In Germany today there is a new wave of anti-Jewish sentiment, the worst since World War II. In World War II, antisemitism was based on Germany's defeat during the First World War as well as the economic depression that came after. Although, the government in Germany condemns this type of behavior continues. The police have noticed an alarming growth in arrested Arabic/Turkish people based on anti-Semitic in the last years. Theorists believe that this new growth is due to the Muslim anti-Semitic feeling influencing popular opinion in Germany and some other parts of the Continent. With old Nazis still influencing some families, it is important for the world as a whole to realize the travesty of the Holocaust and the danger of this degree of genocide happening again.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/17/opinion/jochen-bittner-whats-behind-germanys-new-anti-semitism.html?_r=0
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/17/opinion/jochen-bittner-whats-behind-germanys-new-anti-semitism.html?_r=0
Very interesting article, Varun! I think it is so interesting that even after the international widespread disapproval of the Holocaust, anti-sematism is still making its rounds. It is also intriguing to note that Muslim anti-sematism has caused German anti-sematism to be more outspoken, perhaps because they now deem it as acceptable, as others are now participating (they can be in the majority and overpower dissenting views). However, I don't understand why anti-sematism was increased in the period after WWI. Was it because the Germans wanted to pick on a country inferior to them after their power was weakened by the allies? or did the Jews have another correlation to the Allies (did they fight on that side, provide supplies, etc.) to make Germans hate the Jewish? Thanks for finding this informative article!
ReplyDeleteAudrey, I think anti-semitism after WWI increased because the Germans were bitter that they lost the war, and many Germans blamed Jews for their misfortunes (just as they had before and during the war). At that time there were several myths accusing Jews of being disloyal to Germany and empathizing with the communists, which were propagated by German military officials to put the blame on someone else for losing the war. Here are some of the most prevalent (albeit unfounded) myths after WWI:
ReplyDelete1) Jews had started the war to bring Europe financially and politically into ruin and make Europe susceptible to Jewish "control."
2) Jews exploited the misery of the war to enrich themselves and prolonged it to lead the Bolshevik Revolution in furthering the aim of world revolution.
3) With their inherited cowardice and instinctive disloyalty predisposing them against defending the nation, Jews were responsible for the pernicious malaise behind the front and stabbed the fighting troops in the back (causing the military defeat and democratic/socialist revolution).
4) Foreign Jews dominated the peace negotiations and succeeded in dividing Germans and Hungarians by artificial national borders, while their co-conspirators, the domestic Jews, misled the nation into "surrender" and permanent "enslavement."
5) The Jews controlled the complex finances of the reparations system for their own profit.
6) Having established constitutional democracy, Jews used it to weaken the political will of the nation to resist their influence and to destroy the basis of superior Aryan blood by promoting intermarriage, sexual freedom, and miscegenation.
Hope this helps!
http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007166
DeleteAnother really important detail on this issue was the fact that the entire German country felt very betrayed by the treaty of Versailles and hated the large failure that was then associated with their name. Hitler (without him, there wouldn't be any hatred towards Jews) came with the idea to blame all the country's problems on the Jews. Why did he blame it on the Jews? The reason why was that they simply held most of the high payed jobs at the time, such as bankers, doctors, and lawyers. This made it easy for Hitler to blame them, saying that they were leeching the "real" Germans' money and good jobs. By "real" of course, he came up with the Aryan race, which secluded Jews, communists, gays, gypsies, and many other "lesser races." The truth is that for the German people, Hitler brought a sense of hope for becoming a strong nation once again and showing those "dumb" other countries who is the boss of Europe, or in Hitler's master plan, the world. In better words, Hitler strengthened Germany's nationalism as well as anti-semitism and other things.
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