Hungarian Jews under Nazi Occupation

The Jewish Community of Budapest Social Committee: Jewish Brothers, in these serious times, Be Unseen and Unheard! 

A very wrong policy. But no one can judge them because they were living under a death sentence, and Eichmann was zealously organizing their deportation to the Auschwitz death camp.

Kaifeng Jews 25 years later

When I worked in Kaifeng, I toured the Jewish Street and also had dinner with a Jewish family in their modest restaurant. The woman told me that they gave gold to Jewish refugees, which I interpreted as she expected me to give her money. I had the impression - like others visiting the city - that there were no bona fide Jews but impostors trying to milk rich foreigners. When the factory tried to connect me with a "Jewish" employee, it soon became clear that she was a Hui, that is, a local Chinese Muslim. Wikipedia has a more complete history, and it mentions that the Kaifeng Jews did in fact give gold to Russian Jewish refugees. So my impression may have been totally wrong; sorry, but the past cannot be repaired. It may even be true that the factory woman was a Jewish descendant. 

The Communist control and terror drove the few Jewish clans underground, or to melt into the Hui community. According to today's Tablet, the Central Government has focused on them, and they are under close police supervision, which could lead to the revival of some kind of community. I don't think that being a Jew is a privilege (on the contrary, we are persecuted everywhere), and I am not a missionary. The commercial picture above is a famous bridge that I visited. In the photo, it looks romantic, but I found it unremarkable. In general, Kaifeng was grey, built in the Soviet style, poor and joyless. Of course, that was 25 years ago, and China is very different now. 

Eichmann in Argentina

  The Nazi criminal arrived in Argentina in 1950 with a Red Cross passport under the name of Ricardo Klement, without money. He found employment in the Province of Tucumán with a consulting engineering firm CAPRI. He worked as a hydrologist, measuring river flow rates. In 1952, his wife Vera Liebl arrived with their three sons, Klaus, Horst, and Dietter. They had another son in Tucumán. Eichmann worked on the Feasibility Study of the Potrero del Clavillo dam. The site was found unfit, and the dam was never built. Later, he worked at the University of Tucumán and then moved to Buenos Aires, where he was employed by Mercedes-Benz as a mechanic (see factory pass). Obviously, he was not a deranged Nazi; he could do productive work and maintain his family. He was assigned the job of mechanic in the car factory, and he performed satisfactorily. When given the task of deporting Hungarian Jewry to Auschwitz, he threw himself into the project and outperformed himself. Made little difference to him. 

Dark Ages Ahead

I am following The Economist's weekly data table and wondering why GNP growth has stopped across the West.  In the USA, the size of the workforce has fallen by over 1 million people in the past year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. It’s now 169.1 million, compared with 170.4 million last July, according to agency data. The strongest factor is the ongoing retirement of baby boomers. The youngest boomers are now in their early 60s, and their continuing departure from the workforce is “the most steady thing pushing the rate lower. That’s the clear, sustained decline.

Europe is no different. But the most dramatic case is Japan, which was once the most dynamic economy of all. More than stagnating, it is contracting rapidly. If they start to sell their mountain of dollar savings, the dollar will lose its value even more. 

Difficult times are a-coming. I have played my cards and shall sit on the side as a kibitzer. 

Obituary of a Scotsman

 Andrew Wemyss, Fife laird. Born: 3 October, 1925 in Edinburgh. Died: 30 June, 2026, in Dunfermline, aged 100

He was a direct descendant of Augusta FitzClarence, the illegitimate daughter of King William IV, who reigned for seven years until 1837. Second son of Michael Wemyss of that Ilk and chief of Wemyss, and a distant cousin of the 13th Earl of Wemyss (chief of Charteris), Andrew’s maternal grandfather was the 6th Duke of Portland, through his mother, Victoria Cavendish-Bentinck. Victoria, in turn, was the last surviving goddaughter of Queen Victoria, after whom she was named.

At the coronation of King George VI in 1937, Andrew served as a page to his ducal grandfather – whose duties that day centred on carrying the crown of the new queen. Coincidentally, Queen Elizabeth was Andrew’s kinswoman, since her mother was a Cavendish-Bentinck. Further queenly connection occurred through his mother-in-law, Alethea Abel-Smith, also kin.

Clarification: "Of that Ilk" is a Scots territorial designation meaning "of the same" — from Old English ilca, "same." It's used when a laird's surname is identical to the name of his lands, to avoid the clumsy repetition of "Wemyss of Wemyss." A laird is the Scots term for the owner of a landed estate. Many clan chiefs are lairds, but the two are distinct: chiefship is headship of a family; lairdship is ownership of land. Wemyss happens to be both. I am learning something every day. 

AI-products

 Pic. copied from the internet. It is tagged as an AliExpress product and is obviously AI-generated. Very attractive, better than the original. How can an 80-year-old man resist these images? 

AI is playing us. We are fried, as they used to say. 

Don Inodoro

A rare example of Argentine humor. 

Mendieta the dog: What are you doing, Don Inodoro?

Don Inodoro, the gaucho: I am working to find dinosaur bones. 

Mendieta: A long time they have not been seen in these parts.

Inodoro: A dinosaur?

Mendieta: No. Somebody working.