|
Millions of Index Cards – Millions of Fates and Personal Stories:
The ITS (International Tracing Service) in Arolsen
Has Finally Opened Its
Archives
Susan Urban
The
International Tracing Service (ITS) in the German town of Arolsen was
set up after WWII, and is administered by the International Red
Cross in Geneva. The
archive in the ITS, which contains indexes from Concentration Camps,
Gestapo files, files about DPs, testimonies etc., holds information
about approximately 17 million victims of Nazi Germany and DPs.
Ninety-eight percent of the
material in the archive contains individual information about former
victims of Nazi Germany. Two percent of the approximately 25
kilometres of files do not contain individual data. Only these two
percent were opened for research in 1996. For decades it was nearly
impossible for historians to access the files, or to get any
information about groups or individuals. The restrictions were very
severe and even survivors and descendants of victims of Nazi
persecution had to wait for years to acquire detailed information. In
2005, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum started a campaign
protesting the ITS policies and demanding public access to the archive
in Arolsen, through the Internet. Since March 2006 an agreement to
open the archive was reached, despite many continuing objections,
mainly from German historians.
This
article deals with the former and current ITS policies, the history of
the debate and the German objections. On various levels the archive
contains delicate information – and last but not least, it explains
why the archive provides a huge opportunity for historical research.
back to
top
IBZ: Irgun
Berit Zion (United Zion Organization)
Dov Levin
IBZ (Irgun Berit Zion –
United Zion Organization) was a secret Zionist organization founded in
Kovno, Lithuania at the end of 1940. Its goal, at the time, was to
foster Jewish national culture and Zionism, which was jeopardized
after the incorporation of Lithuania into the Soviet Union earlier
that year. The emphasis was on “general” Zionism, as the founders of
IBZ, disapproved of the proliferation of organizations in the Jewish
community at the time.
The activists in the
organization, including its founder and first leader, Shimon Grazh,
came from among the older, former students of the Hebrew secondary
schools, which had been closed down by order of the Communist
authorities. Some of the pupils, but not all, had belonged to Zionist
youth movements, mainly to Ha-No’ar ha-Tsiyyoni (The Zionist
Youth), Maccabi ha-Tsa’ir (The Young Maccabees) and Benei
Akiva. Under Soviet rule, during 1940 and 1941, the organization
operated on the basis of underground cells and never had more than 100
members. Its main activities were the publication of a Hebrew
magazine, Nitsots (Spark), at regular intervals, and the
operation of study groups. Later, when Lithuania was under German
occupation and the Jews of Kovno were ghettoized, IBZ also sought to
recover the Hebrew books that the Soviet authorities had confiscated.
back to
top
The Cross, the Sickle and the Swastika:
Aleksander Wat, A Jewish Poet Who Begged with all His Soul to Die
Justyna Fruzińska
The article presents the
Polish-Jewish 20th century writer Aleksander Wat, his
biography and works, particularly his Diary without Vowels.
Wat was born to a Jewish
family with a long religious tradition but, being a child prodigy, he
very soon became fascinated with secular ideologies. At the beginning
of his literary career, Wat was deeply committed to communism, until
his imprisonment in the USSR during World War II. Then he converted to
Christianity, only to return to Judaism at the end of his life. In
post-war Stalinist Poland, Wat was frowned upon by the regime, as he
started to overtly criticize communism, whose full implications he was
beginning to understand. This fact and his deteriorating health
condition prompted him to emigrate to France and then to the USA where
he could freely analyze the ideology he had known from within, and
where he became one of the most outstanding intellectuals commenting
on communism. His major work, My Century, written in the form
of an interview by Czeslaw Milosz and narration of Wat’s biography,
with particular interest in his path through eleven Russian prisons,
has often been compared to Solzhenitsyn’s Gulag Archipelago.
Wat’s entire life’s work
focused on the problem of how communism, as a secular ideology, may
have been a trap for people possessing a religious nature, something
of which he had first-hand knowledge. At the same time his life is a
fascinating illustration of one’s quest for identity, so typical of
assimilated European Jews in the 20th century.
back to
top
No Substitute for Victory: The Defeat of Islamic Totalitarianism
John Lewis
Published with permission of The
Objective Standard, 1.4, Winter, 2006-2007, pp. 39-63.
In the face of rising
threats to their freedom and rights, Americans today are uncertain
about what a proper foreign policy should be. This uncertainty arises
from the philosophical influences of pragmatism and altruism, which
have misguided American leaders for 50 years, and have made it
difficult for Americans to evaluate their leaders and to evaluate
their actions. As a result, Americans have failed to forthrightly
confront rising threats, and have not properly supported allies – in
particular, Israel. We have, as a result, emboldened and empowered the
worst threat to the West in centuries.
This article uses the
historical example of American policy towards Shintoism in post-1945
Japan, in order to show that a proper policy today would first
identify Islamic Totalitarianism as the political threat facing the
West, and would then direct American resources towards ending the
political imposition of Islamic Law, beginning with the Islamic State
of Iran. By identifying the advocates of political Islam – those who
would impose Islamic Law by force – as the true enemy, Americans could
destroy its state manifestation wherever it appears, and then offer an
intellectual alternative to jihad. This is the only way to end
the threat posed by Islamic Totalitarianism, and to re-establish a
proper basis for freedom across the globe.
back to
top
Saudi Arabia’s Jihad in the Middle East and the World:
Implications for the United States and Thoughts for American Policy
Mordechai Nisan
It is Saudi Arabia, more so
than Iran or al-Qai`dah, which is the primary promoter of
global jihad in our times.
Based on religion, petro-dollars,
and a firm state apparatus, the Saudis enjoy international legitimacy
to pursue their campaign rooted in the Wahhabi doctrine to Islamicize
Egypt and Lebanon in the Middle East at the expense of their
indigenous and ancient Christian communities. Israel, too, confronted
by Palestinian warfare against the Jewish state’s existence, is a
target of relentless Saudi ambitions. Meanwhile, as the United States
has engaged the Saudis in the “oil-for-weapons” equation for many
decades, Riyadh pursues policies often inimical to American interests
in the Middle East and beyond. For, ultimately, considering the Saudi
role as financial sponsor and religious inspiration, America itself is
targeted by the Islamic Dawah to succumb to the global triumph
of Islam in history. Thus, a revision of Washington’s traditional
policy toward Saudi Arabia is the urgent issue to be considered.
“9/11”, in which 15 of the
19 terrorist operatives were Saudis, signaled the lethal reach of the
Saudi Kingdom in piercing the heart of America.
Click
here to see the complete article (in
English)
back to
top
As Muslims Rise,
Jews Eclipse
Raphael Israeli
Based on an
interview I gave to an Australian Jewish journal, detailing the
findings of my research on the rise of Islam in Europe, a huge public
debate broke out in that country which dubbed my positions “racist”
because I dared to predict that if Australia followed in the footsteps
of Europe and did not put a lid on Muslim immigration there, then the
same riots and unrest that are unfolding in Europe might recur in
Australia too.
Large parts of
the Jewish community and of the general readership took my side in the
debate and were rather grateful for the debate I triggered, because
political correctness had precluded such public pronouncements before.
I left Australia as the arguments were at their highest point and
there is no telling where they might direct public attention in this
new-found awareness.
back to
top
The IDF’s March of
Folly
Uri Milstein
The Second Lebanon War
exposed the lack of professionalism among active, reserve and retired
IDF commanders. The primary reason for this lack of professionalism
lies in the anti-intellectual nature of the military organization in
general, in the low level of IDF officer training in particular and in
Israel’s myth-based military culture. The military organization is
anti-intellectual because, as opposed to all other areas of life it
does not constitute an object of independent empirical research. In
contrast to all other Western armies, the process of officer training
in the IDF throughout the chain of command is brief and therefore very
superficial. The functioning of IDF officers is based on their logical
mind and personal experience and not on intellectual depth. As they
climb the ladder of command very quickly, relative to officers in
Western armies, their personal experience is also very limited. Most
Israelis, including members of the academic elite are not interested
in military topics and uncritically believe official publications.
The result: The IDF does
not carry out genuine processes of investigating battles and drawing
conclusions. The shortcomings of previous wars are repeated and are
joined by new, unsolved shortcomings. The IDF has no doctrine for the
implementation of force and in no war has it been successful in
staging coordinated battles – infantry, armored divisions, engineering
corps, air force and Special Forces. No productive dialogue among
senior army officials takes place nor does a dialogue take place
between those officials and the heads of the political establishment;
they don't understand each other and to a large extent contribute to
each other’s failure.
It is incumbent upon Israel
to carry out a Copernican revolution in the realm of security, to
abandon the existing security paradigm, which has reached a dead end,
and to develop a new security paradigm. To that end, the IDF monopoly
on military knowledge must cease and a national center for Israeli
security should be established, which will be independent of the
security establishment and independent of the academic establishment
and the Council for Higher Education, as the academic establishment
has undergone a process of betrayal by the intellectuals and moral
corruption. The center must have at its disposal all security
information, in order to develop military concepts and doctrines,
which will be compatible with reality. The center will investigate
battles in order to draw conclusions from the actions taken by the IDF
– in order not to repeat mistakes and in order to provide the army
with superior combat methods as a proper response to the enemy's
actions, weapons that it acquired and combat methods.
The center will not only
deal with the military security realm in its narrow sense, but in
every area that contributes to the national security of the State of
Israel and to its continued survival: Education, energy, international
relations, economy, culture, communications etc. It will develop
interdisciplinary models for the understanding of the comprehensive
system and improvement of its performance.
Conclusions:
-
The Israeli military culture is myth-based and
anti-intellectual.
-
We must quickly abandon the existing security
paradigm and develop a new paradigm.
-
Exchanging paradigms is an almost impossible
mission; however failure to do so will render nil the chances of
survival for the State of Israel.
back to
top
Dancing
with Giants – The Roots of European Integration
On the Fiftieth
Anniversary of the Establishment of the
European Common Market
Shlomo Perla
This article,
published on the 50th anniversary of the establishment of
the European Common Market, points to the roots of the formation of
European integration from a historical perspective, and also relates
to the problem of the European Union’s attitude towards the State of
Israel.
The decrease in
the power of the European powers, resulting from the rise of the two
superpowers, the United States and Russia, which reached its nadir as
a result of WWII, is, from a realistic perspective, the central motive
for the process of European integration. Although the Western European
nations understood that there would be no restoration of their past
glory and that two imperial superpowers, after the sound of whose
flute and the beat of whose drums the entire world danced, were
established in their place; nevertheless they too desired to play a
significant role in the global dance and to avoid being trampled by
the giants. Unification of economic and political functions was
accepted as a necessary condition for preserving part of the past
might. The declared idea was an integration of powers, creation of
supranational frameworks while limiting the sovereignty of the
individual nation-states.
The European idea
already appeared in different formulations and contexts, some utopian,
prior to WWII, (this article is not dealing with that), but the act of
integration was the result of a realistic vision, which became a
priority in the days following WWII. An analysis of the politics of
integration leads to the assessment that it was not the glorification
of the European collective that motivated the political elites of
these countries towards integration, but rather the creation of a
basis for the realization of the individual interests of the member
nations. The relinquishing of sovereign rights in specific areas, such
as the economic realm, are exceptions. It stopped on the threshold of
“higher politics”, foreign and defense policy, the most obvious symbol
of national sovereignty. This was surrendered for the purpose of the
survival and enhancement of the individual European nation-state in a
world dominated by two superpowers and not an indication of intent to
abandon national particularism.
Anyone who got
carried away in his enthusiasm and envisioned the appearance of a
“United States of Europe” was mistaken. Europe remained “Europe of
Nations”.
Despite the
signing of agreements establishing relations with Israel, Europe
adopted a pro-Arab approach in the chronic Middle Eastern conflict.
Academic research suggests varied, reasoned explanations for this
approach, in the realm of international relations. However, in the
background of the academic-rational sphere, lies the 2,000-year-old
metaphysical sense that Rome, Europe, has difficulty viewing Jerusalem
reconstructed.
back to
top
|
