US to Honor Nazis' Secret Soldier Slaves

Mietek Pemper convinced Schindler to make munitions to save prisoners' lives

(NEWSER) - Mietek Pemper, the Jewish prisoner who created "Schindler's List"—a list of concentration camp workers "essential" to the Nazi war effort, which saved hundreds from extermination—has died at age 91, reports the New York Times . Pemper was secretary for the commandant of the Plaszow concentration camp, a brutal Nazi who personally executed hundreds; believing the position to be a death sentence, Pemper started plotting against him. More»

'George,' a lesser-known tunnel, was dug after initial escape

(NEWSER) - It's called "George," the lesser-known tunnel of the Great Escape, and historians hope to uncover World War II equipment or personal effects when engineers excavate it. Prisoners of war dug “Tom,” “Dick,” and “Harry” for the famous 1944 escape attempt from the Nazi camp, and those who didn’t make it out on that night—not realizing that 50 of the 76 escapees were killed by the Gestapo—later dug “George” for their own attempt, the Telegraph reports. More»

He may be deported to Germany for war crimes trial

(AP) - An American resident with a reputed Nazi past is asking the US to block his deportation to Germany, citing humanitarian reasons. John Demjanjuk, a Ukrainian immigrant who turns 89 this week, is charged in an arrest warrant in Germany with 29,000 counts of acting as an accessory to murder while working as a guard at a Nazi death camp during World War II. More»

(NEWSER) - The trailer for Quentin Tarantino’s new film, Inglourious Basterds, is just 100 seconds long, but that's enough. "Perhaps there will prove to be a level of postmodern self-ironising,” Paul MacInnes writes in the Guardian. “Perhaps serving up Kill Bill with the Holocaust as a backdrop will be a fabulously worthwhile endeavor.” More likely, he writes, "This is going to be the worst film ever made!" More»

Mission to trace assets of murdered Jews facing resistance from Israeli government, businesses

(NEWSER) - The quest to return assets of Holocaust victims to their heirs, instigated by the Israeli parliament, is now focusing on Israel itself, the Wall Street Journal reports, and it's meeting as much resistance at home as it did in Europe. Many European Jews invested in what was then Palestine during the '20s and '30s, only to die at the hands of the Nazis before they could realize their dream of emigration. Israeli banks, and even the government, are accused of short-changing their heirs. More»