JEWISH KING JESUS IS COMING AT THE RAPTURE FOR US IN THE CLOUDS-DON'T MISS IT FOR THE WORLD.THE BIBLE TAKEN LITERALLY- WHEN THE PLAIN SENSE MAKES GOOD SENSE-SEEK NO OTHER SENSE-LEST YOU END UP IN NONSENSE.GET SAVED NOW- CALL ON JESUS TODAY.THE ONLY SAVIOR OF THE WHOLE EARTH - NO OTHER.
1 COR 15:23-JESUS THE FIRST FRUITS-CHRISTIANS RAPTURED TO JESUS-FIRST FRUITS OF THE SPIRIT-23 But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming.ROMANS 8:23 And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.(THE PRE-TRIB RAPTURE)
LUKE 21:28-29
28 And when these things begin to come to pass,(ALL THE PROPHECY SIGNS FROM THE BIBLE) then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption (RAPTURE) draweth nigh.
29 And he spake to them a parable; Behold the fig tree,(ISRAEL) and all the trees;(ALL INDEPENDENT COUNTRIES)
30 When they now shoot forth, ye see and know of your own selves that summer is now nigh at hand.(ISRAEL LITERALLY BECAME AND INDEPENDENT COUNTRY JUST BEFORE SUMMER IN MAY 14,1948.)
JOEL 2:3,30
3 A fire devoureth (ATOMIC BOMB) before them;(RUSSIAN-ARAB-MUSLIM ARMIES AGAINST ISRAEL) and behind them a flame burneth: the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them.
30 And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke.(ATOMIC BOMB AFFECT)
ZECHARIAH 14:12-13
12 And this shall be the plague wherewith the LORD will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem; Their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet,(DISOLVED FROM ATOMIC BOMB) and their eyes shall consume away in their holes,(DISOLVED FROM ATOMIC BOMB) and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth.(DISOLVED FROM ATOMIC BOMB)(BECAUSE NUKES HAVE BEEN USED ON ISRAELS ENEMIES)(GOD PROTECTS ISRAEL AND ALWAYS WILL)
13 And it shall come to pass in that day, that a great tumult from the LORD shall be among them; and they shall lay hold every one on the hand of his neighbour, and his hand shall rise up against the hand of his neighbour.(1/2-3 BILLION DIE IN WW3)(THIS IS AN ATOMIC BOMB EFFECT)
EZEKIEL 20:47
47 And say to the forest of the south, Hear the word of the LORD; Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will kindle a fire in thee, and it shall devour every green tree in thee, and every dry tree: the flaming flame shall not be quenched, and all faces from the south to the north shall be burned therein.
ZEPHANIAH 1:18
18 Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of the LORD'S wrath; but the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of his jealousy: for he shall make even a speedy riddance of all them that dwell in the land.
MALACHI 4:1
1 For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven;(FROM ATOMIC BOMBS) and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.
And here are the bounderies of the land that Israel will inherit either through war or peace or God in the future. God says its Israels land and only Israels land. They will have every inch God promised them of this land in the future.
Egypt east of the Nile River, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, The southern part of Turkey and the Western Half of Iraq west of the Euphrates. Gen 13:14-15, Psm 105:9,11, Gen 15:18, Exe 23:31, Num 34:1-12, Josh 1:4.ALL THIS LAND ISRAEL WILL DEFINATELY OWN IN THE FUTURE, ITS ISRAELS NOT ISHMAELS LAND.12 TRIBES INHERIT LAND IN THE FUTURE
THE ISRAELIS ARE SMART-PULLING A MUSLIM TRICK-DISQUISE THEMSELVES AS MUSLIM TO ACTUALLY GET TO PRAY TO JESUS ON THE TEMPLE MOUNT.
Jews pose as Muslims to enter Temple Mount, are stopped-Police detain 2 Israelis claiming to be Palestinian worshipers at entrance to flashpoint Jerusalem holy site-By Times of Israel staff April 5, 2016, 6:25 pm
Police on Tuesday detained two Jewish men who attempted to enter Jerusalem’s contentious Temple Mount compound in the guise of Muslim worshipers.The two, both aged 21, approached one of the gates to the holy site wearing traditional religious Muslim garb. After they raised the suspicions of nearby police, an officer approached the pair and asked them for identification.Despite claiming they were Muslim Palestinians, a statement from police said the on-duty officers soon determined the pair were in fact Israeli Jews.A statement from police did not indicate if they belonged to Jewish activist groups barred from the site. It was not clear why the two felt the need to disguise themselves.Under an agreement between the Israeli government and Islamic authorities at the site, Jews are allowed to visit but not pray at the site, which is revered as the location of both ancient Jewish temples.The site is so holy that Jews have traditionally refrained from praying on the hilltop, congregating instead at the adjacent Western Wall, a retaining wall of the ancient temple complex, which has become the top holy spot for Jewish prayer.Jewish visitors suspected of violating the Temple Mount prayer ban are routinely arrested by police.Clashes between Palestinian youths and Israeli security forces erupted at the compound in September amid fears among Muslims that Israel was planning to change rules governing the site.Muslims regard the compound — which today houses the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock, known in Arabic as the Holy Sanctuary — as the third-holiest site in Islam.Israel has repeatedly denied there are any such plans.The clashes preceded a wave of Palestinian terrorism and violence, including stabbing, shooting and vehicular ramming attacks that have killed 29 Israelis, two Americans, an Eritrean and a Sudanese since October 1 last year. Some 200 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli security forces in this period, most of them while carrying out attacks, according to Israeli officials.Israel captured the Temple Mount, site of the biblical temples, from Jordan in the 1967 Six Day War and later annexed the area, but it left Jordanian religious authorities in charge of the Muslim holy sites there. While Israel controls access to the holy site, Jews are barred from praying there.Israel and Jordan recently agreed to install video cameras throughout the compound in a bid to ease tensions.Though US Secretary of State John Kerry announced the video surveillance plan during a visit to Amman last year, disputes between Israel and Jordan over who controls the footage and what the cameras may or may not film are reportedly holding up the project.AP contributed to this report.
ISRAEL SATAN COMES AGAINST
1 CHRONICLES 21:1
1 And Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number Israel.
GENESIS 12:1-3
1 Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I (GOD) will shew thee:
2 And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing:
3 And I will bless them that bless thee,(ISRAELIS) and curse (DESTROY) him that curseth thee:(DESTROY THEM) and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.
ISAIAH 41:11
11 Behold, all they that were incensed against thee (ISRAEL) shall be ashamed and confounded: they shall be as nothing;(DESTROYED) and they that strive with thee shall perish.(ISRAEL HATERS WILL BE TOTALLY DESTROYED)
ISRAELS TROUBLE
JEREMIAH 30:7
7 Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob’s trouble;(ISRAEL) but he shall be saved out of it.
DANIEL 12:1,4
1 And at that time shall Michael(ISRAELS WAR ANGEL) stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people:(ISRAEL) and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation(May 14,48) even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book.
4 But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro,(WORLD TRAVEL,IMMIGRATION) and knowledge shall be increased.(COMPUTERS,CHIP IMPLANTS ETC)
Kerry on Iran nuclear deal: If they’re cheating, we’ll know it-Secretary of state defends pact with Tehran ahead of expected grilling by angry Republicans in Congress-By Richard Lardner April 5, 2016, 6:26 pm-the times of israel
WASHINGTON (AP) — US Secretary of State John Kerry on Tuesday defended the landmark nuclear deal the United States made with Iran ahead of a congressional hearing where Senate Republicans are expected to hammer the Obama administration for considering the easing of financial restrictions against Tehran.Kerry acknowledged the harsh criticism of the arrangement, which is designed to prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear power, telling MSNBC there’s a furious debate even in Iran over whether Tehran should choose missiles over dialogue.“I think what you’re seeing there is tension” between moderates and hard-liners over Iran’s future course, Kerry said.Kerry’s remarks came just hours ahead of a scheduled hearing by the GOP-led Senate Foreign Relations Committee on the implementation of the nuclear accord. Thomas Shannon, the undersecretary of state for political affairs, will testify.The committee’s hearing comes amid reports that the administration may relax the prohibition that prevents US dollars from being used in transactions with Iran. Angry lawmakers, who contend the US was taken advantage of in the deal, have countered that Tehran would be getting more than it deserves from the international nuclear pact reached last year.While no final decision has been made, officials told The Associated Press the Treasury Department has prepared a general license permitting offshore financial institutions to access dollars for foreign currency trades in support of legitimate business with Iran, a practice that is currently illegal.Several restrictions would apply, but the change could prove significant for Iran’s sanctions-battered economy. It also would be highly contentious in the United States, where Republican and several Democratic lawmakers say the administration promised to maintain a strict ban on dollars along with other non-nuclear penalties on Iran after last July’s seven-nation nuclear agreement.The nuclear pact provided Iran with billions of dollars in sanctions relief for curtailing programs that could lead to nuclear weapons. But the Iranians say they haven’t benefited to the extent envisioned under the deal because of other US measures linked to human rights, terrorism and missile development concerns.Kerry told MSNBC that Iran “needs to make some clear decisions about the role that it intends to play in the region and the world.”Kerry added, “if they’re cheating, we will know it.”Members of the committee also may press Shannon on the need for stricter sanctions against Iran for what Republicans have called repeated violations of a UN ballistic missile test ban.A group of Republican senators last month unveiled legislation that requires the administration to sanction every sector of Iran’s economy that supports the country’s ballistic missile program. The bill, introduced by Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-NH, is a reflection of longstanding exasperation among GOP lawmakers who’ve complained that President Barack Obama has failed to properly punish Tehran for test-firing ballistic missiles.Iran’s Revolutionary Guard test-fired two ballistic missiles on March 9 and US officials said the launches were in defiance of the UN resolution, which calls for Tehran not to launch any ballistic missiles capable of delivering a nuclear weapon.The administration in January announced sanctions against Tehran for missile firings in late 2015, but Republicans called those measures tepid and weak.
US designates Paris attacks suspect a ‘global terrorist’-‘Belgian-born French citizen Salah Abdeslam is an operative for the Islamic State,’ State Department says-By AFP April 5, 2016, 7:17 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
WASHINGTON — The United States on Tuesday designated a leading suspect in last year’s jihadist attacks on Paris, Salah Abdeslam, as a “global terrorist” under US law.The order, announced by the State Department, freezes any assets held by Abdeslam in US jurisdictions and forbids Americans from doing business with him.“Belgian-born French citizen Salah Abdeslam is an operative for the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant,” it said, using a former name of the Islamic State group.The US Treasury Office of Foreign Assets Control separately confirmed that Abdeslam’s name has been added to its list of specially designated foreign nationals.The 26-year-old was arrested on March 18 in a police raid on a hideout in the Brussels district of Molenbeek and is due to be extradited to France.He is accused of being the sole surviving member of a gang that launched a series of attacks on civilian targets in Paris on November 13 last year that left 130 dead.“Witnesses identified Abdeslam as the driver of a car full of gunmen that killed patrons at numerous restaurants in Paris,” the US statement said.“Authorities found his DNA both on a discarded suicide belt and along with traces of explosives in a Brussels apartment,” it added.“Abdeslam stated after his arrest that he planned on conducting a suicide bombing outside of the Paris soccer stadium, but had ‘backed out.'”Four days after he was arrested, the Belgian capital was struck by coordinated Islamic State suicide bombings at an airport and a metro station.The suspects in these attacks are alleged to have links to Abdeslam and the Paris attacks cell.Khalid El Bakraoui, who blew himself up at the metro, rented a flat in Brussels where Abdeslam’s fingerprints were found.And one of the two airport bombers, Najim Laachraoui, drove to Hungary with Abdeslam in September.
Scientists a step closer to pig hearts for humans-5 baboons, primate cousins of humans, live a record 2.5 years after transplant of pig hearts, American and German scientists report-By Mariëtte Le Roux April 5, 2016, 7:03 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
AFP — One day, cardiac patients may enjoy a new lease on life with pig hearts beating in their chests, said researchers reporting a major advance Tuesday in cross-species organ transplantation.Given the dire shortage of organ donors, the use of animal hearts, lungs or livers to save human lives has long been a holy grail of medical science.But organ rejection has stood stubbornly in the way.On Tuesday, scientists from the United States and Germany said they had succeeded in keeping transplanted pig hearts alive in baboons, primate cousins of humans, for a record 2.5 years.Their method uses a combination of gene modification and targeted immune-suppressing drugs.“It is very significant because it brings us one step closer to using these organs in humans,” said study co-author Muhammad Mohiuddin of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute in Maryland.“Xenotransplants — organ transplants between different species — could potentially save thousands of lives each year that are lost due to a shortage of human organs for transplantation,” he told AFP by email.In experiments with five baboons, the hearts survived for up to 945 days, breaking previous records held by the same group of researchers.The hearts did not replace those of the monkeys, but were connected to the circulatory system via two large blood vessels in the baboon abdomen.The transplanted heart beat like a normal heart, but the baboon’s own heart continued the function of pumping blood — a known method in studying organ rejection.Donor organs are often rejected by a recipient’s immune system, which can recognize it as foreign, and thus a threat.In this trial, the donor organs came from pigs which had been genetically modified to have high tolerance to immune response, basically making them invisible to the recipient’s natural defense system.The scientists also added a human genetic signature to the pigs that help prevent blood clotting.The recipient baboons were given a drug that suppresses immune response.-Safe for humans? Scientists have been experimenting with the transplantation of primate kidneys, hearts and livers into humans since the 1960s. None survived beyond a few months.Given their genetic proximity to humans, primates were initially thought to be the best donor candidates. But there is no large source of captive-bred apes — which take long to grow and mature, and some like chimpanzees are endangered.Their genetic closeness also poses a higher danger of inter-species disease transmission, as well as ethical questions.Pigs have since emerged as better donors. Their hearts are anatomically similar to ours, they pose less of a disease transmission risk, they grow up fast and are already widely farmed.In these xenotransplant trials, baboons serve as human models.The next big test will be full pig-to-baboon heart transplants, said Mohiuddin, adding that porcine hearts could make their way into human chests “in the foreseeable future.”“In our opinion, this regimen appears potentially safe for human application for patients suffering from end-stage organ failure who might be candidates for initial trials of xenotransplantation,” wrote the study authors.The work was published in the journal Nature Communications.
Virus killing one of world’s most farmed fish, Israeli study finds-Tilapia a global food source worth $7.5 billion each year, annual yields from Israel down 85 percent-By AFP April 5, 2016, 7:57 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
International scientists said Tuesday they have identified a new virus that is killing both wild and farmed tilapia fish, an important global food source worth $7.5 billion each year.The culprit is related to a family of influenza viruses, and appears to kill fish by causing brain swelling in tilapia in Israel and liver disease in the fish in Ecuador, said the findings in the journal mBio.The newly identified pathogen, named tilapia lake virus (TiLV), affects tilapia, the world’s second most farmed fish.“Tilapia is one of the most important fish industries worldwide,” said co-author Eran Bacharach, a molecular virologist at Tel Aviv University.“Moreover, because they eat algae, they are ecological gatekeepers for freshwater and they are an inexpensive, important source of protein in poorer countries.”Scientists still know little about the virus’ biology, where it originated, or how it made its way into Israel in 2009 and two years later, to commercial ponds in Ecuador. A future research paper will describe its effects in Colombia as well, the authors said.In Israel, the virus affected both wild tilapia species in the Sea of Galilee, and fish in commercial ponds.Annual yields from Israel have dropped as much as 85 percent.Knowing more about the virus could speed efforts to craft a vaccine.“We are shifting our focus now to implementing diagnostic tests for containment of infection and to developing vaccines to prevent disease,” said co-author Avi Eldar of the Kimron Veterinary Institute in Bet Dagan, Israel.According to researcher Ian Lipkin of Columbia University, “building a vaccine would save billions of dollars and preserve an industry that ensures employment in the developing world and food security.”
2,200-year-old bronze artifacts found at biblical site-Incense shovel, jug from Second Temple era unearthed at Magdala, on Sea of Galilee, during recent excavations-By Ilan Ben Zion April 5, 2016, 5:04 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
An ornate Second Temple era bronze incense shovel and bronze jug were recently unearthed at the biblical site of Magdala, on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, the Israel Antiquities Authority announced Tuesday.The 2,200-year-old artifacts were found during excavations being carried out at the archaeological site on the western shore of the Kinneret. The town is known traditionally by Christians as the birthplace of Mary Magdalene, one of Jesus’s followers mentioned in the New Testament who witnessed his crucifixion and resurrection.They were resting one on top of the another on a stone floor in a storeroom near the fishing village’s pier and likely belonged to a local Jewish family, archaeologists said.Ritual shovels were used in Jewish cultic practice for burning incense in the Temple in Jerusalem. They are depicted in contemporary Jewish iconography as one of the articles associated with the Temple.Dina Avshalom Gorni, the IAA archaeologist heading the dig, said that the incense shovel was one of just a handful from the land of Israel during that period.“At the beginning of the study we assumed that the shovel was used only as a cultic object for treating coals and incense used in ritual ceremonies,” Gorni said in a statement. “Over the years, after incense shovels were found with no cultic context, it would appear that the incense shovel was also used as a tool of daily use.”Last year a Hebrew University excavation at Khirbet el-Eika found a duck-headed incense shovel from a pagan context.The IAA began extensive excavations at Magdala after construction of a new hotel brought to light ancient remains in 2009. In partnership with Dr. Marcela Zapata-Meza of Anahuac University in Mexico, the digs have uncovered the remains of a synagogue, ritual baths, streets, factories and a marketplace from the Second Temple-era town. Since then volunteers from around the world have taken part in the excavations.“The volunteers were absolutely thrilled,” Eyad Bisharat, an IAA archaeologist supervising the site, said. “Even we veteran excavators were extremely excited because it’s not every day that one uncovers such rare artifacts as these, and in such a fine state of preservation.”
Lawmaker backs segregated Jewish, Arab maternity wards-Bezalel Smotrich says he doesn’t ‘enjoy’ Arabs’ company because they’re ‘enemies’; Bennett: They’re ‘created in God’s image’-By Daniel Douek April 5, 2016, 4:57 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
Jewish Home MK Bezalel Smotrich took to Twitter Tuesday to support the separation of Arab and Jewish mothers in maternity wards in Israeli hospitals.“My wife is truly no racist, but after giving birth she wants to rest rather than have a hafla” — a mass feast often accompanied by music and dancing — “like the Arabs have after their births.”The tweet followed a report on Israeli Radio saying that hospitals have been separating between Arab and Jewish mothers in maternity wards when the mothers request it.After his tweet received negative replies, Smotrich went a step further, writing: “It’s natural that my wife wouldn’t want to lie down [in a bed] next to a woman who just gave birth to a baby who might want to murder her baby twenty years from now.”He then added that “Arabs are my enemies and that’s why I don’t enjoy being next to them.”His wife, Revital, later told Channel 10 that she had “kicked an Arab obstetrician out of the [delivery] room. I want Jewish hands to touch my baby, and I wasn’t comfortable lying in the same room with an Arab woman.”“I refuse to have an Arab midwife, because for me giving birth is a Jewish and pure moment,” she said.Lawmakers attacked Smotrich’s comments, including MK Abd al-Hakim Hajj Yahya of the Joint (Arab) List, who sent a letter to Knesset Speaker MK Yuli Edelstein imploring him to immediately suspend Smotrich.“This kind of racist incitement affects an entire population, and as such cannot be ignored,” Yahya wrote in his official letter. “This man’s remarks directly harm the status of the Knesset. For this reason the Knesset speaker is asked to immediately relieve the transgressing MK from duty.”Yoel Hasson of the Zionist Union also came out swinging against Smotrich.“Some of our best friends are Jews who celebrate with particularly pleasant haflas,” Hasson tweeted at him. “I suggest you erase [your] racist tweet.”Haim Jelin (Yesh Atid) also slammed Smotrich. “As far as you know, God created all beings equally human, not racist,” he said.Ahmad Tibi tweeted cynically that “Smotrich’s spirit hovers over maternity wards throughout the country.”Aida Touma-Sliman (Joint List) linked Smotrich’s comments to racism against the Mizrahi, or Sephardic, Jewish community in Israel.“Beyond the overt justification for a racial segregation policy clearly similar to that which existed in the southern United States in the last century, Smotrich reveals something deeper here,” she wrote in a Facebook post. “This dangerous racist trend is not limited to the Arab culture, but extends to Sephardic Jews, Ethiopians, Russians, non-religious Jews and anyone who differs from the [political] right’s view.”The leader of Smotrich’s Jewish Home party, Education Minister Naftali Bennett, also expressed his dissatisfaction, implying the comments were racist. He quoted a passage from the Mishnah, the first major written redaction of the Jewish oral traditions, stating that “every human created in God’s image is favored,” and stressing in his own words that the text speaks of “every human, Jewish or Arab.”He linked his tweet to a post of his from 2015, where he wrote of a Shabbat he spent alongside his father’s hospital bed.“In a hospital there is no significance to race, religion, skin color, sexual orientation or political views,” he had written in that earlier post, naming “Khaled from Umm el-Fahm,” who lay in the bed adjacent to his father’s, as an example. “Everyone is human, and every human was born in God’s image.”Minneapolis-based American public radio PRI published an article February 2016 underlining the drastic fall in deliveries at Jerusalem’s Mount Scopus Hadassah Hospital as an indicator of the detrimental effect the Israeli-Palestinian violence has had on coexistence.The hospital’s dedication to coexistence, which earned it a Nobel Peace Prize nomination, has always been a principle of the highest value, according to the article.Following the rise in violence since October 2015, the report said, both Jewish and Arab women have been reluctant to give birth in the mixed Arab-Jewish ward out of fear, and often opt instead to give birth in a more homogeneous environment.All the hospitals cited in Tuesday’s Israel Radio report denied separating between Jews and Arabs in maternity wards, though some admitted that if they are asked to do so by a patient, they accommodate the request.The Health Ministry also denied the existence of a segregation policy, saying that “no separation on a discriminatory basis is allowed in hospitals. Health Ministry guidelines state that no separation by population is to be made — not by race, ethnicity, country of origin or any other factor.”Smotrich has a history of controversial statements. In August 2015 an Israeli NGO filed a complaint to the Knesset Ethics Committee against him over an interview in which he said gays control the Israeli media and the public agenda.A month before, in an interview to the Knesset Channel, he offered to serve as an executioner should Israel pass a death sentence for Palestinian terrorists.Five months earlier, during a discussion panel at a Ramat Gan high school, Smotrich boasted about being a “proud homophobe,” saying that gay people are welcome to be “abnormal” in their own homes, but shouldn’t “make demands of the state.”Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
If Auschwitz was the capital of crimes against Jews, Ravensbrück was the capital of crimes against women-UK author exposes the oft-forgotten horrors of a Nazi death camp for women-In ‘If This Is a Woman,’ Sarah Helm goes inside Germany’s Ravensbrück, where up to 90,000 women perished during the Holocaust-By JP O’ Malley April 5, 2016, 4:06 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
LONDON — Lying 50 miles north of Berlin, Ravensbrück was the only concentration camp the Nazis built with the sole intention to house female political prisoners. Opening up its gates in May 1939, just four months before the outbreak of World War II, it was liberated by the Russians six years later.Over 130,00 women passed through its gates. During its busiest period, towards the end of the war, the camp had a population of 45,000. Estimates of the final death toll are debatable, ranging from 30,000 to 90,000.Why, therefore, is so little known about a camp that eliminated tens of thousands of women on German soil? The wholesale destruction of evidence partially explains for this historical vacuum. In Ravensbrück’s final days, before the liberation by the Soviet Red Army, most prisoner’s files were burned by the Nazis and then thrown in the lake beside the camp.If Auschwitz was the capital of crimes against Jews, under the Third Reich, Ravensbrück, it seems, was the capital of crimes against women.At least that’s the argument British freelance journalist and author Sarah Helm makes with compelling conviction in her latest book, “If This Is a Woman — Inside Ravensbrück: Hitler’s Concentration Camp for Women.”Backed up by a vast undertaking of research and interviews — including historical sources that were once locked behind the Iron Curtain — Helm’s book shows how one dedicated writer really can rescue history from the dustbin.Paradoxically, though, says Helm, when we begin chatting, the emergence of the Holocaust as a proper cultural global discussion, during the 1960s, was a contributing factor that ensured Ravensbrück became sidelined as a subject in the dominant historical discourse around Nazi Germany and its heinous crimes.“Obviously people had known about the Holocaust before [the 1960s],” says Helm. “But the consciousness had not taken a proper hold until after the Eichmann trial in 1961.”Understandably, then, says Helm, the sheer scale and horror of the Jewish Holocaust totally took over the narrative.“And so the story of the non-Jewish groups [that were exterminated] were treated as secondary.”Moreover, because these prisoners in Ravensbrück were all women, this important epoch of Nazi history was neatly dusted aside for decades hence, Helm explains. “Most mainstream historians at the time were men, so inevitably this subject was neglected.”‘Most mainstream historians at the time were men, so inevitably this subject was neglected’-It really wasn’t until the mid-1990s that female historians began to explore the stories of Ravensbrück with proper analysis. Before that, most women who passed through the camp were lucky if they got even a paragraph in the main history of the Holocaust, says Helm.Especially the German “asocials”: the homeless, the prostitutes, and the down and outs.“These women were sent off to gas chambers and were of no real interest to historians,” says Helm.Perhaps what’s most fascinating about the history of Ravensbrück is the way it transformed, over time, from an institution that housed political prisoners only, to eventually become the cruelest of Nazi death camps.“In the beginning Ravensbrück was very small,” says Helm. “It consisted largely of German women, who were either asocials or political prisoners. Basically anyone who openly opposed Hitler.”Many women in that particular group were Jewish says Helm. Although it appears they hadn’t at this early stage been placed there because of their racial status, but simply because of their political activity.By autumn 1944, Ravensbrück had become overcrowded. The vast numbers coming into the camp were the result of the enormous evacuation process in the East, where the Russians had begun liberating numerous camps, such as Auschwitz.Consequently, Hitler took the rather bizarre decision to take all the survivors out of these camps, and march them back to Germany.“Essentially, hundreds of thousands of destitute prisoners were being marched westwards,” Helm explains.The Hungarian exodus impacted massively on Ravensbrück too, especially the Jews of Hungary, many of whom were sent to Auschwitz. By October 1944 the Horthy government in Budapest had fallen, and Allied bombs had destroyed train lines.Thus transportation of people across Eastern Europe had become a major problem. Still, Hitler insisted that every last Jew be removed from Hungary before the Red Army arrived.Auschwitz was no longer operating after November 1944, so many [prisoners] began to be marched towards Germany,” Helm explains.“In this climate, [the Nazis] began taking the view that the only way to solve this problem was to kill more people.”Crucially, though, Helm makes clear, the killing that began at Ravensbrück during this time meant gassing ceased to be an ideological process of extermination. Instead, in the view of warped Nazi ideology at any rate, it became a practical way of controlling population numbers in horrifically overcrowded work camps.“The killing had to go up by 2,000 a month at Ravensbrück during this time,” says Helm. A way had to be found to speed up the killing process too. So a gas chamber was set up.“Parts of that gas chamber were said to have been brought directly from Auschwitz, which at that time had been dismantled,” says Helm.The title of Helm’s book may give the impression that the concentration camps in Nazi Germany were entirely Hitler’s brainchild, but almost every aspect of the camps were managed and planned with extraordinary detail by Heinrich Himmler.In her book Helm writes: “Adolf Hitler showed little interest in the concentration camps, but they lay at the center of Himmler’s empire; whatever went on behind their walls was signed off by his pen.”“Himmler was also behind the original idea of setting up the women’s camps too,” Helm insists.Although Himmler wasn’t the only person involved in the plans for the Final Solution, Helm claims that he did help oversee much of the process of setting up the camps in the East, which would eventually lead to the death of millions of Jews.Himmler was also a regular visitor to the camp in Ravensbrück too, says Helm. “He visited the camps because he wanted them to be as self-sufficient as far as possible.”Nor was Himmler’s decision to put the camps next to areas of natural beauty, such as lakes and trees, merely coincidental. Indeed, German forests played a central role in the mythology of the Heimat, or German soil. Take Buchhenwald, for example, one of the more famous Nazi concentration camps: its literal translation means Beech Forest.“Many of the camps were [purposely] located in places of great natural beauty,” says Helm.“Ravensbrück, for example, was located beside a lake. Other camps were similarly located in beautiful wooded areas. Himmler had read the literature on these historic sites. His idea was that nature would purify the German gene, and that the SS, and the Germans, would grow up pure and strong, like the trees in the woods.”“Himmler believed that the blood would be pure if the seed was planted near these very pure sites of nature,” adds Helm.‘Himmler believed that the blood would be pure if the seed was planted near these very pure sites of nature’In the epilogue of this meticulously detailed book — which runs to over 700 pages in length — Helm spends considerable time and ink dissecting at length why those in positions of authority involved in these horrendous atrocities at Ravensbrück were never brought to justice.The reasons are complicated. But one thing is certain: by 1948 the Allies had lost their appetite for punishing Nazis. Primarily because the Cold War had become the dominant theme on the intentional-political agenda.And, from 1949 onwards, the main responsibility for investigating Nazi crimes was handed back to German courts, many of whom, presumably, had been Nazis just a few years previously.Most notable among these perpetrators let off the hook were German industrialists. Especially, Helm argues, since their profits were needed to fight the Cold War.Siemens, the German electrical manufacturer, which had a factory located just at the edge of Ravensbrück, from 1942 onwards, is one company that notoriously got off scott free for its complicity in knowledge of war crimes. It has never publicly admitted it knew of the exterminations happening at the camp.“The gassing in Ravensbrück at this time was being kept secret,” says Helm. “But even still, Siemens continued to operate its factory.”The idea that the killing was being hidden from the Siemens management and guards is laughable, Helm believes. Moreover, the evidence clearly displays that prisoners knew perfectly well that Ravensbrück had become a death camp.“Siemens knew their own workers were prisoners, who at any given moment could be sent to their deaths,” says Helm.“And yet, not a single management figure, or director, from Siemens has ever been brought to account for what happened in Ravensbrück.”‘Siemens knew their own workers were prisoners, who at any given moment could be sent to their deaths’-Years later, though, as the extent of the Holocaust, and atrocities became clearer, there were strong moves — particularly with Jewish survivors based in Israel and international Jewish movements — for compensation to be paid out.However, the figures are paltry, Helm believes, “especially given the extent to which Siemens was complicit in these crimes, and the way it sided and collaborated with the Nazis.”The fact that the compensation only applied to Jewish victims too means the compensation paid out is not a true reflection of the crimes themselves either, Helm believes, especially since many of the victims were not Jews.“It’s unbelievable that Siemens is unable to come out in the open and confront the crimes it was deeply complicit in,” says Helm.Helm’s narrative concludes on a rather open-ended note. The story of Ravensbrück may have finally come out into the public domain after many years lying dormant, but this particular chapter of Nazi history, it appears, is not entirely complete.Of the estimated 3,500 women guards who passed through Ravensbrück, only a fraction have ever come under investigation in the German courts, mainly because Germany still doesn’t keep a proper record of the numbers they have charged, says Helm.“The system did not want to confront this subject. So very few of the guards from Ravensbrück were ever confronted or held to account for their actions,” says Helm.
