JEWISH KING JESUS IS COMING AT THE RAPTURE FOR US IN THE CLOUDS-DON'T MISS IT FOR THE WORLD.THE BIBLE TAKEN LITERALLY- WHEN THE PLAIN SENSE MAKES GOOD SENSE-SEEK NO OTHER SENSE-LEST YOU END UP IN NONSENSE.GET SAVED NOW- CALL ON JESUS TODAY.THE ONLY SAVIOR OF THE WHOLE EARTH - NO OTHER. 1 COR 15:23-JESUS THE FIRST FRUITS-CHRISTIANS RAPTURED TO JESUS-FIRST FRUITS OF THE SPIRIT-23 But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming.ROMANS 8:23 And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.(THE PRE-TRIB RAPTURE)
LUKE 21:28-29
28 And when these things begin to come to pass,(ALL THE PROPHECY SIGNS FROM THE BIBLE) then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption (RAPTURE) draweth nigh.
29 And he spake to them a parable; Behold the fig tree,(ISRAEL) and all the trees;(ALL INDEPENDENT COUNTRIES)
30 When they now shoot forth, ye see and know of your own selves that summer is now nigh at hand.(ISRAEL LITERALLY BECAME AND INDEPENDENT COUNTRY JUST BEFORE SUMMER IN MAY 14,1948.)
JOEL 2:3,30
3 A fire devoureth (ATOMIC BOMB) before them;(RUSSIAN-ARAB-MUSLIM ARMIES AGAINST ISRAEL) and behind them a flame burneth: the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them.
30 And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke.(ATOMIC BOMB AFFECT)
ZECHARIAH 14:12-13
12 And this shall be the plague wherewith the LORD will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem; Their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet,(DISOLVED FROM ATOMIC BOMB) and their eyes shall consume away in their holes,(DISOLVED FROM ATOMIC BOMB) and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth.(DISOLVED FROM ATOMIC BOMB)(BECAUSE NUKES HAVE BEEN USED ON ISRAELS ENEMIES)(GOD PROTECTS ISRAEL AND ALWAYS WILL)
13 And it shall come to pass in that day, that a great tumult from the LORD shall be among them; and they shall lay hold every one on the hand of his neighbour, and his hand shall rise up against the hand of his neighbour.(1/2-3 BILLION DIE IN WW3)(THIS IS AN ATOMIC BOMB EFFECT)
EZEKIEL 20:47
47 And say to the forest of the south, Hear the word of the LORD; Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will kindle a fire in thee, and it shall devour every green tree in thee, and every dry tree: the flaming flame shall not be quenched, and all faces from the south to the north shall be burned therein.
ZEPHANIAH 1:18
18 Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of the LORD'S wrath; but the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of his jealousy: for he shall make even a speedy riddance of all them that dwell in the land.
MALACHI 4:1
1 For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven;(FROM ATOMIC BOMBS) and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.
And here are the bounderies of the land that Israel will inherit either through war or peace or God in the future. God says its Israels land and only Israels land. They will have every inch God promised them of this land in the future.
Egypt east of the Nile River, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, The southern part of Turkey and the Western Half of Iraq west of the Euphrates. Gen 13:14-15, Psm 105:9,11, Gen 15:18, Exe 23:31, Num 34:1-12, Josh 1:4.ALL THIS LAND ISRAEL WILL DEFINATELY OWN IN THE FUTURE, ITS ISRAELS NOT ISHMAELS LAND.12 TRIBES INHERIT LAND IN THE FUTURE
Arab League accuses Israel of showing ‘contempt’ via settlements-Group’s head Ahmed Aboul Gheit says Jerusalem is ‘causing all efforts to implement the two-state solution to fail’-By AFP and Times of Israel staff January 25, 2017, 3:59 pm
The Arab League on Wednesday condemned Israel’s announcement of new settlements the day before as a sign of “contempt” for the international community and an obstacle to peace.Israel on Tuesday approved 2,500 new homes in the West Bank in a major expansion of settlement construction following the election of US President Donald Trump.The settlements are seen as illegal under international law and critics label them as a major stumbling block to peace as they are built on land the Palestinians want for their own state.Tuesday’s announcement “confirms the Israeli government’s approach, which is full of contempt and defiance for the will of the international (community),” the head of the Cairo-based Arab League, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, said in a statement.The statement accused Israel of “causing all efforts to implement the two-state solution to fail.” It also suggested Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government feels “strengthened” by “recent international developments,” in an apparent reference to Trump taking the reins at the White House.The move has already drawn widespread international criticism. The Palestinians quickly condemned the announcement, calling it “land theft and colonialism.”“Such a deliberate escalation of Israel’s illegal settlement enterprise constitutes a war crime and the flagrant violation of international law and conventions, in particular UN Security Council resolution 2334,” said PLO Executive Committee member Dr. Hanan Ashrawi, referring to an anti-settlements UN decision passed last month.The European Union also responded critically, branding the announcement a “regrettable” move that would further undermine prospects of negotiating regional peace agreement.The United Nations echoed the EU in denouncing Israeli initiatives to accelerate settlement construction in Palestinian-claimed territory, stressing that “unilateral actions” are an obstacle to peace based on a two-state solution.Trump has signaled strong support for Israel, and Israeli right-wing politicians have sought to take advantage of this, with hardliners calling for an end to the idea of a Palestinian state.In a stark departure from previous US rhetoric, the US did not condemn Tuesday’s announcement, with White House press secretary Sean Spicer saying during Tuesday’s daily press briefing that “we’re going to have a meeting with Prime Minister Netanyahu and we’ll continue to discuss that.”“Israel continues to be a huge ally of the United States, [Trump] wants to grow closer with Israel, to make sure that it gets the full respect that it deserves in the Middle East,” Spicer added.
New settlement homes are just a ‘taste,’ Netanyahu tells MKs-‘We are going to be doing many things differently from now on,’ the prime minister says a day after Israel approves2,500 West Bank homes-By Raoul Wootliff January 25, 2017, 4:09 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday that the 2,500 new West Bank settlement homes approved a day earlier were just a “taste” of things to come now that Barack Obama is no longer US president.Speaking at the annual Prime Minister’s Questions session in the Knesset, Netanyahu said the move came after eight years in which Israel “suffered” from Obama’s “not-one-brick policy,” referring to claims the prime minister has made in the past that the US administration told him it would oppose all new building beyond the Green Line.“And we are not talking about outposts or even settlement blocs,” Netanyahu told the plenary, “we are talking about here, in Jerusalem. They wouldn’t let us build here either.”But, the prime minister said, “We are leaving the period. This building [approval] was a taste. We are going to be doing many things differently from now on,” he said.Netanyahu was taking questions from lawmakers in the Knesset plenum as part of the Question Time format introduced in Israel’s parliament last year. Under the procedure, opposition MKs can choose 10 ministers, including the prime minister, to answer questions once during the legislative year.Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman announced on Tuesday that Israel had approved the construction of approximately 2,500 homes in the West Bank, most of them in existing settlement blocs it hopes to keep in any peace deal with the Palestinians.The decision came two days after a Jerusalem planning committee approved the construction of 566 housing units in East Jerusalem, and on the heels of a phone conversation Sunday between Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump, in which the two discussed their plans for the region.Asked at Tuesday’s daily press briefing for a response to Israel’s announcement, White House press secretary Sean Spicer neither approved nor condemned the decision, saying that Trump would discuss the matter when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visits Washington next month.“We’re going to have a meeting with Prime Minister Netanyahu and we’ll continue to discuss that,” he said. “Israel continues to be a huge ally of the United States, he wants to grow closer with Israel, to make sure that it gets the full respect that it deserves in the Middle East.”The statement marked a dramatic break from the policy of Obama, who routinely castigated Israel for building in such areas.Most of the housing units will be built in the large settlement areas, notably in the city of Ariel and in Givat Ze’ev, outside Jerusalem. But some will also go up in settlements outside the larger blocs, due to prior agreements and court decisions.“We’re building — and will continue to build,” Netanyahu said following the approval.Palestinians quickly condemned the announcement, calling it “land theft and colonialism.”In total, 2,502 housing units were approved for construction in settlements across the West Bank, with most in the north.In the northern West Bank, 899 will be built in the city of Ariel, 292 in the Zufim settlement, 166 in Emanuel, 154 in Oranit, 81 in Etz Efraim, 78 in Alfei Menashe, 18 in Elkana and six in Shaare Tikva, the defense minister’s office said.In the Jerusalem area, some 652 housing units were approved for the Givat Ze’ev settlement, 104 in Ma’ale Adumim and four in Har Gilo.In the Etzion settlement bloc, 21 homes were approved for Efrat, and the defense minister okayed 87 housing units for the Beitar Illit settlement, outside Bethlehem.Outside the larger settlement areas, Liberman and Netanyahu allowed the construction of 86 homes for the former residents of the evacuated Migron settlement, who now live in the Yekev neighborhood of the Kochav Ya’akov settlement, south of Ramallah. The approval was granted in accordance with an agreement between the government and Migron residents.In addition, 20 homes were approved in the Beit El settlement, north of Ramallah, as part of a High Court of Justice decision, the defense minister said.— Judah Ari Gross contributed to this report.
EU 'mumbles and grumbles' on Israeli settlements By Andrew Rettman-JAN 25,17-EUOBSERVER
BRUSSELS, Today, 10:56-EU “regret” on Israel’s new settlement surge will be seen as empty “mumbling and grumbling” in the Donald Trump era, diplomats say.The EU foreign service on Tuesday (24 January) said it was “regrettable that Israel is proceeding with this policy, despite the continuous serious international concern and objections”.It added that settlement expansions “seriously undermine the prospects for a viable two-state solution” and were “illegal under international law”.The EU spoke after Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave the green light to almost 3,100 new housing units for Jewish settlers in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, which Israel won by conquest in 1967.Over half a million settlers now live on Palestinian land, which is being sliced into isolated chunks as the Jewish towns and outposts spread.Netanyahu’s announcement briefly deflected Israeli media attention from a corruption scandal that could see him pushed out of office.It was also designed to please far-right elements in his Likud party and in the Jewish Home party in the ruling coalition, which wants to "annex" vast swathes of Palestinian land.The 3,100 new homes, described by the Palestinian Authority as a “provocation”, were also greeted as a “disappointment” by the Yesha Council, a settler group, which had wanted a higher number.-Trump pro-Israel-The new wave of expansion comes after the election of Donald Trump in the US, a pro-Israeli hawk, who has said he might move the US embassy from Tel Aviv, Israel’s UN-recognised capital, to Jerusalem, which is claimed by both Israel and Palestine, and which the EU and UN say ought to be shared.Netanyahu will meet Trump in Washington in early February if the Israeli leader survives the corruption affair.But if the US, Israel’s main financial and security sponsor, gives it a free hand to keep snatching Palestinian land, then EU statements, like the one on Tuesday, will be seen by Israel as little more than “mumbling and grumbling”, a European diplomatic source told EUobserver.The EU last year published new retail label guidelines designed to stigmatise settler products in European shops.But EU foreign relations chief Federica Mogherini is not working on any further measures and has quashed calls by EU states’ ambassadors in Palestine to take a tougher line, diplomatic sources said.Aalon Ben Meir, a scholar of Middle East affairs at New York University, told EUobserver that if Trump went ahead with the Jerusalem embassy idea, then the “EU should raise its voice loud and clear, as this will potentially create major turmoil throughout the Middle East [and] kill whatever is left of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process”.He advised the EU to hold off on any potential “sanctions” on Israel until Trump clarified his intentions.He added that the EU’s voice still “resonated to some extent” in Israel and that if it went further on settlement expansion, then Europe must “put Israel on notice that these activities … can potentially create a new wave of violence” in the region.
Kerry informed some lawmakers of the move just before he left State Dep't for last time-US released $221 million to Palestinians in Obama’s last hours-Officials say outgoing administration defied GOP opposition, sent funds to PA that had been blocked in Congress-By Matthew Lee and Richard Lardner January 24, 2017, 12:39 am-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
WASHINGTON (AP) — Officials say the Obama administration in its waning hours defied Republican opposition and quietly released $221 million to the Palestinian Authority that GOP members of Congress had been blocking.A State Department official and several congressional aides said the outgoing administration formally notified Congress it would spend the money Friday morning. The official said former Secretary of State John Kerry had informed some lawmakers of the move shortly before he left the State Department for the last time Thursday. The aides said written notification dated Jan. 20 was sent to Congress just hours before Donald Trump took the oath of office.In addition to the $221 million for the Palestinians, the Obama administration also told Congress on Friday it was going ahead with the release of another $6 million in foreign affairs spending, including $4 million for climate change programs and $1.25 million for UN organizations, the congressional aides said. The aides and the State Department official weren’t authorized to speak publicly on the matter and demanded anonymity.Congress had initially approved the Palestinian funding in budget years 2015 and 2016, but at least two GOP lawmakers — Ed Royce of California, the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and Kay Granger of Texas, who sits on the House Appropriations Committee — had placed holds on it over moves the Palestinian Authority had taken to seek membership in international organizations.Congressional holds are generally respected by the executive branch but are not legally binding after funds have been allocated.The Obama administration had for some time been pressing for the release of the money for the Palestinian Authority, which comes from the US Agency for International Development and is to be used for humanitarian aid in the West Bank and Gaza, to support political and security reforms as well as help prepare for good governance and the rule of law in a future Palestinian state, according to the notification sent to Congress.The $1.25 million for UN agencies is to be used as voluntary contributions to the UN Peacebuilding Fund; the UN Special Coordinator on improving the UN response to sexual exploitation and abuse; the Montreal Protocol Secretariat, which oversees the protection of the ozone layer; the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights; and the UN System Staff College.The $4 million for climate programs includes assistance for clean energy, sustainable landscapes, cutting greenhouse gas emissions and creating a climate technology center.The last-minute allocation also contained $1.05 million in funding for the State Department’s Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan office and the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs.The Palestinian funding is likely to draw anger from some in Congress as well as the Trump White House. Trump has vowed to be a strong supporter of Israel and has invited Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to visit Washington next month.He has also pledged to move the US Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, although White House spokesman Sean Spicer said Monday a final decision on that had yet to be made. Despite speculation in Israel that an announcement of the move is imminent, Spicer said the decision-making process is only in its very early stages.“If it was already a decision, then we wouldn’t be going through a process,” Spicer told reporters.
It is the time for responsible, wise diplomacy, with friends'-After 8 years of ‘enormous pressure,’ Netanyahu cheers Trump’s ‘change of approach’-PM says US president shares his belief that Iran nuclear deal is ‘bad,’ warns coalition partners against ‘knee-jerk reactions’ or ‘surprises’-By Marissa Newman January 23, 2017, 4:41 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday hailed US President Donald Trump for ushering in a “change of approach” in the White House after eight years of “enormous pressure” from former president Barack Obama.Speaking to a meeting of his Likud faction a day after his first phone call with Trump, Netanyahu said the US president, like him, believes the Iran deal is “bad,” and that peace with the Palestinians will only be achieved through direct talks. He also reiterated that the call was “very warm,” and confirmed the two would meet in Washington early next month.“After eight years in which I withstood enormous pressure on various issues, primarily Iran and the settlements, I certainly welcome the change of approach,” Netanyahu said.“President Trump believes that peace will only be achieved through direct negotiations. Does that sound familiar?” said Netanyahu. “He spoke to me at length about the threat from Iran. He also believes the nuclear deal with Iran is a bad deal. That certainly must ring a bell.”In his remarks, Netanyahu also indirectly took aim at his right-wing coalition partners for advancing a bid to annex the settlement of Ma’ale Adumim, saying that “now is not the time for surprises.”“We are facing great and significant opportunities for the security and future of the State of Israel. But they demand responsibility and discretion so that we don’t squander either the time or the opportunity,” he said. “Now is not the time for knee-jerk reactions, not the time for dictates, and also not the time for surprises.”“It is the time for responsible, wise diplomacy, with friends, diplomacy that will strengthen the coordination and trust between Israel and the new administration in Washington,” the prime minister said.“Therefore, for the benefit of the State of Israel and the settlements, I suggest putting aside any other considerations and letting me lead,” he said.The cabinet on Sunday unanimously agreed to push off a vote on annexing the settlement of Ma’ale Adumim until after Netanyahu and Trump meet. The proposal was made by Jewish Home leader Naftali Bennett, who has long proposed that Israel annex Area C (the parts of the West Bank under Israeli civilian and military control, in which the bulk of the Israeli settlements are located) and extend a type of semi-autonomy to Palestinians in the rest of the territory, arguing that the creation of a Palestinian state in that area poses a threat to Israel’s existence.According to reports, Netanyahu during Sunday’s cabinet meeting said he would remove all political obstacles to building in East Jerusalem and soon announce a construction boom in the settlement blocs. That pledge was reportedly what tipped Bennett to agree to delay the annexation proposal.Since the US election, Bennett and his Jewish Home party have called the entrance of Trump to the White House the death knell of the two-state solution.Speaking shortly before Netanyahu at the Jewish Home faction meeting, Bennett on Monday called the presidency of Donald Trump a “once-in-50-year opportunity.”“We give the prime minister full backing to act with courage and determination,” he said. “There is a view that holds that we need to continue to maneuver and defend ourselves. We think we should initiate and act.”The delay of the vote on the Ma’ale Adumim annexation bill also earned Netanyahu some rare praise from opposition leader Isaac Herzog.“The prime minister was correct not to give in to the demands of the radical right to tear everything apart and make irresponsible unilateral moves toward annexation,” Herzog said in his Zionist Union faction meeting on Monday.
You could not turn a corner in Germany without finding someone there against their will'-Researchers uncover vast numbers of unknown Nazi killing fields-The ‘Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos,’ set for completion in 2025, has now documented 42,500 sites of Nazi persecution — over eight times more than predicted. And the number keeps on rising-By Noah Lederman January 25, 2017, 4:05 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
MUNICH — In 2000, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC, tasked researchers with creating a comprehensive, single-source record that would accurately document the thousands of persecution sites the Nazis had established. The USHMM estimated that the team would uncover about 5,000 persecution sites, which would include forced labor camps, military brothels, ghettos, POW camps, and concentration camps.But as the research got underway that number skyrocketed.In 2001, the number had doubled. A few years after that, researchers had already discovered 20,000 sites. Now, the “Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos, 1933-1945” contains more than 42,500 sites that the Nazis used to persecute, exploit, and murder their victims.“But quite frankly, you could put it much higher than that,” said Geoffrey Megargee, the project leader, who has coordinated the publication of the first two books of the seven-book series. The final encyclopedia book will be published in 2025.“You could not turn a corner in Germany [during the war]… without finding someone there against their will,” said Megargee.For Megargee, counting the sites was one of the main challenges of the project. For example, there were camps that changed purposes over time and brothels that existed within camps. To err on the side of caution, sites like these were counted only once. Researchers also refrained from counting sub-camps, of which there were tens of thousands.For researchers to conclude that a site had existed, they could not just rely on one person’s testimony. It was imperative that multiple witness testimonies and official documents corroborated each other in order for a site to make the series.Because a gap of more than half a century existed between when the last camp was liberated and when the project began, one can only imagine how many sites will remain forever unrecorded. Not only were records and testimonies destroyed or lost during and after the war, they were also in a myriad of languages, or hidden by embarrassed, indifferent or unapologetic parties. Some were taken to graves by witnesses and victims who had died before the new millennium.Still, the number of persecution sites discovered was more than eight times that which experts at the USHMM — the vanguard for Holocaust research — had predicted.Perhaps, however, it was only possible to reach this shocking figure precisely because of the passage of time — for time brought to the project an element that nobody had foretold.-Skeletons in the closet-When Hermann F. Weiss decided to dig into his family’s past in 2001, his siblings had disapproved. His brother told him that there was already enough written about the Holocaust. Weiss disagreed.“My family was anxious,” Weiss admitted. “They were afraid I would discover things about my father that were terrible.”His father, whom Weiss describes as an “accomplice,” was an engineer overseeing the construction of infrastructure for Schmidding, a German missile development company. Weiss needed answers. His father’s role during the war had haunted him.Weiss had even moved to the United States partly as a way to escape this familial and national burden, but the weight crossed the Atlantic with him. He felt depressed and ashamed. The only thing that Weiss saw as a reasonable response was “to give voice to the many unknown [victims].”He focused his research on Silesia, a region that spans parts of Poland, Germany, and what is today the Czech Republic. Silesia was where his father had worked for Schmidding and it was where, in 1944, Weiss had spent the seven happiest months of his childhood because “there was no bombing.”But investigating the atrocities in Silesia seemed to have no starting point. “Most historians do not touch [these sites],” he said, “because there are too few war-time documents.”-‘My family was afraid I would discover things about my father that were terrible’-After pouring through this limited number of documents and survivor memoirs, Weiss frequently turned to a practice despised by those forced to use it: cold calling. For example, he had read a memoir about a forced labor camp in Silesia that accused a commander named Kurt Pompe of barbaric acts. Weiss had learned that the first name of Pompe’s youngest son was Herbert. He found six Herbert Pompes in the German online phone directory, and his second call was answered by Kurt Pompe’s daughter-in-law.The conversation revealed a number of things, including where and when Kurt Pompe had died. This fact allowed Weiss to uncover Pompe’s denazification file, which showed that the Americans had been unaware of Pompe’s crimes. Weiss set the record straight in a Yad Vashem publication, and, in much briefer terms, in encyclopedia entries for camps where Pompe had committed his crimes.“The encyclopedia entries have to be very condensed,” Weiss explained, a hint of regret in his voice.Weiss’s research helped him to produce about two dozen entries on forced labor camps in Silesia for the encyclopedia series. Prior to his digging, most sites had little information published about them. Six sites, in fact, had never been written about before and were Weiss’s very own discoveries.And yet some of Weiss’s most indelible memories from his research have no place in the encyclopedia.-‘The seeming insignificance of it was so significant’-For instance, on a trip to Silesia, Hermann Weiss discovered one undocumented persecution site that appeared as it would have days after the arrival of Soviet troops. Villager testimonies allowed Weiss to locate six unmarked graves, where three Poles and three Jews who had been murdered were buried. Four of the six mounds were still visible. There was no space in the encyclopedia to tell these stories. But like the specter of his father’s work, it was these stories that gnawed at him.“The seeming insignificance of it,” Weiss explained, “was so significant.”-Dining with a murderer-Katherina von Kellenbach had grown up referring to Alfred Ebner as her uncle. Yet when the family got together with Ebner after World War II, his presence at the table never sat quite right with von Kellenbach.Ebner had been responsible for setting up, running, and orchestrating the mass killings of more than 20,000 Jews in Pinsk, where 86% of ghetto residents were women and children. After the war, when the courts pursued top Nazis, Ebner was granted clemency, having been diagnosed with a form of dementia.But at the family table, he seemed perfectly fine to von Kellenbach. In fact, the other family members had viewed Ebner as the victim. They considered that it was Ebner who had suffered because of these so-called unfounded accusations.If the courts would not hold Ebner accountable and if Belarus had no public memory of these atrocities, von Kellenbach decided that she would investigate.In 1999, she began her inquiry into her uncle’s past, visiting the Yad Vashem archive to gather data on Pinsk. But many documents were in Hebrew or other languages foreign to her. She needed help making sense of things. When she learned of a survivor from Pinsk who could be of assistance, she hesitated.“It was hard to call up some survivor and say ‘I’m the niece of Alfred Ebner,’” she said. But that’s just what she did, and for two days she and survivor Nahum Boneh sat at his kitchen table with all of the documents, unpacking Ebner’s crimes.For years, von Kellenbach worked to rescue documents trapped in other countries’ archives and at times had to run a cloak-and-dagger research operation. Since authorities would never have allowed her to conduct an unfettered investigation on a well-known perpetrator from the Pinsk region, she pretended to research partisans stationed in the vicinity of Pinsk. This gave her access.Her family cast a hostile eye on her work. But the research whittled at the lies, and Ebner’s credibility in the family weakened. For the most part, everyone stopped protesting her efforts, though Ebner’s children continued to view their father “as a good man, who helped many people,” said von Kellenbach.-‘There’s no way you walk out from the archive at 5:00 p.m. as a human being’-During one session with the documents, von Kellenbach had discovered writings in which a police officer under her uncle’s command complained about not knowing whether he should kill the child before the mother, or vice versa. On the day in question, Ebner had orchestrated the murders of more than 7,000 people.“There’s no way you walk out [from the archive] at 5:00 p.m. as a human being,” von Kellenbach said after reading those documents.-Time is on our side-The researchers are far more diverse than the relatives of perpetrators and accomplices. While the project has many dyed-in-the-wool historians on board, there are researchers who survived one or more of the 42,500 sites, as well as the descendants of survivors.Hannah Fischthal, for example, researched sites where her uncles had been imprisoned. Her work has helped to debunk inaccuracies. Karwin is a camp where her uncle had been imprisoned. It had always been considered a POW camp because of how it was characterized in a documentary film about an Italian prisoner. But Fischthal proved that Karwin was, in fact, a predominantly Jewish camp. The record was corrected and the Jewish victims were recently honored with a plaque at the site.Some researchers are finding camps in the way paleontologists might dig up dinosaurs. Now that the technology is available, forensic archaeologist Caroline Sturdy Colls has conducted ground-penetrating radar research near Adampol, where she has uncovered buried evidence that corroborated witness testimony and yielded new finds.Martin Dean, who worked as the series editor on the encyclopedia before leaving the museum and the project at the end of 2016, had originally been employed as a war crimes investigator with Scotland Yard. Dean had spent years building cases against perpetrators, but most yielded inadequate results — some former Nazis were excused because of poor health, others died before being brought to trial.While Dean’s expertise as an investigator was restricted by the courts, his acquired knowledge helped to correct the record for numerous previously unknown persecution sites, including some of the 300 ghettos that had never been documented before this project.-Bunker buster-About 14 kilometers (eight miles) north of Munich, is the town of Unterschleissheim. The entire area was once a persecution site, and researcher Max Strnand helped to document the Lohhof flax-retting plant, the camp that had once occupied these grounds.Besides the camp, Strnand explained, there was hardly anything in Unterschleissheim during the war. The location then only had a train line, a warehouse, and a tower, all of which still exist today: the train station is just down the road from where the warehouse and tower — now swathed in modern day advertisements — sit inside a locked compound.Because the land had been empty, the Nazis brought Jewish slaves and POWs to the fields to lay and dry out flax. The fibers from the stalk were then brought to the warehouse, where they would be stored as raw materials for linens.Before Strnand, there was no single source that told the story of the camp in Unterschleissheim and facts were scattered about like confetti after a hurricane. But Strnand patiently unearthed an entire history, including information about the prisoners, of which there were typically 200 at any one time.“We don’t know if people were executed here, but there were many accidents,” Strnand said. He noted, however, that only 10% of Jewish prisoners who came through Unterschleissheim survived the war, as the Jews from this camp were usually sent directly to extermination camps like Treblinka or Sobibor.-‘We don’t know if people were executed here, but there were many accidents’-“This topic is something that concerns everyone who lives here,” Strnand said, who now sees his book about Lohhof implemented into local schools’ history lessons. Prior to his book’s publication, most people in town had never known that a camp had existed.According to the city’s Head of Culture, Daniela Benker, there are plans to build a memorial site by 2018. But since the structures belonging to the former camp are behind a gate on private land, the aim is to build a memorial elsewhere — perhaps at the train station down the road — where it can be visible to the public.While Strnand walked the site, a truck approached the compound and the gate opened. He followed the truck inside and found a hulking electrician ending his day. Strnand introduced himself and asked permission to walk the grounds. The electrician pulled out a key that accessed a supply shed, a former Nazi bunker.The bunker looked like a typical storage shed; however, the reinforced roof that once provided additional safety against a bombing was still visible. What was most shocking was Strnand’s surprise. The researcher, who knew more about the camp than anyone else, was seeing the insides of this building for the very first time. Even the experts were still uncovering new facts about the hidden stories of the Holocaust.-The work is never done-The truth is much will remain unknown about the victims or the places that the Nazis used to dehumanize people and commit murder. But the encyclopedia series is the largest effort to most thoroughly document as many sites and include as much testimony as possible. When it is completed in 2025, many of the project’s researchers will still continue their work.-‘I keep collecting. I keep looking’-After Hermann Weiss finished correcting the record on Kurt Pompe, the Nazi from Silesia, he looked into the records of other criminals never brought to justice. Weiss came across hundreds of testimonies about a man named Hauschild, one of the most sadistic perpetrators in the Silesia region. Despite the accounts and accusations against Hauschild, the man remains Weiss’s greatest puzzle. Weiss cannot connect him to any particular Nazi organization and thus cannot condemn the man or his record accurately.“I keep collecting. I keep looking,” Weiss said. “This is an example of how so many things about the Holocaust might be unknown forever… [The encyclopedia] will provide some basis for further work.”Noah Lederman is the author of the memoir, ‘A World Erased: A Grandson’s Search for His Family’s Holocaust Secrets,’ published February 7 by Rowman & Littlefield.
28 And when these things begin to come to pass,(ALL THE PROPHECY SIGNS FROM THE BIBLE) then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption (RAPTURE) draweth nigh.
29 And he spake to them a parable; Behold the fig tree,(ISRAEL) and all the trees;(ALL INDEPENDENT COUNTRIES)
30 When they now shoot forth, ye see and know of your own selves that summer is now nigh at hand.(ISRAEL LITERALLY BECAME AND INDEPENDENT COUNTRY JUST BEFORE SUMMER IN MAY 14,1948.)
JOEL 2:3,30
3 A fire devoureth (ATOMIC BOMB) before them;(RUSSIAN-ARAB-MUSLIM ARMIES AGAINST ISRAEL) and behind them a flame burneth: the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them.
30 And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke.(ATOMIC BOMB AFFECT)
ZECHARIAH 14:12-13
12 And this shall be the plague wherewith the LORD will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem; Their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet,(DISOLVED FROM ATOMIC BOMB) and their eyes shall consume away in their holes,(DISOLVED FROM ATOMIC BOMB) and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth.(DISOLVED FROM ATOMIC BOMB)(BECAUSE NUKES HAVE BEEN USED ON ISRAELS ENEMIES)(GOD PROTECTS ISRAEL AND ALWAYS WILL)
13 And it shall come to pass in that day, that a great tumult from the LORD shall be among them; and they shall lay hold every one on the hand of his neighbour, and his hand shall rise up against the hand of his neighbour.(1/2-3 BILLION DIE IN WW3)(THIS IS AN ATOMIC BOMB EFFECT)
EZEKIEL 20:47
47 And say to the forest of the south, Hear the word of the LORD; Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will kindle a fire in thee, and it shall devour every green tree in thee, and every dry tree: the flaming flame shall not be quenched, and all faces from the south to the north shall be burned therein.
ZEPHANIAH 1:18
18 Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of the LORD'S wrath; but the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of his jealousy: for he shall make even a speedy riddance of all them that dwell in the land.
MALACHI 4:1
1 For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven;(FROM ATOMIC BOMBS) and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.
And here are the bounderies of the land that Israel will inherit either through war or peace or God in the future. God says its Israels land and only Israels land. They will have every inch God promised them of this land in the future.
Egypt east of the Nile River, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, The southern part of Turkey and the Western Half of Iraq west of the Euphrates. Gen 13:14-15, Psm 105:9,11, Gen 15:18, Exe 23:31, Num 34:1-12, Josh 1:4.ALL THIS LAND ISRAEL WILL DEFINATELY OWN IN THE FUTURE, ITS ISRAELS NOT ISHMAELS LAND.12 TRIBES INHERIT LAND IN THE FUTURE
Arab League accuses Israel of showing ‘contempt’ via settlements-Group’s head Ahmed Aboul Gheit says Jerusalem is ‘causing all efforts to implement the two-state solution to fail’-By AFP and Times of Israel staff January 25, 2017, 3:59 pm
The Arab League on Wednesday condemned Israel’s announcement of new settlements the day before as a sign of “contempt” for the international community and an obstacle to peace.Israel on Tuesday approved 2,500 new homes in the West Bank in a major expansion of settlement construction following the election of US President Donald Trump.The settlements are seen as illegal under international law and critics label them as a major stumbling block to peace as they are built on land the Palestinians want for their own state.Tuesday’s announcement “confirms the Israeli government’s approach, which is full of contempt and defiance for the will of the international (community),” the head of the Cairo-based Arab League, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, said in a statement.The statement accused Israel of “causing all efforts to implement the two-state solution to fail.” It also suggested Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government feels “strengthened” by “recent international developments,” in an apparent reference to Trump taking the reins at the White House.The move has already drawn widespread international criticism. The Palestinians quickly condemned the announcement, calling it “land theft and colonialism.”“Such a deliberate escalation of Israel’s illegal settlement enterprise constitutes a war crime and the flagrant violation of international law and conventions, in particular UN Security Council resolution 2334,” said PLO Executive Committee member Dr. Hanan Ashrawi, referring to an anti-settlements UN decision passed last month.The European Union also responded critically, branding the announcement a “regrettable” move that would further undermine prospects of negotiating regional peace agreement.The United Nations echoed the EU in denouncing Israeli initiatives to accelerate settlement construction in Palestinian-claimed territory, stressing that “unilateral actions” are an obstacle to peace based on a two-state solution.Trump has signaled strong support for Israel, and Israeli right-wing politicians have sought to take advantage of this, with hardliners calling for an end to the idea of a Palestinian state.In a stark departure from previous US rhetoric, the US did not condemn Tuesday’s announcement, with White House press secretary Sean Spicer saying during Tuesday’s daily press briefing that “we’re going to have a meeting with Prime Minister Netanyahu and we’ll continue to discuss that.”“Israel continues to be a huge ally of the United States, [Trump] wants to grow closer with Israel, to make sure that it gets the full respect that it deserves in the Middle East,” Spicer added.
New settlement homes are just a ‘taste,’ Netanyahu tells MKs-‘We are going to be doing many things differently from now on,’ the prime minister says a day after Israel approves2,500 West Bank homes-By Raoul Wootliff January 25, 2017, 4:09 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday that the 2,500 new West Bank settlement homes approved a day earlier were just a “taste” of things to come now that Barack Obama is no longer US president.Speaking at the annual Prime Minister’s Questions session in the Knesset, Netanyahu said the move came after eight years in which Israel “suffered” from Obama’s “not-one-brick policy,” referring to claims the prime minister has made in the past that the US administration told him it would oppose all new building beyond the Green Line.“And we are not talking about outposts or even settlement blocs,” Netanyahu told the plenary, “we are talking about here, in Jerusalem. They wouldn’t let us build here either.”But, the prime minister said, “We are leaving the period. This building [approval] was a taste. We are going to be doing many things differently from now on,” he said.Netanyahu was taking questions from lawmakers in the Knesset plenum as part of the Question Time format introduced in Israel’s parliament last year. Under the procedure, opposition MKs can choose 10 ministers, including the prime minister, to answer questions once during the legislative year.Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman announced on Tuesday that Israel had approved the construction of approximately 2,500 homes in the West Bank, most of them in existing settlement blocs it hopes to keep in any peace deal with the Palestinians.The decision came two days after a Jerusalem planning committee approved the construction of 566 housing units in East Jerusalem, and on the heels of a phone conversation Sunday between Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump, in which the two discussed their plans for the region.Asked at Tuesday’s daily press briefing for a response to Israel’s announcement, White House press secretary Sean Spicer neither approved nor condemned the decision, saying that Trump would discuss the matter when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visits Washington next month.“We’re going to have a meeting with Prime Minister Netanyahu and we’ll continue to discuss that,” he said. “Israel continues to be a huge ally of the United States, he wants to grow closer with Israel, to make sure that it gets the full respect that it deserves in the Middle East.”The statement marked a dramatic break from the policy of Obama, who routinely castigated Israel for building in such areas.Most of the housing units will be built in the large settlement areas, notably in the city of Ariel and in Givat Ze’ev, outside Jerusalem. But some will also go up in settlements outside the larger blocs, due to prior agreements and court decisions.“We’re building — and will continue to build,” Netanyahu said following the approval.Palestinians quickly condemned the announcement, calling it “land theft and colonialism.”In total, 2,502 housing units were approved for construction in settlements across the West Bank, with most in the north.In the northern West Bank, 899 will be built in the city of Ariel, 292 in the Zufim settlement, 166 in Emanuel, 154 in Oranit, 81 in Etz Efraim, 78 in Alfei Menashe, 18 in Elkana and six in Shaare Tikva, the defense minister’s office said.In the Jerusalem area, some 652 housing units were approved for the Givat Ze’ev settlement, 104 in Ma’ale Adumim and four in Har Gilo.In the Etzion settlement bloc, 21 homes were approved for Efrat, and the defense minister okayed 87 housing units for the Beitar Illit settlement, outside Bethlehem.Outside the larger settlement areas, Liberman and Netanyahu allowed the construction of 86 homes for the former residents of the evacuated Migron settlement, who now live in the Yekev neighborhood of the Kochav Ya’akov settlement, south of Ramallah. The approval was granted in accordance with an agreement between the government and Migron residents.In addition, 20 homes were approved in the Beit El settlement, north of Ramallah, as part of a High Court of Justice decision, the defense minister said.— Judah Ari Gross contributed to this report.
EU 'mumbles and grumbles' on Israeli settlements By Andrew Rettman-JAN 25,17-EUOBSERVER
BRUSSELS, Today, 10:56-EU “regret” on Israel’s new settlement surge will be seen as empty “mumbling and grumbling” in the Donald Trump era, diplomats say.The EU foreign service on Tuesday (24 January) said it was “regrettable that Israel is proceeding with this policy, despite the continuous serious international concern and objections”.It added that settlement expansions “seriously undermine the prospects for a viable two-state solution” and were “illegal under international law”.The EU spoke after Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave the green light to almost 3,100 new housing units for Jewish settlers in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, which Israel won by conquest in 1967.Over half a million settlers now live on Palestinian land, which is being sliced into isolated chunks as the Jewish towns and outposts spread.Netanyahu’s announcement briefly deflected Israeli media attention from a corruption scandal that could see him pushed out of office.It was also designed to please far-right elements in his Likud party and in the Jewish Home party in the ruling coalition, which wants to "annex" vast swathes of Palestinian land.The 3,100 new homes, described by the Palestinian Authority as a “provocation”, were also greeted as a “disappointment” by the Yesha Council, a settler group, which had wanted a higher number.-Trump pro-Israel-The new wave of expansion comes after the election of Donald Trump in the US, a pro-Israeli hawk, who has said he might move the US embassy from Tel Aviv, Israel’s UN-recognised capital, to Jerusalem, which is claimed by both Israel and Palestine, and which the EU and UN say ought to be shared.Netanyahu will meet Trump in Washington in early February if the Israeli leader survives the corruption affair.But if the US, Israel’s main financial and security sponsor, gives it a free hand to keep snatching Palestinian land, then EU statements, like the one on Tuesday, will be seen by Israel as little more than “mumbling and grumbling”, a European diplomatic source told EUobserver.The EU last year published new retail label guidelines designed to stigmatise settler products in European shops.But EU foreign relations chief Federica Mogherini is not working on any further measures and has quashed calls by EU states’ ambassadors in Palestine to take a tougher line, diplomatic sources said.Aalon Ben Meir, a scholar of Middle East affairs at New York University, told EUobserver that if Trump went ahead with the Jerusalem embassy idea, then the “EU should raise its voice loud and clear, as this will potentially create major turmoil throughout the Middle East [and] kill whatever is left of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process”.He advised the EU to hold off on any potential “sanctions” on Israel until Trump clarified his intentions.He added that the EU’s voice still “resonated to some extent” in Israel and that if it went further on settlement expansion, then Europe must “put Israel on notice that these activities … can potentially create a new wave of violence” in the region.
Kerry informed some lawmakers of the move just before he left State Dep't for last time-US released $221 million to Palestinians in Obama’s last hours-Officials say outgoing administration defied GOP opposition, sent funds to PA that had been blocked in Congress-By Matthew Lee and Richard Lardner January 24, 2017, 12:39 am-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
WASHINGTON (AP) — Officials say the Obama administration in its waning hours defied Republican opposition and quietly released $221 million to the Palestinian Authority that GOP members of Congress had been blocking.A State Department official and several congressional aides said the outgoing administration formally notified Congress it would spend the money Friday morning. The official said former Secretary of State John Kerry had informed some lawmakers of the move shortly before he left the State Department for the last time Thursday. The aides said written notification dated Jan. 20 was sent to Congress just hours before Donald Trump took the oath of office.In addition to the $221 million for the Palestinians, the Obama administration also told Congress on Friday it was going ahead with the release of another $6 million in foreign affairs spending, including $4 million for climate change programs and $1.25 million for UN organizations, the congressional aides said. The aides and the State Department official weren’t authorized to speak publicly on the matter and demanded anonymity.Congress had initially approved the Palestinian funding in budget years 2015 and 2016, but at least two GOP lawmakers — Ed Royce of California, the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and Kay Granger of Texas, who sits on the House Appropriations Committee — had placed holds on it over moves the Palestinian Authority had taken to seek membership in international organizations.Congressional holds are generally respected by the executive branch but are not legally binding after funds have been allocated.The Obama administration had for some time been pressing for the release of the money for the Palestinian Authority, which comes from the US Agency for International Development and is to be used for humanitarian aid in the West Bank and Gaza, to support political and security reforms as well as help prepare for good governance and the rule of law in a future Palestinian state, according to the notification sent to Congress.The $1.25 million for UN agencies is to be used as voluntary contributions to the UN Peacebuilding Fund; the UN Special Coordinator on improving the UN response to sexual exploitation and abuse; the Montreal Protocol Secretariat, which oversees the protection of the ozone layer; the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights; and the UN System Staff College.The $4 million for climate programs includes assistance for clean energy, sustainable landscapes, cutting greenhouse gas emissions and creating a climate technology center.The last-minute allocation also contained $1.05 million in funding for the State Department’s Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan office and the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs.The Palestinian funding is likely to draw anger from some in Congress as well as the Trump White House. Trump has vowed to be a strong supporter of Israel and has invited Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to visit Washington next month.He has also pledged to move the US Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, although White House spokesman Sean Spicer said Monday a final decision on that had yet to be made. Despite speculation in Israel that an announcement of the move is imminent, Spicer said the decision-making process is only in its very early stages.“If it was already a decision, then we wouldn’t be going through a process,” Spicer told reporters.
It is the time for responsible, wise diplomacy, with friends'-After 8 years of ‘enormous pressure,’ Netanyahu cheers Trump’s ‘change of approach’-PM says US president shares his belief that Iran nuclear deal is ‘bad,’ warns coalition partners against ‘knee-jerk reactions’ or ‘surprises’-By Marissa Newman January 23, 2017, 4:41 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday hailed US President Donald Trump for ushering in a “change of approach” in the White House after eight years of “enormous pressure” from former president Barack Obama.Speaking to a meeting of his Likud faction a day after his first phone call with Trump, Netanyahu said the US president, like him, believes the Iran deal is “bad,” and that peace with the Palestinians will only be achieved through direct talks. He also reiterated that the call was “very warm,” and confirmed the two would meet in Washington early next month.“After eight years in which I withstood enormous pressure on various issues, primarily Iran and the settlements, I certainly welcome the change of approach,” Netanyahu said.“President Trump believes that peace will only be achieved through direct negotiations. Does that sound familiar?” said Netanyahu. “He spoke to me at length about the threat from Iran. He also believes the nuclear deal with Iran is a bad deal. That certainly must ring a bell.”In his remarks, Netanyahu also indirectly took aim at his right-wing coalition partners for advancing a bid to annex the settlement of Ma’ale Adumim, saying that “now is not the time for surprises.”“We are facing great and significant opportunities for the security and future of the State of Israel. But they demand responsibility and discretion so that we don’t squander either the time or the opportunity,” he said. “Now is not the time for knee-jerk reactions, not the time for dictates, and also not the time for surprises.”“It is the time for responsible, wise diplomacy, with friends, diplomacy that will strengthen the coordination and trust between Israel and the new administration in Washington,” the prime minister said.“Therefore, for the benefit of the State of Israel and the settlements, I suggest putting aside any other considerations and letting me lead,” he said.The cabinet on Sunday unanimously agreed to push off a vote on annexing the settlement of Ma’ale Adumim until after Netanyahu and Trump meet. The proposal was made by Jewish Home leader Naftali Bennett, who has long proposed that Israel annex Area C (the parts of the West Bank under Israeli civilian and military control, in which the bulk of the Israeli settlements are located) and extend a type of semi-autonomy to Palestinians in the rest of the territory, arguing that the creation of a Palestinian state in that area poses a threat to Israel’s existence.According to reports, Netanyahu during Sunday’s cabinet meeting said he would remove all political obstacles to building in East Jerusalem and soon announce a construction boom in the settlement blocs. That pledge was reportedly what tipped Bennett to agree to delay the annexation proposal.Since the US election, Bennett and his Jewish Home party have called the entrance of Trump to the White House the death knell of the two-state solution.Speaking shortly before Netanyahu at the Jewish Home faction meeting, Bennett on Monday called the presidency of Donald Trump a “once-in-50-year opportunity.”“We give the prime minister full backing to act with courage and determination,” he said. “There is a view that holds that we need to continue to maneuver and defend ourselves. We think we should initiate and act.”The delay of the vote on the Ma’ale Adumim annexation bill also earned Netanyahu some rare praise from opposition leader Isaac Herzog.“The prime minister was correct not to give in to the demands of the radical right to tear everything apart and make irresponsible unilateral moves toward annexation,” Herzog said in his Zionist Union faction meeting on Monday.
You could not turn a corner in Germany without finding someone there against their will'-Researchers uncover vast numbers of unknown Nazi killing fields-The ‘Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos,’ set for completion in 2025, has now documented 42,500 sites of Nazi persecution — over eight times more than predicted. And the number keeps on rising-By Noah Lederman January 25, 2017, 4:05 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
MUNICH — In 2000, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC, tasked researchers with creating a comprehensive, single-source record that would accurately document the thousands of persecution sites the Nazis had established. The USHMM estimated that the team would uncover about 5,000 persecution sites, which would include forced labor camps, military brothels, ghettos, POW camps, and concentration camps.But as the research got underway that number skyrocketed.In 2001, the number had doubled. A few years after that, researchers had already discovered 20,000 sites. Now, the “Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos, 1933-1945” contains more than 42,500 sites that the Nazis used to persecute, exploit, and murder their victims.“But quite frankly, you could put it much higher than that,” said Geoffrey Megargee, the project leader, who has coordinated the publication of the first two books of the seven-book series. The final encyclopedia book will be published in 2025.“You could not turn a corner in Germany [during the war]… without finding someone there against their will,” said Megargee.For Megargee, counting the sites was one of the main challenges of the project. For example, there were camps that changed purposes over time and brothels that existed within camps. To err on the side of caution, sites like these were counted only once. Researchers also refrained from counting sub-camps, of which there were tens of thousands.For researchers to conclude that a site had existed, they could not just rely on one person’s testimony. It was imperative that multiple witness testimonies and official documents corroborated each other in order for a site to make the series.Because a gap of more than half a century existed between when the last camp was liberated and when the project began, one can only imagine how many sites will remain forever unrecorded. Not only were records and testimonies destroyed or lost during and after the war, they were also in a myriad of languages, or hidden by embarrassed, indifferent or unapologetic parties. Some were taken to graves by witnesses and victims who had died before the new millennium.Still, the number of persecution sites discovered was more than eight times that which experts at the USHMM — the vanguard for Holocaust research — had predicted.Perhaps, however, it was only possible to reach this shocking figure precisely because of the passage of time — for time brought to the project an element that nobody had foretold.-Skeletons in the closet-When Hermann F. Weiss decided to dig into his family’s past in 2001, his siblings had disapproved. His brother told him that there was already enough written about the Holocaust. Weiss disagreed.“My family was anxious,” Weiss admitted. “They were afraid I would discover things about my father that were terrible.”His father, whom Weiss describes as an “accomplice,” was an engineer overseeing the construction of infrastructure for Schmidding, a German missile development company. Weiss needed answers. His father’s role during the war had haunted him.Weiss had even moved to the United States partly as a way to escape this familial and national burden, but the weight crossed the Atlantic with him. He felt depressed and ashamed. The only thing that Weiss saw as a reasonable response was “to give voice to the many unknown [victims].”He focused his research on Silesia, a region that spans parts of Poland, Germany, and what is today the Czech Republic. Silesia was where his father had worked for Schmidding and it was where, in 1944, Weiss had spent the seven happiest months of his childhood because “there was no bombing.”But investigating the atrocities in Silesia seemed to have no starting point. “Most historians do not touch [these sites],” he said, “because there are too few war-time documents.”-‘My family was afraid I would discover things about my father that were terrible’-After pouring through this limited number of documents and survivor memoirs, Weiss frequently turned to a practice despised by those forced to use it: cold calling. For example, he had read a memoir about a forced labor camp in Silesia that accused a commander named Kurt Pompe of barbaric acts. Weiss had learned that the first name of Pompe’s youngest son was Herbert. He found six Herbert Pompes in the German online phone directory, and his second call was answered by Kurt Pompe’s daughter-in-law.The conversation revealed a number of things, including where and when Kurt Pompe had died. This fact allowed Weiss to uncover Pompe’s denazification file, which showed that the Americans had been unaware of Pompe’s crimes. Weiss set the record straight in a Yad Vashem publication, and, in much briefer terms, in encyclopedia entries for camps where Pompe had committed his crimes.“The encyclopedia entries have to be very condensed,” Weiss explained, a hint of regret in his voice.Weiss’s research helped him to produce about two dozen entries on forced labor camps in Silesia for the encyclopedia series. Prior to his digging, most sites had little information published about them. Six sites, in fact, had never been written about before and were Weiss’s very own discoveries.And yet some of Weiss’s most indelible memories from his research have no place in the encyclopedia.-‘The seeming insignificance of it was so significant’-For instance, on a trip to Silesia, Hermann Weiss discovered one undocumented persecution site that appeared as it would have days after the arrival of Soviet troops. Villager testimonies allowed Weiss to locate six unmarked graves, where three Poles and three Jews who had been murdered were buried. Four of the six mounds were still visible. There was no space in the encyclopedia to tell these stories. But like the specter of his father’s work, it was these stories that gnawed at him.“The seeming insignificance of it,” Weiss explained, “was so significant.”-Dining with a murderer-Katherina von Kellenbach had grown up referring to Alfred Ebner as her uncle. Yet when the family got together with Ebner after World War II, his presence at the table never sat quite right with von Kellenbach.Ebner had been responsible for setting up, running, and orchestrating the mass killings of more than 20,000 Jews in Pinsk, where 86% of ghetto residents were women and children. After the war, when the courts pursued top Nazis, Ebner was granted clemency, having been diagnosed with a form of dementia.But at the family table, he seemed perfectly fine to von Kellenbach. In fact, the other family members had viewed Ebner as the victim. They considered that it was Ebner who had suffered because of these so-called unfounded accusations.If the courts would not hold Ebner accountable and if Belarus had no public memory of these atrocities, von Kellenbach decided that she would investigate.In 1999, she began her inquiry into her uncle’s past, visiting the Yad Vashem archive to gather data on Pinsk. But many documents were in Hebrew or other languages foreign to her. She needed help making sense of things. When she learned of a survivor from Pinsk who could be of assistance, she hesitated.“It was hard to call up some survivor and say ‘I’m the niece of Alfred Ebner,’” she said. But that’s just what she did, and for two days she and survivor Nahum Boneh sat at his kitchen table with all of the documents, unpacking Ebner’s crimes.For years, von Kellenbach worked to rescue documents trapped in other countries’ archives and at times had to run a cloak-and-dagger research operation. Since authorities would never have allowed her to conduct an unfettered investigation on a well-known perpetrator from the Pinsk region, she pretended to research partisans stationed in the vicinity of Pinsk. This gave her access.Her family cast a hostile eye on her work. But the research whittled at the lies, and Ebner’s credibility in the family weakened. For the most part, everyone stopped protesting her efforts, though Ebner’s children continued to view their father “as a good man, who helped many people,” said von Kellenbach.-‘There’s no way you walk out from the archive at 5:00 p.m. as a human being’-During one session with the documents, von Kellenbach had discovered writings in which a police officer under her uncle’s command complained about not knowing whether he should kill the child before the mother, or vice versa. On the day in question, Ebner had orchestrated the murders of more than 7,000 people.“There’s no way you walk out [from the archive] at 5:00 p.m. as a human being,” von Kellenbach said after reading those documents.-Time is on our side-The researchers are far more diverse than the relatives of perpetrators and accomplices. While the project has many dyed-in-the-wool historians on board, there are researchers who survived one or more of the 42,500 sites, as well as the descendants of survivors.Hannah Fischthal, for example, researched sites where her uncles had been imprisoned. Her work has helped to debunk inaccuracies. Karwin is a camp where her uncle had been imprisoned. It had always been considered a POW camp because of how it was characterized in a documentary film about an Italian prisoner. But Fischthal proved that Karwin was, in fact, a predominantly Jewish camp. The record was corrected and the Jewish victims were recently honored with a plaque at the site.Some researchers are finding camps in the way paleontologists might dig up dinosaurs. Now that the technology is available, forensic archaeologist Caroline Sturdy Colls has conducted ground-penetrating radar research near Adampol, where she has uncovered buried evidence that corroborated witness testimony and yielded new finds.Martin Dean, who worked as the series editor on the encyclopedia before leaving the museum and the project at the end of 2016, had originally been employed as a war crimes investigator with Scotland Yard. Dean had spent years building cases against perpetrators, but most yielded inadequate results — some former Nazis were excused because of poor health, others died before being brought to trial.While Dean’s expertise as an investigator was restricted by the courts, his acquired knowledge helped to correct the record for numerous previously unknown persecution sites, including some of the 300 ghettos that had never been documented before this project.-Bunker buster-About 14 kilometers (eight miles) north of Munich, is the town of Unterschleissheim. The entire area was once a persecution site, and researcher Max Strnand helped to document the Lohhof flax-retting plant, the camp that had once occupied these grounds.Besides the camp, Strnand explained, there was hardly anything in Unterschleissheim during the war. The location then only had a train line, a warehouse, and a tower, all of which still exist today: the train station is just down the road from where the warehouse and tower — now swathed in modern day advertisements — sit inside a locked compound.Because the land had been empty, the Nazis brought Jewish slaves and POWs to the fields to lay and dry out flax. The fibers from the stalk were then brought to the warehouse, where they would be stored as raw materials for linens.Before Strnand, there was no single source that told the story of the camp in Unterschleissheim and facts were scattered about like confetti after a hurricane. But Strnand patiently unearthed an entire history, including information about the prisoners, of which there were typically 200 at any one time.“We don’t know if people were executed here, but there were many accidents,” Strnand said. He noted, however, that only 10% of Jewish prisoners who came through Unterschleissheim survived the war, as the Jews from this camp were usually sent directly to extermination camps like Treblinka or Sobibor.-‘We don’t know if people were executed here, but there were many accidents’-“This topic is something that concerns everyone who lives here,” Strnand said, who now sees his book about Lohhof implemented into local schools’ history lessons. Prior to his book’s publication, most people in town had never known that a camp had existed.According to the city’s Head of Culture, Daniela Benker, there are plans to build a memorial site by 2018. But since the structures belonging to the former camp are behind a gate on private land, the aim is to build a memorial elsewhere — perhaps at the train station down the road — where it can be visible to the public.While Strnand walked the site, a truck approached the compound and the gate opened. He followed the truck inside and found a hulking electrician ending his day. Strnand introduced himself and asked permission to walk the grounds. The electrician pulled out a key that accessed a supply shed, a former Nazi bunker.The bunker looked like a typical storage shed; however, the reinforced roof that once provided additional safety against a bombing was still visible. What was most shocking was Strnand’s surprise. The researcher, who knew more about the camp than anyone else, was seeing the insides of this building for the very first time. Even the experts were still uncovering new facts about the hidden stories of the Holocaust.-The work is never done-The truth is much will remain unknown about the victims or the places that the Nazis used to dehumanize people and commit murder. But the encyclopedia series is the largest effort to most thoroughly document as many sites and include as much testimony as possible. When it is completed in 2025, many of the project’s researchers will still continue their work.-‘I keep collecting. I keep looking’-After Hermann Weiss finished correcting the record on Kurt Pompe, the Nazi from Silesia, he looked into the records of other criminals never brought to justice. Weiss came across hundreds of testimonies about a man named Hauschild, one of the most sadistic perpetrators in the Silesia region. Despite the accounts and accusations against Hauschild, the man remains Weiss’s greatest puzzle. Weiss cannot connect him to any particular Nazi organization and thus cannot condemn the man or his record accurately.“I keep collecting. I keep looking,” Weiss said. “This is an example of how so many things about the Holocaust might be unknown forever… [The encyclopedia] will provide some basis for further work.”Noah Lederman is the author of the memoir, ‘A World Erased: A Grandson’s Search for His Family’s Holocaust Secrets,’ published February 7 by Rowman & Littlefield.
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