Conferences

Dear friends, dear members,

EUAS, European association of Jewish Holocaust survivors
Association of Holocaust survivors in Croatia,
Jewish community in Zagreb
Representative of Jewish minority in Zagreb

have pleasure to invite you to the

EUAS conference in Zagreb, Croatia
1-3 Juni, 2012

Please find attached:
Invitation letter from EUAS president Max Arpels Lezer,
Preliminary conference program,
Registration form and Hotel information

Registration deadline is 15 May 2012

For all informations please contact:
Dr. Melita Švob, EUAS secretary

E-mail: melita.svob@gmail.com
Tel 091 49 22 692

Attachments:
- Invitation letter Max
- Konferencija Zagreb 2012, program engleski
- Registration and hotel reservation forms Zagreb, 2012
- Application form Palace Hotel Zagreb
- Palace Hotel Zagreb information

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President's opening speech

Dear friends,

Allow me to say at first a few words of thanks to our hosts of this conference “AJR and the Child Survivors Association of Great Britain”.

I know how much work there is involved to prepare for such a conference, and seeing you all gathered here, a well deserved compliment is in order.

Thank you Joanna and Henri; thank you all for the work you have done; for all your efforts to make this conference of our organization to a success. Let me also make some remarks: it is a pity that many of our fellow survivors from the European continent are not present here today. Probably due to the economic crisis in connection with the high costs of transport and registration fee.

Next year’s conference will be in Warsaw, Poland from 19 till 22 August 2011, in cooperation with the annual conference of the World Federation. Probably and hopefully we will see there much more participants from East and also West Europe.

Last year I have told you about the many letters we have written to the board of the claims conference. In fact we had only one simple question, that was please accept the existence of our European Association and give us a seat on the board of directors of the CC.

At last I received a letter stating that we could come to their 2009 meeting but as an observer and without any voting rights. Well friends, I have been in New York at this 2-day meeting and it has opened my eyes. Voting in the CC-board meeting is different to what I am used to, voting is done so quickly and the only chance members is giving is to say YES, the chair does not ask who is opposing. I sat at the meeting, listened and was amazed.

For this year things have apparently changed for us, because now I was offered a seat in the 2010-board meeting with voting rights. I shared the seat of the World Federation, with Stefanie Seltzer, the federation’s chair.

Again I was amazed about the way this annual meeting was conducted. Many board members greeted each other as old friends. Much of these board members are on the CC board for many many years. Some of them seem to belong to the furniture and are old and some are very old. One of them Saul Kagan was honored because he was serving on the board for 60 years. I suppose he has no desire to step down.

Amazing was also how the voting about certain proposals was handled. Board members could say Yes to a proposition, however I am afraid no-votes were not counted.

Again there was a big discussion about the split in percentages of incoming money. As things are standing now 80% goes to survivors and 20% to projects. Of course one can ask himself what kind of project are worth receiving funding from the CC. It was suggested to change the percentages and give more financial support to survivors. But the survivors present in this board meeting lost the voting. So things remain as they were for many years. Next year we shall have another chance to make changes.

One other subject we were informed about. Apparently for years there was a fraud going on. In the last 10 years CC lost about 7 million dollars because of this fraud. About 202 cases have been discovered now. All could be related back to New York. Police and FBI were informed, at this moment it is unknown if more fraudulent cases will be discovered. CC is working hard to get some of the money back. It is easy to criticize the Claims Conference, but please remember very much is achieved by the CC and we should be gratefull and not forget this. However it is time now to make some changes and we will do our best to make the changes happen.

I am happy to say that the monthly pensions paid to west- and east-European survivors will de equalized. I am talking about the Article2 fund and the CEEF-fund.

Anti-Semitism, we all know; and we all experience around us Anti Semitism. In magazines, in newspapers, on radio and TV we read, we hear and we see anti-Semitism. And let us not forget where we see most anti-Semitism that is in the internet. Hundreds of internet sites are spreading the words of anti-Semitism. What can we do? What can you do? We can speak up against anti-Semitism, we must fight it, not with a loose word here and there, but we have to unite and to stand up against it. I won’t go into the question who is to blame for anti-Semitism. It is very complicated.

Almost daily one can see on TV, hear on the radio or read in newspapers about anti Semitic incidents. Not only in my country, but I suppose in most countries.

Allow me to quote from a few articles which I read very recent.

The first article is written by an American writer living in Germany. He is from Columbus Ohio. He lives in a small town outside Munich in a street, that till April 45 was Adolf Hitler strasse.

One day he was sitting in a bus to Munich and sees a high school boy passes around Grandpa’s leather bound copy of Mein Kampf to his friends who respond by saying “cooool”. He than takes out a VCR tape ( produced in Switzerland) of “The great Speeches of Joseph Goebbels”.

Some remarks from a conversation which he had with highly educated young professionals during a business conversation. “The problem with America is that Jews have all the money”. “Yeah, all the Jews care about is money”. “The Jews themselves were really responsible for the Holocaust”. “The scope of the Holocaust has been greatly exaggerated by the American media, which is dominated by Jews”. “CNN is controlled by Jews and is ant-Palestinian”. “Ariel Sharon was worse than Hitler and Israelis are Nazi’s”.

So far some quotes of an American writer living in Germany.

This week I saw an article in our national Netherlands Jewish Weekly.

Marcus Eilenberg is a Jew living with his wife and 2 little children in Malmö, Sweden.

He is a lawyer and during the last year or so has heard so many times “Heil Hitler” that he is sick and tired from it. More over he fears for the safety of his wife and children.

Malmo is a city of 285.000 inhabitants among which are 55.000 Muslims and 700 Jews. Also here, and not only in my city of Amsterdam, the quickly growing Muslim population, causes much of the problems. Israeli politics changed the lives of the Jews in Malmo, wrote the Forward beginning of July. Not very analytical but nevertheless correct. I was terribly afraid remembers Yehoshua Kaufman, in the Forward. There were many very angry people, shouting insults and making it impossible to walk. At a commemoration ceremony in the Jewish Community Centre, the building was attacked by dozens of Muslims with stones and glass bottles. The Israeli Davis Cup tennis team, was attacked while playing in Sweden in 2009.

Jonathan Tsubarah walked on August 29 in the Gustaf Adolf Square, where he was attacked by a Palestinian en 2 Somalis. They beat him to the ground, kicked him where ever possible, while shouting: Kill the Jew, and are you proud to be a Jew?

In 2009 115 hate-crimes were registered of which 55 had an anti-Semitic character. Anti- Semitism comes traditionally from the right, but all Jews say it comes from the Muslims. The most visible Jew is Schneur Kesselman, the Chabab rabbi. He is a popular target with his traditional outfit, for anti-Jewish sentiments. He was a victim of more than 50 anti-Semitic incidents. Hitler salutes, raised middle fingers, and curses of many kind he has to endure. Many Jews feel unsafe in Sweden. Everybody says its only a small group of Muslims, but again the Jews are the victims.

Dear friends, again I wish to thank our hosts for their hospitality. It is my wish to see you all and hopefully many more, next year in Warsaw.

Thank you very much, L’Shanah Tovah and Shalom.

Max Arpels Lezer, August 2010

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Report

Annual meeting in Warsaw September 11 – 14 2009
The conference was organized by “Dzieci Holocaustu” in Poland

The conference was opened on Friday evening with a welcome dinner. Anna Drabik, chair of the “Dzieci Holocaustu” ( Children of the Holocaust) in Poland spoke a word of welcome to all present around the Shabbat table. Representatives of several European countries were present: Sweden, Great Britain, Netherlands, Slovakia, Czech Republic and of course many from Poland.

The next day the conference was officially opened by our president Max Arpels Lezer from The Netherlands with his opening speech. He highlighted the accomplishments of our organization, the things we have achieved; such as higher pensions for those who live in central-and east Europe, which are equal now to the pensions paid out in the rest of the world.

Our president is now officially member of the board of directors of the Claims conference. However not with full voting rights, but he is present at the annual meetings and will speak up if necessary on behalf of our European Association.

We can be proud of our own website www.eu-as.org which was established with the help of 2 volunteers.

The first speaker of the day was: Andrzej Jonas, editor in chief of “The Warsaw Voice”. He spoke of Anti Semitism in Europe and in Poland. A very interesting topic to all of us.

The second speaker was: Mrs Katarzyna Prot-Klinger, psychiatrist. She spoke of the effects of Holocaust trauma.

The third speaker was: Lukasz Biedka, psychologist. He spoke about a Psycho-therapeutic program for Child Survivors of the Holocaust.

Our attendees were very interested in all 3 speakers and there were very lively discussions afterwards.

Our second day started with a very interesting bus tour through Warsaw. Stops were made at the big monument for those who perished in the ghetto of Warsaw. We saw the groundwork’s for the new museum of Jewish Heritage in Poland. Hopefully the museum can be opened in 2012.

We have walked along the lines of the former ghetto, seen the large number of memorials for the ghetto fighters. We have seen the well-equipped offices of the “Dzieci Holocaustu” and enjoyed a wonderful lunch at the Restaurant “Magat” situated in the same building. Other points of interest were the Synagogue of Warsaw and the Jewish Theatre.

After return to the Conference Centre, there was the annual exec. Board meeting of our organization. We are happy to announce that all members who are up for re-election accepted a new 2-year term and that we can welcome as our new exec. Board member Mrs. Hania Rosenberg from Sweden.

Our 3 day conference ended on Sunday evening with a great and copious farewell dinner and life entertainment. Which was enjoyed very much and received a well earned applause.

Again and as always we can say that the meeting of our organization was very, very interesting and that we had the opportunity and the pleasure of making many new friends.

A big THANK YOU is in order to our hosts of the Children of the Holocaust in Poland.

An observer.