Western European News Digest

Are Austrian Nazi-Era Graves from Hitler's T4?

Jan. 4 (EIRNS)—Hundreds of Nazi-era graves found at an Austrian state hospital will be exhumed to see if any are victims of Hitler's T-4 euthanasia program, where patients deemed unworthy to live were murdered.

Some 220 bodies were found in a state hospital cemetery during a construction project in Hall, near the Tyrolean capital, Innsbruck. Since they had been buried between 1942 and 1944, suspicions were raised that they were victims of the T-4 euthanasia campaign.

The hospital cemetery in Hall might have been opened in 1942 as part of plans—never realized—to set up its own euthanasia station, deputy medical director Christian Haring said.

"This dark chapter of history must now be carefully examined and cleared up," provincial Gov. Guëther Platter told the Austria Press Agency, saying he was deeply shaken by the discovery.

The discovery comes only days after Helga Zepp-LaRouche issued her statement "Operation Euthanasia—Never Again."

Memorial Website on T-4 Program Created

Jan. 4 (EIRNS)—Already a month ago, numerous organizations and experts from Germany, Poland, and Austria gathered in Berlin to create a new website (gedenkort-t4.eu) dedicated to the memory of victims of the Nazi's genocidal T-4 program. Its main object is to prevent these atrocities being forgotten. On the German side, the welfare umbrella organization Paritaetischer Wohlfahrtverband takes part; on the Austrian side, the group Atempo. The website is to feature documentation, interviews (oral histories included), and similar material.

Ireland's Collapsing Economy

Jan. 4 (EIRNS)—The Irish economy is collapsing with no hope in sight, as long as it is under European Union dictatorship. It is reported that 30 companies a week, on average, went bankrupt in 2010, according to corporate restructuring specialist Kavanagh Fennel. These bankruptcies led to an average of 1,075 jobs being lost each week as well. The total for the year was 1,500 firms and 60,000 employees.

The sectors hardest hit comprise Ireland's former bubble economy. On top of the list were construction companies, the service sectors, including architects and surveyors, followed by hospitality and tourism. The London Independent reports that the budget cuts will leave Ireland's roads in a shambles, since no extra funds are available for the repair of Winter damage, especially potholes, some of which are four feet long and three feet deep. The cost of repairing the potholes alone is expected to exceed EU200 million.

Le Monde Attacks Ideology of Post-Industrialism

PARIS, Jan. 6 (EIRNS)—In a front-page editorial, the French newspaper Le Monde today launched into a direct attack on the ideology of post-industrialism. The editorial argues that the current crisis in the world has created the conditions for "a spectacular change in paradigm, which it owes to the return of industry."

"Over the last years, the validity of the thesis, according to which, the change from an industrial economy to a service society was unavoidable, has ended.... The crisis has today caused this painful awakening. Reality is imposing itself: Without industry, it is difficult to create jobs, to supply growth, and finally, to maintain one's own economic rank at the global level.... This awakening is late, and the destruction caused by the devotion to the post-industrial society is considerable. Over [the last] 15 years, France has lost 500,000 industrial jobs. The industrial part of our economy over the last 25 years remained stable at 17%, but went down in value from 21 to 12%."

Budget Cuts Collapse Berlin's Urban Transport

Jan. 4 (EIRNS)—Three weeks of snow and ice in Berlin have now brought many of the badly maintained S-trains to a halt, and the New Year began with only one-third of the trains in service. Especially the suburbs are cut off from public transport, and both citizens and administrations there are enraged that they never received an early warning from the S-Bahn, but learned about the reduced service only from the local radio stations.

The BVG, the other part of the city-owned urban transport grid, has stepped in with extra metro trains and buses, but is operating at the limits of its own capacity in terms of material and of personnel (who are working overtime now).

Irish Unions Planning General Strike Actions

Jan. 5 (EIRNS)—UNITE, a trade union with 60,000 members, presented a letter to the Irish Congress of Trade Unions' executive council last month calling for a general strike. Senior trade union sources told EIR that ICTU secretary general David Begg has called an executive meeting of the leaders of all the member unions for Jan. 27 to discuss the proposal. The ICTU trade union federation represents 1 million workers.

In his letter, UNITE's regional secretary for Ireland, Jimmy Kelly, made clear that the aim of a general strike would be not only to express anger at the current government's "austerity measures," but to target what is expected to be early national elections, and give a powerful message to the political parties on what should be the economic policy of the next government.

Britain Wracked by Wave of Pandemic Flu (H1N1)

Jan. 3 (EIRNS)—Britain is now in the throes of a new surge of 2009 pandemic flu (H1N1), thanks to the Tony Blair Nazi health-care "reform" cuts in public health and the National Health Service (NHS) begun in 1999 with NICE (National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence), which have been continued by the so-called opposition Conservative government over the past nine months.

During the Christmas to New Year's holiday week, H1N1 cases were up 40% over the week prior, in the U.K. Flu-related intensive care hospitalizations soared last week, from 460 to 738 just between Christmas Eve and Dec. 30. At present, 50% of all intensive-care beds in the U.K. are in use for H1N1 patients. Other operations are being postponed. Epidemiologists expect this surge of H1N1 cases to increase this week, as the new school term begins.

There have been 39 deaths from flu (36 from H1N1) in the U.K. just since October. Another 100 deaths are expected, given the percentage of intensive-care patients who may not survive.

Fiori: Italy Needs a Franklin Roosevelt

MILAN, Jan. 5 (EIRNS)—Publio Fiori, a former government undersecretary and deputy speaker of the Italian Chamber of Deputies, published an article in the newsletter sent out to his political network under the headline: "Where Is Our Roosevelt?" Fiori recently founded a federation called "Christian Democratic Refoundation," which brings together a large number of Catholic organizations and activists who wish to re-create the old Christian Democratic Party (DC), the party that built post-war Italy, and was killed by London's "Clean Hands" operation in 1993.

Fiori's call is the result of his discussion with LaRouche representatives, and, in particular, of a memorandum written by Movisol Secretary Andrew Spannaus, which was then published in the form of an article under the headline "No to a Bankers' Government." Fiori also published that article in his newsletter, as well as a previous one by Spannaus, calling for the creation of a national bank and state-directed productive credit.