The daily obtained the text from a German legal archive, where it sat for decades. Earlier in the week, Israel’s Justice Ministry said it would release 1,200 more pages of Eichmann’s notes to German scholars. The Fritz Bauer Institute, a Holocaust research center in Frankfurt, will write a commentary for the text and prepare it for publication. Historians were less than excited that the documents might be made public. Wolfgang Benz, head of Berlin’s Center for Antisemitism Studies, calls the text “terribly boring” and says it won’t reveal anything new. And he worries neo-Nazis might turn Eichmann into a martyr. But those who argue for publication say that Holocaust deniers won’t use the text; Eichmann confirms the Nazis slaughtered Jews. “When I see the images before my eyes,” he writes, “it all comes back to me… Corpses, corpses, corpses. Shot, gassed, decaying corpses, a delirium of blood.”
SERBIAClinton’s ‘Birthday Bash’
When Serbia’s disparate opposition groups decided to hold their first unified anti-Milosevic rally in eight years, they thought they had picked the perfect date. Aug. 19 marks Transfiguration, one of the Orthodox Church’s most sacred holidays. But organizers didn’t realize Aug. 19 is also the birthday of U.S. President Bill Clinton–the most hated man in Serbia. Milosevic’s propaganda machine kicked into high gear exploiting the unhappy coincidence. The government claims the rally will actually be a birthday party for Clinton, with Serbia as the “present.” Maybe they should have scheduled protests for the following day: Milosevic’s birthday.
CAMPAIGN 2000A Star Turn for President?
It’s no joke and liberals aren’t laughing: actor Warren Beatty, 62, is considering running for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination. Sources say he is making and taking calls in a world of politics he knows very well; he’s been close to Democratic campaigns going back to Robert F. Kennedy in 1968. With no full-throated liberals in the race, activists say they are telling Beatty to run. He’s planning to take a month or so to decide.
At first, friends say, Beatty worried about whether he would be taken seriously. But they say he has been pleasantly surprised by the early reaction. There were fewer jokes than expected. Sources close to the actor tell NEWSWEEK his wife, actress Annette Bening, is enthusiastic, and she, like her husband, has practiced for the role. He played the eponymous protest candidate in “Bulworth”; in “The American President” she fell in love with the commander in chief.
CLINTONPardon Us?
When Bill Clinton commuted the sentences of 16 Puerto Rican nationalists last week, he ended a dance that had begun with his first year in office–and FBI officials are furious. For years the bureau successfully countered pressure from human-rights activists to release the FALN militants, who carried out 130 bombings from 1974 to 1983. Some agents grumble that what made this year different is Hillary Clinton’s New York Senate run. “There are more Puerto Ricans in New York than in San Juan,” says a senior FBI official. The White House denies any connection.
OLYMPICSFlipping for a Gold Medal
Talk about a head rush. Part circus feat, part athletic wonder, the trampoline will join tumbling mats, balance beam and vault on the world Olympic stage in Sydney next summer. Men and women competing in the medal event perform 10 skills, like the dizzying triple-twisting flip, between bounces. But this springboard is no backyard tramp. With two spotters on each long side to protect jumpers from falls, it’s about as safe as jumping three stories high can get.
BRIDGESTogether Again
Swedes who prefer road and rail to ferry will soon have a better way of reaching the Continent. Last weekend construction workers placed the final segment on the Oeresund Link, a 16-kilometer structure that joins Sweden and Denmark for the first time since the ice age. Sweden’s Crown Princess Victoria and Denmark’s Crown Prince Frederik became the first people to walk between their two countries. The $2 billion link includes a tunnel, an artificial island and one of the world’s longest suspension bridges. Its completion marks a significant step toward the creation of a major metropolitan area, the Oeresund region. With 3.5 million residents, it will be the largest in Northern Europe. The link is scheduled to open to road and rail traffic July 1, 2000.
TRANSITIONOne Rich Dish
Serving up dishes high in calories, cholesterol and laughs, Jennifer Paterson was the spiciest ingredient on the “Two Fat Ladies” cooking show. An artery’s worst nightmare, Paterson and her costar, Clarissa Dickson Wright, shared a hearty disdain for haute cuisine and the thin. Paterson’s raucous wit and political incorrectness made the motorcycling duo a cult classic from Durban to Dunedin. Her secret? “Lots of meat, drink and cigarettes and not giving in to things,” said Paterson, who died last week at 71. A bon vivant to the end, she asked that friends send caviar in lieu of flowers.
