Americans Play
Holocaust 'Where's Waldo?' on Refugees (Die Tageszeitung,
Germany)
"Holocaust comparisons are especially in vogue. One minute The New York Times is reminded of the Holocaust simply because people are fleeing, and the next, because the Czechs are marking the arms of refugees with numbers. Then someone complains that Germany is housing refugees at the Tempelhof Airport building because it was - ouch! - built by Albert Speer (not really, by the way), or in barracks that may or may not have housed men from the SS, who may or may not have been stationed at Buchenwald. … One gets the impression that U.S. commentators are in a "Where's Waldo?" competition to make the most far-fetched Holocaust analogy."
You might get the impression Americans couldn't care less about the refugee crisis - and you would be right. Sure, there have been quite a few reports in newspapers, and from time to time you see it on television, but really, we have our own problems: Donald Trump's hair! Hillary's e-mails! Do bakers have to serve gay weddings? The Duggars! Is Bruce Jenner a woman or not? If we packed Americans into a pie chart, 50 percent of couldn't care less about the refugees, and 45 percent would be mostly concerned about America's borders because they aren't tight enough.
Then there would be sliver of a slice of the pie - five percent - of Americans concerned about the refugees. However, not concerned in a sense that America should take them in. Rather, we see a battle of the wise-asses as to who can deliver as much smart-aleck remarks as possible about what the Europeans and especially the Germans are doing and should be doing.
Holocaust comparisons are especially in vogue. One minute The New York Times is reminded of the Holocaust simply because people are fleeing, and the next, because the Czechs are marking the arms of refugees with numbers. Next, some Dodo complains that Germany is housing refugees at the Tempelhof Airport building because it was - ouch! - built by Albert Speer (not really, by the way), or in barracks that may or may not have housed men from the SS, who may or may not have been stationed at Buchenwald. Robert Cohen of The New York Times takes the cake when he complained that offering refugees in Hungary showers (instead of bubble baths?) reminds him – what else? - of the Holocaust. You get the impression that U.S. commentators are in a "Where's Waldo?" competition to make the most far-fetched Holocaust analogy.
Yet there are parallels: In America at the time, back in the 1930's, the borders were virtually sealed against Jewish refugees. The country introduced quotas that were expended in a single weekend. Ships like the SS St. Louis were denied authorization to dock at the U.S. coast (as well as in Cuba, which was then a U.S. colony controlled by the Las Vegas mob). Nor did the United States accept children from the Children's
Transport. And The New York Times/ commented that the boat was full. Only recently, we learned that America
denied a visa to none-other than Anne Frank.
Columnist Gabriel Guerra of El Universal in Mexico - a country with a history inextricably linked to the issue of...
So one might assume that a few lessons had been learned. But strangely enough, that has not popped into the mind of any of those wise-asses. Rather, they dish out advice – of course with their butts comfortably parked in front of their home computers– on which countries other than America should absorb such and such number of refugees. Some say America needs to take care of its own refugees from Mexico first. What refugees? Do we have massive processing centers in tents near El Paso, overflowing trains and Americans handing out of food and water? No. These Mexicans have already been here a long time, have apartments and work, and, if caught, are deported – although there is certainly no resistance to this from the American "we have to take care of the Mexicans" crowd. The only thing those Mexican immigrants need is some paper pushing in Congress.
Posted By Worldmeets.US
Then there are those at the American left who doesn't feel obliged to do anything for the refugees because they were in the resistance during George W. Bush's invasion of Iraq. If everyone who allegedly opposed Bush were to donate just $100, the refugee problem would be solved. But looking for "Where's Waldo"-style references to the Holocaust is so much more fun.
*Dr. Eva C. Swietzer is a news columnist and founder of publishing
company Berlinica.
