London, Sunday, May 22, 2005 [Great Shakedown Latest] Nazi ally's grandson gives millions to Holocaust fund in bid to halt hate campaign By Chris Hastings, Media Correspondent THE billionaire grandson of a Nazi arms manufacturer has donated £3.4 million to a Holocaust charity in an apparent effort to halt a campaign of vilification against him. David Irving comments: MEMO to Mr Flick: In England we have had, ever since the lustrous days of King æthelred the Unready and the Viking hordes, the saying: "The more you pay them the Danegeld, You Never get Rid of the Danes."    Nowadays, it isn't the Vikings who are pillagin', and lootin', and robbin', and rapin' (and detractors say you've got to have a taste for necrophilia where those cool Englishwomen are concerned) its our Universal-Victim friends, aka Those Nice Folks Next Door.    But the historic lesson is the same: If you give blackmailers the taste for easy money, you'll never get rid of them.    And you'll never get your child back alive, either. Don't these folks never watch no TV? IF Mr Friedrich Flick Jr was not anti-Jewish before, I venture to suspect that now, -- well, 'nuff said. Nobody points out that the German Zwangsarbeiter (forced laborers) used in WW2 were not just the Jews, but French, Poles, and many other classes of "victim" too; but it's the squeaky wheel that gets the oil, right?    Each such episode inevitably increases the growing number of anti-Semites throughout Germany. Reminds me of a young German publisher friend who objected to paying into this nationwide German compensation fund for slave labour, pointing out that he is in his thirties, and his firm only five years old. The authorities rapidly persuaded him to change his mind, and pay up he did.    I repeat: When ordinary Germans, most of whom drive or have driven Mercedes autos, see what these nice folks are doing to them, in my view it can only lead to an increase in anti-Semitism.    But in my view too, that is probably just what these folks perversely want. Friedrich Christian Flick, an heir to the Mercedes fortune and one of the world's most celebrated collectors of modern art, has donated the money to a fund set up by the German government to compensate surviving victims of Nazi slave labour. The payment to the Berlin-based Remembrance, Responsibility and the Future is the largest single private donation made to the foundation since it was launched in 2000. Details will be included in The Art Newspaper, published on Tuesday. Mr Flick, 60, who has homes in London and Geneva, declined to talk to The Sunday Telegraph but a spokesman confirmed the payment had been made. A press release issued last week stated: "Dr Flick would like to acknowledge the fate of former forced labourers and to convey to them an expression of his deepest sympathy." The businessman, whose grandfather employed hundreds of slave labourers, had previously refused all requests for him to make a donation, arguing that as an individual he was not obligated to the fund. Instead, in 2001, he put ¤5 million (£3.4 million) into a foundation to fight racism and xenophobia. His change of heart seems to be a response to protests by Jewish groups that have gone to extraordinary lengths to highlight the role played by the Mercedes family in the Nazi war machine. The protesters marred the opening of an exhibition of his artworks at The Hamburger Bahnhof Museum in Berlin. Renata Sith and Frieder Schnok, two German artists, erected billboards opposite the museum, demanding free entry for former forced labourers employed by Mr Flick's grandfather and accusing Mr Flick of using his art to avoid paying ¤125 million (£85 million) in taxes. Inside the exhibition, a man stripped naked and began to shave his head and body hair, in an act he described as "solidarity with the survivors of slave labour". Another protester, known as Sonia H, attacked works by Gordon Matta-Clark, an American artist. However, the exhibition -- rejected by museums in Zürich, Dresden and Strasburg - had several prominent supporters, including Chancellor Gerhard Schröder. Rabbi Jonathan Romain yesterday said that Mr Flick was right to make the payment and it was time for all sides to move forward. He added: "The fortune is associated with the Nazi past even if Mr Flick has no personal responsibility. So it is right to make some form of compensation payment. And it is equally right for it to be accepted with good grace. "I think the matter should now be closed. The sins of his grandfather belong to a previous century and both sides should move forward."   Provocative German Holocaust memorial, unveiled: Leah (aka Edith) Rosh wants to create a personal Memorial to an Unknown Tooth Provocative German Holocaust Denial Poster Removed Holocaust Memorial Campaign Aims to Shock Germany Der Spiegel: "Welches Plakat?" Holocaust Memorial Donations Sought Holocaust Never Happened' ad prompts survivor's lawsuit   for further items search our website archive for "shakedown"

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