This Day In History

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ICRC Aided Eichmann Escape Europe

The passport used by notorious Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann to enter Argentina in 1950 has been found by accident in an archive in Buenos Aires.

The passport, still in good condition, was issued by the International Committee of the Red Cross in Geneva.

Eichmann was one of the main executors of Adolf Hitler’s ‘final solution’, the Nazi genocide of Jews during World War II.

The ICRC, the International Committee of the Red Cross has a long and distinguished history of flacking for the Nazis. They refused to lift a finger to the atrocities committed by the Nazis during World War II, especially the slaughter and genocide of millions of Jews, gays, Gypsies, and others deemed undesirable by the Nazi leadership.

That Eichmann was able to secure a passport via the Red Cross and escape to Argentina suggests that the group had no problem supporting mass murderers escape justice.

Eichmann was captured in Argentina by an Israeli raid and it took the diligent efforts of Simon Wiesenthal, Peter Malkin, and others to bring this mass murderer to justice.

It should never have come to that. Justice was delayed because of the ICRC's actions that aided and abetted a Nazi. Shameful doesn't begin to cover this.

For the record, the American Red Cross is not associated with the ICRC. They are separate organizations.

A Moment of Clarity

We lost a giant of the 20th Century in Simon Wiesenthal. He did as much to remind people of mankind's inhumanity to mankind as anyone else on the planet. How will he be remembered in 5 years? 10 years? 25? He took it upon himself to remind people of the nature of genocide - the purposeful elimination of an entire group of people from the planet.

According to Clyde Farnsworth in the New York Times Magazine (February 2, 1964), Wiesenthal once spent the Sabbath at the home of a former Mauthausen inmate, now a well-to-do jewelry manufacturer. After dinner his host said, "Simon, if you had gone back to building houses, you'd be a millionaire. Why didn't you?" "You're a religious man," replied Wiesenthal. "You believe in God and life after death. I also believe. When we come to the other world and meet the millions of Jews who died in the camps and they ask us, 'What have you done?', there will be many answers. You will say, 'I became a jeweler', Another will say, I have smuggled coffee and American cigarettes', Another will say, 'I built houses', But I will say, 'I didn't forget you'."

So, who do you think gets more airtime in the 'memorial segment' of the news today? Peter Jennings. That's right. The guy spent most of his later career reading off a teleprompter gets lauded and prominent coverage of his memorial service in New York City. I hear that all the famous people were there.

The media fawns over one of its own on the day when people should really take time to realize what Simon Wiesenthal did with his life.

He suffered at the hands of the Nazis. He was liberated after years of hell in concentration camps. And yet, he never sought vengence against those Nazis.

He sought justice. And he got it. More than 1,000 Nazi war criminals were brought to justice through his efforts. His work helped bring Eichmann to justice:

In 1953, Wiesenthal received information that Eichmann was in Argentina from people who had spoken to him there. He passed this information on to Israel through the Israeli embassy in Vienna and in 1954 also informed Nahum Goldmann, but the FBI had received information that Eichmann was in Damascus, Syria. It was not until 1959 that Israel was informed by Germany that Eichmann was in Buenos Aires living under the alias of Ricardo Klement. He was captured there by Israeli agents and brought to Israel for trial. Eichmann was found guilty of mass murder and executed on May 31, 1961.

He also brought to justice the Nazi soldier who arrested Anne Frank.

Simon went on to found a Museum of Tolerance, and the Simon Wiesenthal Center is a leading Holocaust studies center.

Simon, we will not forget you, we will not forget what you did, and what you represented.

UPDATE:
A memorial in Simon's honor will be conducted in Vienna, Austria, where he passed away. Dozens of world leaders are expected to attend and many have already sent letters of condolences:

Wiesenthal's relatives were expected to attend the ceremony at the capital's Central Cemetery, together with Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel, Mayor Michael Haeupl and dozens of ambassadors.

Security was tight at Vienna Central Cemetery's ceremonial hall, where the coffin would lay in state. Two large menorahs and several wreaths, including two large ones with purple and white flowers, adorned the otherwise undecorated room. Their ribbons, in the blue and white colors of the Israeli flag, carried greetings from the state of Israel and from the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum.

Austria's president and Foreign Ministry, the Polish ambassador and Vienna's mayor were among others who had sent lavish wreaths.

Tributes to Wiesenthal poured in, including from U.S. President George W. Bush, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl.

"He felt he had to do something for those who didn't come back," Nazi hunter Serge Klarsfeld told The Associated Press. "He was a witness."

Technorati: Simon Wiesenthal, holocaust, nazi hunter.

Godspeed Simon Wiesenthal

Simon Wiesenthal, the famed Nazi hunter whose most famous work was to locate and aid in bringing to justice Adolf Eichmann, died in his sleep last nite. He was 96. As Captain Ed notes, that was 60 years later than the Nazis had originally intended.

In addition to going after Nazis, he dedicated his life to fighting anti-Semitism and racism around the world.

He will be sorely missed.

UPDATE:
Discarded Lies has more.

Lynne Stewart: Featured Speaker at New School?!

Lynne Stewart, convicted on federal charges of aiding and abetting terrorists who she represented communicate with associates outside prison, claims that she was a martyr at a 'rally' at the New School University in New York.

The rally, which took place in a student conference room in a university building on West 13th Street, was intended as a show of support for Stewart, death-row inmate Mumia Abu-Jamal, and Ward Churchill, a professor at the University of Colorado who compared WTC workers killed on 9/11 to Nazi Holocaust architect Adolf Eichmann.

Only a handful of supporters showed up for the "rally," easily outnumbered by the media.

Let's see, we've got a convicted cop killer, a convicted felon who assisted terrorists, and a professor who committed academic fraud and continually misrepresents his background as well as makes outrageous statements that are beyond the pale.

This is the group with whom Stewart wants to be associated with. This is the group that the student group, Students for a Democratic Society, wanted to be on the same agenda.

Let's be clear here. This isn't an issue of free speech, but one of intellecutal honesty. The individuals that this group was 'honoring' are convicted felons and frauds. This is who they hold up as icons to honor and whose causes they seek to further. Put into practice, that means enabling terrorists to continue their bloody goals of killing people around the world, permitting cop-killers to get away with murder, and to excuse academic fraud.

UPDATE:
2:15 PM 03/09/2005 - Welcome to the Lizard Minions of Little Green Footballs. I am thankful for the footballing. Poke around and stay awhile. There's probably a bit of blogging goodness for everyone here.

Eternally Grateful

Peter Malkin, who caught Adolf Eichmann in Argentina died at age 77

Peter Malkin, the Mossad agent who nabbed top Nazi official Adolf Eichmann on a Buenos Aires street in 1960, has died, Israeli media reported yesterday. He died in New York at 77.

The Mossad security agency tracked Eichmann to Argentina, and Malkin stopped him in the street. According to his memoirs, "Eichmann in My Hands," Malkin said to him simply, "Un momentito, señor" (just a moment, sir), before kidnapping him.

Those were the only words Malkin knew in Spanish, according to a Web site of the World Zionist Organization. He grabbed Eichmann's arm and wrestled him to the ground as another agent grabbed his legs, and they stuffed him into a car.

Eichmann was responsible for the death of millions as one of the prime architects of Hitler's Final Solution, which was penned at the Wanasee Conference. His capture was a high point for the Israeli Mossad, which managed to track down this heinous Nazi and brought him to justice years 15 years after the end of World War II.

This should be a reminder to anyone who thinks that the search for Osama bin Laden or Mullah Omar or any of the other high profile terrorists has gone on for too long. As the cops on CSI are fond of saying, they never close. These terrorists will be found, just as the Nazis were tracked down years later.