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| photo: historiek.net |
The De Limburger newspaper decided to headline its paper last Thursday with an editorial comparing the Holocaust to the recent immigrant shipwreck. The article, written by editor Frans Stoks, was titled "Toen treinen, nu schepen" (then trains, now ships). It was accompanied by two photos: one, an iconic photo of Settela Steinbach, a Dutch Romani girl who was gassed to death in Auschwitz. The other was of a little girl who recently died when she tried crossing the Mediterranean.
The sub-heading said as follows: Europe leaders are talking today about the flow of refugees. Editor Frans Stoks draws a parallel between an iconic photo from WWII and the photo of a young refugee in the Mediterranean Sea.
The article caused a storm of replies and De Limburger published some of them.
Chief Editor Huub Paulissen says they were not comparing the two (apparently 'parallel' doesn't mean what we think it means), but rather focusing on the response of a civilized society, since most Dutch do not want the Dutch navy to go help immigrants who get into trouble trying to cross the Mediterranean into Europe. They hope this op-ed will cause a change in this attitude.
Following the tragedy last week, European officials described it as a genocide, massacres and 'never again'.
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