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In Europe, hate is on the march. In the UK, France, Norway, Sweden, Germany, Austria,
Spain, Greece, Hungary, Poland, Ukraine, Russia and beyond, the resurgence of extremist movements is a common theme with variations throughout Europe. The Simon Wiesenthal Center’s newest report, European Extremist Movements: Who’s Who And What’s What, written by SWC historical consultant Dr. Harold Brackman, takes anin depth look at what is happening, country by country, in Europe today.
• In Greece, the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn movement, whose leaders proudly unleash the Nazi salute and whose charter limitsmembership to “only Aryans in blood and
Greeks in descent”
won enough votes to enter Parliament
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In France, where the Jewish community is still reeling from the
brutal murders in Toulouse, unidentified assailants
seriously injured three Jews in Villeurbaine near Lyon
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In Norway, a 16 year-old
teenager, stigmatized because his father is Israeli, was “fire branded” when a red-hot coin wasplaced on his neck by a fellow student
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In Germany, iconic German author
Günter Grass, scapegoats Israel for all the world’s ills, and the
Berlin BiennaleArt Show featured a short film showing a group of smiling,
naked people playing a game of tag in a Nazi gas chamber
While the European right’s ongoing anti-Semitism comes as no surprise, the descent into Jew-baiting, as well as Israel-baiting, by many on the European left hasbeen particularly shocking. |