clear when Trump will deliver his State of the Union Address, but one administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said on Saturday it is not likely to be until February 

^ Hopefully these same people (and more) won't have to go through this again in February. ^

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-shutdown/u-s-government-agencies-gear-up-to-restart-operations-monday-idUSKCN1PL08M

Cipora Feivlovich

From the AP:

"Israeli Holocaust survivor remembers Auschwitz on birthday"

As the world commemorates the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz on International Holocaust Remembrance Day Sunday, death camp survivor Cipora Feivlovich marks her own personal milestone as she turns 92. Feivlovich has spent her most recent birthdays recounting to audiences in Israel and Germany her harrowing experiences in the camp, where her parents, brother and best friends all perished. Despite witnessing daily atrocities and fearing that the toxic food and injections she was given would make her infertile, she eventually married her husband Pinchas, a fellow orphaned survivor, and started a new family. Today she has dozens of grandchildren, great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren. "When we first met after the war he asked me if I thought I could have children after everything I went through in Auschwitz. And I said 'I don't promise anything. What the Lord gives is what will be,'" she recalled from her home in Jerusalem. "We understood each other. He always said he was lucky to marry me since I understood him." But for the following decades, as he obsessively wrote and lectured about his six-year Holocaust ordeal in multiple concentration camps and the trauma of losing eight siblings and his entire extended family, she kept quiet to try and raise their three children in Israel in relative normalcy. Only in the 1990s, long after the kids had moved out, did she finally start processing her own troubled history. Six million Jews were killed by the Nazis and their collaborators during the Holocaust, wiping out a third of world Jewry. Israel's main Holocaust memorial day is in the spring — marking the anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising. The United Nations designated Jan. 27 as the annual international commemoration, marking the date of Auschwitz's liberation in 1945, the day Feivlovich turned 18. She grew up in a Transylvanian village with a large Jewish population and lived a normal life until she was 14, when she and the other Jewish students were kicked out of school. She said her family holed up in their home for the following years, fearful of their anti-Semitic neighbors, and naively waited for the storm to pass. But then the Nazis arrived in 1944, took them away in the middle of the night and crammed all Jewish residents into the local synagogue. "Two days we sat on the floor, you couldn't leave for the restrooms so people relieved themselves where they are sitting," she recalled. "On both sides of the street the non-Jews were standing and clapping their hands saying: 'Bravo, we are getting rid of the Jews.'" After a brief stay in a Hungarian ghetto, they were deported on the three-day train ride to Auschwitz, with each cattle wagon packed shoulder to shoulder. "My grandfather died there while standing. We couldn't even lay him down. And in that miserable state we got to our final destination," she said. There, they were greeted with barking dogs, screams and a warning: "Young mothers, hand your babies to grandmothers or aunts and maybe you will live." Feivlovich and her younger sister were thrown to one side, the boys to the other. They never saw their parents again. The girls were ordered to strip. Their hair was cut and they were hosed with freezing water and marched outside naked, shivering with cold and shame. "The Nazis are teasing us, spitting on us and watching us there miserable," she said. After finally getting dresses to wear, they were approached by a tall man in a polished uniform who introduced himself as Josef Mengele, the notorious Nazi doctor. He pointed to a huge chimney spewing thick black smoke and told them anyone not essential to the Third Reich would go straight to the crematorium. "I'm holding my sister's hand, and we are shaking and crying and I ask: 'Is this possible?'" she remembered. Starved and exhausted, she and hundreds of other Jewish prisoners were presented with a large liquid-filled barrel. "The moment we took that first sip in our mouth, everyone started screaming insanely. It was like a million pins in your throat. You couldn't swallow the soup," she remembered. "But we learned to drink that poisoned soup since there was nothing else to eat." She said they were told it was laced with toxin to help kill off the Jewish race and prevent it from reproducing. Feivlovich said she believed it since she stopped menstruating for a long time after.

Those already pregnant faced an even worse fate. In one case, a pregnant relative named Sarah was not allowed to go to the infirmary and forced to give birth on the floor. Usually, the Nazis took Jewish newborns away, never to be seen again. But in this case, they ordered the mother to drown her own baby in a pail of water. By the time Auschwitz was liberated, she had already been transported to forced labor in a German armament factory. Even there she wasn't safe. The camp commander ordered her to receive a mysterious injection for talking back and refusing to make the Christian sign of the cross on herself. She awoke after two days. By then, the war was winding down. The Nazis disappeared and soon an American tank broke through. Yiddish-speaking soldiers comforted the emaciated inmates. Some 150,000 elderly survivors remain in Israel today, with a similar number worldwide. Feivlovich said in recent years her birthday has become "obligating," particularly since her husband passed away in 2007. "My husband demanded of me: Don't stop talking about the Holocaust, because if we don't speak about it there will be enough Holocaust deniers after us," she said. "It is true that 74 years have passed but we are still living and we are here.

^ This is an interesting survival story since it deals with a little-known aspect of the Holocaust (the medical experiments.) I am glad Cipora Feivlovich continues to speak about her experiences. ^

https://news.yahoo.com/israeli-holocaust-survivor-remembers-auschwitz-birthday-102233932.html?hl=1&noRedirect=1

Russia Helps Maduro

From the MT:

"Russian Mercenaries Arrive in Venezuela to Shore Up Maduro's Rule"

Private military contractors who do secret missions for Russia flew into Venezuela in the past few days to beef up security for President Nicolas Maduro in the face of U.S.-backed opposition protests, according to two people close to them. A third source close to the Russian contractors also told Reuters there was a contingent of them in Venezuela, but could not say when they arrived or what their role was. Russia, which has backed Maduro's socialist government to the tune of billions of dollars, this week promised to stand by him after opposition leader Juan Guaido declared himself president with Washington's endorsement. It was the latest international crisis to split the global superpowers, with the United States and Europe backing Guaido, and Russia and China urging non-interference. Yevgeny Shabayev, leader of a local chapter of a paramilitary group of Cossacks with ties to Russian military contractors, said he had heard the number of Russian contractors in Venezuela may be about 400. But the other sources spoke of small groups. Russia's Defence Ministry and Venezuela's Information Ministry did not respond to requests for comment about the contractors. But Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: "We have no such information." The contractors are associated with the so-called Wagner group whose members, mostly ex-service personnel, fought clandestinely in support of Russian forces in Syria and Ukraine, according to Reuters interviews with dozens of contractors, their friends and relatives. A person believed to work for the Wagner group did not respond to a message asking for information. Citing contacts in a Russian state security structure, Shabayev said the contingent flew to Venezuela at the start of this week, a day or two before opposition protests started. He said they set off in two chartered aircraft for Havana, Cuba, from where they transferred onto regular commercial flights to Venezuela. The Cuban government, a close ally of Venezuela's ruling socialists for the last two decades, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The contractors' task in Venezuela was to protect Maduro from any attempt by opposition sympathisers in his own security forces to detain him, Shabayev said. "Our people are there directly for his protection," he said. Venezuelan authorities said they had put down an attempted revolt on Monday by rogue military officers about a kilometre from the presidential palace in Caracas. Maduro, the 56-year-old successor to Hugo Chavez, only takes to the streets in carefully-controlled situations, since crowds have barracked him in the past. One of the two anonymous Russian sources, who is close to the Wagner group and fought in foreign conflicts where it was active, said the contractors first arrived in advance of the May 2018 presidential election, but another group arrived "recently." Asked if the deployment was linked to protecting Maduro, the source said: "It's directly connected." The contractors flew to Venezuela not from Moscow but from third countries where they were conducting missions, he added. The third source, who is close to the private military contractors, said there was a contingent in Venezuela but he could not provide further details. "They did not arrive in a big crowd," he said. Publicly-available flight-tracking data has shown a number of Russian government aircraft landing in or near Venezuela over past weeks, though there was no evidence the flights were connected to military contractors. A Russian Ilyushin-96 flew into Havana late on Wednesday after starting its journey in Moscow and flying via Senegal and Paraguay, the data showed. The aircraft, a civilian jet, is owned by a division of the Russian presidential administration, according to a publicly-available procurement contract relating to the plane. Between Dec. 10 and Dec. 14 last year, an Antonov-124 heavy cargo aircraft, and an Ilyushin-76 transport aircraft, carried out flights between Russia and Caracas, flight-tracking data showed. Another Ilyushin-76 was in Caracas from Dec. 12 to Dec. 21 last year. All three aircraft belong to the Russian air force, according to the tracking data.

^ Anyone who thinks that Putin and the Russian Government are not training or funding (with money and arms) these "volunteers" is sadly-mistaken. Putin did the same thing in Crimea and Donbas (Ukraine.) ^

https://themoscowtimes.com/news/russian-mercenaries-arrive-in-venezuela-to-shore-up-maduros-rule-64299

40: Mini-Series

From Haaretz:

"40 Years Ago, an American Miniseries Changed the Way Germans Thought About Their History. Now ‘Holocaust’ Is Being Shown There Again"

For Sigmount Koenigsberg, the most searing scene in the U.S.-made “Holocaust” miniseries broadcast here 40 years ago was when a German child throws photos of a Jewish family into a fireplace. The pictures curl up and melt in the flames.  The moment “somehow burned into me,” recalls Koenigsberg, 58, a Jew who lives in Berlin. In fact, the four-part series starring a young Meryl Streep and James Woods – first shown in the United States in 1978 – burned itself into the consciences of many Germans at the time, helping bring about a shift in the country’s approach to its history.  This month, ahead of International Holocaust Remembrance Day on Jan. 27, WDR (West German Broadcasting) is marking the 40th anniversary of that groundbreaking broadcast by bringing  Streep, Woods, Tovah Feldshuh, Michael Moriarty and the program’s other stars back into German living rooms.  Journalist Jorg Schonenborn, the head of TV programming for WDR, said the rebroadcast was triggered by a new documentary by writer Alice Agneskircher about the 1979 screening.  “I realized right away that this would not be enough,” he recently told the educational Gerda Henkel Foundation. “We have to show the entire series again,” even if reactions today might not be the same.  “After all, ‘Holocaust’ is not only contemporary history, but an important part of German television history,” said Schönenborn, who saw the series as a youngster. “And unfortunately, anti-Semitism is not only an historical phenomenon but very much present today.”  Directed by Marvin Chomsky and written by Gerald Green, “Holocaust” recounts the Nazi genocide of European Jewry through two fictional families in Berlin: the Weisses, who are Jewish, and the Dorfs, who are Christian. In the end, both the victims and perpetrators are nearly destroyed.  The series, which aired on NBC over four nights in April 1978, won several Emmy and Golden Globe awards and a large audience, although many critics were underwhelmed. Elie Wiesel famously objected to the series, saying it “trivialized” the Shoah and worrying that “the Holocaust will be measured and judged in part by the TV production bearing its name.”  In particular, the film seems to buy the cliché of Jews “going like lambs to the slaughter” in depictions of mass shootings or the herding of Jews into gas chambers. And many felt the the kick-your-heels happy ending should have ended up on the cutting-room floor.  But the film also portrayed Jewish resistance, and the agonizing position of Jews who collaborated in hopes of saving themselves. It shows how the murder of the disabled paved the way for the genocide of European Jewry, step by step, from mass shootings to gassings. It also portrayed the descent of average non-Jewish Germans into murderous criminality and the determination of many to deny what had happened, even to themselves.  In 1979, an estimated 36 percent of West Germans with TVs – some 20 million people, according to a contemporary article in Der Spiegel magazine – viewed at least one part of the series, which was dubbed into German. The effect was immediate. Later that year, the West German parliament expunged the statute of limitations on war crimes. The term “Holocaust” entered the lexicon (somewhat replaced by “Shoah” after the release of Claude Lanzmann’s documentary in 1985).  Within a few years, tens of thousands of German youth were looking into what had happened in their own hometowns and their own families under the Nazis as part of a nationwide grassroots history movement.  Almost reluctantly, Der Spiegel admired this “trivial” American series, saying it had “managed to do what hundreds of books, plays, films and TV broadcasts, thousands of documents and all concentration camp trials in three decades of postwar history had failed to do: to inform Germans about the crimes committed against the Jews in their name in such a way that millions were shaken.”  In a 2005 interview with this reporter, Chomsky recalled the immediate impact of the German broadcast.  “There were all kinds of [news] stories and people started asking, ‘Daddy, what did you do during the war?’ It was quite a revelation for the generation,” said Chomsky, now 89.  The dropping of the statute of limitations on war crimes was likely the first time “where a nation has … enacted a law directly affected by the viewing and the response to a television show,” he said.  But it also helped change the focus from those who pulled the strings, like the Nazi leaders convicted at Nuremberg and in other high-profile trials, to the perpetrators who could be one’s next-door neighbors. “The point I wanted to show with all of this … was that people who seem perfectly normal are … capable of [committing] hideous atrocities,” said Chomsky, who also co-directed the 1977 “Roots” miniseries, whose impact on American historical consciousnesses was similarly profound.  Efraim Zuroff, head of the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s Jerusalem office, said there is no question that the “Holocaust” story had the most powerful impact in West Germany. Zuroff has pushed Germany to investigate and prosecute Nazi war criminals.  “The story of the Weiss family personalized the Shoah in a way that touched the average viewer,” he said, “and helped Germans internalize the scope and horror of the tragedy that took place in their country, launched by a movement elected democratically.”  Deidre Berger, head of the Berlin office of the American Jewish Committee, agreed.  “This one TV series opened the virtual Pandora’s box on confronting the Holocaust,” she said. “Sometimes a fictional account that opens people’s hearts can have more impact than a library of books.”  So much has changed in the interim: East and West Germany united in 1990, and Germany’s postwar Jewish community has grown nearly tenfold with the influx of former Soviet Jews. Holocaust education here has evolved: The generation of survivors, perpetrators and eyewitnesses is dying out, and the historical record has been refined through additional facts and interpretations.  But the impact of this series on German non-Jews and Jews, however dated and sanitized some parts of the film may appear today, is beyond a doubt. Historian Edith Raim, born in 1965, recalls watching the series with her family in Landsberg, a town outside Munich. It was one of the first programs they saw together because her parents, both teachers, thought TV had “no pedagogic value.”  “We were glued to the film, even my reluctant father,” said Raim, who is not Jewish. Later that year, “the youth organization of the trade unions started commemorations on the [local] concentration camp cemeteries.”  Raim soon joined with high school classmates to research the history of those camps.  “In the case of Landsberg, in fact, the series helped locals to confront the Nazi past,” she said. In West Germany, teachers incorporated the series into their classes. It also sparked public discussions.  But on the other side of the so-called Iron Curtain, in East Germany, discussions were more private, Jalda Rebling says.  Rebling, today a cantor with the Jewish Renewal movement, watched the program with her parents in their home near East Berlin. She recalls that her mother, the singer Lin Jaldati, a Dutch survivor of Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen, “was very angry about this kitschy story” saying “Nobody looked that nice in the camps.”  “She didn’t like the Hollywood part of it,” Rebling said. “But today I would say if it hadn’t been for that, people wouldn’t have watched.”  The focus of East German education and memorials was on anti-Nazi resistance. They did not officially hold up any mirrors to themselves, instead shoving the perpetrator legacy to West Germany.  But there were ways to learn about this history, says Rebling, who recalled her anger when a friend said it was “so wonderful we have now this film, we never knew about this entire Holocaust.” Rebling “took him into a bookshop and put him in front of Holocaust-related books that were published in East Germany. I said, ‘You just didn’t look for it earlier.’”  Like Rebling, Koenigsberg knew the history from his own parents, survivors from Poland. Sigi was an 18-year-old high school student in Saarbrucken, former West Germany, when the family watched the series.  “Especially the episodes that take place in Poland or in the concentration camps, my parents said, ‘That is only part of what happened. It can’t be reproduced,’” he recalled.  But the program had an important impact, Koenigsberg said. In school, “before they always talked about 6 million Jews. And Jewish narratives were not presented in history classes. But now they had the story of one family. And they could feel with them.”  “Textbooks were changed and adjusted, and it was a big event for Germany,” recalled actor Tovah Feldshuh, who played the role of Helena Slomova, a Jewish resistance fighter from then-Czechoslovakia. “I was wearing fatigues in the woods. It was my first death on film,” she said in a telephone interview from New York.  Feldshuh said she felt privileged to play the role of “a freedom fighter, to be brave, rather than” someone who appeared to give up. She “went through the Holocaust miniseries angry, not upset.  “[I] didn’t shed a tear,” she said. “But for the [actors] who were newly exposed to the Holocaust, who were not Jewish, they were beside themselves: Rosemary Harris and Meryl Streep were beside themselves.” Harris played Mrs. Weiss, and Streep played her Christian daughter-in-law.  After the premiere in 1978, Wiesel confronted Feldshuh.  “Tovah, how could you, how could you, how could you! Reduce the Holocaust to a soap opera?” he demanded.  “I told him, ‘Elie, I understand that the experience of the Holocaust is unspeakable. I understand there is no language for what you went through. We did not make the Holocaust series for you. We did it for people … who think Holocaust means ‘hora.’ For people who think the Holocaust did not happen.”

^ 40 years ago (1979) the “Holocaust” mini-series, dubbed in German, was shown on West German TV for the first time. This American-made mini-series finally helped force Germans to think about the crimes that they committed (or their parents or their grandparents or a combination.) Until the 1960s there was a general silence about the Holocaust throughout Germany (East and West.) People didn't want to know anything about their own crimes or lack of action. Things began to change when the country's younger generation started questioning — and accusing — their elders 

20 million West Germans (and an unknown number of East Germans who watched West German TV secretively) watched the mini-series. The word "Holocaust" was still unknown to most Germans in 1979. The series had a tremendous effect. "It was this film that created something like a culture of remembrance in Germany," says Werner Jung, director of the National Socialism Documentation Center in Cologne. A few months after the original air date, Germany's parliament, the Bundestag, decided by a narrow majority that the mass murders committed during the Nazi era shouldn't fall under a statute of limitations. 

So it only took the Germans 34 years after the Holocaust to start openly talking about their crimes and to start teaching about it in schools. The Germans also saw a tourism boom (more gaining money at the expense of their victims) American and Canadian tourists – people who had watched the mini-series and wanted to visit the places portrayed (most thought they were all in Germany even though most were in Ukraine (USSR), Poland and Czechoslovakia.) ^

https://www.haaretz.com/jewish/holocaust-remembrance-day/holocaust-is-being-shown-in-germany-again-40-years-later-1.6871437

Shocking Denial

From the BBC:

"Holocaust Memorial Day: 'Shocking' levels of denial remain"

Five per cent of UK adults do not believe the Holocaust took place and one in 12 believes its scale has been exaggerated, a survey has found.  The poll of more than 2,000 people was carried out by Opinion Matters for the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust (HMDT). Almost two-thirds of respondents could not say how many Jews were murdered or "grossly" under-estimated the number. On Sunday hundreds of thousands of people will gather across the country to mark Holocaust Memorial Day. Survivors, politicians and members of the public will remember the six million Jewish victims of the Holocaust, while also marking the 25th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide and 40 years since the end of the genocide in Cambodia. More than 11,000 activities are expected to take place, including a national commemorative ceremony in Westminster, as well as other events in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.  Holocaust survivor Steven Frank, who was one of 93 children to survive the Theresienstadt camp in Czechoslovakia along with his two brothers, said the survey's findings were "terribly worrying". His father, who helped hide Jews as part of the Dutch resistance, was arrested in Amsterdam and gassed at Auschwitz, in Nazi-occupied Poland, in January 1943.  Mr Frank, who now lives in Hertfordshire, said he was "surprised" by the number of people who do not believe the Holocaust took place. The 83-year-old said: "In my experience, people don't have a solid understanding of what happened during the Holocaust and that's one of the reasons I am so committed to sharing what happened to me. "At one of my talks, I met someone who said the Holocaust didn't happen.  "The only way to fight this kind of denial and anti-Semitism is with the truth - I tell people what happened, what I saw and what I experienced." He added: "Education is so important. If we ignore the past, I fear history will repeat itself." The HMDT's chief executive Olivia Marks-Woldman said: "Such widespread ignorance and even denial is shocking. "Without a basic understanding of this recent history, we are in danger of failing to learn where a lack of respect for difference and hostility to others can ultimately lead." She added that the rise in reported hate crime in the UK and the risk of genocide in ongoing international conflicts meant "we cannot be complacent". Karen Pollock, chief executive of the Holocaust Educational Trust, said: "One person questioning the truth of the Holocaust is one too many. "It is up to us to redouble our efforts to ensure future generations know that it did happen and become witnesses to one of the darkest episodes in our history." 

^ This shows us that 1 in 20 British adults are stupid. ^

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-47015184

First They Killed My Father (2017)

I just watched the movie: "First They Killed My Father" by director, Angelina Jolie. I read the book with the same name years ago. Both the book and film are the true story of Loung Ung surviving the Cambodian Genocide (the Communist Khmer Rouge murdered 2.2 million men, women and children from 1975-1979) from when she was 5 years old until she was 10 years old.

Her and her family (her parents and six brothers and sisters) lived a middle-class life in Cambodia's capital, Phnom Penh until April 17, 1975 when the Khmer Rouge entered the city and forced all 2 million people out of the capital and into re-education camps in the jungles. Her mother was ethnically Chinese and her father was a high-ranking official for the former Cambodian Government. For those reasons the children were made to assume false identities and go to different work camps. I won't saw what else happened to the family (read and/or watch the book/movie for that.

The Khmer Rouge targeted anyone with connections to the former Cambodian government, or foreign governments (like the French or American), professionals, teachers, Buddhist monks, Khmer Catholics, the ethnic Thai, the ethnic Vietnamese, the ethnic Chinese, students, doctors, anyone who spoke a second language (even though many people spoke French since Cambodia was part of French Indochina from 1887-1954) and anyone who wore glasses.

The Khmer Rouge were eventually defeated by Communist Vietnam in 1979. The Vietnamese had to create a currency, educational system, health system, political system, industry, etc. from scratch since they were all outlawed and destroyed by the Khmer Rouge. The Vietnamese left Cambodia in 1989. The leader of the Khmer Rouge, Pol Pot, fled to the jungles when the Vietnamese came- where he died under house arrest in 1998 (it is believed he committed suicide when he learned the Khmer Rouge were going to hand him over to an International Tribunal for his genocidal crimes.)

The current Prime Minister of Cambodia, Han Sen (in office since 1998) was a member of the Khmer Rouge.

Auschwitz

74 years ago today (January 27^th) the Soviet Red Army liberated Auschwitz.

Between March 1933 and May 1945 the Germans ran around 42,500 concentration, labor, POW and death camps and ghettos throughout occupied Europe. Between 15-20 million men, women and children were imprisoned and/or died at these sites.

That number includes:

-          8 Death Camps (in occupied Poland: Auschwitz, Chełmno, Bełżec, Sobibór, Treblinka, Majdanek, Maly Trostenets  -- in occupied-Belarus) and Sajmiste --in occupied Serbia)
-          980 concentration camps
-          30,000 slave labor camps
-          1,150 Jewish Ghettos
-          500 brothels filled with sex slaves
-          Thousands of other camps used for euthanizing the elderly, the infirm and the disabled; for Germanizing prisoners or for transporting victims to the killing centers.
-          1,000 POW camps

The Targeted Holocaust Victims:
-      Jews
-      Western Allied Jewish POWs or who were suspected of being Jews by the Germans
-      Soviet POWs
-      Gypsies
-      Ethnic Poles
-      Ethnic Serbs
-      People with disabilities
-      Homosexuals
-      Jehovah’s Witnesses
-      Catholic Clergy
-      Eastern European intellectuals
-      Political Prisoners (including Resistance fighters

January 27^th: Liberation of Auscwitz

 The Auschwitz Concentration Camp (40 miles from Krakow, Poland) was run by the Germans from 1940-1945. It held around 1.3 million prisoners with 1.1 million men, women and children murdered here alone. It was divided into 44 sub-camps. Auschwitz 1 (the main camp held 30,000 prisoners and had the first gas chamber where from 1941-1942 60,000 people were gassed); Auschwitz 2 (Auschwitz- Birkenau was the main death camp with 4 gas chambers and crematoria.)The rest of the Auschwitz sub-camps were concentration and labor camps. There were 7,000 German SS guards (less than 800 were ever tried for their crimes) at Auschwitz. At least 802 prisoners tried to escape from Auschwitz with 144 of those being successful. From 1943-1944 (the height of the gassings at Auschwitz) 6,000 men, women and children were gassed every day. On October 7, 1944 the Sonderkommando (prisoners, mostly Jews, forced by the Germans to work in the gas chambers and crematoria) revolted. 3 SS were killed and 12 SS were injured. 451 Sonderkommandos were killed.  In November 1944 (with the Red Army approaching) the Germans stopped gassing at Auschwitz and forced the Sonderkommandos to dig up and burn thousands of bodies. On January 17, 1945 the Germans forced 58,000 prisoners to leave Auschwitz on a Death March (anyone who stopped was shot on the road.) On January 20, 1945 the Germans blew-up the gas chambers. On January 27, 1945 the Soviet Red Army liberated Auschwitz. Due to the vast extent of the camp area, at least four divisions took part in liberating the camp: 100th Rifle Division (established in Vologda, Russia), 322nd Rifle Division (Gorky, Russia), 286th Rifle Division (Leningrad), and 107th Motor Rifle Division (Tambov, Russia)The soldiers found 7,500 prisoners alive and over 600 corpses. Among items found by the Soviet soldiers were 370,000 men's suits, 837,000 women's garments, and 7.7 tons (8.5 short tons) of human hair. 4,500 of the 7,500 liberated prisoners were sent to hospital barracks where around 500 died after the liberation.

Safe Germany?

From the DW:

"How safe are Jews living in Germany?"

For the first time in 18 years, international Jewish service organization B'nai B'rith has held its European congress in Berlin. On the agenda: the renewed threat to Jews in Germany. "Are we safe?" The question asked by Andras Kain, head of the B'nai B'rith-affiliated Raoul Wallenberg Lodge in Berlin, went unanswered. Berlin is home to the largest Jewish community in Germany, Kain told DW at the organization's European congress in the German capital. And he warned that "anti-Semitism has become socially acceptable, right in the midst of our society." The 2019 congress took place just a few hundred meters from B'nai B'rith's former German headquarters in Kleist Street — which later housed the Gestapo secret police of Nazi Germany. At its last European congress in Berlin in 2001, the organization received anonymous anti-Semitic letters; today, Kain said, the letters have continued, but people are now signing their names, a development which Kain ascribes to the influence of social media. Felix Klein, Germany's commissioner on fighting anti-Semitism, confirms that Germany is once again experiencing attacks on Jewish facilities, as well as other forms of anti-Semitism. In 2017, he said, there was an average of three incidents per day. As part of a counterstrategy to bring more visibility to these cases, Klein said the government plans to establish a "reporting and monitoring system." A commission involving the German federal and state governments is to be set up to meet twice a year for that purpose, he added; perhaps as early as spring. Klein said the states are responsible in 80 to 90 percent of the cases, and welcomed the fact that seven states already have a representative for Jewish life; two other states are working to establish a position. The goal is to find ways to improve education at schools, and to more strongly address the issue in police training. "Anti-Semitism is not a Jewish problem, but one of society as a whole," Klein said.  The one-day congress also debated which form of anti-Semitism is the most dangerous — from the right wing, from the left, from Muslims? While Klein thought the debate was "unhelpful," German historian Michael Wolffsohn warned against lumping all forms of anti-Semitism together. Only with a realistic analysis of the problem could "the right therapy" be found to address the problem, he said.  Anti-Semitic attitudes are particularly pronounced among Muslims in Europe, according to figures presented by Wolffsohn. Other participants were convinced right-wing extremists and right-wing populists most frequently stir up anti-Semitism. Jeremy Issacharoff, Israel's ambassador to Germany, said the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party in particular represents a new threat in Germany because of the "nostalgic attitude" some party members have toward the era of National Socialism. That's why there's been no contact with that party, he said. Klein maintained his position that he did not want to "hierarchize" the issues. Telling all migrants that anti-Semitism has no place in Germany is part of the integration effort, he said, adding that the goal must be distinguished from the general fight against anti-Semitism. Wolffsohn urged Jews to be confident when they face the majority society, to stand tall and say: "Here we are — we the Jewish." After all, he said, Germany needs its Jewish fellow citizens to be "accomplished, tolerant and integrated people." But, when it came to security, he said that was the responsibility of the German state. 

^ This seemed fitting for International Holocaust Remembrance Day. ^

https://www.dw.com/en/how-safe-are-jews-living-in-germany/a-47173145