Books: Zionist official was first to hear of Final Solution

Via JPost:

A senior Zionist official stationed in Switzerland during World War II was likely the first person to receive information from a German source regarding the plan for the systematic extermination of Europe's Jews, according to a new book published by Yad Vashem.

Chaim Pazner, head of the Jewish Agency's Palestine Office in Geneva, immediately forwarded the information to senior British officials and to Jewish officials in British-ruled Palestine, and the report reached the top echelons of the British government, according to the book, Chaim Pazner - The Man Who Knew.

The book - written in Hebrew by Menahem Michelson, with contributions from historian Sir Martin Gilbert - describes a report from a German source in the summer of 1942 about the Final Solution and the British government's refusal to make that information public.

Today in Jewish History - Elul 8

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On this date in 1893, kosher slaughter was declared illegal in Switzerland -- a ban that continues until today. That same year, kosher slaughter was prohibited in the German region of Saxony. Today, Norway also bans kosher slaughter, and other European countries such as the UK have taken the matter under consideration. Sometimes these laws are anti-Semitic in nature, but couched in humanitarian terms. The issue is one of great sensitivity for the Jewish community, being that one of the first enactments of the Nazis in 1933 was to outlaw kosher slaughter -- an act of horrible irony that preceded the slaughter of 6 million Jews.

Jews top Swiss hate-crime victims list

Jews top the list of victims of discrimination in Switzerland, a new study says.The study, released by the Bern-based Federal Commission against Racism, found that between 1995 and 2004, more than a quarter of the 277 criminal proceedings on charges of breaking anti-discrimination laws involved discrimination against Jews. The next-largest group of victims was foreigners, with 20 percent. Dark-skinned people were among the most likely targets, the study said. More than 80 percent of cases ended in a guilty verdict. According to the sentencing reports, about 12 percent of perpetrators were classified as right-wing extremist.