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| My chart, from figures derived from here |
Yesterday was Holocaust Remembrance Day, and I watched the services in German Parliament, on DW TV (the German Cable TV station we get, here in Hong Kong).
It was very moving. Addresses by Merkel, by the President of Germany, violin performances, and to finish two speeches, one by Charlotte Knobloch, a Holocaust Survivor and head of a Jewish organisation, and the final one by Marina Weiband, the granddaughter of a Holocaust survivor.
Two dominant themes, ongoing since the end of the War: "Never Forget" and "Never Again".
The "Never Forget" part is what's going on in the Remembrance Day, and the fact that in Germany, it's remembered in the heart of the nation's democracy: the Bundestag. The "Never Again" part is more, as they say, "problematic". There's rising anti-semitism in Germany. This is widely known. As it is in the rest of Europe, especially France and Britain.
Charlotte Knobloch said it came mostly from the "far-right" but also from "radical Islamic and extreme left" sources. She's right about that although violent anti-semitism, in Germany as in France and the UK, is predominantly Islamic -- 70% and above in each, according to police and NGO sources.
The commentary after the Remembrance Service, on DW, with their various talking heads, was all about the need to fight the rise in far-right anti-semitism. Not even a passing reference, à la Knobloch, to Islamic and left-wing anti-semitism.
One of the ways they end up with so much of anti-semitism being on the Right, is that they classify a lot of Islamic anti-semitism as being Right wing anti-Semitism. And it's true, if someone is a Hamas supporter, it's not much of a leap, as Hamas is pretty Hitler-focussed. They hate Jews as much - or more -- as he did, and they've adopted his very own salute. But the reason they hate jews, and want to kill them, is to do with their doctrinal beliefs, the fact that their prophet hated jews, than with any right wing ideology they happen to share with Adolf. (This is made clear in the Covenant of Hamas -- not just to obliterate Israel, but to kill all Jews in the world, wherever).
Coincidentally, I'm reading "Buried by the Times -- The Holocaust and America's Most Important Newspaper", by Laurel Leff.
The Times did this in a couple of ways:
1. They buried stories about the slaughter of Jews in Europe -- well attested at the time, and what we now know as The Holocaust -- inside the paper. Not once from 1939 to 1944 did a story about Jewish genocide reach the front page or be the subject of an editorial. (P292).
2. Even when they ran stories about the atrocities, they usually failed to mention that it was Jews who were the majority, sometimes the only, victims. It was instead "500,000 persons” (p221), or “persecuted minorities” (p263), or “Hitler’s 16,000,000 homeless victims” (p264) or “civilians of many nationalities” (p294), or “pitiful specimens” (p296), or “persons …interned for political or ‘criminal offences’” (p301). [my emphasis].
The same is happening today. Germany, broadly defined as its government and media, is talking about anti-semitism, but without talking about its main cause -- Islamism.
I don't know that if the New York Times had been more forward in talking about the Shoah, it would have reduced the slaughter. It was Hitler, after all, pretty focussed.
But today, in Germany? Surely you can't stop the problem -- one which you've said can be "Never Again" -- if you don't focus on its main cause.
One reference on the cause of anti-Semitism in Germany. Note that the AfD, often blamed in the media for growing anti-Semitism, has committed to funds and activities to fight anti-semitism in Germany.
