UNREPENTANT NAZI DRAWS PENSIONS FROM 3 COUNTRIES

Unrepentant Nazi, 84, calls Auschwitz a 'ten star hotel' and tells Dachau victim 'you survived well' (UK Daily Mail)
An unrepentant old Nazi officer who served in some of the worst concentration camps gives the Hitler salute in Spain where he has hidden from justice for over 60 years. Now Paul Maria Hafner is the subject of a TV documentary called "Hafner's Paradise" which chronicles his life in exile – and how he manages to draw pensions from three countries.

Operation Last Chance, the campaign to round up the last Nazis in Europe organised by the Simon Wiesenthal Centre in Israel, has him on their wanted list. Yet although Hafner, 84, continues to make outrageous statements that would put him behind bars in Germany or Austria, no government has sought to prosecute him.

He calls the death camp of Auschwitz, where 1.1 million Jews were murdered, "a ten star hotel" where "Jews were sent for their own protection. All that stuff about murder is Allied propaganda crap." Of Hitler he says: "I regard him as the greatest man who ever lived, the most important person in the history of the world." He said he gets out of bed every day to give the raised arm salute to his Fuehrer.

He agreed to a documentary being made on him "because I want to set the record straight about our ideals and our cause during the Third Reich." He admits he dreams of seeing a "Fourth Reich" in Germany adding: "I am only sorry I will not be around to see it."

After WWII, Hafner found asylum in Franco's Spain, protected from allegations of war crimes and surrounded by old comrades. This is why Spain is "paradise on earth" for him - a place that allows him to continue to nurture his fanaticism, and yet protects him from the scrutiny of international justice.

"No Jew was ever killed under Hitler for being a Jew," he said, refusing to elaborate on what he did when posted to the concentration camps of Buchenwald and Dachau in Germany.

Hafner is not being pursued actively by governments although Nazi war crime sleuths in Israel believe him guilty of atrocities in the two concentrations camps where he worked and on the Eastern Front where he served as a fighting SS man.

He draws three pensions because he qualifies for a war pension from Germany, an old age pension in Spain where he worked for many years as a pig farmer and one from Italy because it is the land of his birth.

Being a former concentration camp guard is not a barrier to receiving a German pension.

In the documentary, Hafner is brought face-to-face with a survivor from Dachau. You survived quite well," Hafner responds matter-of-factly after the Jewish victim recounts his painful memories.

According to Hafner there are hundreds like him in Spain.

Gunter Schwaiger, who filmed Hafner's Paradise, said: "He is in close contact with people who are indeed wanted or have been convicted in other countries because of their anti-Semitic actions and declarations, or because they have denied the existence of the Holocaust.

"Paul María Hafner is neither a Martian nor a diabolical being, but an apparently respectable gentleman living in a smart Madrid neighbourhood who, aged 84, might be taken for a congenial grandfather, filled with goodness and affection.

"The defeat of the Third Reich was an enormous trauma for Hafner, from which he has not yet recovered. His convictions have simply become firmer. He is not troubled by the accounts of the victims, or that National Socialism led the world to disaster. His fanaticism remains just as intact today as 60 years ago."

The film is due for release in the UK in the spring.

PRE-1492 JEWISH CEMETERY FOUND IN SPAIN

Pre-1492 cemetery found in Spain (JTA)
The bones of 158 people dating back to the Middle Ages or earlier discovered recently in what once was a Jewish cemetery in a small Spanish town were reburied. Full Story

U.N. "PEACEKEEPERS" AND LEBANESE ARMY WORKING WITH HEZBOLLAH

I'M SURE THE RESIDENTS OF NORTHERN ISRAEL FEEL SAFER ALREADY. THE NEXT TIME THE U.N. BROKERS A CEASEFIRE, I HOPE THAT ISRAEL WILL REMEMBER THAT NOT ONLY DO THEY FAIL TO ENFORCE THE PROMISES OF ISRAEL'S ENEMIES, THEY COLLABORATE WITH THEM. DISGUSTING AND SHAMEFUL.

Peacekeeping with Hizbullah's Help - Nicholas Blanford (TIME)
Some of the European contingents in the UN peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon are now seeking the cooperation of the Iran-backed Hizbullah to help protect them from al-Qaeda-inspired militants.

Since last month's bomb ambush that killed six Spanish and Colombian UNIFIL soldiers, there have been discreet contacts between some UNIFIL contingents and Hizbullah representatives, including at least one meeting involving Spanish UNIFIL officers. Furthermore, Hizbullah officials have met with Spanish diplomats in Beirut and the Madrid government is believed to have held talks with Iran, Hizbullah's patron, on the safety of its peacekeepers. At least one other European contingent enjoys regular direct contact with Hizbullah.

See also Shi'ites in the Lebanese Army Are Helping Hizbullah - Eliel Shahar (Israel Army Radio-Hebrew)
"Lebanese Army soldiers are assisting Hizbullah to introduce weapons into southern Lebanon," Israeli intelligence sources report. Some 40% of the Lebanese Army are Shi'ites who identify with Hizbullah and contribute to its strengthening, according to recent classified briefings in Jerusalem. UNIFIL forces have noted how Shi'ite soldiers of the Lebanese Army aid Hizbullah and they attribute this to family relationships between Hizbullah members and soldiers, and because many of them share a deep ideological tie.

POLL: EUROPEAN ANTI-SEMITISM ALIVE AND WELL

'Jews have too much sway in US policy' (JPost)
Many Europeans believe the Jews dictate US policy in the Mideast, wield disproportionate global economic influence and talk too much about the Holocaust, according to a report released Monday by the Anti-Defamation League.
The report's findings found that significant numbers of people in five European countries continue to hold anti-Jewish stereotypes, said Abraham Foxman, national director of the US group. "A large number of Europeans continue to be infected with anti-Jewish attitudes, holding on to classical anti-Jewish canards and conspiracy theories," Foxman said at a news conference where he presented the report.

The survey of 2,714 people in France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Poland found that 51 percent of respondents believed that Jews are more loyal to Israel than to the countries in which they live. In the Spanish sample, the figure was 60%. In France, only 39% agreed.

Foxman said the widely-held belief in dual allegiances was particularly troubling. "Disloyalty is a classical canard of anti-Semitism," Foxman said. "Hitler did not begin with Aryan supremacy. Hitler began with charging the Jews of not being good Germans, of selling out Germany for their own interest."

The statement that "Jews still talk too much about what happened to them in the Holocaust" was seen as "probably true" by 58% of poll respondents in Poland, where many of the World War II Nazi death camps were located. The average for the five countries polled was 47% in agreement.

Poles were also most likely to subscribe to another long-standing belief, with 39% of respondents there saying they somewhat agree or strongly agree that the Jews "are responsible for the death of Christ." Overall agreement with that statement was 20%.

An average of 44% across the countries surveyed said Jews "probably" have too much influence on international financial markets, while close to half believe that "American Jews control US policy in the Middle East," the report said.

Thirty-nine percent of those surveyed said they believed that Jews had too much power in the business world.

In each country surveyed, anti-Jewish stereotypes were more widely believed by those over 65 and those without a college education, the report said, adding that negative attitudes toward Jews had worsened in some areas and remained unchanged in others, compared to a similar survey in 2005.

Foxman said the results showed a "significant relationship" exists between attitudes to Jews and events in the Middle East.

On the Israeli-Arab conflict, a majority of respondents believed Israel had no right to use military force against Lebanon last summer after Hizbullah fighters kidnapped two Israeli soldiers, the report said.

Overall, a majority of respondents considered the Palestinian Islamic group Hamas a terrorist organization and supported withholding foreign aid to the coalition Palestinian government in which Hamas is a partner, until its leaders renounce violence against Israel and recognize its right to exist.

The survey was conducted by London-based Taylor Nelson Sofres from March 21 through April 16. The margin of error was 4 percentage points.

SPANISH TOWN SOUGHT TO MARK ISRAELI "GENOCIDE" AGAINST PALIS

'Palestinian Genocide Day' instead of Holocaust Day (YNet)
Spanish town near Madrid decides to cancel international Holocaust Remembrance Day in lieu of 'Day of Palestinian Genocide'. Last minute action by Israeli Embassy, Spanish officials leads town to cancel both

While the rest of Europe marked the UN-established International Holocaust Remembrance Day on January 27, a small town in Spain opted instead to commemorate the 'Day of Palestinian Genocide'. Ciempozuelos, a Madrid suburb home to less than 20,000 residents, announced that it would hold ceremonies and public events in honor of the 'genocide of the Palestinian people'.

Following the town's announcement Israel's Ambassador to Spain Victor Harel issued an urgent message to Ciempozeulos mayor Susana León, a member of the ruling Spanish Socialist Workers Party (PSOE), asking him to reconsider his decision. Harel also turned to Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs Miguel Moratinos and the PSOE secretary general.

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) publicly slammed the decision as "shameful." In an open letter to León the ADL wrote: "Applying the term 'genocide' to the Arab-Israeli conflict encourages hatred toward the State of Israel and deliberately insults those of us, both Jews and non-Jews, who seek to solemnly commemorate the victims of the Nazi campaign of slaughter."

The affair was covered extensively by the Spanish press. El Mundo, the country's largest daily newspaper, ran an editorial on the Ciempozeulos affair under the title – 'An insult to Israel'.

The coverage led to numerous Spanish citizens contacting the Israeli embassy to voice their support for Israel, while at the same time the Ciempozeulos administration was flooded by angry phone calls from outraged citizens.

Following the request of the Spanish Foreign Affairs Ministry the town eventually decided to cancel 'Palestinian Genocide Day' as well as choosing to forgo any of the original Holocaust ceremonies. Any trace of the affair was stricken from the town's official website.

"The pain does not only belong to one people," said Mayor León, adding that he was sorry for any distress that may have been caused.