Was Pius XII really 'Hitler's pope'?

Pope Benedict's recent visit to Auschwitz helped rekindle the controversy over the actions of Pope Pius XII during the Holocaust. Although some Jewish leaders and Catholic writers often condemn Pius XII today, the wartime Jewish press had a favorable opinion of the pope.

In March 1939, many Jewish newspapers in the United States, Canada, Great Britain, and Jerusalem welcomed Pope Pius's election and described him as a friend of democracy. In an editorial (March 6, 1939), The Palestine Post, the predecessor of The Jerusalem Post, observed, "Pius XII has clearly shown that he intends to carry on [Pius XI's] work for freedom and peace...we remember that he must have had a large part to play in the recent opposition to pernicious race theories and certain aspects of totalitarianism..."

On October 27, 1939, the pope's first encyclical, "Summi Pontificatus," was made public. The American Israelite in Cincinnati (November 9, 1939) asserted that the encyclical "contains a ringing denunciation of all forces which put the state above the will of the people, a condemnation of dictators and disseminators of racism who have plunged the world into chaos."

On January 26, 1940, the Jewish Advocate in Boston reported, "The Vatican radio this week broadcast an outspoken denunciation of German atrocities and persecution in Nazi [occupied] Poland, declaring they affronted the moral conscience of mankind."

This broadcast graphically described atrocities against Jews and Catholics and gave independent confirmation to reports about Nazi atrocities, which the Reich previously dismissed as Allied propaganda.

On March 14, 1940, London's Jewish Chronicle commented on Pius's five conditions for a "just and honorable peace," which he articulated in his 1939 Christmas message. The Jewish Chronicle described the pope's conditions, especially the protection of all racial minorities, as a "welcome feature," and praised him for fighting "for the rights of the common man."

In the same month, Italy's anti-Semitic laws went into effect, and many Jews were dismissed from the government, universities, and other professions. Pius XII responded by appointing several displaced Jewish scholars to posts in the Vatican library. In aneditorial, the Kansas City Jewish Chronicle (March 29, 1940), concluded that the pope's actions showed "his disapproval of the dastardly anti-Semitic decrees."

ON AUGUST 28, 1942, the California Jewish Voice hailed Pius XII as a "spiritual ally" of Jews after noting that the Vatican, through its diplomatic representatives, protested the deportations of Jews from France and Slovakia.

On April 16, 1943, the Australian Jewish News published a brief article about Pierre Cardinal Gerlier of Lyon, France who protested the deportations of French Jews. The newspaper quoted the cardinal as saying that he was obeying Pius XII's orders by opposing the Vichy regime's anti-Semitic measures.

On October 17, 1943, the Nazis began to arrest Jews in Rome. On October 29, 1943, the Jewish Chronicle wrote, "The Vatican has made strong representations to the German Government and the German High Command in Italy against the persecutions of the Jews in Nazi-occupied Italy..."

Along with the Vatican's protests, thousands of Jews found refuge in Rome's convents, monasteries, and the Vatican itself.

In June 1944, the Allies liberated Rome, and Pius XII protested the deportations of Hungarian Jews. "With Rome liberated, it has been determined, indeed, that 7,000 of Italy's 40,000 Jews owe their lives to the Vatican," the American Israelite (July 27, 1944) editorialized. "Placing these golden deeds alongside the intercession of Pope Pius XII with the Regent of Hungary in behalf in behalf of the Hungarian Jews, we feel an immense degree of gratitude toward ourCatholic brethren."

On October 8, 1958, Pope Pius XII died. Many Jewish newspapers around the world eulogized him, recalling his wartime opposition to Nazism and role in saving Jews. In aneditorial (October 10, 1958), The Jerusalem Post stated that "Jews will recall the sympathetic references to their sufferings contained in many of his pronouncements, the refuge from Nazi terror which he gave to many in the Vatican during the last war, and the very cordial way he received his Jewish visitors."

In his article for the Jewish Post (November 6, 1958) in Winnipeg, Canada, William Zukerman wrote that no other leader "did more to help the Jews in their hour of greatest tragedy, during the Nazi occupation of Europe, than the latepope."

In the late 1930s and early 1940s, Jewish editors and reporters had no fears about condemning Father Charles Coughlin, the anti-Semitic radio broadcaster, andCatholic youth gangs in the Bronx and Boston who frequently assaulted Jews.

This much is clear: the contemporary Jewish press repeatedly have Pius XII favorable coverage from 1939 to 1958.

The writer, based in New York City, is working on a book about Pope Pius XII.

Criticism

The Myth of Hitler's Pope: How Pope Pius XII Rescued Jews from the Nazis, by Rabbi David G. Dalin

Hal G.P. Colebatch

Rabbi David Dalin, a professor of history and political science, and the splendid Regnery publishing house, have done a great service in producing this book. Meticulously detailed, it completely destroys the myth that Pope Pius XII was pro-Nazi or did less than his utmost to save Jews from the Nazis, and pays tribute to what he actually did. Its wealth of information, much previously unknown, has been praised by commentators like Mary Ann Glendon, Learned Hand Professor of Law at Harvard University, who has said:

“David Dalin’s search for the truth about Pope Pius XII led him to the discovery that the tragedy of the Jewish people has been shamelessly exploited by foes of traditional religion. With righteous indignation, Dalin sets the record straight, documenting the dishonesty of Pius’s leading attackers and demonstrating that the wartime Pope was a friend and protector of the Jewish people in their hour of greatest need.”

Rabbi Dalin commences with the words:

“It is ironic that sixty years after the Holocaust—with anti-Semitism virulent among Islamic fundamentalists and growing rapidly among secular Europeans—that the left-liberal media in the West has tried to blame Pope Pius XII (and even the Catholic church as a whole) for anti-Semitism.
“No-one believed this at the time. From the end of World War II until at least five years after his death in 1958, Pope Pius XII enjoyed an enviable reputation among Christians and Jews alike …”

He points how the campaign of vilification against the Pope began with the play The Deputy, by German Rolf Hochhuth (later a close friend and defender of David Irving, and the subject of a limerick in Robert Conquest’s The Abomination of Moab), and made into a Hollywood film, Amen, in 2002.

Rabbi Dalin is also scathing of the book Hitler’s Pope, by John Cornwell, pointing out that even the cover photograph (approved by Cornwell) is viciously dishonest in its inference: it shows the future Pope Pius XII, then Cardinal Pacelli, a Vatican diplomat, leaving a reception in Germany given by the pre-Hitler President Paul von Hindenburg, in 1927, six years before Hitler came to power. He is dressed in Vatican diplomatic regalia, which could easily be confused with Papal garments, and is being saluted by two German soldiers in distinctive German steel helmets. It is not possible to see the uniforms and insignia of the soldiers clearly, and though they were actually soldiers of the Weimar Republic they could be taken for soldiers of the Third Reich. Dalin quotes the historian Philip Jenkins:

“The casual reader is meant to infer that Pacelli is emerging from a cosy tete-a-tete with Hitler—perhaps they have been chatting together about plans for a new extermination camp? … Perhaps photographs do not lie, but this particular book cover—offered in the context it was, and under the title Hitler’s Pope—comes close.”

(The picture can be seen at John Cornwell’s Wikipedia entry.) To compound this, the caption on the English edition claims the photograph was taken in Berlin in 1939, when Hitler was in power—a falsehood without any qualification whatsoever. Rabbi Dalin’s dissection of both these works leaves them without a shred of credibility. The film Amen is also totally false, presenting as fact incidents which never happened—anyway it was a box-office failure. Dalin documents how the left-liberal media has been quick to publicise, generally uncritically, the myth of “Hitler’s Pope”, but has generally denied even mentioning the scholarly works written in the Pope’s defence.

In fact the Pope never met Hitler, and when Hitler visited Rome in 1938, Pius very publicly snubbed the Nazis by leaving for Castel Gandolfo.

Rabbi Dalin has collected many eyewitness accounts of how Pope Pius XII and the Vatican were directly responsible for sheltering thousands of Jews in the Vatican and in church properties in and about Rome, as well as 3000 in Castel Gandolfo. As a result about 85 per cent of Rome’s Jews were saved from deportation and murder. This was despite the fact that Rome was first under the Italian Fascist regime, and then Nazi military occupation, making the Pope in the Vatican a virtual prisoner (though some of the German officers appear to have given clandestine help and warnings). In the case of Slovakia alone, the Pope’s moral pressure on the government was, according to the French Jewish scholar Leon Poliakov, directly instrumental in saving about 20,000 Slovakian Jews.

Thus while the Pope denounced and worked against Nazism, he was in a hideously difficult position in that more outspoken activity could lead to greater reprisals against the innocent. I was surprised that Rabbi Dalin did not quote the case of Edith Stein, though this was very much to the point: Edith Stein (now canonised) was a Jewish-born convert, a Carmelite nun and an outstanding philosopher and theologian. During the Nazi occupation of Holland she was in a Dutch convent. The Dutch Bishops’ Conference had a public statement read in all the churches of the country on July 20, 1942, condemning Nazi racism. In a retaliatory response on July 26, 1942, the Reichskommissar of the Netherlands, Arthur Seyss-Inquart, ordered the arrest of all Jewish-born converts to Catholicism, who had previously been spared. Stein and her sister Rosa, also a convert, were captured and shipped to Auschwitz, where they died in the gas chambers a few days later.

The Pope’s anti-Nazi statements and activities, up to the very limit that he could press them, are a matter of record. These included the encyclical Summi Pontificatus, issued shortly after the outbreak of war, and a number of homilies, and he gave bishops instructions to help all victims of Nazism. Early in the war he stated that the Nazi atrocities in Poland affronted the moral conscience of mankind, leading the New York Times to declare: “now the Vatican has spoken with authority that cannot be questioned, and has confirmed the worst intimations of terror that have come out of the Polish darkness”. In Britain the Manchester Guardian called Vatican Radio “tortured Poland’s most powerful advocate”. In 1940 Albert Einstein, a Jewish refugee from Nazism, said: “Only the Catholic church stood squarely across the path of Hitler’s campaign … I now praise [it] unreservedly.” On July 3, 1943, Judge Joseph Proskauer, president of the American Jewish Committee, declared:

“We have heard … what a great part the Holy Father has played in the salvation of the Jewish refugees in Italy, and we know from sources that must be credited that this great Pope has reached forth his mighty and sheltering hand to help the oppressed of Hungary.”

Rabbi Louis Finkelstein, the chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, stated: “No keener rebuke has come to Nazism than from Pope Pius XI and his successor Pope Pius XII.” Dalin has documented many other contemporary tributes from Jewish leaders of different countries, including Isaac Herzog, Chief Rabbi of Israel: “The people of Israel will never forget what His Holiness and his illustrious delegates … are doing for our unfortunate brothers and sisters in the most tragic hour of our history, which is living proof of Divine Providence in this world.”

The Pope’s Christmas messages were clear condemnations of Nazi attacks on Jews, to the fury of the Nazis. There were even Nazi plans to kidnap the Pope, which Hitler discussed in July 1943, and Mussolini said the Pope was “ready to let himself be deported to a concentration camp rather do anything against his conscience”. It is extraordinary that this overwhelming evidence has been not merely overlooked but actually suppressed.

Before the war, when the Italian Fascist regime began implementing anti-Semitic legislation and driving Jews out of universities, the Pope saved Jewish academics by giving them posts at the Vatican or helping them escape to America.

This book also illuminates a little-known aspect of history: from very early times Popes including Gregory the Great (590–604) protected Rome’s Jews and denounced anti-Semitism in general. Even the “Borgia” Pope, Alexander VI, had a notable record here, creating the first Chair of Hebrew at the University of Rome and frequently entertaining the Chief Rabbi at the Vatican. He created a safe haven for Jews fleeing persecution in Spain and Portugal.

Rabbi Dalin also shows that the religious leader who was the greatest enemy and persecutor of the Jewish people in the Second World War was in fact the Mufti of Jerusalem, who was in constant touch with the Nazi leaders and a friend of Himmler, and whose constant urging upon them of a policy of extermination may well have been crucial in bringing about the decision to proceed with the Holocaust—the decision was made at the Wannsee conference, two months after the Mufti’s initial meeting with Hitler.

Adolf Eichmann’s deputy, Dieter Wisliceny, said at the Nuremberg trails that the Mufti was “one of Eichmann’s best friends and had constantly incited him to accelerate the extermination measures”. On a visit to Auschwitz he told the guards at the gas chambers to “work more diligently.” Among other activities he recruited a Muslim SS unit, the “Hanjar Troopers”, who murdered 90 per cent of Bosnia’s Jews as well as, while the going was good, countless Christians. He made regular broadcasts on Berlin radio, exhorting his audience to “Kill the Jews wherever you find them.”

Rabbi Daniel Lapin, President of Towards Tradition, writes of this book:

“Courage is contagious, so clutch this book close to your heart. Righting great wrongs requires great courage, and that is what The Myth of Hitler’s Pope delivers. With devastating effectiveness, Dr Dalin exposes their motives and subdues the assailants who with rashness and folly attempt posthumously to assassinate Pope Pius XII. This restoration of a good man’s good name is a mitzvah—a Jewish good deed.”

Pope Pius XII and the Holocaust

By Shira Schoenberg

The Early Years
Cries for Help
Papal Reasons and Responses
The Pope Protests
The Politics Behind the Policy
Recent Developments
Conclusion

Pope Pius XII's (1876-1958) actions during the Holocaust remain controversial. For much of the war, he maintained a public front of indifference and remained silent while German atrocities were committed. He refused pleas for help on the grounds of neutrality, while making statements condemning injustices in general. Privately, he sheltered a small number of Jews and spoke to a few select officials, encouraging them to help the Jews.

The Early Years

The Pope was born in 1876 in Rome as Eugenio Pacelli. He studied philosophy at the Gregorian University, learned theology at Sant Apollinare and was ordained in 1899. He entered the Secretariat of State for the Vatican in 1901, became a cardinal in 1929 and was appointed Secretary of State in 1930.

Pacelli lived in Germany from 1917, when he was appointed Papal Nuncio in Bavaria, until 1929. He knew what the Nazi party stood for, and was elected Pope in 1939 having said very little about Adolf Hitler’s ideology beyond a 1935 speech describing the Nazis as “miserable plagiarists who dress up old errors with new tinsel.” Pacelli told 250,000 pilgrims at Lourdes on April 28, “It does not make any difference whether they flock to the banners of the social revolution, whether they are guided by a false conception of the world and of life, or whether they are possessed by the superstition of a race and blood cult.”

Even as Cardinal, Pacelli's actions regarding Hitler were controversial. Hitler took power on January 30, 1933. On July 20 that same year, Pacelli and German diplomat Franz Von Papen signed a concordat that granted freedom of practice to the Roman Catholic Church. In return, the Church agreed to separate religion from politics. This diminished the influence of the Catholic Center Party and the Catholic Labor unions. The concordat was generally viewed as a diplomatic victory for Hitler.⁽¹⁾

Pacelli was elected Pope on March 2, 1939, and took the name Pius XII. As Pope, he had three official positions. He was head of his church and was in direct communication with bishops everywhere. He was chief of state of the Vatican, with his own diplomatic corps. He was also the Bishop of Rome. In theory, at least, his views could influence 400 million Catholics, including those in all the occupied eastern territories - the Poles, Baltics, Croatians, Slovaks and others.⁽²⁾

As soon as he was appointed Pope, Pacelli did speak out against the 1938 Italian racial laws that dealt with mixed marriages and children of mixed marriages.⁽³⁾ However, he issued no such condemnation of Kristallnacht (the night of broken glass) which occurred in November 1938, and which recent evidence shows he was informed of by Berlin's papal nuncio. As the security of the Jewish population became more precarious, Pius XII did intervene the month he was elected Pope, March 1939, and obtained 3,000 visas to enter Brazil for European Jews who had been baptized and converted to Catholicism. Two-thirds of these were later revoked, however, because of "improper conduct," probably meaning that the Jews started practicing Judaism once in Brazil. At that time, the Pope did nothing to save practicing Jews.⁽⁴⁾

Cries for Help

Throughout the Holocaust, Pius XII was consistently besieged with pleas for help on behalf of the Jews.

In the spring of 1940, the Chief Rabbi of Palestine, Isaac Herzog, asked the papal Secretary of State, Cardinal Luigi Maglione to intercede to keep Jews in Spain from being deported to Germany. He later made a similar request for Jews in Lithuania. The papacy did nothing.⁽⁵⁾

Within the Pope's own church, Cardinal Theodor Innitzer of Vienna told Pius XII about Jewish deportations in 1941. In 1942, the Slovakian charge d'affaires, a position under the supervision of the Pope, reported to Rome that Slovakian Jews were being systematically deported and sent to death camps.⁽⁶⁾

In October 1941, the Assistant Chief of the U.S. delegation to the Vatican, Harold Tittman, asked the Pope to condemn the atrocities. The response came that the Holy See wanted to remain "neutral," and that condemning the atrocities would have a negative influence on Catholics in German-held lands.⁽⁷⁾

In late August 1942, after more than 200,000 Ukrainian Jews had been killed, Ukrainian Metropolitan Andrej Septyckyj wrote a long letter to the Pope, referring to the German government as a regime of terror and corruption, more diabolical than that of the Bolsheviks. The Pope replied by quoting verses from Psalms and advising Septyckyj to "bear adversity with serene patience."⁽⁸⁾

On September 18, 1942, Monsignor Giovanni Battista Montini, the future Pope Paul VI, wrote, "The massacres of the Jews reach frightening proportions and forms."⁽⁹⁾ Yet, that same month when Myron Taylor, U.S. representative to the Vatican, warned the Pope that his silence was endangering his moral prestige, the Secretary of State responded on the Pope's behalf that it was impossible to verify rumors about crimes committed against the Jews.⁽¹⁰⁾

Wladislaw Raczkiewicz, president of the Polish government-in-exile, appealed to the Pope in January 1943 to publicly denounce Nazi violence. Bishop Preysing of Berlin did the same, at least twice. Pius XII refused.⁽¹¹⁾

Papal Reasons and Responses

The Pope finally gave a reason for his consistent refusals to make a public statement in December 1942. The Allied governments issued a declaration, "German Policy of Extermination of the Jewish Race," which stated that there would be retribution for the perpetrators of Jewish murders. When Tittman asked Secretary of State Maglione if the Pope could issue a similar proclamation, Maglione said the papacy was "unable to denounce publicly particular atrocities."⁽¹²⁾ One reason for this position was that the staunchly anti-communist Pope felt he could not denounce the Nazis without including the Communists; therefore, Pius XII would only condemn general atrocities.⁽¹³⁾

The Pope did speak generally against the extermination campaign. On January 18, 1940, after the death toll of Polish civilians was estimated at 15,000, the Pope said in a broadcast, "The horror and inexcusable excesses committed on a helpless and a homeless people have been established by the unimpeachable testimony of eye-witnesses."⁽¹⁴⁾ During his Christmas Eve radio broadcast in 1942, he referred to the "hundreds of thousands who through no fault of their own, and solely because of their nation or race, have been condemned to death or progressive extinction."⁽¹⁵⁾ The Pope never mentioned the Jews by name.

The Pope's indifference to the mistreatment of Jews was often clear. In 1941, for example, after being asked by French Marshal Henri Philippe Petain if the Vatican would object to anti-Jewish laws, Pius XII answered that the church condemned racism, but did not repudiate every rule against the Jews.⁽¹⁶⁾ When Petain's French puppet government introduced "Jewish statutes," the Vichy ambassador to the Holy See informed Petain that the Vatican did not consider the legislation in conflict with Catholic teachings, as long as they were carried out with "charity" and "justice."⁽¹⁷⁾

In a September 1940 broadcast, the Vatican called its policy "neutrality," but stated in the same broadcast that where morality was involved, no neutrality was possible.⁽¹⁸⁾ This could only imply that mass murder was not a moral issue.

On September 8, 1943, the Nazis invaded Italy and, suddenly, the Vatican was the local authority. The Nazis gave the Jews 36 hours to come up with 50 kilograms of gold or else the Nazis would take 300 hostages. The Vatican was willing to loan 15 kilos, an offer that eventually proved unnecessary when the Jews obtained an extension for the delivery.⁽¹⁹⁾

Pius XII knew that Jewish deportations from Italy were impending. The Vatican even found out from SS First Lieutenant Kurt Gerstein the fate of those who were to be deported.⁽²⁰⁾ Publicly, the Pope stayed silent. Privately, Pius did instruct Catholic institutions to take in Jews. The Vatican itself hid 477 Jews and another 4,238 Jews were protected in Roman monasteries and convents.⁽²¹⁾

On October 16, the Nazis arrested 1,007 Roman Jews, the majority of whom were women and children. They were taken to Auschwitz, where 811 were gassed immediately. Of those sent to the concentration camp, 16 survived.⁽²²⁾

The Pope Protests

The Pope did act behind the scenes on occasion. During the German occupation of Hungary in March 1944, he, along with the papal nuncio in Budapest, Angelo Rotta, advised the Hungarian government to be moderate in its plans concerning the treatment of the Jews. Pius XII protested against the deportation of Jews and, when his protests were not heeded, he cabled again and again.⁽²³⁾ The Pope's demands, combined with similar protests from the King of Sweden, the International Red Cross, Britain and the United States contributed to the decision by the Hungarian regent, Admiral Miklos Horthy, to cease deportations on July 8, 1944.⁽²⁴⁾

In the later stages of the war, Pius XII appealed to several Latin American governments to accept “emergency passports” that several thousand Jews had succeeded in obtaining. Due to the efforts of the Pope and the U.S. State Department, 13 Latin American countries decided to honor these documents, despite threats from the Germans to deport the passport holders.⁽²⁵⁾

The Church also answered a request to save 6,000 Jewish children in Bulgaria by helping to transfer them to Palestine. At the same time, however, Cardinal Maglione wrote to the apostolic delegate in Washington, A.G. Cicognani, saying this did not mean the Pope supported Zionism.⁽²⁶⁾

The Politics Behind the Policy

Historians point out that any support the Pope did give the Jews came after 1942, once U.S. officials told him that the allies wanted total victory, and it became likely that they would get it. Furthering the notion that any intervention by Pius XII was based on practical advantage rather than moral inclination is the fact that in late 1942, Pius XII began to advise the German and Hungarian bishops that it would be to their ultimate political advantage to go on record as speaking out against the massacre of the Jews. ⁽²⁷⁾

One of the only cases in which the Pope gave early support to the allies was in May 1940. He received information about a German plan, Operation Yellow, to lay mines to deter British naval support of Holland. Pius XII gave his permission to send coded radio messages warning papal nuncios in Brussels and The Hague of the plot. The German radio monitoring services decoded the broadcast and went ahead with the plan.⁽²⁸⁾ This papal intervention is surprising due to the Pope's persistent claim of neutrality, and his silence regarding almost all German atrocities.

Recent Developments

The International Catholic-Jewish Historical Commission (ICJHC), a group comprised of three Jewish and three Catholic scholars, was appointed in 1999 by the Holy See's Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews. In October of 2000, the group of scholars finished their review of the Vatican's archives, and submitted their preliminary findings to the Comission's then-President, Cardinal Edward I Cassidy. Their report, entitled "The Vatican and the Holocaust," laid to rest several of the conventional defenses of Pope Pius XII.

The often-espoused view that the Pontiff was unaware of the seriousness of the situation of European Jewry during the war was definitively found to be inaccurate. Numerous documents demonstrated that the Pope was well-informed about the full extent of the Nazi's anti-Semitic practices. A letter from Konrad von Preysing, Bishop of Berlin, that proved that the Pope was aware of the situation as early as January of 1941, particularly caught the attention of the commission. In that letter, Preysing confirms that "Your Holiness is certainly informed about the situation of the Jews in Germany and the neighboring countries. I wish to mention that I have been asked both from the Catholic and Protestant side if the Holy See could not do something on this subject...in favor of these unfortunates." The letter, which was a direct appeal to the Pope himself, without intermediaries, provoked no response. In 1942, an even more compelling eyewitness account of the mass-murder of Jews in Lwow was sent to the Pope by an archbishop; this, too, garnered no response.

The commission also revealed several documents that cast a negative light on the claim that the Vatican did all it could to facilitate emigration of the Jews out of Europe. Internal notes meant only for Vatican representatives revealed the opposition of Vatican officials to Jewish emigration from Europe to Palestine. "The Holy See has never approved of the project of making Palestine a Jewish home...[because] Palestine is by now holier for Catholics than for Jews." Some Catholic higher-ups violated this position of the Vatican by helping Jews to immigrate when they were able to; most did not.

Similarly, the attempts of Jews to escape from Europe to South America were sometimes thwarted by the Vatican. Vatican representatives in Bolivia and Chile wrote to the pontiff regarding the "invasive" and "cynically exploitative" character of the Jewish immigrants, who were already engaged in "dishonest dealings, violence, immorality, and even disrespect for religion." The commission concluded that these accounts probably biased Pius against aiding more Jews in immigrating away from Nazi Europe.

The claim that the Vatican needed to remain neutral in the war has also been refuted in recent months. In January of 2001, a document recently declassified by the U.S. National Archives was discovered by the World Jewish Congress. The document was a report in which Monsignor Giovanni Battista Montini, Pope Pius XII's secretary of state, detailed and denounced several abuses committed by the Soviet Army against German inhabitants of the Soviet Union. The report was widely viewed as demonstrating that the Vatican had no compunctions about speaking out against atrocities, even when doing so would violate neutrality.

The preliminary report released by the IJCHC also asked the Vatican for access to non-published archival documents to more fully investigate the Pope's role in the Holocaust. This request was refused by the Vatican, which allowed them access only to documents from before 1923. As a result, the Commission suspended its study in July 2001, without issuing a final report. Dr. Michael Marrus, one of the three Jewish panelists and a professor of history at the University of Toronto, expained that the commission "ran up against a brick wall.... It would have been really halpful to have had support from the Holy See on this issue."⁽²⁹⁾

In 2004, news was disclosed of a diary kept by James McDonald, the League of Nations high commissioner for refugees coming from Germany. In 1933, McDonald raised the treatment of the Jews with then Cardinal Pacelli, who was the Vatican secretary of state. McDonald was specifically interested in helping a group of Jewish refugees in the Saar region, a territory claimed by France and Germany that was turned over to the Germans in 1935. The Pope's defenders cite his intercession on these Jews' behalf as evidence of his sympathy for Jews persecuted by the Nazis. According to McDonald, however, when he disccused the matter with Pacelli, “The response was noncommittal, but left me with the definite impression that no vigorous cooperation could be expected.”⁽³⁰⁾ Pacelli did intercede in January 1935 to help the Jews, but only after McDonald agreed that American Jews would use their influence in Washington to protect church properties that were being threatened by the Mexican government.⁽³¹⁾

In 2005, the Italian daily, Corriere della Sera, discovered a letter dated November 20, 1946, showing that Pope Pius XII ordered Jewish babies baptized by Catholics during the Holocaust not to be returned to their parents. Some scholars said the disclosure was not new and that the Pope's behavior was not remarkable. The more important story, according to Rabbi David Rosen, international director of interreligious affairs for the American Jewish Committee, was that one of the recipients of the letter, Angelo Roncalli, the papal representative in Paris, ignored the papal directive.⁽³²⁾

In 2006, an Israeli scholar, Dina Porat, discovered correspondence between Haim Barlas, an emissary of the Jewish Agency sent to Europe to save Jews in the 1940s, and Giuseppe Roncalli, who later became Pope John XXIII. Roncalli expressed criticism of the Vatican’s silence during the war. In June 1944, Barlas sent Roncalli a copy of a report compiled by two Jews who escaped from Auschwitz documenting the mass murder at the camp. Roncalli forwarded the report to the Vatican, which had claimed it did not know about the report until October. Earlier, Roncalli had written to the president of Slovakia at the behest of Barlas asking him to stop the Nazi deportations of Jews.⁽³³⁾

Conclusion

The Pope's reaction to the Holocaust was complex and inconsistent. At times, he tried to help the Jews and was successful. But these successes only highlight the amount of influence he might have had, if he not chosen to remain silent on so many other occasions. No one knows for sure the motives behind Pius XII's actions, or lack thereof, since the Vatican archives have only been fully opened to select researchers. Historians offer many reasons why Pope Pius XII was not a stronger public advocate for the Jews: A fear of Nazi reprisals, a feeling that public speech would have no effect and might harm the Jews, the idea that private intervention could accomplish more, the anxiety that acting against the German government could provoke a schism among German Catholics, the church's traditional role of being politically neutral and the fear of the growth of communism were the Nazis to be defeated.⁽³⁴⁾ Whatever his motivation, it is hard to escape the conclusion that the Pope, like so many others in positions of power and influence, could have done more to save the Jews.

23-12-2009 om 23:30 geschreven door Vorser-Raadgever  

'Aquiris op de rand van faillissement'

• woensdag 23 december 2009
• 
  
• Auteur: pl

'Aquiris op de rand van faillissement'

hrb

BRUSSEL - Het bedrijf Aquiris, uitbater van het waterzuiveringsstation Brussel-Noord, staat op de rand van het faillissement. Dat zegt het kabinet van Brussels minister van Leefmilieu Evelyne Huytebroeck.

23-12-2009 om 21:22 geschreven door Vorser-Raadgever  

22-12-2009 om 23:21 geschreven door Vorser-Raadgever  

22-12-2009 om 23:12 geschreven door Vorser-Raadgever  

21-12-2009 om 23:56 geschreven door Vorser-Raadgever  

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Date of Death

Mini Biography

Karl Wolff was born in 1900 to a privileged family in the city of Darmstadt, Germany. During the First World War, Wolff was commissioned an officer in 1918 and served in the Hessian Infantry Regiment. Lieutenant Wolff was one of the youngest officers ever commissioned, having received his rank at the age of 17, and had also been awarded the Iron Cross First Class. In 1920, Wolff left the now demobilized German Army and became a small Time businessman. In 1931, drawn by Nazi ideals of a reborn and again powerful Germany, Wolff joined the Nazi Party and also applied for membership in the SS. He was accepted as a member in July of 1931 and assigned the SS number 14235. Wolff served in an SS mustering formation in Munich, quickly rising through the enlisted ranks and being commissioned an SS-Sturmfüher (Lieutenant) in February 1932. When the Nazis came to power in 1933, Wolff was promoted to SS-Captain and briefly served as an SS military liaison officer to the German Army. In June of that year, Wolff was personally recruited by the SS Commander Heinrich Himmler to head the new office of the Reichsführer's Personal Staff. Wolff became Himmler's adjutant on June 15, 1933 and received an unprecedented number of promotions through his new position. By the start of 1937, Wolff had risen to the rank of SS-Gruppenführer (Lieutenant General) and was considered as third in command of the entire SS. During the Second World War, Wolff remained in his job as Himmler's adjutant, but soon began losing authority and power as disagreements developed with Himmler and also Wolff began to fall under the shadow of the number two man in the SS, Reinhard Heydrich. In 1942, Wolff was made a full SS-General (Obergruppenführer) but dismissed by Himmler as Chief of Staff to the Reichsführer. Wolff, however, did manage a comeback as Adolf Hitler personally granted him equivalent General's rank in the Waffen-SS and assigned him as an SS adjutant to the Italian Government in 1943. When Italy surrendered to the Allies later that year, Germany occupied the country and Wolff became the Supreme SS and Police Leader of Italy. At the start of 1945, Wolff (who was now acting military commander of Italy) extended secret negotiation requests to the Allies and thus hastened the end of the war in Italy by surrendering the country to the Allies on May 2, 1945. Wolff was taken into American custody, although was allowed to escape trial as an SS-General and leading Nazi, by providing evidence against his fellow Nazis at Nuremberg, in 1946. In 1947, Karl Wolff retired to private life, however the West German government soon arrested Wolff for war crimes in 1949, sentencing him to four years in prison. Wolff was again arrested in 1964, after evidence presented at the Adolf Eichmann trial, in Israel, had revealed that Wolff had organized the deportation of Italian Jews to the Nazi death camps in 1944. Wolff was sentenced to fifteen years in prison but only served half of this term and was released in 1971. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Karl Wolff became very popular amongst historical and academic groups as Wolff frequently lectured on the internal workings of the SS and his life as a personal associate of Heinrich Himmler. As one of the only surviving top SS-Generals from World War II, Wolff can also be seen on several documentary films, such as the "The World at War" (1973) miniseries and several 1980s documentaries on the History of the SS. Wolff was also portrayed as 'General Max Helm' in the motion picture The Scarlet and the Black (1983) (TV), staring Gregory Peck. Karl Wolff died 1984 in Rosenheim, West Germany.

• Fuehrer of the SS: Adolf Hitler
• Reichsfuehrer-SS: Heinrich Himmler (also Chief of Police in the Interior Ministry)
  • Chief of staff: Karl Wolff

PRICE: $735.00

Het ganse verhaal van Karl Wolff is eveneens terug te vinden in deze studie:

Conspiracy of Silence: How the "Old Boys" of American Intelligence Shielded SS General Karl Wolff from Prosecution¹

21-12-2009 om 23:52 geschreven door Vorser-Raadgever  

20-12-2009 om 22:22 geschreven door Vorser-Raadgever  

20-12-2009 om 22:14 geschreven door Vorser-Raadgever  

20-12-2009 om 00:23 geschreven door Vorser-Raadgever  

Berlusconi, su Internet la «tesi
del complotto». Pdl e Pd: assurdo

In un video montate immagini per dimostrare la teoria dell’«autoattentato»

Un'immagine del video sull'aggressione al premier

ROMA — Si intitola «L'aggressione a Ber­lusconi una montatura?», (guarda il video) è partito da You­Tube e sta facendo il giro del web, diven­tando il vessillo del partito del complotto. Cioè il fronte di chi pensa che la tragedia delle Torri gemelle sia nata in seno alla Ca­sa Bianca e che, allo stesso modo, Massimo Tartaglia sia stato assoldato da Palazzo Chi­gi. La tesi dell’autoattentato va alla grande, su Internet. Dove si sfida il senso del ridico­lo parlando dei fatti di piazza del Duomo come di un «11 settembre all’italiana».

Il video più gettonato, rilanciato da Face­book e visto in poche ore da trecentomila utenti, è stato realizzato montando le im­magini di Rainews 24 e va rimbalzando dai siti giustizialisti a quelli dei movimenti, sca­tenando migliaia di commenti e gettando legna sul fuoco dell’antiberlusconismo. L’aggressione del Duomo non sarebbe, in­somma, che una «manipolazione mondiale per prendere il controllo di Internet». Il fil­mato è diviso in due parti, dura circa otto minuti ed è corredato da musica thriller e infografiche in rosso. L’autore, che non si rivela, utilizza il fermo immagine col dichia­rato intento di portare a galla i «piccoli e grandi particolari», i «dubbi» e le «incon­gruenze » che tormentano i radical anti-Sil­vio. Perché il sangue, invece di sgorgare fluido e abbondante, appare «magicamen­te coagulato»? Cos’è il «misterioso» ogget­to che uno dei body-guard tiene in mano all’interno dell’auto? Non sarà mica una «bomboletta che spruzza sangue finto»?

Tutte «scempiaggini», prende nettamen­te le distanze Beppe Fioroni, responsabile Welfare del Pd. «Ma smettiamola... Se la ri­produzione del Duomo lo colpiva sulla tem­pia il premier poteva morire — e qui Fioro­ni parla da medico —. Ma quale complotto! Il confronto politico rimanga nell’ambito della saggezza». Intanto però, un click do­po l’altro, il filmato che sprona «spegnete la tv accendete il cervello» irretisce miglia­ia di sostenitori. «Questo video mostra la verità!!! — scrive su YouTube MrBrasco80 —. Non facciamo gli ipocriti!!! E la camicia piena di sangue che hanno detto al tg dove sta?». Fake407 invece non ci crede e raccon­ta che a lui hanno rotto il naso con un pu­gno, «ma neanche una goccia di sangue».

Il video arriva dopo l’affondo del presi­dente del Senato Renato Schifani contro i social network, paragonati ai gruppi extra­parlamentari degli anni ’70. E certo non è sfuggito all’entourage del presidente del Consiglio. «Ho visto qualcuno di questi video — conferma Daniele Capezzone — e siamo di­nanzi a qualcosa che definirei microterrori­smo ». Non sarà troppo? «Io ci vedo la stes­sa furia ideologica di chi usa la violenza, ma in più la miseria di fare tutto nella pro­pria stanzetta, negando l’evidenza e illuden­dosi perfino di fare un’inchiesta — attacca il portavoce del Pdl —. Vigliacchi, falsifica­tori e illusi». Se non parlassimo di «una co­sa drammatica» Capezzone si metterebbe a ridere: «Si lamentano perché Berlusconi sanguinava poco, se siamo arrivati a que­sto punto...».

Monica Guerzoni
19 dicembre 2009© RIPRODUZIONE RISERVATA

20-12-2009 om 00:15 geschreven door Vorser-Raadgever  

The US Currently Has 189,000 Personnel in Afghanistan

Stunning Statistics About the War That Everyone Should Know

By JEREMY SCAHILL

A hearing in Sen. Claire McCaskill’s Contract Oversightsubcommittee on contracting in Afghanistan has highlighted some important statistics that provide a window into the extent to which the Obama administration has picked up the Bush-era war privatization baton and sprinted with it. Overall, contractors now comprise a whopping 69% of the Department of Defense’s total workforce, “the highest ratio of contractors to military personnel in US history.” That’s not in one war zone—that’s the Pentagon in its entirety.

In Afghanistan, the Obama administration blows the Bush administration out of the privatized water. According to a memo[PDF] released by McCaskill’s staff,

“From June 2009 to September 2009, there was a 40% increase in Defense Department contractors in Afghanistan. During the same period, the number of armed private security contractors working for the Defense Department in Afghanistan doubled, increasing from approximately 5,000 to more than 10,000.”

At present, there are 104,000 Department of Defense contractors in Afghanistan. According to a report this week from the Congressional Research Service, as a result of the coming surge of 30,000 troops in Afghanistan, there may be up to 56,000 additional contractors deployed. But here is another group of contractors that often goes unmentioned: 3,600 State Department contractors and 14,000 USAID contractors. That means that the current total US force in Afghanistan is approximately 189,000 personnel (68,000 US troops and 121,000 contractors). And remember, that’s right now. And that, according to McCaskill, is a conservative estimate. A year from now, we will likely see more than 220,000 US-funded personnel on the ground in Afghanistan.

The US has spent more than $23 billion on contracts in Afghanistan since 2002. By next year, the number of contractors will have doubled since 2008 when taxpayers funded over $8 billion in Afghanistan-related contracts.

Despite the massive number of contracts and contractors in Afghanistan, oversight is utterly lacking. “The increase in Afghanistan contracts has not seen a corresponding increase in contract management and oversight,” according to McCaskill’s briefing paper. “In May 2009, DCMA [Defense Contract Management Agency] Director Charlie Williams told the Commission on Wartime Contracting that as many as 362 positions for Contracting Officer’s Representatives (CORs) in Afghanistan were currently vacant.”

A former USAID official, Michael Walsh, the former director of USAID’s Office of Acquisition and Assistance and Chief Acquisition Officer, told the Commission that many USAID staff are “administering huge awards with limited knowledge of or experience with the rules and regulations.” According to one USAID official, the agency is “sending too much money, too fast with too few people looking over how it is spent.” As a result, the agency does not “know … where the money is going.”

The Obama administration is continuing the Bush-era policy of hiring contractors to oversee contractors. According to the McCaskill memo:

In Afghanistan, USAID is relying on contractors to provide oversight of its large reconstruction and development projects. According to information provided to the Subcommittee, International Relief and Development (IRD) was awarded a five-year contract in 2006 to oversee the $1.4 billion infrastructure contract awarded to a joint venture of the Louis Berger Group and Black and Veatch Special Projects. USAID has also awarded a contract Checci and Company to provide support for contracts in Afghanistan.

The private security industry and the US government have pointed to the Synchronized Predeployment and Operational Tracker(SPOT) as evidence of greater government oversight of contractor activities. But McCaskill’s subcommittee found that system utterly lacking, stating: “The Subcommittee obtained current SPOT data showing that there are currently 1,123 State Department contractors and no USAID contractors working in Afghanistan.” Remember, there are officially 14,000 USAID contractors and the official monitoring and tracking system found none of these people and less than half of the State Department contractors.

As for waste and abuse, the subcommittee says that the Defense Contract Audit Agency identified more than $950 million in questioned and unsupported costs submitted by Defense Department contracts for work in Afghanistan. That’s 16% of the total contract dollars reviewed.

Jeremy Scahill, an independent journalist who reports frequently for the national radio and TV program Democracy Now, has spent extensive time reporting from Iraq and Yugoslavia. He is currently a Puffin Writing Fellow at The Nation Institute. Scahill is the author of Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army.His new website is RebelReports.com

18-12-2009 om 22:25 geschreven door Vorser-Raadgever  

18-12-2009 om 20:45 geschreven door Vorser-Raadgever  

'Terwijl de minister op de strafbank zit voor haar slechte beheer van de ecologische crisis die ontstaan is nadat het zuiveringsstation Brussel-Noord meer dan een week volledig had stilgelegen, zijn we nu verbijsterd te moeten vernemen dat het station Brussel-Zuid zonder de minste milieuvergunning wordt uitgebaat', aldus Gosuin.

Hij herhaalt dat Huytebroeck in het dossier van het zuiveringsstation van Halen een 'ernstige politieke fout' heeft gemaakt door de fout op de privémaatschappij af te schuiven die het station uitbaat. 'Maar tegelijk werken de openbare diensten die het station Brussel-Zuid uitbaten al zeven maanden zonder vergunning.'

Illegaliteit

Volgens Gosuin, die met zijn partij op de oppositiebanken zit in het Brussels parlement, is een milieuvergunning verplicht omdat een zuiveringsinstallatie grote risico's voor het leefmilieu met zich meebrengt, 'waarvan we de gevolgen nu kunnen zien'.

'Ik begrijp niet hoe men politiek kan verantwoorden dat een zuiveringsstation in de illegaliteit wordt beheerd door een openbare dienst. De fouten blijven zich opstapelen voor de minister van Leefmilieu', zegt Gosuin. Hij is van plan Huytebroeck volgende week dinsdag in het parlement op de rooster te leggen over deze 'nieuwe disfunctie'.

'Nog tijd voor nieuwe vergunning'

Volgens Huytebroeck heeft het Brussels gewest nog tot februari de tijd om voor een nieuwe milieuvergunning te zorgen voor de uitbating van Brussel-Zuid. De procedure om tegen dan een vergunning te bekomen, is in volle gang. Het is wel complexer geworden omdat het station niet aan de Europese waterzuiveringsnormen beantwoordt.

Dwangsom van 300.000 euro per dag zolang Brussels zuiveringstation niet 100 procent draait

• vrijdag 18 december 2009
• 
  
• Auteur: ste, svh

Dwangsom van 300.000 euro per dag zolang Brussels zuiveringstation niet 100 procent draait

hrb

BRUSSEL - Het Brussels gewest, het Brussels Instituut voor Milieubeheer, de Brusselse watermaatschappij en Aquiris zijn in kort geding veroordeeld.

Brussel bevestigt dat puin leidingen blokkeerde

• vrijdag 18 december 2009
• Bron: belga
• Auteur: loa

BRUSSEL - Het Brussels Instituut voor Milieubeheer (BIM) heeft bevestigd dat er grote hoeveelheden puin in de hoofdleiding van het waterzuiveringsstation Brussel-Noord zijn aangetroffen. Daarmee lijken andere hypotheses rond het stilleggen van het station van de baan.

'Tijdens een recente inspectie werd er door onze inspecteurs een grote hoeveelheid bouwafval en puin, waaronder materialen zoals afdaken en stenen afvoerpijpen, in de hoofdleidingen van de rechter- en linkeroever van het waterzuiveringsstation vastgesteld', zegt het BIM in een aangetekende brief aan Aquiris. Het verzenden van de brief wordt door beide partijen bevestigd.

Aquiris wijst er nogmaals op dat het onderhoud van het rioolnetwerk stroomopwaarts de verantwoordelijkheid is van het Brussels gewest. Het binnenkomende afvalwater zou dus niet verzadigd mogen zijn met puin en bouwafval. De uitbater van het station wil nu met alle partijen rond de tafel gaan zitten om het probleem op te lossen.

De rechtbank besliste vrijdag in kort geding dat het waterzuiveringsstation onmiddellijk opnieuw moet worden opgestart. Als dat niet lukt met het een dagelijkse dwangsom van 300.000 euro betalen.

Donderdagavond werd al een eerste collector, Woluwe-Haren, opnieuw opgestart. De collector Rechteroever zal volgens Aquiris zondag of maandag opnieuw draaien. De inwerkingtreding van de collector Linkeroever kan nog een tiental dagen op zich laten wachten.
Als de beheerder van het station niet in beroep gaat, lijkt de dwangsom dus onafwendbaar.

We zijn benieuwd hoe die afdaken in de riolen belanden en wat er nog allemaal zal opduiken in het rioolwater en in het ganse dossier...

18-12-2009 om 20:36 geschreven door Vorser-Raadgever  

Te weinig opvang voor daklozen in Brussel

In Brussel zijn er te weinig opvangplaatsen voor daklozen. Afgelopen nacht heeft de sociale dienst CASU bijna 150 mensen moeten weigeren. Bij de mensen die om hulp komen vragen, zitten ook veel mensen zonder papieren die in een asielprocedure zitten. Dat meldt Radio 1 dinsdag."Tussen 18.00 uur gisteravond en 2.30 uur deze ochtend hebben wij ongeveer 149 mensen moeten weigeren wegens plaatsgebrek", zegt Timothy Boterdael van CASU. Driehonderd daklozen konden wel een slaapplaats vinden. Opmerkelijk is dat er onder de daklozen die om hulp komen vragen, ook veel mensen zonder papieren zijn die momenteel in een asielprocedure zitten. "Vorige winter ging het alleen maar om mensen zonder papieren of mensen die eigenlijk niet meer in een asielprocedure zaten", zegt Boterdael, "terwijl er nu effectief mensen tussen zitten die echt wel in een asielprocedure verkeren." De Brusselse OCMW-voorzitter Yvan Mayeur vraagt dat de federale regering het opvangprobleem voor asielzoekers sneller oplost. "Er zijn kandidaat-vluchtelingen die geen plaats vinden en ze nemen de plaatsen van de daklozen, voor ons is dat moeilijk om te beheren", zegt Mayeur. "Mensen zonder papieren, daklozen, kandidaat-vluchtelingen, voor ons is het absoluut moeilijk om al deze mensen op te vangen." (DWM)

• redbull:schandalig,van die belgische regering,jongens toch,en die anderen ,op hotel.ga naar de rechten van de mens .dit word hier werkelijk het toppunt
  
  misbruik melden19:43 - 15/12/2009
• Picasso:Dit is een regelrechte schande, onbegrijpelijk gewoon. Hoeveel kloosters staan er niet leeg?
  Barmhartigheid zonder geld, moet je niet verwachten van die gasten.
  
  misbruik melden17:43 - 15/12/2009
• jack:Niet te verwonderen als men ieder jaar een honderd duizend voor kiesvee laten bijkomen.Enfin mij een zorg degenen die ze zograag hier hebben dat die er maar voor zorgen
  
  misbruik melden15:40 - 15/12/2009
• Koest:Ja , en voor de autochtone Belgen is er geen plaats in de opvangplaatsen en hotelkamers want die zitten vol met illegalen en niet toegelaten asielzoekers .
  Beste daklozen , stap naar het centrum voor " Gelijke Kansen en Discriminatie " en dien daar klacht in wegens" Discriminatie en ONGELIJKE kansen , ze zullen u daar helpen om naar de Rechter te stappen .
  
  misbruik melden15:11 - 15/12/2009
• Friemelke:Verhofstad en zijn trawanten moeten die asiel zoekers maar opvangen ,daklozenopvang was er voor daklozen van hier en niet voor ondergedoken goudzoekers.
  
  misbruik melden14:37 - 15/12/2009
• rene:Enige wat de regering al gedaan heeft is problemen creëren, ben het strontbeu. Er zijn niet te weinig opvangplaatsen, er zijn teveel asielzoekers.
  
  misbruik melden13:47 - 15/12/2009
• Guderian .:Zet een massa tenten op een natte weide en steek er de echte belgen in ( het zijn wel clochards ) maar Belgen en de vreemde ratten in hotels en binnenkort in goedverwarmde kazernes alles gratis neen nog zakgeld elke maand , laat ze maar komen ze zijn nu al niet te tellen .
  
  misbruik melden10:45 - 15/12/2009
• sharky:Naastenliefde staat in de bijbel en in de koran, waar wachten ze op om klooster, kerk of moskee open te stellen?
  
  misbruik melden10:44 - 15/12/2009
• Tegendraads:Is er geen plaatsje meer in het linkse parlement of kamer??? Daar zou een politieker eens mee kunnen uitpakken. Maar nee: eerst iedereen binnenhalen en er dan niet voor kunnen zorgen? Da's de Belgische politiek ten top.
  
  misbruik melden10:22 - 15/12/2009
• WILL:het stilaan moe.
  
  misbruik melden09:29 - 15/12/2009
• WILL:SCHRIJNEND. Maar kan men aan de mensen zonder papieren, noemde men dat vroeger geen illigalen, de adressen van hun raadsman of -vrouw geven. Die staan toch voor hen op de bres. Kunnen ze daar misschien terecht voor opvang. 't Komt misschien wat cru over, maar ik word
  
  misbruik melden09:23 - 15/12/2009
• nonkelCharly:stuur ze met vakantie naar een warm eiland waar ze alles kunnen krijgen waar ze maar van dromen, voor de rest van hun leven, maar met die voorwaarde dat ze het eiland niet mogen verlaten...
  
  misbruik melden09:20 - 15/12/2009
• Betweter:Eerst alle opvangmogelijkheden naar de illegalen en dan vast stellen dat voor een autochtone dakloze geen opvang meer mogelijk is! Hebben zij het recht een dwangsom op te eisen, hebben zij recht op een hotelkamer. Uiteraard; in België zijn er geen twee snelwegen voor bijstand dus conclusie: iedereen gelijk voor de wet zelfs al ben je geen politieke of economische vluchteling!
  
  misbruik melden09:18 - 15/12/2009
• tijl:Bij de linkse groeperingen die toch zo voor die invasie zijn ,zijn vast nog veel kamers vrij. Of is het hun alleen maar te doen om stemmen te ronselen en dan hun "poulains" te laten rotten op straat? Waar zijn die liefhebbers van de illegalen?????
  
  misbruik melden09:05 - 15/12/2009
• duan:op hotel misschien ?
  of het koninklijke huis, zij hebben kamers genoeg.
  
  misbruik melden08:55 - 15/12/2009

17-12-2009 om 22:11 geschreven door Vorser-Raadgever  

Eerste gezuiverde afvalwater stroomt weer in de Zenne

• donderdag 17 december 2009
• Bron: DS/BELGA
• Auteur: Pieter Lesaffer

Eerste gezuiverde afvalwater stroomt weer in de Zenne

belga

BRUSSEL - Rond 18 uur stroomt een deeltje van het Brusselse afvalwater weer gezuiverd in de Zenne. Aquiris, die het waterzuiveringsstation Brussel-Noord uitbaat, heeft twintig procent van de capaciteit weer opengesteld.

'Vlaanderen betaalt pas bij dagelijkse metingen'

• donderdag 17 december 2009
• Bron: belga
• Auteur: svh

BRUSSEL - Vlaanderen wil in de toekomst haar facturen voor het waterzuiveringsstation Brussel-Noord pas betalen als uitbater Aquiris dagelijks meetresultaten rapporteert aan de Vlaamse overheid. Dat heeft Vlaams minister-president Kris Peeters (CD&V) donderdag gezegd in het Vlaams parlement. Het Vlaams gewest draagt nu bijna 16 procent van de kosten van het zuiveringsstation.

Huytebroeck geeft communicatiefout toe

• donderdag 17 december 2009
• Bron: belga
• Auteur: kld, llo

Huytebroeck geeft communicatiefout toe

herman ricour

BRUSSEL - De Brusselse minister van Leefmilieu, Evelyne Huytebroeck (Ecolo), heeft donderdag in het Brussels parlement toegegeven dat ze gefaald heeft in de communicatie rond het waterzuiveringsstation Brussel-Noord. Voor Huytebroeck draagt uitbater Aquiris de volledige verantwoordelijkheid voor de gevolgen van het stilleggen. Ze vraagt zich dan ook af of het bedrijf nog wel te vertrouwen is.

In de commissie Leefmilieu zei Huytebroeck niet terug naar de klimaattop in Kopenhagen te vertrekken zolang het zuiveringsstation niet opnieuw is opgestart. Dat kan volgens haar binnen de 24 uur gebeuren.

‘Ernstige politieke fout’

‘Het gaat hier helemaal niet om een communautair conflict, maar om een ecologisch conflict. De reactie van Vlaanderen is legitiem en het is een FDF'er die u dat zegt’, zei MR-fractieleider Didier Gosuin tegen de minister. Hij herinnerde eraan dat Huytebroeck gedurende vijfenhalf jaar de enige politiek verantwoordelijke was in het dossier.

Samen met Gosuin verklaarden verschillende Nederlandstalige parlementsleden dat Huytebroeck een ‘ernstige politieke fout’ had gemaakt door zich niet vroeger in het Brussels parlement te komen verantwoorden.

Veel vragen

De vele vragen die werden gesteld hadden betrekking op een hele waaier aspecten van het dossier: het conflict tussen het gewest en Aquiris, de informatie die door de minister werd gegeven, de houding van de vertegenwoordigers van de regering in de raad van bestuur van Aquiris, de functioneringsproblemen in het zuiveringsstation en de ecologische impact van het incident.

Excuses van Picqué voor moord op de Zenne

• donderdag 17 december 2009
• 
  
• Auteur: Guy Tegenbos

BRUSSEL - De chef van de Brusselse regering, minister-president Charles Picqué (PS), heeft gisteravond de excuses van het Brussels Hoofdstedelijk Gewest aangeboden aan Vlaanderen en aan ‘alle mensen in Vlaanderen die getroffen zijn’ door wat intussen ‘de moord op de Zenne’ is gaan heten in Vlaanderen.

17-12-2009 om 21:39 geschreven door Vorser-Raadgever  

17-12-2009 om 20:26 geschreven door Vorser-Raadgever  

16-12-2009 om 22:06 geschreven door Vorser-Raadgever  

Zuiveringsstation Brussel-Noord wordt heropgestart

VRT

wo 16/12/2009 - 16:44 Het waterzuiveringsstation Brussel-Noord wordt over enkele dagen weer opgestart. De privémaatschappij Aquiris werkt aan een tijdelijke oplossing, maar vraagt aan de bevoegde overheidsinstellingen om een permanente oplossing te vinden.

Het waterzuiveringsstation Brussel-Noord ligt al meer dan een week stil. Daardoor komt ongezuiverd afvalwater rechtstreeks in de Zenne terecht, die het vervuilde water op zijn beurt meevoert naar de Rupel en de Schelde.

De sluiting is een gevolg van een geschil tussen Aquiris en het Brussels Gewest over het puin en het zand in het vuile water dat het station zuivert, met name over wie het geld voor bijkomende installaties moet ophoesten, zodat dat puin niet in het station terechtkomt. Aquiris legde het station stil omdat de maatschappij naar eigen zeggen de veiligheid niet langer kon garanderen.

Maar volgens Vlaams minister van Leefmilieu Joke Schauvliege (CD&V) kan het waterzuiveringsstation gewoon blijven draaien. Schauvliege heeft het Brussels Gewest en Aquiris dan ook in kort geding gedagvaard. Ze eist dat Brussel-Noord opnieuw opengaat.

Aquiris laat in een persbericht weten dat het aan een voorlopige oplossing werkt om het station snel weer op te starten, "ook al is dit niet onze contractuele verantwoordelijkheid", voegt de maatschappij eraan toe. De voorlopige oplossing houdt in dat de maatschappij pompen zal huren die geen puin aanzuigen. Aquiris maakt zich sterk dat het station binnen een drietal dagen opnieuw kan draaien, de tijd die nodig is om de pompen te installeren.

"Aquiris heeft besloten om actie te ondernemen om het zuiveringswerk van de voorbije jaren niet volledig teniet te laten gaan", luidt het in het persbericht. Het bedrijf vraagt tegelijk dat de bevoegde overheidsinstellingen een permanente en duurzame oplossing zoeken.

en verder kunnen we alleen maar vaststellen dat de klimaattop in Kopenhagen een maat voor niets dreigt te worden. Het enige dat we tot nog toe onthouden van dat mondiale circus zijn beelden van kloppende agenten in robocopuitrusting. Het lijkt ons het juiste beeld voor de richting die de huidige politici die we vanaf nu polutici zullen noemen, wensen in te slaan voor de wereld van morgen. Repressie en verhoogde controles op al wat zich verheft boven schapengedrag.

16-12-2009 om 21:44 geschreven door Vorser-Raadgever  

Zolang de Zenne stinkt blijven we hier dooremmeren over dit schandaal. Niet dat er geen Andre problemen zijn maar dit tart alle verbeelding. Bovendien is er een extra persoonlijke dimensie voor opsteller van deze teksten. Ik ben zelf afkomstig van de boorden van de Zenne, geboren en getogen Vilvoordenaar en dus heeft de stank en de kleur van de Zenne voor mij geen geheimen. Ik vraag mij wel af wat de toekomstige bewoners van het prestigieuse Watersite-project hierover denken nu ze condooms, toiletpapier en drollen voorbij hun luxueuse lofts zien dobberen…

In elk geval zochten wij de reacties op van de Groen en ook van hun Franstalige zusterpartij Ecolo…

Groen vinden jullie hieronder en dat lijkt een vrij correcte eis. We schreven zelf ook al dat het ontslag eisen van de verantwoordelijke Brusselse Ecolo-minister weinig zoden aan de dijk zal brengen bij het heropstarten van de installaties. We worden wel stilaan pisgroen van de houding van de ganse Ecolobende. Dat een groene partij gans de zaak blijft doodzwijgen omdat één van hen de verantwoordelijke minister is, dat gaat er bij ons effe niet in. Ze kunnen vanaf nu niet meer beweren dat zij “anders” zijn. We weten dat bevoegde ministers in Belgistan niet vlug geneigd zijn om hun zitje op te geven na het maken van reuzekemels maar Ecolo beloofde net tegen deze mentaliteit op te komen. Nu er duidelijke fouten worden gemaakt binnen hun eigen “core-business” namelijk milieubeheer door één van hun verantwoordelijken blijft de ganse groene Franstalige kerk stom en kijkt de andere kant uit! Geloofwaardigheid = nul. Ze zijn dus ook maar uit op het delen van de macht en niet op het veranderen van de maatschappij. PUNT

http://www.groen.be/actualiteit/Persbericht-groen-eist-onmiddellijke-heropstart-van-waterzuiveringstation-brussel-noord_1309.aspx

Groen! eist onmiddellijke heropstart van waterzuiveringstation Brussel Noord

door Wouter Van Besien (Groen!), Filip Watteeuw (Vlaams parlementslid) op 15 december 2009 in "Milieu en natuur"

Groen! is verontwaardigd over de milieuschade die is aangericht in de Zenne en het hele Scheldebekken door het feit dat de waterzuiveringmaatschappij Aquiris haar installaties blijkbaar zonder enig overleg stil legde. We vragen onmiddellijke actie.

Groen! vindt dat het zuiveringsstation onmiddellijk terug moet opstarten. Milieuminister Huytebroeck moet hier direct werk van maken. Elke dag dat de zuivering stil ligt, is een bijkomende milieuramp voor Vlaanderen. Minister Huytebroeck moet zonder uitstel haar verantwoordelijkheid opnemen. De juridische en budgettaire discussies tussen het kabinet en Aquiris doen nu even niet ter zake. De prioriteit moet nu gaan naar het opnieuw vrijwaren van de milieukwaliteit in de Vlaamse oppervlaktewateren.

Voor Groen! is het feit dat de hele waterzuivering dagen stillag of op halve kracht werkte, onbegrijpelijk en onvergeeflijk. Groen! eist dat dit falen ten gronde uitgezocht wordt en dat vervolgens de gepaste besluiten getrokken worden. Ook gerechtelijk dienen de nodige stappen gezet te worden.

Maar het eerste en belangrijkste is nu dat de vervuilingstroom onmiddellijk wordt stop gezet en dat de installatie van Brussel Noord terug in werking wordt gezet.

Voilà dat is de Vlaamse groene versie, ok. Maar wat nu ergert bij die groene Franstalige zogezegde ecologisten is het prioriteitenlijstje dat ze blijkbaar menen te moeten aanleggen. Geen woord te vinden op hun websites over de massale pollutie van de Zenne maar wel een voorstel voor het doven van lichtreclames…op 14 december…”le suréclairage inutile et irresponsable”

Daarvan gaan we uit ons dak en halen onze guillotine boven om het mes te wetten …

http://www.rtlinfo.be/info/votre_region/bruxelles/293303/ecolo-veut-eteindre-bruxelles-la-nuit

Ecolo veut éteindre Bruxelles la nuit

Le groupe Ecolo de la Ville de Bruxelles a demandé ce lundi que la majorité en place sensibilise les commerçants et adopte un règlement volontariste pour limiter l'éclairage des nombreuses enseignes de magasins durant la nuit dans les artères commerçantes de la capitale.

Votre région - Bruxelles lun 14 déc, 14:17

Le groupe Ecolo de la Ville de Bruxelles a demandé ce lundi que la majorité en place sensibilise les commerçants et adopte un règlement volontariste pour limiter l'éclairage des nombreuses enseignes de magasins durant la nuit dans les artères commerçantes de la capitale.

Pour les Verts, il y a un suréclairage "inutile et irresponsable" alors que se tient actuellement le sommet de Copenhague. Disant encourager le développement commercial de la Ville et comprendre in fine une certaine "mise en lumière" de vitrines, le groupe Ecolo a dit s'interroger sur l'ampleur de l'éclairage, sur sa conception et sur son efficacité énergétique (recours au leds, ampoules économiques, par exemple).

Verder vinden we in de Standaard de bevestiging dat het station nog voor het weekend weer opstart…Daar willen we het ook even over hebben. Dus een probleem dat op een paar dagen kan worden opgelost heeft geleid tot het stilleggen van de ganse installatie? Dat zal waarschijnlijk en wereldpremière zijn. Voor de concurrenten van Veolia is dit gesneden koek als ze weer eens ergens deelnemen aan een openbare aanbesteding. Ze zouden gek zijn om deze antireclame niet te gebruiken.

Maar we blijven onze vraag maar steeds weer herhalen: hoe verantwoordt een overheid (Vlaamse en Brusselse) een gigantische investering zonder enige deftige vorm van controle binnen de uitbating? Blijkbaar had de Brusselse regering wel een zitje in één of ander bestuursorgaan van Aquiris maar vonden ze het zelfs niet nodig om daar aanwezig te zijn. Langs Vlaamse kant horen we niks, nogabollen. Elke privéinvesteerder die geld steekt in een speculaasbakkerij of in de fabricage van paternosterbollen vraagt een vertegenwoordiging in het bestuur. De overheid blijkt echter een blind vertrouwen te hebben in de privéuitbater. Met alle gevolgen vandien. Een dispuut over een probleem dat nu blijkbaar op een paar dagen opgelost kan worden…en hop de pompen worden stilgelegd en het milieu massaal verpest…

Mogen we zo slecht zijn te vragen wie nu betaalt voor de oplossing van het probleem. Want dat is ons ook nog niet duidelijk. Betaalt Aquiris of Brussel of Vlaanderen of de goede fee?

http://www.standaard.be/artikel/detail.aspx?artikelid=HR2JOB9J

Zuivering Zenne start deze week

• woensdag 16 december 2009
• Auteur: Pieter Lesaffer

Zuivering Zenne start deze week

hrb

BRUSSEL - Als de werken op schema blijven, dan kan het Brusselse waterzuiveringsstation voor het weekend weer opengaan.

Van onze redacteurs

Bart Brinckman

Binnen de drie dagen zou al het zand en puin uit de waterzuiveringsinstallaties opgeruimd moeten zijn. Dat is vernomen van bronnen binnen Aquiris, de uitbater van het zuiveringsstation Brussel-Noord. Wanneer deze klus achter de rug is, kan in principe weer gezuiverd water in de Zenne stromen.

Sinds vorige week dinsdag stroomt het afvalwater van 1,1 miljoen Brusselaars ongezuiverd de rivier in; het vervuilt daarmee ook de lager gelegen rivieren Dijle, Rupel en Schelde. Uitbater Aquiris heeft zijn installaties vorige week bewust stilgelegd, omdat hij naar eigen zeggen door het teveel aan zand en puin de veiligheid niet meer kon garanderen.

Pas gisteren, na precies een week van vervuiling, is de Brusselse minister van Milieu Evelyne Huytebroeck (Ecolo) in actie gekomen. Ze kondigde aan dat ze een kort geding aanspant tegen uitbater Aquiris. Eerder had de Vlaamse minister van Milieu Joke Schauvliege (CD&V) het Brusselse Gewest in gebreke gesteld met een procedure in kort geding.

De lethargie van Huytebroeck kwam de jongste dagen steeds zwaarder onder vuur. De minister verzuimde het om haar collega's in de regering van de noodsituatie op de hoogte te brengen. Heel wat van haar politieke collega's vernamen de problemen gewoon uit de krant. De minister schermde verder met een technische discussie, maar verzuimde ondertussen iets aan de acute situatie te verhelpen. Politiek steeg het water haar naar de lippen.

Morgen moet ze zich verantwoorden binnen de Brusselse regering. Zeker aan Vlaamse kant lopen de ministers rood aan. Maar on the record doen ze er liever het zwijgen toe. Brussels minister Brigitte Grouwels (CD&V) pronkte vorige week met een gunstige positie van Brussel als groene stad, maar vindt het ‘niet opportuun' om uitspraken te doen over het gedrag van de Ecolo-minister. Ook de andere coalitiepartners, Open VLD en Groen!, houden zich op de vlakte. Dat het verhaal in Franstalig België nauwelijks wordt opgepikt, maakt de situatie er niet eenvoudiger op.

Na enig aandringen van oppositie en meerderheid komt de milieucommissie van het Brusselse parlement donderdag voor een bijzondere zitting bijeen. Huytebroeck zal zich daar moeten verantwoorden voor haar aanpak.

Brussel slaat met verstomming

• woensdag 16 december 2009
• Auteur: Bart Brinckman

BRUSSEL - Analyse. Een Vlaams minister had er wellicht gelegen De lijdzaamheid van Brussels milieuminister Evelyne Huytebroeck (Ecolo) berokkent het Brussels Gewest en de groene partijen heel wat schade.

Van onze redacteur

Groen!-fractieleider Filip Watteeuw kende gisteren geen beste dag. Toen hij in het Vlaams Parlement eiste dat Vlaanderen meer zou investeren in het ‘herstel van rivieren en bossen' werd het Pascal Smet te machtig. Enkele maanden geleden wipte Groen! de SP.A'er uit de Brussels coalitie. De minister van Onderwijs pakte Groen! koud. ‘Met Groen! in de Brusselse regering, hebben we dode vissen in Vlaanderen', repliceerde hij bitsig. Geef hem maar eens ongelijk.

Groen!-voorzitter Wouter Van Besien is zich bewust van de heikele situatie. Hij spreekt over een worstcasescenario. Groen! heeft zich in Brussel met Ecolo gelieerd. Uitgerekend een Ecolominister pakt zo'n milieudossier ‘onhandig' aan. ‘Het zal wel dat er een juridisch conflict is', zo zei hij aan De Standaard. ‘Maar de milieuminister moet haar verantwoordelijkheid opnemen. Ze moet het zuiveringstation zo snel mogelijk opnieuw starten.' De voorzitter heeft het over een ‘onbegrijpelijke en onvergeeflijke beslissing'.

Intern gaat het er tussen Groen! en Ecolo zwaar aan toe. Ook Groen!-staatssecretaris in de Brusselse regering Bruno De Lille kreeg van zijn partij te horen dat hij moest optreden. Maar de staatssecretaris hulde zich in stilzwijgen. Hij kopieerde daarbij het gedrag van zijn collega's Brigitte Grouwels (CD&V) en Jean-Luc Vanraes (Open VLD): beiden hielden zich op de vlakte. Blijkbaar voelen de Vlamingen in de Brusselse regering zich te beroerd om hun nek uit te steken in een dossier dat de verbeelding tart. Jaren van watersanering dreigen verloren te gaan omdat een minister haar verantwoordelijkheid niet opneemt en haar collega's bovendien laten betijen.

Grouwels pochte vorige week op haar webstek dat Brussel goede punten scoort in de European Green Index, een overzicht van de groenste steden in Europa. ‘Zo verrassend is deze uitslag echter niet als men kijkt naar de positieve elementen. Inzake waterverbruik en milieubeleid scoort Brussel zeer goed', schreef ze. Op hetzelfde moment vertikte de hoofdstad van Europa het om het afvalwater van 1,1 miljoen mensen te zuiveren en degradeerde ze zich tot een Afrikaanse negorij.

Alleen oppositiepartij N-VA durfde het aan om het ontslag van Huytebroeck te vragen. De andere Vlaamse partijen willen de ministerraad en de vergadering van de milieucommissie van morgen afwachten. Nu al is duidelijk dat Huytebroeck haar collega's in de ministerraad of het parlement nooit heeft ingelicht. Meer nog, als de Bond Beter Leefmilieu eind vorige week niet zelf met het verhaal naar buiten was gekomen, liep de minister wellicht heel deze week in de straten van de Deense hoofdstad Kopenhagen te flaneren. Nu moet ze vervroegd van de milieutop terugkeren.

De aanpak in Vlaanderen verschilt ondertussen. Vlaams minister van Milieu Joke Schauvliege (CD&V) spande gisteren een kort geding aan tegen het Brussel Gewest. Minister-president Kris Peeters (CD&V) vroeg zijn Brusselse collega Charles Picqué (PS) om uitleg. Het valt trouwens te bekijken of een Vlaamse minister in een gelijkaardig dossier overeind zou blijven. Wellicht heeft het Vlaams Parlement toch minder geduld met een slordige minister die enkele rivieren om zeep helpt.

Hallucinante verhalen dus langs de kant van de Brusselse regering. Eerst dat ding opstarten en dan kunnen we maar beter gans de politieke kaste van de Brusselse regering op het Martelarenplein publiek onthoofden. Eindelijk eens iets leukers dan al die weeë kerstmarkten die bovendien nog verlicht zijn “de façon inutile et irresponsable”. Een guillotine is een erg milieuvriendelijk instrument met een minimale ecologische voetafdruk en een enorme impact als showelement en als volksvermaak. Dat kan van geen enkele ijspiste worden gezegd. En als we tijdens de terechtstellingen gratis glühwein uitdelen en plaatjes van Bing Crosby draaien is ook de kerstsfeer verzekerd…we beginnen al vast de “fosse commune” te graven en suggereren dat boven de onthoofde lijkjes best een laag dooie vis uit de Zenne en de Rupel kan gestort worden.

Onze eindejaarfeesten worden dan toch nog leuk!

We willen afsluiten met een klein vraagje aan de Vlamingen die roepen achter massale schadevergoedingen ten laste van het Brusselse gewest wegens de veroorzaakte vervuiling. Wie gaat daar uiteindelijk voor opdraaien dachten jullie????
Eens diep nadenken kan echt geen kwaad.
Jullie komen toch ook naar het Martelarenplein?

16-12-2009 om 20:46 geschreven door Vorser-Raadgever  

15-12-2009 om 22:05 geschreven door Vorser-Raadgever