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Jewish World Review Sept. 6 , 2000 / 5 Elul, 5760
Europe Must Confront
New/Old Hatreds
http://www.jewishworldreview.com --
UZES, France
There's a dark new cloud of ethnic hatred
hanging over Europe, and it's growing
larger and more violent every day.
In Slovakia, three skinheads recently beat to
death the Gypsy mother of eight. In Germany,
three young neo-Nazis attacked and murdered the African
husband of a German woman and then celebrated by singing the
old SS "Horst Wessel song."
Elsewhere in Germany, anonymous bigots tried to bomb a group
of Russian-Jewish immigrants. In France, Holland, Italy all
across Western and Central Europe, there is a disturbing new
wave of hate crimes.
Most frightening of all, the swing to bigotry and hatred is reflected
in political power structures. Austria has all but managed to
ostracize itself from Euro-democracy by bringing the far-right
Freedom Party of Joerg Haider into the ruling coalition. And while
France's National Front has been racked by internal bickering,
Jean-Marie Le Pen's anti-immigrant party still commands major
support throughout the country.
What is behind this new/old European intolerance, and what, if
anything, can be done about it?
In some ways, it is classic hatred born of ignorance and fear.
Not surprisingly, the former Communist East Germany, where
economic conditions lag way behind the richer West, is a
neo-Nazi hotbed. Jobless and jealous of their neighbors' progress,
young people have transformed frustration into hatred of "the
others," be they Gypsies, immigrants from Turkey, the Balkans
and Africa, or Jews, Europe's all-time favorite scapegoat.
It's true even when wealthier countries such as France are hit by
economic setbacks. In his forthcoming book on French food,
culture and politics, "A Goose in Toulouse," veteran American
journalist Mort Rosenblum says: "As crime rates rose and
employment dropped, people blamed Arab immigrants and voted
the far right." Even now, with France enjoying renewed prosperity,
"the sentiment is still there," says Rosenblum.
The usual and sometimes unusual suspects are quick to cash
in politically. Austria's Haider is a longtime enemy of immigrants
and an apologist for the Nazi past. But Germany's latest converts
include people like Horst Mahler, a Berlin lawyer who was a
1960s leader of the left-wing terrorist Red Army Faction and who
has now joined a neo-Nazi party the German government wants to
ban.
How to crack down on hatred is one of Europe's biggest
quandaries. Countries like Germany and France have banned Nazi
and hate propaganda since the end of World War II.
But some argue that this is both anti-democratic and self-defeating
because it makes the forbidden seem enticing. Besides, they argue,
if people can't get hate material in their own country, they'll find it
elsewhere, especially the Internet. Indeed, two of Germany's
biggest suppliers of Nazi propaganda are in Toronto and the
American Midwest.
Still, I am convinced that Europeans and Germans in particular
have a special duty to make every effort to stop hatred and
racist violence. Just last week, a German court handed out harsh
sentences to the three skinheads who murdered the African
immigrant. Good!
Much more is necessary. Improve education, provide more jobs
but crush bigots and racists every time they crawl out from
under a stone. Neo-Nazism must be
By Richard Z. Chesnoff
JWR contributor and veteran journalist
Richard Z. Chesnoff is a senior correspondent at US News
And World Report and a columnist at the NY Daily News. His latest book is Pack of Thieves: How Hitler & Europe
Plundered the Jews and Committed the Greatest Theft in History.
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