Hatikvah, played on restored violins owned by Jews during the Holocaust

   Image Magazine

Poland seeks to prosecute 1,600 potential Nazi war criminals

TOI STAFF

Prosecutors are enlisting the aid of the Interpol in push to locate individuals suspected of committing crimes on Polish soil

One of several photographs taken during the deportation of Oswiecim’s Jews to death camps and ghettos in the region during the Nazi occupation of Poland. (Auschwitz Jewish Center)

Poland has requested aid from the Interpol in locating 1,600 Nazi war criminals prosecutors believe committed crimes in its territory during World War II, Germany’s Deutsche Welle has reported.

Most of the cases surround mass executions of Polish citizens and acts against villages under Nazi occupation, as well as acts committed during the 1944 Warsaw Uprising by the Polish resistance (not to be confused with the 1943 Warsaw Ghetto Uprising).

“We finally have to deal comprehensively with the mass murder that was committed in German concentration camps,” State Prosecutor Robert Janicki said. “It is a state prosecutor’s duty to find perpetrators and bring them to justice, and we want to see if it is still possible to find Nazi war criminals today.”

The 1,600 names were selected from a list of 23,000 SS members who worked in concentration camps.

“We are not randomly looking for people who may have committed crimes,” Janicki said. “We are looking for specific individuals. We have evidence against them and have exact information as to their names and what their roles were at the camps.”

Prosecutors have submitted 400 names to the international police organization in a request for assistance in locating the accused, and plan to provide 1,200 others in the near future.

Most of the suspects are German, though there are others from Austria, Latvia, Ukraine and Belarus.

Polish officials hope the German push in recent years to prosecute those suspected of atrocities during the Holocaust will lead to greater cooperation from Berlin than was possible in past decades — attempts by Warsaw to prosecute German individuals during the 1960s and 1970s was met with reluctance by the West German government.

The new prosecutorial push comes as Poland finds itself embroiled in controversy over a new bill that would outlaw publicly attributing the crimes of Nazi Germany to the Polish nation.

The United States has joined Israel in criticizing the proposed law, saying it would infringe on free expression. Israeli and Jewish groups fear it would be used to whitewash the involvement of some Poles in killing Jews during the 1939-1945 occupation.

Israelis Crack the Dead Sea Scrolls’ Ancient Code

   ILTV ISRAEL DAILY

Researchers at Haifa University have deciphered one of the Dead Sea Scrolls, a feat that has eluded scholars for decades. The scroll, one of the last to be discovered, was penned by the ancient Yachad sect, a secretive and isolated group that lived in Israel toward the end of the Second Temple Era.

Researchers determined that the little known sect practiced many rituals and observances that differed from other Jews of the time. Some of these peculiar practices remained unknown until now. Discover a fascinating message from the past, sent by people more than 2,000 years ago!

Hezbollah Criticizes Lebanon Decision to Allow Spielberg Film

Reuters and Algemeiner Staff

Actress Meryl Streep, director Steven Spielberg, and actor Tom Hanks. Photo: Jeff Overs / BBC / Handout via Reuters.

Hezbollah criticized the Lebanese government on Friday for allowing cinemas to screen Steven Spielberg’s film “The Post” despite calls for a ban because of the director’s links to Israel.

The movie premiered in Beirut this week after Lebanon’s interior minister ruled against any ban.

Activists in Lebanon had campaigned against the film because Spielberg gave funds to Israel during its 2006 war with Hezbollah in Lebanon. The two countries are officially enemy states.

“We reject this decision. We consider it a mistake,” said Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of the Iran-backed Shi’ite terrorist group.
“This man announced his support for the Israeli aggression against Lebanon,” Nasrallah said in an address. “He paid Israel from his own money…to kill your children and destroy your houses.”

“The Post” dramatizes the 1971 battle by American newspapers to publish leaked documents, known as the Pentagon Papers, about the US government’s role in the Vietnam War.

Lebanon banned the film “Wonder Woman” last year over the starring role of the Israeli actress Gal Gadot.

US State Department Designates Hamas Leader as Terrorist

Reuters and Algemeiner Staff

Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh gestures as he delivers a speech in Gaza City, Jan. 23, 2018. Photo: Reuters / Mohammed Salem.

The US State Department said on Wednesday it had designated Ismail Haniyeh, leader of the Islamist Palestinian group Hamas, as a terrorist.

The State Department said in a statement that Haniyeh, along with two Islamist groups active in Egypt and one in the Palestinian territories, were listed as specially designated global terrorists.

It quoted Secretary of State Rex Tillerson as saying the designations “target key terrorist groups and leaders — including two sponsored and directed by Iran — who are threatening the stability of the Middle East, undermining the peace process, and attacking our allies Egypt and Israel.”

In Gaza, Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri told Reuters: “We reject and condemn the decision and we see it as a reflection of the domination by a gang of Zionists of the American decision.”

“The decision is worthless,” he added.

Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, advocates Israel’s destruction and is designated as a terrorist group by the US and some other Western countries.

In December, after President Donald Trump recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, Haniyeh told a rally in Gaza marking the 30th anniversary of Hamas’s founding: “We will knock down Trump’s decision. No superpower is capable of offering Jerusalem to Israel, there is no Israel that it should have a capital named Jerusalem.”

The three groups designated by the State Department are:

— Harakat al-Sabireen, which the statement said is backed by Iran, operates primarily in Gaza and the West Bank, and fired rockets into Israel;

— Liwa al-Thawra, which it said has claimed responsibility for killing an Egyptian army general in Cairo in 2016 and a bombing in 2017;

— Harakat Sawa’d Misr (HASM), which it said claimed responsibility for killing an Egyptian security officer and other attacks.

The State Department designations deny Haniyeh and the three groups access to the US financial system.