DECEMBER 17 AND 18, 2018


NEWS AND VIEWS


I DON’T WANT TO SOUND EVIL, BUT “HIP, HIP, HOORAY!!”

Trump Foundation agrees to dissolve with judge to oversee dispersal to other charities
"Reputable" charities will receive money from the Trump family’s charitable organization, which was formed in 1987.
Dec. 18, 2018 / 11:16 AM EST / Updated 1:09 PM EST
By Tom Winter, Hallie Jackson and Kristen Welker

The Trump Foundation — the charitable foundation started by President Donald Trump years before he became a presidential candidate, which New York's top prosecutor said exhibited a "shocking pattern of illegality" — will dissolve under pressure from the state's attorney general, according to a court filing.

The foundation will give away its assets to other non-profit organizations in the next 30 days, according to an agreement between state prosecutors and the Trump Foundation, according to an agreement reached between New York Attorney General Barbara Underwood and the Trump Foundation.

It does not stop the lawsuit the AG’s office has filed against the foundation, which was formed in 1987, and that action will continue.

“Our petition detailed a shocking pattern of illegality involving the Trump Foundation — including unlawful coordination with the Trump presidential campaign, repeated and willful self-dealing, and much more," Underwood said in a statement.

"This amounted to the Trump Foundation functioning as little more than a checkbook to serve Mr. Trump’s business and political interests."

Only "reputable" charities, approved by Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Saliann Scarpulla and the attorney general's office, will be able to receive funds from the soon-to-be-defunct charity, according to Underwood.

"Today’s stipulation accomplishes a key piece of the relief sought in our lawsuit earlier this year. Under the terms, the Trump Foundation can only dissolve under judicial supervision — and it can only distribute its remaining charitable assets to reputable organizations approved by my office," Underwood said in a statement.

“This is an important victory for the rule of law, making clear that there is one set of rules for everyone. We’ll continue to move our suit forward to ensure that the Trump Foundation and its directors are held to account for their clear and repeated violations of state and federal law.”

Trump Organization attorney Alan Futerfas told NBC News on Tuesday that his clients are “happy we could get it resolved” with Underwood's office.

Futerfas also said his clients were the ones who sought a dissolution in the first place.

In a prepared statement, Futerfas claimed the foundation has been a successful charity that's "distributed approximately $19 million, including $8.25 million of the President’s personal money, to over 700 different charitable organizations with virtually zero expenses."

Futerfas accused the state prosecutors of grandstanding.

"The NYAG’s inaccurate statement of this morning is a further attempt to politicize this matter," he said.

The White House declined to immediately comment.

Tom Winter
Tom Winter is a producer and reporter for the NBC News Investigative Unit based in New York, covering crime, courts, terrorism, and financial fraud on the East Coast.

Hallie Jackson
Hallie Jackson is the chief White House correspondent for NBC News.

MSNBC Anchors - Season 15
Kristen Welker
Kristen Welker is a White House correspondent for NBC News.

David K. Li contributed.


PENNY MARSHALL WASN’T THE MOST “IMPORTANT” AMERICAN WOMAN, BUT SHE WAS TO ME ONE OF THE DEAREST. LAVERNE AND SHIRLEY WERE CHARMINGLY WACKY, ATTRACTIVE WOMEN, LIVING TOGETHER AS MANY IN REAL LIFE DID WHEN I WAS IN MY TWENTIES, AND NOBODY MENTIONED ANY SEXUAL ISSUES AT ALL. WE LIVED WITH OTHER WOMEN TO SAVE MONEY ON HOUSING AND FOR COMPANIONSHIP. ON THEIR SHOW THERE WERE ALSO TWO REGULAR MALE CHARACTERS OF A NON-HEROIC AND ROMANTIC SORT WHO COMPLICATED THEIR LIVES WITH SCRAPES AND ILLOGICAL PURSUITS OF THEIR OWN. I HAVEN’T SEEN ANY OF THOSE SHOWS IN YEARS, EVEN ON OUR “GOLDEN OLDIES” CHANNELS. BRING ‘EM BACK, GUYS!

MARSHALL DIRECTED SOME OF THE BETTER MOVIES THAT I REMEMBER SUCH AS “BIG,” “AWAKENINGS,” AND “A LEAGUE OF THEIR OWN.”

https://www.mrt.com/entertainment/television/article/Actress-and-director-Penny-Marshall-dies-at-age-75-13475316.php#photo-16662331
Actress and director Penny Marshall dies at age 75
Jake Coyle, Ap Film Writer Updated 1:44 pm CST, Tuesday, December 18, 2018
Updated 1:25 pm CST, Tuesday, December 18, 2018

FILE IMAGES:

IMAGE 2 OF 94 -- FILE - In this Sept. 9, 1979 file photo, Penny Marshal, left, and Cindy Williams from the comedy series "Laverne & Shirley" appear at the Emmy Awards in Los Angeles. Marshall died of complications from diabetes on Monday, Dec. 17, 2018, at her Hollywood Hills home. She was 75. Photo: George Brich, AP

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Penny Marshall, who starred in "Laverne & Shirley" before becoming one of the top-grossing female directors in Hollywood, has died. She was 75.

Mashall's publicist, Michelle Bega, said Marshall passed away in her Hollywood Hills, Calif., home on Monday due to complications from diabetes.

Marshall starred alongside Cindy Williams in the hit ABC comedy "Laverne & Shirley," which aired from 1976 to 1983. As a filmmaker, she became the first woman to direct a film that grossed more than $100 million with "Big," the 1988 comedy starring Tom Hanks. She also directed "A League of Their Own," ''Jumpin' Jack Flash" and "Awakenings*."


AWAKENINGS*

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Awakenings
Awakenings
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article is about the 1990 film. For the 1973 non-fiction book, see Awakenings (book).

Awakenings is a 1990 American drama film based on Oliver Sacks' 1973 memoir of the same title. It tells the story of Malcolm Sayer, who, in 1969, discovered beneficial effects of the drug L-Dopa. He administered it to catatonic patients who survived the 1917–28 epidemic of encephalitis lethargica. Leonard Lowe and the rest of the patients were awakened after decades and have to deal with a new life in a new time. The film was nominated for three Academy Awards.

Directed by Penny Marshall, the film was produced by Walter Parkes and Lawrence Lasker, who first encountered Sacks's book as undergraduates at Yale University and optioned it a few years later. Awakenings stars Robert De Niro, Robin Williams, Julie Kavner, Ruth Nelson, John Heard, Penelope Ann Miller, and Max von Sydow. The film features a cameo appearance by jazz musician Dexter Gordon (who died before the film's release) and then-unknowns Bradley Whitford, Peter Stormare, and Vincent Pastore.

Plot

In 1969, Dr. Malcolm Sayer (Robin Williams) is a dedicated and caring physician at a local hospital in the The Bronx borough of New York City. After working extensively with the catatonic patients who survived the 1917–1928 epidemic of encephalitis lethargica, Sayer discovers certain stimuli will reach beyond the patients' respective catatonic states; actions such as catching a ball, hearing familiar music, and experiencing human touch all have unique effects on particular patients and offer a glimpse into their worlds. Leonard Lowe (Robert De Niro) proves elusive in this regard, but Sayer soon discovers that Leonard is able to communicate with him by using an Ouija board.

After attending a lecture at a conference on the subject of the L-Dopa drug and its success with patients suffering from Parkinson's disease, Sayer believes the drug may offer a breakthrough for his own group of patients. A trial run with Leonard yields astounding results: Leonard completely "awakens" from his catatonic state. This success inspires Sayer to ask for funding from donors so that all the catatonic patients can receive the L-Dopa medication and experience "awakenings" back to reality.

Meanwhile, Leonard is adjusting to his new life and becomes romantically interested in Paula (Penelope Ann Miller), the daughter of another hospital patient. Leonard also begins to chafe at the restrictions placed upon him as a patient of the hospital, desiring the freedom to come and go as he pleases. He stirs up a revolt by arguing his case to Sayer and the hospital administration. Sayer notices that as Leonard grows more agitated, a number of facial and body tics are starting to manifest, which Leonard has difficulty controlling.

While Sayer and the hospital staff are thrilled by the success of L-Dopa with this group of patients, they soon find that it is a temporary measure. As the first to "awaken", Leonard is also the first to demonstrate the limited duration of this period of "awakening". Leonard's tics grow more and more prominent and he starts to shuffle more as he walks, and all of the patients are forced to witness what will eventually happen to them. He soon begins to suffer full body spasms and can hardly move. Leonard puts up well with the pain, and asks Sayer to film him, in hopes that he would someday contribute to research that may eventually help others. Leonard acknowledges what is happening to him and has a last lunch with Paula where he tells her he cannot see her anymore. When he is about to leave, Paula dances with him, and for this short period of time his spasms disappear. Leonard and Sayer reconcile their differences, but Leonard returns to his catatonic state soon after. The other patients' fears are similarly realized as each eventually returns to catatonia no matter how much their L-Dopa dosages are increased.

Sayer tells a group of grant donors to the hospital that although the "awakening" did not last, another kind — one of learning to appreciate and live life — took place. For example, he himself overcomes his painful shyness and asks Nurse Eleanor Costello (Julie Kavner) to go out for coffee, many months after he had declined a similar proposal from her. The nurses also now treat the catatonic patients with more respect and care, and Paula is shown visiting Leonard. The film ends with Sayer standing over Leonard behind a Ouija board, with his hands on Leonard's hands, which are on the planchette. "Let's begin," Sayer says.


TRUMP “DONE GOOD” THIS TIME. THANK YOU!

https://www.cnn.com/2018/12/18/politics/bump-stocks-ban/index.html
Trump administration officially bans bump stocks
By Laura Jarrett, CNN
Updated 11:29 AM ET, Tue December 18, 2018

(CNN)The Trump administration rolled out a new federal regulation Tuesday officially banning bump-fire stocks.

Those who possess the devices, which make it easier to fire rounds from a semi-automatic weapon by harnessing the gun's recoil to "bump" the trigger faster, will have 90 days to turn in or otherwise destroy them from the date that the final rule is published in the federal register -- likely this Friday -- according to senior DOJ officials.

Bump stocks gained national attention last year after a gunman in Las Vegas rigged his weapons with the devices to fire on concertgoers, killing 58 people.

Officials at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives had previously concluded bump stocks were merely a gun accessory or firearm part, not subject to federal regulation, but President Donald Trump called on the Justice Department to outlaw the devices soon after the tragedy.

Justice Department officials told CNN Tuesday they took a "fresh look" at the case law, technology, and the devices and their functionality "in light of modern developments."

The rule concludes that bump-fire stocks, "slide-fire" devices, and devices with certain similar characteristics all fall within the prohibition on machine guns by allowing a "shooter of a semiautomatic firearm to initiate a continuous firing cycle with a single pull of the trigger," and therefore, they are illegal under federal law.

Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker signed the new rule Tuesday morning, according to the officials -- a notable move given the string of legal challenges surrounding the constitutionality of his appointment. The officials said they stood ready to defend against any challenges to the rule, and pointed to the fact that the Office of Legal Counsel at the Department signed off on it.

As for how many gun owners will be affected by the new rule, officials explained it was difficult to provide precise figures, saying bump stocks "aren't widespread, but they are not uncommon."

Trump said in October he told the National Rifle Association that "bump stocks are gone," but how the group responds to the final rule remains to be seen. A spokesperson for the NRA said in October 2017 that the ATF "should review bump-fire stocks to ensure they comply with federal law," but made clear it opposed the broader gun-control legislation raised by some in Congress.


I DON’T CARE IF FLYNN IS PUT IN PRISON, BECAUSE HE WAS AN INTERNATIONAL SCOUNDREL, AS THE JUDGE SAID. IF ONLY HIS PUPPET MASTER WOULD BE PUNISHED AS WELL.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-46609628
Michael Flynn: Judge suggests ex-Trump aide 'sold out' US
DECEMBER 18, 2018 7 hours ago

REUTERS
Image caption -- Michael Flynn arrives at court on Tuesday

A judge has suggested US President Donald Trump's former national security adviser sold out his country when he lied to the FBI about Russia contacts.

Michael Flynn was due to be sentenced, but his lawyers requested a delay after the judge's blistering comments.

Flynn pleaded guilty in December 2017 to lying about his contacts with the Russian ambassador to the US.

He is the first Trump administration figure to face sentencing in the probe into alleged Kremlin election meddling.

Hours before Flynn turned up for the hearing in Washington DC, President Trump tweeted to him: "Good luck today in court."

The Republican president regularly lambasts the US justice department investigation into whether he or his aides colluded with an alleged Russian plot to sway the 2016 US election in Mr Trump's favour.


Skip Twitter post by @realDonaldTrump

Donald J. Trump
✔
@realDonaldTrump
Good luck today in court to General Michael Flynn. Will be interesting to see what he has to say, despite tremendous pressure being put on him, about Russian Collusion in our great and, obviously, highly successful political campaign. There was no Collusion!

68.3K
6:41 AM - Dec 18, 2018
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41.2K people are talking about this
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End of Twitter post by @realDonaldTrump


What happened in court?

Flynn was due to learn his fate on Tuesday, but the judge's stern comments led the former national security adviser's legal team to scramble for a postponement.

Judge Emmet Sullivan agreed to reschedule the sentencing to 13 March.

Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who is leading the Russia investigation, had asked for Flynn to be spared prison time.

Mr Mueller's office cited Flynn's "substantial" co-operation with the inquiry and career of military service.

Image copyrightGETTY IMAGES
Image caption -- Supporters of Flynn chanted outside the court as he arrived

However, Judge Sullivan told Flynn: "This is a very serious offence.

"A high-ranking senior official of the government making false statements to the FBI while on the physical premises of the White House."

At one point, Judge Sullivan asked the prosecutor whether the special counsel's office had ever considered charging Flynn with treason.

The judge told Flynn: "Arguably, you sold your country out."

Judge Sullivan also said he "can't hide my disgust, my disdain" for the offence.

Image copyrightGETTY IMAGES
Image caption
Flynn (far right) is seen during a presidential call with Russia's Vladimir Putin in 2017

Flynn reaffirmed his guilt in court and said he "was aware" at the time of his FBI interview that lying to them was a crime.

Last week, his legal team had argued that investigators never made clear to him it was a crime to lie, and had discouraged him from having a lawyer present.

But prosecutors had hit back in court documents: "He does not need to be warned it is a crime to lie to federal agents to know the importance of telling them the truth."

In a Fox News interview on Tuesday, White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said Flynn had been "ambushed" by FBI agents who "broke every standard protocol they have".

A small group of protesters were outside court, holding a large inflatable rat, while other demonstrators showed up in support of Flynn.

Michael Flynn: Former US national security adviser
Ex-Trump aide 'helpful' to Russia probe
What did Flynn do?
The retired US Army three-star lieutenant general lied to FBI agents about his conversations with the Russian ex-ambassador to the US, Sergei Kislyak.

He falsely told investigators in January 2017 that he had not discussed US sanctions against Moscow with Mr Kislyak before Mr Trump had taken office, according to his plea agreement.

Flynn also lied about his request to Mr Kislyak that Russia delay or block a vote at the United Nations on a resolution condemning Israeli settlements.

He was also accused of conducting illegal paid lobbying for Turkey during the US presidential campaign.

But Flynn was left off Monday's indictment of two of his business partners for illegally working for Turkey.

Prosecutors said on Tuesday that Flynn could have been charged in that case, but for his "substantial assistance".

Who's who in the drama to end all dramas?
Michael Flynn: Former US national security adviser

Smooth sailing? Not quite

Today was supposed to be a relatively smooth day. Michael Flynn would appear in court and, in all probability, receive a sentence for lying to the FBI that included no prison time.

That's what the special counsel's office recommended, due in large part to the former national security advisor's co-operation with the Russian election-meddling probe. That, of course, is what Flynn's lawyers wanted.

It turns out Emmet Sullivan had other ideas. Given the district court judge's stern words, it appeared entirely possible Flynn would receive some sort of prison sentence.

That was enough to leave Flynn and his defence team scrambling - and perhaps wondering whether there are other ways he could co-operate, such as in the upcoming trial of two of his business partners accused of acting as unregistered agents of the Turkish government.

This all but guarantees months of additional speculation and conspiracy theories surrounding Flynn and what he did and didn't do; what he does and doesn't know.

This may also make it harder for Robert Mueller's team to strike future plea deals with other parties, given that this judge, at least, seemed uninterested in fully heeding the special counsel's sentencing recommendations.

How is Flynn relevant to the Mueller inquiry?
In addition to the possible collusion line of inquiry, the special counsel is understood to be scrutinising whether Mr Trump or aides sought to obstruct justice by blocking scrutiny of Flynn.

Former FBI Director James Comey has said that Mr Trump asked him: "I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go."

Mr Comey has said he believes the president was trying to shut down the inquiry into Flynn's unlawful contacts with a foreign government.

Mr Trump denies he held any such conversation about Flynn with the former FBI director.

Mr Comey's surprise firing by Mr Trump in May 2017 led to the special counsel being appointed by the US justice department.


WHAT KIND OF STRANGE TRANSFORMER CREATURE WILL THIS TURN OUT TO BE? I WANT TO SEE WHAT SORT OF RATINGS IT GETS BEFORE I GO THERE FOR STORIES.

https://thehill.com/homenews/media/422006-npr-exec-ousted-for-allegations-of-sexual-harassment-partnering-with-ex-fox
Ousted NPR news chief partnering with ex-Fox News execs for new site
BY OWEN DAUGHTERY - 12/18/18 09:31 PM EST

The former news chief of NPR, who was fired amid allegations he sexually harassed employees, is partnering with executives who left Fox News on a digital news site.

Former Fox News executive Ken LaCorte has recruited former NPR news chief Michael Oreskes and former Fox News executive editor John Moody to help lead LaCorte News, according to Politico.

LaCorte said his new site will be a “fair and balanced” media option.

He defended his high-profile hirings to Politico, saying that he is not worried about Oreskes or Moody’s past.

“I’m proud that I pulled in both the former head of news at Fox News and the former head of news at NPR,” LaCorte said. “I’m not going to be egotistical enough to say I'm going to save journalism, but I'm fucking trying.”

LaCorte noted that had the two men still been working for their previous employers, he could not have afforded them and said he is “a beneficiary of companies being hypersensitive.”

Oreskes stepped down at NPR amid allegations he forced himself on employees and made inappropriate sexual comments over decades.

He said in a statement at the time that his “behavior was wrong and inexcusable.”

On the nearly empty website, LaCorte writes that he’s “assembling a team of journalists and experts who not only see the troubled state of news, but have a plan to help fix it.”

LaCorte asserts that the public’s lack of trust in the media is the media’s fault and the industry must change in order to fix it.

“In the last few years, “yellow journalism” has returned,” the website states. “Too often, reporters have become activists and reasonable opinion has been replaced by extremism, trading credibility for online clicks. It’s hurting not just the media, but America as well.”

LaCorte left Fox News in 2016 and is launching the new site with roughly $1 million, much of it being his own money.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOrUnMux82I
Liberal Oregon town of Eugene unsettled by rise in hate crimes, white nationalism


IS IT POSSIBLE THAT WHEN PUSH COMES TO SHOVE, THE BAD OLD WHITE NATIONALISTS ARE WEAKER THAN ANTI-FA? THEY’RE USED TO INTIMIDATING OTHERS, BUT MAYBE THEY WON’T ALWAYS BE ABLE TO DO THAT.

https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/422004-oregon-white-nationalist-hospitalized-after-clash-with
Oregon white nationalist hospitalized after clash with activists
BY MICHAEL BURKE - 12/18/18 08:39 PM EST

A white nationalist was hospitalized on Monday after he clashed with antifascist activists in Corvallis, Ore., according to The Oregonian.

Jimmy Marr, 65, was involved in a fight with five other people Monday afternoon that led to him being admitted to Good Samaritan Regional Medical Center, the newspaper reported.

Police said they didn't know what provoked the fight.

Police also told the newspaper that four people were arrested on suspicion of disorderly conduct but were later released. A crowdfunding campaign* was launched Monday in support of "the Corvallis antifascist community who may have been injured or arrested" following the incident.

Marr is viewed as a leader in the white nationalist movement in Oregon, according to The Oregonian.

The newspaper reported that he is known for driving a truck with racist messages. The truck is painted with a swastika and features the slogan, "Nazi is just the N-word for white men," according to The Oregonian.

Marr has also been known to hang banners with racist messages on highway overpasses, according to the newspaper.

He has also espoused anti-Semitic views, telling The Oregonian last year that Jewish people should be exterminated.


https://fundrazr.com/71REHc?ref=ab_2s0Tggbur6E2s0Tggbur6E
Corvallis Community Defense Fund
By Conrad John
Personal campaign Keep it all Corvallis, OR, US Contact campaign

This is a fundraiser to support the Corvallis antifascist community who may have been injured or arrested on December 17, 2018. We will update this campaign as we can. Thank you for supporting community defense!

"A downtown Corvallis street was closed to the public Monday afternoon while police investigated a physical altercation, but few details were immediately available.

“There was a fight,” said Capt. Dan Hendrickson of the Corvallis Police Department in response to a reporter’s question, but he said no additional information was immediately available, including the names of the people involved.

“We're still investigating,” he said at about 4:30 p.m. Monday.

A block of Northwest Monroe Avenue between Third and Fourth streets was cordoned off with crime scene tape while police examined the area and interviewed witnesses.

A truck painted with a large swastika and the slogan “‘Nazi’ is just the N-word for white men’ could be seen parked on the blocked-off section of Monroe, but it was not immediately clear if the vehicle played a role in the incident.

A similar vehicle belonging to James Marr, a well-known white supremacist from Springfield, raised concerns in Corvallis in February when it was parked on Monroe near Oregon State University. At that time, the truck was painted with an anti-Semitic message."


AMAZON MAY HAVE RAISED ITS’ PAY IN THE US, BUT NOT IN GERMANY, APPARENTLY. SAD. OH, WELL. I SEE THE WORKERS ARE ALREADY MOUNTING AN EFFECTIVE STRIKE – THOSE THOUSANDS AND THOUSANDS OF CHRISTMAS DELIVERIES.

https://nypost.com/2018/12/17/amazon-workers-strike-in-germany-christmas-deliveries-at-risk/
Amazon workers strike in Germany, Christmas deliveries at risk
By Associated Press December 17, 2018 | 4:03am

PHOTOGRAPH -- Workers collect goods for purchase orders at the giant storehouse of the Amazon Logistic Center in Rheinberg, Germany AP

BERLIN — Workers at two Amazon distribution centers in Germany have gone on strike as part of a push for improved work conditions, leading to fears that Christmas orders may not arrive in time.

The German news agency dpa reported that workers in Leipzig in eastern Germany and Werne in western Germany went on strike early Monday.

The ver.di union representing the workers says Amazon employees receive lower wages than others in retail and mail-order jobs in Germany.

Amazon has said in the past that its employees earn relatively high wages for the industry.

The company was not reachable for comment on Monday.


“HE MADE THE TRAINS RUN ON TIME.”

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/dec/17/germany-to-compensate-1000-survivors-who-fled-nazis-as-children
Germany to make one-off payment to 1,000 evacuees from Nazis
Many of those on board the Kindertransport trains to UK never saw their parents again
Josie Le Blond in Berlin
Mon 17 Dec 2018 12.30 EST Last modified on Mon 17 Dec 2018 13.07 EST

PHOTOGRAPH -- A commemorative memorial statue to the Kindertransport near Friedrichstrasse train station in central Berlin, Germany. Photograph: Markus Schreiber/AP

Germany will give a one-off payment to mostly Jewish survivors who were evacuated as children from Nazi Germany, a US-based lobbying group has said, in a move that coincides with the 80th anniversary of the Kindertransport trains to Britain.

RELATED: The Kindertransport children 80 years on: 'We thought we were going on an adventure'

About 10,000 unaccompanied children left Nazi Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia and Poland on special trains in the run up to the second world war to be rehoused in Britain with foster families, or in schools, hostels and farms.

The vast majority would never see their families again, many of whom were later murdered in Nazi extermination camps. Now Germany has agreed to give an estimated 1,000 elderly survivors, half of whom still reside in Britain, €2,500 (£2,249) each in compensation for their suffering.

“Our team has never given up hope that the moment would come when we could make this historic announcement,” said Julius Berman, president of the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, a New York-based group pushing for increased compensation for victims of the Nazis.

The breakthrough on Monday marks the 80th anniversary of the Kindertransport rescue mission, with the first train arriving in Harwich, England on 2 December, 1938 with 196 children on board.

The life-saving rescue mission was prompted by a Nazi-orchestrated, anti-Jewish pogrom in November of that year. The incident, known as Kristallnacht or the Night of the Broken Glass, has been considered a watershed moment in the Nazi’s escalating persecution of European Jews that culminated in the Holocaust.

In the aftermath of the violence, Jewish parents across the continent began looking for escape routes to get their children to safety. British authorities, in response, agreed to allow unspecified numbers of children under the age of 17 to enter the country from Germany and German-annexed areas.

So desperate were Jewish parents to save their children’s lives that many surrendered infants and babies into the care of older children, resulting in countless heart-breaking farewells on railway platforms – experiences the Claims Conference has said scarred survivors for life.

“After having to endure a life forever severed from their parents and families, no one can ever profess to make [the survivors] whole,” said Claims Conference’s special negotiator, Stuart Eizenstat. “They are receiving a small measure of justice.”

RELATED: Revealed: the child Clement Attlee helped save from the Nazis

The rescue trains from Germany were suspended after the second world war broke out in 1939. Kindertransports ran from the Netherlands for several months but stopped when that nation fell under Nazi occupation in 1940.

Germany has reportedly paid more than $80bn in compensation since the end of the war to around 60,000 survivors of Nazi persecution in 83 countries.

Some Kindertransport survivors were given a small amount of compensation in the 1950s, but the Claims Conference has said this would not affect their eligibility for this newly agreed payment.

Payments would be coordinated by the Claims Conference, which has been setting up a dedicated Kindertransport fund to begin processing applications in January 2019.


RECOLLECTIONS OF SURVIVORS

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/nov/06/the-kindertransport-children-80-years-on-we-thought-we-were-going-on-an-adventure
The Kindertransport children 80 years on: 'We thought we were going on an adventure'
Stephen Moss
@StephenMossGdn
Tue 6 Nov 2018 10.00 EST Last modified on Wed 14 Nov 2018 10.21 EST

PHOTOGRAPH -- Jewish Kindertransport children arriving in London in February 1939. Photograph: Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images

In 1938, the first of the Jewish Kindertransport children evacuated from Nazi Germany arrived in Britain. This week, we’re publishing the stories of six of those refugees, beginning here with Bob and Ann Kirk

LINKS:
• Bernd Koschland: ‘I’m grateful my parents sent me away to carry on living’
• Ruth Barnett: ‘When I was 14, my mother appeared out of nowhere’
• Bea Green: ‘I was bowled over that these non-Jewish people were nice to us’

Friday is the 80th anniversary of Kristallnacht – the Night of Broken Glass. The pogrom of 9 November 1938 in Nazi Germany demonstrated to the Jewish population their lives were in urgent danger and that they must leave if they could. But where to go? Other countries were reluctant to take refugees and adults were finding it increasingly difficult to get out, so Jewish organisations in Germany, Europe and the US attempted to get children out, persuading governments to take child refugees on temporary visas.

Ten thousand came to the UK, on trains and boats organised by Jewish groups and other philanthropic organisations. This week, an exhibition opens at the Jewish Museum in London featuring the stories of six of the children who came to the UK from Germany as part of this rescue effort, which came to be known as the Kindertransport. The six are now in their 80s and 90s, and have made short films recounting their experiences.

I visited each of them in their homes and heard their remarkable, moving, often tragic testimonies. Some never saw their parents again; all suffered the pain of separation; some were so traumatised they couldn’t speak of what had happened to them for decades afterwards – not even to their children. But in each the light of defiance, humour and commitment to life shines through. And each now goes into schools to talk to young people about what they and their parents suffered, testifying both as an act of remembrance towards their parents but also as a warning to the next generation that intolerance, hatred and scapegoating of minorities are ever-present threats.

Bob and Ann Kirk
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Bob and Ann Kirk: the couple were both Kindertransport children and married in 1950. Photograph: Andy Hall for the Guardian

Bob Kirk, 93, and Ann Kirk, 90: ‘The parents who allowed their children to go showed tremendous courage’

Bob Kirk was given his sharp, pointedly British name by a Scottish captain when he joined the army towards the end of the war. His real name is Rudolf Kirchheimer. Is there any of Rudolf Kirchheimer left? “I suppose there must be somewhere,” he says.

Kirk’s father owned a textile warehouse in Hanover, in northern Germany. In the years before Hitler came to power in 1933, Kirk enjoyed idyllic family outings with his parents, brother and sister, who was 12 years older. His father had won the iron cross in the first world war and was proudly German. He was also close to 60 and reluctant to leave Germany.

Kirk’s sister left Germany in 1936, moving first to South Africa to work. She got married there, and then went to Brazil, where she and her husband lived for the rest of their lives. Kirk only met his sister again in 1981. His brother, who was two years older, went to the UK in February 1939 on a training work permit. His parents then put their remaining child down for a Kindertransport, and he left, just before his 14th birthday, in May 1939.

Bob Kirk photographed in Nazi Germany in 1935

Bob Kirk photographed in Nazi Germany in 1935. Photograph: Courtesy of The Jewish Museum

“I didn’t really know where I was going,” he recalls. “There were about 200 children on that transport, and we were all, to say the least, a bit nervous. You are concerned, excited, and most of us were sold the idea that we were going on an adventure, and that, of course, our parents would be coming as soon as they got their papers.” He was carrying his small regulation suitcase, and had his stamp collection confiscated by Nazis at the Dutch border. He carried no family photos or memorabilia. “My parents were so intent on not making it seem like a parting that they didn’t include anything which might suggest we wouldn’t see each other again.”

As they parted, his parents told him to be a good boy and that they would see him soon. But he never saw them again. Kirk went back to Hanover in 1949 and discovered that they had been transported to Riga in December 1941 and never returned. He also visited his father’s old textile business and found two of his father’s former employees now running it. He recalls them being far from pleased to see him. He would have reclaimed his father’s business if he could, but when he visited his father’s former bank they told him all its old records had been destroyed in the allied bombing.

1:01
Bob Kirk describes how life changed with the Nazi takeover - video

Kirk says he lost almost 20 family members in the Holocaust. How, I ask him, did he cope with the pain? “With difficulty,” he says. “It’s not something where you say: ‘I’ve got to get over this.’ You just live with it and, eventually, you assimilate it. I never felt guilty about surviving. I felt tremendous gratitude to my parents for their courage. All the parents who allowed their children to go showed tremendous courage.”

After being demobbed from the army, Kirk trained as a bookkeeper and did well, rising to the position of company secretary in a textile company – a neat link with his father’s old line of work. In the late 1940s he met the former Hannah Kuhn (who became Ann Kirk after their marriage in 1950), another Jewish refugee from Germany, who came to the UK on a Kindertransport in April 1939.

Ann Kirk and her parents

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Ann Kirk and her parents Photograph: Courtesy of The Jewish Museum

The Kirks say they found great solace in being able to talk to each other about their experiences, but they didn’t talk to their sons about what they had been through, wanting them to “have as normal a life as possible and not burden them with our history”. One son did not hear their full stories until they gave a talk at the local synagogue in 1992. Bob refers to “40-year syndrome” – the time it took for Holocaust survivors to start opening up about their lives and for other people to be willing to listen.

Ann, an only child who grew up in Cologne, also lost her parents. Her father was musical and used to play chamber music with friends in their large flat; even now she says she finds music for the cello, her father’s instrument, hard to listen to without weeping. Her parents had a boat, and she says weekend journeys on the Rhine with them are still her “treasured memories, coming back at sunset with a view of the bridge and the cathedral – Cologne was lovely”.

The Kindertransport children 80 years on: 'I'm grateful my parents sent me away to carry on living'
Read more
Her recollection of leaving her parents to board the Kindertransport – by this time they had moved to a much smaller flat near Berlin – are deeply affecting. “Everyone around us was in tears,” she recalls, “but my dad tried to joke about it. I was going on a big adventure. What a wonderful chance for a little girl to have. Then they must have jumped into a taxi to get to the next station but one, and there they were waving – waving until their hands almost dropped off, and that’s the last sight I ever had of them.”

She received frequent letters from them before the outbreak of war in September 1939, and then a Red Cross message from her father to her foster family – two middle-aged, unmarried Jewish sisters in Finchley, north London – saying that his wife had been deported in December 1942. The following February, she received a further message saying he was well and healthy, and was pleased to hear that she was progressing well in Britain. She later learned he was deported a few days after that message, and many years later she discovered they had both perished in Auschwitz.

1:26
Ann Kirk remembers the last day she last saw her parents – video

“It’s an additional grief that they didn’t even go together,” she says. “What my poor dad was going through; what they both must have gone through. Thanks to the courage and wisdom of my parents and the goodness of the two ladies who looked after me, I am here. The educational work I do now is in part a memorial to my parents. Their memory lives on and they are not forgotten.” I ask her for their names – Herte and Franz Kuhn. Sometimes names, among the bald, brutal statistics, are necessary.

• Remembering the Kindertransport: 80 Years On is at the Jewish Museum, 129-131 Albert Street, London NW1 from 8 November to 10 February www.jewishmuseum.org.uk

• Bernd Koschland: ‘It was only as I grew older that it started to hit me hard’

• This article was amended on 14 November 2018. An earlier version included a photograph, supplied by the Jewish Museum, which had been incorrectly captioned by the museum as showing Ann Kirk. This image has been removed and substituted with an image showing Ann and her parents.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vuHxHzvRTEQ
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