HOW CAPTURE OF A NAZI SPY CHANGED THE COURSE OF WWII

Exposed: How capture of a Nazi spy changed the course of WWII

By The Associated Press


Tags: Nazi, World War II


Newly released British intelligence files reveal how a Nazi spy was snatched from a boat on the high seas before he could warn Germany that an Allied convoy was steaming ahead to invade North Africa.


It was a little-known episode that changed the course of World War II.

Gastao de Freitas Ferraz, the radio operator on a Portuguese cod-fishing vessel, was secretly feeding Germany information about the movements of Allied ships in the North Atlantic.
The story of his capture, a week before the invasion by U.S. and British forces, is contained in previously secret documents from the MI5 security service released Tuesday by Britain's National Archives.

Cambridge University historian Christopher Andrew said "the file changes our understanding of British history and offers new information on Britain's intelligence battle against the Nazis."

On Nov. 8, 1942, British and American troops under Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower landed in Morocco and Algeria, which were occupied by the troops from Germany and the pro-Nazi Vichy French regime.

The French forces were quickly overcome, but German troops under Gen. Erwin Rommel resisted and pushed the Allies back. After fierce armored desert battles lasting into 1943, the Germans were defeated. It was a turning point in the war that helped lay the groundwork for the D-Day invasion of 1944.

But all that might have changed if Freitas Ferraz had not been captured.

Portugal was neutral during the war, but the files reveal that in 1942 British spies had become suspicious of unnatural behavior by Portuguese fishing boats, including ones with elaborate communications equipment.

Freitas Ferraz's boat, the Gil Eannes, was searched while in port at St. John's, Newfoundland, and MI5 decided the radio operator should be arrested.

But the documents show the detention was bungled in a series of errors. A frustrated MI5 officer named H.P. Milmo said he wasted valuable time trying to find out which government department was responsible for Newfoundland, then a British colony.

Officials then searched in vain for powers under which to detain Freitas Ferraz. But by the time the confusion cleared the Gil Eannes had sailed for Portugal, and officials made the risky decision to intercept it at sea.

Freitas Ferraz was arrested in a daring mid-Atlantic raid by HMS Duke of York on Nov. 1, 1942, and taken to Gibraltar and then Britain for interrogation. The MI5 file includes a detailed first-person biographical statement and confession. Freitas Ferraz was being paid 15,000 escudos a month to report to the Germans on the movements of Allied naval convoys and air units. The file notes that his job provided the perfect cover.

MI5 agent Milmo, later a prosecutor at the Nuremberg trials and a High Court judge, reported that the Gil Eannes was intercepted by the Royal Navy and de Freitas Ferraz was arrested when the vessel was about to sail into one of the large convoys carrying the British and American forces which occupied North Africa a week or so later.

Andrew, who is writing the official history of MI5, said the Germans had been completely hoodwinked by British deception before the invasion and believed the Allies would land in France or Norway.

"This would not have worked if Gastao de Freitas Ferraz had not been captured because he was on the tail of [Gen. George] Patton's troops, and would have told the Germans where they were really going," Andrew said.

"[That] could have affected the outcome of the whole war," he added.

Freitas Ferraz was deported to Portugal in 1945. In 1953, his name was included on a list of deportees who no longer needed to be banned from Britain for security reasons. In 1955, his file was marked closed.

SHAME - (1)

So, here they are agin.

Once more they are back to defy our patience and to abuse of the civil liberties, to spread their hate.

Next Saturday a nazi gathering is about to take place, as it seems, at the Lisbon region (the location was not revealed, as usual, only a meeting point). Announced in advance in the internet, for this meeting is expected the presence of guests from others neo-nazi movements from America and Europe.

The gathering intends to celebrate the 4th. anniversary of the portuguese hammerskin section (chapter).

There is a certain irony in all this.

It was the violent actions of this group the reason of the police raids in the month of April 2007, that lead to the trial of 36 skinheads last year (October).

Then, authorities assured they had disbanded the group. As it seens they had done a very lousy job.

Really, this is a SHAME !!!

For those who can read portuguese there's a link to this in the daily newspaper Correio da Manhã, online edition : http://www.correiomanha.pt/noticia.aspx?contentid=F0EA90F8-5B20-423A-A844-1DA9BE7253B2&channelid=00000010-0000-0000-0000-000000000010

SLAVE LABOUR UNDER THE THIRD REICH

German government pays for shocking Holocaust survivor testimonies to be published online

By Allan Hall


The videotaped testimony of Nazi slaves has been published online for historians and students to learn of their ordeal.

Six hundred forced labourers pressed into the service of the Third Reich’s war machine give their testimony in a multi-million pound project paid for by the German government.

They form a small part of the 12million enslaved by the Nazis to toil for the state while Germany’s male population fought in the armed services.

The Nazis were different from other slave-owning societies, like the ancient Romans or the plantation owners of the deep south in America, in that their slaves were not valued commodities but units to be abused, starved and often worked to death.

The 341 men and 249 women featured in the videos tell of working in concentration camps or munitions plants under gruelling conditions for little or no pay, miserable living conditions and exposure to hunger and disease.

'Their suffering should not be forgotten,' said Guenther Saathoff, the head of the Remembrance, Responsibility And Future foundation managing the £4.1billion fund.

Some 1.66million people from nearly 100 countries received compensation from a German government fund between 2001 and 2007.

Saathoff said the online video project was launched because the former forced labourers were seeking more than reparations.

'The victims did not want only money that was owed to them - they also wanted to tell about things that no one wanted to hear about for decades,' he said.

In one account, a Hungarian Jew called Henry Friedman in his 80s who has lived in Atlanta, Georgia, since the war's end said he was the only member of his family to survive the Holocaust.

Friedmann told of being beaten and how he was forced to work at a huge arms factory in Budapest in 1944, before he was assigned to transports for German troops fighting the Russians in the countryside.

'We were taken by the Germans to an outpost, and we were given orders that every day we would assemble at 3am and would climb the mountain and would be over there from between three till five, six the next morning,' he said.

'At that time, in the mountains, it was maybe 40 below zero. No clothing, not the right clothing. When we finished supplying the hot food, we brought down on stretchers the wounded or dead Germans to the base of the mountains. That would be our job.'

He said Jews suffered particularly brutal treatment among the workers.

'In case someone gets hurt, don't even ask for any kind of bandage or anything because you're a Jew - you're not entitled to - which meant that if you're lost or hurt, you have to freeze to death or bleed to death,' he said.

The documentary project began in 2005.

Survivors ranging in age from 65 to 98 were recorded on video primarily in Eastern Europe but also in the United States, Israel and South Africa.

A third of them, mostly Jews or Roma, were forced to work in concentration camps in particularly degrading and frequently life-threatening conditions.

A former slave labourer, Felix Kolmer, said the online archive would make increasingly rare personal accounts of the Nazi programme available to researchers, teachers and students.

'Victims will finally get the public recognition and attention for which they have often waited in vain over the last decades,' said Kolmer, who is also vice president of the International Auschwitz Committee, a Holocaust survivors group.

The project can be viewed at: www.zwangsarbeit-archiv.de

taken from : Mail Online (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1126971/German-government-pays-shocking-Holocaust-survivor-testimonies-published-online.html)

DO YOU WANT TO SIT AROUND WAITING FOR PEACE?

DO YOU WANT TO SIT AROUND WAITING FOR PEACE?

Forget Waiting for Peace.

by Victor Sharpe (israelnationalnews.com)

Islam will never accept Israel unless the ideology undergoes a reformation, but it cannot do so and still be called Islam. That said, there is no future for the Jewish state if it believes that the Muslim world will ever accept it in true and lasting peace. Israel has to accept the dismal fact that it cannot ever have peaceful neighbours who will not at every opportunity wish to destroy it. Israel must continue to prosper and thrive as a state in the knowledge that it can never let down its guard...

True peace can never be achieved between Muslim and non-Muslim nations. Islam mandates the faithful to spread their religion through territorial conquest or, as in the case of Israel, by reclaiming what Muslims believe they have lost...World leaders fail to understand the Muslim mindset. Israeli leaders, who of all people should know better, still fall into the fatal trap of believing that the Western model of lasting peace between nation-states can equally apply in the Middle East between Muslim and non-Muslim nations. It is a fallacy. The conflict between Israel and the Arabs in general, and between Israel and those who call themselves Palestinians in particular, is not territorial. It is theological. It is part of the existential conflict that has existed between Islam and the rest of the world since the 7th century. Much of the Islamic world now feels empowered, as perhaps never before, and seeks global domination with renewed vigour. This is the tangible and growing threat to the world; not global warming...

New Israeli leaders must look to the Torah and into their own peoples Biblical history. They must see again the nature of their enemies as spelled out in crystal clarity by the Almighty through the words of the Jewish prophet Jeremiah: "They dress the wound of my people as though it were not serious, saying, 'Peace, peace,' but there is no peace. We looked for peace, but no good came; and for a time of health, and behold trouble."

Israel is a Test Ground for Global Islamic Terrorism! Five years ago, al Qaeda enlisted two Pakistani British Muslims to land by sea in Tel Aviv, seize a large beachside hotel and the nearby US embassy, take hostages and shoot as many as possible. Those directives recurred strikingly - albeit on a mega-scale - in the Islamic terrorists' method of operation in Mumbai, on Wednesday, Nov. 26. (DEBKfiles) (It was not attack in support of Muslims in India but a global terror act as foreigners, especially British and US citizens, were singled out and a Jewish centre attacked! Islamic terror is global. Israel is the first target. You are next on their hit list!)

Mumbai Attack - Israel Helps Immediately. In the wake of the ongoing massive terrorist assault on Mumbai, Israel's national first response service teams arrived to Mumbai on Thursday night to offer their assistance.

292 Arab Children Died as Terrorist.

Almost 300 children have been killed while taking part in terrorist attacks over the past eight years, a new study conducted by Palestinian Authority researcher Mahdi Jaradat has revealed. Fatah, supposedly Israel's peace partner, had the most fatalities, with a total of 1,437 terrorists, 128 of them children, killed since September 28, 2000. Hamas was in second place with 1,410 killed in the same time period, 96 of them minors. Fifty-three children were killed while taking part in Islamic Jihad operations. A total of 95 women were killed while carrying out terrorist attacks.

The Truce - Hamas Style. The Hamas said that the mortar attack on the Nahal Oz military base near Gaza, which wounded eight IDF soldiers, does not mean the end of the truce with Israel.

Food for Thought: It is time to become serious and protect our right to live in peace and democracy! How many more warnings does the world need? 9/11, Bali, 7/7, Madrid, Mumbai and many more - aren't this enough? Israel is not the problem, it is the solution! Only Israel can start the defeat of Islamic expansionism, disguised as a Palestinian movement. This will stop the endless global Islamic terror. Half-hearted measures do not work! The hypocrisy of dealing with Islamic expansionism must end! - Steven Shamrak

Mistake or Deliberate Disrespect? White House sent American Jewish leaders invitations to a Chanukah reception, which included a picture of a horse-drawn cart pulling a Christmas tree to the White House, which is decorated with a holiday wreath on the White House.

Free Jonathan Pollard. A massive and concerted effort is being made to bring about the release of Jonathan Pollard from prison after 23 years. Outgoing U.S. President George W. Bush is currently preparing a list of possibly hundreds of American prisoners to pardon, the goal of the international campaign is to have Jonathan Pollard included. (Even Soviet spies, during the "Cold War" era, were not punished so harshly!)

Victim Mentality of Israeli Government. The PAs Mahmoud Abbas says Israel will free 250 prisoners as a goodwill gesture before Eid al-Adha, an important Muslim holiday expected to take place on Dec. 8. (Will Hamas release Gilad Shalit as a goodwill gesture in honour of Eid al-Adha? Will they stop sending rockets to Israel? Appeasement of Muslims never works. They see it as a sign of weakness!)

Answer to Goodwill Gesture. While 30 trucks of food and medical supplies were crossing into Gaza last week through the Keren Shalom crossing, two Qassam rockets were fired into the western Negev, prompting defence minister Ehud Barak to close all the crossings again.

Another Jewish Contribution to Christianity. An Israeli company, Ioimage, has won a contract to secure Vatican City. The system includes "smart" security cameras that can be viewed in real time by computers connected to the Internet.Time to Clear Gaza of Litter! Foreign governments and international aid organizations demand that the Israeli government allow shipments of food and humanitarian aid into Gaza, despite the fact that rockets continue to be fired from the Strip - with the enthusiastic support of its local residents. (When in the history of the humanity has a country under attack supplied its enemies with food and kept them warm? Do the US and allied forces do the same for Taliban and al-Qaida?)

Quote of the Week: ''Kadima will sell Israel to the Arabs by making concessions on Jerusalem.'' - Shas deputy Yaacov Mergui , reacting to a statement by Kadima head and foreign minister Tzipi Livni that Kadima will not sell Israel to the ultra-orthodox - Even a political 'trader' like Shas has lost its patience with Kadima's direction of self-hate and treason!Jordan: What Peace Agreement? Jordanian newspaper Al-Arab Al-Yawm refused to publish the advertisement taken out by the Palestinian Authority, and which appeared in the Israeli press. Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said "While it was possible for a foreign government to place a political advertisement in Israeli papers it seems impossible for the same government to place a call for Israeli Arab peace in a Jordanian paper, because of the Israeli flag.Israeli Society is Highly Corrupt. Seventy-two percent of Israelis rate corruption in Israel as high or very high, according to the Corruption Index for 2008 annual poll. The survey found a 10%-20% growth in public perception of corruption. Participants ranked stealing the public's money for private use, receiving money or benefits illegally, and appointing unskilled employees or relatives to public positions, as the most corrupt acts. (This is not news! Unfortunately, this endless corruption brings and keeps unqualified and pathetic idiots into political leadership.)The Longest International Hypocrisy. The United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, is running out of money. Jordan is warning that the UNRWA is facing a deficit of some $160 million for 2009. (Billions of dollars are wasted by the international community every year to perpetuate the existence of the fake refugees, who are using terror to destroy Israel!)

Evil has Perverse Memory.

Source: Wiesenthal Center

Recently we commemorated the 70th anniversary of Kristallnacht, Nazi Germany's pogrom that signalled the beginning of the end of European Jewry. Two hundred synagogues were burned, Jewish businesses throughout Germany and Austria were looted, which eventually led to the deportation of tens of thousands of Jews to concentration camps.

Now, 70 years later, the Holocaust is being distorted and trivialized in places around the world including Lithuania where a shocking 96.4% of Lithuania's Jewish citizens were murdered by the Nazis and local collaborators.

To this day, not a single Lithuanian has ever been punished in independent Lithuania for Holocaust crimes and every effort has been made to prevent such criminals from facing prosecution.

Instead - as unbelievable as it may sound - Lithuanian prosecutors, urged on by an anti-Semitic press, have sought to indict for "war crimes," heroic World War II-era Jewish partisans for their anti-Nazi resistance!

from B'NAI ELIM (http://bnaielim.blogspot.com/)

FOUR-YEAR JAIL TERM FOR PORTUGUESE NAZI

Four-year jail term for Portuguese Nazi

Mário Machado, leader of a Portuguese skinheads organisation, Hammer Skins, speaking to the press outside the court at Monsanto on Friday, October 3 Photo: LUSA

THE LEADER of the Portuguese extreme right Nazi-style ‘Hammer Skins’ organisation, Mário Machado, has been sentenced to four years in prison.

For the first time in Portugal, a collective of judges has handed down prison sentences for racial discrimination and inciting racial hatred.

On Friday, the court at Monsanto in Lisbon found 31 out of 36 defendants – all skinheads –guilty of racism and crimes of a racist nature.

Of these, six were handed down prison sentences, five were absolved, while the others received suspended prison sentences, were awarded fines or given community service orders.

The longest prison sentence was awarded to Paulo Maia, who was given six years, while Mário Machado and Vasco Leitão – both linked to the extreme right party Partido Nacional Renovador (PNR) – were given four years.

Paulo Maia was found guilty of racial discrimination, kidnapping, aggravated incitement, actual bodily harm and holding illegal arms. It was Maia who, two years ago in Amadora, shot and injured two men for racial reasons. Judge João Felgar also handed down a five-year prison sentence to defendant Pedro Isaque.

Playing to the press by giving a Nazi salute, Mário Machado, the figure who has attracted the most media attention over the past two years for his outspoken rhetoric, said that “blacks and gypsies were the ones that should go to prison”.

Before the sentences were handed down, Mário Machado said that even if he were to be condemned, he would continue to defend “nationalist ideas” and accused the Prosecutor Cândida Vilar of being part of a “Masonic mafia” which also included the Minister of Internal Administration, Rui Pereira, of whom he called its “Grand Master”.

When the judge announced that Nuno Themudo da Silva was not guilty, supporters of the accused, present at the court session, clapped enthusiastically. Nuno Themudo da Silva was on a conditional suspended sentence for his alleged part in the death of a Cape Verde Portuguese citizen, Alcino Monteiro, in Bairro Alto, Lisbon, in July 1995.

Outside the court, the president of the PNR, José Pinto Coelho, called the court case a “political show trial”. “What can you expect from a regime such as this which is corrupt, Masonic and Marxist,” he said.

SOS Racismo, an organisation which helps support racial minorities from racism, congratulated the judges on their decision. “For the first time in Portuguese history, inciting hate against others because of race is seen as a crime, one which cannot be concealed behind the argument of freedom of expression,” said a spokesman.

ANTISEMITISM AND RACISM IN PORTUGAL

(please click on the post's title to access the site from which this article was taken)

Portugal 2007

The first ever desecration of a Jewish cemetery in modern Portugal was perpetrated in April 2007. Also in April, 36 neo-Nazis from the Portuguese branch of the violent, extreme right Hammerskin Nation were arrested.

the jewish community

Evidence of a Jewish presence in the territory now called Portugal dates back to the fifth century. From the 12th century until 1492 almost 200,000 Jews (20 percent of the population) lived in Portugal; they maintained synagogues, hospitals, bath houses, and a flourishing Jewish life.

After the expulsion of Jews from Spain in 1492, over 150,000 Spanish Jews fled to Portugal, but in 1497 they were either enslaved or forcibly converted to Christianity; most, however, continued to practice Judaism in secret. In 1506, the so-called Lisbon Massacre (Matança de Lisboa), instigated by the Dominican Order, resulted in the murder of some 4,000 Jews and forced the remaining ones in the large cities, such as Lisbon and Oporto, to disperse to numerous destinations (the Dutch Republic, Italy, the Ottoman Empire, Brazil and India). Those who chose to stay fled to mountain villages, where they continued to practice Judaism clandestinely in their homes. The Inquisition only ceased in 1821 and many Jews had already assimilated among the Portuguese population. (For details of the massacre, see Esther Mucznik, “Massacre dos Judeus em Lisboa,” http://www.cilisboa.org/hist_pt.htm.)

In the early 19th century, Jews established local businesses in Lisbon, Faro and the Azores islands. In 1880, Abraham Anahory asked permission from the authorities to congregate the Jews of Lisbon into a formal community, but it was only in 1897 that the inaugural meeting of the Comité Israelita de Lisboa took place, although a shechita (ritual Jewish slaughter) service had been operating since 1894. A synagogue was built in 1904 but was not given official religious sanction because the only religion the Portuguese Constitution (Carta Constitucional) recognized was Catholicism. Following the Republican Revolution of 1910 and the acceptance of other religions, the committee was authorized in 1912 as a legal but not a religious association.

At the beginning of World War II, Portugal adopted a liberal visa policy, allowing thousands of Jewish refugees to enter the country until restrictions were applied in late 1940 and 1941. However, 100,000 Jews and other political refugees were able to seek refuge in Portugal, with the help of the Jewish community and COMASSIS, the organization created in 1933 to help them. As a result, all Jews in Portugal, including locals and refugees, survived the war. (For further details, see Mucznik, Esther, “Os Judeus em Portugal – Presença e Memória,” http://www.cilisboa.org/hpt_esther.htm.)

After the 1974 revolution and the establishment of democracy in Portugal, the Jewish community was fully accepted as a religious minority and protected under the law of religious plurality. However, the community only received official recognition in 2001 with the publication of law no. 16/2001 of 22 June, the Religious Freedom Act, which permitted the registration of religious associations under Portuguese law.

The small Jewish community is well integrated into Portuguese society and well-regarded by the political authorities, illustrated by the latter’s reaction to the Lisbon cemetery desecration (see below). There are 4,000 Jews in Portugal (continent and islands) out of a population of 10 million, organized into four independent Jewish communities − Lisbon, Oporto, Belmonte and Algarve. The leading one is Lisbon community, Comunidade Israelita da Lisboa (www.cilisboa.org), which maintains a synagogue (with daily services), a Jewish club, and the cemetery; it publishes a periodical, Tikva, and provides kosher food through the shop El Corte Inglés,. The association Somej Nophlim cares for the Jewish aged as well as the needy. The Oporto Jewish Community (http://comunidade-israelita-porto.org/), provides regular services in the synagogue. The Algarve Community is oriented basically toward non-Portuguese Jews holidaying in the south of Portugal. The Belmonte Community was formed recently for descendents of the anusim (forced converts to Catholicism). It provides a synagogue with regular services and maintains a cemetery, and promotes traditionally Portuguese kosher products such as olive oil and wine.

political organizations

With the creation of the Partido Nacional Renovador (National Renewal Party − www.pnr.pt/) in 2000, the far right wing gained a foot in the Portuguese political arena. Although the party officially denies links to neo-Nazi/racist movements, many members and/or sympathizers of these groups are affiliated to the party. Moreover, the leaders of the PNR and the Portuguese Hammerskins (or Hammerskin Nation − a chapter of the transnational white supremacist movement of that name) are known to be friendly, and the media often reports on interaction between the two groups (see, for example, http://jn.sapo.pt/2007/04/21/nacional/lider_pnr_que_o_partido_e_perseguido.htm; also below). In the municipal elections to the Lisbon Town Hall held in July 2007, the party got 0.8 percent of the total, doubling their vote from the previous election.

The party has been led since 2005 by José Pinto-Coelho. It has been accused of promoting discrimination based on racial, religious and sexual grounds as well as inciting violence and hatred toward immigrants and homosexuals, among others (their website includes no specific reference to the Jews). There has been discussion in Portuguese society about banning the party, since the Constitution forbids any kind of discrimination based on race, sexual orientation, gender or religion. The party, which is close to the French Front National, has a youth section, Juventude Nacionalista (Nationalist Youth).

antisemitic activity

Background

Portuguese antisemitism tends to be expressed in historical stereotypes, as primary and high school textbooks clearly demonstrate, and is influenced by the way religion in general, and Judaism in particular, is presented in them. Catholicism is portrayed as the only religion in Portuguese geographical and social history, and Jews and Muslims, are regarded not as minority religious groups but as a cultural and folklore phenomenon. It should be noted that school textbooks are published by private entities and are freely chosen by both private and public schools. Until 2006, the only criterion for the selection of a school textbook was the obligation to follow the educational calendar and curriculum. Since then, with the adoption of Law 47/2006, a commission has been created to evaluate and authorize school textbooks for primary and high schools (see www.dgidc.min-edu.pt/public/manuais.asp).

A second feature of school books is the message that Jesus, the “son of God” born in Palestine, created monotheism. Judaism is never referred to as the source of Christian monotheism, traditions and beliefs, but as a negative cultural influence. School history books also mention that Hitler persecuted the “Communists and the Jews, a people who became rich from trade and interest from money lending.” Moreover, the books attempt to inculcate youth with “political correctness,” inter alia, by comparing historical realities with contemporary ones; the sentence “Being a Jew in the Middle Ages was as bad as supporting Yassir Arafat in today’s Israel,” for instance, appears in a 9th grade textbook published in 2004. By comparing Israeli citizenship laws to the 1935 German Nüremberg laws, another 9th grade history book, published in 2006, implies that they discriminate against the Palestinians. Additionally, since there is no official or legal definition of antisemitism in Portugal, many schoolbooks contain expressions such as “the Jews are a people attached to money.” (For further information, see Esther Mucznik, “A Religião nos Manuais Escolares” [Lisbon: Comissão de Liberdade Religiosa, 2007].)

There are no official statistics on antisemitism in Portugal because the Constitution forbids ethnic or religious categorization. Therefore, the sources for this report were the Jewish community website, newspaper websites, right-wing organization websites, personal blogs and websites, and oral testimonies.

Antisemitic Activity

On September 25 the Lisbon Jewish cemetery, dating from the mid-19th century, was vandalized. About twenty tombs were desecrated and swastikas painted on almost every damaged stone. The cemetery guard reported the incident to the police, who detained two individuals, far right sympathizers, inside the cemetery. A criminal investigation followed and the Jewish community is involved in the legal process. This was the first desecration of a Jewish cemetery in the history of modern Portugal. There are about nine Jewish cemeteries on Portuguese territory, including on the islands of Azores and Madeira, but only two are in use – in Lisbon and Belmonte.

Following the incident, an official ceremony was held in the cemetery on October 7, in the presence of several Portuguese politicians and representatives of other religious communities. The minister of internal affairs declared that all Portuguese “were Jews that day.” Far right blogs containing antisemitic comments relating to the attack were monitored by the Portuguese authorities and the Jewish community.

Opinion pieces on newspaper websites and reports by Portuguese journalists in the mainstream press often contain references to the Israeli army as “the Jewish army” (see, for example, http://ultimahora.publico.clix.pt:80/noticia.aspx?id=1230558&idCanal, which quotes “major Sharon Feingold, um porta-voz do exército judaico” [Major Sharon Feingold, a spokesman of the Jewish army]).

responses to racism and antisemitism

In April 2007 the Portuguese police arrested 36 neo-Nazi activists from the Portuguese branch of the violent extreme right Hammerskin Nation. Police confiscated weapons, explosives, ammunition, poison gas and publications inciting to racism and antisemitism, as well as Nazi memorabilia. They were to be charged with threats, harassment, physical attacks, kidnapping, incitement to crime and illegal possession of weapons. The arrests took place three days before a planned conference of some 250 representatives of European extreme right-wing groups in Lisbon, which was subsequently canceled by the leader of the far right PNR.

PRESENT DANGERS, OLD FOES

"For though the world has stood up and stopped the bastard, the bitch that bore him is in heat again." -Brecht

I'm sure that no one in his perfect mind wants to go back to the dark years before 1974. But, the way things are going around here, the ghost of old times is haunting, once more, our hard earned freedom.

I know that they are a small number with a little expression in our politics, but they are growing, slowly, fed by the crisis this country is living.

They march in the streets, like they made two days ago "celebrating" the country's national day, getting the support of young people ( who ignores anything about the past ) and also the approval of some old folks, (for whom the bad situation they are living, they think, is due to the democratic regime), taking advantage to release their fallacious proposals, spreading the poison of intolerance and hate.

I think that we are not paying much attention to the danger we are living. Taking anything for granted is a terrible mistake that lead people to think that democracy is here to stay, that nothing can endanger its existence. A mistake that costed dearly to many nations in the not so remote past. Times of crisis, of social unresting, unemployment, poverty, crime, are a fertile ground for the beast to lay down its seeds of hate, and watch them grow while planning the harvest.

On the other hand those who rise their voices against the rebirth of nazi/fascist tendencies ( most of them linked to the democratic parties of the regime) only ask repressive measures against the threat, and are unable to understand that repression is only part of what must be done against this slime of mankind. If we want to put an end to the danger we must go deeper into what has be done. There are things that must change in order to deny the far-right its recruiting ground.

Souls and minds must be won in this battle against the dark forces that are menacing us. People must be shown that nothing in their lives is going to get better if they give away their freedom. More; if they choose to give any chance to those creatures to reach power, it will be the last thing they will choose freely for a long, long time. But this is not enough. Politics must change. It is time that the politicians who led us to this situation be blamed for their actions. Those who promised everything to be elected and, in turn, gave people unemployment, poverty, more taxes ; those who condemn our old folks to a slow death, denying them the health assistance they need, destroying the social security they badly need; those who deny any hopeful future to the younger; those are the ones that must answer for this situation. They in their proud egos are the ones that are opening the doors to the advance of those who hate freedom. A good politician must pay attention to the needs of the population he represents. A cabinet who works for the welfare of the people can make the difference. Things won't be easy, but if the reasons of discontentement are eradicated, those who persist in their dark purposes, soon, will be left alone, cuted down to a meaningless bunch of intelectually deficient persons, for no one will pay attention to their lies anymore.

Also all efforts must be made to unmask those ideologies of hate amongst the younger generations. What happened in the past must be shown deeply, not just superficially like it is done nowadays. Today's nazi/fascist ( and other anti-semitic) organisations are investing in something, injurious, called "historical revisionism", in order to "clean" the crimes they perpetrated in the past. Obviously, youth is a prior target to the ambitions of this scum.

To oppose them with efficacy we need more than repressive measures. Our goal must be to restain the access of the people's minds and souls from our ennemy's campaigns.

Truth shall make you free. So, untiringly, truth must be shown in order to destroy their lies.

We can never forget the beast's principle :"A lie repeated a thousand times becomes the truth."

LET US NEVER FORGET...

“Do not rejoice in his defeat, you men. For though the world has stood up and stopped the bastard, the bitch that bore him is in heat again.”

(Berthold Brecht :The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui )