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2010-09-01
Study: CEO Compensation Totaled $598 Million At The 50 Companies That Laid-Off The Most Workers

Peak Oil And The German Government - Military Study Warns Of Potentially Drastic Oil Crisis

Mystery Over Russian General Found Dead On Turkish Beach

Internet Freedom - Will Russia's Bloggers Survive Censorship Push?

Life In Baghdad's Slums - Fighting to Survive In Sadr City

Moral Bankruptcy At HSH Nordbank - Investigators Look At Frameup And Iniquity At German Bank

Study: Illegal U.S. Immigration Has Slowed Considerably

Inquest Told MI6 Employee's Body Was In Padlocked Bag

Report Claims Andy Coulson, Prime Minister's Media Adviser, Discussed Hacking Phone Calls

Ferrari Recalls 458 Italias After A Spate Of Fires

Probe Of Alyeska Pipeline Spill Uncovers Troubling Pattern

Defiant Dick Fuld Blames False Rumors And The Fed For Lehman Bros. Collapse

U.S. Toll Rising In Afghanistan, 22 Soldiers Killed Since Friday

Charity Oxfam Hit By Fatal Bomb As U.K. Deputy Prime Minister Visits Troops In Afghanistan

Gov. Schwarzenegger Tells Top California State Officials To Stop Hiring

Australian Economy Surges 1.2 Percent In Second Quarter

Police: At Least 1 Hostage Taken At Discovery Channel Headquarters

U.S. Sen. Murkowski Concedes Primary Election Race To Miller

2010-08-31
U.S. Salmonella Scare: Farm Inspections Reveal Manure, Mice And Maggots

U.S. Warns East Coast To Brace For Impact Of Hurricane Earl

Commentary: The Sarrazin Debate - Germany Is Becoming Islamophobic

Commentary: The Sarrazin Debate - Germany Is Becoming Islamophobic

Hell On Earth - The U.N. Documents Congo's Bloodbath

Baghdad On High Alert As U.S. Officially Ends Combat Mission

Mexico Seizes 'La Barbie', Drug Lord Infamous For Beheadings

Greenland's Prime Minister Lambasts Greenpeace For Raiding Arctic Oil Rig

Interview With Ex-CIA Agent Michael Scheuer - 'Only The Taliban Are Not Corrupt'

'I Did Nothing Wrong' - German Gulag Prisoners Recall Their Ordeal

Stock Investors Brace For Another Ugly September

Four Israelis Shot Dead Near Jewish Settlement On Eve Of White House Talks


The Legacy Of Sobibor - Holocaust Survivors Hope Demjanjuk Trial Will Bring Closure
2009-11-30 16:52:50 (39 weeks ago)
Posted By: Intellpuke
(Read 667 times || 0 comments)

Suspected concentration camp guard John Demjanjuk goes on trial in Munich on Monday. A total of 35 relatives of murdered Jews are co-plaintiffs in the case - more than in any other Holocaust-related trial to date. Taking part in the proceedings is the only thing they can still do for their lost loved ones, they say.

No, no, says Rudie Cortissos, his family didn't originally come from Greece, the name just sounds Greek. They were Sephardic Jews from Portugal, he says.

Cortissos is sitting at the dining room table of his bright and spacious apartment in Amsterdam. He is surrounded by plush carpets, cut-glass decanters, silver bowls and wooden sculptures from Africa and Asia - the inventory of a successful life. Cortissos, 70, now retired, saw the world as a pharmaceuticals representative. His wife lifts up the framed photos from the sideboard, one by one: two children, four grandchildren.

Cortissos only has one photo of his mother Emmy. It shows a beautiful young woman. He also has the letter that she wrote to her husband and son, who were able to remain in their hiding place. She threw it from the train before it started heading east on May 18, 1943. Cortissos starts to read the letter, but his voice cracks with emotion. He takes off his horn-rimmed glasses and wipes his eyes with the sleeve of his suit jacket. "Words of encouragement," says Cortissos. "She had absolutely no idea what was going to happen."

His mother died a few days later in the gas chambers of the Sobibor extermination camp, 1,300 kilometers (800 miles) from Amsterdam, along with nearly all of the 2,461 men, women and children on board that train, which left the Dutch concentration camp of Westerbork headed for hell. More than 60 members of Cortissos' extended family lost their lives in the death factories of the Nazis.

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