|
In Europe, hate is on the march. In the UK, France, Norway, Sweden, Germany, Austria,
Spain, Greece, Hungary, Poland, Ukraine, Russia and beyond, the resurgence of extremist movements is a common theme with variations throughout Europe.
The Simon Wiesenthal Center’s newest report, European Extremist Movements: Who’s Who And What’s What, written by SWC historical consultant Dr. Harold Brackman, takes an in depth look at what is happening, country by country, in Europe today.
• In Greece, the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn movement, whose leaders proudly unleash the Nazi salute and whose charter limits membership to “only Aryans in blood and
Greeks in descent” won enough votes to enter Parliament
• In France, where the Jewish community is still reeling from the brutal murders in Toulouse, unidentified assailants seriously injured three Jews in Villeurbaine near Lyon
• In Norway, a 16 year-old teenager, stigmatized because his father is Israeli, was “fire branded” when a red-hot coin was placed on his neck by a fellow student
• In Germany, iconic German author Günter Grass, scapegoats Israel for all the world’s ills, and the Berlin Biennale Art Show featured a short film showing a group of smiling, naked people playing a game of tag in a Nazi gas chamber
While the European right’s ongoing anti-Semitism comes as no surprise, the descent into Jew-baiting, as well as Israel-baiting, by many on the European left has been particularly shocking.
|
