Sites where Germans killed Jews are dedicated in Poland

October 19, 2021
The Polish witnesses of the German crime in Wojslawice lived for decades with the memories of their Jewish neighbors executed in 1942. They remembered a meadow that flowed with blood, a child who cried out for water from underneath a pile of bodies, arms and legs that still moved days after the execution.
 

In the years that followed, those who had seen the crime shared their knowledge with their children, warning them to stay away from the spot behind the Orthodox church where some 60 Jews, among them 20 children, were murdered on that October day.
“When I was a young boy I was running around these meadows but the elders were saying: ‘please do not run there because there are buried people, buried Jews,’” said Marian Lackowski, a retired police officer whose late mother witnessed the execution in the small town in eastern Poland.
Born after the war, Lackowski has devoted years to ensuring that the victims receive a dignified burial, a mission he finally fulfilled Thursday as he gathered with Jewish and Christian clergy, the mayor, schoolchildren and other members of the town.
Beginning at the town hall, the group walked solemnly down a hill to the execution site, their silence broken only by roosters and barking dogs. After they arrived at the spot, church bells rang out from the town’s Catholic church and a trumpet called at noon. Jewish and Christian prayers were recited and mourners lit candles and placed stones in the Jewish tradition at a new memorial erected over the bones. “May their souls have a share in eternal life,” it reads.
The mass grave site in Wojslawice is tragically not unique. During the German occupation of Poland during World War II, the Germans imprisoned Jews in ghettoes and murdered them in death camps including Treblinka, Belzec and Sobibor. But they also shot them in fields and forests near their homes, leaving behind mass graves across Poland, many of which have only come to light in recent years.
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https://www.ynetnews.com/article/bkrav99ry

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#NeverMeansNever campaign for Yom HaShoah

Yom HaShoah is when Israel and many diaspora Jews honour the memory of those who lost lost their lives in the Holocaust.
This year, given the extraordinary circumstances that we find ourselves in with the coronavirus outbreak, we are proud to help our partners at the European March of the Living in promoting their powerful and important plaque campaign.
Each of you can create your own plaque by clicking on the link here below that will be printed and placed on the railway tracks at the entrance to Auschwitz-Birkenau. You can do so here: https://nevermeansnever.motl.org/

or on the special mini-site in collaboration with the Jerusalem Post: http://marchoftheliving.jpost.com
And please join all the “virtual”marchers of the March of the Living in honoring those lost in the Holocaust and in committing yourselves to the fight against antisemitism and racism by declaring on your plaques: #NeverMeansNever or by posting your personal message.
You will also find the link to this campaign on the European March of the Living website: www.emot.eu

An important statement re Mr. Schuster′s Statement

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EJA Chairman awards President of Montenegro with award in front of EU ambassadors, MEPs and senior Jewish Representatives

AS DEEP DARKNESS OF ANTISEMITISM SPREADS ACROSS EU – MONTENEGRIN MODEL IS BADLY NEEDED, EU JEWISH CHIEF TELLS PRESIDENT
Brussels 7 March 2019. Rabbi Menachem Margolin, presenting The President of Montenegro Mr Milo Dukanovic with the European King David Award in recognition of his outstanding contribution in supporting and protecting Jews in Montenegro, said his leadership stands in isolation as “the deep darkness of antisemitism spreads across the continent.”
The President met with with Senior representatives of European Jewry, including the chief Rabbi of the Netherlands, the president of the Belgian League against antisemitism, and the Secretary General of B’nei Brith Europe, amongst others, who reported on the rising levels of antisemitism and hate crimes in their countries.
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“Montenegro may be a relatively small country, but even a small light can burn darkness away.
The deep darkness of antisemitism is spreading across Europe. France, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium and many others, the oldest hatred is finding its voice again in dark corners and spreading like a malignant virus.
Time and time again we hear European leaders saying enough is enough, but little changes and the darkness keeps spreading.
These countries must embrace and enshrine not only the Montenegrin Model of co-existence, but welcome the country into the European Union where it can provide a leading and immensely valuable role in fighting the scourge of antisemitism. It is deeply ironic that Montenegro must knock on the door to get inside when the country itself is miles ahead of the vast majority of EU countries in protecting freedom of religion and supporting minorities.
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My message to all EU Leaders is this: take note, act and share the light of Montenegro now before the darkness consumes us all.”

Motion calling to ban ‘from the river to the sea’ slogan adopted in Dutch parliament

Dutch MP Diederik Van Dijk filed the motion because since the outbreak of the war between Israel and Hamas, “there has been a chilling increase in anti-Semitic incidents in the Netherlands. ””The context of the slogan “from the river to the sea” comes directly from the Hamas charter,” according to the SGP member.

The controversial slogan “from the river to the sea”, which is often heard in pro-Palestinian rallies across Europe and elsewhere,  must be placed in an anti-Semitic context at demonstrations, making it possible to take action against it. A motion calling for a ban of the slogan was adopted in the Dutch House of Representatives. The motion was initiated  by the Dutch Christian Reformed Political party SGP.

“More tools for police to tackle anti-Semitic slogans at demonstrations,” rejoiced SGP MP Diederik Van Dijk after his motion was adopted by a parliamentary majority. “No Hamas ranting in our streets or stations.” His motion was suppoirted by several parties.

Van Dijk filed the motion because since the outbreak of the war between Israel and Hamas, “there has been a chilling increase in anti-Semitic incidents in the Netherlands. The context of the slogan “from the river to the sea” comes directly from the Hamas charter, according to the SGP member.

The slogan calls for exepelling the Jews from Israel, the annihilation of the state of Israel and for the extermination of all Jews worldwide.

The SGP MP sees little action being taken against the controversial phrase to date. He asked the outgoing cabinet (there is no government in Netherlands yet)  to follow the example of Germany and Austria to place the chanting of the slogan at demonstrations in anti-Semitic context and to include it in the so-called action perspective, so that police and prosecutors can actually take action.

By Yossi Lempkowicz

Motion calling to ban ‘from the river to the sea’ slogan adopted in Dutch parliament

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