DEE-DUH-DEE!!!
Posted on 09/19/2005 12:20:55 PM PDT by atomic conspiracy
Haaretz investigates French FM's faux pas at Yad Vashem
By Avirama Golan, Haaretz Correspondent
The French satirical magazine Le Canard Enchaine reported in its September 14th issue that during the visit of French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy to the new Holocaust museum in Jerusalem's Yad Vashem on September 8, he asked - while perusing maps of European sites where Jewish communities had been destroyed - whether British Jews were not also murdered. Needless to say, Douste-Blazy's question was met by his hosts with amazement. "But Monsieur le minister," Le Canard quoted the ensuing conversation, "England was never conquered by the Nazis during World War II."
The minister apparently was not content with this answer, which, according to the magazine, was given by the museum curator, and persisted, asking: "Yes, but were there no Jews who were deported from England?"
Douste-Blazy arrived in Israel earlier this month for a first visit, as the guest of his Israeli counterpart, Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom.
According to an investigation by Haaretz on Sunday, the event actually occurred as described, although no official source was willing to confirm it. Douste-Blazy did visit Yad Vashem on September 8, at 11 A.M. He was in fact escorted by the curator of the museum, his entourage from the French foreign ministry and several French reporters.
One of the escorts confirmed on Sunday, on condition of anonymity, that the quotes in Le Canard were accurate, and that they caused great embarrassment. "It's a bit difficult to understand," the source said, "how an educated French person, who was serving in the French government during the huge celebrations of the Normandy landings, does not remember basic facts about the history of World War II, and especially Britain's role, especially in light of the fact, that France's great leader, General de Gaulle, led the operations of the Resistance from exile in London."
The French embassy in Israel learned of the embarrassing incident from Le Canard.
Yad Vashem spokeswoman Iris Rosenberg said in response that the French foreign minister had visited the Holocaust memorial site at the said date and time, and that she hoped his visit was "successful and enriching."
Philippe Douste-Blazy is considered a successful and prominent politician in France. A cardiologist by training, he served until a year ago as health minister. His visit to Israel was noted as an additional positive step in the warming of relations between Israel and France.
It's really not fair to blame a Frenchman for being foolish, particularly on matters of military or martial history. That's like blaming a dog for crapping in the yard.
This might top Algore asking who the portraits of the US founding fathers were when at Monticello.
..................
He sounded disappointed....
DEE-DUH-DEE!!!
Leave it to the French...........I guess this Foreign Minister didn't obey his doctor's orders to lay off the cheap wine.
Just when one thinks one's opinion of the French government can't sink further...
"But Monsieur, the British were not conquered in WWII."
"You mean, that was an option?"
Well, there were the Jersey Islands that were under Nazi control during WWII. They belong to the UK. Of course, only a Frenchman would ask a question so historically retarded.
Dunno about that, but at least it's in the right weight class.
While they are about educating M. Douste-Blazy in the forgotten lore of the immediately previous generation, maybe they can find time to point out that the Warsaw Ghetto held the Wehrmacht off longer than the entire nation of France. Guess that would be undiplomatic, tho....
To be fair, maybe what he meant to ask was, were there no British Jews who ended up (because they were on the continent) in the camps.
OTOH, since he's French. . .
It's a legitimate question.
Remember, the USA turned back an ocean-liner full of Jews into the maw of the Germans.
Did the British permit Jewish refugees in the 1930s, before the war started, or did the British deport them as illegals during the appeasement period?
I do not know the answer to the question, but it is a legitimate question. And the answer may be painful.
Did I mention I hate the French?
-ccm
Did I mention I hate the French?
-ccm
Besides, it's apparent that he meant British Jews not Jews that may have been deported or refused entry into Britain.
I DO know that the British firstly, allowed Jews into her colonies, then limited the number they were allowing in, and then refused entry to Jews. My granparents (both sides) emigrated to South Africa in the early 1920's. Subsequently, Jews were refused entry.
Thezse would be European Jews, though. Not South African Jews.
What is the question again?
M. Dousty-Blazy seemed not to know whether Jews were deported from England to Nazi death camps during the war, since this is the obvious context of his question.
I don't know how many Jewish refugees, if any, were turned away from England before the war, but many were definitely admitted, my mother and the parents of TV newsman Ted Koppel being among them.
Nobody anywhere did enough before the war, but that is not equivalent to Eichmann's deportations.
To be fair, the idea of the Germans perpetrating a mass extermination was almost unthinkable in the democracies before the war. A few voices were raised in warning, but they were dismissed as paranoid ravings.
The western leaders could well have behaved differently if they had inkling of the events to come.
Among European Jews themselves, there was a considerable difference of opinion over the ultimate intentions of the Nazis. To the best of my knowledge, relatively few expected or feared genocide until it was far too late. Even in 1945, the revelation of the Holocaust was an enormous shock to many in the allied countries.
French Jews were deported to death camps with the complicity of some French officials. Other French people, of course, hid Jews, inducted them into convents, etc.
Britain was spared occupation in most of its territories, although I understand that the small number of Jews on the Channel Islands were deported, I do not know if the British residents were complicit.
I am afraid I cannot make the distinction between turning back fleeing Jews and deporting one's own citizens. When people plead for your help, have gotten to your shores, and you send them back to their deaths for political reasons, you have deported Jews. I am disinclined to forgive it or to let it go as somehow less morally odious.
That one innocent person happens to have been born in the territory, and another who has reached your territory seeking to preserve his or his family's lives, and you send the latter to his death as opposed to protecting him does not make you different, in my eyes, from the officials who put Jews on trains in Lyon and shipped them to Germany.
It is all disgraceful.
The Foreign Minister may be ignorant, he may simply have a different worldview. The article notes his comment as while perusing maps of European sites where Jewish communities had been destroyed - whether British Jews were not also murdered….Yes, but were there no Jews who were deported from England? Later notes that France's great leader, General de Gaulle, led the operations of the Resistance from exile in London. However France was led from Vichy as well. French Jews were rounded up and deported by the Vichy government. He might well be aware of than aspect of French policy, and presumed England may have done the same thing.
It's a bizarre question.
I believe, if I'm not mistaken, that a small number of Jews lived on the conquered Channel Islands, and they were in fact deported to concentration camps.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.