No Missiles in My Backyard!

At the end of the Cold War, Russian operatives confessed that they had lived in fear of the United States for many years. They were afraid the U.S. might instigate a nuclear attack on the Soviet Union at any time. Thus, they believed they had to be prepared to strike back if that should happen. They were certain our insistence that our nuclear arsenal was only for defense was a ruse. They remembered Hiroshima and Nagasaki. They knew the United States was the only country that had actually used a nuclear weapon.

Their fears were realized, at least in part, when George W. Bush launched a preemptive invasion in Iraq, a minor player in the Middle East and of no real economic consequence and certainly of no military consequence. The Russians knew, as did much of the rest of the world, that Bush used cooked intelligence to justify his invasion.

Actually, Bush did more to damage America's reputation and image in that one stupid stroke than anyone would have thought possible. When visiting France last summer, I spoke with many French people who invariable said they loved America and the Americans but they didn't much care for our president.

The birds come home to roost, as they say. But we don't learn very fast. The United States is involved in a "Star Wars" program - one of the most expensive boondoggles to come down the pike. Known as the US national missile defense system, it "is a complex project which involves the production of new weapons, and the installation of US military bases in different parts of the planet."

The reality is that this "star wars" plan is wholly unnecessary, and instead of stopping a confrontation, may very well provoke one. It is one more instance where the Bush administration gets to give out huge bundles of cash to its friends in the war industries.

Here's the plan: First we install a radar system in the Czech Republic and then set up a base for interceptor missiles in Poland.

Problem #1: Those countries want neither our radar system nor our interceptor missile base. Most of the people in those countries are strongly opposed to these military adventures.

The other thing to consider, although it is never mentioned, is that the technology does not work!

Problem #2: Russia is highly pissed, fearing naturally that the U.S. may turn its missiles on that country. Instead, Russia has suggested that if the U.S. is afraid of Iran, it should use the radar systems already in place on Russian soil. The U.S. does not want to hear that and has avoided any agreement with the Russians.

In the Czech Republic, the people are taking to the streets. A movement is afoot to stop the plans for a radar system. An international petition is being distributed and a billboard campaign is underway to promote that petition. The petition argues that if the Czech government signs a treaty to which most of the people are opposed, it is not valid.

That could be a problem.

Maybe George ought to pray about it.

The Holocaust Journal (Lest We Forget - Germany 1945 (I)

Adolf Hitler, the madman instigator of so much evil, did not live to see the end of the war. At the end of April, 1945, he and his new bride, Eva Braun, killed themselves in his Berlin bunker.

German general Alfred Jodl signed an unconditional surrender at Rheims, France on May 7, 1945. Unfortunately, between January 1 and May 7, thousands more Jews were murdered by the Nazi machine.

Jews who survived the Holocaust were engulfed in other, enormous dilemmas. Many could not go home as their homes were destroyed. Often Eastern European Jews went home to renewed anti-Semitism and to find that their property was in the hands of hostile gentiles. Most of the Jews were in terrible health, and suffered from horrible nightmares.

These Jews also found that the nations of the world did not want them. In 1945, most of the Holocaust survivors had no choice but to remain in the displaced persons camps set up by the Allies. Conditions in these camps were less than satisfactory. In some camps the Jews were housed with Nazi collaborators and other anti-Semites and were subject to continual abuse.

Gradually the U.S. and other countries relaxed immigration restrictions. Yet, even in 1950, the DP camps housed 250,000 Holocaust survivors. Gradually they moved on: 142,000 to Israel; 72,000 to the U.S., 16,000 to Canada; 8,000 to Belgium; 2,000 to France, 1,000 to Britain, and some 10,000 to Latin America and other places.

* Germany 1945 - Admiral Wilhelm Canaris, suspected of anti-Nazi activity, was executed. The inspector of concentration camps, Richard Glucks died - probably a suicide. In Italy, Jews are given the right to citizenship.

* January 1-16 - The German offensive at the Ardennes Forest is stopped by the Allies, thus ending the Battle of the Bulge and ending any German chance for victory.

* January 4 - Fritz Elsas, the Jewish mayor of Berlin who was arrested in 1933, is executed at Sachsenhausen on this date.

* January 6 - Anne Frank's mother dies at Auschwitz.

* January 11-24 - Hungarian "Fascist Nyilas" thugs storm Jewish "protected" houses in Budapest, murdering Jews and throwing their bodies into the Danube River. Also in Budapest, the Nyilas gangsters attack the Jewish Orthodox Hospital and torture 92 patients, doctors and nurses, killing all but one nurse.

* January 12-14 - The Soviets succeed in breaking through at the Vistula River.

* January 16 - Soviet troops take Czestochowa, Poland.

* January 17 - Soviet forces take Warsaw, Poland and Pest, Hungary. In Budapest, 119,000 Jews are set free by the Red Army. The Reds arrest Raoul Wallenberg, suspecting him of collaborating with the Nazis.

* January 18 - The SS begins a series of huge evacuations of prisoners and slave laborers from various camps to other sites. Many thousands die from exhaustion and abuse on the marches.

* January 27 - The Red Army liberates Auschwitz. Seven thousand prisoners are still alive, including Otto Frank, Anne Frank's father.

* February 1945 - In the Ukraine, Ukranian nationalists hunt down and kill thousands of Jews. In Berlin, an American bomb crashes on top of the People's Court killing a fanatic Nazi judge, Roland Freisler.

* February 4 - Allied leaders, including Roosevelt, Stalin and Churchill, meet at Yalta to discuss "respective spheres of influence" after the war.

* February 13 - The Germans surrender Budapest. Hungary.

* February 15 - The Soviets liberate the slave-labor camp at Neusalz, Poland.

* February 18 - 500 Jews married to Christians are arrested and sent to Theresienstadt.

* March 1945 - Anne Frank, 15, dies at Bergen-Belsen.

* March 5 - The U.S. Ninth Army arrives at the Rhine River south of Dusseldorf, Germany.

* March 7 - The First U.S. Army crosses the Rhine at Remagen.

* March 12 - SS chief Himmler and his doctor sign an agreement that halts the killing of Jewish prisoners in concentration camps.

* March 19 - Hitler orders a "scorched-earth" policy so that Allied soldiers find a ruined Germany.

* March 29 - The Soviets occupy Danzig.

* March 30 - Russian forces enter Austria.

To be Continued...

Bush's Easter Sermon

[The following was taken from an article in The Nation.]

On Easter weekend, Bush gave his weekend radio address to the nation. I didn't listen. According to The Nation, the prezident sounded "more like a pastor than a president."

He "quoted from and repeatedly referenced the Christian Bible. The address was every bit as religious in tone and text as those delivered today by the leaders of theocratic states that identify as having an officially-sanctioned faith."

On this Easter, Bush referred to remembering "a sacrifice that transcended the grave and redeemed the world," and "the gift that took away death's sting and opened the door to eternal life."

As Molly Ivins always said, the man is a moron!

He can believe any damn thing he wants to, but he is the president of the United States, a nation that encompasses millions of people who do not follow the Christian faith, and millions of people who understand Christianity in a much different way than he does. He's NOT the nation's pastor.

Unfortunately, he shows again how he really is not smart enough to be president of anything. Could there possibly be a more flagrant snubbing of the constitutional doctrine of the separation of church and state?

As noted by The Nation, Thomas Jefferson was quite clear on where the line was that separated church and state: He once wrote "Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man & his god, that he owes account to none for his faith or his worship, that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only, and not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, thus building a wall of separation between church and state."

Jefferson also wrote that "I have refrained from presenting even occasional performances of devotion..."

By now, many people have concluded that Mr. Bush is essentially amoral. So, his Christian references and proclamations in his Easter Sermon (address) must be calculated to profit himself or his party in some material way. Perhaps he feels this is preaching to his base, which will rise up and give him support for his economic and war policies--support that will carry over to his "prez in waiting," John McCain.

We'll probably never know what goes on in his feeble mind. Hell, we can't even get emails from the White House.

Vatican Word Games

When you're playing with magic, words become very important. If you don't say "Shazaam!" in just the right manner, the magic won't happen and you'll have to start all over again. It's hard and it's time-consuming so you want to try diligently to get it right the first time.

The Vatican knows all about this as it deals in magic much of the time. The National Catholic Reporter notes that on February 29 of this year the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith published a declaration which said that baptisms which used "gender-neutral" language were null and void.

Some Christian churches have gone "modern" and have tried to conduct their business in language that people can understand or makes sense. So, they have changed the traditional trinitarian formula from "In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost" to "In the name of the Creator, and of the Redeemer and of the Sanctifier," or "In the name of the Creator, and of the Liberator and of the Sustainer."

Those are no-nos says the Vatican. And if you were baptized with one of those new-fangled formulas, you are not a Christian. But this is where it really gets hairy: If you were baptized with the more contemporary verbiage, and then were married, the marriage is also null and void - "no sacrament [of marriage] exists if both spouses had been baptized with an invalid formula."

Capuchin Fr. Tom Weinandy, executive director of the U.S. bishops' Secretariat of Doctrine, said that "'If you are not validly baptized,' and thus not validly married, 'a person needs to get rebaptized and remarried.'"

You may wonder what is the big deal! Well, "Revising the formula for baptism can 'undermine' faith in the Trinity." The Congregation says you must use the traditional wording for it is an "adequate expression of Trinitarian faith" and by using it one is following the command of Christ. "Approximate formulae are unacceptable."

Sheesh. For one thing, the only place we have this formula is in the Gospel of Matthew, the 19th verse of the 28th and last chapter. Jesus is giving his final commands to the eleven disciples and tells them to "Go forth therefore and make all nations my disciples; baptize men everywhere in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit...."

Secondly, this section of Matthew is widely disputed among New Testament scholars and many are convinced that particular phrase was added long after Jesus had departed the earth for it does not reflect a Jewish understanding of the world, but rather the theology of a well-developed church.

Thirdly, one can't be sure what the original wording was in any of the gospels, for we have no original manuscripts. The earliest manuscripts come many years after the Jesus event, and those show evidence that they have been re-written and reworked many times; passages have been changed; words, phrases, and verses have been both eliminated and occasionally added to the manuscripts.

If you want to be a Roman Catholic, you must follow the rules (or at least some of them). But to consider a sacrament valid or invalid based upon the incantation of exact and proper wording is paganism at its finest.

What's especially sad is that some people are going to have to be rebaptized and maybe even remarried, because the church insists the wrong words (although there's no difference in meaning) were intoned at their ceremonies.

Frankly, I think no sacrament should be considered valid unless the rite is conducted in Latin and the priest is wearing exactly the same kind of robe that Jesus wore. Wait! We don't know what kind of robe Jesus wore! That's right! And we don't know what words were used either, for the particular incident never took place. Indeed, the so-called "Great Commission" was added by the church many years after the Jesus of the gospels had disappeared.

God as an Hallucinogenic Experience

Benny Shannon is a professor of cognitive psychology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Benny has traveled all over the world.

On one of his travels, in 1991, he ended up in the Brazilian Amazon forest. For some reason he ingested ayahuasca, a hallucinogenic brew made from plants that grow in the Amazonian forest.

It was a very powerful experience. He attained, he said, "visions that had spiritual-religious connotations." (Whatever that means.)

The good professor has published a study suggesting Moses "may have been stoned when he set the Ten Commandments in stone." Shannon says that "psychedelic drugs formed an integral part of the religious rites of Israelites in biblical times."

[That would explain a lot -- like how at one moment God is loving and kind and the next moment is telling the Israelites to invade, plunder, rape and kill whole populations. Do psychedelic drugs make you schizoid?]

Anyway, Shannon goes on to say that "The thunder, lightning and blaring of a trumpet which the Book of Exodus says emanated from Mount Sinai could just have been the imaginings of a people in an altered state of awareness."

Shannon notes that "concoctions based on the bark of the acacia tree, frequently mentioned in the Old Testament, contain the same molecules as those found in plants from which the powerful Amazonian hallucinogenic brew ayahuasca is prepared."

So when you read about how biblical folks "see" sounds, you can understand that to be another "classic phenomenon" arising from the use of these types of drugs.

Shannon doesn't believe that the event on Mount Sinai was "a supernatural cosmic event," but he doesn't believe the story is a legend, either. It was "an event that joined Moses and the people of Israel under the effect of narcotics."

It's all very interesting. While I don't think that the Moses of the bible was an actual historical person, the drug use of ancient peoples is quite well established and the Israelites were probably no different.

Or the other possibility is this: Maybe the scribes and priests who wrote these stories or cobbled them together from ancient sources, were stoned themselves.

If so, did the concept of god derive from a hallucinogenic experience?

We're Succeeding Says McCain

Is "succeeding" the same as "losing?"

John McCain has been to Iraq eight times. On his most recent visit about a week or so ago, he looked around, listened to what the military told him and pronounced that "we are succeeding" and said that he wouldn't change the direction of our effort.

His Democratic opponents, says McCain, just don't understand what is happening in Iraq; they just don't see that Iraq is the "central battleground" in the fight against radical Islam. Obama and Clinton are naive and "dead wrong."

How does McCain know all this when on several occasions he provided evidence he didn't even know the difference between the Sunnis and the Shiites? Well, "I've seen the facts on the ground," opined the heroic senator.

That, of course, was the day after a roadside bomb killed four American soldiers and insurgent rockets blasted away in the U.S.-protected, supposedly-safe Green Zone, and another bunch of attacks killed 61 Iraqis across the country.

One of the definitions of insanity is to keep doing the same thing over and over again when whatever it is you're doing doesn't work. Our leaders fit that definition very well. Now it appears that McCain wants to follow in their footsteps.

"Hup, two, three, four!"

A Fox in the Hen House

This from BS Alert: "Fox Entertainment Group Acquires Beliefnet."

Another one I missed. A story datelined December 4, 2007 says that the Fox Entertainment Group acquired Beliefnet, "a Web site that enables consumers to better understand their faith and build diverse spiritual communities by providing content and tools for a broad range of religions and spiritual approaches."

Just in case you mistakenly thought this was about religion, consider... Fox is certain this acquisition will help Fox Digital Media expand its "vast cable, TV and film brands online, and drive FEG's (Fox Entertainment Group) continued growth in the online market."

There's more. The acquisition gives Beliefnet "vast resources to further build and enhance its already popular brand. It also offers an online platform for FEG to distribute content from its extensive library and for News Corp. to expand its faith-based businesses, including HarperCollins' Zondervan and HarperOne brands, and 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment's faith-based programming initiative."

This is all pretty exciting for all those folks raking in big bucks by selling religious stuff. "The Faith and Spirituality market is strong and continues to grow. According to the Pew Internet Project, over 82 million Americans and 64% of all Internet users utilize the Web for faith-related matters."

Boy, Jesus really screwed up. He had a good thing going, but his marketing skills were nil. Can you imagine what he could have done if he had put together a really hip bunch of guys to make the rounds of Palestine with papyrus posters telling of his healing and feeding ministries?

They could have hired front people in all the towns who then could have briefed people in their communities on a daily basis what Jesus was up to, and when he might visit their village. They could have even expanded into some of the large Greek cities and really gotten some coverage!

Jesus could have benefited, too. He could have asked for a few donations to help provide for his needs and pay his staff. He could have expanded his operation into Egypt, Mesopotamia, Macedonia, even Greece. I'm sure he would have been able to afford a cart and a donkey; heck, maybe a little gold trim, even...and some new sandals; don't forget the sandals!

I'll betcha he'd have gotten so famous and powerful that the Romans wouldn't have dared hang him on a cross! They might even have added him to their pantheon. Or, maybe he could have bribed Pilate to bug off!

Oh well, at least now we have Fox Entertainment Group to push the spiritual message. In an "entertaining" way, of course. And FEG might make as much as the TV evangelists if they work at it!

The Holocaust Journal (Lest We Forget) - Germany 1944 (V)

[Photo is of children before they are executed.]

October 1944 - Some 15,000 Jews are deported from Theresienstadt to Auschwitz. The Nazis begin death marches from Auschwitz [in Poland] to camps in Germany.

* October 4 - All of the women and children sent from Theresienstadt to Auschwitz are gassed upon arrival.

* October 6 - The Soviet Army moves into Hungary.

* October 6-7 - Jews who are forced to transport gassed corpses to crematoria at Auschwitz turn on SS guards using stones, picks, crowbars, hammers, and axes. They blow up four of the crematoria with explosives smuggled into the camp. A SS man is thrown alive into a furnace by Russian POWs. The SS fight back with machine guns and hand grenades. All the Jews are killed.

* October 13 - Soviet forces free Riga, Latvia.

* October 20 - The Nazis at Auschwitz burn documents that contain information about prisoners and their treatment.

* October 21 - U.S. troops take Aachen, Germany.

* October 30 - Anne Frank is transferred from Auschwitz to Bergen-Belsen.

* November 1944 - Jewish paratroopers from Palestine are dropped behind German lines. In Hungary, the government agrees to set up an "international Jewish ghetto" consisting of 72 buildings where Jews will be protected under the authority of the Swiss.

* November 4 - Soviet troops take Szolnok, Hungary.

* November 8 - The Stern Gang resistance fighters assassinate Lord Walter Moyne, the British minister of state in the Middle East.

(Throughout the month of November various Jewish paratroopers are caught and executed by the Nazis).

* November 21 - Allied troops take Saarburg, Germany.

December 1944 - France conducts a "Week of the Absent" to honor innocent people still held by the Nazis. Pollster Elmo Roper says that anti-Semitism is very strong in U.S. urban areas.

* December 11 - At Auschwitz III, Jewish slave-laborers celebrate Chanukah quietly.

* December 6 - The Ardennes Forest - Along a 40-mile front, 300,000 German troops gamble everything to attack the American First and Ninth armies, which consisted of many inexperienced, front-line soldiers. This comes to be known as the "Battle of the Bulge" because early German gains created a "bulge" in American lines.

* December 17 - The SS murder 86 American POWs in Belgium.

* December 26 - The German offensive in the Ardennes Forest stalls. The Germans fail to reach their goal of taking Antwerp, Belgium. About 250,000 German troops have been killed, wounded, or captured, and some 1400 German tanks and heavy assault guns have been destroyed. Germany will be on the defensive until the end of the war.

To be continued...

An Aging Star Blows Away Creationism

What do creationists do with stars exploding 7.5 billion light years away?

An aging star, in an heretofore unknown galaxy, blew up "in a gamma ray" 7.5 billion light years away. It's light finally reached Earth last Wednesday, March 19! [FYI: A light year equals 5.9 trillion miles!]

The light was powerful enough to be seen "with the naked eye."

The star blew up "when the universe was about half its current age, before Earth was formed..." Before it went boom, it "was about 40 times bigger than our sun."

How exciting is that?

It's really sad, though, to think that all those kids getting fed creationism will not be able to function very well in a world with stars exploding 7.5 billion light years away...I mean, the earth is only 6,000 years old, right?

The Ten Commandments Weekend

[This story comes from Chris Rodda at Talk 2 Action.]

The United States Senate has very little to do these days. Therefore, two members of that august body have come together to sponsor S. Res. 483, which is about "recognizing the first weekend of May as 'Ten Commandments Weekend.'"

The two members involved in this particular bit of idiocy are none other than the mossback from Kansas, Senator Sam Brownback, a Republican, and Joe Lieberman, the "independent" from Connecticut.

The resolution has been referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Representative Todd Akin (R-MO), along with 27 co-sponsors, introduced a similar resolution last August in the House of Representatives. According to Mr. Rodda, both of these resolutions "seek to promote the third annual Ten Commandments Weekend, an event instituted by the Ten Commandments Commission (TCC), an organization formed in 2005 in response to court rulings against the display of the ten commandments on government property."

Although I somehow missed these stupendous events, two Ten Commandments Weekends have already taken place, in the merry month of May in 2006 and 2007.

Rodda provides a glimpse at what TCC is all about. He says one of their goals is to promote the ten commandments, and make them the supreme law. But there's much more.

"TCC will become Watchmen for curricula being disseminated throughout American public high schools and colleges, specifically regarding the history of the Middle East and the current conflict that is biased toward Islamic interest..."

"With secular humanists waging their attacks at home, and the looming threat from the international radical Islam - people of faith become the line of defense - this is the Wall of Jerusalem,' and we are the watchman God has placed there."


Would you believe John Hagee is a founding member of TCC? Others on the advisory board include James Dobson, Pat Robertson, Rod Parsley and ex-Judge Roy Moore. Rodda says some TCC also includes some prominent Jews, including its founder, Ron Wexler."

Wexler, an Orthodox Jew, had some interesting things to say in a video message. TCC is "a grassroots movement to make a stop to radical Islam and to bring back the word of God, the foundation to the wall of Jerusalem."

He wants to enlist 5 million people in his cause because they can then "change that trend that is going to destroy America." You might wonder what is that trend.

Well, Wexler is convinced that our beloved country is about to be destroyed by "secular humanism and radical Islam."

An aside: It is fascinating to see an Orthodox Jew openly cavorting with people who believe him to be a lost soul, attached to the "old" covenant which has been abrogated by the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, and thus are certain he will spend eternity burning in hell unless he accepts Jesus as his personal savior.


What is especially frightening about all of this is that certain of our public servants--in this case two prominent and "powerful" senators (Brownback and Lieberman)--are promoting a program that is blatantly unconstitutional, and in their self-righteous moral fog, remain blissfully unaware they are tearing down the foundational structure of our country.

Secular humanism is no threat to our country. In fact, if these religious freaks are not reined in, secular humanism may be what saves this country.

And while radical Islam may be a threat to the stability of the world, when it comes to the stability of our country, I'm more afraid of people like Sam Brownback and Joe Lieberman!

The Pope Is Coming!

"The Pope is coming, the Pope is coming!"

If all goes well, Pope Benedict XVI will touch down at Andrews Air Force Base on April 15, 2008. This is his first visit to the United States and he plans to meet with President Bush, conduct Masses in Washington and New York, visit Ground Zero, and address the United Nations General Assembly.

Whatever else one may think of Benedict, you have to give him credit for renovating his persona from his pre-papal days. As the German Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, he was known as the "enforcer," the one who ensured that papal doctrines were believed and obeyed. It has been said that around the Vatican people spoke of him in "hushed tones ... as 'God's rottweiler' and 'the Panzerkardinal.'"

No longer. Pope Benedict XVI hired a team of PR people who have worked to effect his transformation from an austere and rigid autocrat to an accessible, human and humane man of God. While not budging from traditional Catholic teachings on married priests, abortion, or the use of condoms, he has still managed to appear more pliable and accessible.

His papal aides have striven to expand the his influence so that his message will resonate with the faithful around the world. Thus, the Vatican newspaper has been updated and is now available online. There is a new emphasis on use of the media, the internet and satellite television to get the church's message to the public.

In addition, the papacy is taking the lead in establishing links to confront modern problems and controversies. Sometime this year, the Vatican will host a debate on Darwinism, evolution and intelligent design. In November, there is to be a summit on Catholic-Muslim relations.

All of this does not mean Ratzinger as Pope Benedict XVI has gone soft. While he's in the United States, he is expected to let Catholic leaders and officials exactly where he has set the parameters of Catholic faith and practice. He plans to tell those involved in Catholic education that he expects them to stifle "unorthodox" campus groups that favor abortion, or "planned parenthood," or embryonic stem-cell research.

In other words, nothing has changed but the facade. We are now in the 8th year of the 21st century, and old, celibate men wearing dresses and funny hats are still attaching to themselves power and authority in order to maintain control of an increasingly restive and rebellious church.

For most of us, it matters not that Benedict is "kinder and gentler." He may smile more and speak with a softer voice, but he remains, at heart, Joseph "the enforcer" Ratzinger.

The Holocaust Journal (Lest We Forget) - Germany 1944 (IV)

Germany 1944 (IV)

Although Hitler ordered that Paris, France, be destroyed by German troops, the German commander of Paris, General Dietrich von Choltitz, ignored the order. The general believed that would be a wanton act of destruction with no purpose.

Choltitz surrendered his army to the French Second Armored Division, commanded by General Jacques Leclerc, on August 25, 44. The Second Armored Division was the first of the French forces to enter Paris.

* August 1944 - Nonobservant Jews in Berlin, who had been freed, are arrested again and deported to Auschwitz. Auschwitz III, which was a synthetic rubber factory, was bombed by Allied planes based in Italy.

* August 1 - The Soviets liberate Kovno, Lithuania. Non-Jewish citizens of Kovno murder a local carpenter because he had hidden Jews a few weeks earlier. A Catholic philanthropist, Guiseppe Pardo Roques, in Pisa, Italy is murdered by the Nazis, along with four gentiles and seven Jews he had sheltered.

* August 1 - October 4 - About 1,000 Jews working with the Polish underground mount a revolt against the Germans in Warsaw. The Allies drop supplies from the air, and suffer heavy casualties.

* August 4 - An SS sergeant and five Dutch Security Police, acting on a tip, discover Anne Frank and her family hiding in Amsterdam. All are arrested.

* August 9 - A train bound for Dachau leaves Warsaw on August 4. When it arrives on August 9, 2000 of the 3600 on board are dead.

* August 15 - August 25 - A general anti-German uprising occurs in Paris.

* August 20 - The U.S. Army Air Force bombs Auschwitz III. 127 bombers escorted by 100 fighters drop 1300 five-hundred pound bombs. One Allied bomber is shot down.

* August 23 - The Romanian dictator is ousted and Romania joins the Allies.

* August 25 - The Germans surrender in Paris.

* September 1944 - After an American bomber hits a factory at Auschwitz, SS troopers give inmates medical attention, flowers and chocolate. This is propaganda for the German media. Once these inmates have recovered, they are exterminated! Winston Churchill, the British Prime Minister, orders that a Jewish Brigade of Palestinian Jews be established. Anthony Eden, the British Foreign Secretary, is displeased.

* September 3 - Brussels, Belgium is liberated by the Allies.

* September 5 - The Nazis hear a rumor that Holland is being liberated and head for the hills. The day gets the name, "Mad Tuesday."

* September 15 - The Allies liberate Nancy, France.

* September 16 - Following a Communist coup, Bulgaria declares war on Germany.

* September 26 - Yom Kippur. At Auschwitz, 1000 young boys are gathered in front of Dr. Josef Mengele. Any boy whose head does not reach a board Mengele has nailed to a post is set aside for gassing.

The Nazis continue to deport Jews to the death camps. They murder thousands of Jews on a daily basis throughout Occupied Europe. The Nazis killed over one million Jewish children. Their brutality toward children was beyond belief. Because their mantra was that all Jews should work and children could not work they were usually exterminated immediately. "Preadolescents accompanied their mothers into the gas chambers, while babies were often tossed into pits filled with burning corpses." A young person who made it through the selection process became a slave laborer. Slave laborers were starved, beaten and literally worked to death. Many young children were subjected to inconceivably horrible medical experiments.

To be continued...

They Didn't Die in Vain?

Four thousand U.S. soldiers have given their lives for Bush's misguided adventure in La-La Land. Tens of thousands more lie crippled in beds of pain, their lives shattered beyond repair. Hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians are dead and hundreds of thousands more have fled the country.

Bush and Condi Rice, in front of god and everybody, had the gall to say it was well worth it...these 4,000 didn't die in vain.

They didn't die in vain.

They didn't die in vain.

They didn't die in vain.

What did they die for, Mr. Prezident, and Ms. Secretary of State?

They didn't die for you two
They didn't die for me
They didn't die for freedom
Was it for democracy?

Or did they die for oil, Mr. Prezident and Ms. Secretary of State?

Did they die for your need to best your daddy, Mr. Prezident?

Did they die 'cause you wanted to be a "war" president, Mr. Prezident.

What did they die for if they didn't die in vain?

Dobson's Minions Con the State of Florida

Talk 2 Action reports on two bills currently before the Florida legislature.

These two bills breach, with impunity, the wall of separation between church and state.

House Bill 707 and Senate Bill 630 have been written in such a way that persons registering a vehicle or renewing their registration in the state of Florida, or applying for a driver's license in the state of Florida, may make a "voluntary" contribution to "Family First," a non-profit corporation.

What is this all about? Why should any agency of the government collect funds for a private, non-profit corporation?

Well, Florida First is the DBA for the Florida chapter of far-right-wing Christian poohbah James Dobson's Focus on the Family (Florida Family Council), and right-wing Christian poohbahs like James Dobson have a lot of followers and thus a lot of clout in the Sunshine State.

Obviously this is a violation of the United States Constitution. What I want to know is if Dobson knows about this. If he does, and I would guess he does, then he must answer for his willingness to break the laws of the land.

This would seem to be another instance of Christian theocrats moving in the shadows to insinuate themselves into high places the better to further their cause of eventually controlling the government itself.

You may check out these bills at the links below.

http://www.myfloridahouse.gov/SEctions/Bills/bills.aspx

http://www.flsenate.gov/Session/index.cfm?Mode=Bills&SubMenu=1&Tab=Session&Start=600&End=698&Year=2008&Chamber=Senate

How to Get Your Faith Lifted

A Bush/Republican doctrine is thus: The government shouldn't be in the business of helping people, unless they are quite rich or mega-rich.

All other people should be helped by "faith-based" institutions, such as churches or other religious organizations. In fact, this is such an important part of Bush/Republican doctrine that during the past seven years the Bush administration has thrown millions of dollars at the sticky fingers of faith-based operators. How has that worked out?

Well, there may be some faith-based operations that operate in an unbiased manner to provide important services to needy people, but they seem hard to find.

The problem is that almost without exception, faith-based organizations have the over-riding goal of converting the world to their version of whatever religion they're pushing. Thus their "help" usually comes with strings attached. Like the soup kitchens of yore down in the bowery. If you wanted to eat, you had to sit through an hour or more of awful hymn singing, mournful prayer and hellfire and brimstone sermons. Not a bad deal for many people, but it still reeked of extortion.

The following story comes from Talk to Action. About 7 years ago, in Michigan, Joseph R. Hanas got nabbed for possession of maryjane. Pleading guilty he was informed that if he entered a drug rehab program, he wouldn't have to go to the clink.

Hanas found his way to Inner City Christian Outreach, an outfit sponsored by a Pentecostal church. When Hanas, a Roman Catholic, arrived at ICCO, his rosary and prayer book were taken from him; he was informed that Catholicism is a form of witchcraft and he could not see a priest.

When a relative of Hanas learned of his plight, she complained but was told that Hanas had given up his religious freedom when he signed up for the program.

Hanas reports that he was battered with the Pentecostal message. Forced to attend worship services, he also had to read the Bible several hours a day and was denied access to his attorney.

He also learned--surprise, surprise--that ICCO did not offer drug rehabilitation but referred their "clients" to another provider.

Hanas eventually sued and a federal court ruled in his favor, and an appeals court upheld the ruling. The court said that the violation of Hanas' rights was "flagrant" in that Hanas was facing jail if he was tossed from the program for disobeying the pastor's orders regarding worship.

It turns out that the court was well aware the ICCO was nothing more than a "Christ-centered Bible teaching program." There seems to be a sneaky connection between the court and ICCO.

Hmm. Let's see, Hanas rights were violated, he was denied access to legal representation, he lived in fear for his freedom, and he received no rehabilitation!

I am led to believe by sources in a position to know that this is par for the course in the world of Bush's "faith-based" fantasies.

Hoppin' Down the Bunny Trail - to Church

Easter is the major Christian festival. People flock to churches clad in the colors of Spring to hear the story of Jesus' resurrection one more time. And amid the crowded pews are numerous folks who haven't been in church since the previous Easter. Easter beckons and the more or less faithful respond.

Or do they? An AOL poll consisting of 5,019 respondents showed that 45% planned to attend Easter services. Forty three percent said they did not plan to attend Easter services. Twelve percent said they don't celebrate Easter. [That's about what I would expect, as over the years I've found that AOL attracts a more conservative following than other agencies.]

Our local Central Florida paper showed a dramatically different picture; a very surprising picture when you consider we have a church on every corner and on a few blocks there are several in between.

This poll of 356 respondents indicated that only 36.8% planned to attend Easter services, while 63.2% said they did not plan to attend.

I have no clue as to the validity or reliability of either of these polls. But they are interesting. In what the Christian Right likes to call a "Christian" country, not even half of the population can be bothered to celebrate their god's resurrection and promise of salvation.

Pope Baptizes Non-Practicing Muslim

It seems that if you're a non-practicing Muslim poohbah, and you want to exchange one set of superstitions for another, you can get the Pope to baptize you into the Roman Catholic Church.

Magdi Allam, the deputy editor of the Corriere della Sera newspaper, is a non-practicing Muslim. He was baptized by Pope Benedict XIV at an Easter vigil.

You could say that he's leaving behind superstitions he doesn't practice for new superstitions. Will he be a practicing Catholic?

Mr. Allam, is well-known as a writer on Islamic and Arab matters. He rejects extremism and urges tolerance.

Let's hope his writings have done some good because converting to Catholicism could bring him some extremist violence! Muslims cannot convert to another religion. And I think it fair to say that in many parts of the Muslim world, folks believe Islamic law says that converting to another religion is apostasy and is punishable by death.

Isn't religion fun? Happy belated Easter!

A Cornflake and a Plain Flake

Some guy bought a cornflake on eBay. He buys lots of "special" stuff. He's collecting "special" stuff.

The cornflake in question appears to maybe, perhaps, look kinda like an outline of the state of Illinois.

The flake paid $1,350 for said cornflake, the cornflake being put up for sale by two sisters living in Virginia.

You have to wonder what it would have sold for if they said it also contained an image of the Virgin Mary - $13,500?

What if they could have made the Virgin Mary weep? $130,500?

Once again we are reminded there is no limit to human stupidity and culpability!

Cheney's Easter Sunday Quotes

Vice President Dick Cheney is on a fast trip around the Middle East. Easter Sunday morning found him in a "tiny chapel in Jerusalem." There he participated in prayer, and sang "Amazing Grace."

Cheney then met with Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian President. It went splendidly. Here are a few of the things Cheney said:

Israelis and Palestinians must make "painful concessions" to defeat those committed to violence.

The U.S. is committed to the creation of an independent Palestinian state. Such a state is "long overdue."

Cheney's advice to Israel: "Achieving that vision [an independent Palestinian state] will require a determination to keep those who are committed to violence and who refuse to accept the basic right of the other side to exist." That's a confusing sentence, but I think he means that Israel should turn the other cheek and work with people [Hamas] who hate Israel, strive to destroy Israel with violence, and refuse to accept Israel's right to exist.

"Terror and violence do not merely kill innocent civilians, they also kill the legitimate hopes and aspirations of the Palestinian people." What the hell does that mean? Is he talking about Israel or Hamas?

[Abbas, of course, wants "Cheney to help stop Israeli settlement expansion and military operations targeting militants."] Abbas did not offer to help stop the daily rockets launched against Israel by the Palestinians.

"...the future belongs to the advocates of peace and reconciliation." With regard to establishing a Palestinian state, Cheney claimed the Bush administration would "commit resources to help the Palestinians build the infrastructure necessary to prosper."

What a pile of crap. We can't even keep our own infrastructure in repair much less build new infrastructures. The Iraq infrastructure has been lying smoldering in ruins for 5 years and we can't seem to get that rebuilt either.

Then an ominous note: The Bush administration is "actively involved in dealing with the threats that we see emerging in the region _ not only threats to Israel, but threats to the United States as well."

Does that sound familiar - sort of like the bullshit Bushite buildup to war with Iraq? It is pretty much the same thing, but here the VP is beating the drum for war with Iran.

Now the real questions are these: Is there anyone left in the world who believes anything Cheney says? Did Cheney say anything new or anything of substance?

It seems that Cheney's trip was mainly to pressure the Israelis and the Palestinians to put down their weapons long enough so that Bush can declare peace, and add that "victory" to his legacy.

Bush has said several times that he want a peace agreement before he leaves office in January 2009. Maybe, because he's such a good ol' boy, the Israelis and the Palestinians will give it to him. Don't bet the farm on it, though.

The Holocaust Journal (Lest We Forget) - Germany 1944 (III)

The concentration camp at Terezin, Czechoslovakia was built to fool the world. Known as Theresienstadt, it was "temporarily beautified" by the Nazis in mid-1944 to fool Red Cross representatives and to make a propaganda film showing the ghetto as "Hitler's gift to the Jews."

In fact, Theresienstadt was always a concentration camp and a transit camp for German and Western European Jews who ended up being deported to Auschwitz. All told, 140,000 Jews were sent to Theresienstadt. More than 33,000 died in camp and approximately 88,000 were deported and murdered. Only 20,000 survived.

Fifteen thousand children were interned at Theresienstadt. One hundred survived the war.

In July 1944, partisan activity increases. Jewish-Polish groups work behind the lines in several areas as the Russian Army approaches from the East. The U.S. Army assigns a Jewish-American, Lt. Col. Murray C. Bernays, to collect evidence of war crimes against American servicemen. Bernays begins to put together a concept of Nazism as a criminal conspiracy which will become a basic strategy for the Nuremberg Trials in 1945-46. Switzerland finally opens its doors to all Jewish refugees who wish to enter the country and are able to do so.

* July 3 - Minsk, Belorussia is captured by the Soviet Army. In England, Zionist leader Chaim Weizmann asks the British War Cabinet to form a Jewish Brigade to fight in the British Army. They would carry a flag with the Star of David.

* July 7 - British PM Winston Churchill says he favors bombing Auschwitz. Between July 7, 1944 to January 19, 1945, the Allies bomb industrial areas near Auschwitz four times. The Auschwitz camp is bombed once, accidentally.

* July 8 - In Hungary, the government informs Berlin it will deport no more Jews from within its borders.

* July 8-13 - About 8000 German soldiers are killed by Soviet troops and Jewish partisans at Vilna.

* July 9 - Raoul Wallenberg, a Swedish diplomat arranges for Swedish visas for hundreds of Jews. Before it's over, Wallenberg will save many thousands of Jewish lives.

* July 19 - Angelo Roncalli, (later Pope John XXIII) petitions Admiral Horthy for the lives of 5000 Hungarian Jews with Palestinian visas. Later he will provide baptismal certificates for Jews in hiding.

* July 20 - The infamous plot to kill Hitler. While Hitler is injured when the bomb explodes, he is not killed and exacts a horrible revenge. The plotters themselves are hung by wire, a very painful way to die. Another 200 people are executed.

* July 23 - The first death camp is liberated - Majdanek. About 500 inmates are alive. The Nazis abandon the camp with some 1,000 prisoners and attempt to destroy the camp but leave behind many cadavers and standing gas chambers.

* July 25 - Three tankers with over 1600 Jews arrive at Rhodes where 94 more Jews are forced aboard the overloaded ships. Lord Walter Moyne, the British official in the Middle East, finally approves British military training for Jews who are being sent on suicide missions in Occupied Europe. His purpose is thus: "The scheme would remove from Palestine a number of active and resourceful Jews....The chances of many of them returning in the future to give trouble in Palestine seem slight."

* July 30 - The three tankers mentioned above arrive at Piraeus, Greece where the Jews are forced into trucks and driven to the Haidar detention camp near Athens.

During WWII, British policy in Palestine was outlined in the White Paper, published in 1939. This reversed England's support for a Jewish state, set up rigid regulations on land transfers in Palestine, and placed a limit of 75,000 Jewish immigrants over a 5-year period.

British policy was essentially anti-Semitic. During the first two years of the war, Britain blocked escape routes for Jewish refugees. Boats filled with Jews fleeing the Nazis were refused entry into Palestine and returned to their point of origin. British Prime Minister Anthony Eden absolutely refused to use Palestine as a refuge for Jews.

England must claim responsibility (indirectly) for the deaths of tens of thousands of Jews.

To be continued...

Terrorism and the American Gestapo

Some think the terrorists have won.

If, as most assume, the point of driving those planes into the twin towers was to create chaos in the United States, they made their point.

If, as some suspect, the point of driving those planes into the twin towers was to cause a melt-down of lawful, constitutional government, they made their point.

If, as a few are certain, the point of driving those planes into the twin towers was to instigate a civil rights crisis, they made their point.

As a bonus, with Bush using 9/11 to justify his unjustifiable invasion of Iraq, the terrorists also had a hand in bringing the country to its knees financially and morally.

But that's not all. The terrorists also handed Bush the key to unlock the constitutional door barring a president from being a dictator; and that key was fear. For seven years, the Bush administration has made 9/11 the symbol of unrelenting terrorism. For seven years we have had 9/11 held over our heads - it could happen again - anytime, anywhere.

"Be afraid," said the Bushites, "Be very afraid."

And then, "But we'll take care of you. Just give us the power we seek, and you need fear no more."


Dictatorships or totalitarian governments almost always germinate and grow from fear and insecurity. Today, when asked, a majority of people in the United States express their willingness to trade freedom for security.

9/11 was exactly what Bush and company needed.

The Bush administration, which has been mostly about assuming, increasing, using and abusing power, has unleashed a wave of fear in this country for no other purpose than to undermine the people's confidence in their safety. As Hitler and other dictatorial types knew, that's the first step toward taking control.

Another step in the process is to establish a governmental entity and give it the power to investigate and interfere in the private lives of the citizens - to make sure that security hasn't been compromised, you understand. This organization collects data, enforces a variety of new regulations and acts very much like a special police unit, outside of the purview of other law enforcement organizations. In World War II, in Germany, the entity was known as the SS or Gestapo.

In the United States today, it has been given the ominous-sounding name of the Department of Homeland Security. It could just as well have been called "The Department for the Security of the Fatherland."

This is the group that is bullying private citizens and cities along our southern border in its attempt to build the border fence, which in the minds of many people is another representation of the colossal stupidity endemic in the Bush administration.

The DHS is also the governmental unit that is trying to enforce a proposal which would require employers to check that their employees' names match their Social Security numbers, and if they do not match up, to fire said employees.

In San Francisco, a federal judge has blocked this proposal. According to U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer, the DHS proposal would create a hardship on employers and employees; it would cost employers in order to comply with the program; the government hasn't evaluated the program - it's fresh from the oven and no one has a clue how it will work (sounds a lot like FEMA, doesn't it? Oh, that's right. FEMA is part of DHS and Michael Chertoff runs the DHS!); and employers who are innocent may not be able to correct their records and they will lose their jobs.

The DHS/Gestapo isn't really concerned about all that. The DHS/Gestapo insists that the law does not create any real problems. The DHS intends to go ahead with the same set of rules the judge blocked. The DHS is serious about immigration enforcement, according to Mr. Chertoff. Notice, please, the casual disregard for the legal order of the judge.

The following oppose the DHS proposal: The AFL-CIO, the ACLU, and the United States Chamber of Commerce. It will, they say, cause discrimination in the workplace, cause legal employees to lose their jobs, and cause businesses to be exposed to greater costs and the fear of prosecution.


Then there's the business of a national ID card, aka Real ID, which is another matter for the DHS to enforce. This law requires states to issue new driver's licenses. At first the DHS said it would cost the states about $14.6 billion, but has now reduced that to $3.9 billion. How did they do that?

With regard to these new licenses:

1. A person's photograph would be taken at the beginning of the application rather than the end. Ah, the Gestapo is so very efficient. If, perchance the applicant is rejected for failing to prove identity and/or citizenship, the photo will be kept on file in this huge governmental database to catch the rascal if he/she tries to apply for a license again!

2. Three levels of security measures will be available. States can choose which one they want. Microchips are not involved. Not yet, anyway.

3. The states will have to do Social Security and immigration status checks. Before long, states are also going to have to verify birth certificates; contact other states to ensure that a person does not have more than one license; and if the applicant presents a passport as ID, the state will have to check with the State Department to verify the passport.

Why do we need this Real ID, this new system which is, in reality, nothing more than a national ID card, which the American people have said over and over again they do not want?

A national ID card is one more step on the road to dictatorship!!!!

Remember the Bush administration has never cared what the people want. And read this carefully: "The Bush administration says the law, passed after the Sept. 11 attacks, will hinder terrorists, con artists and illegal immigrants."

Of course they do and of course it won't. Terrorists, con artists and illegal immigrants will soon figure out a way to get around this law, just like any other law.

But what Bush says is seldom what Bush means. The reality is this gives the government just that much more control and power over the peoples' lives. It's always about power, never about the people!

Some states are balking. Montana, for example, says it will not obey the law. Maine and South Carolina have yet to begin preparing for this new law. New Hampshire has asked to be exempted but the Gestapo/DHS says their letter has not been found to be "legally acceptable."
(Legally acceptable, of course, is whatever DHS says is "legally acceptable.")


The fear-inducing mantra parroted over and over by the Bushites, "The terrorists are coming; be very afraid," has been quite effective, allowing them to use fear to further entrench their power and dictate how life shall be lived in this country.

But that mantra is false.

The real mantra is "Be very afraid, the Bushites are coming for you!"

An American Anti-Israel Campaign

An outfit called the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation is striving hard to shut down Israel's means of self-defense. Their latest demand is that Motorola stop selling products to Israel's army and settlements.

The USCEIO demands Motorola cease and desist from selling fuses for air-launched bombs, communication devices for the army, and radar devices used to secure Israel's security barrier and settlements."

The USCEIO believes that Israel is dominating the Palestinian people and denying them their human rights. They want Israel to "end ... the occupation of Palestinian land in the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem, full equality for Palestinian citizens of Israel, and the right of return for Palestinian refugees."

They believe a lot of other stuff, too. But what they never seem to mention, at least on their web site, are the Palestinian bombers, the 4,000 rockets fired into S'Derot, the fact that Gaza is ruled by the extremist terrorist gang called Hamas dedicated to driving Israel into the sea.

The USCEIO also never gets around to mentioning that the Palestinians and the Arab countries deny that Israel has a right to exist, and make no moves toward peace, only toward war. They conveniently forget that the Palestinians turned down their chance to have their own country 60 years ago because they would not accept Israel's right of statehood.

Over the years, as Israel has defended itself and built a working democratic civilization with one of the highest standards of living on the planet and some of the finest universities and hospitals and corporate entities, the Palestinians have spent their time obtaining weapons and making war on Israel.

Here are a few of the members of USCEIO's Steering Committee:

Omar Baddar (American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee)
Adam Horowitz (American Friends Service Committee)
Diane Ford Jones (Every Church a Peace Church)
Zaha Hassan (Americans United for Palestinian Human Rights)
Nitin Sawhney (Boston Coalition for Palestinian Rights)
David Wilman and Ashley Wilkinson-Meyer (General Board of Global Ministries - the United Methodist Church)

Anti-Semitism never dies; it just raises its ugly head in new and nastier forms!

P.S. So far, Motorola has told them to "go jump!"

The U.S. Anti-Israel State Department

If you have followed along in the "Holocaust Journal," you know that during WWII, the U.S. State Department was noted for its anti-Semitic attitudes and its constant attempts to make life difficult for Jews fleeing the Holocaust.

Things haven't changed much.

The U.S. State Department is now urging "Americans of Arab origin to report difficulties encountered entering Israel."

"The United States Government seeks equal treatment for all American citizens regardless of national origin or ethnicity" ... this according to a travel warning issued a few days ago. It also suggested that if Arab Americans have a problem they should call the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv or the U.S. Consulate General in Jerusalem.

What happened is that some Arab Americans have had to spend a bit of extra time being questioned by Israeli immigration and border authorities upon trying to gain entry to Israel. Arab American groups complained to Condi Rice and thus the warning.

At the same time, the State Department warned Americans not to travel to the Gaza Strip or the West Bank.

What hypocrisy! Israel is not only under constant threat of attack, but is attacked daily! You can be damn sure if they spot a suspicious person, American or no, they are going to verify that he/she is who he/she says he/she is and if that takes a little bit more time, well tough cookies!

Furthermore, have you seen any warnings from our State Department about American Jews entering Arab countries, such as Saudi Arabia or Jordan? Of course not! Jews are not welcome in those countries and travel to those countries at their own risk, which is considerable. So why isn't our State Department telling American Jews to contact the Embassy in Saudi Arabia if they have trouble entering that country?

Maybe it has, and I haven't heard about it.

I doubt it, though.

The Holocaust Journal (Lest We Forget) - Germany 1944 (II)

[Photo shows Jewish children used in medical experiments]

[Material for the Holocaust Journal comes mostly from The Holocaust Chronicle, Publications International, Ltd., 2003. It is available from Amazon.com, $24.95. Barnes & Noble usually has copies available for $19.98].

“I saw many internees cling to their human dignity to the very end. The Nazis succeeding in degrading them physically, but they could not debase them morally. Because of these few, I have not entirely lost my faith in mankind. If, even in the jungle of Birkenau, all were not necessarily inhuman to their fellowman, then there is hope indeed.” - Olga Lengyel, Five Chimneys: The Story of Auschwitz

Germany 1944 (II)

By 1944, Hermann Goring, at one time a very important Nazi, had become addicted to heroin. He had also grown very fat – over 300 pounds. His influence diminished as his addiction and weight grew. Toward the end of the war, Hitler refused to even meet with him.

* April 4 – The U.S. takes photos of Auschwitz from the air.

* April 8 – This was the first night of Passover. A Polish rabbi who has just arrived at Auschwitz grabs a SS trooper and excoriates him for his crimes. The rabbi says the Jews will live eternally while the Nazis will be destroyed.

* April 10 – Alfred Wetzler, 26, and Rudolf Vrba, 19, Jews from Slovakia, escape from Auschwitz. Later they give the Allies the first eyewitness accounts of the “Final Solution,” and they warn the Nazis intend to kill all Hungarian Jews. Also on this date, the Russian Army takes Odessa in the Ukraine.

* April 13 – Fifteen hundred Jews are deported from Drancy, France, to Auschwitz. One survivor of this group is Simone Jacob, 16. As an adult he will become France’s minister of health and later, in 1979, the president of the European Parliament.

* May 1944 – Mass deportations of Jews from Hungary begins. Between May 15 – July 9, 1944, over 430,000 Jews are deported to Auschwitz. Sometimes over 100 people are crammed into one boxcar, with one water bucket for drinking and one water bucket for waste. Many people go insane and many others commit suicide as the trains travel through the countryside.

* May 19 – Joel Brand, a Hungarian Jew, is sent to Turkey with a proposal from Adolf Eichmann for the Allies. Eichmann suggests a trade: 10,000 trucks for 1 million Eastern European Jews. Brand is arrested by the British and taken to see Lord Moyne, the resident minister of state in the Middle East, who asks, “What shall I do with those million Jews.”

* Late May 1944 – An SS trooper who has fallen in love with a Jewish girl, hides her from the gas chambers. They are discovered and both are executed.

* May 31 – SS Brigadier General Edmund Veesenmayer reports to Berlin that 204,312 Jews have been deported from Hungary.

* June 1 – Although the US has 55,000 unused slots from Occupied Europe, FDR decides that only 1,000 Jews may enter the country.

* June 2 – Itzhak Gruenbaum, president of the Rescue Committee of the Jewish Agency asks that the Allies bomb the rail lines leading to Auschwitz. Although Allied bombers fly over these rail lines, the rail lines that carry Jews are never bombed.

* June 4 – Rome is liberated by the Allies.

* June 6 – DDay. The Allies land on the beaches of Normandy, France as the liberation of Europe begins.

* June 10 – Germans kill 642 residents of Oradour-sur-Glane, a French village in retaliation for the murder of an SS officer by a resistance fighter. The men are machine-gunned and the women and children are burned alive in a church.

* June 24 – The US Military Air Operations says it is not practical to bomb the rail lines to Auschwitz because that would divert men and supplies from “decisive operations” currently underway elsewhere.

* June 14 – Pope Pius XII, via telegram, asks the regent of Hungary to stop the deportations. He doesn’t mention the word, Jew.

* June 28 – The Russian army approaches a concentration camp at near Minsk, Belorussia. SS troops take over as guards and all surviving prisoners—Jews and non-Jewish Russians—are put into a barracks which is then set on fire. Some prisoners exit the building but are shot.


“Around us, everyone was weeping. Someone began to recite the Kaddish, the prayer for the dead. I do not know if it has ever happened before, in the long history of the Jews, that people have ever recited the prayer for the dead for themselves.” -- Elie Wiesel, writing of what he experienced as a young man leaving the transport train at Auschwitz.

To be continued…