Jewish Groups Outraged At Launching Of World’s Largest Crane Ship Named After SS Officer
Article by Tibi Singer published Saturday 24 Jan 2015
The Swiss-based Allseas Group’s new ship, Pieter Schelte, is 1,146 feet long and 372 feet wide. Built by Daewoo Heavy Industries in South Korea, at a reported cost of $2.85 billion, it is capable of lifting loads of 48,000 tons. It is the world’s largest offshore pipelay and platform installation vessel, equipped with a Sonardyne Ranger 2 USBL acoustic positioning system. It’s also named after a Nazi.
Allseas is owned by Edward Heerema, a Dutchman, who is the son of Pieter Schelte Heerema, an officer in the Waffen-SS. And Edward insisted on naming his prized ship after his dad.
According to the Netherlands Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies’ David Barnouw, cited by the Guardian, Pieter Schelte was “a member of a small fascist party before the war, but was in Venezuela when the Germans invaded. Schelte saw it as a reason to return”.
He then joined the SS, “fought on the Russian front for the Wehrmacht, but was recalled to be part of the ‘East Company,’ working for the SS in the occupied East.”
According to one report, after gaining promotion in the Waffen SS, he was responsible for forcibly resettling unemployed Dutch workers into areas of Eastern Europe, where many died, writes John Donovan, whose website, royaldutchshellplc.com, has been campaigning relentlessly against the naming.
Seeing that the war was going “badly for Germany, he joined a resistance party, then went to Switzerland. He was interned after the war, tried and I think the judges found him one of their own – a good businessman, well educated.”
Among Schelte’s more memorable statements was his view that “the German race is model. The Jewish race, by comparison, is parasitic … Therefore the Jewish question must be resolved in every Aryan country.”
Well, he tried.
So, according to the company’s press release, the Pieter Schelte arrived at Rotterdam, in the Netherlands, at the beginning of January, and will remain at the port for installation and testing of its main mission equipment before commencing operations this summer.
And while it’s there, Europe’s Jews, who have been treated this month to a heap of bloody Muslim attacks, are throwing a righteous fit at this newest outrage.
The vice-president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, Jonathan Arkush, said: “Naming such a ship after an SS officer who was convicted of war crimes is an insult to the millions who suffered and died at the hands of the Nazis. We urge the ship’s owners to reconsider and rename the ship after someone more appropriate.”
Esther Voet, director of the Centre for Information and Documentation on Israel (Cidi), based in The Hague, said that the timing of the ship’s arrival, just before the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, was “a coincidence, I’m sure, but a sign of the times. We lost our battle to have the ship’s name changed, and we are left eating dust.”
Voet says: “We’ve fought this for 10 years, tried to persuade everyone involved that this was offensive. But no, we’re left with this fact: the largest ship in the world is named after an officer in the SS, and not enough people are offended to get this changed.”
“Like many other multinationals involved with The Pieter Schelte project, including the oil company Shell (one of its first customers), and financial backers, ABN Amro, ING, RBS and NIBC, Lloyd’s Register has long known about the dark side of the name, but has remained silent on the toxic issue,” writes John Donovan, adding:
“Lloyd’s Register knew of his Nazi pedigree when commissioning, approving and publishing the above PR article, rejoicing in its close connection with the Nazi named ship. The name of the ship is mentioned 15 times in the overall feature, comprising the front page, the contents page and the article pages.
“Although numerous articles about the controversy have been published since 2007, Lloyd’s Register neglected to disclose what it knew about the astonishing background of the man being honoured in such a prominent way – having the biggest ship in the world named after him. This was not an individual of high distinction, nor a member of royalty, or a famous historical figure of high regard, but instead, a former officer from the murderous Waffen SS.”
Well, there’s nothing we can do now, other than expect to some day board the good ship Adolf Eichmann …
Jewish leaders outraged over ship named after Nazi war criminal
The Pieter Schelte, named after a Nazi war criminal, arrived at the port of Rotterdam. Photo by FaceMePLS/CC
UPI ARTICLE BY AMY R. CONNOLLY PUBLISHED 24 JAN 2015
ROTTERDAM, Netherlands, Jan. 24 (UPI) — Jewish leaders in Britain and the Netherlands are outraged that a massive ship bearing the name of a Dutch Nazi war criminal arrived in Rotterdam to work in the European offshore oil industry.
The Pieter Schelte, called the world’s biggest vessel, arrived in port as Jewish organizations asked the ship’s owners to change the name. Jewish leaders said the recent terrorist attack at a Paris kosher deli that left four dead and the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz is making the decision to name the ship after the war criminal all the more difficult to understand.
Esther Voet, director of the Centre for Information and Documentation on Israel, told the Guardian the timing was “a coincidence, I’m sure, but a sign of the times. We lost our battle to have the ship’s name changed, and we are left eating dust.”
Schelte, a Dutch naval architect, was part of the Waffen SS, the combat arm of the Nazi party’s Schutzstaffel. He was arrested in March 1944 and tried for war crimes. He died in 1981. The ship belongs to the Swiss-based Allseas group, which is owned by Schelte’s son, Edward Heerema. The company said it does not plan to rename the ship.
The Pieter Schelte, a platform installation, decommissioning and pipe-laying vessel, is 1,565 feet long and has a lift capacity of 48,000 tons. The ship was built in South Korea.
World’s biggest ship named after Nazi
THE JEWISH CHRONICLE
Article by Toby Axelrod, January 22, 2015
Should the world’s largest ship be named after a convicted Nazi war criminal? No, says retired British businessman John Donovan – and he’s not sitting idly by.
The Colchester resident has launched an online petition asking shipping magnate Edward Heerema of the Allseas Group SA to change the name of its giant new vessel, the Pieter Schelte.
Schelte was Mr Heereema’s father, a renowned maritime engineer but also an avowed antisemite who joined the Waffen SS. He eventually became an informant for the Dutch resistance in 1943.
After the war, he was sentenced in Holland to three years in prison for war crimes, but was released early due to his work for the resistance.
In 2008, when plans to name the boat after him became known in Holland, politicians and Jewish leaders spoke out against it. A spokesperson for Allseas said at the time: “Pieter Schelte Hereema was widely appreciated in the industry during his life and the companies that came from his heritage have an excellent name in the offshore industry.”
The Dutch government, which gave Allseas’ Netherlands subsidiary a hefty tax break to secure it a role in building the ship, said it first noticed the vessel’s name in an article by Dutch journalist Ton Biesemaat.
Dutch legislator Sharon Gesthuizen told Haaretz in 2008 that “funding this ship was a mistake which is offensive to many people”.
Dutch legislator Sharon Gesthuizen told Haaretz in 2008 that “funding this ship was a mistake which is offensive to many people”.
Mr Donovan addressed his petition to Edward Heerema “as the founder of [a] company that… has just entered service in the offshore oil industry, with Shell as one of its first clients.”
Mr Donovan has long followed the activities of the Shell Oil Company, for which he and his late father worked as consultants before successfully suing the firm for breach of confidence. He said: “Shell is …the first customer booked to use the Pieter Schelte [to decommission four North Sea Oil rigs later this year].”
Allseas and Shell did not comment.
The TRUTH will set you FREE.
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