Shorts: World

Thursday, May 14, 2009 | by

Vienna returns art to Jewish heirs

The city of Vienna is returning a work of art looted by the Nazis to the heirs of its original Jewish owners.

The painting is “Der Liebesbrief,” or the Love Letter, by Johann Nepomuk Schoedlberger. The Nazis took it from Ignaz and Clothilde Schachter, who escaped to pre-state Israel to avoid Nazi persecution.

Austrian institutions are committed to returning art works under the country’s restitution law. — ap

Ex-policeman fined for beheading Hitler

A former police officer was fined for beheading a wax figure of Hitler last summer. The unnamed perpetrator, who is unemployed, must pay $1,227 for taking off the head at Berlin’s new Madame Tussauds Wax Museum in July.

In his court hearing, the man said he had intended to protest against what he considered to be the crass commercialism of Madame Tussauds in installing a model of Hitler close to the former seat of Nazi power.

The perpetrator, one of the first to enter the museum, had lunged past guards to reach the Hitler figure. He also slightly injured a guard.

The figure was repaired and now stands under close watch at the museum. Visitors are not permitted to pose for photos with the Hitler figure. — jta

President thanks Jews in Columbia

Colombia’s president thanked the country’s Jewish community for its contribution toward building the nation.

Alvaro Uribe spoke at the 11th meeting of Latin American and the Caribbean Jewish Institutional and Community Leaders, organized by the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee from May 6-10 in Cartagena.

Uribe, cheered by a packed room of 645 participants from Latin America, the Caribbean, America, Europe and Israel, noted the drop in poverty and narcotics traffic in his country and promoted the advantages of investing in Colombia.

Regional anti-Semitism — linked to the increasing presence of Iran in Latin America — was a recurring topic of the meeting. — jta

Italian official sees Israel as top priority

The foreign minister of Italy said his country’s friendship with the state of Israel and the Jewish people is “a key plank of our foreign policy.”

Speaking at the American Jewish Committee’s annual meeting this month, Franco Frattini also discussed his country’s decision to boycott last month’s Durban II conference on racism held in Geneva.

“We could not legitimize a message of hate,” Frattini said. He said his country’s decision not to attend was designed to “strengthen the legitimacy” and “credibility” of the United Nations.

But Frattini said the conference was a “missed opportunity” because “Europe was divided and hesitant.”

He also said Israel’s “right to security and to defend itself is strictly non-negotiable” and that Iran acquiring nuclear weapons is not acceptable. — jta

List of British soldiers found at Auschwitz

The discovery in an Auschwitz bunker of a list with the names of 17 British soldiers has prompted a debate among historians.

The document was unearthed during routine preservation work at the concentration camp, according to the British Daily Mail.

One group of historians believes the names belong to Jewish prisoners of war sent to the camp; another claims the 17 men comprised a British SS division that fought alongside the Nazis in World War II.

“They were clearly the names of English soldiers, we presume prisoners of war, but we want to try and find out more about them and want British help to do so,” Polish historian Dominik Synowic told the Austrian Times.

The last names include Osborne, Lawrence and Gardiner, and beside eight of the 17 names is a tick mark. — jta

Group demands construction halt on cemetery site

A Warsaw-based organization has written to authorities in a Polish town demanding a halt to road work on the site of a Jewish cemetery.

The letter sent this week by the Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage in Poland demands that work be stopped at the Jewish cemetery in Ostroleka.

The cemetery was destroyed during World War II, but during recent construction work on the site human remains were discovered — probably Jews buried there before World War II.

Along with the foundation, Poland’s chief rabbi, Michael Schudrich, sent a letter last week protesting the construction. — jta