Free Republic

The current holders of a valuable violin are under growing pressure to pay compensation to the heirs of its Jewish former owner, whose family music shop was seized by the Nazis. The rare instrument, built in 1706 by the celebrated Italian luthier Giuseppe Guarneri, is worth approximately 150,000 euros, or around £133,200. But if it was repaired to its full glory, experts say it would be with at least $1 million. It came into Felix Hildesheimer’s possession in 1938. The music shop owner took over his father’s business in 1898 and bought the rare instrument from a Stuttgart-based music dealer...

German historian shows how news agency retained access in 1930s by promising not to undermine strength of Hitler regimeAssociated Press, which has described itself as the “marine corps of journalism” (“always the first in and the last out”) was the only western news agency able to stay open in Hitler’s Germany, continuing to operate until the US entered the war in 1941. It thus found itself in the presumably profitable situation of being the prime channel for news reports and pictures out of the totalitarian state. In an article published in academic journal Studies in Contemporary History , historian Harriet...

In an action that spoke far louder than words, Pope Benedict yesterday walked out of an interfaith meeting in Jerusalem after the chief Islamic judge of the Palestinian Authority launched into an anti-Israeli diatribe. The pontiff, on his first day in Jerusalem, did not realize at first that Sheikh Taysir al-Tamimi, speaking in Arabic, was condemning the "crimes of the Jewish state" and accusing Israel of having "slaughtered women, children and senior citizens." But as soon as he was told the nature of the sheikh's tirade, he stood and left the meeting, which took place at Notre Dame church, before...

From August 1941 to April 1945, hundreds of thousands of Serbs, Jews, and Romas, as well as anti-fascists of many nationalities, were murdered at the death camp known as Jasenovac. Estimates of the total numbers of men, women and children killed there range from 300,000 to 700,000. And yet, despite the scale of the crimes committed there, most of the world has never heard of Jasenovac. Following the Nazi invasion and dismemberment of Yugoslavia in April 1941, the "Independent State of Croatia" was established as a pro-Nazi government. It was dedicated to a clerical-fascist ideology influenced both by Nazism and...

THE French Government will make public classified documents relating to the 1965 disappearance of the Moroccan opposition leader, Mehdi Ben Barka, which caused a major political scandal. Defence Minister Michele Alliot-Marie had agreed to follow the recommendations of a national defence committee and release the 73 documents on the case which had not yet been made public, defence ministry officials said today. The committee's decision came after a magistrate investigating Mr Ben Barka's disappearance asked to see the documents. Previous secret documents on the affair, which caused political uproar, were made public in 2001. Mr Ben Barka, an outspoken opponent...

Mon Mar 22, 8:47 AM ET French Foreign minister Dominique de Villepin. World leaders condemned as unlawful the killing of Hamas spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, and warned Israel may have buried the peace process along with any hope of resolving the bloody Arab-Israeli conflict.(AFP/Thierry Monasse)      EU Nations Condemn Israel for Attack 31 minutes ago By ROBERT WIELAARD, Associated Press WriterBRUSSELS, Belgium - European governments condemned Israel's killing Monday of Hamas leader Sheik Ahmed Yassin, with several branding the airstrike a violation of international law and a blow to the stalled peace process. The foreign ministers of the...

Questions raised over government plans to crackdown on those who glory in the country's fascist past. By Drago Hedl in Osijek (BCR No 386, 28-Nov-02) Moves by Ivica Racan's centre-left government to outlaw iconography glorifying Croatia's Second World War fascists are seen in many quarters as a cynical attempt to smooth Croatia's passage into the European Union Draft laws will soon be presented to the Croatian parliament forbidding the display of symbols of the Ustasa, the pro-Nazi movement that governed Croatia under Axis protection from 1941 to 1945. The proposed legislation is being presented as an attempt to combat a...