Thank you for the excellent newsletter. Ben Ferencz is a hero for his tireless work and his elevated intelligence. History will be kind to Prosecutor Ferencz. Too bad he couldn’t have head our DOJ so we could have seen justice for Trump’s actions.
Thank you, Morgaan, for this comprehensive and moving history of Ferencz and his tireless work for justice. He held all nations accountable for war crimes. Tragically, the USA has turned its back on the moral lessons of WWII.
And Bush was a puppet of Rumsfeld and Cheney. Those two had worked in the Nixon administration destroying democracy, and then promoted PNAC - Project for a New American Century - before Baby Bush was “elected” - which was their plan to dominate the world. And Roger Stone, who adored Nixon, was their sidekick to ensure the Florida recount was halted and Baby Bush was installed. They all had massive corporate interests to advance and could never allow the ICC to get in their way. Criminality on every level. And here we are today… utter tragedy.
It has amazed me to watch Dick Cheney's daughter become a champion of democracy! As so many say, we would disagree with 90% of her political views. Nevertheless!
"All of his adult and professional life, Ferencz held that 'war-making itself is the supreme international crime against humanity' and that it should be deterred by punishment universally, wherever and whenever offenders are apprehended. His message, deceptively simple, was: 'Law. Not war.'" WOW!!! What a powerful essay. Now, why have I never heard of Ben Ferencz? And I never knew before about the origins of the ICC -- where Jack Smith honed his skills. Thank you so much for this!
This is from "Jews in the Soviet Union" by Anna Shternshis
The Russian Revolution of 1917 signaled radical changes for the lives of about five million Jews who populated the Russian empire at the time. The February Revolution of 1917 had already de jure abolished the Pale of Settlement. The October Revolution, led by the Bolshevik faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labor Party (RSDLP), increased the educational and employment opportunities for Jews. In addition to granting Jews some forms of cultural autonomy, efforts were made to provide opportunities for Jewish agricultural settlements in Crimea in the 1920s. The Jewish autonomous region was established in the Soviet Far East—Birobidzhan—in 1934, with Yiddish as a state language. In 1939, the Soviet Union annexed parts of Eastern Poland, Transnistria, and the Baltic States, all heavily populated by Jews. By 1939, the Jewish population of the Soviet Union constituted about 3.2 million people. In 1941, the German army invaded the Soviet Union, thus starting the Great Patriotic War that took the lives of twenty-seven million Soviet citizens, including about 1.8 million Soviet Jews. Jews served in the Soviet military (460,000 enlisted; 140,000 killed); another 1.2 million Soviet Jews and 200,000 Polish Jews spent the war in the Soviet Central Asian Republics. From 1948–1953, Soviet Jews experienced a great blow to their culture and lives. The Jewish anti-Fascist Committee was shut down in 1948, its members arrested, and thirteen of them killed on 12 August 1952. In January 1953, a number of prominent physicians, almost all Jews, were arrested for allegedly trying to poison Joseph Stalin. A wave of anti-Semitism swept the country. After Stalin’s death, state and grassroots anti-Semitism, the absence of diplomatic relations with Israel after 1967 (complicated by the Cold War), and the general stagnation of the Soviet economy in the 1960s–1980s were important political factors that influenced the lives of Soviet Jews. Some Soviet Jewish intellectual leaders—including Anatoly Sharansky, Larisa Bogoraz, and others—openly spoke about their desire to leave the Soviet Union for Israel. With the support of the North American Jewish community, 163,000 exit visas were granted in the late 1960s–1970s. Starting from the mid-1980s, the Soviet borders relaxed its grip and Jews expressed the desire to leave and eventually were allowed to do so. Between 1988 and 2010, over 1.6 million Jews left the territory of the former Soviet Union and settled in Israel (over one million of that total number), the United States, Canada, Germany, and Australia. The transnational nature of the Russian Jewish Diaspora, with Russia still housing about 200,000 Jews, suggests a new period of Russian Jewish history.
Thank you for the excellent newsletter. Ben Ferencz is a hero for his tireless work and his elevated intelligence. History will be kind to Prosecutor Ferencz. Too bad he couldn’t have head our DOJ so we could have seen justice for Trump’s actions.
Ferencz was a great man. It's just a shame that he had to see the resurgence of an evil that he devoted his life to try and destroy.
Thank you, Morgaan, for this comprehensive and moving history of Ferencz and his tireless work for justice. He held all nations accountable for war crimes. Tragically, the USA has turned its back on the moral lessons of WWII.
Clinton signed the order for the International Criminal Court and Bush the Younger UNSIGNED it. He UNSIGNED it.
And Bush was a puppet of Rumsfeld and Cheney. Those two had worked in the Nixon administration destroying democracy, and then promoted PNAC - Project for a New American Century - before Baby Bush was “elected” - which was their plan to dominate the world. And Roger Stone, who adored Nixon, was their sidekick to ensure the Florida recount was halted and Baby Bush was installed. They all had massive corporate interests to advance and could never allow the ICC to get in their way. Criminality on every level. And here we are today… utter tragedy.
It has amazed me to watch Dick Cheney's daughter become a champion of democracy! As so many say, we would disagree with 90% of her political views. Nevertheless!
Not surprised.
WHAT?!!!
No more survivors or US soldiers who witnessed close up.
Spelling. Heir
YIKES!!!! THANK YOU, DEAREST EDITOR!
?? Heir is spelled correctly; what's the problem?
"All of his adult and professional life, Ferencz held that 'war-making itself is the supreme international crime against humanity' and that it should be deterred by punishment universally, wherever and whenever offenders are apprehended. His message, deceptively simple, was: 'Law. Not war.'" WOW!!! What a powerful essay. Now, why have I never heard of Ben Ferencz? And I never knew before about the origins of the ICC -- where Jack Smith honed his skills. Thank you so much for this!
Such IMPORTANT INFORMATION!!! Thank you!!
Interesting that as I think about it from a history point of view, Fiddler on the Roof viewpoint, how many Jewish people stayed in Russia after WW II?
This is from "Jews in the Soviet Union" by Anna Shternshis
The Russian Revolution of 1917 signaled radical changes for the lives of about five million Jews who populated the Russian empire at the time. The February Revolution of 1917 had already de jure abolished the Pale of Settlement. The October Revolution, led by the Bolshevik faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labor Party (RSDLP), increased the educational and employment opportunities for Jews. In addition to granting Jews some forms of cultural autonomy, efforts were made to provide opportunities for Jewish agricultural settlements in Crimea in the 1920s. The Jewish autonomous region was established in the Soviet Far East—Birobidzhan—in 1934, with Yiddish as a state language. In 1939, the Soviet Union annexed parts of Eastern Poland, Transnistria, and the Baltic States, all heavily populated by Jews. By 1939, the Jewish population of the Soviet Union constituted about 3.2 million people. In 1941, the German army invaded the Soviet Union, thus starting the Great Patriotic War that took the lives of twenty-seven million Soviet citizens, including about 1.8 million Soviet Jews. Jews served in the Soviet military (460,000 enlisted; 140,000 killed); another 1.2 million Soviet Jews and 200,000 Polish Jews spent the war in the Soviet Central Asian Republics. From 1948–1953, Soviet Jews experienced a great blow to their culture and lives. The Jewish anti-Fascist Committee was shut down in 1948, its members arrested, and thirteen of them killed on 12 August 1952. In January 1953, a number of prominent physicians, almost all Jews, were arrested for allegedly trying to poison Joseph Stalin. A wave of anti-Semitism swept the country. After Stalin’s death, state and grassroots anti-Semitism, the absence of diplomatic relations with Israel after 1967 (complicated by the Cold War), and the general stagnation of the Soviet economy in the 1960s–1980s were important political factors that influenced the lives of Soviet Jews. Some Soviet Jewish intellectual leaders—including Anatoly Sharansky, Larisa Bogoraz, and others—openly spoke about their desire to leave the Soviet Union for Israel. With the support of the North American Jewish community, 163,000 exit visas were granted in the late 1960s–1970s. Starting from the mid-1980s, the Soviet borders relaxed its grip and Jews expressed the desire to leave and eventually were allowed to do so. Between 1988 and 2010, over 1.6 million Jews left the territory of the former Soviet Union and settled in Israel (over one million of that total number), the United States, Canada, Germany, and Australia. The transnational nature of the Russian Jewish Diaspora, with Russia still housing about 200,000 Jews, suggests a new period of Russian Jewish history.
Thank you for the info.
You bet! [s]