Posted on 11/12/2003 9:45:49 AM PST by yonif
What's your suggestion, then? Jews normally keep to the motto "Never Forget". History has taught them a very painful lesson: every time they forget, bang, they get killed. Practicing "Never Forget" requires many things, one of which is recognizing and reacting to anti-semitism with zeal. Apparently, you feel that zeal is "getting on your nerves". Well, come up with another solution, or ignore the damn threads. If you are of the mind that it's time for Jews to "Move On", then you are basically telling Jews to forget. That ain't gonna happen.
Jews are being targeted. Suicide bombers intentionally kill themselves just to kill as many Jews as they possibly can. The WTC was hit twice because the muslims believe Jews control finances and trade. When you look at the Aztlan propaganda, it not only consists of anti-America hatred but strangely enough a lot of anti-Jewish hate material.
IMO, arguing the semantics is usually designed as a distraction.
The fact of the matter is that the accomplishments of a small number of dedicated Jewhaters will be limited only by the number of those willing to avert their gaze. That number is growing in Europe. Assigning a name for them is irrelevant.
BTW, imo you could rewrite the article and most of this thread replacing antisemitic with anti-American, and be right on target.
Yeah, and some people are really stupid.
So what's your solution? Pretend it doesn't exist? If The Protocols is being read now as fact, if at "peace" marches signs read "death to Israel", if temples and Jewish cemetaries are being vandalized at an alarming rate, what are Jews and good-hearted Christians who care supposed to do? Play hear no evil see no evil?
65 years and a few days after Kristallnacht, it appears antisemitism might just be caused by Jewish whining. Nice story from a couple days ago I didn't bother to post as a thread.
Night of Terror: Jacobson Survived Long-Ago Nazi Atrocities
BY STEVE CRAIN: Special to The Pilot
Ralph Jacobson of Pinehurst was 10 years old and living in Germany when Nazis ravaged his neighborhood synagogue on “The Night of Crystal,” or “Kristallnacht,” Nov. 9, 1938.
“The first five years of my life were normal and perfect,” says Jacobson, who was born in Onasbrueck, Germany, on Jan.15, 1928. “We had Christian friends and Jewish friends. But Hitler ran for chancellor in 1932 and won in 1933.”
Ralph Jacobson, 75, a retired lawyer, graduated cum laude from New York University Law School in 1953 before serving two years in the U.S. Army. He spent 32 years with Sears, Roebuck and Co., retiring in 1990 as that corporation’s senior attorney. He and his wife Vivian, who have two sons and two grandchildren, lived in Chicago before moving to Pinehurst in 1990.
“Before Hitler’s election, huge trucks drove through neighborhoods, blaring messages of anti-Semitism,” Jacobson says. “They carried large signs condemning Jews and Bolsheviks (communist Russians). This was my first indication that something bad was going to happen.”
In June 1933, Jacobson’s father, Dr. Ernst Jacobson, a “notar” (recognition as a “notar” indicated the highest ranking a lawyer could hold in Germany), received notice that he could no longer practice law as a notar.
“My father was considered the best lawyer in Onasbrueck and had an office with several Christian associates,” Jacobson says.
Jacobson’s father, who was allowed to continue practicing law without the “notar” distinction, then received notice that he could not practice with his associates.
“Two uniformed SS troopers stood in front of his office to discourage clients,” Jacobson says. “My father, however, continued representing Jewish people, but his court appearances were greatly limited.”
Up until 1933, Jacobson’s best friend was Wolfgang Kreft, a Christian whose father was also a notar.
“As a young lawyer, Wolfgang’s father had gotten a start in my father’s office,” Jacobson says. “He was a few months older than I, and we were the best of friends until Hitler was elected. Then we were told that we couldn’t play or talk together. We were heartbroken.”
Barred from attending public school, Jacobson, in 1933, started school in a one-room Jewish classroom next door to Osnabrueck’s synagogue. Dr. Trepp, the only teacher, instructed kindergarteners through eighth-graders.
“There could be 30 to 40 of us in that classroom,” Jacobson says. “The number varied, because people who could leave Germany did so.”
During Jacobson’s first week of school, Dr. Trepp showed the 5- and 6-year-olds a painting of the sun shining on a lovely farm and asked, “What time is it in this picture?”
Five-year-old Jacobson answered, “A better time.”
Times Worsen
Children sometimes chased Jacobson and Elsa, his sister (4½ years older than he), and called them names, as the two walked 1½ miles to school.
Peter von Pels, a classmate who was two years older than Jacobson, and his family left Germany around 1936, hoping to gain safety in Amsterdam, Holland.
“Peter’s father went into business with Otto Frank,” Jacobson says. “After Germany invaded Holland, the Frank family, the von Pels family and two other people hid above the former Frank-von Pels business quarters (they sold herbs and fruit) and lived there several years until the police received a tip. All died or were executed in concentration camps, except Otto Frank, who returned to Amsterdam. The secretary for his lost business had found his deceased daughter’s diary, which became the book ‘The Diary of Anne Frank.’”
Jacobson points to a 1931 photograph he owns. The photo includes images of three children: Peter von Pels, Jacobson and his sister. Jacobson presented a copy of the photograph to Amsterdam’s “Anne Frank House.”
“In 1936, ‘No Jews Allowed’ signs began appearing on public buildings,” Jacobson says. “Private stores — such as grocery and clothing stores — and soccer stadiums, movie theaters, and swimming pools, began putting up the same signs. Some stores continued doing business with Jews.”
About 75,000 people lived in Osnabrueck in the 1930s. About 400 people, including children, made up the city’s Jewish community. Many Jewish residents owned businesses.
“The government began putting up signs identifying stores owned by Jews,” Jacobson says. “The signs warned people not to shop there.”
By 1936-37, the German government had confiscated, with little or no compensation, most Jewish businesses.
“One day you’d have a Jewish owner — the next day, a Christian owner,” Jacobson says. “Many stores were destroyed. Police would come to a looting just to keep order among the looters, not to stop them.
“One night my father and mother, whose name was Margarete, were out. My sister and I heard a great noise, and we looked out a balcony window and saw hundreds of uniformed SS troops carrying large, lighted torches. They were marching maybe 12 to 15 abreast, singing an anti-Semitic song and coming toward our house. We thought they might set our house on fire. But they passed our house and gathered to hear a speech at a nearby soccer stadium. They sure scared us.”
Father Opposes Mayor
In 1937, Elsa turned 14 and graduated from the one-room school. A Catholic convent agreed to take her as a student.
“The nuns were wonderful to her, but the students were not,” Jacobson says. “She left the school after a few months. In late 1937, she went to New York City to live with Mother’s brother and his family.”
In 1938, Osnabrueck’s mayor, who also served as police chief, publicized his desire to acquire the town’s only synagogue. The synagogue stood next to a public building, which covered more than a city block. The mayor wanted to tear down the synagogue and construct an SS headquarters building.
“At that time, my father was the only practicing Jewish lawyer in the city,” Jacobson says. “He was a trustee, a director and an officer of the synagogue. He opposed the acquisition and felt threatened.”
On Saturday morning, Oct. 8, 1938, Jacobson attended the synagogue, but his father went to a garden he owned and locked himself inside. An 8-foot hedge with a gate surrounded the garden, located about a mile from the Jacobson home.
“At noon, I returned home,” Jacobson says. “Mother was preparing lunch. She received a call from the hospital and went there. She came home and said, ‘Father is dead.’ She didn’t say how he died. Later she said he had a heart attack. In the last 10 years — Vivian has been to Germany five times and I’ve been four times — we have done research and determined that my 54-year-old father was murdered, because he opposed the mayor.”
Synagogue Attacked
On Nov. 9, 1938, one month after Jacobson’s father died, “Kristallnacht” occurred. The event is called “The Night of Crystal” because of the breaking of windows and general destruction in all synagogues and 7,500 Jewish businesses in Germany.
Jacobson says that a young Jewish man killed a German diplomat in France on Nov. 9. The German government used that incident to justify destroying, either partially or totally, Jewish synagogues and businesses.
Jacobson and his mother were unaware of any destruction, but at 1 or 2 a.m., they heard a loud knock at their door. Five uniformed, brown-shirted Nazis stood outside.
“What do you want?” Jacobson’s mother asked.
“We have to search the whole premises,” one man said.
“What are you looking for?” she asked.
“We’re looking for Jewish men.”
“Why?”
“We’re not going to tell you.”
Two men watched Jacobson and his mother while three searched the Jacobson’s large, several-storied house. In 20 minutes, the searchers returned and declared that there were no Jewish men in the house.
One man pointed at Jacobson and asked, “How old is he?”
“He’s 10 years old,” Jacobson’s mother said.
“That’s too young,” one man said.
The men left.
Jacobson says he and his mother were puzzled. But the next morning, he walked to the home of a retired teacher who was helping him learn English to prepare him for school in the U.S.
“I knocked on her door,” Jacobson says, “and she started to yell at me, ‘Go away, go away, go away!’”
“But I have a lesson this morning,” Jacobson said.
She kept demanding that he leave, and he went to his school, which stood next to the synagogue.
“I saw the synagogue partially burned,” he says. “Its windows were all broken; prayer books, shawls and Torah scrolls were strewn on the ground outside and covered with water. The synagogue was not completely destroyed. They had set it on fire, but the fire department came and put out the fire, because the synagogue was next door to a major German government building, and they feared the fire would spread.”
Jacobson ran home, and his mother, who had by then heard of the destruction by phone and radio news, told him about Kristallnacht.
Surviving, Leaving
After Nov. 9, the Jacobsons, warned not to go out, stayed home. Some Christian friends shopped for them, secretly dropping items in the Jacobson’s backyard.
“That’s how we survived from Nov. 9 until Jan. 15, 1939,” Jacobson says. “My mother did visit Dr. Kreft, so that we could continue plans to leave Germany. Dr. Kreft, knowing how close the families had been, was extremely kind to my mother.”
When Jacobson’s father, under Nazi direction in 1933-34, had to release a legal assistant, he asked his friend, Dr. Kreft, to hire the assistant. In 1938, when Jacobson’s mother visited Dr. Kreft’s office, Kreft called her “honorable lady.” After Jacobson’s mother left the office, the legal assistant told Kreft, “If you call her that again, I’m going to report you to the Nazi Party, and you will perhaps be disbarred.”
Kreft told the assistant to do whatever he wanted and reminded him that he once assisted in the office of Jacobson’s father. Kreft reportedly said, “I treat Mrs. Jacobson the way I want to treat her; if you want to report me, go ahead.”
Jacobson says, “My mother would go each time, and Kreft would call her ‘honorable lady.’ But the assistant never reported Kreft. This is the type of danger that existed — not only to Jews but to Christians, as well.”
Jacobson and his mother prepared to travel to the U.S.
“There was a low quota of 10,000 to 12,000 Jews per year that could leave Germany to come to the U.S.,” Jacobson says. “You just had to wait your turn, and you had to be sponsored by somebody in the U.S. My mother had her brother in New York.”
The Jacobsons received word that they could leave Germany — but not until they had sold all properties: house, garden property, two real estate properties.
“Dr. Kreft, Wolfgang’s father, helped us sell our properties,” Jacobson says. “We were allowed to take very few possessions. Before leaving, we had to declare a ‘tax to flee the country.’ It was a short tax form — you listed assets; the tax was the same amount. You were allowed to leave with maybe 50 or 100 marks; you couldn’t transfer bank accounts or take stocks.”
The War
Jacobson’s childhood friend, Wolfgang (Dr. Kreft’s son) told Jacobson years later that before Jacobson left Germany, they passed each other on the street.
“I knew you were leaving Germany,” Wolfgang said. “I wanted to wave to you, to say goodbye, but I knew it was too dangerous. We couldn’t look at one another, so we passed each other and you were gone.”
On Jan. 15, 1939, Jacobson’s 11th birthday, he and his mother sailed directly from Hamburg to New York City on an American ship.
“We had relatives in Germany,” Jacobson says. “My grandmother, who was almost 90, lived with my father’s sister, who was over 65. There was no way we could do anything for them. Within two years, they went to concentration camps. My grandmother died at Theresienstadt, and my aunt went to Auschwitz and was killed there.”
Almost all of Jacobson’s other relatives were killed in similar fashion, he says.
“My mother had several brothers who did escape Germany,” he says. “My mother’s sister and her family died in Germany.”
After the war, the Jacobsons sent packages to the Kreft family and to the nuns at the school that Elsa had briefly attended.
“My mother remained in contact with Wolfgang’s mother until his mother died,” Jacobson says. “Wolfgang and I have been corresponding for many years. He became a prominent attorney and notar. We are the best of friends again.
“On my first visit back to Germany in 1996, Wolfgang and I stood on the spot he says was the place we passed each other before I left Germany. He told me that the war didn’t end for him until 1996, when he and I stood at that spot and shook hands.”
If a Pastor notes an uptick in anti-semitism, and is alarmed about it, and a poster here chooses to post an article it, you can always skip the thread, or post another article which you deem more interesting.
There are threads I skip every day..:))
I'll bump that!
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