Through his official Twitter account, the Foreign Minister extended his condolences to the relatives and friends of the deceased.

According to German authorities, so far there are 19 dead and 70 people missing due to the rains and floods that hit the western part of the country.

In the federal state of Rhineland-Palatinate, six houses collapsed and 25 suffered partial collapses, while in some areas inhabitants await air rescue.

(Taken from Prensa Latina)

Almost all of them had applied for a visa to the United States and intended to remain on the island only until they could enter the country. But eight days before the Saint Louis set sail for Cuba from the German port of Hamburg, Cuban President Federico Laredo Bru, by a decree, invalidated the landing permits. To enter Cuba it would then be compulsory to have an authorization from the Secretary of State and another from the Secretary of Labor, plus the payment of a $500 bonus, requirements from which, of course, tourists were excluded. None of the passengers on the Saint Louis knew about the entry into force of this measure until they arrived at the port of Havana. And it was too late. They had to return to Europe. Not many of them survived to tell the story.

In short, only 28 of the 937 passengers on the Saint Louis were able to disembark in Havana on May 27, 1939, after a two-week voyage. Six of them (four Spaniards and two Cubans) were not Jewish, and among these, only 22 were able to show the new documentation required for the landing. One more passenger, a Jew, attempted suicide on board and was rushed to a Havana hospital. It was never known whether he was returned to the ship or left on land.

One day after the arrival of the Jews to the Havana port, Lawrence Berenson, lawyer of the American Jewish Committee for Joint Distribution (JDC), arrived in Havana to intercede for the passengers. He had been president of the Cuban-American Chamber of Commerce and therefore had many relations and extensive business experience in Cuba. He met with Laredo Bru and tried to convince him to authorize the landing. The President persisted in his refusal. On June 2, the President ordered the Saint Louis to leave Cuban waters, but he did not cut off the talks with Berenson, from whom he asked for $435,500 in exchange for letting the passengers disembark. The negotiator made a counteroffer; Laredo Bru rejected it and broke off contacts.

Inés and Renata look sadly through the porthole of the transatlantic, one of the most famous pictures of the trip. Photo: the Andalusian Post Office.

Meanwhile, the St. Louis slowly sailed to the United States. They sent a telegram to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt requesting refuge. Roosevelt never responded. Already the White House and the State Department had decided not to allow them entry. They had to, said American diplomatic sources, wait their turn on the waiting list and then meet the necessary requirements to obtain an emigration visa in order to be admitted to U.S. territory.

After Washington’s refusal, the Saint Louis set out for Europe. Some of the passengers were admitted to Great Britain, Holland and France. The rest disembarked in Antwerp on June 17, 1939, after spending more than a month at sea. The French, Belgian and Dutch authorities took them to internment camps, as well as to other German refugees. The British authorities interned them on the Isle of Man and in confinement camps in Canada and Australia. With the German invasion of Western Europe in May 1940, the passengers of the Saint Louis were again in danger. Some 670 of them fell into the hands of the Nazis and died in concentration camps. Another 240 survived years of hunger, abuse and forced labor.

The Saint Louis was not the only ship with Jews on board to suffer this fate in Havana harbor. The same thing happened to other ships.

On May 27, 1939, the same day as the arrival of the Saint Louis, the English ship Orduña touched down in Havana, with 120 Austrian, Czech and German Jews on board. Forty-eight of these passengers carried landing permits that had been invalidated by the national authorities. They were still able to go ashore. The remaining 72 were forced to make a long pilgrimage through South America.

Also in May 1939 the French ship Flandre arrived in Havana, with 104 Jews on board. Landing was impossible. The Flandre returned to France, where the government accepted the emigrants but placed them in an internment camp.

Another ship, the Orinoco, twin of the Saint Louis, was due to arrive in Havana in June with 200 passengers on board. But when her captain heard about what was happening in that port, he tried to get England and France to take them in. They were not accepted, and neither was the United States. U.S. diplomats then pressured the German ambassador in London to give guarantees that once the refugees returned to Germany they would not be victims of Nazi barbarism. Those 200 Jews returned to Germany in June 1939. Their fate is still unknown.

(By Ciro Bianchi Ross)

During the meeting, the two leaders discussed their commitment to continue working on strengthening bilateral relations, and increasing economic-commercial, cultural, scientific and educational ties.

Also attending the meeting were Thomas Karl Neisinger, German ambassador in Cuba, and other members of the visiting delegation.

Additionally participating on the Cuban side were Rodrigo Malmierca Díaz, minister of Foreign Trade and Investment, as well as other officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the National Assembly of People’s Power.

Sigmar Gabriel held meetings with Cuban Minister of Foreign Relations

Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla; Economy and Planning, Marino Murillo Jorge; and Foreign Trade and Investment, Rodrigo Malmierca, as well.

Scheduled today, January 8, are meetings with the ministers of Energy and Mining, Alfredo López Valdés; and Industry, Salvador Pardo Cruz.

(Granma)

During the inauguration of a business forum in Havana attended by entities from both nations, Gabriel highlighted the updating of Cuba’s economic model which includes a Portfolio of Foreign Investment Opportunities. In this sense, the German official expressed his country’s wiliness to launch a process to promote bilateral relations which will develop over the coming years.

In this regard, the deputy foreign minister signed a memorandum of understanding with Cuban Minister of Foreign Trade and Investment, Rodrigo Malmierca, on the opening of a business office in Havana which will help to encourage German business and investment in Cuba.

“We want to improve and put Germany’s political and economic relations with Cuba on a new, solid base.” The German delegation’s visit reflects our interest and the opportunities we perceive in relations between the two countries, he added.

Around 60 German businesses attending the event are affiliated with the biotechnology, agriculture and industry sectors. Also present were global firms such as Volks wagen, Bosch and Siemens, as well as a large representation of small and medium-sized businesses.

During the forum which took place in Cuba’s Hotel Nacional, Rodrigo Malmierca emphasized, “There are many sectors of the economy in which we can collaborate with German companies, whether through trade and investments, or mutually beneficial ventures.”

(Granma)

Gabriel was received by Rogelio Sierra, Cuba’s deputy minister of Foreign Relations. On his first visit to Cuba, the Vice Chancellor was accompanied by various German businesspeople.

According to the Ministry of Foreign Relations official website (Cubaminr ex) – in addition to other scheduled activities – the German representative will hold official conversations with Bruno Rodríguez Pa rri lla, Cuban minister of Foreign Relations.

The Vice Chancellor’s visit comes at a time when relations between Havana and Berlin are developing positively.

In July 2015, German Minister of Foreign Affairs, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, made a visit to the island. A mechanism for political exchanges between both ministries was established at that time, while cooperation ties were strenthened with the signing of a Joint Statement on Cooperation.

Likewise, the two countries have ample potential to develop relations in sectors such as the economy, developmental collaboration, science, education, culture and sports, among others.
Cuba and Germany established diplomatic relations on July 22, 1953, which were later broken on January 15, 1963 as a reaction by the Federal Republic of Germany to Cuba’s recognition of the Democratic Republic of Germany. Relations were finally restored on January 18, 1975.

(Granma)

Putin stressed at the start of talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, visible problems between the two countries and urged fix ‘the sooner the better “, he said.

Merkel arrived in Moscow on Sunday, a day after the central commemorations in Russia for victory and the defeat of fascism, in frank attitude to boycott the European presence in the celebrations in Moscow.

The German Foreign Minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier traveled for two days before his meeting with Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov at the heroic city of Volgograd, where he laid a wreath in tribute to the fallen combatants.

For the Russian leader, the problems with the West have a negative influence on the ties between Moscow and Berlin, and Russia is striving to resolve them and promote cooperation among both parts despite the sanctions imposed by the European Union since last year.

Putin said he would analyze with Merkel issues of bilateral relations, the development of links with the European Union and those more serious matters, including the situation in Ukraine, major Russian news agencies reported.

German Chancellor welcomed the possibility of Russia and Germany to discuss bilateral relations.

We need to cooperate, even in the most complex situations, and strive to find diplomatic ways, said the head of government.

Shortly before starting the talks with Putin in the Kremlin, Merkel laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at the foot of the walls, in the Alexander Garden, where thousands people from all over the world came these days to honor Soviet fighters.

Yesterday in this same place, almost thirty foreign leaders and heads of international organizations paid tribute to the victors in the Great Patriotic War (1941-1945) against Nazi Germany and militarist Japan at the time.

During the presence here for the festivities Putin held talks with the leaders of Cuba, China, India, Mongolia, Czech Republic, South Africa and Zimbabwe; as well as with their counterparts in the Commonwealth of Independent States and the Eurasian Economic Union and the UN secretary general, confirmed the press service of the Kremlin.

(Prensa Latina)

Every man lives his own time. These are infinitely changing times if they are compared to any former time. I had the privilege of observing his conduct when he was bitterly paying the debt contracted by the one who had sold his soul to the devil for a few swigs of Vodka.

I keep the deepest feelings of solidarity towards Honecker.

Fidel Castro Ruz

June 11,

2012

3:17 p.m.

The newly created Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND), West Germany’s federal intelligence service hired him in 1958, even though he never made a secret of his past, according to the documents seen by Der Spiegel magazine.

The recruitment of Rauff was, “in no way politically or morally defensible,” said head of the BND’s history research group, Bodo Hechelhammer.

Rauf had fled an Allied prisoner camp after the end of the war and ended up in Chile, where a fellow former SS man Rudolf Oebsger-Röder contacted him on behalf of the BND.

He received generous payments to his work, which took him through South America, although the results were apparently disappointing – in 1962 his monthly payment was halved as he had not succeeded in opening intelligence avenues in  Cuba, the documents show.

By this time German justice department investigators had caught up with him and by the end of the year he had been arrested by Chilean police ready for extradition.

Yet he never had to stand trial for his crimes – murder charges had a 15-year- statute of limitations in Chile at the time and so after a few months in custody, he was again a free man.

He died in Chile 1984 aged 77, having never been held to account for his actions, Der Spiegel reported on Sunday that some of those at his funeral called ‘Heil Hitler’ at his funeral.

The release of the papers documenting the shameful use of such a criminal by the BND has been driven by the service’s head Ernst Uhrlau.

(TheLocal)

The daily Die Welt recognizes PayPal and eBay’s actions against businessmen who sell Cuban products in the Internet in Germany are “grossly illegal”.

The journal criticized actions against the German owners of a web site that sells Cuban Havana cigars, who were victims of the blockage of their transactions and the closing of their PayPal accounts. PayPal extended the US sanctions against Cuba to German territory.

The European branch of PayPal, a company that facilitates electronic transactions in the Internet, demanded that German firm Rum & Co. remove Havana cigars, rum and other Cuban products from their web page

The pretext for such a decision has been the long standing US blockade against Cuba, which forbids US companies to do business with the Island. “But there is no such a restriction against European Union companies and eBay, whose main branch is in California, has in the past allowed Europeans to hold transactions with Cuba,” says the journal.

Thomas Altman, who sells Cuban cigars and rum through his Internet store, said to Die Welt that “PayPal has closed his account despite his protests, and consequently he cannot sell his products.”

A PayPal speaker confirmed to the German journal the closing of Altman’s store and the accounts of several businesspeople, arguing that PayPal acts in compliance with the policy of their main branch in the US.

No alternatives were offered for businesspeople like Silke Wol who said he had lost 60% of his business through PayPal.

“It’s gone and we have no replacement,” he said to Die Welt, speculating that in fact the measure was calculated to protect US rum marketing companies.

The aggravated businesspeople declared they are studying their legal options and are considering a collective lawsuit.

Lothar Harings, from law firm Graf von Westphalen law firm, who is an expert on international trade believes the legal case could be successful. He declared that eBay’s actions are “grossly illegal” in Germany.

“EBay is violating the community legislation, mainly of the EU, by imposing the blockade regulations extraterritorially,” added Harings.

The regulations that explicitly allow Europeans to do business with Cuba, were formulated as a countermeasure to the US sanctions against Cuba, concludes the journal.

TheLocal.de