This week the New York Times had a front-page article on the re-emergence of anti-Semitism in Europe (Europe's Anti-Semitism Comes Out of the Shadows). Of course the article mentions the high-profile violent incidents, like the murder of four visitors to a Jewish museum in Brussels and the firebombing of a synagogue in Wuppertal. But much more sinister is the casual acceptance of anti-Semitism across broad swaths of European society:
"But there is also concern about what some see as an insidious “softer” anti-Jewish bias, which they fear is creeping into the European mainstream and undermining the postwar consensus to root out anti-Semitism. Now the question is whether a subtle societal shift is occurring that has made anti-Jewish remarks or behavior more acceptable.
“The fear is that now things are blatantly being said openly, and no one is batting an eyelid,” said Jessica Frommer, 36, a secular Jew who works for a nonprofit organization in Brussels. “Modern Europe is based on stopping what happened in the Second World War. And now 70 years later, people standing near the European Parliament are shouting, ‘Death to Jews!’ ”
In Germany, the Berlin daily
Die Tageszeitung reports that a woman working in the Israeli embassy in Berlin has to spend the weekend deleting hate messages that pour onto the embassy's Facebook page and YouTube site. Typical comments are "Hamas should use Zyklon B","The world would be so much better without Jews." "Hitler, where are youuuu?" "You filthy Jews need to be gassed!."
Another category of hate mail: the recipients are not simply compared to Nazis, they are threatened with the same fate as the victims of Nazi violence. A commenter named "Jochen" writes: "Up to now I didn't like what the Nazis had done, but now I see that they left too many of you alive! I just hope that Iran can wipe you all out some day!" (My translation)
But what really discourages me is
this report coming from a "West German trade school." Apparently teenagers regularly use the term "Dirty Jew" as a casual insult among themselves.
"Jew" has become a customary insult in the West German trade school 19 year-old explains that Jews are usuers and extortionists, they drive people to ruin. I'm astonished by how often in class I hear remarks like "Shufa - they're all Jews". ("Schufa is the German credit bureau). When a student shouts out "the Jews control Aldi" the teacher responds "I could say something. But?" He lets it go."
When the class discusses the history of National Socialism in Germany, a student comes up with a response that is all too common:
Ein Schüler verteidigt die Wehrmacht gegen den Vorwurf, sie habe einen verbrecherischen Krieg geführt. Sein Großvater habe ihm erzählt, wie es wirklich war. In dieser familiären Geschichte sind offenbar die Deutschen die Leidtragenden. Und Juden keine richtigen Deutschen.
(A student defends the Wehrmacht against the accusation that they waged a criminal war. His grandfather told him what really happened. For this family's history the Germans were the ones that suffered in the war. Besides, the Jews weren't real Germans.)
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” -George Santayana (1904)