Page 6 - The Canadian Jewish News, Thursday, May 17,1984
M-T
BuUetittr At pfeiss^^^^^^ made of RaufPs death
NEW YORK iJTAJ-
The Simon Wlesenthal Center last week re-leas^ 43 pages of docn-ments,^ many of them previously marked classified by United States intelligence agencies, which Ifaik Walter Ranff, the Nazi war crimbial how living in ChUe, to important figores in the Catholic Church hi Italy.
The release of the information follows fpof nnonths of research by the center conducted after the Vatican hist year denied allegations that it aided RanCTs escape after the war from Europe to South America.
With the release of the documents at a news . conference here, the center reiterated an earlier call on the Vatican and Pope John Paul .11 to conduct an inVeitigation into the church's post-World War II activities
which, the center alleges through the documentation, aided and abetted RaufTs escape. ~ The center also called on the Vatican to use its influence with the Chilean government of President Augusto Pinochet to have Rauff extradited aiid brought to justice for his war crimes.
Rauff, inventor of the mobile vans used in the early stages of the Holocaust is respoiisible for the deaths of tens of ' thousands of Jews during the war.
Rabbi Marvin Hier, dean of the Los Angeles-based Wiesenthal Center, noted that the Yati-can maintains "considerable influence" with the Pinochet government. He said that just recently, the Vatican persuaded the Chilean authorities to deport four terrorists who gunned
down the mayor of San-tiagoT They were provided safe passage to Ecuador, Hier said, ''all at the behest of the Vatican." -
Rauff was a high-ranking Gestapo official in Italy in 1943 through the last days of the war in 1945> He was captured by the Allies and moved to an allied detention center in Rimini, Italy, a place from which he later escaped.
Six months prior to his escape, documents note, 20 Nazis escaped along a "route linked directly to Vatican officials."
R^nff Is quoted as saying he escaped frnm Rfanfad at the end of 1946 and went to Naples. '^There 1 was helped by a Catholic priest to go to Rome where I stayed more or less 18 months, always in convents of the Holy See/' Rauff told
TORONTO-
The League for Human Rights of B'nai B 'rith Canada has voiced its support of the Chinese community's call on the government to repudiate the "shamefully racist" head tax Canada imposed on Chinese immigrants from 1885 to 1923.
In a letter to Justice Minister Mark Mac-Guigan, nationail chairman David Matas affirmed the League's sup-■»ort of the Chinese
C an a d i an N ^ t i on a 1 Council's recent request that the government apologize to Chinese-Canadians and compensate those who were forced to pay the head tax. V:
"We regard the head tax, and the Chinese Immigration Act which replaced it/ as shamefully racist measures, which deprived Canada jof much initiative, commerce and culture," Matassaid.
NEW YORK [JTAJ—
Raoul Wallenberg, the lost hero of the Holocaust, is thes^ro^gonist of a new television mini-series based upon his life and exploits in rescuing more than 100,000 Hungarian Jews from shipment to the Nftzi death camps.
The announcement has been made by F*ara-mount Pictures TV which will shoot the 4-hbur-long production m Europe this summer, with ate dates scheduled for next season.
The program, a msjor undertaking by Para-mpuntywiil feature Richard Chamberlain In the tide role of the Swedish diplomat who went to Budapest In the middle of World War 11, snatched thousands of Jews from die clutches of the German commando squads and disappeared Into a Siovlet prison camp, never to be heard of again despite the worldwide campaign to gain his release.
The script for the mini-series has been written
by Gerald Green, prominent novelist and acclaimed author of the' script for the TV series Holocaust.
How Wallenberg foiled Adolf Eichmann's attempt to deal out the same fate to the Jews of Hungary is the theiiie of the beistselling book upon which Green's iscript is based.
The head tax, which was designed to dis^ courage Qiinese immigration, was initially $50. It was raised to $100 in 1901 and to $500 in 1904. The tax applied only to people of Chinese descent.
A positive responise to the issiie would ease the hurt that the restrictive policies may have created and help all eth-nocultural groups feel an integral part of Canadian society, Matas said. "By facing the most sorrowful truths of Our histoid unflinchihgly and honestly, Canada will underscore its commitment to a tolerant, equitable society."
Citing Canada's closed door policy to Jeiwish. refugees from Hitler's Europe from 1933 to 1948, he said: "The Jewish community, having suffered the effects of unmigration rules based on racist notions of 'desurability' and hunian worth, is sympathetic to the desires of the Chinese community to see the government repudiate the immigration restrictions on its forebears."
over
MONTREAL —
Canadian Jewish Congress has expressed the Jewish community's shock and its condolences to the relatives of the victims of the shooting in the Quebec Na-tional Assembly last week. Telegrams were sent to National Assembly speaker Richard Guay^
"As Jews and Que-becers, we understand that there can be no room for terrorism in a free
society, the brutality of this event strikes us all," said Bernard Finestone, the Quebec Region chairman.
In a similar vein, the telegram from national executive chairman Dorothy Reitman and executive vice-president Alan Rose stated: "Jews are particularly conscious that j^cts of terrbrr ism inevitably strike at innocents, as was the case in Quebec today."
the Chilean supreme court in 1962 when It reviewed an extradition request frwm West Germany for the Nazi war criminal. The request was later denied.
He also told the court, according to documents, that later,' 'with the help oif the Catholic church my family was able to come from the Russian zone in Germany to Rome."
After being reunited with his family Raiiff went to Syria, then to Ecuador and finally to Chile. He does not have Chilean citizenship and travels on a German passport.
The center's contention is" that while the name of the priest who
helped Rauff in Italy during the 18 months is not known for certain there was a relationship between Rauff and two leading church officials during the war and that it is unlikely that Rauff did not in some way contact them, or mentioned their names in order to obtain safe haven.
Documents provided by the Counter Intelligence Corps (CIC) later to become the Central Intelligence Agehcy (CIA) note the numerous, meetings Rauff had With Monsignor Don Guis-eppe Bicchierai, and C a rd i n a111d e fo n s o Sch&ster, the Archbishop of ^ilan.
**These** were no ordinary churchmen,*'
BBC makes bid to help Japanese
TORONTO —
The government of Canada should "negotiate redress for Japanese Canadians for its treatment of that community during World War II," the League for Human Rights of B'nai B'rith Canada announced last, week.
At a national cabinet meeting, the league passed a resolution caO-ing on Parliament to ^loglze formally for Canadian treatment of Its Japanese citizens for what occurred, to ensure Canada never repeats such treatment of Its citizens; and to authorize the negotiation of redress with the Japanese Canadian Citizens Association.
George Imai, past president of the association, told the League cabinet that the Jewish community in Canada supported the Japanese Canadians in their hour
of need by offering them jobs, education, traming and accommodation when no one else would.
David Matas, national chairman of the League, stressed the continuation of the tradition of solidarity of the Japanese and Jewish Canadian communities.
"The Jewish, community was itself a victim of a Canadian government racist policy during and after World War II, which involved the systematic exclusion from Canada of Jewish refugees escaping the Holocaust," he said.
"It Is only fitthig,'' Matas said, "that the Jewish community should stand together widi the Jf^anese community now, as it did then, that It should protest what was done to Japanese Canadians and ask for the wrongs to be righted."
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Hier said. *'Cardinal Schuster was one of the most respected and powerful leaders of the church. He was mentioned as a possible successor to Pope nus XI. Msgr. Bicchierai was boA a priest and a lawyer, charged with conducting surrender negotiations on behalf of the cardfaial.'*
The negotiations both with Mussolini and the Nazis, were, according to Sister Pascaline — an aide 'and confidant of Pope Pius XI — "carried out through the Archdiocese of Milan at-the specific request of Pope
Pius XI.'VHier said.
Rauff was a key figure in these negotiations and "had a close relationship with Bicchierai," Hier said, adding that they exchanged personal gifts and Rauff circumvented an order ftbm a Gestapo
chief to arrest Bicchierai.
After escaping Rimini, Hier contends that when Rauff was in Italy "it is reasonable to conclude that Rauff would have told the priests who helped him all about his good standing with Bicchierai and Schuster.
"It is even possible to believe" that the two church officials knew of Rauff^s long stay in "convents of the Holy See" during those 18 months, Hier contended.
"It is also reasonable to presume that Pope Pius XI would have known about Walter Rauff as he monitored the ultimately fruitless negotiations for the surrender of Nazi occupied Italy," Hier said.
Hier is asking for an investigation into the facts pertaining to Rauffs. postwar stay in Rome.
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