Exhibit 2 Holocaust Survivors' Network February 24, 2004
Editor's Note: For easy reference, we have numbered the first three paragraphs in sequential order.
Date: Sun, 22 Feb 2004 18:09:43 -0500
To: "Solly Ganor" <solganor@netvision.net.il>
From: "Holocaust Survivors' Network" <Editor@Isurvived.org>
Subject: Responding to your 2 emails
Dear Solly Ganor,
(1) Your reply-email to Judith has been forwarded to me for a response. Also let me acknowledge receiving the other email addressed to me.
(2) Holocaust for us represents sacred territory and as such we are combing these grounds continuously and with extreme caution. We owe this extreme caution first and foremost to the victims of the Holocaust (Jewish and non-Jewish alike) and to the survivors of the Holocaust.
(3) You, like many others of similar circumstances, claim to be a Holocaust survivor that is entitled to the "sympathy" of the world for your suffering and bravery. This perceived entitlement apparently gave you the platform in pushing as much as possible your "Light One Candle" book. (Indeed, there was not one single time, regardless of the subject involved, that you have not pushed your book, not once but several times, in each and every email that you have sent to us!) In promoting this book of yours, you always flagged under the tailcoat of Elie Wiesel's purported endorsement. The only thing that my countryman Elie Wiesel had to say about your book is, and I quote, that the book "is a gripping story about coming of age during the Holocaust." As whether that story of yours is true or not, in whole or in part --that is another story in itself and it is left to anyone's discretion.
That issue for me is quite irrelevant, as that book never claimed to be an historic book on the Holocaust but rather a personal account which could have been embellished at will. Books like that one, for us, have little or no value and, it was regrettable indeed that your book was posted as a selected Holocaust book in our website. (As Judith have informed you, we have corrected that error.)
For me the issue that I have to toggle with is far more complex as it revolves about the definition of a Holocaust survivor as to be construed in our website.
You see, for quite some time, we have been faced with the difficult task of determining who should we consider to be a Holocaust survivor in our website (Sec. III). Should a toddler that has no remembrance of the Holocaust be considered a Holocaust survivor along with the child's parents that clearly were? Should a small boy or girl, that encountered very little, if at all, suffering be incorporated in our list of Holocaust survivors? And if a demarcation line needs to be drawn where that line would be? We are working on these complex issues but it is fair to admit that here we have a number of conflicting views and my view is of some extreme.
You consider me a dangerous person and I will take this as a compliment... [sic!]. I consider you also a dangerous person because you appear to pray on the sympathy of the world of your Holocaust survivor status and use that in a grotesque and cynical way for your self-gratification. Your association to, and a peddler for, a Holocaust research impostor with ZERO academic credentials (named Eric Saul) must be, at minimum, rendered suspect.
You are perhaps part of a select group people that need to be exposed for really what they are --that I call them as Holocaust "polluters." You see, the purity of the Holocaust grounds must be protected at all costs and continuously be scrutinized. If we genuinely believe that you are polluting the sacred grounds of the Holocaust, then there is no force on Earth that could stop us in not facing and confronting you squarely. In such an event, you may be well advised that you cannot hide under Elie Wiesel's tailcoat or under your titles...
For the time being, the only thing that we did was to remove you completely from our website with all the accompanying references attributed to you. What, if anything, we would do in the future, depends on many factors and, we are not about to speculate at this juncture.
You would be of extreme naiveness to think, even for a second, that your threat of a lawsuit or your pompous titles or your "credentials" would silence us if we have something to say in public that affects our work. If interested to appear in our website, I have instructed our Assistant Managing Editor (Avi) to work with you and allow you to present yourself as you deem fit. Expect however, is such a case, a most severe scrutiny based on the rules of evidence and nothing else.
Thank you for your attention to all this. If you have additional questions or concerns, do not hesitate in contacting me.
Cordially,
K. K. Brattman
Managing Editor