Exhibit 8 Holocaust Survivors' Network February 22, 2004 Email Received from Mr. Ganor
Editor's Note: For easy reference, we have numbered each paragraph in sequential order.
Date: Sun, 22 Feb 2004 21:37:42 +0200
From: solly ganor <solganor@netvision.net.il>
Subject: Re: The "historian" Eric Saul and his "Visas for Life" exhibit
To: Holocaust Survivors' Network <Editor@Isurvived.org>
Reply-to: solganor@netvision.net.il
Mr. K.K. Bretmann,
(1) To say that I was surprised by your letter would be an understatement. To start with, I am a retired industrialist who doesn't need money from anybody. Concerning the Bingham family I hardly know them, and what I did hear from various sources is that the father had definitely helped Varian Frey to save Jews in Marseilles. So far, at Yad Vashem, we don't have sufficient evidence to declare him a righteous diplomat. Still, he was a positive element in the rescue of Jews. My question is, why are you attacking the Bingham family? Perhaps you can explain that to me.
(2) Allow me to tell you that I am on the board of the directors of the Dachau Association and on the Foundation of Yad Vashem. Before you chose to attack me, don't you think that you should have checked up on me who I really am?
(3) Concerning Eric Saul, whom you call an impostor with no academic credentials, I have known Eric Saul since he was curator at the prestigious War Museum at the Presidio in San Francisco. I don't think that they would have accepted him without the proper credentials.
(4) As far as his bogus "educational" Holocaust project concerned, hundreds of thousands of people in more than hundred and fifty towns around the world have seen the 'Visas For Life' exhibitions. The people were deeply impressed with the authentic photos provided by over fifty diplomats who saved Jews. These photos and the stories of the diplomats, are not bogus, even you will have to admit it. Most of them have been recognized by Yad Vashem and received rewards on full proof documentation, or perhaps you think that Yad Vashem's recognition has no value?
(5) More people have been made aware of the Holocaust through Eric Saul's Visas For Life than your website would in a thousand years. If you are really a Holocaust survivor's network, then you would thank Eric Saul for doing the job for us instead of picking on his credentials. And speaking of financial gains, I am a rich man and I don't need to make any financial gains from the Holocaust. As a matter of fact, I spend thousands of dollars traveling around the world, Germany, Japan, the States giving lectures to young people on the Holocaust. As far as I know, Eric is obsessed with the Holocaust and spent about $ 2,00.000 of his own money from his own business to promote the Visas For Life. Why do you think that everyone is making money on such a sacred subject? I think that people like you, who are quite dangerous, daring to attack a respectable Holocaust survivor like myself.
(6) If you have any doubts about my writings, why don't you look up Elie Wiesel's PBS website and see what he thinks about my book 'Light One Candle'. Or perhaps you consider Elie Wiesel a bogus writer too? And Yad Vashem is there to make money of the Holocaust too?
(7) ( I have been informed, that the Nobel Prize winner Eli Wiesel, recommended my book ŒLight One Candle‚ as educational reading of the Holocaust.
See Elie Wiesel‚s recommendation on PBS web.
(http://www.pbs.org/eliewiesel/teaching/activity1.html )(8) In Germany and Japan my book has been recommended reading for high schools for several years now. This approval by Elie Wiesel, whom we survivors consider as our spokesman, makes me feel that I have finally fulfilled my promise to my perished friends to tell their story. I have finally lit ŒOne Candle‚ for them.)
(9) My book and my lectures especially in Germany, have created hudnreds of pro Israel and pro Jewish groups, even in the German army. This is what is important today and not some quibbling of some dry scholars who have little idea what life is all about. Today when a bus blew up in Jerusalem and we are morning our dead and wounded you sit on your Olympus and pass judgment on us. Today when Europe is rising in a wave of anti-Semitism and the Dutch are about to pass judgment on Israel, you should be out there calling on all the Jews of America to demonstrate against the onslaught against Israel and the Jews, instead of disseminating issues of no real value.
(10) Since you decided to be judge and jury on us survivors, I wonder how you are making a living and how much salary you are drawing for your most esteemed job? And who is paying for it?
(11) Naturally, I would like to hear an answer to all my questions before I pass judgment on you the way you did on me and Eric, and before I send your letter to my American lawyer to see whether you and your organization can be sued for defamation. I think your letter bellow is sufficient for such a suit.
(12) Naturally, I don't think it would be beneficial to any of us if such a suit is made public: A Holocaust survivor suing a Holocaust Survivors' Network. Still I would go ahead and do it no matter how much it will cost me, unless you can come up with some plausible answers to my questions.
Solly Ganor
Herzelia Pituach,
Israel.