Abbas to Obama: Stick it in your very big ears. Wow, look at what all those preconditions Obama demanded did for the peace process. It worked! The Palestinians now think they don’t have to do anything and Israel will be handed to them by the U.S. Great job, Obama! (Is it racist to say that he has big ears?)

If it’s Quds Day, this must be Holocaust Denial: And not just Holocaust denial from Ahmadinejad—his thugs attacked ex-president Khatami. Hey, if they kill Khatami, will Iranians rise up and not stop this time? Here’s what they chanted:

“Death to the dictators,” and “Not Gaza, Not Lebanon, We are ready to die for Iran,” chanted protesters.

The normal chant, if you have forgotten, is “Death to Israel” or “Death to America.”

If this is a holiday, it must be high terror alert in Israel: But gee, Obama told me that the Palestinians want peace. So did the Saudis. So do the Egyptians. Huh. Go figure. And 75,000 Muslims attended Ramadan prayers, unmolested, in Jerusalem—in their mosque deliberately built on the Temple grounds—that was not destroyed when Israel took control of Jerusalem. Exactly which of us is the Religion of Peace, do you think?

Hamas’ pre-emptive strike at the UN See if you can follow this: Hamas is protesting to the UN that it can’t teach about the Holocaust in UN-sponsored classes in Gaza. The UN is saying, “Huh? We’re not teaching it.” Hamas then says, “Well, you’re about to, so don’t.” The UN says, “No comment.” Um—what? Of course, the UN will cave. Watch for it.

Madonna—Bibi. Bibi—Madonna. Madonna’s going to meet with Bibi Netanyahu and Tzipi Livni while she’s touring Israel. Concerts, Kabbala, and Knesset. She’s a busy girl, is Madonna Louise Veronica Ciccone.

Am Yisrael Chai: The Jewish people live. That’s what the Benjamin Netanyahu said in Wannsee yesterday. That’s the place where the Nazis planned the destruction of the world’s Jews.

Ew! Jew cooties! Hamas is denying having participated in European workshops with Israelis. Because, you know, Jew cooties.

Note to self: No more putting purse on the back of chairs in restaurants. Ben Bernanke’s wife’s purse was stolen from the back of her chair at a Starbuck’s, begging the question: Didn’t she feel the thief take it? The media’s making this out to be a major ID theft case, but the details being given out make it seem like, uh, the thief stole her checkbook and tried to cash a check. Unless there’s more to the story, it’s typical media overhype.

Um, what’s the point of an Israeli suing a Swedish paper in a New York court? An Israeli lawyer (not one of the brighter ones if you ask me) is suing the Aftonbladet for libel in a New York court. Why not in Sweden? Am I the only one that thinks this is moronic?

I think this is something people really do forget about the extermination camps. The main image we all have of the camps is of the starving inmates at liberation in 1945, the piles of starved bodies. Always adults. We forget that at least hundreds of thousands of children were brought to camps like Auschwitz and were not ever photographed again, such as at liberation, because they were taken (usually with their mothers) straight from the train to the gas chamber.

But not before the Nazis took their little clothes off them and shipped those clothes back to German civilians to keep Frau Housewife happy while Herr Hubby was gone to war.

Via.

Thirty-two million.

If not for the Holocaust, there would be as many as 32 million Jews worldwide, instead of the current 13 million, demographer Professor Sergio Della Pergola has written in a soon-to-be published article.

[...] The Holocaust ’struck a mortal blow particularly at the Jews of Eastern Europe because of their especially young age structure,’ and particularly the number of children. This led to significant long-term demographic damage. The quantitative ramifications are far beyond what we think,” he writes.

[...] Della Pergola says another demographic outcome of the Holocaust is the lower relative number of Jews in the world. “At present, the percentage of Jews in the world is constantly in decline. Before the Holocaust, the rate was eight Jews per thousand people in the world; today it is two per thousand.

Today, on the anniversary of the birthday of the architect of the destruction of Europe’s Jews, the United Nations gathers to see what it can do about making those demographics even worse—by continuing the demonization of Israel, and ignoring the threats to Israel and the world by countries like Iran. Watch for a repeat of Ahmadinejad’s anti-Semitic speech to the UN.

If you haven’t heard by now, PETA has started yet another offensive ad campaign. This one really reaches bottom—they are using Holocaust terminology, quotes, and pictures to liken the “slaughter” of animals to the slaughter of the Jews by the Nazis.

I’ve already received a letter from a child of Holocaust survivors who is, of course, extraordinarily offended. But here’s the thing: PETA is known for this kind of outrageous publicity stunt—and that’s what it is, an outrageous publicity stunt—and while I am also offended and outraged, there is absolutely nothing we can do that will make PETA change their ad campaign. I’m sure they knew exactly what they were doing, have a plan in mind, and, if they withdraw the campaign, will do it according to their deadlines and their decisions.

So let’s make up our own outrageous publicity stunt. Let’s designate Saturday, March 15th, as International Eat an Animal for PETA Day. Everybody set the date on your calendar, and either go out and enjoy a great steak, or cook one at home. Or cook up some chicken or fish or anything else that PETA wouldn’t want you to eat. And let’s let PETA know how their ad campaign has affected us.

Now, Germany’s highest court has agreed with us. It’s official: PETA runs offensive ad campaigns.

Germany’s highest court has ruled that a PETA ad campaign comparing animal slaughterhouses to the Holocaust is an offense against human dignity.

The 2003 campaign used eight, 60-square-foot (5.6-sq. meter) panels depicting images of factory farms next to Jewish concentration camp inmates and the slogan “Holocaust on your plate.”

The Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe on Thursday ruled that the ad campaign was not protected under freedom of speech laws.

PETA issued a statement that sounds awfully familiar to me:

“‘Holocaust on Your Plate’ was the idea of a Jewish PETA member, was funded by a Jewish PETA member, and is supported by people who believe that the original Holocaust was an atrocity that never would have happened if members of society had realized that discrimination based on any difference between living beings is supremacism.

And here’s why it sounded so familiar: Because PETA is still lying about the ad campaign. Six years ago, they made it seem like Isaac Bashevis Singer, who had been dead for eight years, was behind the campaign.

The concept of our campaign originated with Nobel Prize-winning Yiddish author and vegetarian Isaac Bashevis Singer, who said, “In relation to [animals], all people are Nazis; for [them], it is an eternal Treblinka.” As you may know, Singer fled Europe as the Nazis were coming into power and lost most of his family in the Holocaust. He became a vegetarian as a result of what he lived through and what he saw. He spoke out in favor of vegetarianism until his death in 1991. His argument was that it doesn’t matter who the victims are-we must speak out against all atrocities and cruelties and help to stop them.

PETA also lied to get the rights or outright stole copyrighted Holocaust photos used in the campaign.

The Holocaust Council was doubly angered because it was the primary source of the Holocaust images used in the campaign. The PETA Web site offers a glimpse of the display; at the end, it said “Holocaust photos courtesy of USHMM.”

But Museum officials say they never gave permission for its images to be used in such a display. PETA’s use of them “improperly and incorrectly implies that the Museum, a federal government establishment, endorses PETA’s project,” the Council’s lawyer wrote.

On Tuesday, the animal rights group responded, insisting that use of the photographs is “consistent with the Museum’s mission statement,” and claimed that an anonymous Jewish philanthropist funds the project.

The group also said it “requested, received and paid for the use of the photographs”— a claim Museum officials vehemently deny.

Arthur Berger, communications director for the Museum, said that a representative of the group sought the materials without indicating his PETA connection or how the material would be used.

“It was clearly a misrepresentation, at minimum, of what [the photographs] would be used for, he said. “There was no indication it would be used in a comparison with animals. Once we learned of this obscene connection, we sent a cease and desist letter.”

Six years later, PETA is still lying. Well, at least they’re consistent.

Long live EATAPETA Day.

UPDATE: Interestingly, or perhaps not, this article on Kristallnacht featured on the Guardian’s Comment is Free has exactly zero comments. It’s true. The Brits don’t really give a damn about dead Jews. Only live Palestinians.

Elder of Ziyon emphasizes what it implies about the Germans.

These are utterly ordinary architectural drawings, complete with cross-hatchings to symbolize where brickwork would be. People drew up these plans, consulted with their superiors about details, asked questions about the dimensions and uses of the buildings so they could be designed more efficiently and modified the blueprints accordingly. They were meticulously drawn with pride and a sense of accomplishment.

The draftsmen went home to their families after a day of drawing exacting representations of gas chambers and crematoria, they ate hearty meals and told jokes about their workday.

These are only a small number of the many who knew quite well what was happening during the Holocaust, and they all deserve a special place in hell.

Meryl notes that this shows the mendacity of “respectable” Holocaust denial.

This evidence contradicts directly Patrick Buchanan’s claims that it was the intervention of Britain that caused the Germans to start murdering the Jews.

Israel on Level Ground remembers Kristallnacht. The NYT mockup is priceless. Smooth Stone notes that German libraries still hold stolen books.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.

Original plans for the construction of the Nazi extermination camp of Auschwitz, including a gas chamber and crematorium, have been found in a Berlin apartment, a newspaper reported Saturday.

The daily Bild published copies of some of the 28 plans, which the head of Germany’s federal archives, Hans-Dieter Krekamp, called “authentic proof of the systematically planned genocide of the Jews of Europe.”

There are dates on the plans:

It said they were dated between 1941 and 1943 and stamped, “Waffen-SS and Police Construction Directorate.” Some were signed by senior SS officials and one initialed by the head of the Nazi ideological corps, Heinrich Himmler.

Kreikamp told the newspaper the documents were “extraordinarily important.”

One plan, drawn by a detainee as early as November 1941, when experiments in eliminating prisoners were already under way, had a gas chamber clearly labeled, Bild said.

Another showed a crematorium with places for ovens marked, and storage space for bodies.

This evidence contradicts directly Patrick Buchanan’s claims that it was the intervention of Britain that caused the Germans to start murdering the Jews.

That Hitler was a rabid anti-Semite is undeniable. “Mein Kampf” is saturated in anti-Semitism. The Nuremberg Laws confirm it. But for the six years before Britain declared war, there was no Holocaust, and for two years after the war began, there was no Holocaust.

Not until midwinter 1942 was the Wannsee Conference held, where the Final Solution was on the table.

That conference was not convened until Hitler had been halted in Russia, was at war with America and sensed doom was inevitable. Then the trains began to roll.

And why did Hitler invade Russia? This writer quotes Hitler 10 times as saying that only by knocking out Russia could he convince Britain it could not win and must end the war.

Of course, Buchanan’s insistence on ignoring evidence that proves otherwise will probably come into play. He’s a liar and a Holocaust minimizer, if not a denier, and he’s definitely an anti-Semite. He goes on neo-Nazi radio stations to promote his book, and isn’t even really bothering to hide his Jew-hatred any more. But there’s even more evidence than before that Buchanan is a lying, Jew-hating scum who should be bounced from MSNBC. Then again, MSNBC is a complete joke. It’s not like we expect real journalism out of them.

As all-star comic-book team-ups go, this one beats the first meeting of Superman and Spider-Man. Three of the elder statesmen of comic books — Neal Adams, Joe Kubert and Stan Lee — have joined forces to combat what they see as a real-world injustice.

The men are lending their talents to tell the tale of Dina Gottliebova Babbitt, who survived two years at the Auschwitz concentration camp by painting watercolor portraits for the infamous Nazi Dr. Josef Mengele. Some of the artwork also survived, but it is in the possession of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum in Poland. Now 85 and living in California, Mrs. Babbitt wants the artwork back, but the museum has steadfastly refused to return it.

This is what they’ve done:

Now Mrs. Babbitt’s story has been captured in a six-page comic-book story illustrated by Mr. Adams, who helped take Batman back to his dark roots after the ’60s television show made him seem campy; inked partly by Mr. Kubert, whose comics career stretches back to the 1940s and who has drawn everyone from Hawkman to Sergeant Rock; and featuring an introduction by Mr. Lee, a co-creator of the Fantastic Four, the X-Men and many other Marvel heroes.

The text was written by Rafael Medoff, director of the David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies, which has championed Mrs. Babbitt’s cause. Mr. Medoff and Mr. Adams have offered the story to DC Comics and Marvel Entertainment in the hopes of getting it published, but no deal is yet in place.

I can’t say that I’m totally unsympathetic to the museum’s point of view:

Auschwitz museum officials, in a statement issued in 2001, indicated that they had bought six of Mrs. Babbitt’s watercolors in 1963 from an Auschwitz survivor and acquired a seventh in 1977. In 1973 the museum asked her to verify her work but did not offer to return the items. The museum has argued that the artwork is important evidence of the Nazi genocide and part of the cultural heritage of the world. (The museum did not respond to telephone calls and an e-mail message requesting comment.)

However Mrs. Babbitt did paint the pictures in question. And, more remarkably, her artistry saved her life and the life of her mother.

Surely the Auschwitz museum could work out a deal to return the artwork to Mrs. Babbitt for some time and then seek to get on loan after a specified period of time. Perhaps the museum could even display replicas and allow Mrs. Babbitt to have control of the art that she created under inhuman conditions.

The Times has made Mrs. Babbitt’s story available. (pdf)

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.