Furor over German MP's anti-Semitic comments

Agence France-Presse (AFP) ^ | 10-31-03

[Oldeconomybuyer]

BERLIN, Oct 31 (AFP) - A German member of parliament faced charges of anti-Semitism Friday for a speech in which he played down the Holocaust and described Jews as a "race of perpetrators".

Deputy Martin Hohmann of the conservative opposition Christian Democrats (CDU) said in a speech to constituents on the 13th anniversary of German reunification October 3 that primarily Jewish Bolsheviks were responsible for crimes against civilians during the Russian revolution.

He went on to draw a comparison between what he claimed was bloodshed orchestrated by Jews during that period and the murder of Europe's Jews in the Holocaust.

"Jews were active in great numbers in the leadership as well as in the Cheka (Soviet secret police) firing squads," Hohmann said according to a transcript of the speech on the web site of the CDU in his hometown of Neuhof.

"Thus one could describe Jews with some justification as a Taetervolk (roughly translated, race of perpetrators).

"That may sound horrible. But it would follow the same logic with which one describes the Germans as a race of perpetrators."

The head of Germany's Jewish community, Paul Spiegel, called Hohmann's speech "a reach into the lowest drawer of disgusting anti-Semitism" after the comments were reported late Thursday by public broadcaster Hessischer Rundfunk.

The speech was removed from the Internet soon after the story broke.

Spiegel said he had spoken to CDU leader Angela Merkel and "she shared my views".

Meanwhile Dieter Graumann of the Jewish community in Frankfurt, the largest city in Hohmann's home state, said he was appalled by the remarks.

"Anti-Semitism in Germany has gone beyond the pub tables and arrived at the German Bundestag," he told Hessischer Rundfunk.

The Hesse state chapter of the CDU was quick to distance itself from Hohmann's views. The chapter's general secretary, Michael Boddenberg, demanded that Hohmann "refrain from such unhistorical, false and unacceptable comments".

Deputies from Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's Social Democrats called for Hohmann's dismissal from the Bundestag, the lower house of parliament.

[Chancellor Palpatine]

....that primarily Jewish Bolsheviks were responsible for crimes against civilians during the Russian revolution.

Neglecting to mention, of course, that Lenin was shipped in and funded by [surprise, surprise] Germany. Don't you love the historical revisionism that runs rampant in that most hypocritical place.

These people are messed up and unrepentant - the Hun is eitherr at your throat or at your boot, Churchill was right.

[Stultis]

That's pretty harsh. For balance, I'll think of three good things to say about Germans:

1) They aren't the French
2) They make war against France from time to time

Well, O.K., so I could only think of two...

[veronica]

All the crap this latter-day Nazi spewed is daily fare at anti-semitic websites, you know, the "libertarian" sites.

[zx2dragon]

ping

[SJackson]

If you'd like to be on or off this middle east/political ping list, please FR mail me.

[Catspaw]

Deputy Martin Hohmann spews the usual dreck direct from the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.

[Michael81Dus]

Have you ever thought of the idea that the Kaiser and his friends only shipped Lenin to Russia to bring WWI at an end? And have you never heard of the idea to fight the commies after the war was won?

[Michael81Dus]

Thanks. You make me thinking about what Americans are good for - if not for war!

Note: your rants can be taken as an offense, even if you are only joking.

[Michael81Dus]

I am not defending his disgusting speech, but I want to add that he also said, at the end of his speech:

"Therefore, we cannot say that "the Germans" or "the Jews" are races of perpetrators - both are not, but those who are without God are."

[Billthedrill]

This topic is certainly a loaded one, but ignore it and you won't understand how Hitler came to power. The Communists were the Nazis' rival in Weimar Germany, and the anti-Semitism card was one means the Nazis had of demonizing the Communists (think about that one for a minute!). It was a clever ploy because it had a grain of truth early in the history of Bolshevism. Several of the core revolutionary Bolsheviks were, in fact, of Jewish extraction: Trotsky, Kamenev, Zinoviev, for example. Not overly surprising inasmuch as the highly educated Jews were a major component of the intelligentsia all over Europe (and still are - Marxist theorists Lukacs and Marcuse were of Jewish extraction). There were two lies inherent in the Nazi treatment of the topic - first that these men were hardly practicing Judaism - they hadn't seen a synagogue in years (if ever) and second, that the first three were all purged long before the Nazis ever came to power. But it was a clever lie because conspiracy mongers don't need much more than a grain of truth.

In fact, the later Communists were as virulently anti-Semitic as the Nazis ever were. With hate campaigns coming from either side, it is little wonder that so many emigrated to the United States and later, to Israel.

[mewzilla]

I am not defending his disgusting speech, but I want to add that he also said, at the end of his speech

Oh, boy, you do so not wanna go there...

[rmlew]

I understand the need of some Germans to call Jews criminal. This mitigate ths Holocaust and lessens their shame for the actions of their parents or grandparents. It is also a defensive response against those who see the Germans as a perpetrator people in the present.

The problem with callig Jews a Taetervolk, a criminal nation or people, for the crimes of Jewish communists is that these Jews were not acting for the Jewish nation. Communist Jews are by defintion anti-nationalist. They have solved the Jewish question by ending the Jewishness. On the other hand, the Nazis were acting specifically for the Aryan race. (That they hurt the Germanic peoples is irrelevent to the intent.)

[Stultis]

Note: your rants can be taken as an offense, even if you are only joking.

I'm not joking. You guys really are better than the French, for what it's worth.

[george wythe]

For balance, I'll think of three good things to say about Germans:

1) They aren't the French
2) They make war against France from time to time

3) They make excellent business partners.
4) They seldom resort to violence when drunk in their pubs.
5)They share the same genes with many hard-working Americans.

[Michael81Dus]

Thank you George! :-)
Now THAT´s politeness, Stultis.

Bttt, this article gives a better explanation:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1012316/posts

He said "it would follow the same logic with which the Germans are described as a guilty people." He concluded that the point was not to blame the Germans for Nazi crimes or Jews for those of the Bolsheviks, but rather "the godless with their godless ideologies."

That sounds better, even though his remarks still are absolutely inappropriate.

[Stultis]

Good points, and granted, but it's not a matter of "blood". I've got plenty of German blood, as might be guessed from my residence in Texas, and would be clenched by my last name. It's a matter of national pathology.

[Hacksaw]

These people are messed up and unrepentant - the Hun is eitherr at your throat or at your boot, Churchill was right.

Kind of like Arabs, right?