The author of a book abouttheonly I^azi war criminal extradited from Canada has accused the Canadian government of "covering up" destruction of hundreds of thousands of immigration files containing evidence for use in deportation proceedings against Nazi war criminals.
Sol Littman, who wrote a book about Albert Helmut Raucav made the charge after Minister of.l^tate for immigration Walter McLean stated the file destruction was routine and did nY contain information that would have aided the search for Nazi criminals. The destruction of the
immigration files pame to light during ~1iearing£ of the Deschenes Commission, which is conducting an inquiry into Nazi war crimi-inals living in Canada. (J^^. Nov. 7, 1985)
Former Solicitor General Robert Kaplan testified at the hearing he had been informed by the RCMP in April 1984 that immigration case records for the letters A through E had been destroyed some time ^ between Feb. 1982 and Sept. 1983.
It was during this timfe period Canada was involved with its first and only action against a suspected war criminal, Rauca.
The RCMP became aware
^of the, (ile.ddestructi(»i vAiih investigating a small number of persons, believed to have lied about their wartime activities when they emigrated to Canada.
Evidence from these files could have been used to" remove the citizenship of war criminals, Kaplan told the hearing.
Las^t week, McLean said destruction of the files had been conducted in accordance with disposal schedules approved by the Public Archives of Canada.
It *^was not a wholesale destruction of files, but part of an ongoing program,** he said. McLean added the des-COVER-UP-Page3 '
Gorbachev's request for French aid for a massive aiis lift was apparently made^pufa| lie by the French government ,after Israeli Premier Shimoh Peres tojd a news conference in Paris that France might fly, Soviet Jews directly to Israel.
,Pere^ said Mitterrand told him if the Soviet government would permit the direct flight of Jews to IsriTe], France would gladly supply the planes. Peres also said JieU earlier
emigration of Jews^ from the USSR and loosening of restrictions upon them — as well as restoration of Israel-USSR diplomatic ties — with Soviet foreign minister Eduard 'Shevardnadze.
Peres added there wouldnY be any changes in the Soviet position until the Reagan-Gorbachev summit meetings.
In Israel, both Leon Dul-zin, Jewish Agency executive chairman, and Israel's absorption minister^ Yaacov Tsur, said there's'absolutely no evidence of an imminent change in the Soviet U nion's policy on Jewish emigration.
Duzlin said it wasn't impossible that Edgar Bronfman, World Jewish Congress pres-ident, had been "strung
^ along'* by the Soviets during his recent visit there.
Bronfman, in the Kremlin in September, had been promised a "gesture" before Gorbachev's visit to Paris. But, obviously, nothing had materialized, said Dulzin.
The JAE chairman added that the Jerusalem conference on Soviet Jewry would embark upon a massive worldwide public campaign on behalf of Soviet Jews unless there were soon tangible signs of increased emigration.
Meanwhile, Victor Louis, the celebrated Soviet journalist, has described the massive airlift proposal as only "wish-
ful thinking.';
' "Has not the Soviet Union enough planes to fly any number of Jews out of the country if she wanted to?** asked Louis, interviewed by telephone from Moscow by th6 London Jewish Chronicle. "Why do we need the French?'*
Louis has in the past been a channel for informing the West of forthcoming events in the USSR, including Kru-schev's downfall and the invasion -of Czechoslovakia.
He suggested there "might be an increase from the present trickle of Soviet Jewish immigration."
USSR-Page 2
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A "high amount" of assimilation within Vancouver
community is undermining the; teaching of Jewish____.....
schools here, according to Israeli educator and noted fi^bbi I a , ■ Rafael Posen. ^ '
Poseri of Jewish day schools educators
pals of Talmud Torah and Lubavitch: . - ^^-^^
A fornier principal of Girls Town in Jerusalem; Rabbi^^P^^^ said the city's two Jewish schools want to upgrade teaching : skills and are further pondering whether to hire mqre skilled teachers from Israel.
"I feel the outcry of teachers is that to a great extent that whatever Jewish values are taught they will be contradicted at home because of a high amount of assimilation," said Rabbi Posen,
A distinguished rabbi and teacher, Posen is now a consultant to the Toronto board of Jewish education and Canadian Zionist Federation and a representative of the Torah department of the World Zionist Organization in Canada.
For the past two years he has been living in Toronto,guiding workshops and helping principals work their curriculum at Midrashale'Morim, the only Jewish teacher-training college in Canada.
Representing both WZO and the CZF, Rabbi Posen spent several days here conducting teacher seminars, with the aid of Dr. Yosef Menis, Bar Ilan university's deputy director of its school of education, and meeting with school principals.
Posen noted that the WZO, as part of its program, recruits teachers from Israel for Jewish schools all over the world. Presently, he said, there are 63 Israeli teachers in Canada.
He said that while teachers here do appear to require some retraining, the best overall safeguard for preserving a Jewish community in Vancouver is to acquire some "fresh teachers" from Israel who'd bring with them a "modern approach and achievements of Israeli educatiouvas well as the spirit of Israel."
Rabbi Posen said, however, the problems faced by Jewish educators locally are further complicated by a Jewish community which, by and large, doesn't appear to take its Jewishness too seriously.
Most parents send their children to public schools, he noted, while those few children who do attend Jewish schools are failing to have Jewish values reinforced in the home.
This is seen most clearly in the recently unsuccessful attempt to start a Jewish high school, said Posen.
Having last visited Vancouver several years ago. the rabbi said he was informed that Jewish education is "stronger than before" but is reaching only 20 pt-rcent of the Jewish population.
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