Lectures

1938: Expulsion and the Road to Destruction

The year Jews realised there was no future...their fate was sealed

Anschluss, Evian, Munich, Zbaszyn, Krystallnacht

In 1923 Hitler stated his ideal was "not to divide the attention of the people but to concentrate that attention on a single enemy..."
That enemy was the Jews and the year '1938 marked the turning point for German and European Jewry'
Austria was taken over in the Anschluss. Evian gave hope that the world would help the dispossessed Jews of Austria and Germany
The Munich Agreement gave hope that there would be 'peace with honour'.
Then the first deportation of Jews from Germany was on October 27th to the little known Zbaszyn
One family's agony led to revenge, murder and Krystallnacht.
Then the Jews knew there was no hope...

Were the Concentration Camps Polish or German?

Were the Poles "victims" or "perpetrators"?

The greatest number of Righteous Gentiles from any country is Poland.

But what of Jedwabne, Kielce and The Polish Church.

Was and is Poland irredeemably anti-Semitic and are they rewriting Holocaust history?

Kastner Trial

Towards the end of the war, Hungarian Jews suffered the same fate as their brethren in the rest of Europe. Whilst hundreds of thousands were transported to their deaths in Auschwitz, Kastner negotiated with Adolf Eichmann. Indeed Kastner saved 1,684 Jews. But did he save his friends and family at the expense of the others? His name resonates with controversy and betrayal. Was negotiating with the Nazis morally reprehensible? Allegations made against him resulted in a trial in 1953 when he was accused of having “sold his soul to the devil”.

Why did the Israeli government become involved? Who assassinated him, and why?

Quisling, Victim, Hero?

Eichmann Trial

A major player or a minor cog in the ‘ Final Solution ’? Who was Eichmann? What took him on a journey from Solingen to Linz, Wansee and Berlin to Argentina and finally Jerusalem? Why did Israel break international law in his capture and hold a ‘show trial’? Elie Wiesel stated ‘Trial was more important in the field of education than in the field of justice.’

Was his trial ‘the turning point in the awareness of the world toward the tragedy of the Jewish people’? We will examine Eichmann the man, his actions, his capture and the meaning of the trial for Jews, Israel and mankind.

Disputation 1263

‘Inquisition in Spain: Jews and Judaism on trial. In the form of a medieval debate,Ramban fights against apostate Jews and the might of the Church. Issues of Messiah, halachah, God and the Talmud; but were the Jews blinded to the ‘truth’?. (followed by film)

Balfour Declaration 1917: Why there was never the promise of a Jewish state

During the First World War, consider how nations chased after imagined world Jewish support. Understand why British political interests never promised the Jews a state in Palestine.

A story of double dealing, broken promises, secret agents, fanatics, prophecy and illusion. Never more relevant than today as the Middle East spirals into the abyss.

Anniversary Commemorations of the murder of Hungarian Jewry

This period in 1944 was one of the Deportation, destruction and murder of 437,000 Hungarian Jews in Auschwitz, the spreading of the information of the Auschwitz Protocol to the world, the beginning of the so-called ‘ blut fur waren’ negotiations, and the saving of 1684 Jews on the Kastner Train. In memory of the thousands of communities including Munkacs, Novi Sad, Kolozsvar and Satmar, we, along with March of The Living and communities around the world will remember Hungarian Jewry.

What were the moral choices?

Victims, Heroes, Quislings?

The Hidden Secrets in the Sistine Chapel: Michelangelo and the Pope

Why does it appear there is nothing Christian on the Ceiling of one of the holiest Christian places on earth?
Why only Old Testament imagery?
What is Supersessionism?
Where are the Hebrew letters, Kabbalistic hints and family tree?
How did MIchelangelo create such stunning beauty and what was the influence of Leonardo da Vinci?
Who is not filled with admiration and amazement at the awesome sight?

Chaim Arlosoroff

Murdered on the beach in Tel Aviv , June 1933
He negotiated with the Nazis to save German lives
Had an affair with Goebbel's wife
His actions were seen as treason and betrayal. His murder has never been solved
Who was Arlosoroff and why does his ghost continue to haunt?

Is there any joy in being Jewish??!!

HERSCHEL GRYNSZPAN

“Being a Jew is not a crime. I am not a dog. I have a right to live and the Jewish people have a right to exist”
Follow the sequence of events: deportation, revenge, assassination, Krystallnacht and the end of German Jewry
1938

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