The initial auction of the late Heidi Horten’s collection drew fire since the source of her husband’s fortune was profits made from the forced sale of Jewish businesses during the Nazi era.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

The Christie’s auction house announced Friday that it would not hold a second round of a Nazi-linked jewelry sale, following the fire it drew from the first round in May.

Due to the “intense scrutiny” it had received, the house said in a statement, “Christie’s has taken the decision not to proceed with further sales of property from the Estate of Heidi Horten.”

Horten was the wife of billionaire German businessman Helmut Horten, whose fortune was based on Jewish businesses he had bought for a fraction of their worth starting in 1933, when the Nazis passed a law stating that Jews could not own companies in countries where they were in charge.

Christie’s netted a record-breaking $202 million for a jewelry sale during the controversial first auction, which featured some 400 items out of 700 in Horten’s collection.

However, the reaction to the sale, said Anthea Peers, president of Christie’s EMEA (Europe, the Middle East and Africa) division, “has deeply affected us and many others, and we will continue to reflect on it.”

Christie’s went ahead with the original auction despite the protest of several Jewish groups that were offended that the source of Horten’s wealth was profit made from Jewish suffering. CEO Guillaume Cerutti, who admitted that the company knew how Horten had made his money, tried to make amends by saying that all proceeds would go to charity, though none mentioned were specifically Jewish ones.

Christie’s international head of jewelry, Rahul Kadakia, told AFP that the auction house would be separately “making a significant donation towards Holocaust research and education.”

Yad Vashem, however, rejected an offered donation from the auction house, as did other Jewish organizations.

Jewish critics such as David Schaecter, president of the Holocaust Survivor Foundation USA were very happy at the success of their continuous pressure to stop the November sale of the 300 other pieces in Horten’s collection.

“We are pleased to hear that the global outrage surrounding Christie’s sale of the Horten Foundation’s ill-gotten assets – derived from the theft of Jewish property during World War II – has affected the auction house and caused them to cancel their planned sale of additional Horten jewelry this fall,” Schaecter said in a statement. “This is an important victory for Holocaust survivors and the global Jewish community – and a clear signal to all auction houses about the consequences of providing such a platform to sell these kinds of tainted goods.”

The jewelry Horten showered on his Austrian wife over the years was all bought legally. Mrs. Horten eventually showcased many of her pieces in a Vienna art museum dedicated to her collections.

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Helmut Horten became wealthy in the 1930s by buying German Jewish businesses at a fraction of their value from owners forced to sell.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

Famed auction house Christie’s was criticized Wednesday for the launching of a sale of jewels owned by the widow of a Nazi profiteer who became wealthy by taking advantage of Jews who were forced to sell their businesses in Germany and other countries both prior and during World War II.

Helmut Horten started his buying spree in 1933, after the Nazis passed a law stating that only Aryans were permitted to own companies, Dutch historian David De Jong told the New York Post. De Jong wrote about Horten’s empire-building in his recently published book, “Nazi Billionaires: The Dark History of Germany’s Wealthiest Dynasties.”

Coerced by the authorities or Horten himself, he “would often buy businesses for 65 percent of their value,” said De Jong. “Jewish families sold their companies to get the hell out of Germany.”

The historian said that although Horten became a member of the Nazi party in 1937, he did so out of greed and not because he believed in its ideology.

“He was a sheer opportunist who saw an opportunity to grow from a small business owner to a department store mogul by the end of World War II.”

Horten then expanded his reach to German-occupied Amsterdam, where the Nazi authorities coerced department-store owners to sell their businesses to him.

Author Stephanie Stephan wrote a book about how Horten worked his deals, since her father worked in Amsterdam’s largest department store and was fired because he had “advised the owner not to sell,” she told the Post.

Horten bought the store at a low price. After the war, Stephan’s father filed a lawsuit in Germany against Horten but lost, “since most of the judges were old Nazis, and Horten had good relationships with them,” she said.

Stephan slammed the auction house for how it has dealt with the issue.

“For Christie’s, this auction is a matter of prestige and a matter of sales,” she told the Post. “[There was] no word about the past in their first announcement of the auction. They should have pointed out the history of Helmut Horten before…. The basis of his fortune was money extorted from Jewish property. This fact only did make [it] possible to buy jewelry and art to such an extent.”

Christie’s issued several statements in its defense.

CEO Guillaume Cerutti said the company is “aware” of “the well-documented business practices of Mrs. Horten’s late first husband during the Nazi era when he purchased Jewish businesses sold under duress.” All the proceeds from the sale, he said, “will be directed to a foundation which supports philanthropic causes, including healthcare, children’s welfare and access to the arts.”

According to estimates, the sparkly estate of Heidi Horten, who married Helmut Horten in 1966 when she was 19 and he was around 50, will fetch some $150 million. Among the many items is a 90-carat Briolette of India necklace believed to have once been owned by Richard the Lionheart and Eleanor of Aquitaine, which is valued at up to $15.6 million alone.

Whether the billionaire heiress knew how her husband amassed his fortune is open to question, but both Stephan and De Jong believe she did, as she had once engaged a historian to research his past. The subsequent report understated his profiteering, which didn’t surprise Stephan at all.

“It was clear to me that she wanted Helmut’s past to be put in a better light and glossed over,” she said.

There is no question that the jewelry was all bought legally. It is only the source of the wealth that allowed these purchases that buyers may – or may not – find repugnant.

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Republicans officially chose Donald Trump as their nominee for the White House on Tuesday.

Cementing an extraordinary political ascent, Republicans nominated Donald Trump Tuesday night as their presidential standard-bearer, hitching their hopes of keeping Democrat Hillary Clinton out of the White House on an unorthodox candidate.

While it was Trump’s night, Clinton was frequently the focus.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie energized the crowd with a full-throated takedown of Clinton, imploring delegates to shout “Guilty!” as he ticked through numerous accusations of wrongdoing.

Trump addressed the convention briefly in videotaped remarks, thanking them for formally nominating him as the party’s White House candidate. ”

“This is a movement, but we have to go all the way,” he said.

For Trump, the celebrations were a much-needed opportunity to regroup after a chaotic convention kickoff that included a plagiarism charge involving wife Melania Trump’s address on opening night. There were no big missteps Tuesday, but the event was void of the glitzy, Hollywood touch Trump promised, with a series of Republican officials parading on stage to level sharp, but repetitive, criticisms of Clinton.

The evening’s program ended on an unusual note, with an actress-turned-avocado farmer delivering the closing speech — a spot normally reserved for prominent speakers.

Trump’s Family Takes Center Stage

Trump’s family again took center stage. Two of Trump’s children testified to his character, casting him as a man undeterred by challenges.

“For my father, impossible is just the starting point,” said Donald Trump Jr., the oldest of the Republican nominee’s five children. Questions about plagiarism surfaced for a second day in a row, this time in the eldest son’s speech. But F.H. Buckley, the writer behind the original work in question this time — an article in The American Conservative — said he was a principal speechwriter for the younger Trump and said the campaign did nothing wrong.

For some Republicans, the night also offered a glimpse of what could have been. House Speaker Paul Ryan, who resisted calls to jump into the presidential race, made a vigorous call for party unity — though his message focused more on the risks of letting Democrats keep the White House and make gains in Congress than a rationale for Trump.

“Let’s compete in every part of America, and turn out at the polls like every last vote matters, because it will,” Ryan said.

Many Republican leaders stayed away from the convention, still wary of being associated with Trump and unsure how his nomination impacts their own political futures.

The crowd gathered in the convention hall reflected the growing dissatisfaction among some Republicans with party elites. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who has been a lukewarm supporter of Trump, was greeted with a smattering of boos as he took the stage.

It was one of the occasional flurries of dissent on the convention floor, including jeers as states that Trump did not win recorded their votes during the nominating roll call vote. Still, Trump far outdistanced his primary rivals, and his vice presidential pick, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, was also formally nominated.

Trump was put over the top by his home state of New York. Four of his children joined the state’s delegation on the convention floor for the historic moment and appeared overwhelmed with emotion.

Tiffany Trump, the candidate’s 22-year-old daughter with ex-wife Marla Maples, sprinkled her remarks with rarely heard anecdotes about her father, including the handwritten notes he left on her childhood report cards.

“My dad is a natural born encourager, the last person to ever tell you to lower your sights,” she said.

Melania Trump was praised for making progress in highlighting her husband’s personal qualities during her Monday night address. She spoke of his “simple goodness” and his loyalty and love of family — while noting the “drama” that comes with Trump in politics.

But her speech was quickly overtaken by charges that it included two passages— each 30 words or longer — that matched a 2008 Democratic convention address by Michelle Obama nearly word-for-word.

Trump’s campaign offered no apologies, with top adviser Paul Manafort telling The Associated Press the matter had been “totally blown out of proportion.”

Clinton pounced on the tumult, saying the Republican gathering had so far been “surreal,” comparing it to the classic fantasy film “Wizard of Oz.”

“When you pull back the curtain, it was just Donald Trump with nothing to offer to the American people,” Clinton said during a speech in Las Vegas.

Trump’s campaign did succeed in tamping down late efforts by dissident delegates to derail the convention, including during Tuesday’s roll call vote. Campaign officials invested significant time arguing to delegates about the importance of presenting a unite front during the televised convention.

“United we stand, divided we fall,” said Johnny McMahan, a Trump delegate from Arkansas.

But Colorado’s Kendal Unruh, a leader of the anti-Trump forces, called the convention a “sham” and warned party leaders that their efforts to silence opposition would keep some Republicans on the sidelines in the fall campaign against Clinton.

By: AP

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NJ Gov. Chris Christie is the 14th high-profile Republican to announce his candidacy for the 2016 race, joining an ever-growing group of GOP presidential hopefuls.

By: AP and World Israel News Staff

Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie during a town hall meeting. (AP/Charles Krupa)

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie launched his bid for the presidency on Tuesday with the goal of re-introducing himself to a national audience, telling his most loyal supporters that he’s ready to begin what he called a noble effort to “lead our country and to change the world.”

The Republican governor of a largely Democratic state has slipped from favor with fellow party members and faces a tough sell with many conservatives in a crowded election field.

He is the 14^th major Republican to enter the race for the party’s nomination, with no clear front-runner so far. He said both political parties “have failed our country” in an announcement speech calling for more compromise in politics.

“America is tired of hand-wringing and indecisiveness and weakness in the Oval Office,” he said.

And in his trademark blunt style, he told voters — and warned Republican rivals — that he’s ready to be aggressive in the 2016 contest.

“You’re going to get what I think whether you like it or not, or whether it makes you cringe every once in a while or not,” Christie declared. “I am now ready to fight for the people of the United States of America.”

Christie went on to a town hall meeting in Sandown, New Hampshire, receiving enthusiastic applause from the standing-room crowd as he arrived with his family.

He has already held nearly a dozen town halls in New Hampshire, the state which traditionally holds the first presidential primary election every four years. He plans to spend the next week in the northeastern state.

Christie once was one of the nation’s most popular state leaders, and his turn as head of the Republican Governors Association was widely viewed as a success in the 2014 midterm elections.

But his approval ratings have reached record lows at home. Christie had a landslide re-election to a second term as governor in 2013, but he was later nearly felled by scandal involving his aides and deliberate traffic jams at a bridge to New York City in an effort to hurt a political rival.

Aides now try to emphasize his charismatic personality, quick wit and plain-spoken manner, while fighting some critics’ view of him as a bully.

Christie often emphasizes his working-class roots as a contrast to candidates such as Jeb Bush, the son and brother of presidents. He used his announcement in the gymnasium of his old high school to show how his upbringing shaped him in articulating his vision for the country.

A Close Friend of Israel

Christie in Jerusalem at the Western Wall. (AP/Sebastian Scheiner)

Christie is considered a staunch supporter of Israel and is a critic of US President’s Barack Obama’ treatment of the Jewish State.

Speaking at an event in New Hampshire in May, he slammed the current administration’s approach towards the Jewish State as being shameful.

“Our commitment to Israel must be absolute,” Christie asserted. “Israel is a beacon of freedom in a sea of autocracy and our friendship should be unshakeable. Over the last few years this administration has taken our Israeli partners for granted and it is shameful how the president has treated them.”

“Israel and its people must be supported by the United States and the American president – its existence and its security is non-negotiable, and the Iranians and others who think otherwise must be reminded by America of that simple fact,” he stated.

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