GA Moves To N.O.
NEW YORK — The Jewish Federations of North America is moving its annual conference to New Orleans and holding it earlier than planned, from Nov. 7-9. The umbrella group of Jewish federations was set to hold its 2010 General Assembly in Orlando, Fla., but said it changed locations for practical reasons and because federations raised $30 million after Hurricane Katrina to help rebuild the area.
Hate Crimes Spike
PARIS — A rise in anti-Semitic crimes in France coinciding with the Gaza war nearly doubled the number of anti-Semitic incidents in 2009 over 2008, says a new report. The Jewish Community Protection Service counted 832 anti-Semitic acts in France in 2009, versus 474 the year before, according to a Feb. 4 report. However, 354 of those incidents were in January, during Israel’s Gaza offensive. By February, the number was down to 62 and, by the summer of 2009, incidents dropped below those of 2008.
Mussolini App Nixed
ROME — A controversial new iPhone application featuring a collection of speeches of Italy’s World War II fascist dictator Benito Mussolini has been withdrawn. The cancellation of Italy’s bestselling iPhone application came Feb. 4 after legal threats and protests by Jewish groups. The film group Cinecitta Luce, which holds the rights to the films of the Mussolini speeches used in the iMussolini app, threatened legal action against its creator, saying the app didn’t serve the educational purposes that the clips were designated for.
Survivor’s Grandson Buys Mengele Diary
STAMFORD, Conn. — The diary of the notorious Josef Mengele has been sold.
The 180-page journal was sold for an undisclosed sum Feb. 2 “to an East Coast Jewish philanthropist who wishes to remain anonymous,” the Hartford Courant reported Feb. 3, citing an e-mail from Bill Panagopulos of Alexander Autographs historical artifacts house in Stamford, Conn.
“He is the grandson of an Auschwitz survivor who personally encountered Mengele at Auschwitz,” Panagopulos wrote. “He intends to donate the manuscript to a museum devoted to the Holocaust.” He said he was “overjoyed that the manuscript is going where it belongs, where it will be available to historians and scholars.”
On Feb. 1, it was reported that Alexander Autographs intended to auction off the journal. Nazi memorabilia collectors vying for the artifact belonging to the Nazi doctor known at Auschwitz as the “Angel of Death” were expected to push the price up to about $64,000.
The owner of the diary, reported to be a source close to the Mengele family, acquired the volume in Brazil after Mengele died there in 1979, the Daily Mail reported.
The diary begins in May 1960, when Mengele was 49.
At Auschwitz, Mengele determined who would live and die, and he conducted horrific, quasi-medical experiments, including on twins.
News of the auction prompted anger and revulsion among Shoah survivor groups.