German anti-Jewish discrimination not just academic

Like Michael Pyshnov, I too had the fruits of my academic research stolen. The context of my case is one of German anti-Jewish discrimination that has ruined my life. I would like to make a special appeal and invite any fellow Jew who feels that he is being mistreated, offended or abused in any way by the German authorities to send me full details with a view to lodging a collective future claim against the German government in an appropriate international court. Here are the essential details of my story.

I am an Israeli citizen and a Jew who cooperated with a German university for five years and whose life was destroyed by that university. I emigrated to Israel from Russia in 1995 with a Masters degree in Mathematics and a number of published works. From 1995 to 1998 I studied and worked as a research assistant at the Technion [Israel Institute of Technology] in Haifa and from 1998 to 2000 I was a research assistant and then a PhD student at the University of Toronto.

My scientific supervisors during those years were Prof. Johann Makowsky at the Technion (I should make it clear that he is Swiss and non-Jewish) and Prof. Joachim von zur Gathen at the Paderborn University, Germany. I continued to work for Mr. von zur Gathen in our joint projects when I was in Canada. We communicated mostly via e-mail and occasional phone calls.

What I claim with no reservation is that my PhD project was used by both professors to earn a lot of money while I was their scientific slave. Support for this claim may be found in their own confessions at Paderborn and Technion. They did not mention, however, there that the project for the German Israeli Foundation, which was to receive a DM 350,000 grant, was sent without my approval and was kept secret from me or that my signature of agreement to their publications was extracted from me by monstrous blackmail and threats. All the job offers I received during those years were rudely destroyed by both of them through unlimited defamation of the sort published by Makowsky.

I wish to stress that I never actually sent any of the letters shown there! And all the nonsense published there would not merit any serious attention if it weren't for the fact that it was published on official university web sites.

While studying in the University of Toronto, where von zur Gathen was a full professor between 1981 and 1994, I was several times beaten up by the university security police. On one occasion, on November 17, 1999, I was even driven to a hospital from the Dean's office! Each time all of this abuse was referred to my relationship with Mr. von zur Gathen and I was reliably informed that it had all been carried out at his request. The reasons for this terror were my complaints about Mr. von zur Gathen to various German institutions, including the Petitions' Committee of the German Bundestag.

In May 2000 I was unlawfully expelled from the University of Toronto after a super-provocation during an examination when the university police escorted me forcibly from the exam room, beat me up and kicked me out of the building warning me never to return. Meanwhile, I was expelled on the grounds that I had not passed the exam.

I sent the above account of the facts to German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and on May 14 2001 I received the following e-mail reply from his office:

Schau Kogan,

so nun schon gar nicht. Du pokerst ein paar Spielklassen zu hoch. Du bist Amateur - wir sind die Bundesliga. Geh zu einem Arzt oder zieh dich warm an!

Peter Treichel
SPD Parteivorstand
Cyberpolizei
Willy-Brandt-Haus
Wilhelmstraúe 141
10963 Berlin

I wrote back:

Should I consider this letter as your own reply and as a proof of your real policy towards Jews which can be expressed just in one word – Hitlerism? Is it supported by you personally that a Jew can be enslaved by a German, and in response to his complaints to you he would receive threats and abuse in a language of SS guards in a concentration camp? I ask you personally to intervene and immediately compensate me for my life destroyed by Germany and the German state. I am ready to provide any serious official investigation with all the necessary proofs of all my claims.

Yours sincerely and thank you very much in advance for your possible reply.

Needless to say, the reply never came.

Yours sincerely,

Gregory Kogan (greg_kogan@inbox.ru or greg_kogan@yahoo.ca)
Nizhnij Novgorod, Russia