Jews are at war.  Spies are at work. Conspiratorial plots abound.  Government agencies are storming the gates.  Casualties are expected.  A battle of epic proportion not seen since Joshua blew down the Jericho walls.  It is not taking place on the disputed Gaza Strip but in the small rural town of Postville Iowa.  Postville is the location of the Agriprocessors kosher meat packing plant.  It has become the site of of a battle between the owners of the plant and some very strange bedfellows over allegations of misconduct including violation of child labor laws, providing false residency documents to illegal alien employees, slush funds for illegal employees, inhumane slaughtering of animals and even allegations that the plant has been used as a “meth lab”.  The plant has been infiltrated by PETA spies, overrun by invading hoards of Immigration and Customs Enforcement(ICE) agents, under occupation by “roving Somali insurgents”  and is allegedly under scrutiny by the DEA.  A battle scenario worthy of a Tom Hanks lead.

In May, 2008 Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents(ICE) raided the Agriprocessors(AG)  packing plant arresting 398 illegal aliens.  It was the largest such raid in United States history.  State and federal officials have also accused AG of using illegal child labor labor.  They allege that as many as 57 children, ages 14 to 17, were illegally employed at Agriprocessors Inc.’s Pottsville plant.  In addition to all of the illegal employees, two plant supervisors were ultimately arrested and have trials pending.  Animal cruelty charges have been dogging AG for years.  Members of People For The Ethical Treatment Of Animals(PETA) were able to infiltrate the plant and obtain video of the conditions surrounding the company slaughter practices.  The PETA  website posted the following statement:

“PETA’s investigator witnessed egregiously cruel slaughter methods being used at an AgriProcessors kosher abattoir in Postville, Iowa, in the US. Cattle, chickens and turkeys suffered through prolonged consciousness after having their throats cut and being dismembered while still fully conscious. Many instances of inhumane slaughter were captured on film.”

The website goes on to provide graphic details as well as video.(viewer discretion advised)  Did Peta do anything wrong when they infiltrated the plant and took video documenting animal cruelty?  Whether we like it or not, snitches, infiltrators and informers are what make the wheels of justice turn.  Without tattletales 75 percent of crimes would go undiscovered.  Claims of illegal drug use have been thrown into the mix including allegations that methamphetamine was being manufactured in the plant.

The allegations against Agriprocessors has have caused much consternation in the Jewish population.  The company is Jewish founded and owned.  It has strong ties to the Jewish Community.  The allegations have caused leaders in the Jewish community  to question what it means to keep kosher.   It has lowered the level of trust that the food on their table is in fact kosher.  This re-examination of values should concern Agriprocessors.  The kosher meat market is multi-billion dollar industry of which they hold a substantial market share.  A loss of confidence in the kosher slaughtering methods and other moral mandates of Jewish religious and dietary practices could have devastating financial impact Agriprocessor’s bottom line  as well as its employees and the town of Postville Iowa.  It goes well beyond Jewish issues and hits on a shattered town dependent on the plant for its survival. There are also the basic laws of economics dragging on AG.  If your target market on longer feels good about your product, demand goes down and profits follow. Agriprocessors disputes that the allegations will hurt their business or reputation in the long term.  In a recent public statement, Chaim Abrahams, the plant’s purchasing manager, said the company has seen no decline in demand for its kosher products. He went on to state that the company operates in an ethical manner.

If true the various charges slice right to the heart of Jewish dietary kosher laws or” Kashrut“.  The allegations  have become part of a backdrop to active discussion within the Jewish community about what it means for food to be prepared in accordance with Kashrut.   Does it simply refer to the manner in which the animals are slaughtered which goes directly to the animal cruelty claims of PETA?   Kashrut in part specifies that animals not suffer in the slaughter process.  AG would point out that it has passed successive audits of its slaughter practices. I view such internal audits with skepticism.  What do you do when you have a weeks notice that your boss is flying in from corporate?  You clean the place up!   An internal audit with the goal of finding procedural compliance will almost always find its way to the past of least resistance and find all in order. The only true surprise audit is one done by the IRS.

Do the allegations against AG  encompass more of a human process than a simple slaughter procedure as to Kashrut?  Do allegations of illegal labor, false documents and alleged employee mistreatment factor into the kosher mix?  How many times do we as consumers give active thought to the human factor behind the manufacture of a product in our hands?   We generally do not give it much thought at all unless allegations are brought to national attention through spies, infiltrators and informers.  The allegations have sparked a spin-off  Kosher Justice Movment in which looks beyond the singular manner in which the food is prepared but to overall the manner in which it gets to the table.

Does any of the above matter in the greater, “religion blind” scope of social morality?  Strip away the mudslinging.  Strip away religious and cultural outrage.  You are still left with allegations of behavior that if true can not be tolerated on any level.  Animal cruelty is a crime. Using child labor as slave labor is a crime.  Conspiring to provide and actually providing false immigration documents to illegal aliens is a crime.   At most the owners are guilty of conspiratorial criminal conduct punishable in a courtroom free of religious influence.  At a minimum they are guilty of what amounts to “criminal ignorance” of what is going on in their company.  The federal investigation continues.  The two highest ranking employees arrested in the raid have just recently argued that their trials should be moved from Des Moines, Iowa due to the massive publicity.  Both supervisors have been charged with encouraging illegal immigrants to reside in the United States and with aiding and abetting the possession and use of fraudulent identification. One has also been charged with aiding and abetting aggravated identity theft. Those further up the food chain at AG have to be holding their collective breaths for the dreaded word that a “Rat Out Michael Vick” type plea agreement has been reached. You can bet their has been brutal pressure on these guys to serve up some big wigs.

Has Agriprocessors been singled out for prosecution?  When over 50 percent of your workforce is illegal you have not been singled out, you have been caught.

Brothers Alexander Adolph, Louis and Brian William live in a quiet working- class suburb in Long Island ,New York. They are all native New Yorkers. None have ever married or had children. Two of them have their own landscaping business and one is a social worker. Their brother Howard died in an auto accident. It has been reported that these brothers have lived a sad life by most standards. Living in seclusion, loneliness and fear. An existence with no vision or concept of what the American dream could or should mean to them. The dream of marriage, family children, grandchildren. The hope and dreams that we all grab hold of. The hope that our children will have better lives than we have. The hopes that our name and bloodline will be carried well into the future long after we are dust. Hopes not denied by death, disease or inability to enjoy the anticipation of the future. Hopes these boys have apparently denied themselves with purpose and resolve.

Why is this story any different or any more important than the struggles others living in the same neighborhood the same street, their next door neighbors? What has eliminated the hopes of the future of family and the continuation of family name to be carried proudly into future? Two words that are vilified world-wide have apparently crushed this middle class America family. Those words are “Adolph Hitler“.

The nephews of Adolf Hitler are alive and well in Long Island, New York. The only American descendants of Adolph Hitler are living quietly under assumed names. In about 40-50 years, barring death by unnatural causes, this bloodline of Adolph Hitler will be severed for all time. The brothers have reportedly entered into a pact that none will marry or have children. This will put an end to the irony and curse of the Hitler legacy in the United States.

How did relatives of Adolph Hitler end up living a middle class life in Long Island, New York? It is certainly not something we would envision.

William Patrick Hitler was born in Liverpool in 1911. He was the son of

Adolph Hitler’s half-brother Alois. William moved to Berlin in the 1930′s. He attempted to capitalize on the notoriety of the Hitler name using various ploys and his resemblance to Hitler to make money. It is reported that Hitler himself regarded William as a freeloader and buffoon calling him one of his “most repulsive” relatives. Just prior to the German invasion of Poland, William took his show on the road to the United States.

Much as modern day celebrities, he charged per appearance to regale not yet “Hitler sensitized” American audiences with life “inside the Nazi Reich”. As America was drawn into the war and Americans became aware of the brutal nature of the Hitler regime, the glamour and appeal of profiting off the Hitler name undoubtedly waned and quickly turned to fear of reprisal and ridicule. He later attempted to enlist in the military and was rejected. Not happy with this he wrote a letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt. As one can imagine a letter from a blood relative to the man considered “evil incarnate” caused quite a stir. The letter triggered an investigation by the FBI. He was determined not to be a threat and eventually was allowed to enlist in the United States Navy. After the war, he made his way to New York City and then Long Island, NY, where he married, had children and lived the rest of his years. William Patrick Hitler passed away in 1987.  In addition to the material things  he handed down to his children he passed on an incurable disease.  A disease no less insidious than had he passed on Leprosy. A disease marked by seclusion, ridicule and shame. The disease of the Hitler name and genetics. A disease deemed so terrible by the nephews that they determined the only way to cure it was to deny themselves all that we love and cherish by entering into the Hitler Pact to end the blood-line forever.

While there certainly is curiosity value to the existence of the Hitler blood descendants in the United States, there are fascinating questions in both psychology and science.

What internal and external psychological forces drive three brothers to voluntarily choose to suppress those basic biological drives that we all possess and strive to fulfill? How has this denial of these basic instincts affected their psychological health?

What can genetic testing of these brother tell us? Are the brothers carrying any genetic markers that would offer some explanation for Hitler’s psychopathic behavior?

Can genetic testing tell us whether Hitler had any Jewish lineage? One of the most historically fascinating remaining question about Hitler unresolved to this day is whether Adolph Hitler had any Jewish ancestors or as he would put it “Jewish blood”. It is a popular wives tail that Adolph Hitler was part Jewish but this has never been confirmed. If DNA testing on Hitler blood relatives can not tell us, it will probably remain a mystery for all time. It has been reported that Hitler himself was obsessed with this possibility. Hitler tried his best to hide his origins. According to Dr. Fritz Redlich in his book, Diagnosis of A Destructive Prophet, Hitler feared that his paternal grandfather was Jewish. As noted in the book, Hitler’s Jewish Soldiers, there are few publications that examine this issue and none have verified sources. Pages 172-175 of the book contain a fascinating discussion of the various arguments on both sides of the coin.

In order to get a more complete perspective on the DNA issue I consulted author and historian Dr. Bryan Mark Rigg Ph.D. He is the author of Hitler’s Jewish Soldiers and Rescued From The Reich. Here is what he had to say:

“If the DNA shows anything, it will show how interconnected we all are. It could possibly answer the question of his possible Jewish background. While a gene study might give us some insight into his psychopathic behavior, it was probably more of a product of his abusive upbringing. Regardless of his background, he was an angry, evil man. In the end, it would help us all realize that we need to learn how to embrace the good in us and fight the evil regardless of our genetics. In the end you do not need proof of Hitler’s genetics to learn this truth about humanity.”

Will Alexander Adolph, Louis or Brian William ever tell us what their hopes and dreams have been and what they are now? Will they tell us why they entered into a pact never to marry or have children? Was it to spare their spouses and children the ridicule and loneliness they must have suffered.? Could it be much simpler in that they foresaw certain rejection from any women who discovered their secret and were sparing themselves the pain. Did they fear the uncertainly of the “Hitler genetics”? While this “societal sterilization” was self-imposed, it was also pushed on them by the thread of intolerance that often dooms generations upon generations to pay for the sins of their parents. These three healthy boys who were born with no future as if they had an incurable disease that will be genetically passed down for all time, the only solution was apparently to stop the bleeding by ceasing to exist. The Hitler Nephews are reportedly writing their own book about their experiences. Can they offer more than science? In the meantime the heart of humanity beats on…

©2009 Brian Cuban

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Would it surprise anyone to learn that there were upwards of 150, 000 soldiers of partial Jewish descent serving in the Nazi army during World War II? I had no idea until I attended a lecture by Bryan Mark Rigg discussing his book entitled Hitler’s Jewish Soldiers. What is even more startling is that Adolf Hitler was aware of this and for a while allowed them to serve. In most cases these soldiers had no knowledge of the Holocaust killing machine. From their point of view they were simple German patriots fighting for their country. Many did not even consider themselves Jewish. Some were unaware of their “Jewish blood”. According to his book, at least 20 soldiers of “Jewish blood” were awarded The Knights Cross. Included in the ranks were two field marshals and fifteen generals. The most prominently known of these commanders of Jewish descent was General Erhard Milch who had one Jewish parent. He was deputy to Herman Goring, the head of the Luftwaffe(German Air Force).

When I look back at my own Jewish Immigrant background, the “specter” of Jews fighting for the Nazis in the traditional sense sickens stomach. My ancestry is much like other Jewish immigrants. Both sides of my family immigrated to the Unites States from Czarist Russia in the early 1900′s. They came to escape the brutal exterminating pogroms of the Russian authorities much like the extermination of Jews by the Nazis. Czarist officials not only promoted pogroms to blame Jews for government failures and economic depressions but also to isolate jews and keep them fearful. They forced the “Protocols Of The Elders Of Zion,” a documents used the to justify persecuting Jews ans stil in circulation now in Middle Eastern Countries to “prove” that Jews controlled World Finance. Moreover, the Czars conscripted Jewish youth as young as 12 to serve 25 years in the army. Some Russian Jews immigrated to Poland only to be ultimately persecuted by both the Hitler regime and their very own. German born Jews treated Eastern Jews as inferior calling them “Ghetto Jews”. Jews of this background constituted the majority of the Jews massacred pursuant to “The Final Solution“.

The common public notion is that no one of Jewish descent would have ever been allowed to serve in the Nazi regime and, if discovered, would be immediately deported to a forced labor or extermination/concentration camp. This was not the case. The Nazi racial classification or “Nuremberg Laws” were complex and bizarre as to who was classified as a “Jew”. (see Nazi classification chart) This classification dispute is responsible for some controversy. Some scholars have complained that the title of Rigg’s book is sensational and misleading because it implies that these Nazi soldiers were Jewish when, in fact, many of them would not be classified as Jews under Jewish law (Young men were considered Jewish if their mothers were Jewish.). Many of the soldiers interviewed did not consider themselves Jewish at all and had been baptized into a Christian tradition. I view this as a simplistic criticism since the overall issue of how Hitler bent and twisted the racial laws of his regime to serve his own bizarre purposes in the face of the Nuremberg laws is a fascinating idea that Riggs explains from a unique perspective. Riggs demonstrates the willingness of the Nazis to bend their own laws of racial classification and Jewish persecution and documents Hitler’s extensive , obsessive involvement in deciding which “Jews” received a pass ,which would be discharged, and which would ultimately be deported. Riggs also explores the historical, religious and cultural individual personal conflicts of “The Jewish Identity”. A very interesting side-note to Rigg’s book is that his research has popped up on Holocaust Revisionist websites as support for their outrageously bizarre claim that there was substantial support for Hitler from parts of the Jewish Community.

While most of Jewish descent were ordinary Wehrmacht soldiers, some rose to very high ranking positions of authority in the Nazi Regime. Some either directly or indirectly participated in the Jewish killing machine. Germans of Jewish descent were fighting for a country whose official policy was that they were regarded as second-class citizens and, in most cases, not even human. Germans of Jewish descent were fighting for a country that was deporting their relatives to concentrations camps for eventual extermination. Germans of Jewish descent were fighting for a country who, some say, planned to ultimately exterminate them also when Germany won the war. How could these “Jews” fight for a country that planned their extinction? Why did Hitler allow this to take place? We know it is not due to the common misconception that Hitler was part Jewish. Scholars universally agree that there is no evidence of this. Rigg’s thesis certainly goes against everything I believed about my identity as a Jew and what it means to be a Jew. Does having “Jewish blood” in itself make you Jewish? While the simple answer seems to be no, it was quite complicated in Nazi Germany.

A fascinating aspect of the lecture and the book is the method by which the Nazis determined who was Jewish and who was not. For racial and military purposes, the Nazi Party classified Jewish people as full Jews, half Jews, and quarter Jews. Each classification was treated differently with regards to whether they could serve in the German military and what rights, if any, they had under German law. As previously mentioned, according to Jewish law, a person is determined to be a Jew if the person’s mother is Jewish.

I would have been a full Jew under Nazi laws. All four of my grandparents on both sides were Jewish. I am also of Russian descent. Not only would I have been prohibited from serving in the German military, I would have in all likelihood been on the first train out to to Auschwitz or some other extermination camp. Jews of Eastern descent or “Ghetto Jews” were also looked down upon and discriminated against by German born Jews as well as the Germans. It was a double whammy. (it was an upper vs lower class type discrimination as compared to the totalitarian discrimination of the Nazis)

Many of those of partial Jewish descent while Jewish by both Jewish law and Nazi racial classification had become so assimilated into the German-Christian society through mixed marriages that they did not consider themselves Jewish. Some were practicing Christians. This was only changed through Hitler’s racial classification system and the Nuremberg Laws which officially made the majority of people of full and partial Jewish descent second-class citizens called “Mischling“, meaning they came from a mixed marriage and had partial Jewish ancestry. Germans of partial Jewish descent who had practiced Christianity all of their lives, were suddenly classified as a “Mischling,” Jews under Hitler’s racial classification laws. They were suddenly stripped of most rights under German law.

Interestingly, the situation was not just a German/Jewish phenomenon. In 1941, Finland joined the war as a “co-belligerent” of Germany. (Finland refused to call itself an ally.) There were 250-300 Finnish-Jews fighting alongside Germany on the eastern front against Russia, and some of the Finnish-Jews were even awarded German battle decorations. Soldiers with Jew ish heritage also fought along side the Nazis when Romania was aligned against the Soviet Union as well as for Italy.

There was a huge ideology gap between what occurred in Finland and Nazi Germany. Finland was not under Nazi rule. Finland, from its perspective, was fighting for its independence from Russia rather than to support any anti-Semitic ideology or German persecution. Finland as a nation refused to endorse the Nazi anti-Semitic policies and refused to deport, persecute or discriminate against its Jewish population. It is quite the paradox that despite this policy their fighting alongside Germany certainly helped Germany achieve military goals and indirectly aided in the Jewish persecutions. The Finnish-Jewish soldiers were not blind to what was going on. It caused quite a bit of internal conflict and tension with the German soldiers. This was also not a racial classification issue. Finland did not discriminate against or classify their Jews. In this situation, full, practicing Jews were fighting alongside the Nazis against the Allies, fighting predominately at Leningrad.

The German racial classification system for Jews and the resulting disparate treatment with regards to military service in the Nazi army highlights some of the fundamental issues of Jewish Identify that exist even today. What does it mean to be Jewish? What qualities and beliefs make someone Jewish? If your mother is Jewish you are certainly a Jews by definition of Jewish Law but that may not be how you may look at yourself if you were not raised in the Jewish tradition. Are we as Jews defined by our culture, our religious practices or how other view us? As an example, several years ago I got into a heated argument when a person who was close to me told me in her opinion I was not Jewish because I did not adhere to Jewish religious practices. I was infuriated. It was and is my belief that my bond to Judaism is through culture, common history and suffering. The bond that all Jews share. That is what defines me as a Jew. She could not grasp this concept. This was the dilemma faced by many of the Mischling in Nazi Germany. This is a historical and religious conflict faced by Jews today as mixed marriages have become much more common and accepted in the United States. Jews argue among themselves over this issue. It is a conflict that transcends time.

*Thank you to my uncle and distinguished author Larry Cuban for helping me with the Russian History aspect of this piece.

* My apologies for a glaring and embarrassing historical error. The Fins fought in support of the Battle for Leningrad, not Stalingrad. My apologies to anyone of Finnish descent the error may have offended

©2009 Brian Cuban

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 A report from the U.S. State Department details “an upsurge” across the world of anti-Semitism — hostility and discrimination toward Jewish people.    This report was presented to Congress  was dedicated to the memory of  U.S. Rep. Tom Lantos, a survivor of the Holocaust, the extermination of 6 million Jews during World War I   Congressman Lantos was the only Holocaust Survivor ever to serve in Congress.  Congressman Lantos passed away in February 2008.The report documents various types of anti-Semitic behavior and Holocaust denial activities worldwide and goes on to state ”

Traditional forms of anti-Semitism persist and can be found across the globe. Classic anti-Semitic creeds, such as ‘The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion’ and ‘Mein Kampf’ remain commonplace.”

Being the grandchild of “Fiddler on the Roof” descent (Russian Jews forced from their villages in Russian Pogroms), I am certainly familiar with true anti-Semitic behavior and simply anti-Semitic ignorance and stereotypes. (I separate the two as one is the product of simple ignorance and the other is the product of hate.  I would have to say that the instances of my exposure to true “hate behavior” related to being Jewish has few and far between.(that I am aware of)  I have not found Dallas, Texas to be a hotbed of anti-Semitic thought processes but I have experienced it.   Because my last name does not have a stereotypical Jewish sound and I don’t have a stereotypical Jewish look as non-Jews define that, I am often privy to a bevy of ignorant anti-Semitic rhetoric. Jewish Stereotypes are rooted deep in world history. We all have long noses, are politically left and control all of Hollywood and major financial institutions and will try to “Jew you down” in any bargaining situation..  I have heard it from people I knew both in a personal and business context who had no idea I was Jewish because I did not “look the look”…. (I have actually had this said to me).  I have no doubt that for every time I am on the receiving end of such remarks there are 10 others made behind my back…….

The national poll of 1,000 American adults conducted April 26 through May 6, 2002 found that 17% of Americans – or about 35 million adults.

This means that in general (very general) about 2 out of every 10 people I know thinks less of me to some degree because I am Jewish.  I know a lot of people…….

I guess the whole point of this is that I have a perception of anti-Semitism in the Middle East and other places worldwide but I have absolutely no conception of the state of anti-Semitism in my own country.   I have lost touch with or maybe ever even developed a concept of what anti-Semitism means to personally to me as it exists within my sphere of existence.