Long Knives

MFA is owner of contested painting →

COPYRIGHT THE BOSTON GLOBE

The federal Appeals Court in Boston has found that the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston owns a valuable 1913 painting by expressionist Oskar Kokoschka, ruling that the statute of limitations had run out on an Austrian woman’s assertion that she was the rightful owner.

Claudia Seger-Thomschitz sought the return of “Two Nudes (Lovers),’’ arguing that Jewish art collector Oskar Reichel had sold it under duress after Austria was annexed by Nazi Germany in 1938. Seger-Thomschitz is Reichel’s sole surviving heir.

The US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit said it had not made a judgment about the legality of the museum’s acquisition of the painting in 1973. It also pointed out that “statues of limitations do not vindicate the conduct of parties who successfully invoke them,’’ while urging museums to take a close look at the background of paintings from that period.

“For works of art with unmistakable roots in the Holocaust era,’’ the court said, “museums would now be well advised to follow the guidelines of the American Association of Museums: “Museums should take all reasonable steps to resolve the Nazi-era provenance status of objects before acquiring them for their collections, whether by purchase, gift, bequest, or exchange.’’

Reichel sold the painting after the Anschluss, the annexation of Austria in March 1938, to a dealer he knew who had moved to Paris. The painting passed through several other owners before it was bequeathed to the MFA, the decision said.

Reichel and his family were forced to close the business he had founded and give up the family home and another property. One son was deported to Poland and killed. Reichel’s wife survived a concentration camp, and he died of natural causes in 1943. Seger-Thomschitz is the heir of one of Reichel’s other sons, who died in 1997, the decision said.

In 2007, attorneys for Seger-Thomschitz contacted the museum to demand the painting’s return. After negotiations failed between Seger-Thomschitz and the museum, the MFA sued in 2008, seeking to confirm its ownership of the painting.

US District Judge Rya W. Zobel ruled in May in favor of the MFA, but Seger-Thomschitz appealed. The Appeals Court agreed with the lower court judge that Seger-Thomschitz could not sue because, under state law, people must file lawsuits within three years of learning they have been harmed.

By her own admission, the court said, Seger-Thomschitz learned in fall 2003 that she might have a claim to artworks previously owned by Reichel when the Museums of Vienna contacted her to return works by another artist that were once owned by Reichel.

Her attorneys did not contact the museum until March 12, 2007, more than three years later, the court said.

Seger-Thomschitz is a nurse with no training in Nazi-era art claims. But the court said it was her burden to seek professional help to find out whether she had a claim.

The MFA had researched the painting after learning of Seger-Thomschitz’s claim and concluded that the original sale of the painting was valid.

Katherine Getchell, deputy director of the museum, said in a statement yesterday that the judgment “shows our commitment to the research and doing the right thing.’’

Getchell also said the MFA’s research had found that the “family knew about this painting and did not assert a claim.’’

Attorney Thomas J. Hamilton of Washington, who represented Seger-Thomschitz, did not immediately return a call seeking comment last night.

The painting is a self-portrait of the artist with Alma Mahler, wife of the composer Gustav Mahler, with whom Kokoschka had an affair. In recent years, other Kokoschka works have sold at auction for as much as $1 million.

The 26-page ruling from a three-judge panel of the court was written by Justice Kermit Lipez.

Geoff Edgers of the Globe staff contributed to this report.

[The Washington Independent] Anti-Illegal Immigration Group Denies Ties to White Supremacists, Nazis →

COPYRIGHT WASHINGTON INDEPENDENT
By Elise Foley 10/19/10 3:36 PM

It may be a bad time to be endorsed by Americans for Legal Immigration PAC, or ALIPAC. The group is once again being accused of ties to white supremacist groups and Nazism, this time by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. The DCCC released a statement Monday alleging that Jesse Kelly, a Republican candidate for Congress from Arizona, “has doggedly pursued the support of a group with known white supremacist, anti-Semitic and neo-Nazi ties.” Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), the committee noted, tied ALIPAC to white supremacists when the group endorsed his primary opponent in March, while the Anti-Defamation League has accused the group of unfairly demonizing illegal immigrants.

ALIPAC denies having any ties to white supremacists, Nazism or anti-Semitism. “This attack comes while there is zero evidence that ALIPAC or any officers of ALIPAC have ever sought or intentionally received any support from such groups!” the group wrote in an email to its supporters today.

Kelly’s campaign isn’t happy with the characterization either. “There is a special place in hell for those who would slander combat veterans who would have gladly been mutilated, subjected to chemical weapons and killed in defense of our freedom,” Kelly campaign manager Adam Kwasman told Politico.

As Republican candidates often sough to prove their conservative values during primaries, endorsements from ALIPAC were doled out only to candidates considered toughest on illegal immigration. But the group backs some Democrats as well, although all are incumbents and most are Blue Dogs: Reps. Jim Marshall (D-Ga.), John Barrow (D-Ga.), Joe Donnelly (D-Ind.), Gene Taylor (D-Miss.), Mike McIntyre (D-N.C.) and Pete DeFazio (D-Ore.).

[Telegraph UK] Councillor made Nazi salute in Adolf Hitler outfit →

COPYRIGHT TELEGRAPH (UK)

Mike Gardner, a council leader from Harrogate, has been photographed at a party dressed up as Adolf Hitler and performing the Nazi salute.
Published: 9:39AM BST 22 Oct 2010
Harrogate councillor Mike Gardner who dressed as hitler at a fancy dress birthday party the conroversial picture was posted on facebook: Councillor made Nazi salute in Hitler outfit

Tory councillor Mr Gardner has now been deselected after pictures of him at the fancy dress birthday bash were leaked onto the Internet via the social networking site, Facebook.

His colleagues in the Conservative party said his behaviour was “unacceptable” while Cllr Gardner claims he was the victim of a smear campaign.

While the politician will not be able to stand as a conservative in the next election he remains leader of Harrogate Borough Council, North Yorkshire, and a ward member until the end of his office term.

Heather Adderley, chairman of the Harrogate and Knaresborough Conservative Association, said: “For Councillor Mike Gardner to dress up as he did is totally unacceptable and we condemn it.

“Councillor Gardner was deselected and as a result will not (be) standing as a Conservative candidate next year.

“A new candidate has already been selected and is busy working in the ward.”

Cllr Gardner defended himself, saying: “I don’t dress up as a Nazi normally. This was an exception. I am not a Nazi and I don’t behave like that.

“It was a private birthday party and the dress code was the war.

“Do I feel ashamed? No. It was fancy dress and a piece of fun.

“The invitation was to depict the year in which you were born, I was born in the war.”

He added that he checked with the organiser whether his outfit would be acceptable.

He said: “There were a lot of people at the party who are in the armed forces or the MOD, it was not offensive to them or to the family.

“I was brought up in the war, my mother and father were heavily engaged in fighting the Nazis. We grew up hating the Nazis.

My father was a pilot in the war, and my mother worked in the munitions industry.

The fight against Hitler and the Nazis dominated my life in childhood. In that context everyone was greatly amused.

“If I had done this as a councillor I would expect to be shot.

“I have done nothing wrong, I am sorry that offence has been taken but it does not impinge any standard in the council.”

He blamed political rivals for leaking the photo, adding that it had been done in a “nasty” and “dubious” way.

He insisted that he “can not remember” doing a Nazi salute or having his photo taken, but he has been forced to defend himself to his fellow councillors.

In a statement to them, he said: Now we dont hate the Germans but we do make fun about the Nazis - so to fit in with the evening I hired a German or Nazi uniform for that specific occasion.

There were many weird and wonderful outfits and it was a very successful piece of fun or pantomime as intended and I offended nobody by dressing as Hitler.

His partner later put the pictures on Facebook with restricted access but they were withdrawn soon afterwards.

A spokesman for Harrogate council said Cllr Gardner was still council leader and remained Tory member for the Pannal ward.

She added there was “no issue with the members’ code of conduct”.

The councillor was suspended form his local Conservative party in July, following the birthday bash in May.

[Belfast Telegraph] Book of the Week: Simon Wiesenthal - The Life and Legends, By Tom Segev →

COPYRIGHT BELFAST TELEGRAPH

Trail of a mighty hunter

Reviewed by Carole Angier
Friday, 29 October 2010

Mapping the coordinates of atrocity: Simon Wiesenthal

As one of Israel’s “New Historians”, Tom Segev is used to disinformation and conflict. That is just as well, for a biographer of the Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal, whose story is packed with both.

This is a historian’s biography, concentrating on the archives – many newly opened – and on sifting fact from fiction, both Wiesenthal’s and his enemies’. The previous Life, by Hella Pick, was more personal and empathetic. So, for instance, Segev lists the depressions of Wiesenthal’s wife, Cyla, and their roots in his Holocaust obsession – even at one stage accusing him of cruelty. Pick explores more vividly, but also more delicately, how Cyla suffered, and how little of his life she shared. “I am not married to a man,” Pick quoted her. “I am married to thousands, maybe millions, of dead.” Segev quotes this too.

His book does not lack drama. Segev is a fact man, but in Wiesenthal’s case the facts are the drama. His war was extraordinary: escape from a forced-labour camp with the help of two “good Germans”; then three of the worst concentration camps – Plaszów (the camp in Schindler’s List), Gross Rosen and finally Mauthausen, where he was liberated by the Americans, weighing 97 pounds and barely alive.

But every survivor’s story is extraordinary. The unique drama came afterwards. Even stripped by Segev of Wiesenthal’s many careless or compulsive exaggerations, his life is a thriller of almost unbearable tension.

Wiesenthal was not involved in the final capture of his main prey, Adolf Eichmann. But it was he who proved that Eichmann had not died, and he who traced Eichmann to Argentina. He played an even bigger role in the hunt for other Nazi criminals: Franz Stangl, the commandant of Treblinka, and Karl Silberbauer, the policeman who arrested Anne Frank. Even his failures – and they were many – make nail-biting stories: such as Franz Murer, “the butcher of Vilna”, acquitted in Graz in 1961; Erich Rajakowitsch, one of Eichmann’s aides, who got off with a sentence of 30 months; or Josef Mengele and Martin Bormann, who both died before Wiesenthal could find them.

Segev’s facts are not always welcome. He shows that many of Wiesenthal’s most vicious battles were not with Nazis, but with fellow Jews – rival Nazi hunters, the Jewish communities of Linz and Vienna, the Austrian Chancellor Bruno Kreisky, the head of the American Holocaust centre set up in his name. This is distressing but true. The problem is that Segev devotes almost as much time to it as to the main business of Nazi-hunting (especially to the quarrel with Kreisky, who appears to have been almost insane). In-fighting took up much of Wiesenthal’s life; but it is anti-climactic and should have been given less room.

On the other hand, Segev draws a vivid portrait of Wiesenthal the man. He was a classic “organiser” – the name given in the camps to the wheelers and dealers who were most likely to survive. He went straight to the top, pretended to have a huge organisation behind him – which he never had – and was a consummate showman, who could turn his genuine anguish on and off like a tap.

He was obsessive from the start, presenting his first list of Nazi criminals to the Americans days after liberation. He was egocentric, ambitious and easily offended, with many admirers but few friends. Despite the thousands of victims with whom he lived every day – or because of them – he was a lonely man. He was not a great thinker or writer, as he would have liked to be. But he was something more important: a man of unshakeable moral instinct, who fought for the victims of Nazism alone for decades, until the rest of the world caught up with him.

This is where the historical focus of this biography comes into its own. Segev documents in detail how no one cared about Nazi criminals or their victims for 20 years after the war, and how it took another 20 for the Holocaust to become the (almost) universally known symbol of evil it is today. It was the Eichmann trial of 1961 that began the change, and we know Wiesenthal’s role in that.

The fact that it took Mossad seven years to follow his lead to Argentina – and even longer to find Stangl, living under his own name – demonstrates the tragic divide that runs through the Jewish world. Neither Israeli nor American Jews can accept defeat or humiliation; and neither did enough to help the victims of the Shoah at the time, or to bring their murderers to justice after.

America never punished Nazi criminals for killing Jews, but only for lying to US immigration. Germany and Austria never treated Nazi crimes as unique, but handled them as ordinary offences. The British did still less than the Americans – so little that Segev doesn’t discuss it. Even the Germans did too little too late: nine out of ten suspects were never brought to trial, and more than half acquitted for “lack of evidence”. Only 6,656 Germans were found guilty, and only 200 convicted of murder. Most received light sentences, while longer ones often ended in commutations and pardons. And let us not speak of the Austrians, who all suffered until recently from Waldheimer’s Disease – forgetting what you did in the war.

Jewish attitudes to the Shoah have changed like everyone else’s, and today it is at the heart of Jewish identity. Wiesenthal was the main agent of this change, and a conservative in both Austrian and Israeli politics. Nonetheless, in the post-Eichmann Jewish divide (because Jews, alas, always divide) he took the left-liberal side.

Like Primo Levi, he sought justice, not revenge – he even argued against the execution of Eichmann. Because of his own experience of good Germans, Segev suggests – and because of Cyla’s experience of good Poles, he might have added – Wiesenthal firmly rejected collective guilt, and insisted that every case must be decided on its own merits. So, on the evidence, he exonerated both Waldheim himself and John Demjanjuk, one of the last suspects to be tried.

Like Levi again – but against the Jewish establishment – he insisted that the Holocaust was not unique, and not only a Jewish tragedy. He spoke up for contemporary victims of genocide, including the Muslims of Bosnia; and no one did more than he, Segev says, for the remembrance of Hitler’s Roma victims. He even agreed with Hannah Arendt that the Jewish leadership, and all other Jewish collaborators, were criminally responsible, not (as Levi argued) victims as well; and he pursued them equally, or tried.

In his rejection of some of our most basic instincts, for revenge and tribal loyalty, this instinctive man showed the greatest courage of all. And in writing his biography, so has Segev. His other books have all been published in Israel, despite being critical of Israeli policy. But Simon Wiesenthal has been translated from “an unpublished Hebrew-language work”. After 40 years, Wiesenthal’s last enemies faced the truth, but after 65 he still hasn’t succeeded with his friends.

Carole Angier’s biography ‘The Double Bond: Primo Levi’ is published by Penguin

[The New York Times] Robert Katz, Who Wrote About Nazi Massacre in Italy, Dies at 77 →

COPYRIGHT THE NEW YORK TIMES

By BRUCE WEBER
Published: October 22, 2010

The cause was complications following cancer surgery, said his wife, Beverly Gerstel Katz. Mr. Katz lived in Pieve a Presciano, Italy.

Mr. Katz, an American who lived in Italy for much of the last 50 years, wrote nonfiction books, novels and screenplays, many set against the backdrop of 20th-century Italian history. He was attracted to bloodshed and high drama.

One book, “Days of Wrath: The Ordeal of Aldo Moro” (1980), is a journalistic recreation of the kidnapping of Moro, an Italian statesman and former prime minister, from the center of Rome by left-wing militants known as the Red Brigade, and of his eventual murder. A 1990 book, “Naked by the Window,” is a thoroughgoing account of the 1985 death of the artist Ana Mendieta, who either committed suicide by leaping from her 34th-floor Greenwich Village apartment or was thrown from the window and killed by her husband, the sculptor Carl Andre. Mr. Andre was tried for and acquitted of the crime.

Mr. Katz’s 1977 novel, “Ziggurat,” concerned terrorist blackmailers threatening to detonate an atomic bomb at the North Pole, and his screenplay for the 1976 thriller “The Cassandra Crossing,” which starred Richard Harris, Ava Gardner, Burt Lancaster and O. J. Simpson, involved a plague-infected terrorist fleeing the authorities on a passenger train.

But Mr. Katz’s most frequent subject was the Holocaust, especially as it pertained to Italy. In 2003, he published “The Battle for Rome: The Germans, the Allies, the Partisans and the Pope, September 1943-June 1944,” an account of the German occupation of Rome from the fall of Mussolini to the city’s liberation. In many ways it expanded on his first book, “Death in Rome,” the one that had brought him notoriety.

“Death in Rome” (1967) was a reconstruction of the infamous Ardeatine Caves massacre of 1944, when the Nazis, in reprisal for an attack by Italian resistance fighters on a German-speaking police battalion, herded 335 Italian men — prisoners and civilians — to a series of man-made caves on the outskirts of Rome and shot them. In his book, Mr. Katz, citing evidence he later called strong but circumstantial, said that Pope Pius XII had learned of the planned executions 19 hours before they occurred but chose to remain silent, an accusation that was immediately denied by the Vatican.

“This is not a book of history but a polemic in which the special interests of the author are dominant and in conflict with the interests of research and presentation of the facts,” a Vatican spokesman said at the time. (Among documents later released by the Vatican, one indicated that Pius had, in fact, been made aware of the Nazi reprisal, though only five hours before it took place.)

The book was made into a film, “Massacre in Rome,” in 1973. The next year, in a legal proceeding initiated by the niece of Pius XII, who had died in 1958, Mr. Katz along with the film’s director, George P. Cosmatos, and producer, Carlo Ponti, were charged with “defaming the memory” of Pius. They were found guilty and given suspended sentences. (Mr. Katz’s was 14 months.) After several appeals and counterappeals, the charges were set aside in 1980 by Italy’s highest court.

Mr. Katz was never one to shy away from assigning blame in historical events or from drawing other potent conclusions, and his work, though often admired for his research and writing style, also drew fervent objections. His 1969 book, “Black Sabbath,” about the rounding up of 1,000 Roman Jews in October 1943 for liquidation in Auschwitz, was praised as an “elaborately documented history” by Michael M. Bernet, writing in The New York Times Book Review. But Mr. Bernet also wrote that “Katz’s attitude to Judaism, Jewry, Zionism and Israel is hostile and uninformed, if not downright offensive.”

Robert Katz was born on June 27, 1933, in Brooklyn, where his parents ran a grocery. He attended Brooklyn College and worked as a writer on the staff of the American Cancer Society. He wrote “Death in Rome” in New York City after a first trip to Italy; he and his wife, whom he married in 1957, moved there permanently after it was published.

In addition to his wife, he is survived by his sons Jonathan and Stephen, both of Rome; his brothers Alan, of Manhattan, and Howard, of Merrick, N.Y.; and two grandchildren.

[Colorado Independent] Personhood backers disavow Nazi website but agree with comparisons →

COPYRIGHT COLORADO INDEPENDENT

By Joseph Boven 10/27/10 8:59 AM

Personhood Colorado Director Gualberto Garcia Jones Tuesday told the Colorado Independent that his organization did not agree with a Facebook page portraying No on 62 campaign members as Nazis. However, he said the dehumanizing thought process that allowed the planned extermination of 5.9 million Jews during the Nazi regime bears similarities to what he sees as the misinformed perception that zygotes are not human.

On Monday, ColoradoPols noted the Facebook page entitled “’No on 62’ Nazis – End Infant Genocide – Vote ‘Yes on 62!’” The page, which punctuates its point by providing a Nazi banner over the top of a bloody fetus, lists Personhood USA, Personhood Colorado, and Amendment 62’s campaign website Mycampaigntracker.com in its info section.

Jones, who is also a co-founder of Personhood USA, said it was the first time he had seen the site. He said that despite the fact the info page provides links implicating his organizations, he does not know who created it. He said that it could possibly be a volunteer or other individual involved in the campaign.

At least two members integral to the personhood campaign appear to have been aware of the site’s existence. Jennifer Mason, communications director for Personhood USA, “liked” comments posted by the site’s administrators as early as Oct. 8, the first day the page began posting. While Leslie Hanks, vice-president of Colorado Right to Life and co-sponsor of the Personhood Amendment, similarly ‘liked’ a variety of comments on the site, he said he does not agree with the main theme of the site.

“I don’t agree that the people on the No on 62 campaign are like Nazis,” Jones told the Colorado Independent. He said they, like some members of his own family, are just misinformed.

Still, while not seeing pro-choice advocates as Nazis, Jones said the comparison between abortion and the Nazi plan to commit genocide was apt in one way. He said that, like the thought process used by those involved in the plan to exterminate the Jewish population, individuals who support abortion must dehumanize a human life to view the procedure as ethically permissible. “I would say the disregard for human life is necessary,” Jones concluded.

Cara DeGette, spokeswoman for the No on 62 campaign, said Jones’ comments were “preposterous.”

“[The Holocaust] is not what we are talking about here,” DeGette said. “It has no relevance.”

DeGette said that while the No on 62 campaign was shocked upon to see the Facebook page, the campaign was focused on educating and ensuring that voters make it to the polls to vote against Amendment 62 — the so-called “Personhood Amendment.”

On Oct.8, the “End infant genocide page” posted this opening note:

“WELCOME PERSONHOOD ADVOCATES – LET’S EXPOSE THE TRUTH BEHIND THE “NO on 62″ FEMI-NAZI’S AGENDA => DENYING THE PERSONHOOD OF THE UNBORN SO THEY CAN KEEP KILLING KIDS LEGALLY! PLEASE PASS IT ALONG & SUGGEST THIS PAGE TO ALL YOUR FB FRIENDS!”

“Were we shocked? Absolutely. Were we revolted? Absolutely,” DeGette said. “But in the end we just want to make sure people get out and vote against Amendment 62.”

If passed by voters, Amendment 62 will change the definition of person in the Colorado Constitution by providing the full range of constitutional rights to a zygote. Among other changes, the amendment would outlaw abortion, numerous forms of birth control and embryonic stem cell research in the state.

Jones said that if the argument was about name calling, “the other side routinely says we are like the Taliban.”

A Google search found that supporters of personhood across the country are often pejoratively referred to as “the Taliban” by some comment posters.

DeGette said her own organization has steered clear of name calling. She said such behavior has no place in the political debate.

“We have been as respectful as possible. There is no reason to get in the gutter and name call,” DeGette said. “We don’t engage in those types of name calling.”

[Deutsche Welle] Chilean president apologizes for Nazi-linked guest-book gaffe →

COPYRIGHT DEUTSCHE WELLE

Chilean President Sebastian Pinera has apologized after writing a phrase associated with Nazism in the guest book of German President Christian Wulff. Pinera said he was unaware of the link to the Third Reich.

The president of Chile, Sebastian Pinera, apologized on Monday for writing a message linked to Nazism in the guest book of German President Christian Wulff.

Pinera said he had been unaware of the significance that the phrase “Deutschland ueber alles” (“Germany over all”) now has within Germany.

“I was not at all aware that this phrase was associated with the dark past of the country, and therefore I am sorry,” Pinera said from Santiago after returning from a tour of Europe.

Pinera wrote the phrase in the presidential guest book on Saturday, while visiting Wulff’s office towards the end of his trip abroad.

The Chilean miner rescue effortBildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift:  The Chilean leader became better known during the country’s rescue of miners trapped undergroundThe words come from the “Deutschlandlied,” which has long been used as Germany’s national anthem. However, the lyrics from the first verse, in which “Deutschland ueber alles” is sung, became associated with the Nazi era and were removed after the Second World War.

Learned phrase as a boy

The Chilean leader said he learned the phrase as a boy at a German school, of which Chile has many, in the 1950s and 1960s. He said that he had thought it was associated with the unification of Germany under Chancellor Otto von Bismarck in the 19th century.

Pinera said the note he wrote was intended as a message of thanks to Germany for help and support offered during the devastating Chilean earthquake in February as well during the rescue of 33 Chilean miners trapped underground earlier this month.

Author: Richard Connor (AFP, dpa, Reuters)
Editor: Nancy Isenson

[RT] Neo-Nazi gets life sentence for hate killings →

Published 28 October, 2010, 20:16
Edited 29 October, 2010, 09:33

The Moscow City Court has sentenced a 22-year-old neo-Nazi to life in prison for killing 15 people. Vasily Krivets, who was also handed a fine of 13.5 million rubles ($450,000), has not confessed to the crimes.

The court also sentenced Dmitry Ufimtsev, 23, who confessed to committing five murders, to 22 years in prison. After their meeting in 2007, Ufimtsev and Krivets collaborated in the murder of 15 people, most of whom were migrants from Central Asia and the Caucasus. The two have also been linked to the Nationalist Socialist Society (NSO), an ultra-nationalist gang that first began as a political movement.

Ufimtsev and Krivets said they identified their victims according to their physical appearance, specifically targeting “foreigners” and assaulting them with knives. One such victim, for example, was an elderly violinist who played for small change near a metro station in Moscow, the Gazeta daily reported. Krivets admitted to stabbing the man and leaving him to die for “being Jewish” – testimony he later denied.

This is only the third time that a man has received a life sentence for hate killings in Russia. Two previous life sentences were handed to Nikolay Korolev in 2008, for a bombing that killed 14 people, and Aleksandr Degtyarev in 2010 for murdering four people.

Ufimtsev and Krivets have refused requests to speak to the press. Their lawyers have ten days to appeal the verdict from the moment they receive a written copy of it.

Hate crimes have seen a recent rise in Russia. The Ministry of Interior has stated that 548 such crimes were committed in 2009, up by more than 50 per cent from 2007. Ultra-nationalist gangs have also mushroomed, with more than 150 of them currently operating throughout Russia.

[BBC News] US political ad mistakenly shows German troops →

COPYRIGHT BBC NEWS

A North Carolina state legislator says he supports the military, but a flyer prepared by his campaign could lead some to question which country’s.

Democrat Tim Spear’s campaign has apologised after inadvertently sending voters a leaflet showing actors in World War II-era German uniforms.

The firm that produced the advert touting his support for the military has accepted blame, US media reported.

The state Republican Party obtained the flyer and distributed it to the media.

Mike Brown of Washington DC consulting firm MSHC Partners told the Associated Press that designers had not noticed the soldiers portrayed with their backs to the camera were in German uniform.

The flyer read: “In combat, you always want another soldier covering your back.”

[Bloomberg] Hitler Planned to Hold Out in Austrian Alps, Allied Intelligence Indicated →

COPYRIGHT BLOOMBERG

By Chris Spillane - Oct 28, 2010 7:01 PM ET

Adolf Hitler Planned to Hold Out in Alps

Allied military intelligence indicated Adolf Hitler had built an underground Alpine fortress to house “the elite of Nazi Germany” in a desperate, final stand in World War II, according to documents released today.

Intelligence reports from 1944 and 1945, the last two years of the war, suggested that leading Nazis would seek refuge from an allied invasion of Germany in a vast underground network of tunnels and caves in a “Nazi National Redoubt” hidden within the Austrian Alps, the secret files published by the U.K.’s National Archives in London showed.

The hideout was believed to have enough capacity, food and munitions to supply about 60,000 men for two years, according to the files. The reports described those who would take refuge there as “war criminals,” “Nazi fanatics” and “those with nothing to lose.”

History proved the intelligence wrong. As the war approached its climax and Russian troops bore down on Berlin, Hitler remained in the German capital, refusing to flee the city for the south. The Nazi leader committed suicide in his bunker on April 30, 1945, and Germany capitulated a week later.

From their hideout, the Nazis would coordinate resistance groups worldwide, using propaganda, sabotage and bribery, while the Nazis had established specialist training schools to prepare soldiers for mountain warfare, the intelligence indicated.

“The chief importance of the reduit will be as a center for directing the activities of the pro-Nazi and fascist elements in all European countries, and particularly Germany,” the U.S. Office of Strategic Services, a precursor to the Central Intelligence Agency, said in the files.

“A small number of politically minded overoptimists” were relying on ideological and commercial differences between the Allies and their continuing war against Japan to cause the assault on Germany to falter, the document said. Heinrich Himmler, the head of the SS, was a prime example of those who believed that the redoubt had a chance of success.

To contact the reporter on this story: Chris Spillane in London at cspillane@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Eddie Buckle at ebuckle@bloomberg.net.