Before I get into this I feel the need to state that I think that anti-Semitism and other forms of intolerance, bigotry and hatred are problems worldwide that still exists in far too many places, forms and fashions. Germany is not spared this problem. The recent upswing in Right Wing Extremism in Europe has also hit Germany, but nowhere near as badly as in France or Holland for instance. However, due to the horrendous mass-murder, oppression and suffering perpetrated by the Nazis, Germany stands apart in awareness and willingness to face this issue. The public debate on the topic is constant. The media is full of information about the Holocaust and the ensuing responsibility Germany has towards the world to safe-guard that it never happens again, anywhere.
Let’s start with some history. Germany was actually one of the least anti-Semitic countries in Europe before 1932. The Jewish population was gaining increasing respect and being integrated into the general culture much faster than in many other places, especially the Eastern European nations. This is one of the facts that make the developments after Hitler’s rise to power even more mind boggling. I think that one has to see this in the light of a general tendency towards anti-Semitism in Europe at the time and that the integration of the Jewish people into the national framework was so recent that it hadn’t ‘stuck’ yet. The fact is that it wasn’t as easy as the little guy initially thought to rally the German people behind the anti-Jewish cause.
His first attempt to persecute the Jews in 1934 was a public relations disaster. The next large scale attempt was the infamous Reichskristallnacht, or Night of Breaking Glass on November 9 1938, by now a gradual erosion of the human rights of the Jewish people and the constant pummeling of the propaganda machinery had had more effect and the SA/SS literally got away with mass murder, after the horrors of that night it just got worse.
For Herr Mustachio it wasn’t enough though, Hitler was furious that the masses had not actively turned out in the streets to murder Jews and felt betrayed by the German people and from 38 on he left the persecution of the Jews in the hands of the SS, the Gestapo and the inner party circle. He just didn’t trust the German people to “be ready for their great cause,” as he put it. All that being said, there is no excuse, the German electorate at the time bear responsibility, they put him in power, they supported the anti-Semitic agenda and many took active part in the persecution of Jews. Those who didn’t were largely looking the other way and hence condoned the atrocities by silent cooperation.
Today Germany is probably one of the least anti-Semitic nations in the West, at least in all obvious ways. The Germans are tremendously aware of what happened during the Nazi years. The feeling of guilt and responsibility is so high that even the postwar generations assume responsibility. In fact I am often shocked at how serious it is taken.
When I moved down here a few years ago I was having a few beers with a mixed group of Americans, Germans and Brits, one of the Americans cracked an extremely innocent Jewish joke to one of the other Americans who happened to be Jewish. We all laughed, except the two German guys who were ashen faced, and one of them just blurted out; “Hey that’s not funny, we’re in Germany you know,” It didn’t help that the Jewish guy, subject of the joke and all said that he didn’t mind and even appreciated the joke – the Germans were simply too mortified to even fathom how one could make such a joke.
Once you get under the skin of more and more Germans (that’s hard BTW) you realize that this not just posing – its dead serious. Still anti-Semitism exists and the 1990s saw the resurgence of extreme Nationalism in Europe, in Germany this resurgence was not as bad as in for instance France, the UK, Scandinavia, Belgium and Holland.
Hate crimes are a fair indicator of how wide spread active anti-Semitism is. The following is reported hate crimes against Jews in the year 2000, that I compiled from The Stephen Roth Institute for the Study of Contemporary Anti-Semitism and Racism at Tel Aviv University.
**Hate Crimes Against Jews 2000**
Nation #crimes per 1000 inh.
USA 1,606* 0.006
Germany 1,378** 0.016
France 146*** 0.002
The UK 405**** 0.006
[ol][sub]
*877 cases of harassment and assault 729 cases of vandalism
**out of which 5 were violent, the rest were threats, vandalism, holocaust denial and anti-Semitic rallying
***only includes violent crimes and large scale vandalism
****2 attempted murder, 51 physical assault, 73 vandalism, 196 abusive behavior[/sub][/ol]
Note that the higher number of crimes registered in Germany is in part influenced by the much stricter laws against anti-Semitism. Less reliable figures for France that include lesser accounts of vandalism and threats give estimates in the vicinity of 1,000. Anti-Semitic hate crimes saw a sharp increase in Europe in 2000 due to a large number of incidents related to the launch of the Intifada in Israel. In Germany the increase was 70% to previous year and the total increase was attributed to extreme Islamist groups. The UK and France saw 50% increases also largely due to the Intifada. The increase in the US was 4% to previous year.
As the statistics show, active violent anti-Semitism is far lower in Germany than in the rest of the Western world. Statistics for smaller countries, not here listed shows the same relation.
Absolute nonsense of course. I think the 15% figure could be from the widely reported approx. 15% vote that DVU (Deutsche Volksunion) an extreme rightwing party garnered in local elections in Saxony-Anhalt and Brandenburg in the last two elections. It’s nasty, but a) it is nowhere near the Bundestag (parliament) and b) not quite neo-Nazi.
The German Bundestag is divided as follows:
**Seats per Party in the German Bundestag**
Party Seats Translated name (place on spectrum)
SPD 285 Social Democrats (Liberal)
CDU 198 Christian Democrats (Conservative)
CSU 47 Christian Coalition (Conservative)
B90/GRÜNE 47 Green Party (Ecological Left)
FDP 43 Democratic Peoples Party (Centrist)
PDS 37 Socialists (Liberal Left)
Independent 1
Nary a neo-Nazi in that list I can tell you. All very mainstream and mostly pretty leftist. The CSU are the closest we have to the Republicans, but even they are far fiscally left of the GOP. The leader of the FDP recently made an absolute ass out of himself by making comments about Israel that came across as vaguely anti-Semitic in a public forum. The incident has spurred a huge debate about political correctness and made him a persona non grata amongst any politicians with the remotest survival instinct.
As I said it’s illegal to do that here. Jean-Marie le Pen, the French extreme right leader was recently prosecuted here in Bavaria for having trivialized the holocaust in a public speech in Munich and given a hefty fine. Known Holocaust deniers are denied entry into the country. Studying the Holocaust is an obligatory part of grammar and high school curriculum. Several of the Concentration Camps have been preserved as monuments of reminder. I would say that there are proably fewer denier of the Holocaust in Germany than anywhere else in the world, even including Israel (considering portions of the population that aren’t exactly lovers of the Jewish creed).
I can only conclude that there is no substance to what the family of the OP believes and I certainly hope that the OP has some use for the information that I have compiled, but having had these discussion myself a million times and more, I might caution the OP that sometimes these kinds of beliefs are so deeply rooted that there is no arguing. In any case I wish the OP all the best of luck in arguing the point.
Sparc