Israelis and Germany

Time can heal wounds.

 

This makes sense. The Holocaust was seventy years ago, both the victims and perpetrators are largely gone now. Germany was forced to face its crimes in a way that very few countries ever have to. It's healthy that both sides are moving on.

We should also remember the deep roots that so many Jews have on Central Europe. It is natural that Germany has an attraction for Jews. Black Americans love the South despite it's horrible history, I believe I see the dynamic here.

 

I don't agree. The Nazis were a German movement that reflected ideas that came out of that culture. National Socialism was also pretty popular, arms were not twisted to get terrible things done.

 

I did not bring it up.

 

My girlfriends family is Jewish and due to the law of return they were made citizen and lived there off and on for 5 years. Her sister has moved there permanetly and she is getting married to a German that is Jewish and is in the Israeli military. Her parents are pretty stoked and dont care and have a few friends that are full german. Also there are a lot of Germans that have become citizen under the law of return and are living in Israel and in the Israeli military. There really isnt hard feelings about this and I have discussed this with her family-in summary her dads reply was "These Germans were not the ones who committed those crimes".

Israel directs there anger to other nationalities closer to them.

 

Why would they have an issue with someone who qualifies for citizenship under the law of return? If they qualify for citizenship, I'm pretty certain that the person is a German Jew, not a descendant of the people who committed genocide against them.

 

He is a German.He is Jewish on his mothers side not fathers but there both German , not everyone has both purely Jewish parents if there german jew. I also am strongly german blooded and my grandfathers uncle was in the Nazi party, I expressed this to my girlfriend and it wasnt a big deal. I also had family on the American side of WWII.

 

One of the interesting things about the Holocaust is that the brunt of the Holocaust came down on Eastern European Jews. Hitler didn't start exterminating German Jews until late in the war. He did use them for slave labor as long as possible. And almost all of the camps were in the East. I am not suggesting in any way it was easier for German Jews, but the biggest populations of Jews in Europe were to the East, not in Germany itself. And many of Germans Jews at the start of Hitler escaped.

While about 80% of the Jews in Germany were killed, the overall number of Jews in Germany by the time the war began was about 200,000. In contrast, in Poland almost Three Million Jews were exterminated, and it was a higher percentage of the population (85%).

When you look at the percentages of Jews killed per country in Eastern Europe the magnitude of the greatest genocide in history becomes very real. I suspect this is one reason (and rightfully so) that many Jews get so offended, when people describe some current events as a "Holocaust".

I also suspect and not to get into politics that one of the other reasons for the affinity is that of all of the Western European countries, Germanys foreign policy has been far less publicly critical of current Israeli policy that most of the other countries. And the purpose of that statement is not to debate the policy, just to note the difference and its effect on the friendship between the countries citizens.

There has been an ugly anti-Semitic streak in parts of Western Europe of late, some from the muslim immigration and some just the latent anti-Semitism that Europe has never really eliminated. There were protestors marching in the streets during the Gaza incursion shouting "jews to the ovens" in Malmo, Oslo, and Paris.

In many countries Jews still question their own safety. Even in France, Jews will not have a public gathering without armed guards, and some neighborhoods of Oslo, London, and Malmo are simply off limits to Jews. The sad fact that most don't realize is that the Holocaust was the culmination of 2000 years of oppression in civilized Europe for the Jews. European history is in a way the History of Anti-Semitism. And it really hasn't been dealt with yet.

 

Very interesting. Your right about jews feeling unsafe, i think thats why a lot of them move to Israel under the law of return. Its one of the few places they feel as if they can openly express themselves.