RIP Johan van Hulst, who saved 100s of Jews from the Nazis

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The NY Times reports on the death of Johan van Hulst, who was principal at a Dutch teachers college during WWII and helped smuggle ~600 Jewish children to safety.

Mr. van Hulst is credited with helping to rescue as many as 600 children, yet he was haunted by what he could not do. With up to 100 children still in the nursery as it was about to be shut down that September, Mr. van Hulst was asked how many more he could smuggle out.

“That was the most difficult day of my life,” he told Yad Vashem, the Holocaust remembrance center in Jerusalem, which in 1972 named him one of the Righteous Among the Nations, a designation for non-Jews who rescued Jews. He is one of 5,595 Dutch people given the honor.

“You realize that you cannot possibly take all the children with you,” he said. “You know for a fact that the children you leave behind are going to die. I took 12 with me. Later on, I asked myself, ‘Why not 13?’”

van Hulst lived to 107. See also Nicholas Winton, who also saved hundreds of children from the Holocaust and died at 106

The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum: “Lest We Forget – More than 120 large-scale portraits of Holocaust survivors—including 23 who volunteer at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum—will be showcased at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool this month. Don’t miss this powerful exhibition, which is on display now until Sunday, April 22. Monday, April 9-Sunday, April 22 – Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, Washington, DC The installation—designed by German-Italian artist Luigi Toscano and hosted in cooperation with the Embassy of Germany—provides a human angle to Holocaust remembrance. It helps ensure that the world never forgets and inspires us to fight hatred and antisemitism today. 

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Under the microscope, Zuck faces possible regulation, promises changes 

"Would you be comfortable sharing with us the name of the hotel you stayed in last night?"

"Um." Mark Zuckerberg paused while he considered the question by Sen. Dick Durbin. "No."

"If you messaged anybody this week, would you share with us the names of the people you've messaged?" the Illinois Democrat asked him.

"Senator, no, I would probably not choose to do that publicly here," Zuckerberg responded.

"I think that might be what this is all about," Durbin told Zuckerberg on Tuesday afternoon in Congress. "Your right to privacy, the limits of your right to privacy, and how much you'd give away in modern America."

Indeed, privacy was the main topic before the Facebook CEO — privacy protections for customers, children and, not least, democracy. Asked if Facebook should get clear permission from customers before selling their data elsewhere, Zuckerberg replied: “We don’t sell information.” Under questioning from Sen. Ed Markey of Massachusetts, he also said he would support a law requiring such clear permission from customers.

Zuckerberg also said the most important issue to him is to make sure bad actors do not attempt to use Facebook to influence any elections in 2018 worldwide. He apologized for slowness to recognize the Russian threat to the 2016 presidential election.

Contrition and promises aren’t enough, said senators such as Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire, Bill Nelson of Florida and John Kennedy of Louisiana. Traditionally, Hassan noted pointedly, when companies can’t regulate themselves, the government has to step in.

Here’s a breakdown from the hearings and related reads.

The hearings:

·        Zuckerberg: ‘We didn’t do enough’ to prevent privacy crises

·        A snubbed chicken chain, a wannabe Instagram star: The 13 weirdest moments of the Zuckerberg hearing

·        Facebook fallout hurts clout of billionaire Mercers, of Cambridge Analytica

·        Facebook investor Roger McNamee on the early warning signs

·        The following tweets from a leading author on social media and the deputy director of the Sunlight Foundation:

  

Mehlman Castagnetti Rosen & Thomas: CONTENTS Q2 2018 THESIS & CONTENTS: Revolutionary Tools Enable Revolutionary Times – Reform movements succeed when the methods, motivation & moment converge. We are reaching such a time. [31 pages slide deck]

THE METHODS Revolutionary Tools Enable Revolutionary Times;  THE MOTIVATION Why Citizens Increasingly Demand Change; THE MOMENT New Leaders Emerging to Challenge Washington / Fill the Vacuum; WHAT’S NEXT Where We Go From Here