Holocaust Survivors and Remembrance Project
... preserving the past to protect the future ...

A n   I n v e s t i g a t i v e   S t u d y
Stumbling over the sickening trail of Eric Saul ...

...to remain silent and indifferent is the greatest sin of all...  
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Solly Ganor
The Solly Ganor Case of Credibility and Deceit:
Solly Ganor, the Lithuanian Holocaust Survivor,
Seeking Fame and Glory out of the Ashes of the Holocaust
With a Little Help From His American Found Friend and Coach, Eric Saul

by
K. K. Brattman
Managing Editor

Dated: March 11, 2004

  • I.  Opening Statement
  • II. Who Is Solly Ganor? 
  • III. Open Questions on Solly Ganor
  • IV. Questioning Mr. Ganor's Grandiose Praises
    Purportedly his "Light One Candle" Book Had Received  

  • V.  On Solly Ganor's Plug
    on Eric Saul's "Visas for Life" Exhibit in Jerusalem  
  • VI.  Concluding Remarks

P a r t   V   o f   V I

.
Saul-Ganor

Photo Exhibit: photo taken in Los Angeles, c.1995. From left to right: Mr. Eric Saul, Mr. Ganor's wife Pola, Mrs. Yukiko Sugihara, and Mr. Solly Ganor.

Source: rongreene.com/sollyphotog5.html


 

V. ON SOLLY GANOR'S PLUG ON
ERIC SAUL'S "VISAS FOR LIFE" EXHIBIT IN JERUSALEM  

Clearly Mr. Ganor owes a great deal of gratitude to the "historian" Eric Saul who has a distinct "specialty" among all Holocaust historians, and that is, his apparent ability to transform anyone from an unknown into a "Hero" of the Holocaust! Indeed, without Mr. Saul, it is clear that Mr. Ganor would have remained an obscure Holocaust survivor as no "Light One Candle" book could ever have emerged. This gratitude towards Mr. Saul is quite open. In the Acknowledgments page of Mr. Ganor's book, the very first words written are these: " I would like to express my gratitude to Eric Saul..." Or, in his own review of his own book [sic!] at Amazon.com, as a "Reviewer" under the pseudonym "An Amazon.com Customer," Mr. Ganor concludes:

"Last, but not least, I want to thank Eric Saul, the historian from San Francisco,
who
made it all possible."

As a result of Mr. Ganor's gratitude, the very least that he could do for his American pal --this great and skillful manipulator and master of deceit (that was exposed by us in a previous study), was to plug Mr. Saul's latest "Visas for Life" Exhibit in Jerusalem, Israel. That plug, as noted in our Opening Statement, was vested into an article of Mr. Ganor entitled "Visas for Life" that has circulated through Mr. Ganor's mass marketing email campaign (Exhibit 1, hereto) as well as posted on the Internet at <israelim.com/s_ganor3.htm> (Exhibit 6, hereto). Since Mr. Ganor's stated plug represents a direct challenge to our earlier work, we clearly had an obligation to respond. And it is this response that is the subject of this section and, if you are ready, let us begin.

As we have shown in our referenced study, Mr. Saul, through his traveling"Visas for Life" photo exhibits, was and is able to implant, at will, his newly found "Righteous" diplomats and mingling them, without differentiation, with the true Righteous diplomats as recognized by Yad Vashem. In this way, under the torch of the collective Righteous Diplomats, Mr. Saul is able to "parade," at will, whoever diplomat he wants to incorporate. Notwithstanding that Yad Vashem had recognized only 19 Righteous Among the Nations diplomats, Mr. Saul's "Righteous" diplomats now exeeds 80 as he bragged in reference to his "Visas for Life" exhibit displayed before the United Nations in 2000 and, as reported by CNN (Exhibit 7, hereto):

"ERIC SAUL, CURATOR, "VISAS FOR LIFE: THE RIGHTEOUS DIPLOMATS":
We know about Hitler. We know about him. We know about the monsters that killed millions, but we don't know about the heroes. And now, we're discovering that were many, many more rescuers of Jews than we knew. We estimate that about 300,000 Jews got illegal visas from more than 80 men and women and that these men and women have never been recognized. We also estimate that there may be as many as 500,000 - a half a million descendants. "

With this background information at hand, let us take a look at Mr. Ganor's promotional representation that his Article is providing (Exhibit 1, hereto):

1. In ¶1 of Mr. Ganor's bulk-email that we have received, the figure of 300,000 is given for the purported Jewish lives saved by Mr. Saul's "Righteous" diplomats. This was not a typo error on the part of Mr. Ganor as the same figure (now spelled out in words) reappears in his ¶4. This nonsensical number of 300,000 Jewish lives purported to have been saved is, of course, no different in its absurdity than the previous 200,000 number advanced in Mr. Saul's previous "educational" shows.

2. Mr. Saul had traveled a long road of deceit
   from his 1998 "Visas for Life" exhibit in Jerusalem where his list of Righteous diplomats contained only 11 names of diplomats with only 2 not being recognized by Yad Vashem as Righteous (Hiram Bingham IV of the United States and Paul Komor of Hungary --both who to this day never been recognized by the Jewish State of saving even one single Jewish life)
   to his current 2004 Jerusalem exhibit where, according to Mr. Ganor (
Exhibit 1, ¶5), there are over 50 diplomats introduced purporting to save, as noted above, some 300,000 Jewish lives with no documentation of backing up any of this. Thus now, in his evolved exhibit, the great majority of Mr. Saul's "Righteous" have not been recognized by the Jewish State of saving even one single Jewish life!

.

,

What is most tragic with Mr. Saul's latest photo exhibit in Jerusalem is that literally right under Yad Vashem's nose, Mr. Saul continues with impunity to make a mockery of Yad Vashem and what it stands for and, a mockery of the memory of the Holocaust. The time perhaps has come that Mr. Eric Saul be brought to Justice in Israel to face criminal prosecution for Crimes Against the Memory of the Holocaust and be declared a persona non grata by the Jewish State. In this regard, Mr. Solly Ganor should not be far behind. To distort the memory of the Holocaust for personal publicity and self-glorification must stand, in our solemn view, as one of the most grotesque and despicable act ever committed by an individual of a Jewish heritage.

3. In ¶7 (of Exhibit 1), Mr. Ganor is introducing us to the Crown Jewel of Mr. Saul's deceit --the Chinese diplomat Dr. Feng Shan Ho. It was this virtually unknown diplomat that Mr. Saul had transformed, literally overnight, into a 'Hero' of the Holocaust with bogus documentation and research that led Yad Vashem in the span of only three (3) years to award Mr. Saul's new found client with the "Righteous Among the Nations" title. It is doubtful indeed, that asides from the obituary written by Manli Ho, daughter of Dr. Feng Shan Ho, claiming that her dad saved Jews from the Holocaust (Exhibit -Ho), to exist anything credible to support that claim.

4. In ¶11, Mr. Ganor, similarly as in his "Light One Candle" book, is misrepresenting the true picture of Lithuania with respect to the stranded Jews desiring to flee Kaunas, Lithuania
Jan
Vice-Consul
Jan Zwartendlijk
of The Netherlands
--the place of Mr. Ganor's childhood. Contrary to Mr. Ganor's assertion that aside from the Japanese Vice-Consul Sugihara "all Western embassies turned their backs" on Jews --this simply is not true. There is undisputed historic evidence being recognized around the world, including Yad Vashem where Mr. Ganor purports to be one of its directors [sic!], that the Dutch Vice-Consul Jan Zwartendlijk issued some 2345 visas surpassing thus the deeds of Sugihara (with 2139 visas issued out of which many having a "Zwartendlijk" visa!). Additional research needs to be made in understanding the "influence" that Zwartendlijk had on Sugihara as it appears that the very first visas that were issued for Jews in Kaunas, Lithuania were done by Zwartendlijk and that, Sugihara subsequently followed suit.
    We respectfully further submit that this misrepresentation delivered by Mr. Ganor is not accidental as its roots can be traced in the manipulative tactics of Mr. Saul that have backfired. You see, in his zeal to team up with the Sugihara camp for financial gains, Mr. Saul, in a deliberate way, has pushed asides the deeds of Zwartendlijk. The
Visas for Life Foundation, dedicated to perpetuate the legacy of Consul Chiune Sugihara and nothing else, needs not be confused with Mr. Saul's photo exhibit project bearing the same name. Currently, according to its Chairperson Anne Akabori, the Visas for Life Foundation is completely disassociated from Eric Saul due to the explicit wishes and will of the late Hiroki Sugihara --the eldest son of the late Consul Sugihara. Indeed, in reference to protecting the Foundation's name that, as stated, is identical to the name of Mr. Saul's bogus exhibits, we have been made aware of this direct quotation coming from Anne Akabori, Chairperson of the Foundation:

.

,

"Unless we are willing to go into litigation, we cannot do anything about the confusion in our names. We do not want the notoriety that comes with litigation, nor do we have the time or money to consider it. Unfortunately, when Hiroki first met Eric, he believed him to be sincere and most passionate about his father's story. Due to an incident, Hiroki had second thoughts and asked that he not exhibit his father's entire story other than to mention him as among the righteous."


5. Finally, the remaining part of Mr. Ganor's Article, as expected, is designed for Mr. Ganor's self-glorification about his book (¶¶12 and 15) and about his "humble contribution to the beginnings of  the exhibition 'Visas For Life'." (¶16). And of course, not to be missed is Mr. Ganor's "privilege to be of assistance to Eric Saul" (¶13).
   It is amusing indeed to see Mr. Ganor's ¶15 that states that as part of his gratitude towards Mr. Saul, he is going to send to Mr. Saul a copy of his book [sic!] " which describes in detail the rescue operation of Chiune Sugihara." Is it possible that since 1995 when "Light One Candle" book was first published, Mr. Saul not to have received a complimentary copy from Mr. Ganor?

   

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