Holocaust Remembrance International WebChat
Review our chats with
Dr. Konnilyn Feig || Gary Mokotoff || John Loftus
“We must, as Emily Dickinson said, hold deep within ourselves a sense of scandal so overwhelming that it affects every significant aspect of our lives. We must keep our soul terribly surprised…
“I do this tonite in a mode of some reverence and a continuing quest for the questions and answers. Let’s talk together.” Dr. Konnilyn Feig
Dear Friends,
On April 16, 1996 from 6-11 PM EST (3-8 PM PST, 10 PM-3 AM GMT) the Cybrary of the Holocaust and Project ABE hosted the first Holocaust Remembrance International WebChat online.
We are grateful to WebChat Broadcasting System(WBS) for providing the space. Below is our Yom Hashoah/Holocaust Remembrance Day Chat Conference schedule for April 16.
Here’s the Holocaust Remembrance Day Chat:
John Loftus
Topic: Finding and Prosecuting Nazi War Criminals
During the Carter and Reagan administrations, Attorney John Loftus was a prosecutor with the Justice Department’s Nazi War Crimes Unit. There he discovered Top Secret documents revealing that the Nazis he had been assigned to prosecute were working for NATO intelligence.
He resigned from the Justice Department and exposed the shocking Nazi scandal on an Emmy Award winning segment of “60 Minutes.” In 1982, he received CIA clearance to publish his first book, THE BELARUS SECRET.
During the last ten years, John Loftus has been an international advisor on Nazi prosecution, authored several books and articles, and received numerous humanitarian awards.
In 1992, he co-authored UNHOLY TRINITY, a history of how the Vatican helped Nazi smuggling networks to penetrate western intelligence. This international bestseller indicts a score of American politicians who worked with the Vatican.
Born in Boston, from an Irish Catholic family, Attorney Loftus now lives with his wife and daughter in St. Petersburg, Florida, where he is working on a film version of UNHOLY TRINITY.
His newest book SPYING ON ZION: THE SECRET WAR AGAINSTTHE JEWS, exposes the still classified archives of the Holocaust, how American Jews have been systematically wiretapped since 1944, and how Israel was set up for the Iran-Contra affair by President George Bush.
His non-profit foundation, The Loftus Fund, educates Americans about the dangers of communism, fascism, and indifference.
Gary Mokotoff
Topic: How to Document Victims
and Locate Survivors of the Holocaust
Gary Mokotoff is author of “How to Document Victims and Locate Survivors of the Holocaust” (Teaneck: New Jersey, Avotaynu, 1995), the only book designed to help people locate information about relatives and friends who were caught up in the Holocaust.
He is the past president of the Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies and publisher of Avotaynu, the International Review of Jewish Genealogy. Mokotoff commented that
“even today, 50 years after the Holocaust, people are still trying to determine the fate of loved ones. Few realize that there is a wealth of information available; you just have to know where to find it.”
Most children of Holocaust survivors believe it is impossible to ever learn about the family members lost in the Holocaust.
Gary has proved how possible it really is. He has documented over 200 of his own family members that were murdered in the Holocaust.
Dr. Konnilyn Feig
Topic: Researching and Teaching the Holocaust
After more than 20 years of extensive research, interviewing survivors, and visiting concentration camp sites, Dr. Konnilyn Feig published one of the best documentaries of the Holocaust, HITLER’S DEATH CAMPS (Holmes & Meir, 1979).
Since her work on the concentration camps, she has served as International Co-Chair of ARWAC – Aid to Refusnik Women and Children – a successful effort to get Prisoners of Conscience out of Old USSR.
She is now a specialist in Eastern Europe, especially former Yugoslavia, and Romania and has spent parts of most of the past10 years in Russia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Bulgaria, Croatia, etc.
She spent much time this past summer in Romania, Croatia, Bosnia. She is currently directing a volunteer project in Romania on Breast Cancer Assistance.
Dr. Feig still teaches the only Holocaust class in the 110 California Community Colleges and will have a WEB page on that soon. She recently led two sessions on the Holocaust for the National Conference on Humanities of the Community Colleges.
Dr. Konnilyn Feig is Dean of Business and Social Sciences and Professor of History and Political Science at Foothill College, Los Altos Hills, Ca.
Formerly, she was Senior VP of San Francisco State University and Dean of Arts and Sciences at University of Southern Maine.
Guidelines
1. To improve performance, this chat will be unmoderated unless we are forced to moderate. So let’s make it easy on each of the speakers by respecting their opinions, by not dominating the conversation and allowing others to join in, and perhaps reserving extensive questions to be answered by other means after the WebChat. This is a commemoration, not a free for all.
2. You should use WebChat’s system to your advantage. In our initial tests, we found that setting the refresh rate to 20 -50 is best; that refreshes your screen to show new questions. Also, if you are writing hit the Pause button first; when the screen refreshes, it may erase what you are typing unless you do this.
3. Please be patient with the system. We have been donated the space and appreciate it. Like many things on the Web, such chat efforts are in their infancy. We appreciate your patience and understanding if the technology is slow. But by maintaining a free discussion, if we all respect the rights of others to speak and be heard, we can have an interesting dialogue.
4. Let’s remember who this is for, the memory of those lost in the Holocaust. And those who do not want it to happen again. Peace…
Remember, this is a new technology and some browsers may not work. But give it a shot and visit.
See you next Tuesday.
Peace,
Michael Declan Dunn and Joey Korn
