Don Krausz, Johannesburg
David Saks reports that according to a December 2018 survey, the European Union’s Fundamental Rights Union found that 89% of Jews living in countries that had been under Nazi occupation felt that anti-Semitism had increased in their country over the past decade. This isn’t surprising.
Anti-Semitism in the countries listed predated the entry of the Germans, and was exacerbated by virulent Nazi propaganda. I had access to one of the foremost Nazi newspapers, the Volkischer Beobachter, even in the camps, and found its anti-Semitic articles very convincing.
My father came from Hungary, his mother was fanatically frum (observant), and her father was a rabbi. Because the Hungarians were allies of the Germans, Hungarian Jews weren’t obliged to wear the yellow star until the German occupation. My father was blond and blue-eyed, spoke fluent German and, unlike us, had access to cinemas. He reported that after viewing Nazi anti-Semitic films, he would have become an anti-Semite himself had he not been Jewish. You can imagine the effect on non-Jews. There is something called “dislike of the unlike”.
These days, there are large Muslim communities throughout the world, and they are notorious for their hatred of Jews. Muslim countries have fought many wars against Israel, and lost each one. Their wars of propaganda have been ceaseless, as have their terrorist attacks. They have been cunning enough to picture themselves and their families as victims each time they suffered a defeat of their own aggression. The world has fallen for this falsehood, duly prepared by its own latent anti-Semitism. Of course Jews would shoot and bomb innocent women and children!
