Remembering the 1936 Berlin Olympics and the Defeat of Nazi Prejudice

It is not unusual for a nation’s leaders to try to show off their superiority to the rest of the world. Sometimes this takes the form of a war. But, during the 20th and 21st Centuries, every four years the Olympics are used for this purpose. That’s exactly what Hitler hoped to do in 1936, but as the excerpt below from an article by Chris Ramirez shows, things didn’t go exactly the way the Fuehrer expected!

The 1936 Olympics in Berlin were supposed to prove Adolph Hitler’s case for Aryan supremacy. Blacks and Jews, he said, were inferior and had no place in the Games. Athletes trained under his Nazi regime were supposed to crush them. Instead, some Jews and blacks would go on to re-write the history book by flourishing on the playing field with the hate-filled German chancellor looked on from the stands.

“The Nazi Olympics: Berlin 1936,” an acclaimed exhibition by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, recounts through photos and other artifacts how athletes dispelled Hitler’s racist dogma with their performances. It will be on display at the August Wilson Center for African American Culture during the next four months.

“One of most important things anyone can learn (from this exhibit) is the shared history of the Jewish and African-American communities,” says Joy Braunstein, director of Holocaust Center of Greater Pittsburgh. “It shows that people can overcome adversity and become powerhouses in the world.”

The exhibit explores issues surrounding the 1936 Olympic Games, including the Nazis’ use of propaganda, the intense boycott debate leading up to the opening ceremonies and Jesse Owens’ historic performance on the track. It features haunting images of Hitler amid a sea of spectators, flashing the Nazi salute at Olympic Stadium. Hitler envisioned the Berlin Games as his chance to showcase the merits of his government and his agenda of racial supremacy. He banned Jewish athletes from competing for Nazi Germany, but had no control over whether they or blacks from other countries participated.

“African-American and Jewish athletes were particularly aware of Hitler’s ideologies about Aryan superiority ...  and wanted to trample them right there in his front yard,” says Sala Udin, interim co-director at the August Wilson Center. “That was a strong motivation for them.”

Thirteen Jews won medals in Berlin. Most of them competed for other countries in Europe, including Poland and Hungary. Some of them were killed in the years following the games, during the Holocaust. Seven American Jewish athletes went to Berlin.

“The real purpose of this exhibit ... is to illustrate that blacks and Jews collaborated in important ways throughout history in the 20th century,” Udin says. “It also gives us a chance to evaluate the condition of our relationship today and the opportunities to continue it.”

“The Nazi Olympics: Berlin 1936” will be in Pittsburgh until Feb. 28.

It’s easy to see that Hitler intended the worst for much of Europe - - especially the Jews.  How much more successful people are when they adhere to Romans 12:18, “If it be possible, as much is it be in your power, live peaceably with all men.” Much like Hitler, however, there is a portion of the Arab world that does not strive to live peaceable with God’s Chosen People.

That’s why it is important for us to continually pray according to Psalm 122:6 - - to pray for the peace of Jerusalem!

To read more of Mr. Ramirez’s article, go to the Trib Live website.

Possible War with Iran Gives Birth to Holocaust Fears

As Israel contemplates a pre-emptive strike on Iran, those in the U.S. can view and discuss it in a most pragmatic way. Such is not the case for those who live in Israel, however. If such a strike does take place, they will be the ones who will suffer Iran’s wrath. In the excerpt below from an article by Nick Meo we learn what a number of Israelis think about this situation.  The last time Hezbollah attacked Israel, a rocket exploded next to Adam Bloom's house while his wife was in the shower.  "She was hysterical," he said. Afterwards it took hours to coax her and their two terrified young daughters out of the bomb shelter where they fled.  "Hezbollah had about 10,000 rockets then but they are supposed to have more like 50,000 now, so how many will be fired at us if they start again?" said Mr Bloom, 49.

The family, whose kibbutz is 30 miles south of the Lebanon border, had thought they were safely out of range in 2006. When rockets started landing they jumped in the car and headed south with 350,000 other Israelis, to spend weeks as refugees in their own country.

But what Israelis really dread is the prospect of Iran getting nuclear weapons. "We're a small country, about the size of Wales. They only need to drop four or five Hiroshima-sized bombs and there won't be many of us left," said Mr Bloom.

If Iran gets a bomb, there is a haunting fear that families will start leaving Israel for greater safety abroad, perhaps crippling an economy that has been roaring along in recent years.

For that reason alone many Israelis believe an Iranian bomb would be impossible to live with. Michael Herzog, a retired Brigadier-General and former Chief of Staff, said: "If Iran is not stopped by sanctions and the US is not going to do anything, it is very possible the current leadership will decide on a strike – and do not underestimate Israel's capacity to do real damage to the nuclear programme.

Corrie Ten Boom had many memories of the last time a world leader felt compelled to annihilate God’s Chosen People. To learn of these memories, read her book THE HIDING PLACE, or take a virtual tour of her home in Ha’arlem, Holland which is now Corrie ten Boom Museum . While you may not be able to help Jewish families the way the Ten Booms did during WW II, you can be sensitive to their needs as the Ten Booms were for a hundred years - - by praying according to Ps. 122:6 and pray for the peace of Jerusalem!

To read all of Nick Meo’s article, go to:

Holocaust fears haunt Israelis as they prepare for possible war with Iran

Anti-Semitism Didn’t Begin in Germany with Hitler & the Nazis

When we think of the Holocaust - - both its hatred and its horror, we typically think that this was the beginning of anti Jewish sentiment in Germany. However, as part of a series he is writing for THE JERUSALEM POST, David Turner points out that is hardly the case. And, the example he gives in the excerpt below may surprise you more than a little bit!

Foundations of the Holocaust: Martin Luther, Theologian of Hate

“At his trial in Nuremberg… Julius Streicher… argued that if he should be standing there arraigned on such charges, so should Martin Luther.”



On the Jews and Their Lies: In this work Luther lays out his understanding of Jewish lies and the danger he feels they represent to Christians. In 65,000 words divided into 13 sections he systematically quotes Jewish scripture to rebut each of his asserted Jewish lies. In the end he asks, “What shall we Christians do with this rejected and condemned people, the Jews… Since they live among us, we dare not tolerate their conduct.” His solution is the following seven steps:

“First to set fire to their synagogues or schools and to bury and cover with dirt whatever will not burn, so that no man will ever again see a stone or cinder of them.

Second, I advise that their houses also be razed and destroyed.

Third, I advise that all their prayer books and Talmudic writings, in which such idolatry, lies, cursing and blasphemy are taught, be taken from them.

Fourth, I advise that their rabbis be forbidden to teach henceforth on pain of loss of life and limb.

Fifth, I advise that safe conduct on the highways be abolished completely for the Jews…Let them stay at home.

Sixth, I advise that usury be prohibited to them, and that all cash and treasure of silver and gold be taken from them and put aside for safekeeping… Whenever a Jew is sincerely converted, he should be handed one hundred, two hundred, or three hundred florins, as personal circumstances may suggest.

Seventh, I commend putting a flail, an ax, a hoe, a spade, a distaff, or a spindle into the hands of young, strong Jews and Jewesses and letting them earn their bread by the sweat of their brow… For it is not fitting that they should let us accursed Goyim toil in the sweat of our faces while they, the holy people, idle away their time behind the stove, feasting and farting…”

It is difficult for most Christians today to imagine that such opinions were shared by the church hierarchy in the past. Obviously, they viewed themselves to be superior to the very God they worship, for as He hung on the cross Jesus said, “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.” The very concept of forgiveness, however, seems to have been missed by Luther, as, apparently, was Mt. 7:1, “Judge not, lest ye be judged.” We, however, would be wise to adhere to all God directs us to do, including adhering to the dictates of Psalm 122:6 - - to pray for the peace of Jerusalem.

To read David Turner’s article in its entirety go to: Foundations of the Holocaust: Martin Luther, Theologian of Hate ...

Even A Life of Servitude Would Have Been Better Than the Horror of the Holocaust

It’s hard to leave home - - friends and family - - even under the best of circumstances.  But in the 1930s thousands of Jews were forced to flee with only their memories. Many of these found refuge in England, where, as the excerpt below from an article by Jennifer Lipman shows, they were forced to become servants in the homes of the well to do.

The daily life of a Jewish Holocaust refugee who escaped the Nazis by working as a servant in a British home will be discussed in a BBC documentary tomorrow. Edith Argy's story will be told in the third part of the BBC2 series Servants: the True Story of Life Below Stairs.  Mrs Argy, who was just 18 when she arrived in Britain in 1938, was one of thousands of young Jews from Austria and German who escaped the Nazis on domestic service visas after the British government brought in a visa requirement for refugees in March 1938. The exact number who worked as servants to middle or upper class homes in the late 1930s is unknown.

Mrs Argy, who spent 16 months as a domestic servant and worked in nine different places in that time -including for three Jewish families - arrived with little experience of housework, having "not so much as held a broom" before she secured her first job working for a headmaster. "I found it very hard to adjust to being a servant," she said, adding that she spoke little English when she arrived. "In fact, I was so unhappy and so lonely in my first job that I no longer wanted to live".
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Sometimes helping the Jews was as dangerous as being one! That’s what Corrie Ten Boom found to be the case. You can learn about her trials by reading her book, THE HIDING PLACE, or by taking a virtual tour of her home in Ha’arlem, Holland, which has been made into a museum.  Prior to WW II she and her family followed the dictates of Ps. 122:6 and prayed for the peace of Jerusalem in a weekly prayer meeting that lasted 100 years! With the state of affairs in the world today, especially the Middle East, it would be wise if we, too, prayed for the peace of God’s Holy City!

To read Ms. Lipman’s article in its entirety, go to:

Jewish Holocaust refugees who went below stairs

Why We Need To Know About the Holocaust

As the Muslim Brotherhood continues to deny one of the most horrific events in the course of history, there are others around the world that are doing their utmost to make sure the truth continues to be shared. In the excerpt from an article by Constance DeVereaux below, we see how NAU, in Flagstaff, Arizona, is helping to share the truth.

The Martin-Springer Institute at Northern Arizona University was founded twelve years ago by Flagstaff resident and Holocaust survivor, Doris Martin. Her goal was to promote tolerance through education in hopes of preventing future atrocities. This year, the institute has a new executive director, Bjorn Krondorfer. He spoke with Arizona Public Radio's Constance DeVereaux about the importance of studying the Holocaust.

BK: It's important on many levels. For one, you really need to study it, in and of itself as a watershed event in human history. It's the first time that genocide was really perpetrated on this kind of scale on such a geographic scope and with such industrial and bureaucratic means behind it, sponsored by the state. But it also keeps affecting us today. We keep reading contemporary issues and problems and genocides through the lens of the Holocaust, so we need to have a good understanding of the history in order to learn something about the present day conflicts that we see all over the world.

DVX: I understand that recently you were going through some cupboards in your office and you found some interesting objects.

BK: We have a storage room and the first week when I arrived here I looked through it and we found a box. In the box were all kinds of material objects related to Nazism and the Holocaust that came as a big surprise to me. I can show you some of the objects, for example we found money from the Littzmannstadt Ghetto and in that ghetto the Jewish Council had to print their own money pretending as if it's an autonomous little city, when of course it was ruled by the Nazis and everyone was eventually deported or killed. So we have printed money from the large ghetto which is unusual to find here in Flagstaff.

DVX: How was this currency? How did it gain its value or how did it have value? Was it just a substitute? Did people buy it with German money?

BK: It really was valuable only within the ghetto. And even there it's questionable if it had much of a value. It's more a kind of a pretense, a policy of delusion. The most unusual find is that we found a stamp, a seal. It clearly has a swastika at the bottom. We took an ink pad and actually tried to see what it says. And to my shock, I would have to say, it turns out it is the stamp of the commandant of Gross Rosen. Gross Rosen is a concentration camp now located in Poland.

To learn more of what the Holocaust was like, read Corrie Ten Boom’s book, THE HIDING PLACE. Or, take the virtual tour of her home in Ha’arlem, Holland which has been converted into a museum by visiting the Corrie ten Boom Museum.   After learning more, you, like the Ten Booms, might find that you want to honor God by praying according to what He told us in Ps.122:6, where He directs us to pray for the peace of Jerusalem.

To read the entire DeVereaux article, go to:

The Importance Of Studying The Holocaust: An Interview With NAU's ...

Anti-Semitism Still Alive and Doing Well in Hungary

Sometimes the more things change the more they stay the same. That seems to be the case in Hungary, as the article below by Gulliver Cragg points out.

Last July, one of the world's most wanted war crime suspects, Laszlo Csatary, was arrested in Hungary. He is accused of sending more than 15,000 Jews to their deaths at Auschwitz. But Hungarian police did not arrest the 97-year-old until a British newspaper, The Sun, made his location public. That has led some to say the authorities were dragging their feet.  Most worryingly, those who complained have been the target of anti-Semitic hatred.  It’s hard to believe that any nation, let alone one that was part of the WW II Holocaust, still harbors hatred towards the Jews. Yet, apparently, such is the situation in Hungary. They, as before, are treading on thin ice, if you would, as we are told in Genesis 12:3a, “I will bless them that bless thee and curse them that curse thee.” One of the ways that we can ensure our blessing is to follow the directive found in Ps. 122:6 and pray for the peace of Jerusalem.

To learn more about this topic, click on the link below:

The rise of anti-Semitism  Hungary - FRANCE 24

Making Sure Germany Knows About the Holocaust

One of the greatest enemies any society fights is ignorance. That’s why Margot Barnard, the subject of an article by Tara MacIsaac excerpted below, has dedicated her life to informing Germans about the Holocaust, as the aforementioned excerpt explains:

Margot Barnard was a pioneer of Holocaust education. As early as the 1950s, the German Jew began openly discussing the Holocaust with Germans. The spirited 92-year-old has talked to students at hundreds of schools in Germany and England over the decades. Her tiny stature and south-German sense of humour put students at ease, explained Barnard. She has subdued hostile skinhead teenagers in German schools with her smile and kind manner; resistance from some of the Jewish Community has been more difficult to dispel. Some Jews saw her education campaign as fraternizing with the enemy. Her brother, Walter, once asked whether her forgiveness would extend to her parents’ murderers.

“There are many holocausts,” said Barnard. “We have to stop it somewhere; we have to try at least.”

When Barnard arrived in England in 1945, she met with hostility and ignorance. She had moved to Palestine in 1933, three years after Hitler gained power. Her parents wanted to join her later, but could not get visas. She joined the British forces and married a British soldier, Ted Barnard. As they sailed from Egypt to England, Barnard heard the announcement: “The war in Europe is over.”

When her husband was stationed in Germany in 1956, she returned with him to her homeland. She was, however, a foreigner even there. Being Jewish and now a British citizen— part of the occupying power—she felt unwelcome.  Many Germans continued to support Nazism, others denied the genocide. What was worse for Barnard, however, was the feeling that life continued as usual. She watched a woman eat cake outside a Hanover café as though millions of Jews had not been led to gas chambers. Barnard’s grief burst to the surface.

Barnard spoke at a German school for the first time in 1987. The students were happy to talk about the Holocaust openly, as many of them were unable to do so at home. They felt guilt and shame; they knew some people hated Germans for the Holocaust.

For Barnard, it is important to not only discuss the war, but also the roots of anti-Semitism. She finds teachers are often ignorant of those roots, and thus unable to educate students.

“You are our teacher,” a teacher in her native Bonn told Barnard.

A testament to Barnard’s educational influence is the recent renaming of Bonn’s Medinghoven Realschule (secondary school) as Margot Barnard Realschule.

To take a virtual tour of her home in Ha’arlem, Holland, which has been converted to Corrie ten Boom Museum, click here.

And, like the Ten Booms, you can bless God by following the directive He gave us in Ps. 122:6 to pray for the peace of Jerusalem.

To read Ms. MacIsaac’s in its entirety, click on the link below:

Teaching the Enemy

An Overview of How People View the Arab Perspective of the Holocaust

When the question, “What was the Arab position on the Holocaust?” was posted recently, a number of interesting answers came in. Below are a few of those answers:

Answer from Directmale

Many Arabs still deny it happened.

Answer from PMStern

For most of the Muslim world, the Holocaust never happened. They claim it is a total fabrication.

Answer from 1TubeGuru

There is no unified arab position on the Holocaust.

Answer from MaryAnn

I don't know about the entire Middle East, but the president of Iran (who is Persian) thinks it is a fable. It feeds into his antagonism about the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. He made an interesting comment while in New York. He recognizes the fact that Jews have existed for centuries but doesn't recognize what he calls "the Zionists" in Israel today, that they don't belong there. He fails to recognize that the majority of them migrated there because of the Holocaust.

Answer from charlie95

That it didn't happen. That General Eisenhower insisted that hundreds and hundreds of photographs be taken of at each death camp preserved the awful scenes for posterity means nothing to people who deny that the Holocaust occurred. What is historical fact is meaningless to people whose hatred of the Jews blinds them to fact. "The roots of Islamic extremism lie in Adolf Hitler’s call to the Arab world to destroy Jews
during World War Two, a new book has argued.  'Your only hope for rescue is the destruction of the Jews, before they destroy you!' the Nazi leader declared in a 1942 radio broadcast. It was one of 6,000 broadcasts the Nazis directed at the Arabs as their death camps were killing Jews by the hundreds of thousands in Europe. ‘Nazi Propaganda for the Arab World,’ by American scholar Jeffrey Herf, shows how Hitler and his aides relied on radio broadcasts to sew propaganda because most of the Arab world was
illiterate at the time."

As indicated, most people recognize that the Arab world staunchly maintains that the Holocaust never exited. They may not be aware of what Isaiah says about such situations,  however, in 5:20-22: “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter.” In denying an obvious reality, the Arab world certainly puts “darkness for light.” As a result, we need to make sure that we continue to pray according to Ps. 122:6 - - and pray for the peace of Jerusalem.  Corrie Ten Boom and her family did, for over a hundred years. Then, when WW II came, they did far more. To learn about the Ten Boom’s efforts in WW II and her book, THE HIDING PLACE, or the Corrie ten Boom museum virtual tour, visit here.  To learn what others had to say, go to:  What was the Arab position on the Holocaust?

Learn About the Johannesburgh Holocaust and Genocide Center

As unbelievable, and disturbing as it may seem, the 20th Century was wrought with genocides.  The three most well known, of course, are the Armenian Genocide of pre-WWI, the Jewish Holocaust of WWII and the Rwandan Genocide of the early 1990s.  As the excerpt below shows, South Africa wants everyone to be aware of, and remember, how tragic these events were:

The Johannesburg Holocaust and Genocide Centre was established in 1998 and is dedicated to Holocaust and genocide education and memory. The JHGC works widely in the field of Holocaust, human rights and genocide education. In 2007, the South African Department of Education implemented a new National Curriculum, which contains a strong human rights focus. Having operated from temporary premises, the JHGC has recently secured ground on which to build a permanent centre, which will be a centre of learning for young and old, from all walks of life, to come together to learn from the histories of the Holocaust and the genocide in Rwanda.

The excerpt from an article by Anthony Posner below presents an interesting and provocative thought knowledge of atrocities alone does not prevent future atrocities in the same realm:

The Johannesburg Holocaust and Genocide Centre will not only focus on the extermination of European Jewry but will also contain a section designated to the Rwandan genocide. Moria Schneider writes in The South African Jewish Report: "The message the juxtaposition sends is stark: that the Holocaust and remembrance of it, did not prevent another genocide from occurring."

The only similarity between the genocide that took place in Africa and the one, many years earlier, in Europe is the fact that people were specifically identified and killed ( 800,000 Tutsis and 6,000,000 Jews). From a historical point of view, there is nothing else worth comparing and if one is encouraged to make connections, there is a danger that this will only be done whilst sacrificing the true causes and horrors of both.

Knowing about these atrocities isn’t enough - - you have to do something about them. Corrie Ten Boom and her family did. In her book, THE HIDING PLACE, she shares how during WW II they hid and protected Jews from the Nazis. Their home in Ha’arlem Holland that has been turned into a museum   Take the virtual tour to learn more about the Ten Boom family and the Corrie ten Boom museum.   We don’t have to wait for atrocities, however. Also like the Ten Booms we can pray - pray according to Psalm 122:6 - - pray for the peace of Jerusalem!

To learn more about the Center, go to:

The Johannesburg Holocaust and Genocide Centre

To read Mr. Posner’s article in its entirety go here

Love, Not Hate, After the Holocaust for Olympian Ben Helfgott

WW II and the Holocaust interrupted a lot of lives, and many of them never got back to normal.  As the excerpt below from an article by Asher Weill shows, however, such was not the case for Ben Helfgott:

A guest of honor at a recent Limmud FSU “Olympics” Festival for Russian-speaking Jews, held in Upper Nazareth, was a diminutive 82-year-old figure with piercing blue eyes. In 1956, 27-year-old Ben Helfgott was captain of the British weight lifting team at the Olympic Games in Melbourne, Australia. Just 11 years earlier, in May 1945, the emaciated and gaunt 15-year-old boy was liberated from the Theresienstadt concentration camp in Czechoslovakia, weighing 38 kilograms.

As a child, Helfgott was a self-confessed sports addict. “I was always challenging the other boys to see who was the best wrestler, the fastest runner, or who could jump higher or longer. I loved all sports and was extremely competitive,” he tells me.

But the lives of the Jews of Poland, and of the Helfgotts among them, were to change drastically when Nazi Germany invaded Poland in September 1939. He tells the story of that time in an emotional and still heavily Polish-inflected English.

November 1944, Helfgott, and later his father, still in the ghetto, were deported to a labor camp that manufactured army tents, and then to the Buchenwald concentration camp. At the same time, his younger sister Mala was sent to Ravensbruck, a camp for women, and later to the infamous Bergen-Belsen camp.

After arriving in Britain, and even prior to seeing the London Olympic Games of 1948, he soon became involved in the British sporting world and helped set up the Primrose Jewish Youth Club in London. The club was founded in 1947 by the young survivors of the Holocaust who had come under the auspices of the Central British Fund, and had been allowed to settle in Britain on the understanding that after recuperation they would then leave − although where to was never spelled out.

Financed only by private donations from Jewish organizations − the British government did not contribute anything − the club, which continued until 1955, provided a venue for social, sporting and cultural activities.

One of the more remarkable aspects of Ben Helfgott’s life is that he bears no grudges or hatred.  In an interview at Limmud with Yoram Dori, strategic adviser to President Shimon Peres, he said: “I feel no anger or resentment. I love people. After surviving the Holocaust, I decided to spend my adult life fostering the love of people for one another.

How wonderful it would be if we all could have that kind of response to those who offend, and even violate, us.  Helfgott responded much like one of the greatest heroes in the Bible, Joseph, when he forgave his brothers. Genesis 50:20 tells us what he said: “But as for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save the lives of many people.” We can, perhaps, also help save the lives of many by adhering to Ps. 122:6, which tells us to pray for the peace of Jerusalem.

To read more about Ben Helfgott story,click here.

Voices of Holocaust Survivors Wont’ Be Lost

Country singer George Jones once did a song titled “WHO’S GONNA FILL THEIR SHOES,” where he asks what is going to happen when all the “old” singers are gone. The Holocaust Center of the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh faced a similar concern, and as the excerpt below from an article by Abby Gordon shows, rose dramatically to meet their concern.

The Holocaust Center of the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh celebrated its 30th anniversary last week by releasing The Holocaust Testimony Project — a two-disc DVD set preserving the firsthand accounts of Pittsburgh residents who lived through that devastating time. The project consists primarily of survivor accounts, but also one liberator.

Edie Naveh, Iris Samson and David Cohen acted as executive producers for the project. Naveh actually began work on it while she was director of the Holocaust Center. She knew upon returning in 2005 for her second stint in the job that something must be done to preserve the authentic voices of the survivors before they’re gone.

“In 1988, there were 25 to 30 survivors that could go out and speak [about their experiences], and they were youthful and vibrant,” Naveh said. “By 2005, only a handful remained, and they were fragile.”

One challenge the project posed was deciding which stories to include. According to Holocaust Center Senior Associate Samantha Patty, the staff strived for a wide range of different people and experiences.

“That was a challenge because every story was amazing,” Patty said. “We really looked at all the stories we had from survivors and knew we wanted to have an across the board representation.

“I think we do a very good job of showing a 360 [degree] perspective of showing the survivor experience and a liberator,” she added.

These varied testimonies, Naveh said, are essential in educating young people about social justice and the need to stand up for anyone that is being bullied, and to take a stand against genocide all over the world.

Corrie ten Boom knew the importance of making sure that stories about the Holocaust live on, so she recorded hers in her book, THE HIDING PLACE.  The Jerusalem Prayer Team also knows the importance, and that is why they have done a virtual tour of the Ten Boom home in Ha’arlem, Holland, which is now a museum.  More importantly, you can emulate the Ten Booms, who prayed for the Jews for 100 years before WW II, by following the same directive they did - - the one found in Ps. 12:6 that tells us all to pray for the peace of Jerusalem.  Visit the Corrie ten Boom Museum to learn more about the Ten Boom family.

To read Ms. Gordon’s article in its entirety, go to the Jewish Chronicle website:

France Condemns Holocaust and Antisemitic Past

Few people are aware of the involvement of the French Vichy State in the Holocaust during WW II. Yet, as the excerpt below from an excellent article by Michael Curtis shows, they were tainted to say the very least: 

The recent french film, "Sarah's Key," released in 2010, and based on the novel by Tatiana de Rosnay, portrayed accurately the willing participation during World War II of the French Vichy State, its authorities and police in facilitating the Holocaust. The book and the film presented a harrowing picture of the single darkest chapter in the infamous treatment of Jews in France during the World War II: La Rafle (The Raid), the round up euphemistically code-named.

Operation Spring Breeze (Opération Vent Printanier), which took place on July 16-17, 1942.  During those two days the French police, acting on the basis of lists they themselves had drawn up, arrested 13,152 Jewish men, women, and children living in Paris. Childless couples and single people were interned in Drancy, a suburb of Paris, which was equipped with watchtowers and barbed wire fences, and which served during the war as a transit point for the deportation of more than 67,000 Jews to their death.

In view of a recent poll that revealed that 42% of French people today did not know of Vel d'Hiv event, nor did 60% of the youth between the ages of 18 to 24, his words should be heeded. In view of the availability of the novel Sarah's Key, and the film based on it, the forthright speeches of two French presidents, and several TV documentaries on the France during World War II, it is surprising that such a large proportion of the French population confessed to be unaware of the Vel d'hiv atrocity.

It is disconcerting to read the results of a survey by the IPO in March 2012 of the degree of antisemitism in ten European countries. In response to the question if "Jews still talk too much of about happened to them in the Holocaust," the positive answer ranged from 63% in Hungary and 53% in Poland to 24% in Britain.

The uniqueness of the Holocaust and the evils associated with it cannot be forgotten.  One should reject the argument that "too much attention to the Holocaust would cause political problems."  One should expose and refute those such as Pat Buchanan, who in his article spoke of the "so-called Holocaust survivor syndrome, group fantasies of martyrdom and heroics."

François Hollande has shown the right way to deal with revisionism of this kind. This involves two things.  One is to highlight the singularity of the Holocaust, the attempt to eliminate all the Jews on the European continent. The other is to seek to control the virus of antisemitism, regrettably still active in France as elsewhere, and to unmask and discredit those who manifest the intolerance and fanaticism induced by it.  No future political leader fifty years from now will then have to apologize, as President Hollande has nobly done, for past acts of "blindness, stupidity, lies, and hatred."

Corrie Ten Boom knew first hand how one’s own government could turn against the Jews. In fact, statistics show that while there were no extermination camps in the Netherlands, the percentage of Jews from the Netherlands murdered by the Germans during WW II was higher than any other Western European Country. To learn about Corrie’s story, read her book, THE HIDING PLACE, or take a virtual tour of her home, which is now a museum in Ha’arlem,

Holland, by going to www.tenboom.com www.tenboom.com. We, like Corrie, can be heroes in our way by, like her family, praying for the peace of Jerusalem as we are advised in Ps. 122:6.  The Ten Booms did just that for 100 years prior to WW II, and when the time came they took the next step and directly helped the Jews. They were, truly, WW II heroes!

To learn more on this topic, go to the sites below:

France Condemns the Holocaust and Antisemitic Atrocities of the Past

http://jcpa.org/jl/vp412.htm

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Refuses to Acknowledge Holocaust

“There is none so blind as he who will not see” almost describes the status of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. More accurately, however, might be that he is blinded by his hatred, as the excerpt below from the Internet Newspaper, HUFF POST WORLD shows:

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad continues to infuriate the world by refusing to acknowledge that the Holocaust ever happened. During an interview with CNN, which aired Monday, September 24, 2012 on "Piers Morgan Tonight," the Iranian president said he will not judge Nazi Germany's extermination of the Jews during World War II.

"Whatever event has taken place throughout history, or hasn't taken place, I cannot judge that. Why should I judge that? I say researchers and scholars must be free to conduct research and analysis about any historical event," Ahmadinejad said.

Outlandish and inflammatory statements are the norm for Ahmadinejad, and his latest appearances in the U.S. showed he had no intention of aiming for diplomacy on any issue. While speaking before a group of editors and news executives in New York on Monday, Ahmadinejad said Israel has no place in the Middle East. Unlike Iran, which has been in existence for thousands of years, the modern state of Israel has only existed for six decades, he said. "They have no roots there in history. They do not even enter the equation for Iran."

In a speech at the United Nations on Monday, Ahmadinejad accused some members of the Security Council of having "chosen silence with regard to the nuclear warheads of a fake regime, while at the same time they impede scientific progress of other nations." Many western nations suspect Iran is trying to build a nuclear weapons program. However, Ahmadinejad claims that his country's project to enrich uranium is for peaceful purposes, The Associated Press reported

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad speaks as though he is ignorant of history, while in reality he tends to simply ignore it. What he doesn’t realize, apparently, is how many aspects of Proverbs 6:16-19 he violates: “16) These six things doth the Lord hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him:17) A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, 18) An heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief, 19) A false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethern.” It is because of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his cohorts that we must take Ps. 122:6 very seriously and pray for the peace of Jerusalem - - every morning, noon and night!

To read the rest of the HUFF article and view a video, go to:

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Refuses To Acknowledge Holocaust On 'Piers Morgan ...