Roman Kent, who as an orphaned teenager endured the horrors of Auschwitz and other hellish camps and later channeled his sorrow and rage into helping to lead an American movement to memorialize the Holocaust and provide reparations for aging Jewish survivors, died Friday at his home in Manhattan. He was 92.

His death was confirmed by his daughter, Susan.

While many Holocaust survivors have chosen to stay quiet about their experiences or share them only with close friends and other survivors, Kent believed that the world needed to be reminded of the 6 million Jews who perished at the hands of the Germans and their collaborators, and that Germany needed to repay the remnants of European Jewry for what they suffered and whom they lost.

Elie Wiesel, with his eloquent speeches and vivid writings, compelled the world to recognize the enormity of what had happened and appealed for an end to silence and indifference in the face of persecution. A handful of others, like Benjamin and Vladka Meed, Ernest Michel, Josef and Hadassah Rosensaft, Sigmund Strochlitz, Sam Bloch, Norbert Wollheim and Kent did the painstaking work of galvanizing and organizing survivors into a movement.

“I didn’t want our past to become our children’s future,” Kent would often say.

Several times each year the survivors would gather in large numbers at cavernous temples or local arenas and, by their presence and the shattering power of their stories, remind the world of how it had stood by for years while millions of Jews were oppressed, humiliated and eventually slaughtered.

Kent did not attend Michel’s world gathering of 6,000 survivors in Jerusalem in 1981, but he was so inspired by the event’s scale and impact that he helped organize succeeding convocations in Washington and Philadelphia. Along the way, the American Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors and Their Descendants was formed. Kent was its chairman at his death.

In 1988, he joined the board of the Conference of Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, which has negotiated most of the $80 billion that Germany has paid in assistance to survivors and for educational and memorial programs. He eventually served as the organization’s treasurer and co-chairman of its negotiating committee.

Stuart Eizenstat, a former deputy secretary of the treasury and the conference’s chief negotiator, said Kent had used his visceral knowledge of the enduring problems of survivors when prodding Germany to augment monthly pensions, provide $9 billion for survivors still living in the former Soviet Union and Iron Curtain countries, and, as survivors lived into their 90s, set aside $554 million for home care.

“I had some talent as a negotiator, but Roman was able to add that personal commitment, that drama, that passion,” Eizenstat said, “He understood the issues from the perspective of the survivor, which I couldn’t.”

Menachem Rosensaft, a second-generation Holocaust activist, said that Kent “had the ability to engage the German government officials and persuade them to go beyond their original commitments.”

At various times Kent was president of the International Auschwitz Committee, whose purpose is to inform the world about the horrors of Auschwitz-Birkenau, where 1.1 million people — almost 1 million of them Jews — were slaughtered in gas chambers or perished from hunger and disease. He also served as president of the Jewish Foundation for the Righteous, which provides aid to non-Jews who had hid Jews or helped them escape.

“He was not seeking revenge; he was seeking justice,” Ronald Lauder, president of the World Jewish Congress, who worked with Kent on Auschwitz remembrance efforts, said in a phone interview. “He was a person who looked to the future instead of the past.”

On a visit in 2019 to the Auschwitz exhibit at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in lower Manhattan, Kent seemed to explain his zeal for immersing himself so fully in Holocaust remembrance.

“How can I forget the smell of burning flesh that constantly filled the air?” he said in a trembling voice as tears rolled down his cheeks. “Or the heartbreak of children torn from their mothers? Those shouts of terror will ring in my ears until I am laid to rest.”

Roman Kniker was born April 18, 1929, in the manufacturing center of Lodz, Poland’s second largest city, with 600,000 people, one third of them Jews. His father, Emanuel, was a textile manufacturer, and his mother, Sonia (Lipszytz) Kniker, tended to the home and the four children, including Roman’s two older sisters, Dasza and Renia, and his younger brother, Leon.

The family lived comfortably, spending summers horseback riding and bicycling at a villa they owned 30 miles outside Lodz. Roman attended a private school for Jews with a Hebrew curriculum. When he walked past a public school he was often the target of slurs and sometimes stones. He and his brother spent much of their free time kicking a soccer ball in a courtyard in his father’s factory.

The German army invaded Poland on Sept. 1, 1939, and the occupiers confiscated the factory and the apartments across the street. Roman’s family squeezed into a small side building on the factory grounds. By the end of the year, they and the city’s other Jews were forced into a squalid ghetto that had no electricity, running water or medication, although in the early days gentile workers at his father’s factory slipped food to the family, Kent recalled in a video interview. Thousands succumbed to malnutrition, disease and cold temperatures. Among them was Roman’s father, who died in 1943.

The ghetto was emptied in the fall of 1944, its inhabitants crammed into cattle cars and deported to concentration camps, mainly the sprawling Auschwitz-Birkenau complex. When they arrived, Roman was separated from his mother and two sisters. He would never see his mother again.

Roman and Leon were assigned to a work detail and transferred to other labor camps to feed the ravenous industrial and military needs of the German army as it lost battle after battle. The brothers were interned in Gross-Rosen and Flossenburg, and from there forced at gunpoint on a death march to Dachau in Germany. They were liberated along the way by the U.S. Army in April 1945.

They searched for their relatives and learned that their mother had died at Auschwitz but that their sisters were alive in Sweden. The four siblings were briefly reunited, but Dasza, still sick from her wartime ordeal, died a few months later. Renia remained in Sweden and married there.

In the postwar years, when the American government was reluctant to lift immigration quotas, even for the 250,000 Jewish survivors who had been deported to concentration camps or otherwise displaced, Kent was among the first to enter the United States. He and Leon did so as a result of a special directive by President Harry S. Truman that admitted a few thousand orphans.

The brothers lived with foster families in Atlanta and attended Emory University. Leon studied medicine and became a neurosurgeon, while Kent studied business and started successful companies that imported cookware, dinnerware, guitars, hospital gowns and other products from Europe and China.

After Emory, the brothers moved to New York and simplified their last name to Kent. Roman met Hannah Starkman, a Lodz native who had survived three concentration camps, on a visit to the New York area; they married in 1957. They had two children, Jeffrey and Susan, who survive him, as do three grandchildren and one great-grandchild. Hannah Kent died in 2017.

Roman Kent was a vigorous supporter of Holocaust education, and in a speech he gave in 2015, on the 71st anniversary of the Lodz ghetto’s liquidation, he explained why. It was the obligation of adults, he said, to get children to understand “what happens when hatred and prejudice are allowed to flourish.”

Roman Kent, who as an orphaned teenager endured the horrors of Auschwitz and other hellish camps and later channeled his sorrow and rage into helping to lead an American movement to memorialize the Holocaust and provide reparations for aging Jewish survivors, died Friday at his home in Manhattan.

Roman Kent, who as an orphaned teenager endured the horrors of Auschwitz and other hellish camps and later channeled his sorrow and rage into helping to lead an American movement to memorialize the Holocaust and provide reparations for aging Jewish survivors, died Friday at his home in Manhattan. He was 92. His death was confirmed by his daughter, Susan. While many Holocaust survivors have chosen to stay quiet about their experiences or share them only with close friends and other survivors, Kent believed that the world needed to be reminded of the 6 million Jews who perished at the hands of the Germans and their collaborators, and that Germany needed to repay the remnants of European Jewry for what they suffered and whom they lost. Elie Wiesel, with his eloquent speeches and vivid writings, compelled the world to recognize the enormity of what had happened and appealed for an end to silence and indifference in the face of persecution. A handful of others, like Benjamin and Vladka Meed, Ernest Michel, Josef and Hadassah Rosensaft, Sigmund Strochlitz, Sam Bloch, Norbert Wollheim and Kent did the painstaking work of galvanizing and organizing survivors into a movement. “I didn’t want our past to become our children’s future,” Kent would often say. Several times each year the survivors would gather in large numbers at cavernous temples or local arenas and, by their presence and the shattering power of their stories, remind the world of how it had stood by for years while millions of Jews were oppressed, humiliated and eventually slaughtered. Kent did not attend Michel’s world gathering of 6,000 survivors in Jerusalem in 1981, but he was so inspired by the event’s scale and impact that he helped organize succeeding convocations in Washington and Philadelphia. Along the way, the American Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors and Their Descendants was formed. Kent was its chairman at his death. In 1988, he joined the board of the Conference of Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, which has negotiated most of the $80 billion that Germany has paid in assistance to survivors and for educational and memorial programs. He eventually served as the organization’s treasurer and co-chairman of its negotiating committee. Stuart Eizenstat, a former deputy secretary of the treasury and the conference’s chief negotiator, said Kent had used his visceral knowledge of the enduring problems of survivors when prodding Germany to augment monthly pensions, provide $9 billion for survivors still living in the former Soviet Union and Iron Curtain countries, and, as survivors lived into their 90s, set aside $554 million for home care. “I had some talent as a negotiator, but Roman was able to add that personal commitment, that drama, that passion,” Eizenstat said, “He understood the issues from the perspective of the survivor, which I couldn’t.” Menachem Rosensaft, a second-generation Holocaust activist, said that Kent “had the ability to engage the German government officials and persuade them to go beyond their original commitments.” At various times Kent was president of the International Auschwitz Committee, whose purpose is to inform the world about the horrors of Auschwitz-Birkenau, where 1.1 million people — almost 1 million of them Jews — were slaughtered in gas chambers or perished from hunger and disease. He also served as president of the Jewish Foundation for the Righteous, which provides aid to non-Jews who had hid Jews or helped them escape. “He was not seeking revenge; he was seeking justice,” Ronald Lauder, president of the World Jewish Congress, who worked with Kent on Auschwitz remembrance efforts, said in a phone interview. “He was a person who looked to the future instead of the past.” On a visit in 2019 to the Auschwitz exhibit at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in lower Manhattan, Kent seemed to explain his zeal for immersing himself so fully in Holocaust remembrance. “How can I forget the smell of burning flesh that constantly filled the air?” he said in a trembling voice as tears rolled down his cheeks. “Or the heartbreak of children torn from their mothers? Those shouts of terror will ring in my ears until I am laid to rest.” Roman Kniker was born April 18, 1929, in the manufacturing center of Lodz, Poland’s second largest city, with 600,000 people, one third of them Jews. His father, Emanuel, was a textile manufacturer, and his mother, Sonia (Lipszytz) Kniker, tended to the home and the four children, including Roman’s two older sisters, Dasza and Renia, and his younger brother, Leon. The family lived comfortably, spending summers horseback riding and bicycling at a villa they owned 30 miles outside Lodz. Roman attended a private school for Jews with a Hebrew curriculum. When he walked past a public school he was often the target of slurs and sometimes stones. He and his brother spent much of their free time kicking a soccer ball in a courtyard in his father’s factory. The German army invaded Poland on Sept. 1, 1939, and the occupiers confiscated the factory and the apartments across the street. Roman’s family squeezed into a small side building on the factory grounds. By the end of the year, they and the city’s other Jews were forced into a squalid ghetto that had no electricity, running water or medication, although in the early days gentile workers at his father’s factory slipped food to the family, Kent recalled in a video interview. Thousands succumbed to malnutrition, disease and cold temperatures. Among them was Roman’s father, who died in 1943. The ghetto was emptied in the fall of 1944, its inhabitants crammed into cattle cars and deported to concentration camps, mainly the sprawling Auschwitz-Birkenau complex. When they arrived, Roman was separated from his mother and two sisters. He would never see his mother again. Roman and Leon were assigned to a work detail and transferred to other labor camps to feed the ravenous industrial and military needs of the German army as it lost battle after battle. The brothers were interned in Gross-Rosen and Flossenburg, and from there forced at gunpoint on a death march to Dachau in Germany. They were liberated along the way by the U.S. Army in April 1945. They searched for their relatives and learned that their mother had died at Auschwitz but that their sisters were alive in Sweden. The four siblings were briefly reunited, but Dasza, still sick from her wartime ordeal, died a few months later. Renia remained in Sweden and married there. In the postwar years, when the American government was reluctant to lift immigration quotas, even for the 250,000 Jewish survivors who had been deported to concentration camps or otherwise displaced, Kent was among the first to enter the United States. He and Leon did so as a result of a special directive by President Harry S. Truman that admitted a few thousand orphans. The brothers lived with foster families in Atlanta and attended Emory University. Leon studied medicine and became a neurosurgeon, while Kent studied business and started successful companies that imported cookware, dinnerware, guitars, hospital gowns and other products from Europe and China. After Emory, the brothers moved to New York and simplified their last name to Kent. Roman met Hannah Starkman, a Lodz native who had survived three concentration camps, on a visit to the New York area; they married in 1957. They had two children, Jeffrey and Susan, who survive him, as do three grandchildren and one great-grandchild. Hannah Kent died in 2017. Roman Kent was a vigorous supporter of Holocaust education, and in a speech he gave in 2015, on the 71st anniversary of the Lodz ghetto’s liquidation, he explained why. It was the obligation of adults, he said, to get children to understand “what happens when hatred and prejudice are allowed to flourish.”

Roman Kent, who reminded the world of the Holocaust, dies at 92

April 26 in history: Worst nuclear disaster in history occurs in Chernobyl and more

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has said that Western governments should treat the people who insult the Prophet the same as those who deny the Holocaust, reported the Pakistani newspaper, Dawn.

Imran said insulting the Prophet hurts Muslims across the world. 
 
<a href="https://www.wionews.com/south-asia/pakistan-pm-imran-khan-battles-fallout-in-france-blasphemy-row-378718">Also read | Pakistan PM Imran Khan battles fallout in France blasphemy row</a>

“We Muslims have the greatest love &amp; respect for our Prophet,” he tweeted. “We cannot tolerate any such disrespect &amp; abuse.”

Denying the Holocaust is an illegal offence in several European countries — including Germany and France — and offenders can be sent to prison.

Khan wants to see governments take an equally harsh position on those who blaspheme against the Prophet Muhammad.

"I ... call on Western governments who have outlawed any negative comment on the holocaust to use the same standards to penalise those deliberately spreading their message of hate against Muslims by abusing our Prophet," Khan tweeted.

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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
I also call on Western govts who have outlawed any negative comment on the holocaust to use the same standards to penalise those deliberately spreading their message of hate against Muslims by abusing our Prophet PBUH.
— Imran Khan (@ImranKhanPTI) <a href="https://twitter.com/ImranKhanPTI/status/1383312238195343361?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 17, 2021</a></blockquote>
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For the past week, riots have again engulfed Pakistan, with police officers killed and taken hostage, and the French embassy taking the "urgent" step of advising its citizens to leave the country.

Khan is now scrambling to keep order, months after launching a war of words with President Emmanuel Macron following the French leader's defence of the magazine Charlie Hebdo's right to republish images of Mohammed, an act deemed blasphemous by many Muslims.

When Macron openly backed the magazine, Khan took up a crusade, accusing the French leader of insulting Islam and using an address to the United Nations as an opportunity to lambast the West.&nbsp;

But rather than appease the religious right, Khan's grievance appears only to have encouraged the extremists, with the radical Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) -- the Movement at the Service of the Prophet, calling for the expulsion of the French ambassador.&nbsp;

"I think the prime minister has realised that appeasing the radical forces isn't an easy task because when you try to please them they demand more and more," security analyst Amir Rana told AFP.&nbsp;

"So far he has failed to maintain the balance."&nbsp;

(With inputs from agencies)

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has said that Western governments should treat the people who insult the Prophet the same as those who deny the Holocaust, reported the Pakistani newspaper, Dawn.

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has said that Western governments should treat the people who insult the Prophet the same as those who deny the Holocaust, reported the Pakistani newspaper, Dawn. Imran said insulting the Prophet hurts Muslims across the world. Also read | Pakistan PM Imran Khan battles fallout in France blasphemy row “We Muslims have the greatest love & respect for our Prophet,” he tweeted. “We cannot tolerate any such disrespect & abuse.” Denying the Holocaust is an illegal offence in several European countries — including Germany and France — and offenders can be sent to prison. Khan wants to see governments take an equally harsh position on those who blaspheme against the Prophet Muhammad. "I ... call on Western governments who have outlawed any negative comment on the holocaust to use the same standards to penalise those deliberately spreading their message of hate against Muslims by abusing our Prophet," Khan tweeted. I also call on Western govts who have outlawed any negative comment on the holocaust to use the same standards to penalise those deliberately spreading their message of hate against Muslims by abusing our Prophet PBUH. — Imran Khan (@ImranKhanPTI) April 17, 2021 × For the past week, riots have again engulfed Pakistan, with police officers killed and taken hostage, and the French embassy taking the "urgent" step of advising its citizens to leave the country. Khan is now scrambling to keep order, months after launching a war of words with President Emmanuel Macron following the French leader's defence of the magazine Charlie Hebdo's right to republish images of Mohammed, an act deemed blasphemous by many Muslims. When Macron openly backed the magazine, Khan took up a crusade, accusing the French leader of insulting Islam and using an address to the United Nations as an opportunity to lambast the West. But rather than appease the religious right, Khan's grievance appears only to have encouraged the extremists, with the radical Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) -- the Movement at the Service of the Prophet, calling for the expulsion of the French ambassador. "I think the prime minister has realised that appeasing the radical forces isn't an easy task because when you try to please them they demand more and more," security analyst Amir Rana told AFP. "So far he has failed to maintain the balance." (With inputs from agencies)

Insulting Prophet should be same as denying Holocaust: Imran Khan

A top commander in Hitler’s secret police, responsible for deporting tens of thousands of Jews, was shielded by US&nbsp;and German authorities after World War II and later joined West Germany’s foreign intelligence service, which knew about his wartime role, newly disclosed records reveal.

By the war’s end the official, Franz Josef Huber — who also held a general-level rank in the SS, the Nazi paramilitary organisation — led one of the Gestapo’s largest sections, stretching across Austria and with roles out to the east. In Vienna after the Nazi takeover, his forces worked closely with Adolf Eichmann on deportations to concentration and extermination camps.

Eichmann would eventually be executed for his role in coordinating the murder of millions of Jews. Next Sunday is the 60th anniversary of the opening of his trial in Jerusalem. But Huber never had to hide or to escape abroad, as many other top Third Reich commanders did.

He spent the final decades of his life based in his hometown, Munich, with his family, under his own name. And the explanation for this strange immunity appears to lie in his usefulness in the spying conflicts of the Cold War.

US&nbsp;intelligence documents show that there was strong interest in drawing on Huber’s wartime network to recruit agents in the Soviet bloc, even as Austria was seeking to have him tried for war crimes.

“Although we are by no means unmindful of the dangers involved in playing around with a Gestapo general,” a CIA memo from 1953 stated, “we also believe, on the basis of the information now in our possession, that Huber might be profitably used by this organization.”

Newly disclosed US&nbsp;and German intelligence records reveal that both countries made efforts to conceal Huber’s role in the crimes of the Third Reich and to prevent him from facing trial. German public broadcaster ARD obtained the records and shared them with The New York Times. They will be presented in a “Munich Report” investigative documentary scheduled to be broadcast in Germany on Tuesday.

The German intelligence service, known by the initials BND, employed Huber full time for nearly a decade, giving him a cover story that made him appear to work for a private business. It was nearly 20 years after the war before agency bosses decided they could no longer tolerate the connection. A December 1964 memo warned that disclosure of the secret would “frustrate the efforts of the service’s leadership to build confidence with the federal government and the public.”

This was not the first time Huber had adapted himself to new masters.

In the 1920s and early 1930s, as a talented young police officer in Munich, he took part in the surveillance of political parties, including the Nazis. After Hitler took power in 1933, he became a zealous Nazi and, soon after, a senior figure in the Gestapo, Nazi Germany’s feared secret police force.

The Nazi leaders building that force needed experienced police officers, said Michael Holzmann, the son of an Austrian Nazi who has for many years been researching the activities of the Gestapo in that country. “Huber seized this opportunity and turned from a little investigator into a most successful leader of the Gestapo terror regime in former Austria,” he said.

In March 1938, after Germany annexed Austria, Huber was made the Gestapo chief of the most important part of the country, including Vienna, the capital. Shortly after, the Gestapo began an extensive hunt for dissidents in Austria, and Huber gave orders “to arrest immediately undesirable, particularly criminally motivated Jews and transfer them to the concentration camp Dachau.” A few days later, the first two transports of Jews left Vienna for the camp, with many more to follow.

Huber remained in his post until the end of the war, being given more and more personnel and authority. During that time, 70,000 Austrian Jews who were not able to leave the country were murdered, close to 40% of the original community, while their property was looted by the Nazis.

Eichmann confirmed at his trial that he was involved in the deportation of Jews but refused to plead guilty to genocide, saying, “I did not have any other option than to follow the orders I got.”

Huber took a different approach. Speaking to an official of the Nuremberg war crimes tribunal in 1948 — who interviewed him as a witness, not a suspect — he said he had known nothing about the extermination until the end of 1944, when his deputy told him something vague.

“But the historical evidence paints a completely different picture,” says professor Moshe Zimmerman, a historian and Holocaust scholar at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. “Eichmann may have been a face more familiar to the Jewish community, but the one who shared responsibility for carrying out the terror against the Jews, their collection, their forced boarding on the trains and their deportation to the camps, was the police and the Gestapo under Huber.”

Huber was also photographed accompanying the head of the SS and the Gestapo, Heinrich Himmler, on a visit to the Mauthausen concentration camp in upper Austria, where at least 90,000 internees were murdered.

Toward the end of the war Huber was marked as a senior wanted war criminal by US&nbsp;intelligence, and he appears to have anticipated what might come. He devoted much of his time to dealing with agents from the East, a commodity that would soon be even more valuable.

US&nbsp;forces arrested Huber in May 1945.

There are no available records about his interactions with US&nbsp;military intelligence over the two years he was in custody, but in May 1947, despite plentiful contradictory evidence, a US&nbsp;investigator wrote that Huber was “a fair, factual impartial police officer who carried out the police functions without party bias or racial and political prejudice.” The document goes on to state that the SS general “was not an adherent of Nazi party ideologies” and calls him “completely trustworthy and reliable.”

A month later, the commander of the US&nbsp;detention camp stated that Huber’s “diligence and cooperation were highly appreciated.” He was released in March 1948.

In December 1955, Huber enlisted in the Gehlen Organization, from which the BND was born shortly afterward.

“The BND recruited many Nazis, but hardly anyone had such an outstanding position,” said Stefan Meining, a historian and an editor with German public television who created the documentary about Huber. “They knew exactly that Huber was not some petty Gestapo murderer but an SS general who moved within the innermost circles of the Nazi terror apparatus and was responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of Jews and opponents of the regime.”

Bodo Hechelhammer, the BND’s chief historian, interviewed in the documentary, confirmed that Huber was an employee of the agency and explained that the search for skilled intelligence personnel with a clear anti-communist leaning led to recruitment “far too often among the former Nazis.” The agency did not respond to a request for further comment. The CIA also declined to comment.

In early 1964, fearing disclosure, the BND concluded that it was “no longer conceivable” to keep Huber, lest his role “endanger the service,” and decided to fire him.

But because Huber had not lied to his bosses about his past, “no fault could be proved” to justify firing him, so he was sent on paid leave instead.

He retired three years later, at age 65, and drew a German civil service pension until his death at age 73.

A top commander in Hitler’s secret police, responsible for deporting tens of thousands of Jews, was shielded by US and German authorities after World War II and later joined West Germany’s foreign intelligence service, which knew about his wartime role, newly disclosed records reveal.

A top commander in Hitler’s secret police, responsible for deporting tens of thousands of Jews, was shielded by US and German authorities after World War II and later joined West Germany’s foreign intelligence service, which knew about his wartime role, newly disclosed records reveal. By the war’s end the official, Franz Josef Huber — who also held a general-level rank in the SS, the Nazi paramilitary organisation — led one of the Gestapo’s largest sections, stretching across Austria and with roles out to the east. In Vienna after the Nazi takeover, his forces worked closely with Adolf Eichmann on deportations to concentration and extermination camps. Eichmann would eventually be executed for his role in coordinating the murder of millions of Jews. Next Sunday is the 60th anniversary of the opening of his trial in Jerusalem. But Huber never had to hide or to escape abroad, as many other top Third Reich commanders did. He spent the final decades of his life based in his hometown, Munich, with his family, under his own name. And the explanation for this strange immunity appears to lie in his usefulness in the spying conflicts of the Cold War. US intelligence documents show that there was strong interest in drawing on Huber’s wartime network to recruit agents in the Soviet bloc, even as Austria was seeking to have him tried for war crimes. “Although we are by no means unmindful of the dangers involved in playing around with a Gestapo general,” a CIA memo from 1953 stated, “we also believe, on the basis of the information now in our possession, that Huber might be profitably used by this organization.” Newly disclosed US and German intelligence records reveal that both countries made efforts to conceal Huber’s role in the crimes of the Third Reich and to prevent him from facing trial. German public broadcaster ARD obtained the records and shared them with The New York Times. They will be presented in a “Munich Report” investigative documentary scheduled to be broadcast in Germany on Tuesday. The German intelligence service, known by the initials BND, employed Huber full time for nearly a decade, giving him a cover story that made him appear to work for a private business. It was nearly 20 years after the war before agency bosses decided they could no longer tolerate the connection. A December 1964 memo warned that disclosure of the secret would “frustrate the efforts of the service’s leadership to build confidence with the federal government and the public.” This was not the first time Huber had adapted himself to new masters. In the 1920s and early 1930s, as a talented young police officer in Munich, he took part in the surveillance of political parties, including the Nazis. After Hitler took power in 1933, he became a zealous Nazi and, soon after, a senior figure in the Gestapo, Nazi Germany’s feared secret police force. The Nazi leaders building that force needed experienced police officers, said Michael Holzmann, the son of an Austrian Nazi who has for many years been researching the activities of the Gestapo in that country. “Huber seized this opportunity and turned from a little investigator into a most successful leader of the Gestapo terror regime in former Austria,” he said. In March 1938, after Germany annexed Austria, Huber was made the Gestapo chief of the most important part of the country, including Vienna, the capital. Shortly after, the Gestapo began an extensive hunt for dissidents in Austria, and Huber gave orders “to arrest immediately undesirable, particularly criminally motivated Jews and transfer them to the concentration camp Dachau.” A few days later, the first two transports of Jews left Vienna for the camp, with many more to follow. Huber remained in his post until the end of the war, being given more and more personnel and authority. During that time, 70,000 Austrian Jews who were not able to leave the country were murdered, close to 40% of the original community, while their property was looted by the Nazis. Eichmann confirmed at his trial that he was involved in the deportation of Jews but refused to plead guilty to genocide, saying, “I did not have any other option than to follow the orders I got.” Huber took a different approach. Speaking to an official of the Nuremberg war crimes tribunal in 1948 — who interviewed him as a witness, not a suspect — he said he had known nothing about the extermination until the end of 1944, when his deputy told him something vague. “But the historical evidence paints a completely different picture,” says professor Moshe Zimmerman, a historian and Holocaust scholar at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. “Eichmann may have been a face more familiar to the Jewish community, but the one who shared responsibility for carrying out the terror against the Jews, their collection, their forced boarding on the trains and their deportation to the camps, was the police and the Gestapo under Huber.” Huber was also photographed accompanying the head of the SS and the Gestapo, Heinrich Himmler, on a visit to the Mauthausen concentration camp in upper Austria, where at least 90,000 internees were murdered. Toward the end of the war Huber was marked as a senior wanted war criminal by US intelligence, and he appears to have anticipated what might come. He devoted much of his time to dealing with agents from the East, a commodity that would soon be even more valuable. US forces arrested Huber in May 1945. There are no available records about his interactions with US military intelligence over the two years he was in custody, but in May 1947, despite plentiful contradictory evidence, a US investigator wrote that Huber was “a fair, factual impartial police officer who carried out the police functions without party bias or racial and political prejudice.” The document goes on to state that the SS general “was not an adherent of Nazi party ideologies” and calls him “completely trustworthy and reliable.” A month later, the commander of the US detention camp stated that Huber’s “diligence and cooperation were highly appreciated.” He was released in March 1948. In December 1955, Huber enlisted in the Gehlen Organization, from which the BND was born shortly afterward. “The BND recruited many Nazis, but hardly anyone had such an outstanding position,” said Stefan Meining, a historian and an editor with German public television who created the documentary about Huber. “They knew exactly that Huber was not some petty Gestapo murderer but an SS general who moved within the innermost circles of the Nazi terror apparatus and was responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of Jews and opponents of the regime.” Bodo Hechelhammer, the BND’s chief historian, interviewed in the documentary, confirmed that Huber was an employee of the agency and explained that the search for skilled intelligence personnel with a clear anti-communist leaning led to recruitment “far too often among the former Nazis.” The agency did not respond to a request for further comment. The CIA also declined to comment. In early 1964, fearing disclosure, the BND concluded that it was “no longer conceivable” to keep Huber, lest his role “endanger the service,” and decided to fire him. But because Huber had not lied to his bosses about his past, “no fault could be proved” to justify firing him, so he was sent on paid leave instead. He retired three years later, at age 65, and drew a German civil service pension until his death at age 73.

He led Hitler’s secret police in Austria. Then he spied for the West.

A year spent hiding at home from the <a href="https://www.wionews.com/topics/coronavirus">coronavirus</a> has given Anne Bertolino, 96, a lot of time to dwell on the past: the anti-Semitic abuse she suffered on the streets of Hamburg, Germany, as a child; the grandparents who pushed for her and her sister to leave the country for their own safety; and her mother, a widow who was killed in Auschwitz.

She has ached to return to a more normal life, when she socialized at a senior center instead of sitting in her apartment in Queens and watching old episodes of "The Jack Benny Program" and home makeover shows whose names she never learned.

“I am alone all the time so I have been thinking about the past a lot,” she said. “Unfortunately, I can’t forget anything. It drives me crazy.”

As millions of New Yorkers have gotten <a href="https://www.wionews.com/topics/coronavirus-vaccine">vaccinated</a> and have begun to enjoy a taste of life after the pandemic, many like her have remained stuck at home. Bertolino, who uses a wheelchair and whose eyesight is fading, considered vaccine appointments unattainable, hidden behind an impenetrable tangle of websites.

Despite having been eligible for vaccination since January, only 42% of New Yorkers 85 and older have been fully vaccinated, according to recent city data, which has jolted community groups into action. For Jewish organizations, the fact that this age group includes many Holocaust survivors — some of their community’s most vulnerable and treasured members — has created an all-hands-on-deck emergency.

“The survivors serve a tremendous role in the community, more than I think a lot of them may realize,” said Avi Greenstein, the chief executive of the Boro Park Jewish Community Center, which has helped over 750 survivors get vaccinated in recent weeks.

He added: “The community looks at them and can say, ‘Wow, these people and their perseverance, this is the reason we are still around.’”

There are roughly 350,000 Holocaust survivors alive today, Jewish groups say, and New York City is home to one of the largest populations of them in the world. About 20,000 live in the five boroughs, 80% of those in Brooklyn, with an estimated 15,000 living in the suburbs, according to community leaders.

By now, all Holocaust survivors are over 75, and many live in financial hardship. Forty percent of survivors in the New York area live below the poverty line, according to Eric S. Goldstein, the chief executive of the UJA-Federation of New York.

It is one of several organizations that provide support services to Holocaust survivors, and in recent months it has helped 2,635 of them get vaccinated.

“No one is more deserving of community support than these people in their remaining years,” Goldstein said.

Bertolino finally received her first shot of the vaccine on a rainy day last month at an event for Holocaust survivors at a senior center in Flushing. She woke early to prepare for the excursion, donning pearls and a surgical mask for the occasion, and traveled across Queens in an Uber — her wheelchair in the trunk — with a home health aide.

“I can’t wait until everybody can come visit again,” Bertolino said, sitting in an observation area after receiving her shot in a mostly empty auditorium. “But you manage. You can get used to anything.”

Jewish groups have organized vaccination events across the city, getting senior centers, clinics and other sites to set aside time blocks when they can book appointments for groups of survivors.

The event Bertolino attended was organized by Selfhelp Community Services, which provides aid to more than 5,000 survivors of Nazi persecution in the New York area. It has helped more than 600 survivors get at least one dose of the vaccine, according to Hanan Simhon, who runs the group’s Holocaust survivor programs.

Eva Rose, 96, also trekked to Flushing from her home in Astoria to receive her first shot of the vaccine. She said the last year had been “very lousy.”

Like many survivors, she recounted a year filled with monotonous days watching TV and reflecting on the past, a rhythm broken only by visits from a home health aide or an occasional relative.

“I watch a lot of the news. The news has made every one of us crazy,” she said. “But I am still here, thank God.”

Rose, who was born in Hungary, said she lost 30 family members in the Holocaust and was a slave laborer at a facility next to Auschwitz that was owned by the German arms manufacturer Krupp.

She was one of the few workers there not killed in Auschwitz, she said. Krupp executives were later convicted of war crimes at the Nuremberg trials. The company now pays her a pension, but Rose said she views it as symbolic.

“Germany pays for some things, but they could never pay for what I lost,” she said.

Much of the assistance upon which elderly survivors rely is financed by the German government, which has paid more than $80 billion in reparations to the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, an organization founded in 1951 to negotiate on behalf of Holocaust victims.

The Claims Conference works with roughly 20,000 survivors in the New York area, said its president, Gideon Taylor. It spent $69.7 million on them in 2020 — on things like home health care, food and medicine, social activities and dental care — and expects to spend $73 million in 2021, he said.

On Wednesday, the conference announced a new program, funded by $13.5 million from the German government, to help survivors worldwide get vaccinated. It said the funds will pay for transportation to and from a vaccination site, counseling and follow-up care in dozens of countries.

Studies have suggested that older people are better able to cope with hardship and turmoil than the young, but for Holocaust survivors the picture can be more complicated.

The trauma of the Nazi genocide has indeed given them deep reserves of fortitude that helped them manage the pandemic, experts say. But that same trauma has lingered in their lives in ways that a year of isolation, anxiety and fear has done nothing to assuage.

“The pandemic is in no way the same as the Holocaust, but we do know that events can trigger deep and painful memories, and that is what has happened here for many people,” Taylor said. “Is it safe to go outside? How will I get food? When will I see my friends and family? How long do I have to hide from the world?”

He added: “The pandemic has been an intertwined story of renewed trauma and renewed resilience, both coexisting inside people at the same time.”

Mayor Bill de Blasio said he was moved after attending a vaccination event for Holocaust survivors in Borough Park, Brooklyn, and dedicated part of one of his recent news conferences to talking about and showing photos of his visit.

“I came away from this meeting, this moment with — just filled with hope and appreciation for a human strength and resilience and faith,” the mayor said at the news conference.

Bertolino said she and her sister left Germany on April 13, 1939, as part of an effort organized by a prominent Jewish woman in Hamburg. Thousands of Jewish children escaped Nazi Germany in similar convoys, called Kindertransport, that left German-occupied lands in the spring and summer of 1939. Most of the convoys went to Britain, but all of them stopped when war began that fall.

Bertolino said she lived with a Swedish foster family in the rural town of Mellerud for two years, a time she remembers as frightening but also filled with the kind of freedom she had never known under Nazi rule.

She left the town after two years and moved to Stockholm to work and live with other young Jewish refugees in an apartment paid for by the local Jewish community.

She never saw her family again. After the war she learned that her mother had been killed but her grandmother survived in the Theresienstadt concentration camp. Her grandmother went back to Hamburg and lived the rest of her days at a Jewish retirement home. Bertolino never got the chance to visit, but she can still recite its address.

She got married, had a daughter and moved to New York. But her daughter, now 75, has dementia and lives with caretakers elsewhere in the city. Bertolino has not had much company lately, aside from a home health aide who comes in the mornings.

Together, they watch the news sometimes. Lately, Bertolino has recoiled at reports of hate crimes targeting Asian Americans.

“That is the kind of thing I have been on the receiving end of,” she said. “When I hear about things like that, it is like I can see my mother standing right in front of me.”

To busy her mind and pass the time, she tries to think about good things. Affectionate squabbles she would have with her husband over taking out the trash. Recipes she used to make when standing at the stove was not so hard. How her mother might react to the idea of her daughter’s 97th birthday in May.

And she repeats little sayings to keep her spirits up. A favorite: “What you cannot cure, you must endure.”

A year spent hiding at home from the coronavirus has given Anne Bertolino, 96, a lot of time to dwell on the past: the anti-Semitic abuse she suffered on the streets of Hamburg, Germany, as a child; the grandparents who pushed for her and her sister to leave the country for their own safety; and her mother, a widow who was killed in Auschwitz.

A year spent hiding at home from the coronavirus has given Anne Bertolino, 96, a lot of time to dwell on the past: the anti-Semitic abuse she suffered on the streets of Hamburg, Germany, as a child; the grandparents who pushed for her and her sister to leave the country for their own safety; and her mother, a widow who was killed in Auschwitz. She has ached to return to a more normal life, when she socialized at a senior center instead of sitting in her apartment in Queens and watching old episodes of "The Jack Benny Program" and home makeover shows whose names she never learned. “I am alone all the time so I have been thinking about the past a lot,” she said. “Unfortunately, I can’t forget anything. It drives me crazy.” As millions of New Yorkers have gotten vaccinated and have begun to enjoy a taste of life after the pandemic, many like her have remained stuck at home. Bertolino, who uses a wheelchair and whose eyesight is fading, considered vaccine appointments unattainable, hidden behind an impenetrable tangle of websites. Despite having been eligible for vaccination since January, only 42% of New Yorkers 85 and older have been fully vaccinated, according to recent city data, which has jolted community groups into action. For Jewish organizations, the fact that this age group includes many Holocaust survivors — some of their community’s most vulnerable and treasured members — has created an all-hands-on-deck emergency. “The survivors serve a tremendous role in the community, more than I think a lot of them may realize,” said Avi Greenstein, the chief executive of the Boro Park Jewish Community Center, which has helped over 750 survivors get vaccinated in recent weeks. He added: “The community looks at them and can say, ‘Wow, these people and their perseverance, this is the reason we are still around.’” There are roughly 350,000 Holocaust survivors alive today, Jewish groups say, and New York City is home to one of the largest populations of them in the world. About 20,000 live in the five boroughs, 80% of those in Brooklyn, with an estimated 15,000 living in the suburbs, according to community leaders. By now, all Holocaust survivors are over 75, and many live in financial hardship. Forty percent of survivors in the New York area live below the poverty line, according to Eric S. Goldstein, the chief executive of the UJA-Federation of New York. It is one of several organizations that provide support services to Holocaust survivors, and in recent months it has helped 2,635 of them get vaccinated. “No one is more deserving of community support than these people in their remaining years,” Goldstein said. Bertolino finally received her first shot of the vaccine on a rainy day last month at an event for Holocaust survivors at a senior center in Flushing. She woke early to prepare for the excursion, donning pearls and a surgical mask for the occasion, and traveled across Queens in an Uber — her wheelchair in the trunk — with a home health aide. “I can’t wait until everybody can come visit again,” Bertolino said, sitting in an observation area after receiving her shot in a mostly empty auditorium. “But you manage. You can get used to anything.” Jewish groups have organized vaccination events across the city, getting senior centers, clinics and other sites to set aside time blocks when they can book appointments for groups of survivors. The event Bertolino attended was organized by Selfhelp Community Services, which provides aid to more than 5,000 survivors of Nazi persecution in the New York area. It has helped more than 600 survivors get at least one dose of the vaccine, according to Hanan Simhon, who runs the group’s Holocaust survivor programs. Eva Rose, 96, also trekked to Flushing from her home in Astoria to receive her first shot of the vaccine. She said the last year had been “very lousy.” Like many survivors, she recounted a year filled with monotonous days watching TV and reflecting on the past, a rhythm broken only by visits from a home health aide or an occasional relative. “I watch a lot of the news. The news has made every one of us crazy,” she said. “But I am still here, thank God.” Rose, who was born in Hungary, said she lost 30 family members in the Holocaust and was a slave laborer at a facility next to Auschwitz that was owned by the German arms manufacturer Krupp. She was one of the few workers there not killed in Auschwitz, she said. Krupp executives were later convicted of war crimes at the Nuremberg trials. The company now pays her a pension, but Rose said she views it as symbolic. “Germany pays for some things, but they could never pay for what I lost,” she said. Much of the assistance upon which elderly survivors rely is financed by the German government, which has paid more than $80 billion in reparations to the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, an organization founded in 1951 to negotiate on behalf of Holocaust victims. The Claims Conference works with roughly 20,000 survivors in the New York area, said its president, Gideon Taylor. It spent $69.7 million on them in 2020 — on things like home health care, food and medicine, social activities and dental care — and expects to spend $73 million in 2021, he said. On Wednesday, the conference announced a new program, funded by $13.5 million from the German government, to help survivors worldwide get vaccinated. It said the funds will pay for transportation to and from a vaccination site, counseling and follow-up care in dozens of countries. Studies have suggested that older people are better able to cope with hardship and turmoil than the young, but for Holocaust survivors the picture can be more complicated. The trauma of the Nazi genocide has indeed given them deep reserves of fortitude that helped them manage the pandemic, experts say. But that same trauma has lingered in their lives in ways that a year of isolation, anxiety and fear has done nothing to assuage. “The pandemic is in no way the same as the Holocaust, but we do know that events can trigger deep and painful memories, and that is what has happened here for many people,” Taylor said. “Is it safe to go outside? How will I get food? When will I see my friends and family? How long do I have to hide from the world?” He added: “The pandemic has been an intertwined story of renewed trauma and renewed resilience, both coexisting inside people at the same time.” Mayor Bill de Blasio said he was moved after attending a vaccination event for Holocaust survivors in Borough Park, Brooklyn, and dedicated part of one of his recent news conferences to talking about and showing photos of his visit. “I came away from this meeting, this moment with — just filled with hope and appreciation for a human strength and resilience and faith,” the mayor said at the news conference. Bertolino said she and her sister left Germany on April 13, 1939, as part of an effort organized by a prominent Jewish woman in Hamburg. Thousands of Jewish children escaped Nazi Germany in similar convoys, called Kindertransport, that left German-occupied lands in the spring and summer of 1939. Most of the convoys went to Britain, but all of them stopped when war began that fall. Bertolino said she lived with a Swedish foster family in the rural town of Mellerud for two years, a time she remembers as frightening but also filled with the kind of freedom she had never known under Nazi rule. She left the town after two years and moved to Stockholm to work and live with other young Jewish refugees in an apartment paid for by the local Jewish community. She never saw her family again. After the war she learned that her mother had been killed but her grandmother survived in the Theresienstadt concentration camp. Her grandmother went back to Hamburg and lived the rest of her days at a Jewish retirement home. Bertolino never got the chance to visit, but she can still recite its address. She got married, had a daughter and moved to New York. But her daughter, now 75, has dementia and lives with caretakers elsewhere in the city. Bertolino has not had much company lately, aside from a home health aide who comes in the mornings. Together, they watch the news sometimes. Lately, Bertolino has recoiled at reports of hate crimes targeting Asian Americans. “That is the kind of thing I have been on the receiving end of,” she said. “When I hear about things like that, it is like I can see my mother standing right in front of me.” To busy her mind and pass the time, she tries to think about good things. Affectionate squabbles she would have with her husband over taking out the trash. Recipes she used to make when standing at the stove was not so hard. How her mother might react to the idea of her daughter’s 97th birthday in May. And she repeats little sayings to keep her spirits up. A favorite: “What you cannot cure, you must endure.”

The push to vaccinate 20,000 Holocaust survivors in New York

French Culture Minister Roselyne Bachelot has announced that the country&nbsp;will return a masterpiece by&nbsp;Gustav&nbsp;Klimt&nbsp;to the heirs of its owner, more than 80 years after she was forced to sell it in the Nazi era.

'Rosiers sous les Arbres'&nbsp;or 'Rose Bushes Under Trees', painted by the Austrian artist around 1904-05, will be returned to the family of Holocaust victim Nora Stiasny, who&nbsp;had to sell the painting&nbsp;at a knockdown price to survive financially after the Nazis annexed Austria in 1938.

The art dealer, a Nazi sympathiser, held on to it until his death and France, unaware of its history, eventually bought it at auction for its Musee d'Orsay museum in 1980, the minister added.

"The restoration of looted items is an ardent obligation. It is the honour of the Republic to do so, the honour of France," she said.&nbsp;

The painting was bought in 1911 by Stiasny's uncle, a Jewish Austrian collector named Viktor Zuckerkandl.&nbsp;

She was forced to sell it very cheap shortly after the Nazis came to power in Austria in 1938 at a time when Jewish families were being frozen out of the economy.&nbsp;

It was bought by Stiasny's former lover, Philipp Haeusler, who had joined the Nazi party and managed to hide his past after the war.

Stiasny died in 1942 along with her husband and son. It is not clear whether they were in the Polish ghetto of Izbica or the Belzec concentration camp.&nbsp;

France acquired 'Rose Bushes Under Trees'&nbsp;from a Swiss gallery in 1980 for its soon-to-open Musee d'Orsay in Paris, knowing nothing of its violent history.&nbsp;

"The decision we've taken is obviously difficult. It means removing a master-work from the national collection that is the only painting by Gustav Klimt that France owns," said Bachelot.&nbsp;

"But I'm not heartbroken over it, quite the contrary."

She added that it had been a challenging process due to the destruction of evidence and the erosion of family memories.&nbsp;

The work will go to the descendants of Stiasny's sister, Hermine Mueller-Hofmann, who managed to escape the Holocaust.

French Culture Minister Roselyne Bachelot has announced that the country will return a masterpiece by Gustav Klimt to the heirs of its owner, more than 80 years after she was forced to sell it in the Nazi era.

French Culture Minister Roselyne Bachelot has announced that the country will return a masterpiece by Gustav Klimt to the heirs of its owner, more than 80 years after she was forced to sell it in the Nazi era. 'Rosiers sous les Arbres' or 'Rose Bushes Under Trees', painted by the Austrian artist around 1904-05, will be returned to the family of Holocaust victim Nora Stiasny, who had to sell the painting at a knockdown price to survive financially after the Nazis annexed Austria in 1938. The art dealer, a Nazi sympathiser, held on to it until his death and France, unaware of its history, eventually bought it at auction for its Musee d'Orsay museum in 1980, the minister added. "The restoration of looted items is an ardent obligation. It is the honour of the Republic to do so, the honour of France," she said. The painting was bought in 1911 by Stiasny's uncle, a Jewish Austrian collector named Viktor Zuckerkandl. She was forced to sell it very cheap shortly after the Nazis came to power in Austria in 1938 at a time when Jewish families were being frozen out of the economy. It was bought by Stiasny's former lover, Philipp Haeusler, who had joined the Nazi party and managed to hide his past after the war. Stiasny died in 1942 along with her husband and son. It is not clear whether they were in the Polish ghetto of Izbica or the Belzec concentration camp. France acquired 'Rose Bushes Under Trees' from a Swiss gallery in 1980 for its soon-to-open Musee d'Orsay in Paris, knowing nothing of its violent history. "The decision we've taken is obviously difficult. It means removing a master-work from the national collection that is the only painting by Gustav Klimt that France owns," said Bachelot. "But I'm not heartbroken over it, quite the contrary." She added that it had been a challenging process due to the destruction of evidence and the erosion of family memories. The work will go to the descendants of Stiasny's sister, Hermine Mueller-Hofmann, who managed to escape the Holocaust.

France to return Klimt painting looted by Nazis to Holocaust victim

A French Holocaust survivor battling with an American university over a painting by Camille Pissarro that was stolen by the Nazis went to court in Paris on Tuesday to try block the university from suing her for millions of dollars.

Leone-Noelle Meyer, 81, has for years been trying to recover Pissarro's impressionist "La Bergère rentrant des moutons", or Shepherdess Bringing in Sheep, which was seized from her adoptive parents during World War II.

The oil-on-canvas work dating to 1886 was acquired in the 1930s by Raoul Meyer, who ran the Paris department store Galeries Lafayette.

The painting was confiscated by Nazi forces in February 1941 and wound up in Switzerland at the end of the war before being bought by Aaron and Clara Weitzenhoffer, who bequeathed it to the University of Oklahoma in 2000.

On learning of its existence, Meyer -- who was orphaned during the war -- launched proceedings to recover the painting, which culminated in a 2016 deal recognising her as the painting's rightful owner.

But she is now seeking to have the deal overturned, angering the university which is threatening to sue her for millions of dollars.

Under the terms of the accord, the artwork was to be displayed in France for five years and then rotated between museums in Paris and Oklahoma every three years.&nbsp;

But Meyer wants to leave the painting to the Musee d'Orsay -- famous for its huge collection of Impressionist art -- and the museum has declined the gift, saying it fears that shipping it across the Atlantic every three years will be very costly and could damage the work.

The painting, which currently hangs in the Musee d'Orsay, is scheduled to return to the US in July.

'Contracts are sacred'

On Tuesday, Meyer went to court in Paris to demand that the university halt all legal action against her, echoing a move by the university against her in the US.

"Contracts are sacred," Olivier de Baecque, counsel for the university, argued in court.

"A transaction is sacred but what is more sacred still is returning an asset looted by the Gestapo," Meyer's lawyer Ron Soffer countered.

The court reserved judgement until April 13.

Several artworks stolen by the Nazis from Jewish families have been at the centre of court cases in Europe in recent years.&nbsp;

This is the second involving a painting by Pissarro.

In October 2018, an American couple on Tuesday lost their bid to keep ownership of the painting "La Cueillette" ("Picking Peas") which was looted from a French Jewish collector&nbsp;during World War II.

The American couple had argued they had no idea it was looted when they bought it at auction.

A French Holocaust survivor battling with an American university over a painting by Camille Pissarro that was stolen by the Nazis went to court in Paris on Tuesday to try block the university from suing her for millions of dollars.

A French Holocaust survivor battling with an American university over a painting by Camille Pissarro that was stolen by the Nazis went to court in Paris on Tuesday to try block the university from suing her for millions of dollars. Leone-Noelle Meyer, 81, has for years been trying to recover Pissarro's impressionist "La Bergère rentrant des moutons", or Shepherdess Bringing in Sheep, which was seized from her adoptive parents during World War II. The oil-on-canvas work dating to 1886 was acquired in the 1930s by Raoul Meyer, who ran the Paris department store Galeries Lafayette. The painting was confiscated by Nazi forces in February 1941 and wound up in Switzerland at the end of the war before being bought by Aaron and Clara Weitzenhoffer, who bequeathed it to the University of Oklahoma in 2000. On learning of its existence, Meyer -- who was orphaned during the war -- launched proceedings to recover the painting, which culminated in a 2016 deal recognising her as the painting's rightful owner. But she is now seeking to have the deal overturned, angering the university which is threatening to sue her for millions of dollars. Under the terms of the accord, the artwork was to be displayed in France for five years and then rotated between museums in Paris and Oklahoma every three years. But Meyer wants to leave the painting to the Musee d'Orsay -- famous for its huge collection of Impressionist art -- and the museum has declined the gift, saying it fears that shipping it across the Atlantic every three years will be very costly and could damage the work. The painting, which currently hangs in the Musee d'Orsay, is scheduled to return to the US in July. 'Contracts are sacred' On Tuesday, Meyer went to court in Paris to demand that the university halt all legal action against her, echoing a move by the university against her in the US. "Contracts are sacred," Olivier de Baecque, counsel for the university, argued in court. "A transaction is sacred but what is more sacred still is returning an asset looted by the Gestapo," Meyer's lawyer Ron Soffer countered. The court reserved judgement until April 13. Several artworks stolen by the Nazis from Jewish families have been at the centre of court cases in Europe in recent years. This is the second involving a painting by Pissarro. In October 2018, an American couple on Tuesday lost their bid to keep ownership of the painting "La Cueillette" ("Picking Peas") which was looted from a French Jewish collector during World War II. The American couple had argued they had no idea it was looted when they bought it at auction.

French Holocaust survivor battling with US university over Nazi-looted painting

Holocaust Remembrance Day: A look at Israel's hidden memorial

Emanuele Filiberto, the descendent of Italy'w wartime king Victor Emmanuel III apologised to country's Jewish community for monarchy's role in Holocaust.&nbsp;

"I condemn the 1938 racial laws, all of whose weight I still feel on my shoulders to this day, and with me the whole royal house," 48-year-old Emanuele Filiberto of Savoy said of his great-grandfather.

Victor Emmanuel III had put his signature to an "unacceptable document", he added in a letter posted to Facebook, "officially apologising" in the name of his family.

During the second world war, about 8000 Italian Jews were deported from the country and murdered in Nazi concentration camps.

Alongside the letter, Filiberto also gave a TV interview in which he mentioned royal family's positive role in Italian unification and granting equal rights to Jews from 1848.

Several Italian royals were themselves deported to Nazi concentration camps, he recalled.

After the war, Victor Emmanuel III abdicated in May 1946 and died the following year in Egypt.

His son Humbert II reigned for only a month before leaving for Switzerland when Italians opted for a republican constitution in a referendum.

Parliament only ended a constitutional ban on the House of Savoy's male heirs returning to Italy in 2002, after Emanuele Filiberto and his father Vittorio Emanuele swore loyalty to the republic.

The two men gave up on compensation claims demanding 260 million euros ($316 million) for their family's exile and the return of the royal family's confiscated property after a public outcry.

Emanuele Filiberto is married to French actress Clotilde Courau.

(With AFP inputs)

Emanuele Filiberto, the descendent of Italy'w wartime king Victor Emmanuel III apologised to country's Jewish community for monarchy's role in Holocaust. "I condemn the 1938 racial laws, all of whose weight I still feel on my shoulders to this day, and with me the whole royal house," 48-year-old Emanuele Filiberto of Savoy said of his great-grandfather.

Emanuele Filiberto, the descendent of Italy'w wartime king Victor Emmanuel III apologised to country's Jewish community for monarchy's role in Holocaust. "I condemn the 1938 racial laws, all of whose weight I still feel on my shoulders to this day, and with me the whole royal house," 48-year-old Emanuele Filiberto of Savoy said of his great-grandfather. Victor Emmanuel III had put his signature to an "unacceptable document", he added in a letter posted to Facebook, "officially apologising" in the name of his family. During the second world war, about 8000 Italian Jews were deported from the country and murdered in Nazi concentration camps. Alongside the letter, Filiberto also gave a TV interview in which he mentioned royal family's positive role in Italian unification and granting equal rights to Jews from 1848. Several Italian royals were themselves deported to Nazi concentration camps, he recalled. After the war, Victor Emmanuel III abdicated in May 1946 and died the following year in Egypt. His son Humbert II reigned for only a month before leaving for Switzerland when Italians opted for a republican constitution in a referendum. Parliament only ended a constitutional ban on the House of Savoy's male heirs returning to Italy in 2002, after Emanuele Filiberto and his father Vittorio Emanuele swore loyalty to the republic. The two men gave up on compensation claims demanding 260 million euros ($316 million) for their family's exile and the return of the royal family's confiscated property after a public outcry. Emanuele Filiberto is married to French actress Clotilde Courau. (With AFP inputs)

Italian king's heir apologises for monarchy's role in Holocaust during second world war

Jews population in Europe has declined by more than 60 per cent in the last 50 years and only 0.1 per cent of the continent's population comprises Jews, a study has shown.

According to a study by the London-based Institute for Jewish Policy Research, now only about 9 per cent of the total Jewish population globally resides in Europe, which was 90 per cent in the latter part of the 19th century but was of similar levels about 1,000 years ago.&nbsp;

Also read | <a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/even-in-the-pandemic-jews-flown-to-jerusalem-for-burial-296465">Even in the pandemic, Jews flown to Jerusalem for burial</a>&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;

It said 1.3 million Jews live in Europe in 2020, nearly 0.1 per cent of the continent's population and two-thirds of these people live in the UK, Germany and France.&nbsp;

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"Jews have not only been an integral part of European history and culture but are actually one of its oldest and original component groups," the report said, as quoted by The Guardian.

"However, throughout history, the inherent weakness of a landless and powerless minority vis-a-vis territorially based societies and their constituted powers often put the Jewish people in a condition of dependency and instability, and translated into powerful ups and downs in the Jewish presence."

The Holocaust under Hitler in the first half of the 20th century which led to killings of about 6 million Jews reduced Jews' population to around 11 million, the study noted.

It said in the last decades of the 20th century, the "opening of the doors of the Soviet Union" led to over 1.8 million Jews leaving eastern Europe between 1969 and 2020, which ultimately caused "a drastic shift in the Jewish population's centre of gravity from the east to the west of the continent".

In 1880, 88 per cent of the world's Jews resided in Europe. By 1945, this percentage had declined to 35 per cent and then to 26 per cent and 9 per cent in 1970 and 2020 respectively, the study said.

Jews population in Europe has declined by more than 60 per cent in the last 50 years and only 0.1 per cent of the continent's population comprises Jews, a study has shown.

Jews population in Europe has declined by more than 60 per cent in the last 50 years and only 0.1 per cent of the continent's population comprises Jews, a study has shown. According to a study by the London-based Institute for Jewish Policy Research, now only about 9 per cent of the total Jewish population globally resides in Europe, which was 90 per cent in the latter part of the 19th century but was of similar levels about 1,000 years ago. Also read | Even in the pandemic, Jews flown to Jerusalem for burial It said 1.3 million Jews live in Europe in 2020, nearly 0.1 per cent of the continent's population and two-thirds of these people live in the UK, Germany and France. Also read | As COVID-19 continues to spread, Jews urged not to kiss the Western Wall "Jews have not only been an integral part of European history and culture but are actually one of its oldest and original component groups," the report said, as quoted by The Guardian. "However, throughout history, the inherent weakness of a landless and powerless minority vis-a-vis territorially based societies and their constituted powers often put the Jewish people in a condition of dependency and instability, and translated into powerful ups and downs in the Jewish presence." The Holocaust under Hitler in the first half of the 20th century which led to killings of about 6 million Jews reduced Jews' population to around 11 million, the study noted. It said in the last decades of the 20th century, the "opening of the doors of the Soviet Union" led to over 1.8 million Jews leaving eastern Europe between 1969 and 2020, which ultimately caused "a drastic shift in the Jewish population's centre of gravity from the east to the west of the continent". In 1880, 88 per cent of the world's Jews resided in Europe. By 1945, this percentage had declined to 35 per cent and then to 26 per cent and 9 per cent in 1970 and 2020 respectively, the study said.

Jewish population declined over 60% in Europe in last 50 years: Study

Facebook announced Monday that it will ban content that denies or distorts the Holocaust, describing the move as its latest effort to free the platform of hate.

The social media giant, which has long been criticized for not doing enough to disempower Holocaust deniers and other hate groups, said it would redirect users who search for terms about the Holocaust or its denial "to credible information off Facebook," according to a company statement.

"Our decision is supported by the well-documented rise in anti-Semitism globally and the alarming level of ignorance about the Holocaust, especially among young people," said a statement by Facebook vice president of content policy Monika Bickert.

Bickert cited a survey that showed almost a quarter of young adults in the United States saying the Holocaust was a myth or had been exaggerated.

Bickert described the steps on Holocaust denial content as part of its stepped-up effort to address hate after the company earlier banned more than 250 white supremacist groups, took down 22.5 million pieces of hate speech in the second quarter and banned anti-Semitic stereotypes.

She cautioned that the change will take time.

"Enforcement of these policies cannot happen overnight," Bickert said. "There is a range of content that can violate these policies, and it will take some time to train our reviewers and systems on enforcement."

Facebook's move was applauded by Anti-Defamation League Chief Executive Jonathan Greenblatt, who called the action "a big deal."

"This has been years in the making," Greenblatt said on Twitter. "Glad it finally happened."

Facebook announced Monday that it will ban content that denies or distorts the Holocaust, describing the move as its latest effort to free the platform of hate. The social media giant, which has long been criticized for not doing enough to disempower Holocaust deniers and other hate groups, said it would redirect users who search for terms about the Holocaust or its denial "to credible information off Facebook," according to a company statement.

Facebook announced Monday that it will ban content that denies or distorts the Holocaust, describing the move as its latest effort to free the platform of hate. The social media giant, which has long been criticized for not doing enough to disempower Holocaust deniers and other hate groups, said it would redirect users who search for terms about the Holocaust or its denial "to credible information off Facebook," according to a company statement. "Our decision is supported by the well-documented rise in anti-Semitism globally and the alarming level of ignorance about the Holocaust, especially among young people," said a statement by Facebook vice president of content policy Monika Bickert. Bickert cited a survey that showed almost a quarter of young adults in the United States saying the Holocaust was a myth or had been exaggerated. Bickert described the steps on Holocaust denial content as part of its stepped-up effort to address hate after the company earlier banned more than 250 white supremacist groups, took down 22.5 million pieces of hate speech in the second quarter and banned anti-Semitic stereotypes. She cautioned that the change will take time. "Enforcement of these policies cannot happen overnight," Bickert said. "There is a range of content that can violate these policies, and it will take some time to train our reviewers and systems on enforcement." Facebook's move was applauded by Anti-Defamation League Chief Executive Jonathan Greenblatt, who called the action "a big deal." "This has been years in the making," Greenblatt said on Twitter. "Glad it finally happened."

Facebook to ban Holocaust denial content

Facebook Inc on Monday announced plans to update its hate speech policy to ensure no content that distorts or denies the Holocaust gets any visibility on its platform.

According to the company, starting later in 2020, Facebook will link information, i.e., people looking for terms associated with the Holocaust would be rerouted to credible information on other websites/portals.

In 2018, Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg had opposed deletion of such content. During an interview with website Recode, Zuckerberg had claimed that he found denial of Holocaust very offensive, but also believed Facebook should not delete content, citing the tension between free expression and the harm it causes.

Also read:&nbsp;<a href="http://13.235.153.162/technology/us-election-2020-facebook-to-temporarily-stop-posting-political-ads-in-us-after-presidential-election-333894" hreflang="en">Facebook to temporarily stop posting political ads in US after presidential election</a>

"I've struggled with the tension between standing for free expression and the harm caused by minimizing or denying the horror of the Holocaust," Zuckerberg, who is Jewish, said on Facebook on Monday.

"My own thinking has evolved as I've seen data showing an increase in anti-Semitic violence, as have our wider policies on hate speech," he said.

The decision was praised by the World Jewish Congress and the American Jewish Committee.

Also read:&nbsp;<a href="http://13.235.153.162/world/facebook-classifies-qanon-as-dangerous-bans-groups-and-accounts-333040" hreflang="en">Facebook classifies QAnon as dangerous, bans groups and accounts</a>

"For several years, the World Jewish Congress has advocated for Facebook to remove Holocaust denial content from its platform, and has worked with the social media company’s policy teams to review such posts and classify them as hate speech under the company’s community standards," the World Jewish Congress said in a statement.

"Enforcement of these policies cannot happen overnight," Facebook announced in a blog post. "There is a range of content that can violate these policies, and it will take some time to train our reviewers and systems on enforcement”, the post added.

Facebook Inc on Monday announced plans to update its hate speech policy to ensure no content that distorts or denies the Holocaust gets any visibility on its platform.

Facebook Inc on Monday announced plans to update its hate speech policy to ensure no content that distorts or denies the Holocaust gets any visibility on its platform. According to the company, starting later in 2020, Facebook will link information, i.e., people looking for terms associated with the Holocaust would be rerouted to credible information on other websites/portals. In 2018, Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg had opposed deletion of such content. During an interview with website Recode, Zuckerberg had claimed that he found denial of Holocaust very offensive, but also believed Facebook should not delete content, citing the tension between free expression and the harm it causes. Also read: Facebook to temporarily stop posting political ads in US after presidential election "I've struggled with the tension between standing for free expression and the harm caused by minimizing or denying the horror of the Holocaust," Zuckerberg, who is Jewish, said on Facebook on Monday. "My own thinking has evolved as I've seen data showing an increase in anti-Semitic violence, as have our wider policies on hate speech," he said. The decision was praised by the World Jewish Congress and the American Jewish Committee. Also read: Facebook classifies QAnon as dangerous, bans groups and accounts "For several years, the World Jewish Congress has advocated for Facebook to remove Holocaust denial content from its platform, and has worked with the social media company’s policy teams to review such posts and classify them as hate speech under the company’s community standards," the World Jewish Congress said in a statement. "Enforcement of these policies cannot happen overnight," Facebook announced in a blog post. "There is a range of content that can violate these policies, and it will take some time to train our reviewers and systems on enforcement”, the post added.

Facebook to ban content which denies and distorts the Holocaust

Prize-winning author and Holocaust survivor Ruth Klueger has died aged 88 at her home in California, her Austrian publisher said Wednesday.

The Zsolnay publishing house confirmed to AFP that Klueger had passed away on the night between Monday and Tuesday after a long illness.&nbsp;

Klueger, who received many prestigious awards for her writing about her experience during the Holocaust, was also known for her outspoken stance on Nazi Germany's atrocities.

"We survivors are not responsible for forgiveness. I perceived resentment as an appropriate feeling for an injustice that can never be atoned for," Klueger once told Austrian media.

Born in Vienna in 1931, Klueger was 10 years old when the Nazi regime separated her from her father, a Jewish gynaecologist, and deported her and her mother, a nurse, to the Theresienstadt concentration camp.

They were later moved to Auschwitz-Birkenau, where Klueger, now 12, began composing poetry in her head.&nbsp;

Her father and half-brother were killed, but the two women ended up in Christianstadt concentration camp and managed to escape during a so-called death march.

In 1947, Klueger and her mother emigrated to the US, where she studied library sciences and German in New York and at the University of Berkley, California.

She turned to writing about her own life after almost dying in a traffic accident in Germany.

"Still Alive: A Holocaust Girlhood remembered" was among her most renowned and critically acclaimed works, described as "an unforgettable example of humanity" by Le Monde.

When her mother died in 2000, Klueger wrote that she "felt a sense of triumph, because this had been a human death, because she had survived and outlived the evil times and had died in her own good time, almost 100 years after she was born."

"Rarely does one meet people who have as much magnetism as Ruth Klueger," Herbert Ohrlinger, the head of Zsolnay, said in a statement.

"What she experienced in her life, how she dealt with those experiences and what she made of them, is extraordinary," he said, adding it had been a "privilege" to know and work with her.&nbsp;

Toward the end of her life, Klueger grew increasingly political, describing German Chancellor Angela Merkel as "heroic" for her pro-migration stance.&nbsp;

"This country, which was responsible for the worst crimes of the century, has won the applause of the world today," the then 84-year-old scholar told the German parliament in 2016.&nbsp;

Prize-winning author and Holocaust survivor Ruth Klueger has died aged 88 at her home in California, her Austrian publisher said Wednesday. The Zsolnay publishing house confirmed to AFP that Klueger had passed away on the night between Monday and Tuesday after a long illness.

Prize-winning author and Holocaust survivor Ruth Klueger has died aged 88 at her home in California, her Austrian publisher said Wednesday. The Zsolnay publishing house confirmed to AFP that Klueger had passed away on the night between Monday and Tuesday after a long illness. Klueger, who received many prestigious awards for her writing about her experience during the Holocaust, was also known for her outspoken stance on Nazi Germany's atrocities. "We survivors are not responsible for forgiveness. I perceived resentment as an appropriate feeling for an injustice that can never be atoned for," Klueger once told Austrian media. Born in Vienna in 1931, Klueger was 10 years old when the Nazi regime separated her from her father, a Jewish gynaecologist, and deported her and her mother, a nurse, to the Theresienstadt concentration camp. They were later moved to Auschwitz-Birkenau, where Klueger, now 12, began composing poetry in her head. Her father and half-brother were killed, but the two women ended up in Christianstadt concentration camp and managed to escape during a so-called death march. In 1947, Klueger and her mother emigrated to the US, where she studied library sciences and German in New York and at the University of Berkley, California. She turned to writing about her own life after almost dying in a traffic accident in Germany. "Still Alive: A Holocaust Girlhood remembered" was among her most renowned and critically acclaimed works, described as "an unforgettable example of humanity" by Le Monde. When her mother died in 2000, Klueger wrote that she "felt a sense of triumph, because this had been a human death, because she had survived and outlived the evil times and had died in her own good time, almost 100 years after she was born." "Rarely does one meet people who have as much magnetism as Ruth Klueger," Herbert Ohrlinger, the head of Zsolnay, said in a statement. "What she experienced in her life, how she dealt with those experiences and what she made of them, is extraordinary," he said, adding it had been a "privilege" to know and work with her. Toward the end of her life, Klueger grew increasingly political, describing German Chancellor Angela Merkel as "heroic" for her pro-migration stance. "This country, which was responsible for the worst crimes of the century, has won the applause of the world today," the then 84-year-old scholar told the German parliament in 2016.

Renowned author and Holocaust survivor Ruth Klueger dies at 88

Trouble doesn't seem to be ending for the short-video sharing app TikTok. After a ban in India and a possible ban in the US, TikTok has landed in yet another trouble. But this time, it is a TikTok 'trend' that has crossed a line.

In a recently started TikTok trend, the users have started to dress-up and do a roleplay of&nbsp;Holocaust victims. The participants of the trend are recording short videos telling their made-up stories of how they survived the Holocaust, or how torturous the situation was during that time.&nbsp;

Some of them have gone to the limit of wearing the inmate uniform and/or also one of the armbands marked with the Star of David that Jews were ordered to wear. Some can even be seen sporting fake bruises and scars.

Also read:&nbsp;

However, while it has become popular on the ByteDance-owned app, this trend has attracted a lot of criticism from the non-TikTok users.&nbsp;The Auschwitz museum, which is&nbsp;at the site of the former Nazi death camp in Poland, took to Twitter to condemn this new trend. Calling it 'hurtful and offensive', the museum authorities said, "Some videos are dangerously close or already beyond the border of trivialization of history."

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The 'victims' trend on TikTok can be hurtful &amp; offensive. Some videos are dangerously close or already beyond the border of trivialization of history. 
 
But we should discuss this not to shame &amp; attack young people whose motivation seem very diverse. It's an educational challenge. <a href="https://t.co/CB4Ve2uRUK">pic.twitter.com/CB4Ve2uRUK</a>
— Auschwitz Memorial (@AuschwitzMuseum) <a href="https://twitter.com/AuschwitzMuseum/status/1298625376084807680?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 26, 2020</a></blockquote>
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“Some were not created to commemorate anyone, but to become part of an online trend. This is very painful.," the statement read.

However, the authorities have also acknowledged that they understand that the intentions behind these videos were not to hurt anyone. “But we should discuss this, not to shame &amp; attack young people whose motivation seem very diverse,” it added.

The museum has requested youngsters to be more respectful towards the victims and their stories as "the stories of people who were imprisoned and murdered in Auschwitz are incredibly tragic, painful and emotional".

Trouble doesn't seem to be ending for the short-video sharing app TikTok. After a ban in India and a possible ban in the US, TikTok has landed in yet another trouble.

Trouble doesn't seem to be ending for the short-video sharing app TikTok. After a ban in India and a possible ban in the US, TikTok has landed in yet another trouble. But this time, it is a TikTok 'trend' that has crossed a line. In a recently started TikTok trend, the users have started to dress-up and do a roleplay of Holocaust victims. The participants of the trend are recording short videos telling their made-up stories of how they survived the Holocaust, or how torturous the situation was during that time. Some of them have gone to the limit of wearing the inmate uniform and/or also one of the armbands marked with the Star of David that Jews were ordered to wear. Some can even be seen sporting fake bruises and scars. Also read: However, while it has become popular on the ByteDance-owned app, this trend has attracted a lot of criticism from the non-TikTok users. The Auschwitz museum, which is at the site of the former Nazi death camp in Poland, took to Twitter to condemn this new trend. Calling it 'hurtful and offensive', the museum authorities said, "Some videos are dangerously close or already beyond the border of trivialization of history." The 'victims' trend on TikTok can be hurtful & offensive. Some videos are dangerously close or already beyond the border of trivialization of history. But we should discuss this not to shame & attack young people whose motivation seem very diverse. It's an educational challenge. pic.twitter.com/CB4Ve2uRUK — Auschwitz Memorial (@AuschwitzMuseum) August 26, 2020 × “Some were not created to commemorate anyone, but to become part of an online trend. This is very painful.," the statement read. However, the authorities have also acknowledged that they understand that the intentions behind these videos were not to hurt anyone. “But we should discuss this, not to shame & attack young people whose motivation seem very diverse,” it added. The museum has requested youngsters to be more respectful towards the victims and their stories as "the stories of people who were imprisoned and murdered in Auschwitz are incredibly tragic, painful and emotional".

TikTok in trouble again with an 'offensive' Holocaust trend

French President Emmanuel Macron on Saturday vowed that everything would be done to find out who defaced a memorial for one of the worst single massacres in France by the Nazis during World War II.

The graffiti denying the Holocaust found at a memorial centre in the French village of Oradour-sur-Glane this week has also led Prime Minister Jean Castex to call for justice.

Politicians from across the spectrum denounced the desecration of the main entrance sign for the memorial at Oradour-sur-Glane in central France, where 642 people were slaughtered on June 10, 1944 by a German SS division.

"Liar" had been painted over the words "martyr" and "when the truth" on a wall at the Centere de la Mémoire, a memory centre honouring those slain in the World War II massacre that took place in the village where the centre is located.

A blue cover was placed over the sign on Saturday, but images on social media accounts indicated the word in French for "liar" had been added next to it along with other slogans claiming to deny the massacre had taken place.

The inscriptions were discovered on Friday morning when the memorial centre opened, its president Fabrice Escure told AFP.

Police are searching for those responsible.

The village of Oradour-sur-Glane was the site of a massacre in World War II, when German troops destroyed the entire village on June 10, 1944, killing 642 people.

The Elysee released a statement about the incident, saying that French President Emmanuel Macron "condemns this unspeakable act in the strongest possible terms. He gives his full support to the mayor and the municipality. He assures them that everything will be done so that the perpetrators of this act are brought to justice."

Macron also commented Saturday on Twitter, saying, "Nothing can make us forget the memory of our 642 martyrs of Oradour-sur-Glane."

On the other hand, PM Castex posted on Twitter: "I learned with anger and consternation of the degradation of the memory center of Oradour-sur-Glane. To sully this place of refuge is also to sully the memory of our martyrs. Everything is being done to ensure that the perpetrators of these infamous acts are brought to justice."

The anti-Semitic incident is the latest addition to the growing list. In 2018, it was announced that anti-Semitic acts in France had risen by 69 per cent.

The incident comes amid growing concern in France over remembering World War II, after repeated vandalisation attacks on Jewish cemeteries.

French President Emmanuel Macron on Saturday vowed that everything would be done to find out who defaced a memorial for one of the worst single massacres in France by the Nazis during World War II.

French President Emmanuel Macron on Saturday vowed that everything would be done to find out who defaced a memorial for one of the worst single massacres in France by the Nazis during World War II. The graffiti denying the Holocaust found at a memorial centre in the French village of Oradour-sur-Glane this week has also led Prime Minister Jean Castex to call for justice. Politicians from across the spectrum denounced the desecration of the main entrance sign for the memorial at Oradour-sur-Glane in central France, where 642 people were slaughtered on June 10, 1944 by a German SS division. "Liar" had been painted over the words "martyr" and "when the truth" on a wall at the Centere de la Mémoire, a memory centre honouring those slain in the World War II massacre that took place in the village where the centre is located. A blue cover was placed over the sign on Saturday, but images on social media accounts indicated the word in French for "liar" had been added next to it along with other slogans claiming to deny the massacre had taken place. The inscriptions were discovered on Friday morning when the memorial centre opened, its president Fabrice Escure told AFP. Police are searching for those responsible. The village of Oradour-sur-Glane was the site of a massacre in World War II, when German troops destroyed the entire village on June 10, 1944, killing 642 people. The Elysee released a statement about the incident, saying that French President Emmanuel Macron "condemns this unspeakable act in the strongest possible terms. He gives his full support to the mayor and the municipality. He assures them that everything will be done so that the perpetrators of this act are brought to justice." Macron also commented Saturday on Twitter, saying, "Nothing can make us forget the memory of our 642 martyrs of Oradour-sur-Glane." On the other hand, PM Castex posted on Twitter: "I learned with anger and consternation of the degradation of the memory center of Oradour-sur-Glane. To sully this place of refuge is also to sully the memory of our martyrs. Everything is being done to ensure that the perpetrators of these infamous acts are brought to justice." The anti-Semitic incident is the latest addition to the growing list. In 2018, it was announced that anti-Semitic acts in France had risen by 69 per cent. The incident comes amid growing concern in France over remembering World War II, after repeated vandalisation attacks on Jewish cemeteries.

Outrage in France after graffiti denying the Holocaust found at massacre site

With the salute, Swastika, skinheads, racial hate, the Neo-Nazi movement is horrifying.&nbsp;

The tragedy that happened 75 years ago must not be forgotten and the holocaust must be kept in the public consciousness.&nbsp;

Watch |&nbsp;

<div class="videoWrapper trancodeVideo"><iframe allowfullscreen="" autoplay="1" class="includeVideo" frameborder="0" height="350" src="https://www.wionews.com/videos/gravitas-historic-israel-germany-air-exercise-322270/embed" style="width:100%;max-width:560px;" width="560"></iframe></div>

On the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the Holocaust, Israel and Germany harbour the memory of a ghastly past.&nbsp;

Also read&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/why-sale-of-f-35s-to-uae-threatens-israel-peace-agreement-322003">Why sale of F-35s to UAE threatens Israel peace agreement</a>

Both the countries have come together to create a better history as Germany has welcomed Israeli air force into its airspace for the first time ever.&nbsp;

The joint exercise is much more than simulated dogfights, air-to-ground battles or chafing missile threats.&nbsp;

Both German and Israeli pilots value the joint commemoration of the holocaust more than anything even flying.&nbsp;

The most significant part of the exercise came at Dachau, where a Nazi camp built in 1933 served as a model for similar camps that followed.&nbsp;

More than 40,000 Jews were killed at Dachau during the Second World War.&nbsp;

For the Israelis, the joint flypast over the camp was an emotional moment.&nbsp;

Along with Holocaust survivors, several high-profile people witnessed the event, including Israel Ambassador Jeremy Issacharoff and German Defence Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, who paid tributes to the Jews who were killed at the camp.&nbsp;

"From this, let us draw the strength to continue our commitment to the security of both our nations and to defending the universal values of freedom and human dignity that were betrayed so cruelly and terribly in this place," Kramp-Karrenbauer said. &nbsp;

The camp is a reminder to Germany as it grapples with a rise in antisemitism.&nbsp;

And, the Israeli Ambassador has sought an ultimate guarantee that the horrors that this place witnessed will never happen again.&nbsp; 
&nbsp;

With the salute, Swastika, skinheads, racial hate, the Neo-Nazi movement is horrifying. The tragedy that happened 75 years ago must not be forgotten and the holocaust must be kept in the public consciousness.

With the salute, Swastika, skinheads, racial hate, the Neo-Nazi movement is horrifying. The tragedy that happened 75 years ago must not be forgotten and the holocaust must be kept in the public consciousness. Watch | On the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the Holocaust, Israel and Germany harbour the memory of a ghastly past. Also read | Why sale of F-35s to UAE threatens Israel peace agreement Both the countries have come together to create a better history as Germany has welcomed Israeli air force into its airspace for the first time ever. The joint exercise is much more than simulated dogfights, air-to-ground battles or chafing missile threats. Both German and Israeli pilots value the joint commemoration of the holocaust more than anything even flying. The most significant part of the exercise came at Dachau, where a Nazi camp built in 1933 served as a model for similar camps that followed. More than 40,000 Jews were killed at Dachau during the Second World War. For the Israelis, the joint flypast over the camp was an emotional moment. Along with Holocaust survivors, several high-profile people witnessed the event, including Israel Ambassador Jeremy Issacharoff and German Defence Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, who paid tributes to the Jews who were killed at the camp. "From this, let us draw the strength to continue our commitment to the security of both our nations and to defending the universal values of freedom and human dignity that were betrayed so cruelly and terribly in this place," Kramp-Karrenbauer said. The camp is a reminder to Germany as it grapples with a rise in antisemitism. And, the Israeli Ambassador has sought an ultimate guarantee that the horrors that this place witnessed will never happen again.

Amid Neo-Nazi threat, Germany remembers dark past with Israel

An online holocaust memorial event in Germany organized by the Israeli embassy was disrupted during Zoom video conferencing after a survivor began sharing his story.&nbsp;

Jeremy Issacharoff, Israel’s ambassador to Germany said: "During a Zoom meeting on the eve of holocaust memorial day by the embassy of Israel in Berlin that hosted survivor Zvi Herschel, anti-Israel activists disrupted his talk posting pictures of Hitler and shouting anti-semitic slogans. The event had to be suspended."

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During a zoom meeting on the eve of <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Holocaust?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Holocaust</a> Memorial Day by the Embassy of Israel in Berlin that hosted survivor Zvi Herschel, anti-Israel activists disrupted his talk posting pictures of Hitler and shouting anti-Semitic slogans. The event had to be suspended. 1/
— Jeremy Issacharoff (@JIssacharoff) <a href="https://twitter.com/JIssacharoff/status/1252471414617186305?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 21, 2020</a></blockquote>
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"After a short break the event was reconvened without the activists and conducted in an appropriate and respectful way," Issacharoff said, adding,"to dishonour the memory of the holocaust and the dignity of the survivor is beyond shame and disgrace and shows the blatant antisemitic nature of the activists."

The Remembrance Day could not be held due to the coronavirus pandemic and rules restricting gatherings in Germany which has reported several thousand cases of COVID-19&nbsp;with over three thousand deaths.

The online event was held to sanctify the memory of six million Jews murdered by Nazi Germany during Hitler's regime.&nbsp;

Herschel, a child survivor of the holocaust&nbsp;said the event had just started when it was "gatecrashed" by anonymous protesters.

They shouted "Palestine, Palestine" and showed "porno pictures, Hitler pictures, a Swastika... all sorts of things," Herschel told AFP

German foreign minister Heiko Maas said it was an "incredible lack of respect toward survivors and the memory of the deceased", adding, "it's an indescribable disgrace."

The identity of the anti-Semitic protesters could not be ascertained.

An online holocaust memorial event in Germany organized by the Israeli embassy was disrupted during Zoom video conferencing after a survivor began sharing his story.

An online holocaust memorial event in Germany organized by the Israeli embassy was disrupted during Zoom video conferencing after a survivor began sharing his story. Jeremy Issacharoff, Israel’s ambassador to Germany said: "During a Zoom meeting on the eve of holocaust memorial day by the embassy of Israel in Berlin that hosted survivor Zvi Herschel, anti-Israel activists disrupted his talk posting pictures of Hitler and shouting anti-semitic slogans. The event had to be suspended." During a zoom meeting on the eve of #Holocaust Memorial Day by the Embassy of Israel in Berlin that hosted survivor Zvi Herschel, anti-Israel activists disrupted his talk posting pictures of Hitler and shouting anti-Semitic slogans. The event had to be suspended. 1/ — Jeremy Issacharoff (@JIssacharoff) April 21, 2020 × "After a short break the event was reconvened without the activists and conducted in an appropriate and respectful way," Issacharoff said, adding,"to dishonour the memory of the holocaust and the dignity of the survivor is beyond shame and disgrace and shows the blatant antisemitic nature of the activists." The Remembrance Day could not be held due to the coronavirus pandemic and rules restricting gatherings in Germany which has reported several thousand cases of COVID-19 with over three thousand deaths. The online event was held to sanctify the memory of six million Jews murdered by Nazi Germany during Hitler's regime. Herschel, a child survivor of the holocaust said the event had just started when it was "gatecrashed" by anonymous protesters. They shouted "Palestine, Palestine" and showed "porno pictures, Hitler pictures, a Swastika... all sorts of things," Herschel told AFP German foreign minister Heiko Maas said it was an "incredible lack of respect toward survivors and the memory of the deceased", adding, "it's an indescribable disgrace." The identity of the anti-Semitic protesters could not be ascertained.

Online holocaust event on Zoom disrupted by anti-Semitic protesters in Germany

An 88-year-old, who became Israel's first coronavirus fatality, had famously been a Holocaust survivor.

Arie Even contracted coronavirus&nbsp;by a visiting social worker at his Jerusalem assisted-living facility.

As a child in Hungary, he survived the Holocaust by taking shelter along with his mother and brother after his father was shipped to a notorious concentration camp.

Even's grandfather had then found them refuge in a Swiss-protected home in Budapest before they were rushed to another shelter, under the cover of night, thanks to the Swedish embassy and the efforts of famed diplomat Raoul Wallenberg, who saved tens of thousands of Jews before mysteriously disappearing.

The next day, Even's grandfather was shot to death and his body was dumped in the Danube River.

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/in-the-time-of-coronavirus-this-is-the-safest-place-in-us-293140">Also read | In the time of coronavirus, this is the 'safest place' in US</a>

Struggles did not spare Even's life even in the later stages. He overcame multiple heart attacks, surgeries and even a brush with a cholera epidemic during a family visit to Spain.&nbsp;

Arie Even couldn't escape the wrath of the global coronavirus pandemic that has been plaguing the globe. He breathed his last on March 20.

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/us-covid-19-toll-passes-32000-probable-virus-deaths-included-293016">Also read |&nbsp;US COVID-19 toll passes 32,000; 'probable' virus deaths included</a>

An 88-year-old, who became Israel's first coronavirus fatality, had famously been a Holocaust survivor. Arie Even contracted coronavirus by a visiting social worker at his Jerusalem assisted-living facility.

An 88-year-old, who became Israel's first coronavirus fatality, had famously been a Holocaust survivor. Arie Even contracted coronavirus by a visiting social worker at his Jerusalem assisted-living facility. As a child in Hungary, he survived the Holocaust by taking shelter along with his mother and brother after his father was shipped to a notorious concentration camp. Even's grandfather had then found them refuge in a Swiss-protected home in Budapest before they were rushed to another shelter, under the cover of night, thanks to the Swedish embassy and the efforts of famed diplomat Raoul Wallenberg, who saved tens of thousands of Jews before mysteriously disappearing. The next day, Even's grandfather was shot to death and his body was dumped in the Danube River. Also read | In the time of coronavirus, this is the 'safest place' in US Struggles did not spare Even's life even in the later stages. He overcame multiple heart attacks, surgeries and even a brush with a cholera epidemic during a family visit to Spain. Arie Even couldn't escape the wrath of the global coronavirus pandemic that has been plaguing the globe. He breathed his last on March 20. Also read | US COVID-19 toll passes 32,000; 'probable' virus deaths included

Israel's first coronavirus victim was a Holocaust survivor

E-commerce website Amazon has banned the sale books spreading Nazi propaganda including Adolf Hitler's autobiography 'Mein Kampf' from its online store.

The teach giant informed booksellers that they will no longer be permitted to sell a number of books written by Nazi authors spreading ideas of anti-semitism among children.

Also see: <a href="https://www.wionews.com/photos/adolf-hitlers-love-for-music-and-art-283725">Adolf Hitler's love for music and art</a>

The website in an email to booksellers said that ''they can no longer offer these books'' as they break its code of conduct.&nbsp;

The ban follows decades of campaigning by Holocaust charities.

Also read: <a href="https://www.wionews.com/entertainment/amazon-in-holocaust-row-about-hunters-series-anti-semitic-books-282252">Amazon in Holocaust row about 'Hunters' series, anti-Semitic books</a>

Interestingly, leading Holocaust education charities and Jewish groups have campaigned since the late 1990s to stop Amazon from selling copies of Mein Kampf but the retailer had traditionally defended the right of free speech and the need for students to understand Hitler’s thinking when it comes to selling a book which is legal to publish.&nbsp;

Although most Nazi publications are easily available to download for free from other websites.

Dozens of cheap Kindle eBook editions of Mein Kampf have also been deleted from Amazon’s listings, along with Hitler’s Amazon author page, which encouraged individuals to follow for author updates and for information on new releases.

Other books that were banned included 'The Poisonous Mushroom'&nbsp;and 'The Mongrel,'&nbsp;both written by Third Reich publisher Julius Streicher, who was later executed for crimes against humanity for managing a Nazi newspaper.&nbsp;

E-commerce website Amazon has banned the sale books spreading Nazi propaganda including Adolf Hitler's autobiography 'Mein Kampf' from its online store. The teach giant informed booksellers that they will no longer be permitted to sell a number of books written by Nazi authors spreading ideas of anti-semitism among children.

E-commerce website Amazon has banned the sale books spreading Nazi propaganda including Adolf Hitler's autobiography 'Mein Kampf' from its online store. The teach giant informed booksellers that they will no longer be permitted to sell a number of books written by Nazi authors spreading ideas of anti-semitism among children. Also see: Adolf Hitler's love for music and art The website in an email to booksellers said that ''they can no longer offer these books'' as they break its code of conduct. The ban follows decades of campaigning by Holocaust charities. Also read: Amazon in Holocaust row about 'Hunters' series, anti-Semitic books Interestingly, leading Holocaust education charities and Jewish groups have campaigned since the late 1990s to stop Amazon from selling copies of Mein Kampf but the retailer had traditionally defended the right of free speech and the need for students to understand Hitler’s thinking when it comes to selling a book which is legal to publish. Although most Nazi publications are easily available to download for free from other websites. Dozens of cheap Kindle eBook editions of Mein Kampf have also been deleted from Amazon’s listings, along with Hitler’s Amazon author page, which encouraged individuals to follow for author updates and for information on new releases. Other books that were banned included 'The Poisonous Mushroom' and 'The Mongrel,' both written by Third Reich publisher Julius Streicher, who was later executed for crimes against humanity for managing a Nazi newspaper.

Amazon bans sale of most Nazi propaganda books citing anti-semitism

Did you know that Adolf Hitler, the man behind one of the worst genocides in history, the dictator was responsible for the Holocaust which led to the deaths, rapes and torture of millions of Jews? Hitler at some time of his early years was hoping to be a composer. Watch report to know more:

Hitler's opera composition on displayed in Austria, Objects collected by August Kubizek

The&nbsp;number&nbsp;of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/thousands-march-in-new-york-city-against-anti-semitism-in-wake-of-attacks-272505">anti-Semitic</a>&nbsp;incidents&nbsp;logged&nbsp;in&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/finally-british-lawmakers-approve-historic-brexit-deal-273275">Britain&nbsp;</a>last year hit&nbsp;record&nbsp;levels yet&nbsp;again&nbsp;amid accusations the opposition <a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/finally-british-lawmakers-approve-historic-brexit-deal-273275">Labour Party</a> had failed to tackle the issue within its ranks, a Jewish advisory body said on Thursday.

The Community Security Trust (CST), which advises&nbsp;Britain's estimated 280,000 Jews on security matters, said there had been 1,805&nbsp;incidents&nbsp;in 2019, a rise of 7 per cent&nbsp;and the fourth consecutive year the figure had reached a new high.

Also read:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/thousands-march-in-new-york-city-against-anti-semitism-in-wake-of-attacks-272505">Thousands march in New York City against anti-Semitism in wake of attacks</a>

CST chief executive David Delew said the&nbsp;record&nbsp;came as no surprise and the organisation believed the real&nbsp;number&nbsp;was likely to be far higher.

"It is clear that both social media and mainstream politics are places where&nbsp;anti-Semitism and racism need to be driven out, if things are to improve in the future," he said.

World leaders warned last month of a growing tide of&nbsp;anti-Jewish sentiment, driven both by far-right white supremacists and those from the far-left, as they commemorated victims of the Holocaust in World War Two.

Also read: <a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/netanyahu-accuses-icc-of-anti-semitism-in-pursuit-of-war-crimes-probe-269630">Netanyahu accuses international court of anti-semitism in war crimes probe</a>

In&nbsp;Britain, the CST said there was an increase in&nbsp;incidents&nbsp;in months when Labour's problems with&nbsp;anti-Semitism were in the news.

Ever since veteran socialist <a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/finally-british-lawmakers-approve-historic-brexit-deal-273275">Jeremy Corbyn</a>, an ardent supporter of Palestinian rights, became leader in 2015, the party has faced accusations that it has failed to stem&nbsp;anti-Semitism among some members.

Corbyn, who is stepping down as leader in April, has said&nbsp;anti-Semitism is "vile and wrong" but the party is now under investigation by&nbsp;Britain's Equality and Human Rights Commission.

Also read:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/amid-criticism-trump-signs-order-targeting-anti-semitism-at-universities-267765">Amid criticism, Trump signs order targeting anti-Semitism at universities</a>

Last February, a&nbsp;number&nbsp;of Labour lawmakers left the party citing the issue as a reason, while ahead of December's national election,&nbsp;Britain's chief rabbi said Corbyn was unfit to be prime minister.

Of the total&nbsp;number&nbsp;of&nbsp;incidents, 224 were connected to Labour, said the CST, which has collated such data since 1984.

"It is hard to precisely disaggregate the impact of the continuing Labour&nbsp;anti-Semitism controversy upon CST’s statistics, but it clearly has an important bearing," the report said.

The charity said the main reason for the overall increase in&nbsp;incidents&nbsp;was a sharp rise in online&nbsp;anti-Semitism.

But there were also 157 assaults&nbsp;a 27 per cent&nbsp;increase on 2018 with almost 50 per cent&nbsp;of these occurring in just three areas of the country Barnet and Hackney in London and Salford in northern England which are home to some of the largest Jewish communities.

A rise of intolerance after Britons voted in the 2016 referendum to leave the European Union and the Brexit discourse since, which brought nationalism and immigration to the fore, had also led an atmosphere where people might have felt able to express their "hatred of otherness", the report said.

The number of anti-Semitic incidents logged in Britain last year hit record levels yet again amid accusations the opposition Labour Party had failed to tackle the issue within its ranks, a Jewish advisory body said on Thursday.

The number of anti-Semitic incidents logged in Britain last year hit record levels yet again amid accusations the opposition Labour Party had failed to tackle the issue within its ranks, a Jewish advisory body said on Thursday. The Community Security Trust (CST), which advises Britain's estimated 280,000 Jews on security matters, said there had been 1,805 incidents in 2019, a rise of 7 per cent and the fourth consecutive year the figure had reached a new high. Also read: Thousands march in New York City against anti-Semitism in wake of attacks CST chief executive David Delew said the record came as no surprise and the organisation believed the real number was likely to be far higher. "It is clear that both social media and mainstream politics are places where anti-Semitism and racism need to be driven out, if things are to improve in the future," he said. World leaders warned last month of a growing tide of anti-Jewish sentiment, driven both by far-right white supremacists and those from the far-left, as they commemorated victims of the Holocaust in World War Two. Also read: Netanyahu accuses international court of anti-semitism in war crimes probe In Britain, the CST said there was an increase in incidents in months when Labour's problems with anti-Semitism were in the news. Ever since veteran socialist Jeremy Corbyn, an ardent supporter of Palestinian rights, became leader in 2015, the party has faced accusations that it has failed to stem anti-Semitism among some members. Corbyn, who is stepping down as leader in April, has said anti-Semitism is "vile and wrong" but the party is now under investigation by Britain's Equality and Human Rights Commission. Also read: Amid criticism, Trump signs order targeting anti-Semitism at universities Last February, a number of Labour lawmakers left the party citing the issue as a reason, while ahead of December's national election, Britain's chief rabbi said Corbyn was unfit to be prime minister. Of the total number of incidents, 224 were connected to Labour, said the CST, which has collated such data since 1984. "It is hard to precisely disaggregate the impact of the continuing Labour anti-Semitism controversy upon CST’s statistics, but it clearly has an important bearing," the report said. The charity said the main reason for the overall increase in incidents was a sharp rise in online anti-Semitism. But there were also 157 assaults a 27 per cent increase on 2018 with almost 50 per cent of these occurring in just three areas of the country Barnet and Hackney in London and Salford in northern England which are home to some of the largest Jewish communities. A rise of intolerance after Britons voted in the 2016 referendum to leave the European Union and the Brexit discourse since, which brought nationalism and immigration to the fore, had also led an atmosphere where people might have felt able to express their "hatred of otherness", the report said.

Record number of anti-Semitic incidents logged in Britain, again

As the world remembers the Holocaust today, the story of Auschwitz - the Nazi camp where more than one million Jews were murdered.

Gravitas: World marks International Holocaust Day

Today marks the 75th anniversary of the horrific 'Holocaust' that took place at the time of the second world war. The Holocaust was the attempt by the Nazis and their collaborators to murder all the Jews in Europe. From the time they assumed power in Germany in 1933, the Nazis used propaganda, persecution, and legislation to deny human and civil rights to German Jews. They used centuries of antisemitism as their foundation. Watch report:

A Horrific account of the 'Holocaust' that executed Jews

Under Hitler, Germany tried to wipe out the entire Jewish Community in Europe. At least six million people were killed in this genocide. WION's Palki Sharma gets you the story of the Holocaust.

Gravitas: The story of the Holocaust

The genocide of Jews under Hitler taught the world several lessons. They are still relevant today. WION's Palki Sharma tells you why global leaders need to pay heed to the lessons from the Holocaust.

WION Edit: The lessons from the Holocaust

Israel and the United States on Thursday called for action against Iran in front of world leaders marking 75 years since the liberation of Auschwitz, comparing the Iranian threat to that once posed by Nazi Germany.

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/photos/world-leaders-flock-to-israel-to-mark-75th-anniversary-of-auschwitz-liberation-276087">In Pics: World leaders flock to Israel to mark 75th anniversary of Auschwitz liberation</a>

"There will not be another Holocaust," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the Jerusalem gathering of more than 40 heads of state and government, pointing to what he called "the tyrants of Tehran".

Watch Video:

<div class="videoWrapper trancodeVideo"><iframe allowfullscreen="" autoplay="1" class="includeVideo" frameborder="0" height="350" src="https://www.wionews.com/videos/75th-anniversary-of-liberation-of-auschwitz-camp-273889/embed" style="width:100%;max-width:560px;" width="560"></iframe></div>

He lamented that "we have yet to see a unified and resolute stance against the most anti-Semitic regime on the planet, a regime that openly seeks to develop nuclear weapons and annihilate the one and only Jewish state."

In a similar vein, US Vice President Mike Pence urged the international community to "stand strong" against Iran, calling it the only country where Holocaust denial is "state policy".

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/opinions-blogs/wion-edit-the-lessons-from-the-holocaust-276197">Wion Edit: The lessons from the Holocaust</a>

French President Emmanuel Macron, however, rejected such parallels, telling the gathering -- without mentioning Iran, Israel or the US by name -&nbsp;that "no one has the right to invoke (those killed by the Nazis) to justify division or contemporary hatred".&nbsp;

Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed a summit of leaders of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council to "defend peace" in the face of global instability.

Tehran denies it is trying to build a nuclear bomb and accusations of anti-Semitism, insisting that while it opposes the Jewish state and supports the Palestinian cause, it has no problem with Jewish people, including its own Jewish minority.

The leaders of former Allied powers were at the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial centre for the biggest international diplomatic gathering ever held in Israel, to remember the liberation of the World War II death camp where the Nazis killed more than 1.1 million people, most of them Jews.

While the main focus was on the Holocaust, its haunting legacy and the resurgence of anti-Semitism, modern geopolitics quickly overshadowed the event, held at a time of soaring US-Iranian tensions.

Netanyahu said the main lesson of the Holocaust was that "Israel will do whatever it must do to defend our state, defend our people, and defend the Jewish future".

He added: "I call on all governments to join the vital effort of confronting Iran."

Israel fiercely opposed a 2015 deal between Iran and world powers that offered Tehran sanctions relief in return for curbs to prevent it from acquiring nuclear weapons.&nbsp;

Netanyahu applauded when US President Donald Trump in 2018 pulled out of the accord and has pushed European powers to follow Washington's lead.

He said Thursday that Israel "salutes" Trump "for confronting the tyrants of Tehran that subjugate their own people and threaten the peace and security of the entire world".

Aside from Iran, a key theme of the event was the resurgence of anti-Semitism in Europe and North America, in the speeches at the memorial centre for the six million Jews that Nazi Germany killed in gas chambers, ghettos and forced labour camps.

"This is a historic gathering, not only for Israel and the Jewish people, but for all humanity," said Israeli President Reuven Rivlin, calling on the world to "stand united in the fight against racism, anti-Semitism and extremism".

Germany's President Frank-Walter Steinmeier warned that racist and anti-Semitic "spirits of evil are emerging in a new guise".

The German head of state told the gathering he bowed "in deepest sorrow" at the memory of "the industrial mass murder of six million Jews, the worst crime in the history of humanity ... committed by my countrymen".

Looking at resurgent hatreds, extremism and intolerance, he said: "Of course, our age is a different age. The words are not the same. The perpetrators are not the same. But it is the same evil."

"The spirits of evil are emerging in a new guise, presenting their anti-Semitic, racist, authoritarian thinking as an answer for the future, a new solution to the problems of our age," he said.

About 100 Holocaust survivors were at the event, to pray for the dead and light a memorial torch.

Among them was Yona Amit, 81, who as a child spent the war hiding from the Nazis but lost family members including her cousin.

"I exchanged shoes with him playing," shortly before he was captured, she recalled.&nbsp;

"They were straight away sent to Auschwitz. And of course my cousin, with my shoes: straight away up in the chimneys, in the gas chambers," she told AFP.&nbsp;

"My shoes are in that big mound of shoes in Auschwitz, my shoes are there. I am here."

The ceremonies move on next Monday to the site in Poland of the Auschwitz camp, which was liberated by the Soviet Red Army on January 27, 1945.

Israel and the United States on Thursday called for action against Iran in front of world leaders marking 75 years since the liberation of Auschwitz, comparing the Iranian threat to that once posed by Nazi Germany.

Israel and the United States on Thursday called for action against Iran in front of world leaders marking 75 years since the liberation of Auschwitz, comparing the Iranian threat to that once posed by Nazi Germany. In Pics: World leaders flock to Israel to mark 75th anniversary of Auschwitz liberation "There will not be another Holocaust," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the Jerusalem gathering of more than 40 heads of state and government, pointing to what he called "the tyrants of Tehran". Watch Video: He lamented that "we have yet to see a unified and resolute stance against the most anti-Semitic regime on the planet, a regime that openly seeks to develop nuclear weapons and annihilate the one and only Jewish state." In a similar vein, US Vice President Mike Pence urged the international community to "stand strong" against Iran, calling it the only country where Holocaust denial is "state policy". Wion Edit: The lessons from the Holocaust French President Emmanuel Macron, however, rejected such parallels, telling the gathering -- without mentioning Iran, Israel or the US by name - that "no one has the right to invoke (those killed by the Nazis) to justify division or contemporary hatred". Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed a summit of leaders of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council to "defend peace" in the face of global instability. Tehran denies it is trying to build a nuclear bomb and accusations of anti-Semitism, insisting that while it opposes the Jewish state and supports the Palestinian cause, it has no problem with Jewish people, including its own Jewish minority. The leaders of former Allied powers were at the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial centre for the biggest international diplomatic gathering ever held in Israel, to remember the liberation of the World War II death camp where the Nazis killed more than 1.1 million people, most of them Jews. While the main focus was on the Holocaust, its haunting legacy and the resurgence of anti-Semitism, modern geopolitics quickly overshadowed the event, held at a time of soaring US-Iranian tensions. Netanyahu said the main lesson of the Holocaust was that "Israel will do whatever it must do to defend our state, defend our people, and defend the Jewish future". He added: "I call on all governments to join the vital effort of confronting Iran." Israel fiercely opposed a 2015 deal between Iran and world powers that offered Tehran sanctions relief in return for curbs to prevent it from acquiring nuclear weapons. Netanyahu applauded when US President Donald Trump in 2018 pulled out of the accord and has pushed European powers to follow Washington's lead. He said Thursday that Israel "salutes" Trump "for confronting the tyrants of Tehran that subjugate their own people and threaten the peace and security of the entire world". Aside from Iran, a key theme of the event was the resurgence of anti-Semitism in Europe and North America, in the speeches at the memorial centre for the six million Jews that Nazi Germany killed in gas chambers, ghettos and forced labour camps. "This is a historic gathering, not only for Israel and the Jewish people, but for all humanity," said Israeli President Reuven Rivlin, calling on the world to "stand united in the fight against racism, anti-Semitism and extremism". Germany's President Frank-Walter Steinmeier warned that racist and anti-Semitic "spirits of evil are emerging in a new guise". The German head of state told the gathering he bowed "in deepest sorrow" at the memory of "the industrial mass murder of six million Jews, the worst crime in the history of humanity ... committed by my countrymen". Looking at resurgent hatreds, extremism and intolerance, he said: "Of course, our age is a different age. The words are not the same. The perpetrators are not the same. But it is the same evil." "The spirits of evil are emerging in a new guise, presenting their anti-Semitic, racist, authoritarian thinking as an answer for the future, a new solution to the problems of our age," he said. About 100 Holocaust survivors were at the event, to pray for the dead and light a memorial torch. Among them was Yona Amit, 81, who as a child spent the war hiding from the Nazis but lost family members including her cousin. "I exchanged shoes with him playing," shortly before he was captured, she recalled. "They were straight away sent to Auschwitz. And of course my cousin, with my shoes: straight away up in the chimneys, in the gas chambers," she told AFP. "My shoes are in that big mound of shoes in Auschwitz, my shoes are there. I am here." The ceremonies move on next Monday to the site in Poland of the Auschwitz camp, which was liberated by the Soviet Red Army on January 27, 1945.

Israel PM Netanyahu, US vice president Pence denounce Iran at Holocaust memorial ceremony

Rising extremism, hate crimes, and religious persecution have stark similarities with the story of the Holocaust. The genocide of Jews during World War II taught the world several lessons which still remain relevant.&nbsp;

The Jews were victims of Hitler's plan for a master race. He considered Jews as inferiors and during the Holocaust Nazis referred to them as rats.

Hitler's worldview divided the world population into high and low races and the result of this was one of the darkest moments for the modern civilisation.

Six million Jews were killed in a state-sponsored genocide. The holocaust was the worst conclusion of a culture of prejudice and racism, fuelled by an economic crisis and popular rhetoric. Shades of which can be found even today.

Could something like this happen again? This question invariably comes to the mind as we revisit the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp 75 years later.&nbsp;

Hitler rose to power in a liberal set up. His rise reflected the anger, frustration and resentment of the German citizens. Germany had lost World War I and had to surrender in 1918. The country was looking for a scapegoat.&nbsp;

Hitler blamed the Jews, he used Germany's democratic institutions to pass laws to marginalise them. On March 23, 1933, Germany passed the Enabling Act.

It gave Hitler complete control over the country, he could issue decrees at will, without consulting the President or Parliament. Consequently, Civil liberties were abolished. Germany transformed into a legal dictatorship and the mass murder of Jews was ordered.

An authoritarian regime was born, one that was driven by hatred against one particular race. Some leaders around the world have been able to erect their own forms of the Authoritarian rule. President Robert Mugabe ruled over Zimbabwe for 37 years, he was ultimately ousted in a military coup and left an ailing economy behind.

In Iran, power rests in the hands of the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. In Pakistan, the elected government serves as a facade for the rule of the military. But none of these examples come close to Hitler's Germany.&nbsp;

International checks and balances have improved, we have international organisations, institutions like the United Nations, the European Union, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) which have posed some difficulty for authoritarians.

But their relevance in the 21st century is increasingly being questioned that brings us to a dramatic shift is happening in global politics.

There is a new wave of leadership taking charge, the face of global politics is changing. From Donald Trump in America to Boris Johnson in England, to Vladimir Putin in Russia, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi in India.

They have the power to not only shape the destinies of respective countries but the entire world order.

What happened in Hitler's reign was one of the worst episodes of brutal oppression. It reminds us what majoritarianism can morph into as the world remembers the victims of the Holocaust, global leaders must pay heed to the lessons of the past before they start shaping tomorrow. 
 
(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are the personal views of the author and do not reflect the views of ZMCL)&nbsp; 
&nbsp; 
 
&nbsp;

Rising extremism, hate crimes, and religious persecution have stark similarities with the story of the Holocaust. The genocide of Jews during World War II taught the world several lessons which still remain relevant.

Rising extremism, hate crimes, and religious persecution have stark similarities with the story of the Holocaust. The genocide of Jews during World War II taught the world several lessons which still remain relevant. The Jews were victims of Hitler's plan for a master race. He considered Jews as inferiors and during the Holocaust Nazis referred to them as rats. Hitler's worldview divided the world population into high and low races and the result of this was one of the darkest moments for the modern civilisation. Six million Jews were killed in a state-sponsored genocide. The holocaust was the worst conclusion of a culture of prejudice and racism, fuelled by an economic crisis and popular rhetoric. Shades of which can be found even today. Could something like this happen again? This question invariably comes to the mind as we revisit the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp 75 years later. Hitler rose to power in a liberal set up. His rise reflected the anger, frustration and resentment of the German citizens. Germany had lost World War I and had to surrender in 1918. The country was looking for a scapegoat. Hitler blamed the Jews, he used Germany's democratic institutions to pass laws to marginalise them. On March 23, 1933, Germany passed the Enabling Act. It gave Hitler complete control over the country, he could issue decrees at will, without consulting the President or Parliament. Consequently, Civil liberties were abolished. Germany transformed into a legal dictatorship and the mass murder of Jews was ordered. An authoritarian regime was born, one that was driven by hatred against one particular race. Some leaders around the world have been able to erect their own forms of the Authoritarian rule. President Robert Mugabe ruled over Zimbabwe for 37 years, he was ultimately ousted in a military coup and left an ailing economy behind. In Iran, power rests in the hands of the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. In Pakistan, the elected government serves as a facade for the rule of the military. But none of these examples come close to Hitler's Germany. International checks and balances have improved, we have international organisations, institutions like the United Nations, the European Union, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) which have posed some difficulty for authoritarians. But their relevance in the 21st century is increasingly being questioned that brings us to a dramatic shift is happening in global politics. There is a new wave of leadership taking charge, the face of global politics is changing. From Donald Trump in America to Boris Johnson in England, to Vladimir Putin in Russia, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi in India. They have the power to not only shape the destinies of respective countries but the entire world order. What happened in Hitler's reign was one of the worst episodes of brutal oppression. It reminds us what majoritarianism can morph into as the world remembers the victims of the Holocaust, global leaders must pay heed to the lessons of the past before they start shaping tomorrow. (Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are the personal views of the author and do not reflect the views of ZMCL)

Wion Edit: The lessons from the Holocaust

China is not the only country that seems to be discriminating against Muslim minorities.

In recent times, dozens of Shias have been detained in multiple raids in Malaysia.

Watch:&nbsp;

<div class="videoWrapper trancodeVideo"><iframe allowfullscreen="" autoplay="1" class="includeVideo" frameborder="0" height="350" src="https://www.wionews.com/videos/malaysia-targets-shia-minority-in-the-country-264465/embed" style="width:100%;max-width:560px;" width="560"></iframe></div>

Malaysia is a Sunni Muslim majority country and the Shias fear that religious authorities have stepped up the crackdown against the minorities.

About 60 per cent of Malaysia’s 32 million people are Muslim and the country is also home to substantial minorities of Hindus and Christians, and the different communities have largely co-existed harmoniously.

In September, officers raided Shias gatherings as they were commemorating Ashura, a festival marking the killing prophet Mohammed's grandson.

No one was detained for long. None of them was charged by the court.

But, the minority group worries that this is just a tactic to frighten them from worshipping.

Such raids have been happening since 2010.

In 2016, Shia activist Amri Che Mat was abducted, with witnesses claiming he was snatched after his vehicle was boxed in by other cars.&nbsp;

An inquiry last year by Malaysia’s official human rights body concluded he was taken by police.

A lot of the Shias fear to identify themselves. But observers believe there are between 100,000 and 500,000.

Shias say that they have been persecuted since a top Islamic body issued a fatwa against them in 1996.

China is not the only country that seems to be discriminating against Muslim minorities. In recent times, dozens of Shias have been detained in multiple raids in Malaysia.

China is not the only country that seems to be discriminating against Muslim minorities. In recent times, dozens of Shias have been detained in multiple raids in Malaysia. Watch: Malaysia is a Sunni Muslim majority country and the Shias fear that religious authorities have stepped up the crackdown against the minorities. About 60 per cent of Malaysia’s 32 million people are Muslim and the country is also home to substantial minorities of Hindus and Christians, and the different communities have largely co-existed harmoniously. In September, officers raided Shias gatherings as they were commemorating Ashura, a festival marking the killing prophet Mohammed's grandson. No one was detained for long. None of them was charged by the court. But, the minority group worries that this is just a tactic to frighten them from worshipping. Such raids have been happening since 2010. In 2016, Shia activist Amri Che Mat was abducted, with witnesses claiming he was snatched after his vehicle was boxed in by other cars. An inquiry last year by Malaysia’s official human rights body concluded he was taken by police. A lot of the Shias fear to identify themselves. But observers believe there are between 100,000 and 500,000. Shias say that they have been persecuted since a top Islamic body issued a fatwa against them in 1996.

Malaysian Shias get 'Holocaust' like treatment in their own country

Israeli Education Minister Rafi Peretz has spoken of his belief in therapy to convert gays to heterosexuality and claimed he has engaged in the practice, leading to calls for him to be sacked.

The comments late Saturday in a television interview were only the latest controversial views voiced by the recently installed minister who heads a far-right party popular with Israeli settlers.

Asked by Israel's Channel 12 whether he was in favour of so-called conversion therapy and if he believed he could change a gay person, Peretz, who is also a rabbi, said,&nbsp;"I think you can, I think you can."&nbsp;

"I can tell you that I have a deep knowledge of education, and I have done it too," he said.

He then talked about a student who approached him and told him he was gay.

Peretz said he hugged him, was kind to him and sought to help him "understand himself well and then decide on his own."

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/israeli-prime-minister-benjamin-netanyahu-warns-of-crushing-retaliation-after-hezbollah-chiefs-remarks-235756">Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu</a>, who brought Peretz's Union of Right-Wing Parties into his government after April 9 elections, firmly condemned the remarks.

But Netanyahu, who heads what is seen as the most right-wing government in Israel's history, signalled no intention of firing Peretz as members of Israel's opposition demanded.

"The education minister's remarks about the gay community are not acceptable and do not reflect the stance of the government I head," he said in a statement.

He said he spoke with Peretz "who clarified his remarks and stressed the Israeli education system will continue to accept all of Israel's children as they are, without any regard to their sexual orientation."

Gay conversion therapy has been widely found, including by Israel's health ministry, to be unscientific and potentially damaging to young people.

In the same interview, Peretz also appeared undeterred by the suggestion Israel would be engaged in "apartheid" if it annexed the occupied West Bank without giving Palestinians the right to vote in national elections.

"We're in a very complicated reality in Israeli society and Israel, and we will have to find the solutions where sovereignty will be, what will it be applied over, will it apply to people, to the territory," he said.

"They certainly won't be able to vote," he said of Palestinians in the West Bank.

Peretz also caused outrage earlier this month over reported comments to a cabinet meeting.

Israel's Channel 13 reported that he told ministers that Jewish intermarriage and assimilation, particularly in North America, were like a "second Holocaust."

Israeli Education Minister Rafi Peretz has spoken of his belief in therapy to convert gays to heterosexuality and claimed he has engaged in the practice, leading to calls for him to be sacked.

Israeli Education Minister Rafi Peretz has spoken of his belief in therapy to convert gays to heterosexuality and claimed he has engaged in the practice, leading to calls for him to be sacked. The comments late Saturday in a television interview were only the latest controversial views voiced by the recently installed minister who heads a far-right party popular with Israeli settlers. Asked by Israel's Channel 12 whether he was in favour of so-called conversion therapy and if he believed he could change a gay person, Peretz, who is also a rabbi, said, "I think you can, I think you can." "I can tell you that I have a deep knowledge of education, and I have done it too," he said. He then talked about a student who approached him and told him he was gay. Peretz said he hugged him, was kind to him and sought to help him "understand himself well and then decide on his own." Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who brought Peretz's Union of Right-Wing Parties into his government after April 9 elections, firmly condemned the remarks. But Netanyahu, who heads what is seen as the most right-wing government in Israel's history, signalled no intention of firing Peretz as members of Israel's opposition demanded. "The education minister's remarks about the gay community are not acceptable and do not reflect the stance of the government I head," he said in a statement. He said he spoke with Peretz "who clarified his remarks and stressed the Israeli education system will continue to accept all of Israel's children as they are, without any regard to their sexual orientation." Gay conversion therapy has been widely found, including by Israel's health ministry, to be unscientific and potentially damaging to young people. In the same interview, Peretz also appeared undeterred by the suggestion Israel would be engaged in "apartheid" if it annexed the occupied West Bank without giving Palestinians the right to vote in national elections. "We're in a very complicated reality in Israeli society and Israel, and we will have to find the solutions where sovereignty will be, what will it be applied over, will it apply to people, to the territory," he said. "They certainly won't be able to vote," he said of Palestinians in the West Bank. Peretz also caused outrage earlier this month over reported comments to a cabinet meeting. Israel's Channel 13 reported that he told ministers that Jewish intermarriage and assimilation, particularly in North America, were like a "second Holocaust."

Calls to sack Israel education minister, Rafi Peretz over gay therapy comments

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/google-servers-cause-problems-for-youtube-snapchat-in-us-223726">YouTube Thursday tightened its policies</a> to combat hateful and supremacist content, as it resolved to protect the platform from being used to incite hatred, harassment, discrimination and violence.

"Today, we're taking another step in our hate speech policy by specifically prohibiting videos alleging that a group is superior in order to justify discrimination, segregation or exclusion based on qualities like age, gender, race, caste, religion, sexual orientation or veteran status," <a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/google-servers-cause-problems-for-youtube-snapchat-in-us-223726">YouTube</a> said in a blog post.

Citing examples, it said this would include videos that promote or glorify Nazi ideology, which is inherently discriminatory. Also, YouTube will remove content denying that well-documented violent events, like the Holocaust or the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, took place.

The latest move assumes significance as digital platforms and social media companies have come under increased global scrutiny on issues like hate content, fake news and data privacy. India, too, has taken a tough stance on these burning issues.

Earlier this week, IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad had warned that misuse of digital platforms will not be tolerated in India. The IT Ministry has already begun work on tightening rules for social media and online companies, for which it already held wide public consultations.

The YouTube blog post said that it has been investing in policies, resources and products needed to protect the YouTube community from harmful content.

"In 2017, we introduced a tougher stance towards videos with supremacist content, including limiting recommendations and features like comments and the ability to share the video," it said, adding that the step dramatically reduced views to these videos, on average 80 per cent.

The company said it will begin enforcing the updated policy (on tacking hateful and supremacist content)&nbsp;on Thursday, but it will take time for the systems to fully ramp up. YouTube will gradually expand the coverage over the next several months.

"We recognize some of this content has value to researchers and NGOs looking to understand hate in order to combat it, and we are exploring options to make it available to them in the future. And as always, context matters, so some videos could remain up because they discuss topics like pending legislation, aim to condemn or expose hate, or provide analysis of current events," it added.

YouTube noted it is critical that the monetisation systems reward trusted creators who add value to the platform.

"We have longstanding advertiser-friendly guidelines that prohibit ads from running on videos that include hateful content and we enforce these rigorously, In the case of hate speech, we are strengthening enforcement of our existing YouTube partner program policies," it added.

Channels that repeatedly brush up against its hate speech policies will be suspended from the YouTube Partner program. This means they cannot run ads on their channel or use other monetisation features like SuperChat, it added.

The openness of YouTube's platform has helped creativity and access to information thrive, the blog noted.

"It's our responsibility to protect that, and prevent our platform from being used to incite hatred, harassment, discrimination and violence," YouTube added.&nbsp;

YouTube Thursday tightened its policies to combat hateful and supremacist content, as it resolved to protect the platform from being used to incite hatred, harassment, discrimination and violence.

YouTube Thursday tightened its policies to combat hateful and supremacist content, as it resolved to protect the platform from being used to incite hatred, harassment, discrimination and violence. "Today, we're taking another step in our hate speech policy by specifically prohibiting videos alleging that a group is superior in order to justify discrimination, segregation or exclusion based on qualities like age, gender, race, caste, religion, sexual orientation or veteran status," YouTube said in a blog post. Citing examples, it said this would include videos that promote or glorify Nazi ideology, which is inherently discriminatory. Also, YouTube will remove content denying that well-documented violent events, like the Holocaust or the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, took place. The latest move assumes significance as digital platforms and social media companies have come under increased global scrutiny on issues like hate content, fake news and data privacy. India, too, has taken a tough stance on these burning issues. Earlier this week, IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad had warned that misuse of digital platforms will not be tolerated in India. The IT Ministry has already begun work on tightening rules for social media and online companies, for which it already held wide public consultations. The YouTube blog post said that it has been investing in policies, resources and products needed to protect the YouTube community from harmful content. "In 2017, we introduced a tougher stance towards videos with supremacist content, including limiting recommendations and features like comments and the ability to share the video," it said, adding that the step dramatically reduced views to these videos, on average 80 per cent. The company said it will begin enforcing the updated policy (on tacking hateful and supremacist content) on Thursday, but it will take time for the systems to fully ramp up. YouTube will gradually expand the coverage over the next several months. "We recognize some of this content has value to researchers and NGOs looking to understand hate in order to combat it, and we are exploring options to make it available to them in the future. And as always, context matters, so some videos could remain up because they discuss topics like pending legislation, aim to condemn or expose hate, or provide analysis of current events," it added. YouTube noted it is critical that the monetisation systems reward trusted creators who add value to the platform. "We have longstanding advertiser-friendly guidelines that prohibit ads from running on videos that include hateful content and we enforce these rigorously, In the case of hate speech, we are strengthening enforcement of our existing YouTube partner program policies," it added. Channels that repeatedly brush up against its hate speech policies will be suspended from the YouTube Partner program. This means they cannot run ads on their channel or use other monetisation features like SuperChat, it added. The openness of YouTube's platform has helped creativity and access to information thrive, the blog noted. "It's our responsibility to protect that, and prevent our platform from being used to incite hatred, harassment, discrimination and violence," YouTube added.

YouTube tightens policy to remove hateful, supremacist content

US President Donald Trump on Monday entered the swirling debate over a US Congresswoman's comments regarding the Holocaust that Republicans have condemned as anti-Semitic.

The uproar began last week when Rashida Tlaib, a freshman congresswoman in the House of Representatives whose parents are Palestinian immigrants, said in an interview that she finds "a kind of calming feeling," in the fact that Palestinians were involved in creating "a safe haven for Jews."

"There's a kind of a calming feeling, I always tell folks, when I think of the Holocaust and the tragedy of the Holocaust, and the fact that it was my ancestors -- Palestinians -- who lost their land and some lost their lives," she told Yahoo's "Skullduggery" podcast on Friday.

"All of it was in the name of trying to create a safe haven for Jews, post-the Holocaust, post-the tragedy and the horrific persecution of Jews across the world at that time," she said, adding, "I love the fact that it was my ancestors that provided that."

Trump laid into Tlaib, saying the congresswoman "obviously has tremendous hatred of Israel and the Jewish people. Can you imagine what would happen if I ever said what she said, and says?"

Top House Republican Liz Cheney also seized on the remarks, saying they represented "vile anti-Semitism" and called on the House's Democratic leadership to take action.

"This must cross the line, even for them," she tweeted.

Tlaib said on Twitter her remarks were taken out of context and that "All of you who are trying to silence me will fail miserably."

She was backed up by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, who said "Republicans’ desperate attempts to smear (Tlaib) &amp; misrepresent her comments are outrageous," adding that Trump and Republicans needed to apologise.

Yair Rosenberg, a writer for the online Jewish magazine Tablet, said Tlaib's comments were historically inaccurate but not anti-Semitic.&nbsp;

"Tlaib said she got a 'calming feeling' NOT about the Holocaust, but about how Palestinians gave refuge to Jews from it. This is ahistorical," he wrote on Twitter, "but it isn't anti-Semitic."

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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
Rashida Tlaib said she got a "calming feeling" NOT about the Holocaust, but about how Palestinians gave refuge to Jews from it. This is ahistorical (the local Arabs rioted &amp; got the British to halt Jewish immigration, and their Mufti was Hitler's ally), but it isn't anti-Semitic.
— (((Yair Rosenberg))) (@Yair_Rosenberg) <a href="https://twitter.com/Yair_Rosenberg/status/1127958445599199233?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 13, 2019</a></blockquote>
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Bend The Arc, a progressive Jewish association, also defended the congresswoman.

"The attacks on Rashida Tlaib are vile &amp; baseless. She did not minimize the tragedy of the Holocaust," the group tweeted. "Shame on GOP leadership for weaponizing antisemitism &amp; Jewish trauma to attack progressive leaders of colour and push Islamophobia."

Similar accusations of anti-Semitism were levelled against Ilhan Omar, who after Tlaib is the only other Muslim in Congress after she said earlier this year that American support for Israel was driven by money from a pro-Israel lobbying group.

US President Donald Trump on Monday entered the swirling debate over a US Congresswoman's comments regarding the Holocaust that Republicans have condemned as anti-Semitic.

US President Donald Trump on Monday entered the swirling debate over a US Congresswoman's comments regarding the Holocaust that Republicans have condemned as anti-Semitic. The uproar began last week when Rashida Tlaib, a freshman congresswoman in the House of Representatives whose parents are Palestinian immigrants, said in an interview that she finds "a kind of calming feeling," in the fact that Palestinians were involved in creating "a safe haven for Jews." "There's a kind of a calming feeling, I always tell folks, when I think of the Holocaust and the tragedy of the Holocaust, and the fact that it was my ancestors -- Palestinians -- who lost their land and some lost their lives," she told Yahoo's "Skullduggery" podcast on Friday. "All of it was in the name of trying to create a safe haven for Jews, post-the Holocaust, post-the tragedy and the horrific persecution of Jews across the world at that time," she said, adding, "I love the fact that it was my ancestors that provided that." Trump laid into Tlaib, saying the congresswoman "obviously has tremendous hatred of Israel and the Jewish people. Can you imagine what would happen if I ever said what she said, and says?" Top House Republican Liz Cheney also seized on the remarks, saying they represented "vile anti-Semitism" and called on the House's Democratic leadership to take action. "This must cross the line, even for them," she tweeted. Tlaib said on Twitter her remarks were taken out of context and that "All of you who are trying to silence me will fail miserably." She was backed up by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, who said "Republicans’ desperate attempts to smear (Tlaib) & misrepresent her comments are outrageous," adding that Trump and Republicans needed to apologise. Yair Rosenberg, a writer for the online Jewish magazine Tablet, said Tlaib's comments were historically inaccurate but not anti-Semitic. "Tlaib said she got a 'calming feeling' NOT about the Holocaust, but about how Palestinians gave refuge to Jews from it. This is ahistorical," he wrote on Twitter, "but it isn't anti-Semitic." Rashida Tlaib said she got a "calming feeling" NOT about the Holocaust, but about how Palestinians gave refuge to Jews from it. This is ahistorical (the local Arabs rioted & got the British to halt Jewish immigration, and their Mufti was Hitler's ally), but it isn't anti-Semitic. — (((Yair Rosenberg))) (@Yair_Rosenberg) May 13, 2019 × Bend The Arc, a progressive Jewish association, also defended the congresswoman. "The attacks on Rashida Tlaib are vile & baseless. She did not minimize the tragedy of the Holocaust," the group tweeted. "Shame on GOP leadership for weaponizing antisemitism & Jewish trauma to attack progressive leaders of colour and push Islamophobia." Similar accusations of anti-Semitism were levelled against Ilhan Omar, who after Tlaib is the only other Muslim in Congress after she said earlier this year that American support for Israel was driven by money from a pro-Israel lobbying group.

Uproar follows US congresswoman Rashida Tlaib's Holocaust remarks

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