Will Cardinal Schönborn, a friend of Israel and the Jews, be the next Pope?

"We sinners of the past are called to become the allies of the future and stand faithfully by our Jewish friends." "Holocaust was only possible because the church did not understand its Jewish roots. [...] Church unity can only be established when we understand and appreciate these Jewish roots." Archbishop of Vienna, Cardinal Christoph Schönborn 

French newspaper Le Figaro reports that the Archbishop of Vienna Christoph Schönborn, is a serious papal contender. He is a friend of Israel and the Jewish people.

Catholic Schönborn Endorses Zionism (Washington Post, Mar. 31 2005)

Jerusalem, Israel -- A Roman Catholic Cardinal says European Christians' support for Israel is not based on Holocaust guilt and Christians should affirm Zionism as biblical.

Archbishop of Vienna Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn, part of a visiting Austrian delegation, made the remarks in an address at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem on the topic of "God's chosen land." After asking, "What does Eretz Yisrael [the Land of Israel] mean to us," Schoenborn answered by stressing the doctrinal importance to Christians of not only recognizing Jews' connection to the land, but also ensuring that Christian identification with the Jewish Bible not lead to a "usurpation" of Jewish uniqueness. "Only once in human history did God take a country as an inheritance and give it to His chosen people," Schoenborn said, adding that Pope John Paul II had himself declared the biblical commandment for Jews to live in Israel an everlasting covenant that remained valid today.

Christians, Schoenborn said, should rejoice in the return of Jews to the Holy Land as the fulfillment of biblical prophecy.

A Palestinian priest challenged the cardinal on that point, asking how he could preach to his Palestinian congregation that the establishment of the modern Jewish state was not a "catastrophe," as they called it, or the result of European powers' guilty conscience following World War II. Schoenborn responded by saying that "I am myself a refugee" – at the end of World War II, when he was an infant, Schoenborn's parents fled to Austria from Czechoslovakia – and that he felt pained at the unrecognized injustice that thousands of Czechs had suffered. However, he said, both that case and the Arab-Israeli conflict were matters of international law, whereas the chosenness of the Jewish people and their inheritance in the Holy Land were matters of faith that date back to the Bible itself. Schoenborn also said he hoped the conflict here would be resolved in accordance with international law, and with respect to justice for the Palestinian people. "We are all longing for that solution," he said. "Yet I am not naive. Conflicts are part of [both sides'] love of the land, and always have been... There is no simple solution."

Protestant Church Said Eichmann Was 'Kind-Hearted'

Records Reveal Warm Words for Holocaust Organizer

Source: Spiegel

Protestant church officials in Austria and Germany lobbied the West German government to try to help Adolf Eichmann, one of the main organizers of the Holocaust, after his arrest by Israeli agents in 1960. One church leader described Eichmann as "fundamentally decent" and "kind-hearted."

The German Protestant Church put in a good word for Adolf Eichmann, the chief logistics organizer of the Holocaust, after his arrest in Argentina by Israeli agents in 1960, SPIEGEL has learned.

The Superintendent of the Protestant Church for Upper Austria, Wilhelm Mensing-Braun, based in the Austrian city of Linz were Eichmann was born, wrote a letter to the foreign affairs department of the Evangelical Church in Germany in Frankfurt claiming that the mass murderer "had a fundamentally decent disposition," was "kind-hearted," and was characterized by "great helpfulness."

At that time, Eichmann was about to be put on trial in Jerusalem for crimes against humanity.

Braun went on that he could not imagine that the former SS officer "would ever have been capable of cruelty or criminal acts."

Eichmann's family had enlisted Mensing-Braun's help because they wanted Eichmann to be tried by an international court rather than an Israeli one.

Lobbying for Eichmann
Bishop Hermann Kunst, the representative of the Evangelical Church at the West German government, passed the letter on to the German foreign ministry with the note that the assessment was "at least interesting."

French politician friends on Facebook of antisemitic pornographer Dietlieb Felderer

A reader wrote to draw our attention to the Facebook page of Austrian anti-Semitic, pornographer and  Holocaust-denier (a bit difficult to write and to understand) Dietlieb Felderer.  He has around 70 amis, and one of them is French member of the European Parliament Bruno Gollnisch (Front National).  He used to be very close to the party's ex chairman Jean-Marie Le Pen and number two of the party.   Gollnisch is a professor at the University of Lyon III . Interesting to see that these far right folks have some strange friends.

Photos from  Felderer's Facebook.  There are more than a 100 like these :

The word Holocaust is not English, not French, not German, not Hebrew. The word Holocaust is Greek and refers to the Phallic Fertility Cult of the Greeks in which the penis MOVED UP (Holocausted) into an erection to make Fertility possible. See:http://europeanhumanrights
/ http://joy-thought.blogspot.com/ http://kim-freethoughts.blogspot.com/ http://europeanhumanrights.com/ and others.

So don't be a Holocaust Denier. Proudly tell the world that there is nothing as vibrant as a Holocaust erection. It's the only religion all agree on and practice!

WHERE CAN I FIND THE HUGE OLYMPIC SWIMMING POOL AT THE AUSCHWITZ RELIEF CAMP? Just pass the huge Kitchen, the largest building in the camp, on your right, and the Brothel on the left, and go straight up the road. It is behind Block 6. Happy swimming along with Anorexia Slim!

JAZZ IN AUSCHWITZ! SIX ORCHESTRAS NOT SIX MILLION DEATH AT AUSCHWITZ! CATHOLIC RELIGIOUS MUSIC AT AUSCHWITZ! DANCE AT AUSCHWITZ!  WHAT'S NEXT?


Video where Felderer explains how Zyklon B greatly improved the health of inmates at extermination camps (rather holiday camps):

Vienna: 38% of Muslim youth think Hitler did a lot of good

Whereas 'only' 21.3% of Far Right youth agree that 'Hitler had done a lot of good for the people', appallingly  37.9% of Turkish and Arab youth agree with the statement.

Source: Islam in Europe (Vienna: 38% of Muslim youth think Hitler did a lot of good)

The Austrian Institute for Youth Culture Research recently polled 400 youth (16-19 years old) in Vienna on politics, antisemitism, sexuality and ring-wing radicalism. In addition they polled 80 Turkish and Arab youth.

They found the following:

* 37.9% of Turkish and Arab youth (14% of all youth) agree that 'Hitler had done a lot of good for the people'. 17.6% of all immigrants agree, as do 21.3% of Freedom Party (FPÖ) youth. More than 70% of all youth disagreed.

* 45% of Turkish and Arabic youth (15% of all youth) say that 'Jews have too much influence on international finance'.

* 35% of Turkish and Arab youth (22% of all youth) said homosexuality was 'an unnatural way of life'.

Mosque shooting game banned in Austria, not Jewish soldier shooting game in Belgium

Anti-mosque web game banned: Austria (and quite rightly so)

"Austrian authorities have banned a far-right online game where players eliminate animated mosques and Muslims, the political party behind the game said on Friday.  The "Bye Bye Mosque" game, which has had over 200,000 visitors since it was launched on Monday, has drawn sharp criticism from Austria's Social Democrats and Green Party, as well as the Islamic and Roman Catholic communities.

Set up by the provincial branch of the far-right Freedom Party ahead of an election in Styria later this month, the game encouraged players to collect points by putting a target over mosques and minarets emerging from the countryside and clicking a "Stop" sign.  They also had the chance to eliminate a bearded muezzin calling Muslims to prayer. [...]"
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In Belgium, children are exhorted to shoot at Israelly soldiers and throw them to the sea.  And the big difference with the Austrian game is that it is not an online game.  The game was staged at a Roman Catholic school ('Throw Israel soldiers to the sea' educational game at Belgian Catholic school), at the Ghent Fair [Belgian NGO incites children to shoot at Israeli soldiers at the Ghent Fair], and now at Charleroi (though adults were not asked to shoot at the soldiers, the exercise seems to be only aimed at children and their parents) :

8 October: a laughing Griet Deknooper, a teacher and the inventor of the "shoot a Jewish/Israelly soldier game", with her fund-raising aquarium at a Charleroi anti-Israel event.

Is there an anti-Israeli "European street" ?

"[...] the sole ambassador in Israel who backed Ferrero-Waldner was the French [Jean-Michel Casa]. He was quoted as saying that her statements reflect the European public's feelings."

Are "European public's feelings" supposed to mean that, like the famed "Arab street", there is now in Europe an anti-Israeli "European street" ? Only that it's not called "street" but "European public's feelings".

Source: Israel to EU: Criticism of Netanyahu government unacceptable
By Barak Ravid, Haaretz Correspondent

"A Foreign Ministry official has been warning European countries that unless they curtail criticism of Benjamin Netanyahu's government, Israel will block the European Union from participating in the diplomatic process with the Palestinians. The main target of the offensive is EU External Affairs Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner*, who recently called for a freeze in upgrading ties with Israel over its peace process policies. Several days ago, the deputy director for Europe at the Foreign Ministry, Rafi Barak, began calling European ambassadors in Israel regarding the attitude toward the new government. The first conversations were with France's Jean-Michel Casa, Britain's Tom Phillips and the Chargé d'Affaires of the German embassy.

Barak sharply protested the criticism by European ministers and senior EU officials about Israel's government. Barak singled out Ferrero-Waldner in his rebuke and said her statements were troubling in their form, style and timing.

"For some weeks now, we have been telling everyone in Europe that Israel's government needs time to reformulate policies, and not to begin a war in the press," Barak told the diplomats.

He also noted that the European Union had not made an official decision on freezing the upgrading of ties, and therefore it was unclear what gave Ferrero-Waldner the authority to make her statements. [...]

"Israel is asking Europe to lower the tone and conduct a discreet dialog," he said. "However, if these declarations continue, Europe will not be able to be part of the diplomatic process, and both sides will lose."

In a telegram to the Israeli missions in Europe, Barak briefed the Israeli diplomats on his conversations and noted that the sole ambassador in Israel who backed Ferrero-Waldner was the French. He was quoted as saying that her statements reflect the European public's feelings.

A political source in Jerusalem noted that Ferrero-Waldner was sharply criticized by European officials, and one European foreign minister said in a private conversation that she "is causing damage to European foreign policy in her attacks on Israel"."
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*Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner who is being so critical of the Israeli governement is Austrian. Maybe she should be paying a little more attention to what's going on is her own country.

Articles in Z-Word by Karl Pfeifer, a veteran anti-fascist and journalist based in Vienna:
- Free Speech and the Far Right
- Austria’s Far Right Blames the Jews…Again
- Austria: Right Wing Extremist Elected Parliament President
- Antisemitism: It’s Time for Tachles
- Antisemitic Tropes in Austria’s Top-Selling Daily
- Stalinist Smears
- Far Right Scandals Continue in Austria
- Antisemitism and the Austrian Left
-Austria’s Far Right and Selective Free Speech
- "Excessively": The Austrian Media on Gaza

EU says Gaza reconstruction won't happen under Hamas rule

Welcome and long overdue clarity from the European Commission

"A senior European Union official said Monday that she expected humanitarian aid to Gaza to flow quickly, but signaled that reconstruction of buildings and infrastructure would only begin when the EU has an acceptable Palestinian partner.

Visiting EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner did not explicitly single out Hamas, but she strongly hinted that it would be difficult to rebuild Gaza as long as the Islamic movement remains opposed to international peace efforts.

"For reconstruction you also need on the other side an interlocutor, so how will this be done? Is there a reconciliation process in the meantime? What will be done? All that is open," she said
She also said that Hamas's confrontation with Israel was hindering prospects for a better life for the people of Gaza.

"We don't want to go on to reconstruct Gaza every I-don't-know-how-many-years," she said. "This is not what we want. What we would like to see is a clear sustainable peace."

Ferrero-Waldner's assessment came a day after Israel halted its three-week military offensive in Gaza aimed at ending years of Hamas rocket attacks on southern Israel. A massive Israeli bombardment from land, sea and air left damage to homes, public buildings and utility lines valued by Palestinian surveyors at more than $1.4 billion.

Europe has traditionally been a leading contributor of aid to the Palestinians. But Ferrero-Waldner urged the Palestinian public to demand peace from its leaders.

"We have been at the side of the Palestinian population always and we will be at their side, but at the same time it's also for the Palestinian population on both sides to say, 'We want this peace,"' she said.

"We know that many people have been killed and we felt terribly sorry. We don't want to see civilians killed but at the same time the population has to decide if it wants to go to peace."
Ferrero-Waldner spoke a day after European leaders visited Egypt and Israel to pledge support for measures to stop Hamas from rearming and to turn a fragile cease-fire into a durable peace.

She suggested a rapprochement that returns Fatah to Gaza could be key to arranging international help. (...)"

Source: TJP

Is Austria largely Haider?

Unlike Austria, European countries treat the Far Right very harshly. In this respect, Austria is definitely an exception. Otherwise, most of the European media write obsessively about Israel in derogatory terms (anti-Israelism and anti-Zionism). European governments, notwithstanding all the talk about human rights and pacifism, put their own economic interests above any other consideration and do not hesitate to sign juicy agreements with Iran and other undemocratic countries.

Source: article by Benjamin Weinthal in TJP

"Austria's uncritical political reaction to the death of Jörg Haider is further evidence that its relations with Israel have reached a low-point. The last time relations were this bad was when Haider's extremist right-wing Freedom Party joined a coalition government in 2000, sparking an Israel-initiated diplomatic divorce between Austria and the Jewish state.

While Austrian politicians and media commentators adhered to "speak no ill of the dead" and did not disparage Haider posthumously, the absence of an intellectually honest appraisal of Europe's most significant right-wing extremist political figure is deeply unsettling. Haider's enthusiasm for the Nazi era in Austrian politics and society is well known, yet not one politician in Austria's entire political spectrum, including the anti-fascist Social Democratic Party (SPÖ) and the Green Party, has taken him posthumously to task for those views. The political establishment has turned Haider's political legacy into a socially and politically acceptable phenomenon.

According to Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer, a Social Democrat, Haider should be accorded "respect and recognition," and he was "a remarkable person" with an "excellent feeling for what needs to be changed" in Austrian politics. In minimizing Haider's political beliefs and affinity for National Socialism, Gusenbauer appeared to be praising attitudes wholly incompatible with core social democratic values.

Shortly before the national election in late September, in response to my query about whether Austria had a "special responsibility" toward Israel due to Austrian complicity with Germany during the Holocaust, Andreas Schieder, the SPÖ state secretary in the Federal Chancellery, issued the following statement: "That is also the basis for the commitment: prevent the beginnings. Never forget - no more fascism.

"However, we are painfully aware of what the chancellor at the time, Franz Vranitzky, noted in a speech before the Knesset in 1991. Austrians were not only victims, but also perpetrators. The SPÖ will continue to fight anti-Semitism, racism, xenophobia and any form of National Socialist ideology."

Had the SPÖ meant these words seriously, the Social Democrats would have had to sharply criticize Haider's purported political achievements and boycott the funeral services.

The Green Party, which champions the rights of minority groups, mirrored its Social Democratic colleagues, failing completely to confront Haider's vicious political legacy. Ulrike Lunacek, the Green Party's foreign affairs spokeswoman, wrote the following to this writer shortly before the election.

"The fact that the Holocaust was one of the decisive reasons that the State of Israel was founded as a place of refuge for Jews means modern-day Austria has a certain responsibility." She called "for commemorative events and memorials" and argued that the Jewish community in Austria should "not only be treated with tolerance, but also with welcome and acceptance."

Alexander Van der Bellen, the recently retired head of the Green Party, quickly deviated from the words "welcome" and "acceptance" and praised Haider as "an exceptional politician, highly qualified to inspire people and win [them] over."

Haider energetically campaigned with the slogan "Austria for the Austrians. For your sake," and evicted asylum seekers from the southern province of Carinthia where he served as governor. Van der Bellen whitewashed Haider's politics, which aggressively insulted and ostracized ethnic and religious minorities, blacks and Jews.

The attitude of the other mainstream party, the Austrian People's Party (ÖVP) is not surprising, since it is currently flirting with Haider's new party, the Alliance for the Future of Austria (BZÖ), and the Freedom Party about a possible government coalition. Vice Chancellor Wilhelm Molterer (ÖVP), said that Haider "deserves great respect" for not mincing words.

The death of Haider offers a view onto the playing field of terribly strained Austrian-Israeli relations. In April 2007, the Austrian energy giant OMV, whose primary shareholder is the Austrian government (31.5 percent), nailed a tentative 22 billion euro deal with Iran to develop its South Par gas field. The Austrian government has the leverage to terminate the letter of intent with Teheran but - in sharp contrast to European energy giants Royal-Dutch Shell and France's Total, which have discontinued gas and oil production agreements with Iran - is itching to implement the contract. The social democratic CEO Wolfgang Ruttenstorfer of OMV is hoping for a new Iran policy change following the US election.

Haider's pro-Iranian foreign policy was simply an extension of the Social Democratic-led government policies of lame duck Chancellor Gusenbauer, who advocates the OMV-Iran deal and enhanced trade with Iran. Haider traveled to Iran in 2004 to do business with the mullah regime and solidified Austrian-Iranian political cooperation. He met with former Iranian president Muhammad Khatami, who regularly calls Zionism a "continuation of fascism," and received a euphoric welcome during his visit to Vienna in late October. In 2007, Haider dedicated himself to stronger economic relations between Carinthia and Iran by welcoming an Iranian economic delegation.

This happened at a time when the international community sought (and still seeks) to isolate Iran due to its uranium enrichment program.

Haider is largely Austria and Austria is largely Haider. If Austrian society and politics genuinely seek to bid farewell to Haiderism, they would first need to reject coalitions and political cooperation with the racist and anti-Semitic parties BZÖ and FPÖ. Secondly, the Austrian government would have to give top priority to fighting latent anti-Semitism (i.e., anti-Israelism and anti-Zionism). Thirdly, as a new member of the UN Security Council, Austria could call for stronger sanctions against Iran. Finally, the most important litmus test for improved Austrian-Israeli relations is whether the Austrian government will nullify the gas deal with the anti-Semitic Iranian regime, whose nuclear weapons program threatens the safety of Israel and Europe."

- Right of Reply: Don't judge Austria based on Haider, by Michael Rendi, Ambassador of Austria to Israel
- Switzerland not invited to Israel’s 60th anniversary festivities
- Israel concerned over Germany-Iran deal
- Iran, Italy sign oil exploration deal

Crystal Night: when good men did nothing

They saw, they knew and they did nothing.

Source: article by Mitchell Bard , TJP

"On November 9-10, 1938, Nazi storm troopers throughout Germany and Austria ransacked Jewish homes, marauded through the streets, broke windows of Jewish-owned stores and looted merchandise, set fire to synagogues, randomly attacked Jewish men, women and children and arrested thousands of men. When the violence ended, at least 96 Jews were dead, 1,300 synagogues and 7,500 businesses destroyed and countless Jewish cemeteries and schools vandalized. A total of 30,000 Jews were rounded up and sent to concentration camps. The broken glass strewn through the streets from the mayhem caused the pogrom to be called "Crystal Night" or Kristallnacht.

Some Germans claimed after the war that they did not know what the Nazis were doing to the Jews. On Kristallnacht, for the first and only time during the Third Reich, historian Ian Kershaw observed, "the German public was confronted directly on a nationwide scale with the full savagery of the attack on the Jews."

After Kristallnacht, a member of the Hitler Youth admitted, "no German old enough to walk could ever plead ignorance of the persecution of the Jews, and no Jews could harbor any delusion that Hitler wanted Germany anything but judenrein, clean of Jews."

While many Americans would also claim they were unaware of the atrocities committed by the Nazis during the Holocaust, the events of November 9-10 were well documented. The New York Times ran a front-page story on November 11: "A wave of destruction, looting and incendiarism unparalleled in Germany since the Thirty Years War and in Europe generally since the Bolshevist Revolution swept over Great Germany today as National Socialist cohorts took vengeance on Jewish shops, offices and synagogues for the murder by a young Polish Jew of Ernst vom Rath, third secretary of the German Embassy in Paris." Another Times story was headlined, "All Vienna's synagogues attacked."

Franklin Roosevelt made no immediate comment after Kristallnacht, referring questions about it to the State Department. Only after five days of widespread public outrage did he take any action: recalling the US ambassador from Germany and stating in a press conference, "The news of the past few days from Germany has deeply shocked public opinion in the US. Such news from any part of the world would inevitably produce a similar profound reaction among American people in every part of the nation. I myself could scarcely believe that such things could happen in a 20th century civilization..."

Roosevelt agreed to allow 15,000 German Jews already in the United States to remain, but resisted all calls to increase the overall quota of immigrants from Nazi-occupied countries. Equally significant, his failure to take any action against Germany, or to mobilize an international coalition to challenge Hitler, sent the message that the world would not intervene to save the Jews. How much he could have done given the isolationist and xenophobic mood of the American public at that time is debatable, but the consequences of his inaction were catastrophic.

On January 21, 1939, Hitler told the Czech foreign minister, "We are going to destroy the Jews." Nine days later he spoke of "the destruction of the Jewish race in Europe." By the time the war started in September 1939, most Jews, about 370,000, had escaped Germany and Austria. The 175,000 who remained were viewed by the Nazis as hostages in case the Jews outside Germany were considering any vengeful acts.

The deportation of German Jews to their deaths began in October 1941. At the end of April 1943, 150 Jewish children who had been living on a farm training to be Zionist pioneers were deported in one of the final transports of German Jews. Most died in concentration camps. Fewer than 10,000 of the 131,800 German Jews targeted for extermination by the Nazis survived.

Of the 43,700 Austrian Jews who had failed to escape the Nazis, fewer than 2,000 returned to their homes after the war. These were just a fraction of the six million Jews murdered in the Holocaust.

On this 70th anniversary of Kristallnacht we should be reminded of Edmund Burke's warning: "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.""

The writer is author of the newly-released 48 Hours of Kristallnacht: Night of Destruction/Dawn of the Holocaust - An Oral History and director of the Jewish Virtual Library.

Austria: Right Wing Extremist Elected Parliament President

Source: Z Word : Austria: Right Wing Extremist Elected Parliament President, by Karl Pfeifer

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“Martin Graf, a member of the extreme right “Olympia” organization, has been elected as the third president of the Austrian parliament with 109 votes (out of a total of 182).

Parliamentarians from the Green Party held up a poster declaring: “You have not learned the lessons of history.” As one who watched this spectacle live on television, I can say the election of this man is a shame for this country, which was only resurrected in 1945 because of the many Allied soldiers who gave their lives for its liberation.

FPÖ member Martin Graf, 48 years old, has attended extreme right-wing demonstrations on May 8 - according to the extreme right, on May 8,1945, when Nazi Germany surrendered, the occupation of Austria began. Graf is also a member of an extreme right wing student fraternity which once hosted a Neo-Nazi singer. Included in his repertoire was a song containing the lines, “with 6 million Jews, the fun just begins”.

Only one day after a tram conductor who greeted the guests of a Vienna tram with the Nazi “Sieg Heil” was removed from duty, Martin Graf has been elected to one of the most senior positions in a country which is apparently so proud of its anti-Fascist constitution.

We can hear all kind of noble declarations in parliament concerning how Austria condemns National Socialism. For example, Austrian chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer declared in 2000: “The SPÖ (Social-Democratic party) has established in its program, in its history as an Anti-Fascist party deeply connected with democracy, which rejects National Socialism and its crimes resolutely.” But it’s quite different in practise.

Such declarations are spoken, as we say in Austria, “out of the window,” meaning that they are mainly for foreign consumption. The same can be said about some of the declarations heard today in Austrian parliament.

Karl Öllinger, a Green MP, has published a dossier about the Austrian extreme right, including “Olympia.” Öllinger sent his dossier to all members of parliament. Despite its contents, the Austrian parliament has elected with majority Martin Graf the nominee of the extreme right FPÖ. Only the Greens and a few other members of parliament opposed it.

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It is necessary to shed light on the activities of Graf, who is - despite all the facts known about Olympia - still a member of that organization.

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Members of Olympia do not like to speak in public and when they speak they keep quiet about a lot of things. They prefer to let their guests speak or sing. One can not find their publication (“Der Olympe”) in a public library and their website is offline. But Graf has made statements such as this one: “Today’s state borders were drawn arbitrarily; the German people (“Volkstum”) must be free to spread out in Europe” (Der Spiegel 24/97, S. 54)”.

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Continue reading here

'Ailing' war criminal spotted celebrating Euro soccer championship

YNet News reports:

"Milivoj Asner, a wanted Nazi war criminal who was deemed unfit to stand trial by Austrian authorities due to his "failing health", has been spotted in one of the Euro 2008 soccer championship gatherings, looking fit as a fiddle for his age, the English Sun reported Monday.

Asner, 95, holds the number 4 spot on the Simon Wiesenthal Center's most wanted Nazi criminals' list. He served in the Croatian police during WWII and is believed to have taken an active part in the persecution and deportation of hundreds of Serbs, Jews and gypsies to death camps.

Croatia formally appealed to Austrian authorities for Asner's extradition in 2005, citing that he was wanted for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity; but Vienna declined, saying he was in poor health. Asner is also on the Interpol's most wanted list – they currently have an international warrant out for his arrest.

Asner has been living in Klagenfurt for several decades now, under an assumed name. The Sun 's photographer followed him around town for several hours, as he strolled through local cafés, showing no signs of failing health.

Wiesenthal Center Director, Dr. Efraim Zuroff, slammed what he called Austria's "shameful shielding of a suspected war criminal", adding "He is clearly enjoying a life that many hundreds of victims were denied when they were sent off to be murdered… The Sun found him healthy enough to stroll happily round his home town for hours. This is highly significant.

“Austria has long had a reputation as a paradise for war criminals and now they’ve been caught in the act. It is time for them to do what is right and help bring Nazi war criminals to justice. If this man is well enough to walk around town unaided and drink wine in bars, he’s well enough to answer for his past.

“He’s shown absolutely no remorse. It is our intention to bring this to the attention of the Austrian Minister of Justice Maria Berger and call for his immediate extradition,” said Zuroff."

Vandals strike memorial to Austrian Jews

The JTA reports:

"An artwork remembering the suffering of Austrian Jews under the Nazis was destroyed days after it was installed.

Artist Peter Wagner had planted the 70 wooden stakes last week alongside a road in the town of Oberschutzen, near a controversial memorial that serves as a reminder of Germany's annexation of Austria on March 12, 1938.

According to the Kurier newspaper, Wagner's project was called "zone38 -- 70 years after the annexation," and was dedicated to the memory of the Jews of the Oberwart district."

Europe is not impressed by Walt and Mearsheimer: the Continental divide

A review of The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy by Eric Frey focuses on the issue of anti-semitism which was raised much more frequently in Europe than in the U.S. Frey believes that around third of Europeans are still "susceptible to covert antisemitic propaganda, and some of them will see their views confirmed by two respected American political scientists. But the rest will not be impressed". "Mearsheimer and Walt’s book is not about Israel. It is about American politics, specifically about the allegedly nefarious role played by a mostly Jewish circle of people and organizations in the politics of a predominantly Christian nation. The charge that Jews manipulate non-Jews to further their own interests is so much part of antisemitic lore here in Europe that discussing such a thesis almost immediately requires addressing the issue of antisemitism. That is what happened to Mearsheimer and Walt. In what seemed to be every interview and panel discussion, they were forced to address the charge that they were themselves antisemites, or at least giving ammunition to antisemites. In the interview I conducted with them in Vienna for my newspaper, Der Standard, the two authors themselves constantly returned to the theme of antisemitism, sounding defensive and at times snivelling. They repeated their argument that their book was not about Jews, but about the workings of political lobbies in American politics. But that argument will ring false in New York, let alone in places like Austria and Germany where the obsession with Jewish power has a long and terrible history. While there are plenty of people who will use the book to reaffirm their belief that, to quote Mel Gibson, “Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world,” mainstream readers of political non-fiction will at least be concerned that they might be seen as antisemites if they identify too closely with Mearsheimer and Walt’s thesis. Even when it came to the issue of the Iraq war, the academics’ Jewish spin has tended to dampen the impact of their message in Europe. There is a near consensus here on the view that the Bush administration’s decision to go to war was at a minimum foolish and perhaps even criminal, and that the neoconservatives are largely to blame for that decision. But once you equate that group with the Israel Lobby, as Mearsheimer and Walt have done, the Iraq war gets tied up with the darkest sides of Europe’s own history. … Perhaps a third of the European public is susceptible to covert antisemitic propaganda, and some of them will see their views confirmed by two respected American political scientists. But the rest will not be impressed."