On June 5, 2003, we contacted by email Eric Saul questioning him on the propriety of his "Righteous Diplomats" project as well as on his credentials as a Holocaust researcher. The full text of our email is posted in Exhibit 10, hereto. In response to this email of ours, Mr. Saul, on June 9, 2003, sent to us, in his reply-email, a Microsoft Word® attachment with his answer whose text is posted, in full, in our Exhibit 11, hereto.

The importance of this response (vested in the stated Exhibit 11) cannot be overestimated as it is the only direct evidence that we have from Mr. Saul with respect to the issues at hand. We hope that you take your time to read Mr. Saul's response thoroughly as you undoubtedly would have a better appreciation of our analysis provided below.

Mr. Saul's response is an extremely well written document, extremely smooth, slick and articulate that is capable not only to escape detection but also capable to disarm most opposition. It has even an aura of innocence that is frightening because of the masterful disguise under which it is capable of floating.

It is the purpose of this section to expose this "floating" masquerade in its full dimension. For easy reference, we have numbered, in sequential order, each paragraph of Mr. Saul's stated document and, if you are ready, let us start our analysis.

Mr. Saul begins his defense with the same identical "song" that he always uses when challenged. The verses of his "song" tells us how great, noble, and important his project is to the world. See the almost identical reply that he gave when his work was challenged by the Holocaust survivor Joan Deman, as referenced in our Section II, and compare it with the one given to us:

(1) "I am the project director of the Visas for Life: The Righteous and Honorable Diplomats Project. The Project was founded in 1993. The purpose of the Visas for Life project is to find, document and recognize diplomats who saved Jews and other refugees from Nazi persecution and murder. The Project addresses an aspect of Holocaust history that heretofore was largely unexplored. The Visas for Life Project is an educational organization."

We already noted in our section II hereinabove, that his "Visas for Life" project is not, repeat not, an educational organization, as is being purported to be, within the meaning, scope and recognition of the existing laws of the United States. As with respect to the declared purpose of his project, that is vastly different from the real purpose which is to obtain money and publicity out of some phony Holocaust research.

Cruising rapidly over the following four paragraphs from Mr. Saul's stated response, we put our breaks at his paragraph 6 as is it there where Mr. Saul divulges a detail, that is at the center, of his project:

(6) "The project is called the Visas for Life: The Righteous and Honorable Diplomats Project. This term "honorable" distinguishes those diplomats who helped Jews but have not yet been, or cannot be, designated Righteous Persons."

A new sneaky term is being now incorporated into the "official" name of Mr. Saul's project: the term paradoxically being called "honorable." This revelation is paramount in understanding the fraudulent and deceiving project that Mr. Saul has perfected to a state of art. The incorporation of the "Righteous" and the "Honorable" titles under one single roof is at the core of Mr. Saul's deception.

Mr. Saul's explanation and justification for incorporating the term "honorable" under the title of his project is that this distinct category of "honorable" diplomats is designed to honor "those diplomats who helped Jews but have not yet been, or cannot be, designated Righteous Persons." As an example of diplomats that cannot receive the "Righteous" title are the Jewish diplomats as he eloquently points out in his paragraph 4 from his stated response which we just have passed:

(4) "Like the Jewish diplomats, who can never formally be honored by the State of Israel as a Righteous Person, several of the diplomats honored in the exhibit and Project are not, in fact, Righteous Persons as defined by Yad Vashem and the State of Israel. ..."

All right. Now that we know exactly what Mr. Saul's "Righteous and Honorable Diplomats" project purports to be, let us be allowed to prove once and for all of its deceptive nature.

We start by pointing out that with the exception of the 1998 exhibition at Yad Vashem, all of Mr. Saul's subsequent shows (including the ones presented before the United Nations or before the Stockholm International Conference) were under the abbreviated name "Righteous Diplomats" and not under the full name "Righteous and Honorable Diplomats" --and this, we contend, was not an innocent slippage but a deliberate act of deception. And even in places, like Yad Vashem, where he used the full name of his project, there was no differentiation made between "honorable" and the true "righteous" diplomats. And because of this ploy, Hiram Bingham IV was posted first in Mr. Saul's list of exhibited diplomats notwithstanding the fact that Bingham IV, to this day, has not been recognized by the State of Israel of saving even one Jewish life! Indeed, as Dr. Mordecai Paldiel, the director of the "Righteous Among the Nations" program from Yad Vashem put it, in a recent, private written communication to us with respect to the Bingham IV case,

"At the moment, the overall picture is not clear, and we cannot say with certainty what precisely Bingham did that would possibly merit him the Righteous title."

(Of course, this is the entire point: that there is nothing, but absolutely nothing, in the Bingham IV record that a rational person could infer that Bingham IV did anything that could "possibly merit him the Righteous title.")

And to prove further this point of deep deception, it is important to stress that upon questioning Mr. Bingham as to why, on his website and elsewhere, he uses the title of "Righteous Diplomat" for his dad, he, in a most evasive and prudent way, informed us, in his email of May 16, 2003 (Exhibit 12, hereto), that he did that because he relied on the "advise" of Eric Saul (sic!) and other unnamed Holocaust "researchers." Playing his game, Mr. Bingham is asking Mr. Saul, in an "innocent" tone, to advise him for "any amendment(s)" that may be recommend to be made in his website. And yes, you guessed, no response from Mr. Saul was ever received nor any changes were made with respect to the precious and bogus "Righteous Diplomat" title that Mr. Bingham had "secured" for his dad.

Finally, let us note that when Mr. Saul signed his letter before the United States Postal Service for endorsing the issuance of a commemorative stamp for Hiram Bingham IV (Exhibit 9, hereto), he used this "signature":

Eric Saul
Director/Curator, Visas for Life: The Righteous Diplomats

because for that "mission" the "Righteous Diplomats" title was essential to be pointed out. However, when his "mission" changed, as in our case, he then, true to his character, changed the title to incorporate (see, Exhibit 11, last line) the "Honorable" term in the name of his projects. These are clearly deliberate fraudulent acts that speak volumes about Mr. Saul's true character.

Finally from another angle, let us illustrate the magnitude of Mr. Saul's deceit with this simple analogy.

Let us assume that one has a project called, say, "Nobel and Distinguished Scientists" where are mixed together, without differentiationn, Nobel Laureates scientists with less known scientists and particularly with names of, say, respected astronomers. Then, as these exhibits evolve, the "Distinguished" part of the title vanishes and the new condensed title reads now only "Nobel Scientists." And then, when questioned about this, the project director of that hypothetical science exhibit may point out to us, exactly like Mr. Saul is doing with his project, of the worthiness of that project pointing out to us that astronomers regardless how distinguished they may be they can never receive a Nobel Prize as the Nobel Foundation makes no provision in honoring astronomers (sic!). And that hypothetical science "educational" project is indeed no different than Mr. Saul's existing "educational" project, as far as the deceit is concerned.

We hope that we were able to establish, beyond all doubts, that Mr. Saul's project is nothing but a hoax designed for one and only one purpose --that of making money and publicity out of a bogus Holocaust project that he had concocted. The next question now is on assessing the damages that Mr. Saul was able to inflict with his deceiving Holocaust project. And that painful study is the subject of our next section.

 

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