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☆ 'Zone of Interest' star: watching myself as Auschwitz commandant frightening
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-20 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

CANNES, May 20 (Reuters) - German actor Christian Friedel said on Saturday that watching himself as the commandant of the Auschwitz death camp in Jonathan Glazer's film "The Zone of Interest" frightened him. "The challenge in this project (was) for us to find authenticity in the situations," he told journalists after the film's premiere at the Cannes Film Festival on Friday evening. Glazer said he wanted to show the capacity for violence in all people with the film, which was shot entirely at Auschwitz. "Zone of Interest" is Glazer's first film to compete at Cannes. Britain's BBC broadcaster and the Telegraph newspaper both gave the film perfect scores, with Telegraph calling the film "horrifying in its banality."

☆ Auschwitz drama 'Zone of Interest' marks director Glazer's first Cannes foray
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-19 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

[1/5] The 76th Cannes Film Festival - Screening of the film "The Zone of Interest" in competition - Red Carpet Arrivals - Cannes, France, May 19, 2023. Director Jonathan Glazer, cast members Sandra... Read moreCANNES, May 19 (Reuters) - British director Jonathan Glazer will compete for the Cannes Film Festival's top prize for the first time this year with his Auschwitz drama "The Zone of Interest," whose premiere on Friday evening drew celebrities including Cate Blanchett and Carla Bruni. Sandra Hueller, star of Germany's 2017 Oscar nominee for best foreign-language feature "Toni Erdmann," plays Hoess' wife, Hedwig. "The Zone of Interest," which will be distributed by A24, is Glazer's first feature since 2013's "Under the Skin" starring Scarlett Johansson and was shot entirely in Auschwitz. Reporting by Miranda Murray; Editing by Rosalba O'BrienOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ An Autobiographical Novel Reclaims a Jewish History in Occupied France
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-16 | by ( Julie Orringer | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

She asks her mother to tell her all she knows, and her mother, who has by now researched this history extensively, complies. But the few clues available lead only to further questions, and Anne and her mother take the search into their own hands. Each new piece of information they unearth carries with it a freight of pain, a reminder of what was lost. But Anne, having chosen this search, persists: “I’m your daughter, Maman,” she tells her mother. “You’re the one who taught me how to do research, to gather information, to make even the smallest scrap of paper speak.

☆ German artist nearing 100,000 cobblestones to mark victims of Nazis
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( Tilman Blasshofer | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

By placing Stolpersteine ("stumble stones") outside the victims' last known address, 75-year-old Gunter Demnig aims to draw attention to the fate of individuals in the Holocaust. Nearly 100,000 cobblestones later, they can be found in 30 countries across Europe, from Finland to Italy, Hungary, Russia and Ukraine. "I never dreamed of this," Demnig said, saying he had expected a few hundred or maybe 1,000 stones. They commemorate all groups of the Nazis' victims, including Jews, Sinti and Roma, political opponents, gay people and "antisocial elements", or criminals. Both were murdered," said Demnig as prepares to lay two stones outside the house in Cologne where they lived.

☆ A Human Wrote This Book Review. A.I. Wrote the Book.
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-01 | by ( Dwight Garner | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The first novel was probably Murasaki Shikibu’s ‘Tale of Genji,’ written in the 11th century. The last one that mattered, closing a millennium’s loop, was probably Zadie Smith’s ‘White Teeth,’ published in 2000. What’s come since has been the death rattle, and remixes of that death rattle.”Those weren’t, you might have guessed, words from Siri. Samuel Richardson, in the 18th century, wondered if the novel had said what it had to say. The fire has been stirred under these questions thanks to the sudden arrival of sophisticated artificial intelligence chatbots, notably ChatGPT.

☆ Fact Check-Photo shows pool in Slovak labour camp, not Nazi concentration camp
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( Reuters Fact Check | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

Online posts, however, miscaption the photo with the names of infamous concentration camps, such as Auschwitz, or falsely characterize the actual Slovak labour camp in the photo, Nováky, as a Nazi-run concentration camp. Senior historian at Yad Vashem Robert Rozett told Reuters via email that Nováky was not a concentration camp. UPN’s Jašek said that having a swimming pool was not usual for Slovak concentration and forced-labour camps. EXTERMINATION, CONCENTRATION CAMPSPaweł Sawicki, a spokesperson for the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum (here), told Reuters via email that concentration camps and extermination camps were different to forced-labour camps. The photo shows a forced-labour camp in Slovakia, where, according to three historians, conditions were different to those at Nazi-run concentration camps.

☆ Meek Mill: Rapper vows to 'spread the word' against antisemitism after Auschwitz visit
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-23 | by ( Dana Bash | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

One of the most famous marchers was Meek Mill, a 35-year-old African American rapper from Philadelphia without any prior connection to the atrocities that happened there. But at a time of rising antisemitism in the US, his presence spoke volumes, and that was the point. Mill is a friend of New England Patriots owner and philanthropist Robert Kraft, whose Foundation to Combat Antisemitism is in the midst of a $25 million national campaign, #StandUpToJewishHate. When Meek was incarcerated, Kraft visited him in prison, and the two stayed in touch and have remained friends. “But I think it’s also important for me to support Robert, all my Jewish friends, everyone that always supported me.

☆ Opinion: What happens when you knock on a door
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-23 | by ( Richard Galant | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +18 min

We’re looking back at the strongest, smartest opinion takes of the week from CNN and other outlets. In Kansas City, Andrew Lester, an 84-year-old White homeowner shot Ralph Yarl, a Black teenager who rang his doorbell. And, “with Trump as the front-runner for the 2024 Republican nomination, Fox has resumed coverage of him which often veers into the free-advertisement category. Neither Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who announced his candidacy last week, nor Marianne Williamson represents a serious threat, Axelrod noted. “The calendar reads 2023,” wrote the Republican former lieutenant governor of Georgia, Geoff Duncan, “but it feels like 2016 all over again.

☆ Opinion: The untold story about Anne Frank’s hiding place
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( Opinion Roy Schwartz | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +10 min

British actors Bel Powley and Joe Cole play Miep and Jan, with Liev Schreiber as Otto Frank. Only Otto Frank survived. Anne Frank's (1929-1945) world famous diary charts two years of her life from 1942 to 1944, when her family were hiding in Amsterdam from German Nazis. Anne Frank has particularly been in the zeitgeist in recent years, with the 2021 French animated film “Where Is Anne Frank,” a magical retelling of her story loosely based on the 2018 graphic novel; the 2022 Dutch Netflix movie “My Best Friend Anne Frank,” based on the book “Memories of Anne Frank: Reflections of a Childhood Friend”; the controversial, eventually pulled 2022 book “The Betrayal of Anne Frank”; and “After the Annex: Anne Frank, Auschwitz and Beyond,” coming out in May. While 89% have heard of Anne Frank, 32% don’t know she died in a concentration camp.

☆ Italian minister Francesco Lollobrigida 'ethnic replacement' claim sparks fury in Italy
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-19 | by ( Barbie Latza Nadeau | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

Rome CNN —The brother-in-law and close political ally of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has warned that Italy’s low birth rate and an increase in irregular immigration could lead to “ethnic replacement,” sparking anger from the country’s opposition. Francesco Lollobrigida remarks comes in response to a recent report which found Italy has one of the world’s lowest birthrates with fewer than 400,000 births in 2022. Yes to helping births, no to ethnic replacement. Meloni’s spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment, and she has yet to make a public statement. Matteo Salvini, a junior partner in Meloni’s coalition of far-right and center-right parties, had previously tweeted about the threat of “ethnic replacement” in 2017, and Meloni had used the term in political speeches in 2016.

☆ WWE apologizes for using Auschwitz footage in pro WrestleMania promo
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-07 | by ( David K. Li | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

A view of the former Nazi concentration and extermination camp Auschwitz in Oswiecim, Poland, January 19, 2015. World Wrestling Entertainment inexplicably used footage of infamous Nazi death camp Auschwitz in a recent promotion, prompting the grappling giant to apologize Friday for the offensive gaffe. "We had no knowledge of what was depicted," the WWE said in statement to NBC News on Friday. The Auschwitz footage is now absent from tape of WrestleMania Night 1 and has been replaced with generic images of a jail with barbed wire. The son fought his father in this past weekend's WrestleMania and was beaten soundly by the old man.

☆ WrestleMania apologizes for using footage of Auschwitz in promotional spot
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-07 | by ( Ramishah Maruf | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +1 min

New York CNN —World Wrestling Entertainment apologized Friday after using footage of Auschwitz, the infamous Nazi concentration and extermination camp, in a promotional spot for a hyped father-son match. The promotional video for WrestleMania 39 featured WWE wrestler Dominik Mysterio, who has an ongoing rivalry with his father, Rey Mysterio, and was “arrested” in December for pushing him. The ad then cuts to photos of prisons, one of which was Auschwitz, where Nazis murdered over 1 million people. In later airings and reruns of the first night of WrestleMania, the footage showed an image of barbed wire. In this father-son rivalry, Dominik eventually turned on Rey, culminating in an altercation on Christmas Eve.

☆ Fact Check-Image of Suella Braverman overlooking model of Auschwitz concentration camp is digitally altered
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-24 | by ( Reuters Fact Check | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

A cropped picture of Suella Braverman has been digitally added to a photo of a model of the former Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp. The digitally altered image appears to show the British interior minister overlooking the replica site. However, Braverman and a masked man have both been digitally added to the photo of the Auschwitz model. It shows a Jewish boy sitting in front of a replica concentration camp that he built to honour his great-grandfather, who was held captive there. Suella Braverman’s image was added to an old photo of a model of Auschwitz concentration camp.

☆ Restituted Kandinsky Sells for $45 Million, Setting Record
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-01 | by ( Kelly Crow | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

The painting was recently restituted to the heirs of a German-Jewish family who sold their art collection under Nazi persecution. Sotheby’s London sold a brightly colored Wassily Kandinsky, “Murnau with Church II,” for $45 million on Wednesday, resetting the artist’s auction record and bolstering collector confidence in blue-chip art values. The 1910 landscape was recently restituted to the 13 heirs of a German-Jewish businessman persecuted by the Nazis, Siegbert Stern, and his art-collecting wife, Johanna Margarete Stern-Lippmann. Mr. Stern died in Berlin in 1935, and Ms. Stern-Lippmann was later forced to sell their art-filled villa before being killed at Auschwitz in 1944.

☆ Rep. George Santos' press secretary said she fields endless angry calls, gets dirty looks on the Hill, but still thinks her boss is a 'borderline genius'
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-13 | by ( Joshua Zitser | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Insider interviewed Rep. George Santos' 24-year-old press secretary, Gabrielle Lipsky. The scandal-ridden lawmaker is facing calls to resign, but Lipsky still thinks he's a "borderline genius." Compared to Gabrielle Lipsky, the 24-year-old press secretary for embattled congressman George Santos, we probably have it easy. Being the press secretary for a member of Congress was always likely to involve long hours, challenging work, and lots of stress. Despite all this, Lipsky says that working for Santos, who she claims is a "borderline genius," is an invaluable learning experience.

☆ Holocaust Memorial Day marked as Europe's peace again shattered by war
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-27 | by ( Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +2 min

Survivors of Auschwitz-Birkenau are gathering Friday to commemorate the 78th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi German death camp in the final months of World War II, amid the horror of war again shattering peace in Europe. In all, some 1.1 million people were killed at the vast complex before it was liberated by Soviet troops on Jan. 27, 1945. This year, no Russian official at all was invited due to Russia’s attack on Ukraine, according to the Auschwitz-Birkenau state museum. Bartnikowski was among several survivors of Auschwitz who spoke about their experiences to journalists on the eve of Friday’s commemorations. One of the others, Stefania Wernik, who was born at Auschwitz in November 1944, less than three months before its liberation, spoke of Auschwitz being a “hell on earth.”

☆ Photos show the horrors of Auschwitz, the largest and deadliest Nazi concentration camp, 78 years after its liberation
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-27 | by ( Natalie Colarossi | Lauren Frias | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

It has been 78 years since the Soviet Army liberated Auschwitz, the largest Nazi concentration complex. First established in 1940, Auschwitz had a concentration camp, large gas chambers, and crematoria. More than 1.1 million people were murdered at Auschwitz, including nearly one million Jews. In just five years, over one million people were murdered at Auschwitz, the largest and deadliest Nazi concentration camp. The terror of Auschwitz finally subsided on January 27, 1945, when the Soviet Army liberated the remaining 7,000 prisoners from the camps.

☆ Race against the clock for Germany's top Nazi hunter
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-26 | by ( Tilman Blasshofer | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

[1/5] Nazi hunter Thomas Will, head of Germany's main agency responsible for the investigation of war crimes during Nazi rule looks into files at the Central Office of State Judicial Authorities for the Investigation of National Socialist Crimes in Ludwigsburg, Germany, January 25, 2023. REUTERS/Timm ReichertLUDWIGSBURG, Germany, Jan 26 (Reuters) - Germany's top Nazi hunter, Thomas Will, is hopeful of securing further convictions over the Holocaust even as the remaining suspects, many now in their late 90s, die. So as long as perpetrators are still alive, we will pursue the cases," he said from his office outside Stuttgart in southwestern Germany. Will heads Germany's Central Office of State Judicial Authorities for the Investigation of National Socialist Crimes. The conviction last month of a 97-year-old woman who worked as a concentration camp secretary "was certainly one of the last", Will said.

But a new survey suggests a “disturbing” lack of awareness about the Holocaust in the Netherlands, where she and her family hid for years before being discovered and deported to a Nazi concentration camp. Equally disturbing is the trend toward Holocaust denial and distortion,” Claims Conference President Gideon Taylor said in a press release accompanying the survey. Some of them, a small part, do not even know about the Holocaust,” Dutch Holocaust survivor Max Arpels Lezer, 86, told NBC News by video call from his home in Amsterdam. A memorial at the Westerbork transit camp in the Netherlands, where Dutch Jews were kept before being sent to concentration camps. In 1961, Lezer married Sofia, now 86, who as a child had been hidden by a Dutch family during the war.

☆ Amazon removes Nazi and neo-Nazi items after human-rights group protests
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-14 | by ( Jordan Hart | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Amazon has since removed the items, but more related products remain, Gizmodo reported. The Simon Wiesenthal Center blasted Amazon for "monetizing Nazi and Neo-Nazi paraphernalia" on its website in a Thursday blog post. The human-rights organization said Amazon allowed various businesses to market and sell items associated with neo-Nazis, including swastika necklaces and face masks. The Simon Wiesenthal CenterCooper went on to note a letter the SWC sent to Amazon in 2022 for featuring 30 films the organization deemed as Nazi propaganda on Amazon Prime. In 2019, Amazon removed Christmas ornaments featuring the Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz, according to a report from Insider.

☆ The most ridiculous ways accused Capitol rioters got caught, from bad Bumble matches to an unbelievable Uber ride
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-02 | by ( Erin Snodgrass | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +13 min

Without further adieu: The least surprising ways Capitol rioters got caught. 2 accused rioters made big Bumble blundersThese accused rioters' reach for romance landed them in trouble with the law. Officials charged Alam with several counts last year and he pleaded guilty to all charges in December 2021, according to the Justice Department. An unbelievable Uber ride was this accused rioter's downfallAlleged defendant Jerry Daniel Braun was turned in by his get-away car driver, according to court documents. "Well, because, so we could get to the Capitol," Braun replied.

☆ Final farewell: From Sidney Poitier to Pope Emeritus Benedict a look back at the influential figures who died in 2022
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-01 | by ( Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +55 min

Other world leaders who died in 2022 include former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, who died in August. The final days of 2022 saw the loss of some exceptionally notable figures, including Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI. Here is a roll call of some influential figures who died in 2022 (cause of death cited for younger people, if available):___JANUARY___Dan Reeves, 77. A Cuban-born artist whose radiant color palette and geometric paintings were overlooked for decades before the art world took notice. A prolific character actor best known for playing villains and tough guys in “The Manchurian Candidate,” “Ocean’s Eleven” and other films.

☆ Former Pope Benedict was first pontiff to resign in 600 years
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-31 | by ( Philip Pullella | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +14 min

[1/3] Pope Benedict XVI blesses a baby as he rides around St Peter's Square to hold his last general audience at the Vatican February 27, 2013. REUTERS/Max Rossi/File PhotoVATICAN CITY, Dec 31 - Former Pope Benedict, who died on Saturday aged 95, was the first pontiff in 600 years to resign, leaving behind a Catholic Church battered by sexual abuse scandals, mired in mismanagement and polarised between conservatives and progressives. Benedict, the first German pope in 1,000 years, had good relations with his successor, Pope Francis, but his continued presence inside the Vatican after he stepped down in 2013 further polarised the Church ideologically. Although he said he would remain "hidden from the world", Benedict did not live up to that promise and in retirement sometimes caused controversy and confusion through his writings. Ganswein's role as a middleman between Benedict and the cardinal was unclear, with many believing he had misled Benedict, the cardinal, or both.

☆ Whoopi Goldberg faces backlash after repeating false Holocaust comments
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-27 | by ( Julianne Mcshane | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +4 min

Why believe what they’re saying?”“It wasn’t originally [about race],” Goldberg continued. While the Auschwitz Memorial's tweet did not mention Goldberg by name, several other Jewish leaders used the tweet to call out the inaccuracy of Goldberg's comments. A Holocaust survivor, Lucy Lipiner, condemned Goldberg's comments in a tweet, writing that she "continues to use the Holocaust as her punching bag." "We told her that her comments harm us and she simply doesn't care," Lipiner wrote, referencing Goldberg's comments on "The View" in January. Those earlier comments led ABC News to suspend Goldberg for two weeks, with president Kim Godwin calling the comments “wrong and hurtful.” Goldberg apologized for those comments within hours.

☆ Former concentration camp secretary, 97, convicted of Nazi war crimes
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-20 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

[1/10] Defendant Irmgard F., a former secretary to the SS commander of the Stutthof concentration camp attends her trial in a courtroom in Itzehoe, Germany, December 20, 2022. Christian Charisius/Pool via REUTERSBERLIN, Dec 20 (Reuters) - A 97-year-old woman who worked as a Nazi concentration camp secretary was convicted on Tuesday for her role in the murder of thousands of people, in what could be one of the country's last trials for World War Two crimes. Some 65,000 people died of starvation and disease or in the gas chamber at the camp in Stutthof, near Gdansk in today's Poland. Furchner was wheeled into court wearing a cream-coloured winter coat and beret, and with a blanket over her lap. "Only a secretary, you might say, but the role that even a secretary had back then in the bureaucracy of a (concentration camp) is a significant one," Wantzen said.

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