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I.
On Eric Saul's Bogus 'Visas for Life' Exhibits,
and
His "Beef" with Kalman Brattman and
iSurvived.org
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The fraudulent Holocaust work of Eric Saul was first
exposed by us in our June 29, 2003 study under the title
"The
Eric Saul Case and his 'Visas for Life: The Righteous
Diplomats' Project --An Issue of Credibility and
Accountability."
Following the sickening trail left behind by Eric Saul,
on August 7, 2003, we posted our Study
on the Hiram "Harry" Bingham IV
Case
that Yad Vashem was examining as a result of Eric Saul's
Petition to Yad Vashem to award the late Bingham IV
with the "Righteous Among the Nations" title.
(Yad Vashem, in the end, rejected Eric Saul's
Petition and sided with our opposing standing. See in
here,
if you will, the final outcome of the Bingham IV
case.)
Continuing on the sickening trail of Eric Saul, we
stumbled upon his "discovery" of Solly Ganor, a Holocaust
Lithuanian Survivor and, on March 11, 2004, we posted our
Study
of The Solly Ganor Case of Credibility and
Deceit
and followed on May 9, 2005 by "Solly
Ganor's Deceit and Fabrication in the PBS Documentary on
Sugihara"
under the series " 'Solly Ganor -- Eric Saul'
Misrepresentations of the Holocaust."
A surprising number of people, Holocaust survivors, and
institutions where Mr. Saul was invited to 'exhibit'
his work later regretted very much their associations
with him. Ironically, over the years, Dr. Stephen
Feinstein of Minnesota --from all people-- contacted
numerous times this editor with respect to Eric Saul as
Dr. Feinstein was baffled and quite intrigued how
Eric Saul could have duped so many people when he appears
of having no academic credentials of any sort.
(After
the
posting
of our critical views on Dr. Feinstein's
teachings of the Holocaust, "things" have
changed in a hurry and, Eric Saul [as
well as Solly Ganor] found sympathy from
Dr. Feinstein as the
odd triangle,
Feinstein-Ganor-Saul,
was born in a hurry!)
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Mudslinging is an old and tried method where issues could
be diverted if the focus is no longer on the issues
involved but deflected on hearsay evidence rumored to
exist that always has noting to do with the subject and
issues presented. And Eric Saul, as a master of concocted
stories, created such a concocted website at
<K a l m a n B r a t t m a n.info>
under the title "Report on
K a l m a n K. Brattman
(K. K. Brattman) and the Holocaust Survivors Network."
(Dr. Stephen Feinstein,
in a hurry, referenced on the CHGS site, a
site that is funded with public money
acquired by University of Minnesota,
Eric Saul's derogatory website on this
editor as "proof" of the unreliability of the
<iSurvived.org> Holocaust memorial and
remembrance site! Dr. Feinstein's
desperate move is indeed a highly unethical
undertaking that may reflect, in the end, his
current sorrow state of mind --but that is an
entirely different subject
altogether.)
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II.
On Eric Saul from People that Actually Knew
Him:
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David
L. Israel, American GI Stationed at Dachau and
author of the book
"The
Day the Thunderbird Cried: Untold Stories of World
War II"
Jan
Zwartendyk, son of the Dutch Diplomat
Jan Zwartendijk,
Holder of the 'Righteous Among the Nations'
Title,
and
Anne Akabori, Chairperson of the Visas for Life
Foundation
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"The man [Eric Saul] is as phony as a three dollar bill."
David L. Israel
Eric Saul: for some a devious operator
...
Jan Zwartendyk
"Unless we are willing to go into litigation,
we cannot do anything about the confusion [generated
by Eric Saul]"
Anne Akabori
"In Sweden there were regrets about bringing Eric Saul's exhibit to
Stockholm in the year 2000."
Dr. Stephen Feinstein
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In one of his emails (that of July 15, 2005),
Dr. Stephen Feinstein apparently obsessed by Eric
Saul's lack of academic credentials referred Eric Saul to
this editor as the "mystery man!" as Dr. Feinstein
begins his stated email to this editor with these
lines:
"What
I am still curious about are the credentials
of Saul. Mystery man!"[sic!]
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Well,
for people who actually knew Eric Saul for a number of
years, Mr. Saul was no longer a mystery man but an
ordinary unscrupulous cheat and manipulator. Some four
(4) years ago, fate put us in contact with someone who
actually knew for years Eric Saul. His name is
David L.
Israel,
a military man who in 1945 (at age 19) was in Dachau as
part of the United States 522nd Rescue Combat Team (RCT).
When we asked him of his candid view of Eric Saul,
Mr. David Israel stated this to us in his
June 14, 2003 email:
"In
answer to your request for info about
Eric Saul:
The man is as phony as a three dollar
bill.
I
met him in the early ninties after he
had set up a sushi and bagel breakfast
in SF for"survivors of the Dachau
concentration camp and their
Liberators, members of the
Japanese-American 522nd Rct.
Articles
were printed up in the SF Chronicle,
the Asian News and any number of Jewish
publications which were happy to give
the story all the publicity Eric Saul
craved.
I
had been stationed, as an American GI
in Dachau for one year. I had never
heard of any Japanese troops being
involved in the liberation of the camp.
I was also in the process of writing a
book about the liberation of Dachau,
which I am now completing. I took it
upon myself to visit Eric Saul at his
Picture framing business in SF. We went
out for a three hour lunch and
conversation. At that time I had no
idea how untruthful a man he
was..."
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(For
those interested in seeing the entire email of Mr.
David L. Israel, please click in here.)
From Jan
Zwartendyk, son of the Righteous Among the Nations
Dutch Diplomat Jan Zwartendijk we post, without
comment, this email of June 30, 2003, that we
received:
Re: Eric Saul's "Visas for Life"
project
I
became acquainted with Saul's
activities in 1996. He had teamed up
several years earlier with Chiune
Sugihara's oldest son in S.F. to start
a travelling photo exhibition using the
Sugiharas' large collection of photos
of around 1940 in Kaunas, Lithuania,
where Sugihara had been vice consul for
Japan. Sugihara issued transit visas
for travel through Japan to Polish
Jewish refugees. Some 2,200 actually
reached Japan with the help of these
transit visas. Half of these moved on
beyond Japan, and the other half was
interned in Shanghai in late
1941.
In
1996 Saul first(?) heard that my
father,Jan Zwartendijk, who was the
Dutch consul in Kaunas in 1940, had
issued destination visas to these
refugees to the Dutch island of
Curaçao (actually, they were
notations masquerading as visas), on
the basis of which Sugihara had been
able to issue Japanese transit visas.
Eventually an addition was made to the
Visas for Life exhibitions with some
photos of my father and a brief text.
The text was not entirely correct, but
I had not been given the opportunity to
vet it beforehand in spite of my
requests for it. Worst of all, the text
gave no inkling that the Curacao
"visas" and the Japanese transit visas
had any connection with each other.
That had to be deliberate.
Historically, the texts left much to be
desired.
The
story of the escape from Lithuania of
these 2,200 mostly Polish Jews was
thoroughly researched by the USHMM in
Washington, D.C., and published in a
book "Flight and Rescue" (2001?).
(According to Visas for Life, first
3000, then 4000, 6000, 8000, and
finally 10,000 were saved that way. No
explanation ever of the derivation of
these imaginative numbers).
When
Saul and Sugihara Jr. were still
running "Visas for Life" jointly as a
company - it must have been some time
in 1997 - they sent me a blank contract
for my signature which would give them
the sole rights to publish my father's
photos which I had sent them the
previous year. In exchange I would
receive something like a couple of
videos. That showed rather crudely that
Saul was an operator, a member of the
"Holocaust industry". I did not reply
to him and have not replied to any of
his mail or invitations to embellish
his road shows since then.
I
have forwarded your website, section V,
to a number of people who may have
something to say about Eric Saul, both
good and bad. To some he is a saint, to
others a devious operator (what if he
is both??).
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And
from Anne Akabori, Chairperson of the Visas for
Life Foundation (dedicated to perpetuate the legacy of
Consul Chiune Sugihara and nothing else, and not be
confused with Mr. Saul's photo exhibit project bearing
the same name), we post here, again with no additional
comment, this direct quotation of an email of
her:
"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."
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III.
Concluding Remarks
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It is too bad that Eric Saul who proclaims to be "a
respected Holocaust educator" [sic!] saw fit for
the advancement of the Holocaust education to create, in
his whole life, only the trashy
<K a l m a n B r a t t m a n.info>
website and nothing else on the Internet! Some people
have an affinity towards trash and, if that is
Mr. Saul's inclination, then --by all means-- let
him have it!
Assuming for a moment that everything posted by Eric Saul
in his trashy referenced website is true, it is not clear
what exact point he has attempted to make. Specifically,
the questions that still remain are these ones:
- What
all that "information" provided by
Mr. Saul has to do with his bogus
Holocaust work that was exposed --without
challenge--in iSurvived.org?
- How
the Holocaust education is being advanced by
a "a respected Holocaust educator" of the
Eric Saul type and caliber?
- How
in God's name, the message can be tainted by
the messenger? Is anybody there that cannot
see the message because of the messenger? Do
we have any takers?
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Is anybody there that will choose Eric Saul's pathetic
website over <iSurvived.org> website when the
interest is in learning about the
Holocaust
and its tragic legacy? Is there anything remotely
educational on the study of the Holocaust from Eric
Saul's stated website? Again, do we have any
takers?
Respectfully
submitted,
K. K.
Brattman
Managing
Editor
June 1, 2007.
PS (of June 8, 2007). A surprising number of people,
asked us to reveal at least one past email received from
Dr. Stephen Feinstein where he questions the
credibility and/or the academic credentials of Eric Saul.
Well, we have no problem with this sort of request and,
without comment, we post herein below three (3) such
emails from Dr. Feinstein.
.The
first one is Dr. Feinstein's email of June 17, 2005,
to this editor, where this exact paragraph can be
found:
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"I
saw that Eric Saul page but was impressed
there were no academic credentials listed.
Being a consultant can mean you got a 5
minute phone call to being almost a producer.
I would agree he can put together an exhibit,
but my question was always about academic
credentials. Nothing there. He seems to have
a lot of interest in Asian Americans and the
Holocaust, two distinct subjects sometimes.
Most press releases at Universities give an
academic background for speakers, such as
University of last degree, but I don;t see
that."
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The second email is with respect to Eric Saul's bogus
"Visa
for Life"
Holocaust project. This editor received this email
(of April 5, 2005) from Dr. Feinstein that
is posted in full, again with no added commentary:
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"Just
a factoid. I received a call from Manli Ho,
daughter of Feng Sheng [aka
Shan] Ho about a month ago who indicated
she was upset with the Visas for Life exhibit
that was circulating and some of the chatter
about what her father did and did not do. So,
this sort of frantic search for diplomatic
rescuers seems to be a complex process, to
say the least. She has apparently broken
contact with the organizer of the
exhibition."
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Editor'
Note: See, in
here,
a firsthand rebuttal of Eric Saul's Holocaust
work with respect to the late Dr. Fen Shan
Ho.
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And finally, as a third illustration, is
Dr. Feinstein's long email of July 16, 2003 where,
in its PS, this editor is being advised of the
following:
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"A
colleague in Sweden just wrote me that he
felt Eric Saul's work was very thin on
content and thought and there were regrets
about bringing his exhibit to Stockholm in
the year 2000."
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Good
riddance, Eric Saul ! Why Don't You
Go Away ?
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Your
past bogus Holocaust "Visas for Life" exhibits
are here to stay
exposed.
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.
Note of February 21,
2008:
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On
February 9, 2008, Eric Saul finally has
created a website with respect to his
Holocaust work at <israh.org>,
ISRAH standing for his newly created
bogus Institute for the Study of Rescue
and Altruism in the Holocaust that
according to him is an umbrella
organization for his Visas for Life
project that now has been expanded as
"The Righteous and Honorable Diplomats
Project and the Jewish Rescuers
Project."
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- The
Jewish Rescuers Project is an
important project in the grand
rescue operation of the Holocaust
that needs to stand by itself and
not be incorporated into some bogus
Visas for Life project dealing with
the diplomats and the issuing of
visas during the Holocaust
years.
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- The
Righteous Diplomats are the ones
recognized by the State of Israel
through Yad Vashem and awarded with
the medal and the title of "The
Righteous Among the
Nations."
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- The
Honorable Diplomats in Eric Saul's
exhibits are those diplomats that
happened to serve in various
countries during the Holocaust
years, and Mr. Saul --for a buck or
two-- has decided to place them,
with concocted and/or unverifiable
evidence, into his list of heroes
making a mockery of the true heroes
of the Holocaust. In his stated
website, Mr. Saul acknowledges
openly that "the Visas for Life
Project has a somewhat different set
of criteria from Yad Vashem for
honoring diplomats," but the reader
is left in suspense as to what those
criteria may be and WHY do we need
to have separate criteria from the
ones used by Yad Vashem.
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The
convoluted incorporation of these three
distinct projects under one single roof
and riding under the tail coat of the
true Righteous people, as recognized by
the Jewish State, raises serious
credibility issues taking into
consideration the lack of credible
evidence in support thereof and the
chosen method of presentation.
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Eric
Saul
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