Jewish & World News

A leading American prosecutor who works to bring Nazis war criminals to court on Thursday criticized nations for not doing all they could to aid in such cases. “Without doubt it is still possible to secure a measure of justice in the Nazi cases,” declared Eli Rosenbaum, the US Justice Department’s director of human rights enforcement, strategy and policy, at a ceremony commemorating the Holocaust. “In many countries, however, the political will to do so is not being mustered.”

A pro-Nazi text has been discovered under a statue at a war memorial in Vienna, Austrian officials say. The document - expressing hopes of the German people's unification under the Sonnenrad - a reference to the Nazi swastika - was found in a capsule under the statue of the Unknown Soldier, the BBC reported on Friday.

Another senior Nazi involved in the deportation of Jews to Auschwitz, and who is still alive, has been discovered. According to Nazi hunter Dr. Efraim Zuroff, head of the Jerusalem-based Wiesenthal Center, the fugitive is likely to be exposed very soon. Zuroff told Israel's Channel 2 in an interview on Sunday, “In two or three weeks, we will reveal this Nazi that we recently uncovered, who played an important role in the deportation of Jews to Auschwitz. His name has not yet been published, for fear that he will flee.”

Amazon has certainly earned its reputation as the biggest online marketplace, the go-to online shopping destination for, well, anything you could possibly want. But would you continue to do biz with the Internet giant if you knew that they were selling offensive materials? Like ... Nazi flags? Jezebel ran a story yesterday explaining how Amazon recommended that one of their readers buy Nazi flags as possible additions to his yard. He says he's a history teacher and, thus, a recent Google search for pictures seemed to suggest to Amazon that he might be interested in swastika-laden memorabilia.  Turns out the flags are just the tip of the iceberg.

Germany's opposition Left Party Monday nominated veteran Nazi hunter Beate Klarsfeld, who tracked down Klaus Barbie, as its candidate in next month's presidential election. Klarsfeld, 73, has no real chance of beating Joachim Gauck, 72, in the two-horse race. Gauck has been nominated by Chancellor Angela Merkel's ruling coalition together with two opposition parties. The appointment is to be made by an assembly of 1,240 public figures, including all the Bundestag.     Klarsfeld and her husband, Serge, have devoted their lives to privately tracking down Nazis who took part in the Holocaust but returned to postwar life without being brought to justice, tipping off the authorities so they could be arrested.

The German soccer team Kaiserslautern has reported a group of fans to police for allegedly giving Nazi salutes to an Israeli player. The struggling Bundesliga club says the salutes toward striker Itay Shechter were made during practice Sunday, one day after a 4-0 loss at Mainz dropped Kaiserslautern to next to last.

French prosecutors said Wednesday they had opened a formal probe into a Nazi-themed party attended by a British Conservative MP that led to him losing his post as a parliamentary aide. The MP, Aidan Burley, has repeatedly apologised for the incidents during a drunken night out by a group of British men in the French Alpine ski resort of Val Thorens.

When Marine investigators learned last November that a scout sniper platoon in Afghanistan was using a Nazi SS flag as its standard, it wasn't a member of the unit who told them. It was Iraq war veteran Waitman Beorn, a visiting history professor at Loyola University New Orleans, also a Fulbright and Guggenheim fellowship recipient who teaches at the National Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington. Dr. Beorn's research on Nazis and genocide is informed by his military background: He is a West Point graduate and former officer who served as a scout platoon leader in Iraq from 2003-04. Through his work he seeks to teach "ethical decision-making in a military context using the Holocaust as a vehicle."

In Greece, old stereotypes about Germany are coming back with a vengeance. A Greek newspaper upset over Angela Merkel’s handling of Greece’s debt crisis Thursday ran a Photoshopped image on its front page showing the chancellor in Nazi attire standing before a swastika. Dimokratia newspaper also ran the word “Dachau” with the photo, referencing a Nazi concentration camp, reported Joe.ie, an Irish Web site that first spotted the image. The photo appeared just after the Greek government agreed to new austerity measures. The decision sparked protests and clashes with police in Athens as well as a 48-hour general strike. At the protests, Nazi flags were held high, German flags burned and swastikas displayed. The intense anti-German sentiment was clear. Last week, associations representing doctors, lawyers and structural engineers met in Athens and decided on a boycott of products from Germany. The financial crisis in Greece has pitted the small country against Germany. Germany refuse...

Nazi ratlines that spirited thousands of war criminals to freedom are revealed in a new book chronicling the murderous reign of a top foreign office official during the Third Reich. The life of Horst Wagner, a man with the blood of at least 350,000 Jews on his hands, is detailed in Beloved Criminal: A Diplomat In The Service Of The Final Solution. Wagner was the link-man between the foreign office and the SS In this role, he aided in the round-ups, deportation and extermination of both German and foreign Jews.

The publication of a 2010 photograph showing U.S. soldiers with a logo resembling a Nazi symbol was greeted with condemnations by Jewish groups. In the picture, taken in Afghanistan, American Marines are shown with a flag that reads "SS" in a manner similar to the logo of the infamous Nazi police. A Marine spokesperson said the soldiers did not know the logo had a Nazi connotation but had intended the image to resemble lightning bolts and refer to sniper scouts.

A surgical kit advertised as belonging to a Nazi concentration camp commandant has been withdrawn from sale, and questions have been raised about its origins.     Grace Cloke, a spokeswoman at Villa Hall Auctions, said Thursday it was withdrawn "on the recommendation of police" after the auction house received "nasty" phone calls.

A collection of private photographs showing Adolf Hitler in a series of bizarre poses to rehearse his public speeches has been published. The album features black and white images of the Nazi leader using expressive hand gestures and unusual poses taken by his personal photographer Heinrich Hoffmann.

A box of surgical tools owned by the commandant of the Theresienstadt concentration camp is set to be auctioned. The wooden box of medical instruments going up for sale Feb. 11 belonged to SS Major Anton Burger, who helped turn the camp into a showcase for the Nazis during visits by the Red Cross and foreign officials.

A painting seized from a Florida museum must be returned to the heirs of its former Jewish owner, a U.S. court ruled. "Christ Carrying the Cross Dragged by a Rogue," a 16th-century work by Girolamo de' Romani, was ordered to be sent back to the heirs of Federico Gentili di Giuseppe on Monday by Judge Robert Hinkle of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida, the Associated Press reported.

Two Dutch journalists are to stand trial in Germany on a charge of breaching the country's privacy laws. They secretly filmed an interview with a former Dutch Nazi and member of the SS, Heinrich Boere, while he was staying at a nursing home in the German town of Eschweiler . Jan Ponsen and Jelle Visser, who were working for the Dutch TV current affairs programme Een Vandaag, carried out the interview in 2009.

Investigators have found that in 2007 the German Intelligence Service (BND) destroyed files of 250 BND employees who had been in the Nazi SS or Gestapo. The BND confirmed the loss, calling it "regrettable and annoying". Four independent historians are investigating the BND's old links with the Nazis. They say some of the missing papers concern suspected war criminals.