Swedish queen's father helped Jew escape Nazis

The father of Sweden's queen helped at least one Jew escape Hitler's Germany, according to a report commissioned by Queen Silvia in response to media allegations about his Nazi past.

The report, published Tuesday, said although Walther Sommerlath belonged to the NSDAP Nazi party, he appeared to have been an inactive member and had helped a Jewish businessman escape the Holo

caust.

Sweden's Queen Sylvia commissioned the report into her father. Eraldo Peres/Associated Press

Swedish media reported in 2002 that Sommerlath had joined Germany's Nazi party in 1934 and took over Efim Wechsler's consumer goods company under unclear circumstances in 1939.

But in Tuesday's report, World War II expert Erik Norberg said documents indicate that just before the outbreak of World War II Sommerlath helped Wechsler escape Germany to South America, where he had offered him a coffee plantation and other assets in exchange for the company.

Norberg said the offer was "clearly an attractive one," because the exclusion of Jews from business life in Germany meant he could not take his assets with him.

However, other researchers have questioned the nobility of Sommerlath's actions, as he too gained from the deal.

Findings dismissed

The American Gathering of Holocaust Survivors and their Descendants on Tuesday dismissed the report's findings as "self-serving" and said they lacked credibility.

"The report was not an independent inquiry — it was commissioned by the queen with the participation of her cousin, a Brazilian lawyer. Such a probe can only raise suspicions of a whitewash," the organization said in a statement.

"What Queen Silvia has produced only raises further troubling questions," it added.

Silvia commissioned the report in May, in reaction to the Swedish Cold Facts TV program that portrayed her and her father negatively, the Royal Court said at the time.

On Tuesday, she was quoted as telling local daily Goteborgsposten that she was surprised by the report's findings.

"All this has come as a complete surprise to me and my brothers," Silvia said. "Our father never told us anything about this time and us children never asked either."

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2011/08/09/queen-sweden-father.html?

Parliament Speaker Mehmet Ali ªahin has urged Canada to change its policies recognizing Armenian genocide claims, requesting that the country’s Parliament not adopt more resolutions on the same issue in April.
"Our wish is not [to see] new problems this April,” ªahin said during a joint press conference with his visiting Canadian counterpart, Noel Kinsella.
The Canadian Parliament recognized the 1915 killings of Armenians at the hands of the Ottoman Empire as genocide in 2004. The parliamentary recognition was later approved by the government as well, prompting severe reaction from Turkey. However, because the Canadian government later softened its comments on the issue, relations have improved between the two in recent years. (...)

Turkey urges Canada not to adopt new 'genocide' resolution

January 25, 2011 | 18:54 

In his Jan 25 speech at the CE Parliamentary Assembly Jan, Turkish President Abdullah Gul denied the Armenian Genocide once again.

Responding to a delegate`s question about the Armenian Genocide, President Gul said he will not accept the term “genocide”, Zaman reports. He called on those recognizing the Armenian Genocide to set up a committee of historians on both sides. The committee will have access to the civil and military archives and let it work, the Turkish leader said.

According to him, Turkey regrets the sad events that took place in Turkey 100 years ago. At the same time the Turkish Government had to wage war on five fronts. Some citizens rebelled as they were being killed. People must be murdered for ethnic or religious reasons for the crime to be qualified as “genocide”. However, Armenians were members of higher courts, court presidents and even Turkish ambassadors to some regions, Gul said. All the Armenian churches are open in Istanbul. It is unacceptable to call the events genocide, the Turkish leader said.

http://news.am/eng/news/45772.html