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[Analysis & Commentary: By Prof. HOWARD L. ADELSON]
T h e N a z i R e v i v a l
[The Jewish Press, Friday, June 24, 1994, Page 11]
[Reprinted without permission, for ‘fair use’ only.]
It is obviously very difficult to write about the recrudescence of
right wing, neo-Nazi activity on a global scale, but that is a fact that
cannot be ignored. Unfortunately, as has often been noted in this column,
Jewish communities around the world are ill-prepared to face the challenge
that rears its Medusa-like head before them. There is not the slightest
doubt that the weak response of the American Jewish community when faced
with the open anti-Semitism of a Daughtry, a Farrakhan, a Jeffries and a
Tatum or a Percy Sutton, has served to embolden the anti-Semites within the
Caucasian community.
In addition, the fact that a Jewish public relations firm served to
popularize and to legitimize the vile Croatian fascist regime of Franjo
Tudjman, which has reintroduced tbe disgusting Nazi salute as well as the
monetary terms used by the anti-Semitic, fascist, Ustashi, Croatian regime
that murdered Jews and Serbs by the hundreds of thousands, served only to
confirm the anti-Semites in their opinions about some Jews for whom money
predominated over virtue That is a common human failing, but moral men
should be immune to that flaw.
It should have been the duty of every Jewish organization to recall
that, while Serbians were fighting the Nazis and saving Jews, and while
Jews were serving in both the Serbian resistance to the Nazis, and even more
predominantly in the Partisan resistance, the Croatian fascist Ustashi, of
whom Tudjman is the heir, were busily engaged in the slaughter of more than
750,000 innocent Jewish and Serbian men, women and children.
At the same time, the Bosnian Moslem SS legions that had been
recruited by the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin el-Husseini, who is a
close relative of some of Yasir Arafat’s closest lieutenants, were
assisting the Germans in carrying out the holocaust in the Balkans.
Croatian Ustashi and Bosnian SS played a very active role in the Holocaust.
Today, however, we are told by the same Jewish public relations people
that we must forgive and forget, that Tudjman – as part of his campaign to
destroy Yugoslavia and to salvage the reputation of the Croatian, fascist,
Ustashi murderers – has murmured a few words ebout how he went too far in
some of his most vicious anti-Sematic statements. That is remmiscent of the
radical Jews in the U.S. who have urged the Jewish community to overlook the
anti-Semitism of Jesse Jackson.
Jews have been told that because of a few words supposedly indicating
contrition, they should forgive the persistent anti-Semitic and anti-lsrael
acts and words of Jesse Jsckson. Jesse Jackson, however, has never truly
reformed. He remains the same bigot as before. In a relatively recent
incident he returned vigorously to his anti-Israel incitement by bolding a
mass meeting in Jerusalem in favor of the Arabs on his last visit to Israel,
after that meeting had been specifically prohibited as an incitement to
violence by the Israeli government composed of those appeasers whom Jesse
Jackson pretends to admire. In effect, Jackson revealed his contempt for the
sovereign Jewish state.
Unfortunately, the appeasers could not find the strength of character
to expel him and to place him on the next plane out of Israel. Such a
determined act would have been widely applauded in this country and around
the world, even though it might have excited unfavorable comment from the
anti-lsrael New York Times and the Washington Post. The obvious fact is that
Jesse Jackson cannot change his spots any more than a leopard can, and
Franjo Tudjman is simply the Croatian equivalent of the American bigot. The
only real difference is that Tudjman has real political power, and he played
a real role in bringing to fruition one of the Nazi war aims, the destruction
of Yugoslavia.
It is high time for the Jewish community in this country, and for Jews
around the world to recognize that they have been sadly misinformed and led
astray by those who accepted money to mislead the American people, and the
Jews in particular. Contrary to popular opinion and the media in this
country, the Serbs in Bosnia are fighting for their survival because they
cannot trust the tender mercy of those who killed them by the hundreds of
thousands a bare 50 years ago. The Serbs in Croatia, when faced with the
threat of a renewal of the massacres carried out by the Croatian Ustashi
during the Nazi period, rose up in self-defense against Tudjman and his
fascists.
It was the fascists and their sympathizers who tore apart the Yugoslav
state to carry out the Nazi war aims, long after the defeat of Nazi Germany.
They were aided mightily by Foreign Minister Genscher of the German Federal
Republic who, despite pleas from the former allied governments, rushed in a
most unpleasant manner to recognize the independence of fascist Croatia with
the goal of destroying the Yugoslav Republic. We must not forget that those
who are reviving the trappings of the wartime fascist state of Croatia are
assisting in the arming of the Bosnians who murdered Jews and Serbs during
the Second World War.
The Serbs, after the Second World War, while suffering under the heel
of the communist regime of Marshal Tito, who favored the Croats over the
Serbs and was the friend of Abdel Nasser, tried to forgive and forget the
horrible suffering to which they had been subjected, but the Croats and the
Bosnian Moslems have set their hearts upon the resurrection of their wartime
fascist regimes. In self-defense the Serbs have risen up to prevent new
massacres.
Recognition of the justice of the Serbian cause does not mean that we
should condone the strocities commited by ALL sides durinig the fighting in
Bosnia-Herzegovina, but it does mean that, while demanding an end to
atrocities and punishment for criminals, we also remain aware that it is not
in the interests of civilized man to revive the fascist menace in the
Balkans in the form of a new Ustashi Croatian state that is openly committed
to glorifying those who slaughtered Serbs and Jews. The revival of such a
state must be physically opposed. If the Serbs are prepared to stand in the
breach to defend civilization from a revival of fascism, they should be
congratulated and not attacked.
The abuse of experience has gone far enough. The propaganda campaign
has twisted the facts after the model of Joseph Goebbels, the propaganda
minister of the Third Reich. The dangers looming on the world horizon, and
not only in Yugoslavia, are obvious. In the new Germany the evidence of a
neo-Nazi revival is inescapable. On May 12, in the German city of Magdeburg,
while Germans were celebrating a holiday, a mob of assorted Skinheads,
neo-Nazis, and a mixed multitude of right-wing thugs took over the streets
in a drunken orgy of violence directed at foreigners, but particularly
against dark-skinned Africans.
Mobs of 50 or 60 young thugs chased a handful of Africans, who ned for
their lives, through the streets of that medieval town. They pursued a group
of Africans right into cafe with the intent to commit murder and mayhem.
When the thugs spied the Turkish employees of the cafe, they decided to add
them to the list of intended victims. The Turks, however, were determined to
fight back, and the Africans joined them in the struggle for self-defense.
In the ensuing fight, at least six people were injured, and one of the
German thugs received multiple stab wounds. After that beginning, as
expected, the violence spread throughout the city and continued throughout
that day and the following night.
The German police in Magdeburg followed the example set by the Dinkins
administration during the Crown Heights pogrom. They decided to allow the
rioters to wreak havoc, in the hope that eventually they would tire of
violence. The innocent suffered, but the police refrained from effective
measures. After the riot, the German police estimated that 150 thugs
attacked some 30 foreigners. When the police decided to respond, the riot
was quickly suppressed. It was a replay of the Crown Heights pogrom!
By their own admission, the Magdeburg police arrested 49 Germans, but
by evening, all were released! President Richard Weiszscker of the German
Federal Republic expressed his shock, horror and amazement at the turn of
events. He claims that more than 50 were actually arrested, but that all
were virtually immediately released despite the magnitude of their crimes.
He asked, “Are they (i.e. the hoodlums) supposed to do more of the same the
next day?” That is certainly what happened in Crown Heights while Dinkins
and Mario Cuomo refused to act.
The tragedy of Magdeburg is obvious even though the authorities, during
the following weeks, issued seven arrest warrants and announced that about
30 individuals would be investigated for participation in the disorders. At
the same time, the Chief of Police in Magdeburg, Antonius Stockmann, took t
he position that it was simply a case of youthful drunkenness which should
be explained away by the phrase “boys will be boys.” Magdeburg is a signal
of the danger. Its officials are like Dinkins and Cunmo who tolerate
lawlessness.
Germany has seven million foreign residents and guest workers. The
handwriting is on the wall. Just as Jabotinsky warned the Jews of Central
and Eastern Europe before the Holocaust of the impending disaster, just so
should the thousands of Jews in Germany today be warned by these events. The
knowledge of the rebirth of fascism in the Balkans and in Germany, as well
as elsewhere, must not be ignored. Even the German press pointed to the
inadequacy of the prosecutors in Magdeburg who spoke simply of “youth misled
by alcohol,” as though that was the real problem. The prosecutors in
Mageburg are pale reflections of our own Attorney General Janet Reno, who is
following the lead of to David Dinkins and Mario Cuomo in doing nothing in
the face of murder based on prejudice.
The rise of fascism and the increase in anti-Semitic violence should
not be ignored. Wherever fsscism and anti-Semitism rears its head Jews must
join with those who are wiliing to step into the breach to defend mankind
and civilization. We must never allow the councils of inaction and excuse
to gain the upper hand. Those who refuse to act must be forced from public
office. Only thus will tragedy be averted.
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— I speak for no one and no one speaks for me —
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Last-Modified: 1994/10/28
Newsgroups: soc.culture.croatia,soc.culture.europe,soc.culture.jewish,soc.culture.bosna-herzgvna,alt.politics.clinton
From: [email protected] (D.D. Chukurov)
Subject: Prof. Adelson: NAZI REVIVAL
Message-ID:
Organization: Bellcore
Date: Tue, 11 Oct 1994 01:20:54 GMT
