Unlikely ally in war against deniers: The Nazis

By: Eli Verschleiser

A trial that may well be the last case against a living Nazi for crimes against humanity will be full of haunting images. But none so much as the one that went viral last week of 81-year-old survivor Eva Kor seeming to embrace 93-year-old ex-SS officer Oskar Groening.

Oskar Groning as a young Auschwitz guard (left) and as an elderly man

Most of us cannot imagine being in the same room with a Nazi war criminal, let alone having a conversation with him. This incredible human being who lost her parents and sisters has decided to publicly forgive the Nazis as a way of empowering herself.

But it’s not just personal. In 1995 Kor, who lives in Terre Haute, Ind., convinced an infamous Nazi doctor, Hans Munch, to accompany her to Auschwitz, where he reportedly signed a letter affirming that the gas chambers there were used to exterminate Jews.

Groening, for his part, does not deny that he was in the SS and participated in Hitler’s final solution, not by directly murdering anyone, but as a pencil-pusher who channeled stolen money for the benefit of the Third Reich. That is, of course, not insignificant. It took a massive bureaucratic operation for the killing machine to run smoothly, and money was at the heart of it. That is, forcing the Jews to essentially finance their own genocide.

At any time, Groening could have refused to participate, albeit likely at the expense of his life, or simply tried to escape to the Allies, as we hope any moral person would do. But like so many others, most infamously the top facilitator Adolf Eichmann, Groening just followed orders. He says he requested a transfer from Auschwitz, but was denied.

New German laws intended to punish the last surviving Nazis now allow those who did not directly commit violence to be prosecuted along with those who pulled triggers, operated the gas chambers, or committed other acts of murder.

Groening has spoken out in great detail about what he remembers from those dark days more than 70 years ago, atrocities he witnessed that I will not recount here. He does not proclaim innocence or even ask for mercy.

“It is beyond question that I am morally complicit,” he said at the trial opening, attended by more than 60 plaintiffs, according to media reports. “This moral guilt I acknowledge here, before the victims, with regret and humility. I ask for forgiveness. You have to decide my legal culpability.”

Holocaust researchers say it is unprecedented to have an SS witness so willing to testify to his own crimes and those of the German people and the Nazis. No doubt, he is trying to avoid dying in prison. But whatever sentence is meted out by the German court, part of it should require that he spend the rest of his days testifying in painstaking detail for the historical record not only what he did and what he saw, but what went through his mind at the time.

It could be of great historical value to have some small insight into the enduring mystery of how so many people were caught up in the storm of relentless hatred and scapegoating that ignited the Holocaust in the 1930s and kept it burning until the Allies’ victory.

That testimony should be added to archives, along with the Nazis’ own meticulous documents, as many as 50 million pages, many of which are now publicly available. Convinced, of course, that the war would end differently, they were deeply proud of their evil work and wanted to preserve it for history, and individual ambitious Nazi officers most likely produced records -- of deportations, mass killings and confiscated property – they felt would benefit their miserable careers.

It never seemed to worry these arrogant psychopaths that the documents could one day be used against them in war crimes trials.

Of course, all the survivor and perpetrator testimony in the world, all the photos and film footage, even the remains of Auschwitz and other camps won’t convince Holocaust deniers here and in the Middle East. Their hatred of Jews and Israel create willful ignorance immune to objective research and logic.

The president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, has a long history of negating history, claiming that the Jews pulled one over on the world to manipulate their way into Palestine.

The leaders of Iran, as they threaten Israel with a nuclear version of the Holocaust, have been all over the map on the German genocide, with some saying it’s a myth, others calling for more study. Holocaust denial was a core belief of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who left office in 2013. His successor is more moderate on the topic. But in March of 2014, “supreme leader” Ayatollah Ali Khameni was quoted as saying ““The Holocaust is an event whose reality is uncertain and if it has happened, it’s uncertain how it has happened.”

Maybe instead of throwing Oskar Groening in jail, President Obama could bring him along on his next nuclear negotiation session to teach the Iranians a thing or two about how and what happened.

If he fails to do so, kind souls like Eva Kor may forgive. But the rest of us ought to demand much more accountability.

Originally Published: The Hill

The Mystery of Etan Patz Will Never End

By: Eli Verschleiser

Regardless of whether a jury convicts Pedro Hernandez in the May, 1979 killing of Etan Patz, the mystery of this case that has stirred the city for decades won’t go away.

Etan, eight at the time, disappeared while walking from his Lower Manhattan home to a bus stop two blocks away. He is believed to have stopped in a store for a soda along the way. He became the nation’s best known missing child case, launching legislative efforts and milk-carton awareness campaigns. Hernandez, then 18, worked at a nearby bodega.

With no body and no crime scene, all evidence is circumstantial, and Hernandez’s low IQ and long history of mental illness leave open the possibility that his confession and supposed recollections of the murder are at odds with reality. Even if the jury sees no reasonable doubt that he’s guilty, many of us will forever wonder if a dangerous child-killer may still walk the streets.

Another disturbing question posed by this case is how the police in a major metropolitan city, with some of the world’s best detectives could have found no clues, no leads that developed into a conviction for so long.

Another suspect, Jose Antonio Ramos, was investigated for the crime and even sued in civil court but was never prosecuted. There was no shortage of publicity of the disappearance. Did no one in this crowded metropolis see anything that could have helped the investigation? If Hernandez is the killer, why were his confessions over the years to family members, a prayer group and even the police ignored?

Could today’s better forensic science, ubiquitous security and cell phone cameras, better investigative techniques, or the “see something say something” campaign have led to a quicker arrest?

Etan’s parents, Stanley and Julie, may God have mercy on them, have suffered under the cloud of these and many other questions for nearly 36 years, while wondering what their now 44-year-old son would have been like. And despite being declared legally dead in 2001, is it possible that he remains alive, held against his will, perhaps brainwashed, or sent to another country? If so, would he even remember his former life?

Underpinning it all is the heaviest and most painful question: What if Etan had never been allowed to walk alone to the bus that morning?

Every day we as parents struggle with seemingly small, logistical decisions we know could have much bigger implications; Decisions about trusting kids, or trusting others with our kids. The Patz case, and others like it -- more recently the Leibby Kletzky disappearance and murder in Borough Park in 2011 -- loom over us as we make these decisions, forcing us to balance the real danger of abusers and kidnappers against the potential harm of being overprotective “helicopter parents” hovering too closely over their every move. Time doesn’t erase our memory or ease our angst.

“When people think about crimes such as Etan Patz or Adam Walsh or Jaycee Dugard, it’s as if they happened yesterday,” says Lenore Skenazy, author “Free Range Kids” and a critic of helicopter parenting.

“It is not making kids any safer to think that way. The big challenge when these things happen is to avoid what I call worst-first thinking.”

We’ve passed laws, named for famous victims, across the country to protect kids, and developed Amber Alerts and even smartphone apps to quickly respond when kids go missing. The ability to call or track cell phones also make us breathe a bit easier. The number of missing persons under age 18 reported to the FBI’s National Crime Information Center has shrunk from 558,493 in 2009 to 466,949 last year, though that figure was up from 2013’s 462,567.

Kidnappings are statistically rare per capita and those ending in murder rarer still, averaging about 100 per year, according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Kidnapping by strangers amount to less than a quarter of all such cases, with nearly half committed by family members and the remainder by acquaintances, according to the FBI.

Skenazy argues that the only way to truly protect kids is through empowerment. “You can’t always prepare the path for your child,” she says. “Sometimes you have to prepare your child for the path.”

At Magenu, the organization I co-founded with my dear wife Dr. Shani Verschleiser, curriculum's prepared and facilitated by experts teach school kids to recognize dangerous situations, avoid them and report anything out of the ordinary, even if the perpetrator or attempted perpetrator is a family member, friend teacher or respected community member. Because education, awareness and a safe haven for those who come forward are more powerful tools than any app.

The painful questions of the Patz case will never go away, and future cases will force us to confront them again. The best we can do is combine our faith in God and the good people of the world – police officers and other protectors as well as bystanders on streets – with common sense skills that empower our kids to be as safe as they can be.

Originally Published: The Jerusalem Post