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[(Continued from p.3)] are at making money. This time the audience breaks out in full-blown guffaws so loud you'd think we were watching "Caddyshack."Do these personal anecdotes add up to a Germany yearning to return to the glory days of the Third Reich? The political and economic situation of Germany in 2002 has an uncanny resemblance to that of Germany in 1932, the last year of the Weimar Republic. And that's not just my opinion. It's also that of Oskar Lafontaine, the former German finance minister. The German economy continues to be ravaged by mistakes that are largely the fault of the Germans themselves: completely inflexible employment laws making it almost impossible to create new jobs; confiscatory taxes that are raised continuously; mistrust of innovation, experimentation, creativity and entrepreneurship; and a rapacious political class that makes the American Congress look like mendicant friars. With an "official" unemployment rate of 10 percent that expands to somewhere between 20 to 40 percent in certain poor provinces of the former German Democratic Republic, it is clear that Germany is in an economic and political malaise. The response of Germans, however, is where the comparisons between 2002 and 1932 become the most ominous. Ask why Germany is in economic trouble and you'll seldom hear Germans blame themselves. The most common response is to blame foreigners, that is, Turkish "guest workers," immigrants from the former Iron Curtain countries, and Jews. In the eyes of most Germans, the Turks and the Eastern immigrants are taking jobs away from "real" Germans, and the reparation payments to compensate the victims of the Holocaust are responsible for deficits in the German budget. Statistics suggest that anti-Semitism is becoming more commonplace in Germany. Reported anti-Semitic crimes in Germany -- from graveyard desecration to murder -- rose from 574 cases in 1998 to 1,424 in 2001, according to the Stephen Roth Institute of Tel-Aviv University. It based this on figures from the German Federal Office for the Defense of the Constitution. Perhaps even more alarming are surveys reported by the Roth Institute showing that 16 percent of all recruits to the Germany Army support extreme right-wing political parties, all of which feature virulent anti-Semitism as part of their political platforms. It is this tendency of many Germans to blame the non-German "other" for their country's problems that has had such devastating consequences for Germany and the rest of the world in the past century. And so, as Germany sinks further into an economic abyss, it remains to be seen whether or not the Germans who laughed during the screening of "The Pianist" are the harbingers of a Third Reich Redux or just well-dressed vulgarians. If the past is indeed prelude to the future, the signs are not encouraging. Quo vadis, Germania?
William Grim is a writer and businessman who moved to Germany two years ago from Columbus, Ohio. We print his article with permission by Pacific News Service. |
[(Continued from p.3)] "The Pianist." Second, there was a moment during the movie where I actually wanted to cheer. It was when the protagonist is emptying a sack of potatoes, and out come two guns for the Jewish resistance. Jews did not have guns, but when they did, they took many Nazis down. It happened during Passover, so during our family Seder, we drink a toast in memory of the Martyrs of the Warsaw Ghetto Resistance. I think this gesture should be added to all Seders, but I'm wandering here. The movie makes you dwell on things. My response is different from that of William Grim who saw the movie in company with barbarians and reacted accordingly. My focus is not on the Germans. Most of those who perpetrated the horror are dead. So are their accomplices throughout Europe. My response is to curse the Arabs whose hatred for Jews is equal in deed and intent to the Nazis. I curse the Europeans for their anti-Semitism. I curse the academics that press to divest from Israel. I curse the United Nations. I curse those who will see this movie and still dare to call Israeli tactics of self-defense "Nazi-like." My greatest contempt is reserved for the Jews who weaken Israel, whether from the pulpit (like Connecticut's Rabbi Joshua Hammerman), or in the newsroom (like Thomas Friedman) or in offices of power (like Sandy Berger and Dennis Ross). I despise the Jewish pacifists who empathize with the suffering of Arabs, even as they find root causes for the murder of Jews. I scorn the trendy dinner party set who self-righteously proclaim their discomfort with Israel's "occupation." My disgust is limitless for those Jews who have organized in support of a Palestinian state, like the nauseating Allegra Pacheco and her Jewish Women for Peace and Justice in Palestine, B'Tselem, Peace Now, the donors to the New Israel Fund and the Shefa Fund and all the signatories of every single ad that ever appeared anywhere attacking Israel. I could go on and on. There must be a special corner in hell for those Jews who would harm Israel. Before Oslo, they saw themselves as noble "dissenters" from the Jewish consensus when in fact they were self-righteous "preeners" who cared only about displaying their moral superiority in the liberal social circles they frequent. Since Oslo, they have become active accomplices in the second worst catastrophe to befall the Jewish people in the last hundred years. This is the conviction I came away with from "The Pianist." Ruth King is a member of the executive committee of Americans For a Safe Israel.
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Outpost - 4 - February 2003