M. GERSTENFELD: There is more interest in the suffering of those who died than in the aggressionagainst those who are alive
Dead Jews and living trees
By M. GERSTENFELD
http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Op-EdContributors/Article.aspx?id=186383
There is more interest in the suffering of those who died than in the aggression
against those who are alive.
Talkbacks (1)
On August 23 an event of apparent worldwide importance occurred in Amsterdam:
The chestnut tree Anne Frank had seen from her hiding place fell during a storm.
Hundreds of media from all over the world, including Israel, showed photos of
the fallen tree or reported on it. Saplings were taken to be planted in the US,
Israel and other countries so that the tree lives on.
Sarah, a 15-year-old Jewish girl from Amsterdam, is the same age as Anne was
when she died. She has not raised any international interest. Two months ago she
told the daily Het Parool that she would no longer wear her Star of David in
public, since she had been beaten up by three youngsters a few years older than
her when they identified her as a Jew.
The contraposition of these two stories is, in a nutshell, symbolic not only of
the Netherlands but most of Western Europe. There remains substantial interest
in the suffering of dead Jews, even to the extent of caring for a tree which was
seen by one of the most celebrated victims of the Holocaust. There is far less
interest in aggression against living ones.
THE ANNE Frank story reemerges every few years, usually for not particularly
important reasons. In 2004 the Dutch Catholic broadcasting station (KRO) asked
the public to elect the most important Dutch personality ever. Anne ended up in
the top 10. This created a problem as she had never held Dutch nationality. She
died stateless in the Bergen Belsen concentration camp in Germany.
KRO then started a campaign to posthumously grant Anne Dutch citizenship. Her
worldwide notoriety ensured that the Dutch were happy to consider her one of
their own. A majority of parliamentarians, both on the Right and Left, were
willing to support such a step, which turned out to be legally impossible.
Subsequently the absurdity of such a move dawned upon the decision makers.
What about the other German Jews in the Netherlands who had been murdered in the
Holocaust? And what about those turned away at the borders? In 2007 the imminent
threat of the chestnut tree falling, and the decision of the authorities to cut
it down, created new publicity for the plight of Anne Frank. There was great
public opposition, money was collected and a special steel structure built to
protect the tree from falling.
As said, this motif of interest in dead Jews while willing to look away from
current anti-Semitism, and at the same time defaming the Jewish collective in
the State of Israel is not a Dutch speciality. The number of examples is
endless.
Kristin Halvorsen, leader of the Norwegian Socialist Left party and minister of
education, is notorious for her anti-Israel views in her country. In 2006, she
wanted to boycott Israel. Yet in 2007 she insisted on speaking on behalf of the
government at the annual Holocaust memorial ceremony.
Germany is the country where the study of this motif is of greatest interest.
There are many Holocaust memorials and much reference to the murder of the Jews.
Yet, at anti-Israeli demonstrations “Death to the Jews†is again heard on the
streets of the country. Even if it is mainly shouted by immigrants from Muslim
countries, it should raise far more concern than it does. The more examples one
watches of the discrepancy in attitude toward dead and living Jews, the more one
understands how little Europe has learned from its past.
The writer has published 18 books, including The Abuse of Holocaust Memory
Distortions and Responses (2009).
http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Op-EdContributors/Article.aspx?id=186383
Comments are closed.
