The New Antisemite

Friday, June 29, 2018

Germany: Himmler's daughter Gudrun has died (obituary)

Gudrun with her parents, Margarete and Heinrich Himmler

Gudrun Burwitz, who has died aged 88, was known in her youth as Gudrun Himmler and was the only legitimate child of the SS Reichsfuhrer, Heinrich Himmler, the sinister chief architect of the Holocaust.

She was 16 when the war ended and her father cheated the hangman by crushing a cyanide pill between his teeth after being captured by British forces. She was by no means alone among “Nazikinder” in having to bear the consequences of crimes she did not commit, but unlike the sons of Hitler’s number two, Martin Bormann, and “Dr Death” Aribert Heim, who grew up to express horror at their parents’ crimes, Gudrun remained loyal to her father’s memory and spent her life supporting Stille Hilfe (“Silent Help”), a “charitable” organisation which aids former Nazis. (…)

Gudrun Burwitz had been politically active since soon after the end of the war, joining Stille Hilfe and supporting the founding of the “Wiking-Jugend”, an underground Neo-Nazi organisation modelled on the Hitlerjugend, in 1952.

In 1955, with Adolf von Ribbentrop, the son of the former Nazi Foreign Minister, she travelled to London at the invitation of Sir Oswald Mosley and addressed a meeting of his Union Movement party, telling her audience that her father was a great man who had been misunderstood and whose good name had been destroyed by the Jews.

Stille Hilfe operated covertly from 1946, initially aiding the escape of Nazi fugitives over Allied lines, particularly to South America. From 1951, when it went from being covert to overt, registering with the German authorities so that it could raise funds to help “prisoners of war and interned persons”, Gudrun became increasingly active in the organisation. Stille Hilfe is known to have aided some of the Third Reich’s most prominent officers, including the Gestapo chief Klaus Barbie, the “Butcher Of Lyon”; Martin Sommer, the “Hangman From Buchenwald”; and Artur Axmann, head of the Hitler Youth.

As a central figure in the organisation Gudrun Burwitz arranged a comfortable retirement for Anton Malloth, or “Beautiful Tony” as he had been known in the Theresienstadt concentration camp in Czechosolvakia where, after beating Jews to death, he was known to comb his dishevelled hair back with his swastika badge.

In 1948 Malloth had been sentenced to death in his absence by a Czech court, but Gudrun Burwitz later used Stille Hilfe funds to rent him a comfortable room in a old people’s home in Munich. In 2001, when he was finally prosecuted in Germany, she continued to visit him twice a month until his death from cancer in 2002. He is said to have bequeathed her all his personal possessions. Another beneficiary of her largesse was Martin Sandberger, the leader of an elite SS squad responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Jews, communists and Gypsies in the occupied Baltic states of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, and whom she cared for in a retirement home in Stuttgart until his death in 2010.

Belgium: "Nude Belgian Model in Israel” story worse than you think

Background:
Belgian model chooses only to offend Jews, not Muslims, at nude photo shoot facing Western Wall

Via Israelly Cool:

You probably already read about Marisa Papen, the Belgian model who posed naked for a photograph overlooking the Western Wall. Tellingly, the photo does not include the Dome of the Rock and the Temple Mount – although she claims it has nothing to do with being worried about the potential repercussions.(…)

In any event, it turns out this enterprise is even more offensive than first thought. Israellycool reader David contacted Frank Rose, the agent behind the photo shoot, who sent him the portfolio of Papen’s photos from Israel, including some descriptions. For a start, the Western Wall photo is not the only photo mocking Judaism. There is also this one: (…)

Again, not a chance these “trailblazers” would dare take a photo of a naked man reading from the Quran.

Thursday, June 28, 2018

Portuguese UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ ill-advised tweet

Update: UN Secretary-General António Guterres takes down ‘Kite’ tweet

Via Israelly Cool:

Maybe it is just me, but this tweet from UN Secretary-General António Guterres does not represent his finest moment.

Out of all the photos he could have chosen, he goes with one with kites in the background? Yup, #DignityIsPriceless. [Gazans send fire-starting kites into Israel]

Wednesday, June 27, 2018

France: Imam who heads an interfaith group foresees Israel’s demise in sermon

Via JTA:

A French-Jewish group called for legal action against a senior Muslim cleric in Toulouse who in a sermon recited anti-Semitic religious passages and predicted Israel’s destruction.

On Wednesday, the France chapter of the B’nai B’rith group condemned on Twitter the statements that Mohamed Tatai, the imam of the newly inaugurated Grand Mosque of Toulouse and the leader of an interfaith dialogue group, delivered on Dec. 15.

Tatai recited a Muslim text, called a Hadith, stating that on Judgment Day, the Muslims will kill the Jews.

The Prophet Mohammed “told us about the final and decisive battle: ‘Judgement Day will not come until the Muslims fight the Jews. The Jews will hide behind the stones and the trees, and the stones and the trees will say: Oh Muslim, oh servant of Allah, there is a Jew hiding behind me, come and kill him – except for the Gharqad tree, which is one of the trees of the Jews,'” he said.

Belgium: Model chooses only to offend Jews, not Muslims, at nude photo shoot facing Western Wall

Via Elder of Ziyon:

Marisa Papen is an artist whose entire idea of art is to take off her clothes and get photographed around the world. When she visited Israel, however, she decided to push the envelope - and to pose nude in front of the Western Wall. She pre-emptively insulted anyone who would dare to be upset:

The Wall of Shame

First of all, ‘don’t judge a book by its title’…

This purely implies the shame you, dear reader, (perhaps) will project on me because I have done something so disrespectful, I should burn in hell. I know my mailbox is about to fill up with threats and angriness again - to all the people typing down their furiosity right now, save your energy. I don’t even open them. After my escapades in Egypt, I knew that I wanted to push the bounderies of regilion and politics even further. Breaking down the walls that have been build to keep all our wandering souls on this planet somehow under control.

With other words, showing my personal religion in a world where freedom is becoming a very luxurious thing.
(…) Notice, however, that the photo was carefully composed so as to only show the Western Wall, not the Dome of the Rock (which would be to the left) or the Al Aqsa Mosque (cropped out of the right.) Papen and her photographer [Mathias Lambrecht] are careful to only insult Jews. Because they know that if the photo would be a little more expansive and include Muslim holy places, then she wouldn't only get angry emails that she can casually dismiss, but actual death threats.

read more

Via Times of Israel: The picture, along with others from the visit to Israel, are on display in the Frank Rose Gallery in Knokke, Belgium, in an exhibit titled “Road to Liberation.”

Tuesday, June 26, 2018

UK: Muslim-British man blames marijuana for his airplane rant against Jews

Via JTA:

A Muslim-British businessman was sentenced to 100 hours of community service for an anti-Semitic rant on an airplane last year that he blamed on smoking cannabis during Ramadan.

Shamraize Bashir, 34, of Bradford, in northern England, slurred Jews in June 2017 while standing with friends in the back of an EasyJet flight from Tel Aviv to the United Kingdom. He was also sentenced Monday to receive treatment for his cannabis use, the British newspaper the Daily Mail reported Monday.

“You know the really fat Jewish women yeah? Their job is to let their husbands f*** them and make babies for them,” Bashir had said loudly on the flight. He continued to swear after being asked to stop his rant.

Germany: Less than half of Germans think Jews don't have too much influence in the world

Percentage who didn't answer the question added in brackets.

Via Marcel Dirsus @ Twitter

Anti-semitism in Germany:

Percentage of people who believe that Jews have too much influence in the world
AfD supporters: 55%     [22%]
Linke supporters: 20%   [30%]
Green supporters: 17%   [47%]
FDP supporters: 19%     [35%]
SPD supporters: 16%     [37%]
CDU/CSU supporters: 19%   [41%]

(Source: Allensbach/FAZ)

Poland: Priest Accused of anti-Semitism Behind New Holocaust Museum

Via Haaretz:

A new museum in Poland will exhibit over 40,000 accounts of Polish Christians who saved Jews during the Holocaust.

The Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage will donate $22 million to the Saint John Paul II Memory and Identity Museum. Its goal is to present the over 1,000-year history of Christian Poland with particular emphasis on the teachings of Pope John Paul II and its impact on the fate of Poland, Europe and the world.

The museum, located in Toru, will be run by the Lux Veritatis Foundation associated with the controversial Roman Catholic priest Tadeusz Rydzyk, who for years ran a radio station that espoused anti-Semitic views.

Part of the exposition will feature the accounts by witnesses on the rescue of Jews by Poles during World War II. Rydzyk and the Lux Veritatis Foundation have collected the accounts since 1995.

Holland: Muslim city counselor tweeted "Oh Allah, destroy the Zionists"

Via Bad News from the Netherlands blog:

Arnoud van Doorn, a Muslim member of the Municipal Council in the Hague tweeted that he read an interesting article about whether the 'good people' won the second World War or were the Nazis the protectors of the European civilization against American Zionism and the communism of Stalin. He added that there is perhaps a distortion of history here.

A month ago he tweeted "Oh Allah, destroy the Zionists."

Spain: Moroccan migrant held over alleged anti-Semitism

Via Jewish News:

Spanish authorities arrested an illegal immigrant from Morocco allegedly for inciting on social media hatred against Jews.

The 32-year-old man disseminated hate speech “against the Jewish community [of Spain] and generally” on Facebook and YouTube before his arrest earlier this month in the Canary Islands, ABC Canary Islands reported Saturday based on information given by a source in the national police.

The report did not name the suspect, but it did say he that the content he shared had “considerable reach” on Facebook. He had been under investigation since 2017.

Arrests over hate speech are rare in Spain.

Sweden sentences 3 to prison for synagogue arson attack

Via Ynet News:

A Swedish court has found three men guilty of attempted arson against the Jewish synagogue in Sweden's second-largest city of Gothenburg last year, causing minor damage.

Two men got two years in jail and the third was sentenced to 15 months.

The Gothenburg District Court says Monday the case involved two Palestinians and a Syrian.

The 22-year-old Palestinian had his asylum application turned down following the December 9 attack and will be deported after serving his sentence. The others, aged 19 and 24, have Swedish residency permits.

UK: FA condemns Nazi-saluting England fans filmed singing anti-Semitic songs

Via Jewish News:

The Football Association has strongly condemned the actions of a small group of apparent England fans after they were filmed singing anti-Semitic songs.

The video, which was reportedly filmed in Volgograd – the venue of England’s 2-1 World Cup win over Tunisia on Monday – was published by The Sun on Wednesday.

Footage appears to show at least two men taunting Tottenham over their Jewish heritage while performing Nazi salutes.

A Frightening Look at the Rise of Anti-Semitism in France

Via Daily Beast:

For the Durans, a lack of security has compelled them to abandon the French flat they’ve called their own for the past decade in order to relocate to Israel. It’s a move that none of them are happy to undertake, in large part because they all admit they feel more connected to France (their native land) than to their destination. Yet thanks to horror stories such as one told by their oldest son—in which a friend was being beaten by attackers, and a passerby, upon hearing that the assaulted kid was Jewish, told the thugs, “Well carry on, that’s fine”—they now feel as if their backs are up against a wall.

Germany: Ruhrtriennale festival reinvites BDS-supporters "Young Fathers" because they want to allow "different perspectives and narratives"

The British band "Young Fathers" was disinvited from the Ruhrtriennale festival after refusing to distance themselves from the "boycott, divestment and sanctions" movement, or BDS. Now they've been reinvited, because the festival needs "to allow the different perspectives and narratives, because this openness is the dramaturgic credo of our programme."

The Ruhrtriennale festival's Artistic Director Stefanie Carp wrote as follows (via okayafrica):

Bochum, 21 June 2018 - The programme of the Ruhrtriennale is directed against racism, anti-Semitism and exclusion in every form and tells complex narratives. I consider it important to open up perspectives other than our Western ones, and thus to take the context of our international programme seriously. I do not wish to be part of a campaign, let alone hostage to a campaign.

The programme of the Ruhrtriennale and the artists of this programme are currently under pressure from two campaigns. One says: artists who support organisations that oppose the current policy of the government of the Israeli state and support the rights of the Palestinians are automatically anti-Semitic. The second campaign is the BDS campaign, which says that artists who do not boycott the current government of the State of Israel are automatically suspected of being racist or opponents of the Palestinians. I do not share any of the superficial, simplifying positions of these two campaigns. I wish to be able to invite a band such as the Young Fathers for their music and their lyrics although I personally completely reject the boycott strategy of the BDS. As a German, it is, of course, difficult for me to be linked to a movement that boycotts Israel, but I have invited the Young Fathers and not the BDS. In many interviews, the Young Fathers have made it credible that they reject anti-Semitism in any form. Following the impression of many discussions and reflections over the last few days, I would like to correct my approach: I wish to invite the Young Fathers again to the concert in Bochum on 18 August 2018 although I do not share their attitude to the BDS. I believe that we need to allow the different perspectives and narratives, because this openness is the dramaturgic credo of our programme. I therefore have to defend the freedom of the arts, and do not, under any circumstances, even indirectly, wish to exercise censorship.

I again wish to stress that, in my view, criticism of the current policy of the government of the State of Israel is not automatically anti-Semitic. None of the artists at this year's programme of the Ruhrtriennale are anti-Semitic or racist. I personally reject boycott in connection with Israel, but also in other contexts, and especially in the field of art. Artists do not represent nations or ideological discourses.

I do not, however, want artists to be censored, lectured or excluded for their attitudes. Every artist is free to take up a position as long as this position is not anti-Semitic, racist or exclusionary. I wish to initiate a public event on the topic of boycott, freedom of the arts and the differences of perspectives, the place, time and implementation of which we will announce. Perhaps such an event could be held in the context of the concert, and the band could preferably represent its own position there.

Europe: Time to leave? The question that Jews must ponder

Via Commentary Magazine (Melanie Phillips):

[…] The same people who claim to see anti-Semitism in European populism or the political base of Donald Trump regularly accuse Jews of claiming anti-Semitism just to “sanitize the crimes of Israel” or “bring down Jeremy Corbyn.”

This reaction is worse, far worse, than the anti-Semitism itself. It’s worse even than indifference. For it imputes to the Jews malicious intent in claiming that Jewish people are being maliciously targeted. It says they are lying. It blames the Jews for their own victimization.

This reaction is the inescapable evidence that the Jews are being abandoned. Those of us who have loved Britain for its gentleness, its tolerance, its decency, its stoicism, its reasonableness, and the dampness of both its weather and national temperament feel as if we have been orphaned. But maybe we were living all along in a fool’s paradise.

Some people think Europe is over, that the demographics are against it and that it will become a majority-Muslim culture in a few decades. My guess is that Europe won’t go down without a fight. If that happens, the Jews are likely to get it in the neck from all sides. Whichever way it goes, it’s not a pleasant prospect.

So is it time to leave? It’s very personal, and I wouldn’t presume to advise anyone what to do. I can only speak for myself and say that for some years now, I’ve been spending a great deal of my time in Israel. Because even with 150,000 Hezbollah rockets pointing at us from Lebanon, even with Hamas trying every day to murder us, and even with Iran working toward its genocide bomb to wipe us out, Israel is where I feel so much safer and the air is so much sweeter, and it’s where Jews are not on their knees and where no one will ever make me feel I am not entitled to live and don’t properly belong.

Israel is where we have astonishingly renewed ourselves as a nation out of the ashes of the Shoah. Israel is where all those who want us gone meet their nemesis in the political realization of the eternal people. Israel is the ultimate, and ultimately the only, definitive and triumphant repudiation of anti-Semitism and the true vindication of the millions of us who perished in the unspeakable events that we memorialize on Holocaust Memorial Day.

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