Posted on 02/26/2007 4:18:14 PM PST by DAVEY CROCKETT
Remember_The_Holocaust] Mary Berg’s Diary
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She was just fifteen when Hitler entered Poland. She survived four
years of Nazi
terror. This is her story.
When Hitler invaded Poland in 1939, Mary Berg had just turned fifteen.
From that
time until her arrival in the United States in March 1944, Mary kept a
detailed
personal diary, recording her years in the Warsaw Ghetto, detention in
Pawiak
prison, internment in Occupied France, and finally, her journey to
freedom
aboard a mercy ship hired by the American government. Carefully hidden
among her
meager possessions were her twelve small notebooks, smuggled out of
Europe under
the noses of the Nazis. Less than a year later, its war-time
publication played
a key role in bringing the plight of the remaining European Jews to the
world’s
attention.
The diary immediately won the highest acclaim from America’s press in
the first
days of 1945, including a major piece in the New York Times which
concluded,
“Without qualification, this reviewer recommends Mary Berg’s Diary to
everybody”.
After a gap of 60 years, this amazing diary is about to be published
once more,
this time for a worldwide audience. These extracts give a flavour of
that world
long ago, a world of both light and dark.
Mary Berg’s Warsaw Ghetto: A Diary
Introduction
And it continued. Ten a day, ten thousand Jews a day. That did not last
very
long. Soon they took fifteen thousand. Warsaw! The city of Jews - the
fenced in,
walled-in city, Dwindled, expired, melted like snow before my eyes.
- from Yitzak Katzenelson’s The Song of the Murdered Jewish People
written 2-3-4
November 1943
On April 19, 1944, Mary Berg began her fight to open American eyes to
the
Holocaust. On that day, a crowd of thousands gathered at the Warsaw
Synagogue in
New York and marched to City Hall in commemoration of the first
anniversary of
the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. Heading the marchers was the Wattenberg
family, Shya
and Lena and their daughters Mary (Miriam) and Ann, who had escaped the
terrible
fate of so many European Jews and reached the United States just four
weeks
earlier. The marchers carried signs reading, “We appeal to the
conscience of
America to help save those Jews in Poland who can yet be saved,”
“Avenge the
blood of the Polish ghetto” and “Three Million Polish Jews have been
murdered by
the Nazis! Help us rescue the survivors.”[i]
The Wattenbergs had arrived in the United States in March 1944 as
repatriates on
the S S Gripsholm, an exchange ship leased by the U. S. Department of
State from
the Swedish American line. S. L. Shneiderman, a Yiddish journalist who
had
himself escaped Nazi Europe, had met Mary Berg, who was then nineteen
years old,
on the dock after the ship arrived. He learned she had brought a diary
of her
and her family’s experiences in the Warsaw Ghetto with her, written in
Polish in
twelve small, spiral notebooks.
Shneiderman recalls in the preface to the 1983 Polish edition of the
diary that:
In a state of awe I read the tiny letters on the densely written pages
of her
notebooks. Afraid that the books might some day fall into the hands of
the
Nazis, Mary wrote her notes in a her own form of shorthand, using only
initials
for the people whose names she mentioned. She never used the word
`Nazi.’
Instead, she wrote `they.’ 2
Nancy Craig, in a radio broadcast on station WJZ in New York, asked
Mary how she
had managed to bring her diary to the States. She replied, “I developed
a sort
of code of my own and wrote down the most important facts. Very simply
I put
them in my valise. Also I memorized all the important dates and
names.”[ii] Soon
after her arrival, Mary began to rewrite her notes in Polish.
Shneiderman worked closely with Mary for the next several months,
deciphering
the notebooks and asking her “to explain certain facts and situations
which
otherwise would have been puzzling not only for American readers but
for readers
through the world,” apparently amending some spellings and perhaps
adding some
material. When she knew the persons mentioned had perished, she and
Shneiderman
changed the initials to full names. For the same reason, the author’s
surname
was shortened to Berg to protect family and friends who might yet be
alive in
wartime Poland. In Pawiak, Mary had also begun rewriting parts of her
diary. For
these reasons, it is perhaps most accurate to call her published work
“a diary
memoir.”
Shneiderman translated the Polish manuscript[iii] into Yiddish, which
he
published, in serial form, in the Der Morgen zshurnal. He then hired
Norbert
Guterman, who was born in Poland, and Sylvia Glass, a graduate of
Wellesley
College, to translate the Polish version into English. Apparently, this
version
appeared in the P.M. newspaper in New York in serialized form, and in
an
abridged form in the Jewish Contemporary Record, in the fall of 1944.
At about
the same time, a German translation of the diary was translated by Mary
Graf and
appeared in the New York exile newspaper Aufbau [Reconstruction] from
22
September 1944 until 19 January 1945.[iv]
In February 1945, Shneiderman published Mary Berg’s full work, Warsaw
Ghetto: A
Diary, with L.B. Fischer in New York. Mary designed the original dust
jacket
portraying the brick wall marking the boundary of the Warsaw ghetto. In
the
foreword to a special edition of the diary, sponsored by the National
Organization of Polish Jews, President Joseph Thon outlined Berg and
Shneiderman’s purpose in publishing the diary. He explained:
The leaders of the United Nations have declared that they would resort
to poison
gas and bacteriological warfare only if the Germans used these inhuman
methods
first. The Germans have used these methods to slaughter millions of
Jews in
Treblinki, Majdanek, Oswiecim, and other camps. But even today the
civilized
world does not fully realize this fact. It is therefore our duty to
make known
the horrible truth, to publicize documents and eyewitness accounts that
reveal
it beyond any doubt.
Mary Berg’s diary was published before the war was over, before people
in the
United States and abroad, and even the diarist herself, knew the
enormity of the
German crimes and the details of the Final Solution. Moreover, we
should
remember that as a witness to these crimes against humanity, Mary had
arrived in
New York before the summer of 1944, when the Hungarian Jews, the last
of the
European communities, were gassed at Auschwitz, and hope remained that
the
world’s attention to their plight might lead to rescue.
Mary Berg was not the only witness of these events to testify in
English before
the end of the war. A few articles and pamphlets were published
featuring
eye-witness accounts between 1942 and 1943, and firsthand testimony was
also
included in a book on Polish Jewry in 1943.[v]
However, Mary Berg’s diary was the first account to describe the events
from the
ghetto’s establishment through to the first deportations that took
place between
July and September of 1942 to appear in English as eyewitness
testimony. It was
also one of the first personal accounts to describe gas being used to
kill the
Jewish population at Treblinka. In a preface to the diary, Shneiderman
pointed
out that:
At some future time, we hope, chronicles hidden by writers in the ruins
of the
Warsaw ghetto will be discovered. Other survivors may be found to give
additional testimony to this heroic episode of the war...for the time
being,
Berg’s diary is the only existing eye-witness record.[vi]
Mary Berg’s unique contribution was recognized in reviews during the
winter of
1945. The New Yorker wrote: “This is a grim book, full of darkness and
horror,
and, because of the picture it gives of the courage and humanity of the
people
of the Warsaw ghetto, it is also a brave and inspiring one.”[vii] The
Kirkus
Review called it “a moving record of terrorism”[viii] and the New York
Times
review recommended it as reading for everyone “without
qualification.”[ix] The
Saturday Review concluded that Berg’s diary entries, “bear the imprint
of
sincerity and authenticity, and apparently are not `glamorized’ by
editorial
treatment.”[x]
Soon after its publication in February 1945, the diary was translated
into
several foreign languages.[xi] More recently, it has been the subject
of a play,
a piece of street theater, and been featured in a 1991 documentary
film, “A Day
in the Warsaw Ghetto, A Birthday Trip to Hell,”[xii] It also appears as
a source
in the bibliography of many important works on the Holocaust available
to
students and scholars.[xiii]
Mary Berg’s diary is unique for its authenticity, its detail and its
poignancy,
as well as for its early publication. Alice Eckhardt, a noted Christian
theologian, wrote in 1995,”Now with the ghetto’s final fate known by
all, the
details of the community life that went on and even at times blossomed
despite
the dreadful conditions under which it existed become even more
important for us
to know. The unique factors that made it possible for this young woman,
, to
leave the ghetto just prior to its elimination give the book a vibrancy
and at
the same time a poignancy that is hard to match.”[xiv]
Mary Berg was fifteen years old when the Germans attacked Poland, and
when she
began her diary on October 10, 1939, and her diary is that of a young
girl..
Like many child diarists, she was searching to find meaning in the
cruelty she
experienced. Like Anne Frank and others, she began her diary as a means
to
comfort and occupy herself. Later, it became an outlet for her and her
friends.
Alvin Rosenfeld in his work A Double Dying[xv] concludes that diaries
of the
Holocaust written by children or young adolescents “seem almost to
constitute a
distinctive subgenre of the literature of incarceration.”
She was with her family in the Warsaw Ghetto from its beginning in
November,
1940 until a few days before the Great Deportation began on July 22,
1942. On
July 17, 1942, they had been interned as American citizens in the
Pawiak Prison,
which stood inside the ghetto. From the windows of the prison, they
witnessed
the deportation of over 300,000 ghetto inhabitants. Several years
later, Mary
recalled watching many friends among “the aged men with gray beards,
the
blooming young girls and proud young men, driven like cattle to the
Umschlagplatz on Stawki Street to their deaths.”[xvi]
Shortly after midnight on January 18, 1943, the day the second Aktion
began in
the ghetto that was to lead to the first armed resistance the next day,
Mary,
her parents and her sister Ann were sent with other foreign internees
to an
internment camp in Vittel, France. Over a year later, they were
selected for an
exchange with German prisoners in the United States. They arrived in
the United
States aboard the S.S. Gripsholm on March 16, 1944.
Early in the occupation, Mary learned that the Germans would set a
price on life
and that those with wealth and privilege from before the occupation
would have a
better chance of survival. When the ghetto was established in Lodz, a
schoolmate
of Mary’s came to Warsaw with, Mary describes it, “bloodcurdling
stories.” Her
family had managed to escape, she told her friend, by “bribing the
Gestapo with
good American dollars.” Of course, Mary knew that only “the well-to-do
Jews”
could have easy access to foreign currency.
She realized that she was among the privileged. She explained,in her
diary that
those without privilege “have only a 10 per cent chance at most [to
survive].”
Later, she admitted with equal openness that, “Only those who have
large sums of
money are able to save themselves from this terrible life.” Mary had
grown up in
a well-to-do home in Lodz. Her father owned an art gallery and traveled
abroad
to purchase works by European masters such as Poussin and Delacroix.
She
attended gymnasium in Lodz and her family could afford to spend six
weeks in a
health resort in the summer of 1939, and had relatives living in the
United
States.
She also had the insight to see that foreign citizens had a much better
chance
of survival. Jews with passports for neutral countries were exempt from
having
to wear the Jewish star and doing forced labor. When two friends
obtained papers
as nationals of a South American country, she commented: “No wonder
many Jews
try to obtain such documents; but not all have the means to buy them or
the
courage to use them.”
Mary’s mother, Lena, was born in New York on 1 May 1902, and was a
citizen of
the United States.. When Lena was about twelve, she had moved to Poland
with her
Polish-born parents and an older brother and sister, who were also born
in the
States. Her younger brothers Abie and Percy were born after the family
returned
to Poland in 1914. When her parents and older siblings moved back to
the States
in the 1920s, Lena, a fashion designer, remained in Lodz with her
younger
brothers. She married Shya Wattenberg, a Polish citizen, who was a
painter and
an antique dealer..[xvii]They had two children, Mary and a younger
daughter
named Ann.
Under the Germans, her mother’s status as an American citizen gave the
whole
family protection and privileges, even though Mary and her sister were
born in
Poland. When the mailman brought her mother a letter from the American
consulate
in December 1939, Mary reported that he “could not refrain from
expressing his
envy over the fact that we have American connections.” On April 5,
1940, she
noted, realistically, that “Polish citizens of Jewish origin have no
one to
protect them, except themselves.” Later, she explained that her
mother’s
visiting card on the door in Warsaw, indicating she was an American,
was a
“wonderful talisman against the German bandits who freely visit all
Jewish
apartments.” This was so much so, that neighbors came to their
apartment as soon
as German uniforms came into view.
Although the Wattenbergs were refugees, they had managed to hold on to
some
money and valuables. They also received mail and packages from
relatives in the
States and Mrs. Wattenberg, as an American citizen, was permitted, at
first, to
leave the ghetto. When, in November 1940, the Germans officially closed
the
Jewish quarter in Warsaw as a ghetto, the Wattenbergs were fortunate to
be able
to remain in their apartment at Sienna 41, on the corner of Sosnowa
Street in
the ghetto. It was included in the area referred to as the “Little
Ghetto,” at
the southern border of the ghetto. The courtyard outside their windows
opened
onto the “Aryan” side of the ghetto where they could still see people
walking
around freely.
The “Little Ghetto” became the privileged quarter. Gutman points out
that:
Even though the ghetto adopted the slogan `all are equal,’ some people
were
`more equal’ than others, and this imbalance could be felt on the
streets as
well. Some streets, such as Sienna and Chlodna, were considered
well-to-do
sections. The apartments there were larger, the congestion lighter, and
above
all, the people relatively well fed. The streets were the addresses of
the
assimilated Jews.... and rich Jews who had managed to hold on to a
portion of
their wealth.[xviii]
Mary was aware of this inequality and of the importance wealth played
in the
life of the ghetto.
Her knowledge of the corruptibility of the Judenrat is also clear from
a later
entry, after she and her family moved to an apartment at Chlodna 10,
located
right at the western ghetto gate, by the foot bridge over Chlodna
Street. She
explained that:
The well to do, who could afford to bribe the officials of the housing
office,
get the best apartments on this street with its many large modern
houses.
Chlodna Street is generally considered the `aristocratic’ street of the
ghetto,
just as Sienna Street was at the beginning.
Although Mary often seemed uncomfortable with the privileges and
protection
afforded her family, she also wanted to forget the horror all around
her, and
with the resilience of youth she adapted to life during the occupation.
Wiszniewicz interviewed a ghetto survivor living in the United States a
few
years ago.
People think the ghetto was like in the movies: constant, relentless
terror. But
it wasn’t like that at all. We were always surrounded by terror, but we
led
normal lives right alongside it. Flirting went on in the ghetto,
romances,
concerts, theatrical performances. People went to a restaurant, while
behind the
restaurant somebody was dying. The normal and the abnormal intertwined
repeatedly.[xix]
This is the life that Mary describes on every page.
Many of her young friends from Lodz had also fled to Warsaw. During the
summer
of 1940, the principal,of her Lodz gymnasium, Dr. Michael
Brandstetter,[xx]with
a number of his teaching staff, started illegal classes in Warsaw. The
students
secretly met twice a week in the safety of the Wattenberg home so that
they
could finish their studies. School was only possible for the
privileged, because
students in the study-groups usually had to pay their teachers about
thirty to
forty zlotys a month.[xxi]
As the numbers of refugees increased and conditions grew more and more
distressing, Jews in Warsaw began to establish a network of relief and
self-help
organizations in the Jewish quarter. Eager to make a contribution, Mary
and
eleven of her friends from Lodz founded a club to raise relief funds.
Soon, at
the request of a representative of the Joint Distribution Committee,
they
decided to put on a musical show. They called themselves the “Lodz
Artistic
Group” (Lodzki Zespol Artystyczny) or, in Polish, the LZA. whose
letters
appropriately, she felt, formed the word “tear.”
One document recovered from the Oneg Shabbat archive refers to the
“privileged”
youth in the ghetto, mainly refugees from Lodz and neighboring towns,
whom he
disparagingly called the “golden youth.” In her diary Mary describes
going to
the cafes on Sienna Street to sing, and to performances at the Feminina
Theater
with Romek, outings that stand in stark contrast to the starving youth
and
children in the ghetto. Even the LZA club, which was set up to raise
funds for
the poor, clearly brought the youth running it welcome relief from the
horrors
they saw all around them, as Mary reported that they “had a lively
time” putting
on their play, and were quite a hit . However, she remained sensitiveto
this
inequality, and to the growing desperation in the ghetto. Just a few
weeks
earlier, she had noted a visit she made to a refugee home where she saw
half-naked, unwashed children lying about listlessly. One child looked
at her
and said she was hungry. With characteristic candor, she confessed in
her diary,
“I am overcome by a feeling of utter shame. I had eaten that day, but I
did not
have a piece of bread to give to that child. I did not dare look in her
eyes.”
In another moving passage, she wrote about the “dreamers of bread” in
the
streets whose “eyes are veiled with a mist that belongs to another
world.” She
explained that, “usually they sit across from the windows of food
stores, but
their eyes no longer see the loaves that lie behind the glass, as in
some remote
inaccessible heaven.” In the same entry, she also expressed guilt about
her
privileges, concluding: “I have become really selfish. For the time
being I am
still warm and have food, but all around me there is so much misery and
starvation that I am beginning to be very unhappy.”
Abraham Lewin, a ghetto diarist who perished, described the huge
contrasts
between the better off inhabitants of the ghetto, and the many
thousands who
were suffering poverty, disease and starvation:
The ghetto is most terrible to behold with its crowds of drawn faces
with the
color drained out them. Some of them have the look of corpses that have
been in
the ground a few weeks. They are so horrifying that they cause us to
shudder
instinctively. Against the background of these literally skeletal
figures and
against the all-embracing gloom and despair that stares from every pair
of eyes,
from the packed mass of passers-by, a certain type of girl or young
woman, few
in number it must be said, shocks with her over-elegant
attire...Walking down
the streets I observe this sickly elegance and am shamed in my own
eyes.[xxii]
As another Oneg Shabbat essayist reminded future historians, while
these
privileged youth lived comparatively well, “nevertheless they, too,
were
affected by wartime conditions which changed their lives in a negative
way.”[xxiii]
Wealth and privilege in the ghetto influenced more than housing and
education.
Mary discovered they played a part in protecting the inhabitants from
labor camp
and helped secure the most desirable jobs. She clearly faced an inner,
moral
dilemma herself when in the fall of 1941, she learned that the Judenrat
was
offering practical courses in subjects like metallurgy and applied
graphic arts
near her home on Sienna Street[xxiv] The course was to last six months
and the
tuition was twenty-five zlotys. When she went to register, she found
many
friends among the almost six hundred applicants, all eager to escape
labor
camp.[xxv] Not surprisingly, there were only a few dozen openings.
She admitted to herself in her diary knowing that “pull” would play a
large part
in the selection of students. At first she “rebelled” against this, but
when she
realized she had little chance of being admitted, she “decided to
resort to the
same means.” There was an additional selfishness in this decision,
because she
also admitted knowing that at the time girls were not threatened with
labor
camps as young boys were.
She had begun to accept the realities of bribes and pull a few months
earlier.
When the Judenrat established the Jewish Police force, she had
explained, “more
candidates presented themselves than were needed.” She had then added,
“A
special committee chose them, and `pull’ played an important part in
their
choice. At the very end, when only a few posts were available, money
helped,
too...Even in Heaven not everyone is a saint.” Since Mary’s uncle Abie
served in
the police force, she probably knew of this at first hand.
Due to their pre-war social standing, education and wealth, many of
Mary’s
relatives and friends were able to acquire positions of “privilege,”
thus
enabling them to live much better than the average ghetto dweller and
to survive
at least a while longer. Most had got their positions through the
Judenrat.
Although public opinion varied as to the integrity of the Judenrat,
Ringelblum
described the council as “hostile to the people” in his Oneg Shabbat
notes.[xxvi] Others, however, joined the Jewish Police, whom Ringelblum
and
other memoirists condemned out right, saying they “distinguished
themselves with
their fearful corruption and immorality.”[xxvii]
Later, Mary explained that her uncle Percy got a job with the Judenrat,
picking
up bricks in ruined buildings, but he lacked the “pull” to get a higher
paying
position as an overseer. On the other hand, she knew that her “boy
friend” in
the ghetto, Romek Kowalski, another “golden youth” from Lodz, had
secured a
position as an overseer for the construction of the ghetto wall,
because he did
have “pull.” Kowalski was a relative of engineer Mieczslaw Lichtenbaum,
the head
of the wall construction commission formed by the Judenrat,[xxviii] and
of Marek
Lichtenbaum, who became the head of the Judenrat after the Great
Deportation.
After what she describes as a “struggle,” which probably means bribes
were
required, her father got the coveted position of janitor in their
apartment
block. The Judenrat appointed janitors. They got a salary, free
lodging, relief
from community taxes and extra rations, as well as a pass from the
Judenrat
exempting them from forced labor. In Mary’s words, “no wonder the job
is hard to
obtain.” Also,Mary’s sister Ann attended classes in sewing children’s
clothing,
which were run by the Judenrat’s Institute for Vocational Guidance and
Training,
known as the ORT.
Another acquaintance of Mary’s, Heniek Grynberg, whose cousin Rutka was
Ann’s
best friend, was a smuggler in the ghetto. He was apparently involved
in the
ghetto underworld, as he frequented the Cafe Hirschfeld with Gestapo
agents.
Mary notes, “He is one of the most successful people in this new
business. This
can be seen from his prosperous appearance and the elegant dresses worn
by his
wife and daughter.” His main trade was to smuggle inanti-typhus
serumwhich, of
course, as typhus swept the ghetto, went to those who could pay high
sums.
The Special Ambulance Service received particularly scathing criticism
from
Ringelblum,[xxix] who regarded it as a front for selling cards and caps
that
afforded the holders valuable advantages, such as exemption from forced
labor.
It was run by the infamous mafia-style underworld in the ghetto known
as the
“Thirteen,” which was widely feared to be a tool of the Gestapo. One of
Mary’s
friends and a fellow member of the LZA, Tadek Szajer, was the son of a
member of
the “Thirteen,” and himself a member of the Ambulance Service. He
pursued her
with youthful fervor, but she rejected his advances, noting that while
others
such as Romek Kowlaski had to work so hard to provide for their
families, Tadek
was always well fed and smartly dressed, and traveled everywhere by
rickshaw.
She suspected his father of doing business with the Nazis, and her
decision not
to see him any more suggested she understood what was happening, and
wanted to
take a moral stand.
In early 1942, Mary learned that U. S. citizens had been allowed to
leave the
ghetto and one acquaintance’s father was interned in Germany. There
were rumors
in the ghetto,of a prisoner exchange. A few weeks later, she noted that
here
“pull” and bribes could also be useful. She wrote in her diary,
“Naturally, one
must have some scrap of paper stating that at least one member of the
family is
a foreign citizen. My mother is lucky in this respect, for she is a
full-fledged
American citizen”
Later Mary’s mother made contact with a Gestapo agent named “Z” who
promised her
help. Naively, Mary confessed to believing that “it seems that despite
his
position he has remained a decent man.” More likely, money passed into
his hands
before he registered Mrs. Wattenberg with the Gestapo. A month later,
Mary Berg
and her family marched through the ghetto, with about seven hundred
citizens of
neutral, European and American countries, twenty-one of whom were
Americans, to
the Pawiak prison where they were interned.
When the Wattenbergsmoved into the Pawiak prison, Mary parted not only
from
Kowalski and her many girl friends, but also from her mother’s two
younger,
Polish-born brothers. Her Uncle Abie accompanied them to the prison
gate. In
parting, he asked her mother, “How can you leave me?” Later, in the
relative
safety of the internment camp in Vittel, Mary wrote in her diary, “we,
who have
been rescued from the ghetto, are ashamed to look at each other. Had we
the
right to save ourselves?…Here I am, breathing fresh air, and there my
people are
suffocating in gas and perishing in flames, burned alive. Why?”
On arrival at the Vittel internment camp in early 1943, the Wattenbergs
and
other internees from Pawiak could not at first believe that such a
world of
comparative normalcy existed any longer. Gutta Eisenzweig, who had
shared a cell
with Mary at Pawiak, writes in her recent memoir about her initial
reaction, “I
stood there in shock, for we had suddenly crossed the divide from hell
to
paradise...we had come to a serene atmosphere of Old World
sumptuousness. The
contrast was overwhelming.”[xxx] Vittel was a showplace among the
German
internment camps in Europe, designed to reassure the International Red
Cross,
that the internees were well-treated to help ensure the safety of
Germans
interned abroad.
The Vittel camp was based at a health spa in the Vosges Mountains of
France. The
internees had rooms in the hotels and some of the luxuries of the spa
still were
available.There was a hospital with kind inmate physicians such as Dr.
Jean
Levy, movies and entertainments, a few shops and a beautiful park they
could
promenade in during the day. With the help of Red Cross packages they
received,
no one was hungry. The American and British internees at Vittel had
time enough
to establish a social life. There were language classes and other
courses
available, concerts and entertainments. There were also contacts with
the French
resisitance, several hundred nuns, and internees like Sofka Skipwith
who reached
out to help the new arrivals from Warsaw.
Madeleine Steinberg, a British internees, has written her memoir about
the
Vittel camp. She recalls that Mary volunteered right away to help with
the
children at art classes and when they were playing. She also recalls
that Mary
was the first one to tell the other internees about life in the Warsaw
ghetto
and to explain why the children from Poland ran and hid in the cellar
when they
saw a German at Vittel.[xxxi] The internees began to have hope once
again.
However, a few weeks after the Wattenbergs’ departure for the SS
Gripsholm
exchange, most of the Polish internees who had been moved to the Hotel
Beau Site
outside the barbed wire surrounding the park were deported in two
transports to
Drancy, and a short time later, from there to Auschwitz, where they
were gassed
upon arrival.
In the Warsaw Ghetto, after the deportations in late summer 1942, the
Jewish
Fighting Organization and other political youth assassinated
collaborators in
the ghetto, including Jews who had worked with the Gestapo and made
huge
fortunes in business deals with the Germans and known Gestapo
informers.[xxxii]
Postwar reactions, especially among displaced survivors in Europe,
against the
Nazi perpetrators - including collaborators, those who were members of
the
ghetto councils, the ghetto police or Kapos in the camps - was, at
first,
determined. Some were tried in Occupied Germany and declared
responsible for
their actions.
Later, several much publicized cases against Jewish collaborators were
tried in
Israeli and German courts. However, “guilt” in a legal sense was often
difficult
to prove and to judge. Since the Germans’ ultimate goal was to destroy
the
Jewish population, these collaborators were subordinated to the
Germans’ will,
so the lines between cooperation and collaboration were often
indistinct. The
courts of public morality have also tended to judge these defendants
with
leniency, as people wonder what they might have done to save themselves
or
family members in similar circumstances, had they been tested.[xxxiii]
Questions my students often asked when they read Mary Berg’s Diary were
how she
knew in Pawiak what was happening in the ghetto, and why she wrote that
the
victims at Treblinka were killed with steam. Although Mary was in
Pawiak during
the Aktion in 1942, the walls of Pawiak were transparent. She speaks of
rumors
that reached them through the prison guards and Polish police. She and
the other
internees at Pawiak also received letters from friends and family.
Gutta
Eisenzweig, who shared a cell with the Wattenbergs at Pawiak, got
detailed
updates from Hillel Seidman, a community official. They also
communicated with
new internees and with ghetto inhabitations through the windows at
Pawiak.
Mary’s writings also reflect what people knew at the time. Some of the
first
reports indicated that steam was being used to kill people at
Treblinka. It was
some time after people first escaped from Treblinka that Warsaw fully
understoond that the Germans were using carbon monoxide.
The images of suffering we see in headlines and on television screens
today make
our world, in fact, too similar to the world of Mary’s girlhood
experience.
Young people today often lash out at the world to stop the killing.
Holocaust
scholars endeavor to do the same thing. They hope that educating future
generations about the past will empower them to build a new world
without hate.
Mary’s diary provides readers with an understanding of the Holocaust
from an
intense, personal perspective, and empowers readers to hope for a
better future
for the human family.
Marcel Reich-Ranickil explains in his recent memoir, in reference to
his wife
who escaped from the Umschlagplatz, “Whoever, sentenced to death, has
at close
quarters watched a train leaving for the gas chambers, remains marked
for the
rest of their lives.” [xxxiv] Although Mary never passed through the
Umschlagplatz, she watched as over 300,000 Jews marched by Pawiak
prison in
Warsaw on their way to their deaths at Treblinka. After she returned to
the U.
S., she learned that most of her friends and family in Europe had
perished in
the Holocaust, including two hundred Polish Jews at Vittel, her
roommate Rosl
Weingort, Adam Wentland and his sisters, and many others she knew. They
were on
the verge of freedom, but the world turned its eyes away and they were
deported
back to Poland where they died in the gas chambers of Auschwitz.
Mary began a new life in America and made an effort to leave the past
behind
her. When Nancy Craig asked her in early 1945 if she wanted to visit
Poland
again, she replied:
No, I will never go back. America is my country now and I’m going to be
a real
American. It wouldn’t be nice to go back to Poland and see only
cemetaries….also
my father’s family has been killed...so have all our friends. After
what we went
through, I know what freedom really means...it means America. Just
talking with
you this morning over the radio...this is America.
While readers may conclude that Mary was “fortunate” in surviving, and
assume
that once in the United States she returned to the happiness of her
early
teenage years, most also understand that the lives of survivors of
trauma,
children perhaps most of all, are changed forever by persecution, the
future
altered by the horror, the losses and the choices they once had to
make.
Until the early 1950s Mary Berg was a personality in New York, granting
interviews and appearing on radio. Then she disassociated herself from
the
diary, saying she wanted to forget the past, and she disappeared from
the public
eye. It is not known if she found happiness in her adult years. We can
only hope
she was able to make a life for herself in the post-war world and find
solace
from past memories.
SUSAN PENTLIN
Notes
[i] “Thousands Mourn Victims of Ghetto,” New York Times, 20 April l944,
pg. 10.
[ii] Transcript of “Woman of Tomorrow.” Interview with Mary Berg by
Nancy Craig.
WJZ radio. 8:30 a.m. 21 February 1945. S. L. Shneiderman Archives. Tel
Aviv.
[iii] The editor has a few photocopied pages of the original Polish
manuscript,
but the full Polish manuscript as well as Berg’s original diary are
apparently
no longer extant.
[iv] The editor wants to thank Fabian Fuerste at the Wiener Library in
London
for checking their holdings of the issues Aufbau from 1944 to 1945 and
establishing the exact dates and issues that the diary appeared in
German.
[v] Among others, “The Extermination of 500,000 Jews in the Warsaw
Ghetto: the
Day to Day Experience of a Polish Gentile” was published the American
Council of
Warsaw Jews and the American Friends of Polish Jews in New York in
1942. It was
a translation of pages from a diary written by a Polish woman employed
in a
municipal office in the Warsaw Ghetto, and covered events over a
two-month
period in the ghetto, from July 22, 1942 to September 25, 1942. Mary
Berg’s
account covers the period the Wattenberg family spent in Warsaw both
before and
after the ghetto was established (September 1939 to July 17 1942) as
well as
their experiences in Pawiak prison inside the ghetto itself until the
day of the
first Uprising in the ghetto on 18 January 1943. She also wrote about
their year
in the internment camp at Vittel, France through to February 1944.
Tosha Bialer, who had escaped from the Warsaw ghetto with her husband
and young
son in 1942, wrote the two-part article, “Behind the Wall,” for
Colliers
magazine, and it appeared with graphic photos of the ghetto in February
1943.
The American Federation for Polish Jews also published Jacob
Apenszlak’s The
Black Book of Polish Jewry: An Account of the Martyrdom of Polish Jewry
under
the Nazi Occupation, in 1943.
In addition, Jan Karski’s report, “My Visit to the Warsaw Ghetto,”
appeared in
the American Mercury magazine in 1944, at almost the same time as the
initial
selections of Mary Berg’s diary were published. Karski, a courier for
the Polish
underground, had visited Warsaw in 1942 and met with three of the
ghetto
leaders. He reported on their conversation:
The first thing they made clear to me ...was the absolute hopelessness
of their
predicament. For the Polish Jews, this was the end of a world. There
was no
possible escape for them or for their fellows... `Do you mean that
every one of
those presumably deported was actually killed?’` Every last one.’
One of the Bund leaders had told him: “The Germans are not trying to
enslave us
as they do other people; we are being systematically murdered.” Like
Karski,
Sheniderman and Berg intended to inform America of the Nazi atrocities
against
the Jews of Europe.
[vi] After the war, the Oneg Shabbat archives of the ghetto, organized
by
Emanuel Ringelblum, were recovered in Warsaw, and the diaries and
chronicles of
Adam Czerniakow, Janusz Korczak, Chaim Kaplan, Abraham Lewis and
Emanuel
Ringelblum, who perished in the Holocaust, came to light. Several
memoir
accounts appeared over the next four decades, including those of
Alexander Donat
and Helena Szereszewska, and survivors of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising,
like
Yitzak Zuckerman and Vladka Meed. The memoir of the ghetto policeman
Stanislaw
Adler, who survived but killed himself in 1946, was also published in
English in
1982 by Yad Vashem..Since only one per cent of the ghetto inhabitants
survived
the war, even accounts written after 1945 are rare.
[vii] Review, New Yorker, 21, 24 February 1945, pg. 77.
[viii] Review, Kirkus, 13, 15 February 1945, pg. 24.
[ix] Marguerite Young, “First Hand Report of a Nightmare,” New York
Times Book
Review, 18 February 1945, pg. 6.
[x] F. Weiskopf, review, Saturday Review, 28, March 3, 1945, pg. 34.
[xi] In 1945, a Hebrew translation of the diary appeared in Tel Aviv,
and a
Spanish edition came out in Buenos Aires. In 1946 an Italian edition
appeared in
Rome and a French translation in Paris in 1947. Several decades later,
Shneiderman edited a Polish translation of the original English, which
appeared
in Poland on the fortieth anniversary of the ghetto uprising in 1983.
In 1991, a
Hungarian translation followed, as well as a new Italian translation.
[xii] In 1986, A Bouquet of Alpine Violets, a play based on the diary,
was
staged in Warsaw. See Kaufman, Michael T. “Warsaw Play Dramatizing
Ghetto Diary,
New York Times, ProQuest Historical Newspapers. 18 May 1986. p. 13.
More
recently, Tempesta, a production inspired by Mary Berg’s diary,
appeared in five
countries as street theater in an adaptation directed by Cora
Herrendorf. The
production was by the Teatro Nucleo company, which began in 1974 in
Argentina
and finds its home in Italy today. (See Teatro Nucleo’s web site at
http://www.teatronucleo.org.) In 1991, Heinz Joest’s documentary film,
“A Day in
the Warsaw Ghetto: A Birthday Trip to Hell,” directed by Jack Kuper in
Canada,
featured text from Mary Berg’s diary.
[xiii] These include Lucy Dawidowicz, The War Against the Jews,
1933-1945 (New
York: Bantam, 1975); Nora Levin, The Holocaust: The Destruction of
European
Jewry, 1933-1945 (New York, Schocken, 1973); Yisrael Gutman, The Jews
of Warsaw,
1939-1943, trans. Ina Friedman (Bloomington: Indiana University, 1982.
Selections from the diary also appear in many sources, including Laurel
Holliday, Children in the Holocaust and World War II: Their Secret
Diaries (New
York: Pocket Books, 1995), pp. 209-248, and Martin Gilbert, A History
of the
Jews of Europe during the Second World War (New York, Holt, Rinehart
and
Winston, 1985), which draws extensive quotes from the diary in
discussing the
Warsaw Ghetto.
[xiv] Letter from Eckhardt to Pentlin, dated 1995.
[xv] Alvin H. Rosenfeld, A Double Dying: Reflections on Holocaust
Literature
(Bloomington: Indiana University, l980), pp. 50-51.
[xvi] Esther Elbaum, “She Lived in the Warsaw Ghetto: An Interview with
Mary
Berg,” Hadassah Newsletter (March-April, 1945): 20-21.
[xvii] Mary Berg’s father was born on 19 July 1893 in Pultusk, Poland
and died
in the United States in 1970, where he had continued his antique
business after
the war; her mother Lena died in the United States in 1989.
[xviii] Israel Gutman, The Jews of Warsaw, 1939-1943, Ghetto,
Underground,
Revolt. Bloomington, Ind., Indiana, 1982. Pg. 108.
[xix] Wiszniewicz, Joanna. And Yet I Still have Dreams, trans. Regina
Grol,
Evanston, Il, Northwestern, 2004.
[xx] He is identified in “Minutes of the Second Plenary Session of the
Jewish
Education Council in Warsaw,” PH/ 9-2-7 in To Live with Honor and Die
with
Honor, Joseph Kermish, ed. (Jerusalem: Yad Vashem, 1986), pp. 464, 466.
[xxi] [A Preliminary Study in Teaching People during the War], PH/
13-2-4 in
Kermisch, pg. 469.
[xxii] Abraham Lewin, A Cup of Tears: A Diary of the Warsaw Ghetto,
Antony
Polonsky, ed. (Oxford: Blackwell, 1988, p. 84.
[xxiii] “The Profile of the Jewish Child,” #ARI/ 47 in Kermisch, pg.
383.
[xxiv] [Special Schools]. ARI/ 341 in Kermisch, pp. 515-516. Berg gives
the
address as 16 Sienna Street. It seems likely that is in error. The
address of
the school is given in this essay as Sienna 34, which would have been
closer to
Berg’s home.
[xxv] [Jewish Youth in the War Years], pg. 518.
[xxvi] Emmanuel Ringelblum. Notes from the Warsaw Ghetto: The Journal
of
Emmanuel Ringelblum, Jacob Sloan ed. and trans. (New York: Schocken,
1958.
[xxvii] Ringelblum 329.
[xxviii] The Warsaw Diary of Adam Czerniakow: Prelude to Doom, Raul
Hilberg,
Stanislaw Staron and Josef Kermisz, eds. (New York, Stein and Day,
1972.), pg.
295
[xxix]
[xxx] Sternbuch, Gutta and David Kranzler. Gutta, Memories of a Vanish
World, A
Bais Yaakov Teacher’s Poignant Account of the War Years. NY, Feldheim,
2005.
[xxxi] Steinberg, Madeleine. “Une Internee Civile Britannique Témoin
Indirect de
la Fin au Ghetto de Varsovie.” Le Monde Juif, Paris, 180 (January-June
2004),
pp. 341-42.
[xxxii] Emmanuel Ringelblum, Polish-Jewish Relations During the Second
World
War, eds. Joseph Kermish and Shmuel Krakowski (Evanston, Ill:
Northwestern,
1974), pp. 249-250.
[xxxiii] See Peter Wyden, Stella (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1992),
pg. 307.
[xxxiv] Reich-Ranicki, pg. 186.
“Remember_The_Holocaust - Mary Berg’s Diary”
I posted this article in post #5121, it is too long to send to everyone and well worth reading.
Keep in mind that April 19th was the date for Waco and OKC Bombing.
April 20th was the date Hitler was born and the date of the Columbine massacre, in the Colorado High School.
Odd day, odd news, take a look at this page for odd news, the report on JFK, Titanic and the report of Lincoln’s death, breath by breath.
For some reason, it feels strange, do be careful.....
Holocaust Remembrance Day
Holocaust Remembrance Day, or Yom Hashoah, is celebrated on April 15th this year.
Once again this year, around the world efforts are made to fight against ignorance with education and against disbelief with proof, so that we NEVER FORGET on this Yom Hashoah, tha those that suffered, those that fought, and those that died. And to NEVER FORGET that 6 million Jews were murdered.
The US Holocaust Memorial Museum has set aside April 15 - April 22, 2007 as Days of Remembrance. This year’s focus is on “Children in Crisis: Voices from the Holocaust”.
From the US Holocaust Memorial Museum this year:
“When World War II ended in 1945, six million European Jews were dead, including more than one million Jewish children. All Jews were targeted for death, but children were among the most vulnerable victims of the Nazi regime and its collaborators. The very young, like the very old, were often the first victims in the ghettos of German-occupied eastern Europe. Many children died from lack of food, clothing, and shelter, as well as from diseases that flourished in the unsanitary and overcrowded conditions imposed in the ghettos.”
“As part of the “Final Solution,†the Nazis targeted children for death as so-called “useless eaters,†incapable of exploitation as forced laborers. In some cases, adults sacrificed their lives to give comfort to children as long as possible. Janusz Korczak, director of an orphanage in the Warsaw ghetto, courageously refused to abandon children chosen for deportation. He accompanied them on the transport to the Treblinka killing center where he was killed along with nearly 200 children in his charge.”
“Children were frequently among the first to be murdered when the Germans and their collaborators sought to destroy a Jewish community. Upon arrival at Auschwitz and other killing centers, most children were sent straight to their deaths in the gas chambers. Jewish children also perished attempting to evade or resist the Germans and their allies. Paula Wajcman was murdered at age fourteen when her hiding place was discovered during the destruction of the Kielce ghetto in Poland. Seven-year-old Franco Cesana was killed while fighting as a partisan in Northern Italy in 1943. In 1942, twelve-year-old Shulamit Perlmutter fled the destruction of the ghetto in Horochow, Poland. She spent the next eighteen months hiding alone in the nearby forests until she was discovered near death by Soviet troops.”
“Only a small fraction of European Jewish children survived the Holocaust, many because they were hidden. With identities disguised, and often physically concealed from the outside world, these young people faced constant fear and danger. Theirs was a life in shadows, where a careless remark, the murmurings of inquisitive neighbors, or a denunciation could lead to discovery and death. Most of these ‘hidden’ children survived the Holocaust because they were protected by people and institutions of other faiths. In France, almost the entire Protestant Huguenot population in the village of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon hid Jewish children. Some children, like Augusta Feldhorn in Belgium, quickly learned to master Christian prayers and rituals in order to keep their Jewish identity concealed from even their closest friends. Other non-Jews provided hiding places for both Jewish children and their family members. Seven-year-old Gavra Mandil and his five-year-old sister Irena, as well as their parents, were saved by their Muslim neighbors in Albania.”
“During the Holocaust, Jewish children channeled their suffering into creative expression. Some wrote letters and drew pictures about life under extreme circumstances, while others like teenagers Dawid Sierakowiak and Anne Frank kept diaries of their experiences. Neither of these diarists lived to see the end of the war. Their voices are evidence of their lives and tragically premature deaths, of hope and of cruelty. And their drawings and words are evidence that testifies to what they experienced.”
“Liberation from Nazi tyranny brought no end to the suffering of the girls and boys who remained alive. Many had no homes to which they could return; no place where they felt truly safe. Thousands would face the future with no parents, grandparents, or siblings.”
Show the world that you have NOT FORGOTTEN - wear something to show that these Days of Remembrance - will be part of something that you will publicly stand up defend. US Holocaust Memorial Museum has stickers that you can download and share at:
http://www.ushmm.org/remembrance/dor/pdf/sticker.pdf
Let us also not forget that the threat to children and to the Jewish people has not yet ended. Today, in parts of the United Kingdom, many teachers in schools are afraid to teach the lessons of the Holocaust. Today, in the United Kingdom, Australia, France, Canada, antisemitic hate crimes have increased dramatically. Today, in Israel and around the world, Jewish people are still threatened by those who seek to continue to kill Jews, as Hamas’ recent Arabic broadcast calls for the destruction of Israel, as does Iran and other nations of hate.
Also let us never forget that the adherents of Nazism still remain among us, that the Holocaust-deniers still have an active and loud voice in the world, and that the enemies of civilization still seek to convince the world that the terrible crimes against humanity never happened.
Moreover, let us not forget the mosaic of the others who suffered under Hitler’s mad regime in the Holocaust - the Gypsies, the Handicapped, and any who did not fit Hitler’s insane view of his “master race”.
Mosaic of Holocaust Victims (including Non-Jews)
http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/index.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10005149
http://www.ushmm.org/museum/exhibit/focus/disabilities_02/
http://www.ushmm.org/museum/exhibit/focus/homosexuals_02/
Yom Hashoah History
http://history1900s.about.com/cs/holocaust/a/yomhashoah.htm
Holocaust Stories from Survivors
http://judaism.about.com/library/2_holocaust/testimonies/bl_1nirgalim.htm
Profile of Elie Wiesel
http://bestsellers.about.com/od/authorprofilesaz/p/wiesel_bio.htm
4 face trial for robbery-shooting
45-month probe brings men to justice system — arrest last June leads to others linked to incident
By Sean Delaney
, Press & Guide Newspapers
DEARBORN HEIGHTS
Four men charged in connection with the July 2004 shooting of a Dearborn Heights man will stand trial later this month, 20th District Court Judge Mark Plawecki ruled Wednesday.
Brandon Samir Bazzi, Atef Ragheb Hamad, Jihad Naser Jaber and Khalid Omar Jaber are each charged with multiple felony counts — including assault with intent to murder — after allegedly conspiring to rob Dearborn Heights resident Yasser Kalkas at his home in the city’s north end.
Kalkas, 36, testified in court Wednesday that he was shot twice by a masked man after returning to his home on Cabri Lane on July 12, 2004. The bullets struck Kalkas in his upper right arm and his left buttock; the second bullet passing through his stomach before exiting out his right leg.
The alleged shooter, 28-year-old Khalid Omar Jaber, was one of four men in court Wednesday facing multiple felony charges, including assault with intent to murder, assault with intent to rob while armed, first-degree home invasion, assault with a dangerous weapon and weapons felony firearm.
According to police, Khalid Jaber was one of five men who conspired to rob Kalkas at gunpoint at his home in July 2004. One of those men, 32-year-old James Gulley, testified in court Wednesday that what ended as a shooting began with a discussion outside a gas station four days earlier.
On July 8, 2004, Gulley allegedly met with Bazzi, Hamad, Jihad Jaber and Khalid Jaber outside a gas station near Warren Avenue and the Southfield Freeway, where Hamad allegedly suggested the group rob Kalkas.
“He said his boss had a large sum of money in his home,” Gulley said.
Hamad provided directions to the north-end home, Gulley said, and told the men where the money was hidden. Four of the men, including Gulley, allegedly drove to the home later that day and looked around while Kalkas was at work.
The Dearborn Heights resident co-owned a pizzeria located on Ford Road west of the Southfield Freeway and employed Hamad as a delivery driver. The two often met outside of work and were friends, Kalkas said.
After leaving work about 9 p.m. on July 12, 2004, Hamad allegedly returned an hour later and invited Kalkas to dinner at the Al-Ameer Restaurant in Dearborn. The two dined for about an hour, Kalkas said.
“We just talked — it was just a regular conversation,’ Kalkas said.
However, when the pair left the restaurant at about 11 p.m., Hamad allegedly contacted Khalid Jaber and told him Kalkas was on his way home.
“He put the call on speakerphone,” Gulley said. “I recognized the voice — it was Atef.”
The men positioned themselves around the home, Gulley said, and waited for Kalkas to arrive. When he returned, Khalid Jaber allegedly approached the Dearborn Heights resident from behind while armed with a 9mm handgun.
“I heard somebody yell ‘get the (expletive) down’ and when I turned around to hit him, he shot me,” Kalkas said.
The intruder — who was dressed in black with gloves and a nylon mask covering his face — shot Kalkas a second time when he attempted to flee from the home. The shot struck Kalkas in his left buttock, passed through his stomach and exited out his right leg.
According to Gulley, the men outside the home returned to the Explorer after the first shot was fired, but were unable to leave the scene because Khalid Jaber still had the keys.
Gulley and Bazzi were the first to return to the vehicle, followed by Jihad Jaber and finally Khalid Jaber, who allegedly told the others that Kalkas had tried to grab the gun and had been shot twice.
The men drove to Detroit, Gulley said, and threw their masks from the car along the way.
“I threw mine out the window about two blocks away the house,” Gulley said.
Police later recovered the mask and were able to obtain enough evidence to locate Gulley. The Dearborn resident was arrested June 19, 2006, and remains in custody. He recently agreed to testify against his alleged co-conspirators in exchange for a shorter sentence.
“I agreed to tell the truth, Gulley said Wednesday. His testimony provided enough evidence to bind Bazzi, Hamad, Khalid Jaber and Jihad Jaber over for trial, Plawecki said.
“The people have more than met the burden of proof in this case,” he said.
Bazzi remains in custody on a $75,000 bond (no 10 percent), while Hamad and Jihad Jaber remain out on bond. Khalid Jaber is also out on a $100,000 bond. All four men are schedule to appear April 25 in Third Circuit Court, where they face the possibility of life in prison.
Contact Staff Writer Sean Delaney at (313) 359-7820 or sdelaney@heritage.com.
Click here to return to story:
http://www.pressandguide.com/stories/041507/loc_20070414001.shtml
Apr 15, 9:05 PM EDT
Northwest pilot nabbed with suspected cocaine after border chase
PORT HURON, Mich. (AP) — A Northwest Airlines Corp. pilot made a U-turn at a U.S.-Canada border crossing, then led deputies on a chase in a rented Hummer before being subdued and found to be holding suspected cocaine, sheriff’s officers said Sunday.
Walter L. Dinalko, 50, of St. Paul, Minn., apparently had a change of heart after driving onto the Blue Water Bridge toward Sarnia, Ontario, Saturday night, said St. Clair County sheriff’s Lt. A.J. Foster.
Dinalko turned around three times, then drove the wrong way off the bridge and headed west onto the eastbound lanes of Interstate 94, Foster said.
U.S. Customs agents followed the pilot and alerted sheriff’s deputies, who closed down the expressway and gave chase, Foster said.
Deputies laid down stop sticks, which flattened the Hummer’s tires. Dinalko stopped but refused to surrender to deputies, Foster said.
“He started giving them a hard time, and a tussle ensued,” Foster said. Deputies subdued him and found suspected cocaine on the floor of the vehicle and in Dinalko’s pocket, the lieutenant said.
The pilot was taken to a hospital to test for possible drug poisoning because it appeared he had taken cocaine, said sheriff’s Lt. Jim DeLacy, and later taken to jail, where he was held overnight.
“He appeared to be highly under the influence of narcotics,” said DeLacy, who was on the scene of the arrest.
DeLacy said a “user’s quantity” of suspected cocaine was found in the vehicle, including one opened package and one sealed package. Toxicology tests on a sample of the pilot’s blood were pending, DeLacy said.
Dinalko was arraigned Sunday on charges of cocaine possession, eluding police, resisting officers and operating a vehicle under the influence of drugs, DeLacy said. He was released Sunday after posting $10,000 bond.
A message seeking comment was left Sunday at a telephone listing for Dinalko.
Before his release, Foster said Dinalko was given a breath test that indicated he had alcohol in his system. He was held for some time until his blood alcohol level fell to a level considered sober, Foster said.
DeLacy said Dinalko didn’t smell of alcohol at the time of his arrest, but the sheriff’s officer noted that drunken driving and operating a vehicle under the influence of drugs are treated similarly under Michigan law.
Shawn Brumbaugh, a spokeswoman for Eagan, Minn.-based Northwest, confirmed that Dinalko was an off-duty Northwest employee but declined further comment.
DeLacy said the sheriff’s department notified Northwest of the arrest Saturday night.
DeLacy said Dinalko - who has worked as a pilot for about 20 years - had flown Saturday afternoon to Detroit Metropolitan Airport in Romulus, about 70 miles southwest of Port Huron, and rented the Hummer.
http://markedmanner.blogspot.com/2007/04/iran-holding-another-this-time-radio.html
Saturday, April 14, 2007
Iran Holding Another.... This Time a Radio Journalist..
First it was a Frenchman and possibly a Former FBI agent being held. The Frenchman has now been realesed. The status of the Former FBI agent is unknown. Now this....
PRAGUE, Czech Republic: The U.S.-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty said Saturday Iranian authorities have prevented one of its journalists from leaving the country.
Parnaz Azima, who is based in Prague where she works for Radio Farda — RFE/RL’s Persian service operated jointly with the Voice of America radio broadcaster — arrived in the capital, Tehran, on Jan. 25 to visit a sick relative, the broadcaster said in an e-mailed statement.
On arrival, authorities seized her Iranian passport and so far have failed to return it to her, it said. It was not clear what the reason was. The statement said Azima was once asked to cooperate with Iran’s intelligence services, which she refused.
Azima has dual Iranian and U.S. citizenship, the radio said.
“I call on the Iranian authorities to return Ms. Azima’s passport and to allow her to leave Iran without further delay,” said Jeffrey Gedmin, the broadcaster’s president. “There is no reason to prevent this talented journalist from returning to her professional duties immediately.”
SOURCE
I guess Iran wants to see just how far they can push everyone.
Posted by markedmanner at 3:05 PM
http://markedmanner.blogspot.com/2007/04/india-bin-laden-videos-surface.html
Friday, April 13, 2007
India: Bin Laden Videos Surface
Patna: The CDs containing al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden’s speeches urging Muslims to join the ‘Jehad’ (holy war) have surfaced in the rural pockets of Patna and adjoining Bhojpur districts in Bihar.
The CDs, in Arabic language with English subtitles, liberally interspersed with exhortations by Laden to the Muslims to join Jehad, have footage of al-Qaeda and Taliban camps showing militants undergoing training in guerrilla warfare.
It is yet to be known how the al-Qaeda propaganda material made its way to Bihar.
“I have been shown the CD and our experts will analyse it before I can make any comment,” IG (headquarters) Anil Sinha said.
Bihar’s links with terror outfits are not completely unknown as two suspects of last July’s Mumbai train blasts — Kamal Ansari and Khalid — were arrested from Madhubani district in Bihar.
SOURCE
http://www.mid-day.com/news/nation/2007/april/155358.htm
http://www.mid-day.com/news/nation/2007/april/155545.htm
Daaru delayed flight?
By: Amitabh Shankar
April 16, 2007
Flight to London delayed by 12 hrs after BA crew refuses to fly, saying they did not get enought rest; sources say they were partying late into the night
Flight of fury: According to International Civil Aviation Organization rules, pilots should not consume alcohol 12 hours before a flight
“Ours is a five-star hotel and not some hotel Paharganj that there would be disturbances.
There was no disturbance on Saturday night and the entire crew was partying that night and this could have been the reason for them not being able to take off,” said Intercontinental Grand Hotel spokesperson after the British Airways crew alleged that the flight to London was delayed because they could not get proper sleep due to disturbance in the hotel.
Two hundred twenty-five passengers of British Airways to London were stranded at the Indira Gandhi International Airport for more than 12 hours on Sunday as the entire crew of the flight BA 143 allegedly indulged in a boozing binge and when it was time to fly the aircraft, they were not in a position to fly.
The flight was scheduled to leave Delhi at 2.30 am yesterday but did not take off after the pilot, Captain William along with his entire crew refused to fly. The crew reasoned that they did not have enough rest due to some disturbance in the hotel.
British Airways spokesperson Radhika Raichy, however, refuted the allegations. “The safety of passengers is our prime focus and as the entire crew had not slept well because of disturbances in the hotel, the flight did not take off.”
Radhika added that the crew did not have to through medical tests as they had no doubts about their claims.
All the passengers, who had boarded the flight, were offloaded after the midnight drama, leaving many of them fuming.
The airline could not make alternative arrangements for the passengers and the flight was delayed till 2.30 pm on Sunday.
Radhika said that one crew that comes with the flight flies it on return journey. “As the entire crew could not take rest, the flight had to be delayed.”
[There is a photo of them, about half Army and half Police]
http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m32129&hd=&size=1&l=e
Iraqi group ‘seizes 20 police’
Aljazeera.net
aq1_217693_1_2.jpg
April 14, 2007
Al-Qaeda in Iraq has said its fighters have kidnapped 20 Iraqi soldiers and policemen in northeast Baghdad.
In an internet statement released on Saturday, the self-styled Islamic State of Iraq said the men would be killed unless the government released all Sunni women held in Iraq’s prisons within 48 hours.
The group also posted still images showing the purported captives dressed in brown army and blue police uniforms, blindfolded and handcuffed.
The movement’s claim to have captured the men could not be independently verified.
The group demanded the release of “Muslim Sunni sisters who are in the prisons of the interior” ministry, in the statement posted on a website used by Iraqi armed groups.
“The Islamic State of Iraq gives the government of [Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki] 48 hours to meet its demands or it will execute the rule of God on them,” it said.
The Iraqi government has not yet responded to the group’s claim or to its demands.
Other demands
The group also said the government should hand over to it agents from Iraq’s interior ministry who are accused of involvement in the widely publicised alleged rape of a Sunni woman.
The alleged rape of the woman known by the pseudonym of Janabi, who appeared in footage broadcast on Arab TV networks saying she had been raped by interior ministry officers, triggered a bitter row at the highest levels in Iraq.
Sunni leaders largely believed her claims, but al-Maliki dismissed them, alleging the rape was invented by Sunni politicians to tarnish the police at the launch of a Baghdad security crackdown.
The photos of the 20 men posted on the internet, of various ranks, included a security unit commander, according to the picture of his ministry identification card.
The statement did not say when the men were captured.
The group, which was formed last year by al-Qaeda’s wing in Iraq and several smaller Sunni armed groups, has previously claimed responsibility for mass kidnappings and a series of major attacks.
:: Article nr. 32129 sent on 15-apr-2007 01:46 ECT
www.uruknet.info?p=32129
http://www.westernresistance.com/
Norway: Critic of Islam Beaten by Muslim Men
Eight men beat up a 20-year-old woman until she passes out, while screaming “Allahu Akbar.” But Islam is a religion of peace and tolerance: Kadra attacked in public
Norwegian-Somalian Kadra, who became famous in Norway for exposing imam support of female circumcision, was beaten unconscious on Thursday. Norwegian-Somalian Kadra has taken risks to front her views. Kadra was attacked and beaten senseless by seven or eight persons of Somali origin, newspaper VG reports.
“I was terrified. While I lay on the pavement they kicked me and screamed that I had trampled on the Koran. Several shouted Allah-o-akbar (God is great) and also recited from the Koran,” Kadra told VG.
Kadra linked the attack to recent remarks in VG where she said that the Koran’s views on women needed to be reinterpreted.
Or abandoned.
Kadra said that the gang of Somali men attacked her around 3 a.m. in downtown Oslo on Thursday. A medical examination found that she had several broken ribs, NRK (Norwegian Broadcasting) reports. Kadra filed charges and was due to speak with police on Friday.
The Islamic Council Norway (IRN) condemned the attack on Kadra and urged that she pursue the matter with police.
“Behavior where one goes to physical attack on someone you disagree with violates Islamic teaching and the prophet Muhammad’s sunnah (lifestyle). We strongly object to such behavior,” the IRN said in a press release.
This simply is not true. The “prophet” Muhammad ordered the murder of his critics, a very old man and a pregnant woman among them*. The Islamic Council of Norway, which knows this, is lying.
Kadra’s role in a 2000 hidden camera TV documentary revealing the positive attitude of Muslim leaders to female circumcision had a massive impact on Norway, and sparked new legislation.
* For an example of Muhammad’s “lifestyle” in action, please see the following article from Answering Islam: The Death of Asma Bint Marwan
Posted by Ruy Diaz
http://islamthreat.blogspot.com/
[Nice blog]
4.11.2007
The Truth About Muhammad, Founder Of The Most ViolenT religion On Earth
A lecture by the great Robert Spencer At The Heritage Foundation. The go from 1-7 vertically. Enjoy!
Two articles on the Litvinenko murder:
http://strata-sphere.com/blog/index.php/archives/3680#more-3680
“Berezovsky Cracks, Announces Violent Revolution In Russia”
http://strata-sphere.com/blog/index.php/archives/3682#more-3682
Last Of The Polonium-210 Hot Spots In London
The key to discovering what happened last October when apparently three shipments of Po-210 - a highly dangerous alpha-emitter of radiation - is to look at the physical trail and how much contamination was at each location. Some areas were barely touched like The Arsenal Stadium at which Lugovoi and Kovtun watched the matche between CSKA Moscow and the UK’s Arsenal team. This game was attended right after the meeting these men had in the Millenium Hotel’s Pine Bar with an apparently nervous Litvinenko. Litvinenko would later fall deathly ill at home, but the Russians apparently had so little contamination on them that there was only small traces at the stadium.
But on the other end of the spectrum are those sites with heavy contamination. And we are now getting reports that identify the hottest spots of contamination, including the two hottest spots - which are the ones now the only places closed off to the public. As I tried to predict in this post the other day I thought those top spots would be the Millenium Hotel Room where the Russians stayed (and probably met with Litvinenko) and Litvinenko’s home. This is possibly not the case. Here are the details just out highlighting those sites with the highest contamination levels:
During the investigation into his death the Health Protection Agency sealed off 15 properties, including Litvineko’s Muswell Hill home, a sushi bar, offices belonging to Russian billionaire Boris Berezovsky and the Millennium and Sheraton Park hotels in Mayfair, which were found to be radioactive.
Let’s see if we can get the 15 sites identified in detail. Here is the list
(1) Litvinenko’s home
(2) The Itsu Sushi Bar
(3) The Sheraton Park (multiple rooms)
(4) The Parkes Hotel at Knightsbridge (multiple rooms)
(5) The Best Western Shaftsbury
(6) The Millenium Hotel (bar and rooms)
(7) The Pescatori Restaurant
(8) Three Aircraft
(9) Offices of RISC Management
(10) Offices of Erinys
(11) Office of Boris Berezovsky
Now if we count the Pine Bar as a separate site and we count the three planes as separate sites then we come to 15 sites. However, I am not so sure the offices of Erinys or RISC Management were sealed off. But this is the best list I can come up with. The level of contamination is directly linked to how long these sites took to clean up and return to public use. The planes took very little time and there is little evidence of serious contamination with passengers. Same with the offices of RISC Management and Erinys.
But clearly the top two sites being reported today is not the Pine Bar (which I do believe is still closed) or the hotel rooms on the fourth floor at the Millenium Hotel where the infamous ’spill’ took place. It is an office near Boris Berezovsky’s office and Litvinenko’s home:
But while 13 have been cleared Litvinenko’s home and a room in a Mayfair office are stil contaminated.
This is sort of surprising, and I am not sure the reporting here is correct. The Pine Bar and Millenium Hotel rooms I believe are also still off limits. So are there two sites or three? Either way Litvinenko’s home is much more contaminated than one would predict from a dose of only 10 micrograms of Po-210. Po-210 is deadly, so small quantities can kill. But small quantities can also be cleaned up easily. The material does not harm outside the body since the radiation cannot penentrate skin. In fact the HPA has said living wiht a contaminated person does not put anyone at undo risk if everyone minds their personal hygiene habits. So there seems to be a lot more than a tiny fraction of a gram of Po-210 at Litvinenko’s home, as well as these mysterious offices. As time proceeds the trail and events become more clear. Only high doses will leave a dangerous residue now nealry two half-life’s distant from the events of October.
Addendum: Always helps to read to the end of the article:
A Westminster Council statement said remediation work was due to be completed at two of the sites initially investigated within a matter of days - the Millennium Hotel and the Sheraton Park Lane Hotel where some rooms were closed.
…
ut work has still not started at 58 Grosvenor Street, Westminster, and the council has put a prohibition order under on the owners to seal the affected room while they negotiate the costs of work.
This case still has a lot of twists and turns left in it. Who owns those offices at 58 Grosvenor Square? And I thought it was reported Berezovsky owned Litvinenko’s home and allowed him to live it in?
Posted by AJStrata on Friday, April 13th,
http://www.homelandsecurityus.com/Buffalo041507
Mysterious theft from Buffalo, New York suburb of Tonawanda
Submitted by admin on Sun, 2007-04-15 13:05. U.S. News
15 April 2007: Workers at the Coca-Cola Bottling Co. plant in the Town of Tonawanda placed three stainless steel mixing tanks, each weighing 500 pounds and having a capacity of 550 gallons of liquid
continued..........
Post subject: US warns citizens in Morocco PostPosted: Apr 15, 2007 - 03:12 PM
CAIRO [MENL] — The State Department has warned Americans of the prospect of continued insurgency attacks in Morocco. The U.S. consulate in Casablanca said in a warden message that Americans in Morocco could come under attack. The April 10 message cited a clash between police and Al Qaida insurgents in Casablanca in which four would-be suicide bombers were killed.
http://www.menewsline.com/stories/2007/ ... _04_2.html
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Man charged with terrorist offences
Author Message
pbOffline
Post subject: Man charged with terrorist offences PostPosted: Apr 15, 2007 - 05:05 PM
A 22-year-old man will appear in court in Belfast tomorrow charged with terrorist offences. The man faces three charges, possession of information likely to be of use to terrorists, misconduct in a public office and breach of the date protection act.
http://www.rte.ie/news/2007/0415/terrorism.html
[The use of a pressure cooker, has happened several times in
India, that I have caught, my next thought was of the steel tanks stolen in New York...granny]
http://www.neildoyle.com//index.php?name=PNphpBB2&file=viewtopic&p=11098#11098
India: Traffic was suspended due to planting of explosives
Author Message
pbOffline
Post subject: India: Traffic was suspended due to planting of explosives PostPosted: Apr 15, 2007 - 08:10 PM
Media reports quoting official sources in Srinagar said the explosive was kept inside a pressure cooker which was detected by security forces on the roadside at Gallander, 18 kms from Srinagar.
http://www.app.com.pk/en/index.php?opti ... 5&Itemid=2
[charts showing ages on site]
http://www.terrormedicine.com/Data.htm
Since the beginning of the last terror wave in Israel; 29th September 2000 (updated for November 2005)
· Attacks on Israelies: 22,406
· Deaths 1074
· Wounded 7520
Terror Victims Arriving to Hadassah University Hospital Jerusalem Israel 29th September 2000:
Admitted to Emergency Department: 2547
Hospitalized at Hadassah Total: 870
· Ein-Kerem Hospital 643
(Hospitalization rate 39%)
· Mount Scopus Hospital 227
(Hospitalization rate 12%)
In Hospital death toll: 44
Transfer from other hospitals: 118
Mechanisms of Injury
(Hospitalized)
· Blunt 22%
· Penetrating 87%
· Burns 10%
· Blast 35%
Cause of Injury
(Hospitalized)
· Shooting - 380
· Explosions - 308
· Stabbing - 18
· Stoning – 36
Gender of Victims:
· Females 957 38%
· Males 2590 62%
Distribution of Injuries:
· Head & Neck - 393
· Chest – 187
· Abdomen – 156
· Limbs – 450
· Spine – 45 (paraplegia or quadriplegia – 16)
· Vascular – 93
Resources:
Hospitalization Days -11,724
1-342days
Median - 6 Average - 12.9
Days in I.C.U. -1,965
1-80 days
Median - 3 Average – 8.3
Procedures:
59% of wounded operated
Average 1.5 operations per patient
20 ED Thoracotomies
24 OR Thoracotomies
91 Explorative Laparotomies
33 Craniotomies
202 Orthopedic surgeries
107 Plastic surgeries
46 Vascular surgeries
36 Maxillo – facial surgeries
26 Eye surgeries
Pre-hospital Intubations
(EMS other hospital) – 91
E.D. Intubations – 123
E.D. Chest drain – 84
Angiographies – 77
E.D. C.T. – 291
Comparisons of Terror and non-terror trauma
Terror Attacks & Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
Rates of PTSD (4 months post trauma):
Terorrist Attack: 38.7%
Motor Vehicle Accident: 18.7%
Figure 4.1. PTSD (Impact of Event Scale) Symptoms 1 Week and 4 Months After a Traumatic Event in Survivors of Terrorist Attacks and Survivors of Motor Vehicle Accidents
Figure 4.2. Reduction of Early PTSD Symptoms 1 Week and 4 Months After a Traumatic Event in Survivors During Periods of Infrequent and Frequent Terrorism
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/15/AR2007041500409.html
Article (Terrorism): Prisoner Flees in Hijacked Helicopter
Posted by: mortiz on Apr 15 - 12:39
RealNews Items Two men hijacked a helicopter and forced the pilot to land in a prison courtyard, where they picked up a prisoner in a dramatic jailbreak Sunday, news reports said. The accomplices paid for a helicopter ride at an airstrip near the city of Sint-Truiden, then produced a pistol and hand-grenade, ordering the pilot to fly to Lantin prison outside nearby Liege, several radio stations reported. Full Story
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