* The lessons learned in soaking European nations for "Holocaust" reparation are going to be applied to America, if a powerful group of civil rights and class-action lawyers have their way.
Originating out of Harvard, the project, called the Reparations Assessment Group, was confirmed by Harvard law professor Charles J. Ogletree. The idea is to get American blacks compensated for more than 240 years of slavery.
''We will be seeking more than just monetary compensation,'' announced Ogletree. ''We want a change in America. We want full recognition and a remedy of how slavery stigmatized, raped, murdered and exploited millions of Africans through no fault of their own. . . It is America's nightmare."
The Hartford (Conn.) Courant newspaper already published a front-page apology for running ads for slave sales and the recapture of runaways in the 1700s and 1800s.
* France's prime minister, Lionel Jospin, genuflected the politically correct way at a recent dinner hosted by French Jewish leaders, and criticized a U.S. court's decision to hear a lawsuit filed by American Holocaust survivors against French banks. He thought that merely spelled delay in paying restitution.
* In a news story titled "Holocaust ruling draws flak" by Tara Ross, dated November 7, 2000 <http://www.stuff.co.nz)>, Deputy Prime Minister Jim Anderton of New Zealand has admonished his subordinates never to use the word 'holocaust' to refer to anything other than the Jewish one.
Official directives have been issued forbidding the use of the word with reference to anything whatsoever except the Jews. Rewrite those dictionaries! Quick!
* The Jewish Telegraph Agency of November 6, 2000 reports that Emory University, ". . . home to a professor who won a trial against a Holocaust denier earlier this year . . . " - none other than Deborah Lipstadt, of course - has established a website called <www.HolocaustDenialOnTrial.org>
Expect traffic on Revisionist websites to soar!
* "I don't know what to do," wails Elie Wiesel, according to an article by Megan Novak of the Boston Daily Press. Anti-Zionism, the belief that Israel does not deserve a physical homeland, has mushroomed to anti-Semitism and seeped into Europe, Wiesel said during last week's lecture at Boston University.
"You may have to invent joy out of pain," Wiesel proffered darkly. "Nothing is as whole as a broken heart."
* According to Tom Hays of the Associated Press (11/6/2000)
". . . some of the attorneys for Holocaust victims in a lawsuit against Swiss banks have begun asking for a slice of a $1.25 billion settlement, angering Jewish groups that contend the lawyers should have worked for free."
For instance, Edward Fagan has asked for $1.9 million in fees, plus $272,300 in expenses. In court papers, Fagan claimed the bill reflected ''only a fraction'' of the work done and that he ''economized in every way possible.''
Elan Steinberg, executive director of the World Jewish Congress, resents such extravagance. ''If this isn't the kind of case you take pro bono, what is?'' he asked.
* Günter Deckert, a German dissident, was released from prison after five years, where he served time for Holocaust denial. One of his "crimes" was the disrespectful abbreviation of the word "Holocaust" to "Holo".
* A new book is on the market, titled Counterfeiting The Holocaust : A Historical and Archival Examination of Holocaust Artifacts" by Alec Tulkoff.
Apparently there is now such a lush market for phony memorabilia that a guide to "authentic pieces" is needed. Remember the Million Dollar Bar of Soap?
* The transcript for last week's Nova TV program on the Irving trial has been posted at <http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/transcripts/2711holocaust.html> However, the program has been described as ". . . a big zero in all respects and you will not miss anything by ignoring it."
* According to Agence France Presse, November 9, 2000, Hungarian authorities defended the promotion of a retired army officer who did what Austria's Haider did: He praised the country's pro-Nazi authorities during World War II.
"Robert Szalay was an active participant of the 1956 revolution and freedom fight, he is a genuine revolutionary who is still active today," the ministry said in a statement.
In a book he wrote on the 1956 uprising and the events that led to it, Szalay has good things to say about the 1944 coup by antisemitic and pro-Nazi Hungarian governor Ferenc Szalasi backed by Hitler's Third Reich.
The coup was a "legal action" which "spearheaded the fight to save the nation from Bolshevism and defended Europe from Asian barbarism," according to excerpts published in the Magyar Hirlap newspaper.
* The Canadian National Post announced November 9, 2000 that a bill to recognize the Holocaust with an annual memorial day will be introduced by the Alberta government later this fall.
"The proposed Yom ha-Shoah Act calls on Albertans to reflect on the slaughter of millions of Jews by Nazi Germany during the Second World War," said a statement. Not a squawk from Alberta's German-Canadians who are the second largest ethnic group in the province.
* Reuters ran an interesting item about a double-dipping Holocaust survivor. Lea Stern, described as "mentally disabled by the experience", received a pension supplement from Germany but neglected declaring her US social security income since 1977.
Now Germany has asked for 93,000 German marks to be returned to the state treasury. Stern's attorney, described as a ". . . high-profile lawyer who helped negotiate a 10 billion mark settlement for Nazi-era slave laborers," has appealed to German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder on the matter.
Stern who was born in Poland, moved to the United States after the war, and now lives in Israel.
* The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reported on November 10, 2000 that the
". . . Protestant (Lutheran) Church in Germany reiterated late Thursday its solidarity with Jews and again admitted that it has to share in the burden of responsibility for the Holocaust." The churches will be next to be squeezed for reparations. You watch!
* Few people know to this day that Josef Stalin sent millions of innocent Soviet citizens down Siberia's so-called "Road of Bones" to the misery and death of the gulag labor camps. One of the worst of such camps was located in Kolyma, housing a labor camp described as ". . . crumbling into the tundra nearly 50 years after its last inmate was released."
For the record: About two million perished in Kolyma; very few if any inmates were "released"! Now the place is being planned to be converted into a tourist camp.
* Finally, this one is hard to believe: According to the Orlando Sentinel, November 11, 2000, the St. Petersburg, Florida Police Department has banned holiday decorations and celebrations this year after a sergeant filed a religious discrimination complaint over Christian displays.
This means no Christmas tree, no Santa Claus, no displays of any kind with a religious connotation. "I want to make sure we're sensitive to everybody`s religious beliefs, so we don`t offend anybody," Police Chief Goliath Davis III said.
Sgt. Greg Totz, a 25-year veteran officer, filed a religious discrimination complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in mid-October. Totz, who is Jewish, has complained in the past about overtly Christian displays.