• Stalingrad diaries: The battlefield transcripts that Stalin deemed too true to publish -

    During the most ferocious battle in human history, in 1943, Soviet historians interviewed over 200 Red Army soldiers about the fighting that helped seal Nazi Germany’s fate. Decades later, Prof. Jochen Hellbeck became the first historian to read their stories
    By Michal Shapira Sep 06, 2017
    read more: http://www.haaretz.com/world-news/europe/.premium-1.810966

    The book is based on interviews with Red Army soldiers that you found in the archives. They describe shocking violence. Can you talk about the nature of the violence?
    The interviews were recorded in Stalingrad, during the final stage of the battle and its immediate aftermath. They resonate with the din of the battlefield, and violence is everywhere in the picture. Red Army soldiers describe how they fought their way into the city center, blowing up basements and entire buildings filled with Germans after at least some of them refused to lay down their arms. What becomes very clear is the extent to which the Soviet defenders were driven by hatred toward the Germans. In the interviews I was surprised to discover the source of this hatred.
    Take Vassily Zaitsev, the famed sniper at Stalingrad, who killed 242 enemy soldiers over the course of the battle, until he suffered an eye injury, in January 1943. Asked by the historians about what motivated him to keep fighting to the point of exhaustion and beyond, he talked about scenes he had personally witnessed: of German soldiers dragging a woman out of the rubble, presumably to rape her, while he helplessly listened to her screams for help. [Quoting Zaitsev]: “Or another time you see young girls, children hanging from trees in the park. Does that get to you? That has a tremendous impact.”
    German atrocities, which many Soviet soldiers were familiar with, certainly played an important role in mobilizing them to fight, and fight hard. There was in addition ample violence within the Red Army, perpetrated against soldiers who were unwilling to risk their lives. In his interview, Gen. Vassily Chuikov described how he shot several commanders, as their soldiers watched in line formation, for retreating from the enemy without permission.

    Maj. Gen. Ivan Burmakov and Lt. Col. Leonid Vinokur, two of the Russian officers interviewed after the Battle of Stalingrad. Museum of the Battle of Stalingrad
    Until your book came out in Russian translation, in 2015, these interviews had never been published. Why is that?
    The testimonies were too truthful and multifaceted for their times, and Stalin forbade their publication, not least because he alone claimed full credit for the victory at Stalingrad. Little changed after Stalin’s death. Yes, leading generals of the Stalingrad battle, like Chuikov, were able to publish accounts of their role in the battle, but they carefully omitted any reference to executions within the Red Army. In his memoirs, Chuikov writes that he issued “a sharp rebuke” to his cowardly officers.
    Archival documentation tells me that at least some Soviet historians read the interviews, but it seems that they were at a loss about how to integrate individual, “subjective” voices, as they called them, into a mandated “objective” (communist) history of the war, and so the documents were overlooked and forgotten. I was extraordinarily lucky to have been the first historian to fully explore the 215 interviews conducted with Soviet defenders of Stalingrad, and publish them. I found them in the archive of the Institute for Russian History of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
    ‘Edge of Europe’
    Who was conducting the interviews and why? Who were the interviewees of these “Stalingrad transcripts”?

    Josef Stalin in 1950. AP
    The interviews were conducted by historians from Moscow who responded to the German invasion in 1941 with a plan to document the Soviet war effort in its totality, and from the ground up. From 1942 to 1945, they interviewed close to 5,000 people – most of them soldiers, but also partisans, civilians who worked in the war economy or fought in the underground, and Soviet citizens who had survived Nazi occupation. These historians hoped that the published interviews would mobilize readers for the war. They also wanted to create an archival record for posterity. I was struck by how they made this decision as early as fall 1941, when the Soviet Union seemed to be teetering under the German assault. But the historians drew confidence from history, notably the War of 1812, when the Russian people had been able to defeat a technologically superior invader. Hitler, they were certain, would meet Napoleon’s end.
    Why did Stalingrad become important to the Nazis and the Soviets in 1942? In what way was it a battle that changed world history?
    When the Germans resumed their offensive, in spring 1942, their strategic target was the oil fields of the Caucasus. Only as Army Group South advanced toward Maikop and Grozny did Hitler order a separate attack on Stalingrad. He banked on the psychological blow that the fall of “Stalin’s city,” which is what Stalingrad literally means, would deliver to Stalin. It was largely because of its symbolic charge that the battle for Stalingrad turned into a decisive showdown between the two regimes.

    • What will France’s election mean for Palestine?
      Ali Abunimah Power Suits 19 April 2017
      https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/what-will-frances-election-mean-palestine

      (...) Instead, the two frontrunners are Marine Le Pen, leader of the far-right Front National, and Emmanuel Macron, a former minister under Socialist President François Hollande who is running as a mold-breaking independent “centrist.”

      But in a sign of how much in flux things are, polls have shown a recent surge for left-wing, pro-Palestinian candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon.

      Mélenchon, who wants to pull France out of NATO, is calling for sanctions on Israel and an end to France’s crackdown on Palestine solidarity activists.

      What does all this mean for Palestine? (...)

  • Amsterdam residents remove Holocaust plaque because it reminds them of Jewish tenant’s murder - Europe - Haaretz.com

    http://www.haaretz.com/world-news/europe/1.780873

    City workers dislodged and relocated a postcard-sized memorial plaque from the entrance to the former home in Amsterdam of a Holocaust victim following complaints by residents.

    #struikelsteen vs #hakenkruis pic.twitter.com/UDnmUF1WXU
    — Bart de Groot (@spreeksteen) April 1, 2017

    Stadsdeel wilde struikelsteen na klachten ’een beetje’ verplaatsen https://t.co/hDyD2cR9ds pic.twitter.com/4TF16aX2vi
    — AT5 (@AT5) March 31, 2017

    The plaque – a brass cobblestone bearing the name of Joachim Elte that was embedded into the sidewalk of Nicolaas Maesstraat 3 in 2014 – was moved to a location “as far away as possible from the door” of the two residents, who have recently sued the city to have the plaque removed altogether, Sebastiaan Capel, the director of Amsterdam’s southern district told Het Parool daily on Friday.

    The two residents, who were not named, recently filed with a preliminary relief judge a motion for an injunction ordering the memorial cobblestone’s removal because Capel had ignored their demands that it be removed from anywhere in front of their residence, the daily reported.

    #Stolpersteine #berlin #rotterdam #amsterdam #mémoire #mémorial #holocause #shoah

  • Le Pen: French Jews will have to give up Israeli citizenship

    Leading contender in French election tells interviewer she won’t allow dual citizenships with non-European countries. Asked specifically about Jews and Israel, she said: ’Israel isn’t an EU member.’

    Roni Bar Feb 10, 2017
    read more: http://www.haaretz.com/world-news/europe/1.770915
    http://www.haaretz.com/world-news/europe/1.770915

    In a France ruled by the far-right Marine Le Pen, Jewish citizens will be forced to give up their Israeli citizenship, the Front National party leader said on Thursday.
    >> Get all updates on Israel and the Jewish World: Download our free App, and Subscribe >>
    Le Pen, a leading contender in the upcoming French presidential contest, told France 2 TV that if elected, she will not allow French citizens to hold on to any citizenship in a non-European country. When asked specifically about Israel and Jews, who form a large community in France, the Front National party leader responded: “Israel isn’t a member of the European Union, and doesn’t consider itself as such,” and therefore a dual French-Israeli citizenship will not be allowed.
    >> Israel or France? Dual citizens appalled after Le Pen says they may have to choose >>
    Le Pen said that the ban will also apply to citizens of the U.S. and North African countries, but that dual citizens of the EU and of Russia, which she said is part of she termed the “Europe of nations,” will be exempted.
    A recent poll showed Le Pen advancing to the second round of balloting in May but still losing handily to front-runner Emmanuel Marcon. Her political party, the National Front, was founded by her father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, who routinely minimized the Holocaust.

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    The younger Le Pen has sought to move the party past her father’s controversies, but French Jewish leaders still consider the National Front anti-Semitic.
    Last week, Le Pen said French Jews should give up the wearing of yarmulkes as part of the country’s struggle to defeat radical Islam.
    In an interview with Israel’s Channel 2, Le Pen expressed support for banning the wearing of yarmulkes as part of her broader effort to outlaw religious symbols in public.
    “Honestly, the dangerous situation in which Jews in France live is such that those who walk with a kippah are in any case a minority because they are afraid,” Le Pen said, using the Hebrew word for yarmulke. “But I mainly think the struggle against radical Islam should be a joint struggle and everyone should say, ‘There, we are sacrificing something.’”
    Referring to French Jews, Le Pen added: “Maybe they will do with just wearing a hat, but it would be a step in the effort to stamp out radical Islam in France.”

  • ’Claiming Israel is a racist endeavor’: Britain adopts new definition of anti-Semitism

    The move is seen by many as specifically highlighting anti-Zionist anti-Semitism. But the government could also be using it as a political tool against the left.

    Daniella Peled Dec 12, 2016
    read more: http://www.haaretz.com/world-news/europe/.premium-1.758552

    Britain will adopt a new definition of anti-Semitism in a move widely interpreted as intended to target prejudice on the anti-Zionist far-left.
    The new wording was agreed in May at a Bucharest conference of the 31-member International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance.
    “Antisemitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews,” the IHRA definition read. “Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.”
    The Berlin-based body went on to provide further guidance, including “denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, e.g., by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor” and “applying double standards by requiring of it a behavior not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation.”
    Conservative lawmaker Eric Pickles, the U.K.’s envoy to the IHRA, told the BBC that the new definition “catches up with modern anti-Semitism.”
    "I think it’s important not to conflate Jewish people with Israel," he said. “That actually is the point in the definition.”

  • Israeli-born BDS supporter vies to head Britain’s Jewish student union -
    Born in Tel Aviv, pro-Palestinian activist Eran Cohen, 27, is challenging the accepted norms of British Jewry.
    read more: http://www.haaretz.com/world-news/europe/.premium-1.756883

    As outsider candidates take the lead in elections around the world, the trend of radical populism may be coming to Jewish student politics in the United Kingdom.
    The surprise contender in this year’s elections for president of the Union of Jewish Students is Eran Cohen, a veteran pro-Palestinian activist and outspoken supporter of the Boycott, Divestments and Sanctions movement.
    The 27-year-old’s candidacy marks something of a departure for a body that has long been a bastion of communal politics, committed to fighting campus boycotts and strengthening students’ ties to Israel.
    A senior UJS role has long been a traditional stepping-stone for students considering a future in Anglo-Jewish leadership or mainstream politics.
    Cohen, a member of the U.K.’s Jewish anarchist collective Jewdas and a committed diasporist, comes from a very different place, as he makes clear in his three-and-a-half minute campaign video.

    • Israeli-born BDS Backer Loses U.K. Student Union Bid

      Josh Holt, who advocates Jewish students ’to be loud and proud of their identities on campus,’ defeats Eran Cohen in UJS elections.
      Haaretz Dec 11, 2016
      http://www.haaretz.com/jewish/news/1.758392

      Millennial voters across Britain elected Josh Holt as head of the national Jewish student union on Sunday, defeating four other candidates including Israeli-born pro-BDS activist Eran Cohen.

      A statement by the UJS said Holt won 682 of 1049 votes cast.

      “Holt has decisively won the election to become the next UJS president,” a statement issued by the organization said.

      Holt advocates empowering Jewish students “to be loud and proud of their identities on campus,” the statement said.