Democrats And Their Wanna Be Senator With Nazi Symbols?

 Nadene Goldfoot                                         

Graham Platner, the Democratic nominee running for U.S. Senate in Maine.                  

                            Also called Death's Head, "Totenkopf" is German for "death's head" or skull and typically refers to a skull-and-crossbones image.

                                                  

Graham Cunningham Platner (born September 1, 1984)

He faced national backlash and intense scrutiny on CNN regarding a skull-and-crossbones chest tattoo that critics and reporters pointed out closely resembled a Nazi SS Totenkopf symbol.    Graham Platner, a military veteran, oyster farmer, and the Democratic nominee running for U.S. Senate in Maine. He made national headlines when a tattoo on his chest, which resembled a Nazi "Totenkopf" (death's head) symbol, surfaced on social media,   seeking to challenge incumbent Republican senator Susan Collins. From 2011 to 2016 he alternated between living in DC and military deployments, before withdrawing from GWU and returning to Maine in 2016 for treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder and other military-related injuries.In 2018, Platner returned to Kabul, Afghanistan, for about six months as a State Department security contractor with Constellis, where he provided diplomatic security to the US Ambassador to Afghanistan. He returned to Maine the same year, saying he had quickly grown more disillusioned with the military and what he called fraudulent funneling of taxpayer money to private defense companies Wikipedia                            

    Our man looks at his chest each morning and what does he see?  This tattoo?  And it revs him up?  

Key details regarding the controversy:

• The Tattoo: Platner, a Marine Corps veteran, stated he got the tattoo in 2007 while deployed and was unaware of the historical Nazi association until it was recently brought to his attention by the media. CNN and Jewish Insider reported that an anonymous former acquaintance of Platner's claimed that Platner was aware of the tattoo's meaning and had previously called it "my Totenkopf. Maine governor Janet Mills, one of Platner's opponents in the Democratic primary, called the tattoo "abhorrent". She said, "I obviously vehemently disagree with the things he's been quoted as saying and doing" but that it was "up to the people" to decide whether he should remain in the Senate race.  
• The Response: Following the media cycle, Platner apologized and confirmed he has completely covered up the tattoo.                                
  
  Jacob Daniel Auchincloss  born January 29, 1988) is an American politician, businessman, and Marine Corps officer serving as the U.S. representative for Massachusetts's 4th congressional district since 2021. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously served as a member of the Newton City Council from 2015 to 2021.
• CNN Coverage: Representative Jake Auchincloss (D-Mass.) appeared on CNN to heavily criticize Platner, calling his tattoo and initial comments about it "personally disqualifying" for a Democratic nominee.
•  Born to a wealthy family in New England, Auchincloss graduated with a bachelor's degree from Harvard University in 2010. Commissioned into the U.S. Marine Corps that same year, he was deployed to Afghanistan in 2012 and to Panama in 2014. He currently serves in the Marine Corps Reserve with the rank of major.
• He is Jewish by matrilineality and was raised Jewish. His father is of Scottish ancestry. Both of his parents are physician-scientists specializing in immunology.

What is a Race's Importance When We Now Have DNA Haplogroups?

Nadene Goldfoot                                                 

Races started with those that survived the 40 days on the Ark with Noah during the Flood.

Considering that Moses wrote about races almost 4,000 years ago as told about in the Tanakh (Old Testament), of the Five Books of Moses, the section of Genesis,   is amazing.  It may be explained to us in  a vague and imprecise fashion, but the story of Noah and the Ark is indeed beautiful that even satisfies children's curiosity as to how mankind was divided into different races.  As the rabbis explain in the story of the Creation and of the common origin of all men, there is the essential unity of all races in this explanation.  

A race is a categorization of humans based on shared physical or social qualities into groups generally viewed as distinct within a given society. ... Modern science regards race as a social construct, an identity which is assigned based on rules made by society. 

                           Taking slaves from Africa

When we talk about the concept of race in the 21st century, we are discussing a socially constructed idea. For the most part, we are talking about skin color when we use the term today. But, at the dawn of the 17th century, race typically identified a group of people with a common ancestor. That group, just as we see in families today, could be quite diverse. It wasn’t until the latter half of the 17th century that we see the development of the concept of race as it is currently viewed.

We Jews have lived all over the earth, in Egypt, the Ottoman Empire, and back in Israel are but a few of the places.  

The conception of race began to take on a new aspect in the 19th century.  The realization of the existence of the Aryan and Semitic families of languages led to the theory of the existence of Aryan and Semitic races.   Later, this led to the classification of the subsections, the Teutons,  exemplifying the  Aryan race  and the Jews the Semitic race.  When you read of anti-Semites, it refers to Jews only, as no one has held hatred against anyone like they do the Jews, who wouldn't accept other's religion.  The Greeks tried and failed, and the the Romans tried and failed.                     

           Here are people from many lands of origin.  

The Aryan and Semitic language theory was based on the belief, since then rejected by science, that (a) Jews were physically homogeneous.  Actually, we are an endogamous people, something proved by DNA.  Endogamy is the practice of marrying within a specific social group, religious denomination, caste, or ethnic group, rejecting those from others as unsuitable for marriage or other close personal relationships. Endogamy is common in many cultures and ethnic groups. From the beginning Abraham's descendants practiced this, though men did marry out of the group. There were times they were forced to do this as when they were in forced ghettos as they were in Italy. Social circumstances dictated when this was practiced the most. (b) They believed that there was a correlation between physical type and mental cultural characteristics.  In Germany, Jews were regarded as being racially "inferior," by their political views. The fact that Jews, who are only 0.02% of the world's population, have won many of the Nobel prizes, tells us that Jews are not racially "inferior." They are known to have, for a people, a high I.Q, usually 10 points higher than the general population.                                 

Who is a Jew in the USA ? USA's Jewish population is 2%.  Here are Jews showing many Ashkenazi Orthodox. Judaism (35% Reform, 18% Conservative, 10% Orthodox, 6% others, 30% Non-denomination), Irreligious/Atheists, etc. Even though we are endogamous and were a tribe, 12 tribes, a clan, an empire, we are made up of several haplogroups, not just one.  J, E, G, I, R, Q, T,and that's just the men.  

Evidently whoever these theorists were never read the bible where it explains about how races came to be;   that Jews started with the story of Abraham (Father of the Jews)  and Sarah who came from the city of Ur of the Chaldees which was situated on the Tigris River, the Tigris and Euphrates that are so well known in today's Iraq.  Their son was Isaac whose son was Jacob who had 12 sons, the beginning of the 12 tribes of Jacob who were ruled eventually by King Saul, followed by Kings David and then his son, Solomon, etc. They were known as Israelites, but acquired the name of Jews from the remaining tribal land of Judah, thus the name Jews.  Abraham had had a son, Ishmael, by Sarah's Egyptian handmaid, Hagar as well, who was to become the Father of the Arabs. This led up to the fact that Ishmael and Isaac were half-brothers, and their descendants were destined to become distant cousins.                                        

For the past few years, we have been using DNA to discover the the branches of the tree of life that we have all come from which is so exciting.  Men find that they come from certain branches of the tree, and can be told just what the scientists call each branch.  The line that Moses and his brother, Aaron came from are called J1 by scientists and this part of DNA is called the Y haplogroup--the line that men come from.  This is much better than thinking in terms of race

   If you read Bryan Sykes's book, THE SEVEN DAUGHTERS OF EVE, you will find a beautiful story of where women came from, starting with an Eve. Personally, my father's Jewish line that goes from father to son, etc.  comes from the Q line, deeply tested to receive the title of QBZ67, and my mother's line which is also mine and my daughter, is of the H for Helena branch.                                                                          

Haplogroups are like tags on new clothing in the store that we all are born with that tell scientists what branch we are. The tag is handed down from father to son;  and from mother to daughter, etc.  There are slight mutations, showing distance from each other, like time traveling.  It's so remarkable, with such planning to it, that it actually blows my mind.  It erases a lot of problems in genealogy.  It's used in court cases of whether a man is the father of a child or not.  It's how we found out that Thomas Jefferson or his brother/brothers fathered children of their black slaves or not.                                       

At the end of the 19th century, the Aryan-Semite Races became a basic conception of the revived anti-Jewish movement in Germany which, in the new era of tolerance, could no longer base itself exclusively on religion and, moreover was confronted with large numbers of Jews in whose lives Judaism placed no part. In other words, they were becoming integrated into their society and looked and dressed like the general population and not like the orthodox Jews.  Thus, what had before been an innocuous, if unsound theory, became in the hands of E. DUHRING, WILHELM MARR, H.LS. CHAMBERLAIN, A. ROSENBERG, etc, a deadly  weapon. Theadore Herzl acknowledged this over and over in his diaries and correspondence: "I will fight anti-Semitism in the place it originated—in Germany and in Austria," he said in one letter. He identified the genealogy of modern, racist antisemitism in the writings of the German social scientist Dr. Eugen Duehring in the 1890s.                   

A fundamental principle of the Nazi movement from the outset as told about in readings about National Socialism, was officially and precisely formulated by the NUREMBERG LAWS in 1935, intermarriage between Jews and "Aryans" being sternly forbidden and the new Jewish disabilities being extended to all persons with 2 or more Jewish grandparents.

This concept was applied somewhat less rigorously in Fascist Italy in 1938, and in various Nazi-occupied countries of Europe from 1939 to 1945, the length of WWII.  On it was based the extermination policy carried out by the Germans in this period, extending therefore in many instances to persons with only the vaguest Jewish associations and even to Christian clergymen and priests.  

The alleged "scientific" evidences of racialism, based on craniometry, etc, are wholly untenable. 

Since 1790, the USA has taken a federal census every 10 years on its population which is where we geneticists get so much of our information.  Knowing if the person was White or Black was marked on the census. Indians, Chinese, Japanese, Hebrew, Black, Mulatto, Negro, African, White, Free White,  Slaves, Free Colored, Some Other Race, were all words listed to describe a person's race and position.   

Are Jews a race?  It just happens that there are Black Jews, White Jews, Oriental Jews, Middle Eastern Jews, etc.  We come in many colors from many parts of the world. For several years, Jews have been returning to Israel to live.  This was expected and welcomed to happen.  It was foretold in the Bible.  There are, however, a few basic haplogroups that are predominantly Jewish, except for people who converted or married into and converted to Judaism.   

Resource:

The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia

https://jewishfactsfromportland.blogspot.com/2010/01/what-haplogroup-we-be.html

https://www.census.gov/data-tools/demo/race/MREAD_1790_2010.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Jews#:~:text=Judaism%20(35%25%20Reform%2C%2018,%2C%20Irreligious%2FAtheists%2C%20etc.&text=Who%20is%20a%20Jew%3F

  

World War II: Two Little Lithuanian Towns, Telsiai (Telz) and Papile, Lithuania: and the Jews--Not To Forget the Past Lest It Be Repeated

 Nadene Goldfoot

Grant Gochin                                                    

World War II started with the German invasion of Poland, the next-door neighbor of Lithuania, on the 1st of September 1939, whereas the USA entered it later after Pearl Harbor was hit by the Japanese on December 7, 1941.  Three days later, after Germany and Italy declared war on it, the United States became fully engaged in the Second World War.                                                          

  Hitler conferring with Haj Amin al-Husseini, the Grand Mufti, a Muslim,   about the "Jews" on November 28, 1941

Earlier, on March 20, 1939, Hitler had transmitted an ultimatum to Lithuania to leave Memel within 24 hours.  About 7,000 Jews who lived in Memel, in the SE corner of the Baltic by the Nieman River,  and in its region escaped, leaving most of their belongings behind, looking for asylum in the Zemaitija region and in Kovno.  Many of them settled in Telz/Telsiai, where the Jewish community cared for them.  

My grandfather, Nathan Goldfus, lived in Telz/Telsiai, Lithuania.  His family had been there for 6 generations to 1730 with Jonah Goldfus.  Telz had 17 butcher's shops and cattle trade of which 12 of them were owned by Jews.  Textile products and furs were also big business with 17 of those, with all 17 owned by Jews.  This was in 1931.  (My father also was a butcher who owned his own business in Portland, Oregon.  Telz had 78 businesses of which 63 were owned by Jews.    

Telšiai is one of the oldest cities in Lithuania, probably dating earlier than the 14th century. Between the 15th and 20th centuries, Telšiai became a district capital and between 1795 and 1802 it was included in the Vilnius Governorate. In 1873, Telšiai was transferred to the Kovno Governorate.

                                                         

By June 1940, Lithuania was annexed to the Soviet Union, becoming a Soviet Republic.  Following new laws, the majority of the factories and shops belonging to the Jews of Telz were suddenly nationalized and commissars were appointed to manage them.  All Zionist parties and youth organizations were disbanded, several of the activists were detained.  Hebrew educational institutions were closed, and the Hebrew school converted into a Yiddish one. 

At the beginning of June 1941, several Jewish families who were considered "unreliable elements" were exiled to Siberia.  They were Zionists, the Volperts, and 2 merchants with 5 in their family of Zax.  Their enterprises were nationalized.  Supply of goods decreased and prices soared.  The middle class, mostly Jewish, bore most of the brunt, and the standard of living dropped gradually.  

When the Jews of Telz became aware that the German army had invaded Lithuania on the 22nd of June 1941, they began to escape to the surrounding villages and to Russia, but very few managed to get there.  On the 23rd, the town was bombed by the Germans, and on the 26th, they entered Telz.                           

"Even before the Germans entered Telz, armed Lithuanians with white stripes on their sleeves took over the town.  On Friday, June 27 (when Shabbat starts at sundown) , Telz's Jews were expelled from their homes and directed to the shore of  Lake Mastis, having been ordered to leave their homes unlocked.  On the shore of the lake they were encircled by armed Lithuanians under German command, which they interpreted to mean that they were going to be murdered or drowned in the lake.  The town's Rabbi Blokh consoled them telling them that they should behave quietly and proudly as Jews behave who are going to die on "Kiddush HaShem", the Santification of G-d).  Men and women with children were separated from each other during the night and anyone showing opposition was beaten with rifle butts.  The women and children were allowed to return home, where they found their homes emptied of their contents, the door and windows broken.  

                                                                   

June 28, 1941, Shabbat (the Sabbath for Jews), armed Lithuanians appeared, expelling the women and children from their homes with beatings, then led the women  to the  Rainiai farm, 4 km from Telz, where they found the men.  A Jew, an American citizen, who had come to visit relatives in Telz, refused to go with them, waving his  American passport.  He was shot on the spot.  

The Jews were placed in a camp created at the farm.  They were put in stalls full of manure with men and women still separated.  They were able to cook rye flour porridge, and had 100 grams of black bread, 20 grams of butter and several potatoes, then could be with their families.  After 8 days, 30 men were put to work, digging up from their graves the corpses of 73 political prisoners murdered by Soviet security men before they left.  Telz men were forced to wash the corpses, kiss them and lick the decayed  wounds under the pretext that Jews had taken part in that murder.  The 30 men were beaten and wounded,, then forced later to kneel in the street during the funeral of the murdered.  The Catholic Bishop Staugaitis proclaimed the day of the funeral, July 13th as HOLY SUNDAY to symbolize victory over Soviet rule.  All the guards in the camp and in the working places were Lithuanians.  

                                                                      

      Crowd views the aftermath of a massacre at Lietukis Garage, where pro-German Lithuanian nationalists killed more than 50 Jewish men. The victims were beaten, hosed, and then murdered with iron bars. Kovno, Lithuania, June 27, 1941.

          SS Camp

By the 14th of July, several Germans and Lithuanians appeared in the camp, driving all Jews from the sheds and barns.  Men up to the age of 15 were beaten as they were forced to run in a circle, fall down and stand up.  Many of the Telz citizens came to see THE SPECIAL SHOW, and clapped.  Several elderly Jews died there, others were smitten and wounded and put back into the barns.  Like a cat plays with his mouse, the Lithuanians were having fun at the expense of the Jews.  

80 young, strong Jewish men were taken and given shovels and buckets, and taken to a grove where a pit was.  they were forced to pump the water out of the pits, then they were shot and thrown into it.  Prisoners at the barn didn't know what was happening.  Lithuanians came to the camp, took 24 more men for work, and later shots could be heard again.  On June 15th, 1941 (20th of Tamuz 5701) all men were taken out, led in groups to the grove and murdered.  They were forced to get naked, stand on a plank that went across the pit and shot.  Those that fell unhurt were buried alive anyway.  Rain stopped the progress so that those still alive had to dress, run to the shacks, but the next morning the killings continued.  The rabbis were in the last group.  Their beards had been  cut off or plucked off together with the skin of their faces.                         

Jewish women with bodies of executed men outside the Seventh Fort. Kovno, Lithuania, date uncertain.

Of the women, they found out what had happened when the Lithuanian guard burst into the barns and frightened them and then raped many.  The women were moved to Geruliai camp, about 10 km from Telz.  They were joined by others, altogether about 4,000 were crowded into these shacks.  On the 30th and 31st of December 1941, the women were taken out from the ghetto and led in groups to the pits beside the Rainiai estate, where they were murdered.  Of the women who escaped, 64 survived and actually survived to LIBERATION DAY.  Several tens arrived at the Shavli (Siasuliai) ghetto, their fate eventually being the same as the other ghetto Jews.                   

Papile is a shtetl, a smaller town than Telz.  It's coordinates are 56°09′10″N 22°47′3″E.  The settlement was first mentioned in 1339, after the area was raided by the Livonian Order. Two hill-forts have been preserved since this time. It's where Grant Gochin's  family is from before they moved to South Africa before WWII.  Many Lithuanians had moved to South Africa, but my grandfather had chosen the USA.

  Papilė is the birthplace of Abraham William Briscoe (1850-1917), who became a prominent businessman in Ireland. Abraham's son, Robert Briscoe (1894-1969), was an Irish revolutionary leader and legislator. Robert was the first Jew to serve as Lord Mayor of Dublin (1956-1957 and 1961-1962). Upon hearing that Dublin had elected a Jew as its mayor, the legendary American baseball player Yogi Berra famously quipped, "Only in America." Robert's son Ben (Abraham's grandson) also served as Lord Mayor of Dublin (1988-1989). Both our families may have been in Ireland after leaving Papile and Telz;  Ours had been in Dublin.  

It is a Shtetl  in Šiauliai County, Lithuania, near the Venta River.  Grant Gochin, our 3rd cousin twice removed,  asked, "What happened to the Jews that never managed to leave Papile?" His family had come from here, and his male ancestor Gochin had married a female Goldfus.  He uses Zagare as the example.  Žagarė is a city located in the Joniškis district, northern Lithuania, close to the border with Latvia. It has a population of about 2,000. Žagarė is famous for Žagarvyšnė - a cherry species originated in Žagarė.

  But first Grant wrote: " Papile, being a small village in the north of the country, had a miniscule Jewish Community. The men of Papile were taken for immediate murder, while the women were locked up in a building for two weeks. During that time, they were raped, beaten, tortured and starved. Simple Jewish village people were brought down to the lowest depths of hell that their Lithuanian neighbors could construct, while their neighbors divided the proceeds of the loot they had stolen from their victims. After two weeks of horror, these Jewish women and children were taken to the Zagare Ghetto, where they were finally slaughtered, and thus ended 700 years of continual Jewish life in Papile. Perhaps only some neighbors participated in the slaughters and rapes, perhaps only a few more shared their loot, but the rest stood by in silence as people they knew and lived amongst were irrevocably destroyed." (1)

"In late July 1941, the activists made a list of Jews who stayed in Zagare and began to transfer them to the ghetto.  The Jews who lived in nearby shtetls were also moved to the ghetto of Zagare.  The area chosen for the ghetto adjoined the market place and included Daukanto, Vilniaus, Maluno, Pakalnio,, and Gedimino streets.  Non-Jewish residents of these streets were moved to other neighborhoods."

"On July 22, 1941, A total of 40 Jewish men were killed by an Einsatzgruppen of 20 Lithuanian policemen and white armbanders (Lithuanian nationalists). Following the slaughter of the Jews, several Soviet supporters were brought to the murder site and killed making a total of 55 people massacred. The remains of the victims have been moved to the Papilė cemetery."

                   Silvia Foti’s grandfather,  Jonas Noreika, was a Nazi.  Family photograph

"I learned that the man I had believed was a savior who did all he could to rescue Jews during World War II had, in reality, ordered all Jews in his region of Lithuania to be rounded up and sent to a ghetto where they were beaten, starved, tortured, raped and then murdered. More than 95 percent of Lithuania’s Jews died during World War II, many of them killed with the eager collaboration of their neighbors. After researching his life for the past 20 years, I’ve dared to call my grandfather a Nazi even though he never officially joined the party. He worked with the Nazis, acted like them, was paid by them, hated Jews like them and, like them, facilitated torture and murder."(2)

On August 22, 1941,, chief of the Siauliai region, Jonas Noreika, informed local authorities and mayors of smaller towns of the Siauliai region that according to the order of the Siauliai Gebietskommissar, all the region's Jews and half-Jews were obliged to move to Zagare by August 29th.  The transfer began with Jews from Siauliai, Joniskis, Kursenai, Zeimelis, and other localities.  On August 25th, the mayor of Zagare informed the regional chief of Siauliai, that the ghetto occupied an area of 12,135 sq. meters and had a population of 715 Jews.  On September 20th, 5,566 people (2,402 Jews and 3,164 non-Jews) resided in Zagare.  (1)                                                   

Scene of barbarity: 'To the Poles and the Jews, these images were of paramount importance as evidence of atrocities' (3)

In the last days of September 1941,  local ethnic Lithuanians were marched to the town park where they were forced to dig a ditch.  On the morning  of October 2nd,  Jews from the Zagare ghetto were ordered to gather in the market square.  Commandant Mannteuffel addressed the crowd in German, assuring them that they would all be given work to do.  All had to form separate lines.  When the German whistle blew,, white arm-banders and policemen from Zagare and other towns began to surround the square.  The arm-banders shot into the crowd and beat them.  Scores of killed and wounded people were left on the square.  the survivors were forced to lie down on the ground where they had to stay until several trucks arrived.  Jews were then transported to Naryshkin Park. (1)

Money, jewelry, and other valuables were seized from the Jews as they marched to the murder site.  At the ditch, the victims had to remove everything except their underwear before they were forced to lie down in the pit and were shot.  the executioners sere a self-defense unit from  Siauliai, led by Lieutenant R. Koloska and white arm=banders from Linkuva.  The Zagare white arm-banders guarded the ghetto and led the victims to their deaths.  Several German SS men who had arrived from Siauliai supervised the killings and also participated in them.  The mass murder went un until very late at night.  The next day another Jewish group they found were murdered in the same ditch. (1) 

22,236 Jews (663 men, 1,107 women and 496 children were killed in Zagare.  during the panic, 150 Jews were killed and 7 white arm-banders who guarded them were wounded.  The Soviet special commission, who examined the mass grave in 1944, found 2,402 corpses (530 men, 1,223 women, 625 children, and 24 infants.(1)  

                                                              

6 million slaughtered Jews, who only wanted to live and not bother anyone.  Will we ever understand the immense number that 6 million was?  Who we lost?  Will we ever understand why somebody would want to cause this?  Those of us who managed to get born and live, how lucky we are to be here.  Remember, Never again.   

Resource

(1) Malice, Murder, and Manipulation--One man's quest for truth by Grant Arthur Gochin

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C5%BDagar%C4%97,   Zagare

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papil%C4%97

Preserving Our Litvak Heritage-a history of 31 Jewish communities in Lithuania by Josef Rosin

https://www.proquest.com/openview/666b4aced0cf4c0896831957e9e620fc/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=1817084    Memel

https://www.grantgochin.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/the-jewish-cemetery-in-papile.pdf

(2) Silvia Foti 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tel%C5%A1iai

https://time.com/4084301/hitler-grand-mufi-1941/

(3) https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2004/jan/27/photography.museums