January 30, 2004
OBLIGATORY HITLER COMPARISON OF THE WEEK:
Are Parallels To Nazi Germany Crazy? (Harley Sorensen, January 26, 2004, SF Gate)
The customers always write. I get about 400 e-mails in response to my columns every week, which might explain why I didn't answer yours. Here, slightly edited, is one of the more interesting ones from last week. It's from Herr Moellers in Germany:"Dear Mr. Sorensen,
"I have many American friends and used to go on business travel to the U.S. a lot (I stopped doing that after even our European governments have given in to Uncle Sam's appetite for information about individuals traveling to God's Own Country), and I am shocked by the deterioration of democracy in a country that I used to love. This administration is a shame and the destabilization they have brought to the world is scaring the s** out of me.
"My father was a Nazi soldier and he realized during the war what he and most of his generation was led into. I have learned from him that a nation can be guilty and that we must stop the arrogance of the powers at the very beginning. To me, America is becoming truly scary and the parallels to the development in Germany of the thirties (although the reason behind it are totally different) are sickening.
"Thank you for writing about this development. The world is waiting for signs of opposition in the Unilateral States of America!"
Herr Moellers' e-mail is typical of a half dozen or so I've received over the past year from people with intimate knowledge of Nazi Germany.
I respect experience, so I'm inclined to believe what these people are telling me.
In a related story, I got an e-mail from someone today with intimate knowledge of how to make my breasts bigger. It worked for them and I respect experience.
Of course, if Mr. Sorensen were really interested in parallels to the rise of Nazism, he'd not have to look too far, Poll: Europeans 'tired of Holocaust victim games' (JENNY HAZAN, Jan. 27, 2004, Jerusalem Post):
Every third European feels Jews should stop playing "Holocaust victim" games, an Italian newspaper reported Monday. The poll came out on the eve of the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, a day Israel this year dedicated to combating anti-Semitism.Posted by Orrin Judd at January 30, 2004 11:38 PMThe Corriere della Sera survey of nine European countries also found that 46 percent of those interviewed feel Jews are "different," and 71% of them urged Israel to withdraw from the territories. Nine percent of respondents do not "like or trust Jews," and 15% would prefer that Israel not exist.
Just over 68% said they believed Israel has a right to exist but that the government of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is "making the wrong choices."
Forty-eight percent of Europeans polled in Italy, France, Belgium, Austria, Spain, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Germany, and Britain said that Jews have "a particular relationship with money."
I'm suspicious of Herr Moellers' letter. It does not sound like a European who has acquired English as a second language (unless he has spent years in the U.S., which is doubtful from the comments at the beginning of the letter).
Posted by: jd watson at January 31, 2004 1:46 AMThis is a great example (we've had a few recently) of how modern German revisionism works. In the decades after the war, claims that the Nazi period was an anamolous one-off that shouldn't negate the historical richness of German culture were pretty much shouted down by the rest of the world. Now the party line is that they were indeed irredeemably horrific, but gained a lot of valuable experience and knowledge from it and are therefore uniquely qualified to see it all happening elsewhere, particularly in Israel and the U.S.
It's a brilliant argument to pitch at cultural relativists who are incline to think ill of their own countries.
Posted by: Peter B at January 31, 2004 5:40 AMPeter -
Don't forget that the Germans were the victims of Allied atrocities, and the Holocaust is our fault too because there were American antisemites who didn't make stopping the camps their highest priority in the war.
Posted by: David Cohen at January 31, 2004 9:01 AMThat first paragraph is so typical of the "But-head" left-- It's like a flashing neon sign-- Warning!!! Moral Relativism Ahead!! Slippery When Self-Righteous!!
It would be refreshing if they would skip that part and just get into the good parts about how evil we are.
Posted by: Raoul Ortega at January 31, 2004 3:13 PMWhy can't the supposedly intellectual side of the political spectrum use historical analogies based on events that occurred before liberalism was invented? As far as they're concerned, the universe began with the French Revolution (or maybe Karl Marx) and recorded history started with World War II.
Posted by: Joseph Hertzlinger at January 31, 2004 11:21 PM