Nazi death march museum firebombed in Germany - Poll Suggests Anti-Semitisim Rising in Germany

HA'ARETZ ^ | September 6, 2002 | AP

[WindyCityDave]

Friday, September 06, 2002 Elul 29, 5762 Israel Time:  17:55  (GMT+3)

Nazi death march museum firebombed in Germany

BERLIN - German authorities have posted a 10,000 euro reward for clues leading to an arrest in the worst anti-Semitic attack on a Holocaust memorial in a decade, the fireboming of a museum honoring the victims of a Nazi death march.

The attack Thursday night destroyed the main exhibition of the death march museum in the Belower Woods, which detailed how the Nazis drove concentration camp inmates deeper into Germany as the Soviet Army advanced at the end of World War II.

Outside the museum, vandals painted a big red swastika and two SS symbols on a memorial, and an anti-Semitic slogan one meter high and six meters long along the base of a large memorial column.

More than 45,000 prisoners were forced to march from Ravensbrueck and Sachsenhausen, both in Brandenburg state, were gathered in the Belower Woods near Wittstock, 100 kilometers )65 miles( northwest of Berlin, where 700-800 died of exhaustion and hunger within a few days.

The area had not seen such a serious attack on a Holocaust site since 1992, when neo-Nazis burned the rebuilt prisoner barracks inside the Sachsenhausen concentration camp outside Berlin.

The attack came as a new study by researchers at Berlin's Free University and the University of Leipzig showed anti-Semitism is increasing in Germany, with more than a quarter of respondents telling researchers they believe Jewish influence is too great.

According to the survey, which polled 1,001 people in east Germany and 1,050 in the west in April, some 28 percent overall believe that Jewish influence is too great, while 32 percent said they partially agreed.

Researchers found that higher numbers of people in the former West Germany had such feelings.

In 1994, 7 percent of eastern respondents agreed with the statement, compared to 14 percent today. In the west, 17 percent said Jewish influence was too great in 1994 compared to 31 percent today.

The survey, which had a margin of error of less than 2 percent, also found a rise in acceptance of the Nazi era, with 17 percent agreeing that "without the extermination of the Jews, Hitler today would be seen as a great statesman."

[WindyCityDave]

Is Nazisim returning. Is this a warning sign of things to come? Any thoughts?

[Always Right]

The desire to appease evil is on the rise on the entire continent of Europe. This is really nothing new, whenever evil rises in Europe, Europeans appease and don't act until it comes knocking on their door. So what if the Arabs desire to push Isreal into the sea. Europeans are being their usual wimpy self. The only European leader showing any leadership and guts is Tony Blair.

[Montfort]

No, most of them appease until evil has already broken down their door. Then they collaborate.

[WindyCityDave]

As your name suggests, you are right. The Europeans need to "get over" not being the leader of the world. The French are hoping for the return of Napoleon, some German want Hitler back, and the rest of the EU wishes it were they were US. "The World Does Not Pity The Slaughtered. It Only Repsects Those Who Fight For Better Or Worse" Menachem Begin.

[sheik yerbouty]

I suspect it was done by the Muslim Arabs living in Germany.

[thinktwice]

My guess is that newer generations of Germans -- those without guilt -- don't appreciate in-their-face "reminders."

Meanwhile, those that think in terms of collective guilt -- Original sin, for instance -- use memorials to serve that purpose.

[js1138]

Nonsense. Europeans are just more sophisticated than us Yanks.

[webboss]

This does not surprise me now....however it would have about 2 years ago because I was ignorant to the fact then that there were/are people (non-Jews) who actually believe the holocaust DIDN'T HAPPEN! They call it the "Holahoax" or "Holohoax". The actual number of Jews who died at the hands of the Germans is somewhat debatable but the holocaust event as a whole IS NOT debatable in my opinion. It was HORRIBLE! Something like that could not be make believe.

 

Anyway, as far as the article is concerned....Anti-Semitism is growing and things like this are going to become more prevalent. Maybe the vandals are ones who don't believe the holocaust happened OR maybe some sort of Muslim/Arab thing.....OR just plain and simple Jew haters.

[dfwgator]

I don't think anti-Semitism is growing, it has always been there, it's just that now people are less afraid to show it.

[Destro]

Maybe the Holocaust museum should have been built in Berlin and not in Washington, D.C.?

I never understood why the holocaust museum was built in Washington, D.C. when the evil event took place in German occupied Europe.

[vance]

So you are saying that the perps had right to do this because the museum was "in their face" due to the "collective guilt" the museum imposes?

Sorry but many Germans participated in the murder of Jews, or did not speak up against it. That's just a fact. I believe this was done by skinheads or Muslims.

[vance]

The US led the charge against the Nazis, and as the only superpower and keeper of freedom and justice all over the world, and the world's moral leader, it is right that the US house a Holocaust Museum in DC.

[republicman]

Liberalism--The scapegoating of successful others for ones failures is on the rise, so quite naturally antisemitism follows.

[grimalkin]

Is Nazisim returning. Is this a warning sign of things to come? Any thoughts?

When people believe in nothing they can be swayed by anything.

[Destro]

Your answer may sound good, but that I doubt that is a reason to build a musuem of this nature in a nation that had not had the holocaust as its historical reality. The musuem should be demolished brick by brick and rebuilt in downtown Berlin.