See the discussion of this article at http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&client=googlet&th=78bb0b6 e2f5a1e4b&rnum=5
and save a lot of back and forth on FW. The writer is a satirist. His web page is strange. I would let it be. I think he is trying to be provocative and is somewhat successful in a sick and strange way. arthur -----Original Message----- From: Selma Singer [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Wednesday, September 25, 2002 6:26 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Fw: Hitler's Children I thought this might be of some interest to people on this list. Selma ----- Original Message ---- Sent: Wednesday, September 25, 2002 5:31 PM Subject: Hitler's Children > williamegrim.tripod.com > Posted 8/14/2002 > > By William E. Grim > > I'm not Jewish. Nobody in my family died in the Holocaust. For me, > anti-Semitism has always been one of those phenomena that doesn't really > register on my radar, like tribal genocide in Rwanda, a horrible thing > that happens to someone else. > > But I live in a small town outside of Munich on a street that until May of > 1945 was named Adolf-Hitler-Strasse. I work in Munich, a pleasant > metropolitan city of a little over a million inhabitants whose Bavarian > charm tends to obscure the fact that this city was the birthplace and > capital of the Nazi movement. Every day when I go to work I pass by the > sites of apartments Hitler lived in, extant buildings in which decisions > were made to murder millions of innocent people, and plazas in which book > burnings took place, SS troops paraded and people were executed. The > proximity to evil has a way of concentrating one's attention, of putting a > physical reality to the textbook narratives of the horrors perpetrated by > the Germans. > > Then the little things start to happen that over a period of time add up > to something very sinister. I'm on a bus and a high school boy passes > around Grandpa's red leather-bound copy of Mein Kampf to his friends who > respond by saying "coooool!" He then takes out a VCR tape (produced in > Switzerland) of "The Great Speeches of Joseph Goebbels." A few weeks later > I'm at a business meeting with four young highly educated Germans who are > polite, charming and soft-spoken to say the least. When the subject matter > changes to a business deal with a man in New York named Rubinstein, their > nostrils flair, their demeanors attain a threatening mien and one of them > actually says, and I'm quoting verbatim here: "The problem with America is > that the Jews have all the money." They start laughing and another one > says, "Yeah, all the Jews care about is money." > > I found that this type of anti-Semitic reference in my professional > dealings with Germans soon became a leitmotif (to borrow a term made > famous by Richard Wagner, another notorious German anti-Semite). In my > private meetings with Germans it often happens that they will loosen up > after a while and reveal personal opinions and political leanings that > were thought to have ceased to exist in a Berlin bunker on April 30, 1945. > > Maybe it's because I have blond hair and my last name is of German origin > that the Germans feel that I am, or could potentially be, "one of them." > > It shows how much they understand what it means to be an American. > Whatever the reason, the conversations generally have one or more of these > components: > > (1) It was unfortunate that America and Germany fought each other in World > War II because the real enemy was Russia. > > (2) Yes, the Nazis were excessive, but terrible things happen during wars, > and anyway, the scope of the Holocaust has been greatly exaggerated by the > American media, which is dominated by Jews. > > (3) CNN is controlled by American Jews and is anti-Palestinian. (Yes, I > know it sounds incredible, but even among the most highly intelligent > Germans, even those with a near-native fluency in English, there is the > widespread belief that the news network founded by Fidel Castro's best > friend Ted Turner, who until recently was married to Hanoi Jane Fonda, is > a hotbed of pro-Israeli propaganda.) > > (4) Almost all Germans were opposed to the Third Reich and nobody in > Germany knew anything aout the murder of the Jews, but the Jews themselves > were really responsible for the Holocaust. > > (5) Ariel Sharon is worse than Hitler and the Israelis are Nazis. America > supports Israel only because Jews control the American government and > media. > > For the first time in my life, then, I became conscious of anti-Semitism. > Sure, anti-Semitism exists elsewhere in the world, but nowhere have the > consequences been as devastating as in Germany. > > Looking at it as objectively as possible, 2002 has been a banner year for > anti-Semitism in Germany. Synagogues have been firebombed, Jewish > cemeteries desecrated, the No. 1 best-selling novel, Martin Walser's Death > of a Critic, is a thinly-veiled roman a clef containing a vicious > anti-Semitic attack on Germany's best-known literary critic, Marcel > Reich-Ranicki (who is a survivor of both the Warsaw ghetto and Auschwitz); > the Free Democrat Party has unofficially adopted anti-Semitism as a > campaign tactic to attract Germany's sizeable Muslim minority; and German > revisionist historians now are beginning to define German perpetration of > World War II and the Holocaust not as crimes against humanity, but as > early battles (with regrettable but understandable excesses) in the Cold > War against communism. The situation is so bad that German Jews are > advised not to wear anything in public that would identify them as Jewish > because their safety cannot be guaranteed. > > How can this be? Isn't this the "New Germany" that's gone 57 years without > a Holocaust or even a pogrom, where truth, justice and the German way > prevail amidst economic wealth, a high standard of living that is the envy > of their European neighbors, and a constitution guaranteeing freedom for > everyone regardless of race, creed or national origin? What's changed? The > answer is: absolutely nothing. > > My thesis is quite simple. While Germany no longer has the military power > to enforce the racist ideology of the Nazis and while all extreme > manifestations of Nazism are officially outlawed, the internal conditions > - that is, the attitudes, worldview and cultural assumptions - that led to > the rise of Nazism in Germany are still present because they constitute > the basic components of German identity. Nazism was not an aberration; it > was the distillation of the German psyche into its essential elements. > External Nazism may have been utterly defeated in May of 1945; internal > Nazism, however, remains, and will always remain, a potential threat as > long as there exists a political and/or cultural entity known as Germany. > > Now hold on a second, I hear many people saying. You can't possibly claim > that Germans are as anti-Semitic today as they were during the years > 1933-1945. It is true that Germany today is much different than during the > Third Reich. What is different is that due to its total defeat by the > Allies, Germany today is a client state of America and must do its > bidding. That means repression of overt anti-Semitism. It's bad for > business. > > The other thing that has changed is that, even though Hitler lost World > War II, he was phenomenally successful in carrying out his ideological > agenda. Germany, indeed virtually all of Europe, is essentially Judenfrei > (free of Jews) today due to the efficiency and zeal of the Germans as they > perpetrated the Holocaust during the Third Reich. In fact, a very > convincing case can be made that Nazism is one of the most successful > political programs of all time. It accomplished more of its goals in a > shorter amount of time than any other comparable political movement and > permanently changed the face and political structure of several > continents. Germany is wealthy, stable, relentlessly bourgeois, and for > all intents and purposes free of Jews. > > Yes, there is a tiny minority of Jews, mostly centered in Berlin, and yes, > there have been a number of Jews from the former Soviet Union who have > emigrated to Germany, but most of the immigrants from Russia are not > practicing Jews and do little if anything to promote a unique > Jewish-German identity. The result of all this is that Germans today are > able to reap the benefits of Hitler's anti-Semitic policies while paying > lip service to the "need to remember." > > Young Fritz doesn't have to be overtly anti-Semitic today because his > grandfather's generation did such a bang-up job of the Holocaust. There > just aren't that many Jews left to hate any more, and besides, the Germans > have their old buddies, the Arabs, to do their hating for them. You might > call the overwhelming German support for the Palestinians to be a form of > anti-Semitism-by-proxy. > > The German government has made cash payments to the State of Israel, as > well as to individual Jews, to settle claims of murder, torture, false > imprisonment, slave labor and genocide. Talk to most Germans and you'll > soon discover that they think that the score has been settled between > Germany and the Jews, that somehow the return of just a portion of what > the Germans stole from the Jews is fair recompense for the deliberate > murder of millions of people. If you think the Germans are truly sorry for > what they did to the Jews, think again. There's never been an official > "tut mir leid" offered by the Germans to the victims of the Holocaust and > their descendants because that would admit culpability. Germany has paid > off all claims against it without acknowledging responsibility in the same > way that the Ford Motor Company engages in recalls of automobiles. It's > all done to avoid liability. > > I have previously mentioned that Germans overwhelmingly support the > Palestinians as opposed to the Israelis, and that this overwhelming > support represents a form of anti-Semitism-by-proxy. Germans may claim to > be supporting the Palestinians because they think they are an "oppressed > people," but let's be honest - they are supporting the Palestinians and > their Arab handlers because the Palestinians and Arabs share the same > ideals as the Nazis. > > There's a long-standing history of German co-operation with the Arabs. In > 1942 Hitler personally assured the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem that as soon > as German forces conquered Great Britain, the Jews in Palestine (which was > then under control of the British Mandate) would be exterminated. > > We should also keep in mind that the Arab terrorists who perpetrated the > 9/11 atrocities did their planning in Germany. There are several reasons > for this. The first is the well-known bungling and de-centralized chaos of > the German federal bureaucracy where literally the "links" hand doesn't > know what the "rechts" hand is doing. The second is that Arab terrorists > can count on a substantial number of Germans who share their anti-American > and anti-Semitic views. The former members of the SS and Hitler's > praetorian guards, along with their neo-Nazi supporters, who gather weekly > in Munich beer halls, made Osama bin Laden an "honorary Aryan" after the > 9/11 attack. Mein Kampf is also a best seller in the Arab world, > especially in Saudi Arabia, America's putative "friend." Indeed, there is > very little difference between the anti-Semitic rantings of Hitler and > those of the so-called "spiritual leaders" of al-Qaeda, Hamas, and Fatah. > The Arabs also owe Hitler and the Germans big time. Hitler killed off the > Jews, and Konrad Adenauer and his "democratic" descendants replaced them > with the Turks. Yes, the Turks aren't Arabs, but they are Muslim, and > although Turkey is a member of NATO and has relations with Israel, many > Turks identify and support their radical Arab co-religionists. Turkey > remains as fragile a democracy as Weimar Germany during the 1920s. It > wouldn't take much for Turkey to fall into the dark side of Muslim > extremism. > > The end result of Muslim immigration into Germany has been twofold: (1) It > allows the Germans to feign liberalism and being open to freedom and > diversity; and (2) By replacing the Jews they murdered with Muslims, who > for the most part are as viciously anti-Semitic as were the Nazis, the > Germans have cynically assured that those few Jews who remain in Germany > will be unable to reassert political power even in a minority role. > > A final point I would like to make concerning the reasons for the > resurgence of anti-Semitism in Germany is one that many will find at odds > with the prima-facie evidence, or even appear to stretch the boundaries of > common sense. Yet, I ask you to consider carefully my line of reasoning. > > In many respects Germany got away with the Holocaust without paying much > of a price. Yes, many Germans died as a result of German perpetration of > World War II and the Holocaust, and yes, there was much physical > destruction in the country, but the situation is like the little boy who > steals a cookie from the tray when it is cooling on the kitchen table. For > his efforts he may have gotten his hand slapped by his mother, but the > stolen cookie remains eaten nonetheless. After having committed the worst > crimes in the history of humankind, the Germans were allowed to regain > their sovereignty after only ten years; their infrastructure was > completely rebuilt thanks to the generosity of the American people; and > relatively few Germans were brought to trial for their monstrous crimes. > Even those who were tried and convicted received relatively short > sentences or had those reduced or commuted in general amnesties. For > example, some members of the Einsatzkommandos, those Germans who, before > the construction of the death camps, hunted and murdered Jews by the > hundreds of thousands, received sentences of as little as five years > imprisonment. > > If there were true justice in the world, Germany would no longer exist as > a separate country, but would have long ago had its territory divided up > and dispersed among the Allies. It was unfortunate historical coincidence > that the Cold War began just as Germany was at last being brought to task > for its many crimes and atrocities extending back to the First World War. > The new threat of the Soviet Union took precedence over a just settling of > accounts with Germany. The tragic result is that many of the countries > raped and despoiled by Germany, such as the Czech Republic and Poland, are > just now coming out of decades of economic decline, while Germany - fat, > sassy, arrogant, self-satisfied, and essentially Judenfrei - has enjoyed > four decades of undeserved economic prosperity. > > We can't turn back the clock to redress all of the historical wrongs that > have been committed by the Germans, but there are a number of things that > can be done to assure that Germany can never again be in a position to > threaten the rest of the civilized world. First and foremost is the > realization that, while not all Germans are anti-Semitic, there is an > anti-Semitic tendency within German culture that extends back to the time > of Martin Luther. Germans are instinctively anti-Semitic in the same way > that Americans are instinctively freedom loving. Anti-Semitism has been > and unfortunately remains the default ideology of the German people. All > things being equal, Germans will instinctively support the enemies of the > State of Israel. Therefore, America will need to monitor closely and be > ready and politically willing to intervene at a moment's notice in German > affairs when it appears that Germany is back-sliding into anti-Semitism. > Additionally, it should be a goal of American foreign policy to oppose and > to accelerate the dismemberment of the European Union. We must not allow > German domination of the EU to accomplish through parliamentary > maneuvering and brokered deals what Hitler and the Germans were unable to > accomplish during the Third Reich. Given Germany's resurgent anti-Semitism > (and that of France as well), a strong German-dominated EU that tolerates > and even benignly encourages anti-Semitism, and is diplomatically allied > with the Arab world, is potentially the greatest threat to Judaism since > Nazi Germany and a major threat to the United States as well. > > The enemies of Israel are the enemies of the United States. Let all Jews > and Americans stand united as we proclaim never again to both the > Holocaust and 9/11. (www.iconoclast.ca) > > William E. Grim is a writer who lives in Germany and is a native of > Columbus, Ohio. He may be reached at > > [EMAIL PROTECTED] You can read > > more by and about him at The Official William E. Grim Website > williamegrim.tripod.com > >
