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AFP - Getty Images
German Nazi Chancellor Adolf Hitler sits between his close collaborator Martin Bormann (right) and future Governor of Austria Arthur Seyss Inquart (left) in March 1938 at Vienna's Opera, while officers give the Nazi salute from the next box.
VIENNA — Marina Plistiev, a Kyrgyzstan-born Jew, has lived in Vienna for 34 years but still doesn't like to take public transport.
She recalls the day in 1986 as a teenager when she and her four-year-old brother, whom she'd collected from school with a fever, were told to get off a tram for having the wrong tickets, and nobody stuck up for them, apparently because they were Jews.
"With me (now), you don't see I'm Jewish but with my children you see that they're Jews. They get funny looks," she told Reuters at Kosherland, the grocery store that she and her husband started 13 years ago.
While Austria is one of the world's wealthiest, most law-abiding and stable democracies, the anti-Semitism that Plistiev senses quietly lingers in a nation that was once a enthusiastic executor of Nazi Germany's Holocaust against Jews.
After decades of airbrushing it out of history, Austria has come a long way in acknowledging its Nazi past, and the 75th anniversary on Tuesday of its annexation by Hitler's Third Reich will be the occasion for various soul-searching ceremonies.
But Jewish leaders who fought hard to win restitution after World War Two are on guard against a rising trend in anti-Semitic incidents, occasionally condemned by Austrian political leaders but seen more generally as a regrettable fact of life.
AFP - Getty Images
Passersby offer flowers to a German soldier in a street of Vienna to welcome the German Nazi troops on March 15, 1938 after the Anschluss, the invasion of Austria by the troops of the German Wehrmacht.
Austrian Jews have grown more vigilant as hooligans have verbally abused a rabbi, Austria's popular far-right party chief posted a cartoon widely seen as suggestively anti-Semitic, and a debate has opened on the legality of infant male circumcision.
A new poll timed to coincide with the anniversary found that three of five Austrians want a "strong man" to lead the country and two out of five think things were not all bad under Adolf Hitler. That was more than in previous surveys.
The history of Vienna — once home to Jewish luminaries of 20th-century culture such as Sigmund Freud, Ludwig Wittgenstein and Arnold Schoenberg, but later Adolf Eichmann's testing ground for what would become the "Final Solution" that led to genocide of 6 million Jews — means its Jews are always on the alert.
Today Austria's Jewish community of 15,000 is diverse, formed mainly of post-war immigrants from eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union.
But before Hitler annexed Austria in 1938, the "Anschluss", Austria's Jewish population was 195,000, the same size as present-day Linz, a provincial capital not far from Hitler's birthplace.
Two-thirds of them were driven out in the "Aryanisation" program immediately following the Anschluss and all but about 2,000 left behind were killed in concentration camps. Today's Austrian Jewish community is almost entirely in Vienna.
Austrians, many of whom had wanted a union with Germany, maintained for decades that their country was Hitler's first victim, ignoring the fact that huge, cheering crowds had greeted Hitler in March 1938 with flowers, Nazi flags and salutes.
Within days of March 12, tens of thousands of Jews and dissenters were under arrest, imprisoned or packed off to concentration camps. Jews were shut out of jobs and schools, forced to wear yellow badges, and had their property confiscated.
The IKG, Austria's official Jewish organization, says the number of anti-Semitic incidents in Austria of which it knows doubled last year to 135.
The anti-foreigner Freedom Party of Heinz-Christian Strache, who posted the disputed cartoon, consistently scores above 20 percent in opinion polls and has a chance of joining a coalition government after elections this year.
Still, many Viennese Jews freely stroll through the streets in Orthodox garb, especially in districts such as Leopoldstadt, the former Jewish ghetto where many Jews live again today.
Related:
Seven decades after Holocaust, neo-Nazis use soccer to preach Hitler's hate
Holocaust archive rescues lost identities, reunites family after decades
A retired teacher's courageous crusade: Tackling neo-Nazi hate
Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.
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Any kind of group which distances itself from the mainstream or is seen as not part of the national identity will be discriminated against in most countries. Even in Israel non Jews such as Israeli Arabs are discriminated against.
Jews are one of the most prejudice groups on earth. In America, they force our politicians to go to war against Israel's enemies. Why? Let Israel go to war and pay for it - but no, America must do that while our economy now suffers and Israel's economy is peaking. So they receive blow-back from their ways and then complain of ant-semitic citizens... they earned it
Why did they have to show a picture of Hitler.
The phrase anti-semitic is thrown out as casually as a leftist throws out 'racist' and 'offensive'. People really need to get a grip on reality, and get some thicker skin.
Square, unfortunately this lady had to endure discrimination, but as you stated and I will add, israel practices one of the harshest discrimination and racist behavior towards indegenious Palestinians.
Sure was a lot of groups hating them back in the day, at least two to one..
QED! ("That is what the author intended to prove"). Just open any story with "Jews" in the headline and the bigots will come crawling out of the woodwork...just as some Austrians did.
The problem this story is trying to tell is that anti-Semitic discrimination is growing. Anyone who deflects the point of this story by saying look at Israel, chooses to miss this point. Any discrimination is wrong. Nazis and Neo-Nazis are among the most violent skinhead groups in the world. Let's not forget that the Germans and Austrians murdered close to 10 million people, and were responsible for many American, British, Russian and Australian deaths during WWII. These are not nice nor good people.
Further proof that two wrongs do make a right.
Well, you only have to read the comments above to see that Austria is not the only country fostering a growing prejudice against Jews.
Just another sign that right wing hate groups are on the rise world-wide.
"were told to get off a tram for having the wrong tickets, and nobody stuck up for them, apparently because they were Jews." LOL! You just can't be more clueless than that... you did not have a right ticket and you expect special treatment because you are Jewish? And this 'incident' traumatized that poor Jewish woman for life? Always a victim, and always blaming others.
skip Nicholson - you're not too bright, are you? Because hate has no party affiliation. And the FACT is that, here in the U.S., it's the LIBERALS who are no friends of the Jews, and Obama makes that abundantly clear. It amazes me that jewish people continue to vote for democrats because they are slitting their own throats by doing so. There has not been a democratic president who was a REAL friend of the jews and Israel in a very very long time.
And I clicked on the comments in this article just to see how quickly the anti-semitic a$$holes came crawling out of the woodwork and, no big surprise, it didn't take long at all.
I believe the total of murdered victims (non-combat) of the third Reich is 13 million. 6 million are Jews and everyone knows it. They started with the mentally ill in asylums, then deformed people in hospitals, medical treatments and tests they said. No one objected. Then criminals in prison. no objections. Nazi's once in power , jailed political prisoners. Theologians and Philosophers, intellectuals who resisted Nazi thought, political opponents. Many were tortured and "disappeared". All the while on the outside they ratcheted up the hate against Jews. By the time they started the invasion of Poland, they also were starting the ovens. Slavs, great numbers of Slavs joined the Jews. Nazi's hated the Slavic people as much as the Jews. They cleared out great areas of Poland to create "Living room" for ethnic Germans. The Poles were shot or sent to camp. All over Europe, good people tried to help Jews and others on the Nazi hit list, gave them food, medicine, hiding places. When caught these non-Jews suffered the same fate. Were put on the same trains to the camps. I wish people understood that the famous statement of "6 million Jews" is half the story. 13 million is the what needs to be taught. By only focusing on the Jewish half of the tragedy, people get the wrong idea that if your not Jewish you are safe. Big mistake. Neo-Nazi's, KKK, Taliban, Radical Muslims, Hamas, Radical Jews in Israel, any and all formally organized hate groups will kill anybody and their children if you are not like them. Stalin and Mao killed more of their own people than the Nazi's killed. That is what hate and intolerance is. Be vigilant, support law enforcement and the government when they enforce the law on hate groups.
Skip in 1.9... If North Korea or some European country or the US makes a military move we disagree with? We just don't like them. If Israel does it? We're "fostering a growing prejudice against Jews."
Hatred of the Jews is as bad as any prejudice against any racial, ethnic, or religious group just because they're that group, but some are backhandedly applauded (vs Muslim) by the media and the people swarming around the media, some are treated fairly neutrally (vs the French, the Americans, etc), and most are looked at as bad. But hatred of the Jews is on another level - you can't even have a legitimate disagreement with the state associated with the Jewish people without being blamed of prejudice/anti-Semitism/etc.
Anti Semitism exists. It is ugly. But it has become the bogeyman we think is always underneath our bed. Stop seeing it in every shadow of distaste towards Israel because, simply put, they're a bunch of pricks (as a state, not a race/religion), and they have rightly earned a fair bit of distaste being thrown their way for their activities out there - not even a hint of anti Semitism required.
I just dont get it, ive known several Jews and ive never had issue with any of them. I guess i just dont assume all are bad for just a few.
First they came for the communists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a communist.
Then they came for the socialists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a Jew.
Then they came for the Catholics,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a Catholic.
Then they came for me,
and there was no one left to speak for me.
"Just another sign that right wing hate groups are on the rise world-wide".
Um... why are hate groups automatically Right Wing? In my opinion, most Socialist and Nazi type governments would fall more under a leftist type ideal. How about we just call them "Hate Groups" and quit trying to insinuate that either left leaning or right leaning people are automaticaqlly in line with certain extremist groups? My grandfather was a conservative and "right leaning". He was also part of the group of people that handed Hitler and his allies their asses.
Drezz... Who is "coming for" anyone? And simply put, there are both A) lots of people and B) the authorities "speaking out" for the people in question. This is a "the sky is falling!" article saying "The Nazis are coming! The Nazis are coming!" when they simply aren't. Histrionics at its best... If you want to look out for a group that's OK to hate these days, don't look at Jewish people worldwide. The fact that people in this thread have stated that they don't like Israel for its activities and are being snidely referred to as anti-Semites shows how far people stand to get organizing against Jewish people these days. Instead, look at Muslim people. It's fine and dandy to spew unrestrained vitriol against them.
Seriously, read comments on this site - vile mindwashing cult, terror cult, trying to bring us back into the dark ages, and I've heard the term "parking lot" used more than a few times when talking about planned future action against their country... And go figure, there wasn't a *fraction* of the uproar I hear when someone says, in this thread, "Israel has been a military bully, they deserve some of negativity they're getting.'
Having worked in North Jersey, specifically Passaic County, I can tell you it goes both ways.
Ive had a job site up there for years now. A large portion of the population are Hasidic Jews, and they are a very isolated people. They are always the ones that call the police on us if out work activities are causing too much noise. The only time they will acknowledge you or make eye contact is when they are complaining about something. " You caused da water in my basement!"
In Passaic, they have been arrested by the police for mounting illegal surveillance cameras on the telephone poles to "monitor their neightborhood". They also illegally pull people over with fake detective lights on their dash of their cars if they look suspicious. Also, a woman brought a dead baby into the ER that had blatantly been beaten and abused. The doctors were going to do an autopsy, and charge her with murder, but they all stormed the hospital, took the corpse and formed a human ring when the cops showed up. The mother got away with murder, literally.
Except in America where we allow groups to distance themselves from the mainstream, glorify them, protect them with the ACLU and court systems, and are slowly but surely doing away with any mainstream and instead forming clusters of isolated like-minded groups who are fearful and mistrustful of anyone not a member of their order.
We are no longer a melting pot of Americans, we are globs of toxic nitroglycerin ready to explode at the slightest bump and rip our vessel to pieces.
When Israel is fighting for its life against countries and terrorist organizations that are dedicated to its annihilation, and you call Israel a "military bully" for practicing self defense that would not cause a single eyelash to be batted if it happened anywhere else in the world, then YES, you are antisemitic!
No other country in the world would allow rockets to be fired into its civilian centers day after day, without taking military countermeasures. Israel restrained itself for YEARS, simply taking defensive actions, before finally launching a counter-attack, and you antisemites call Israel the bad guy???
The terrorist scum in Gaza deliberately place their rocket launchers in schools and mosques, intentionally using their own civilians as human shields for their military, and it is ISRAEL that you blame?
Well, maybe you aren't an antisemite; maybe you just lack the brains to tell black from white.
Someone posted on another thread yesterday a copy of a news report from an agency that said the Syrian rebels are moving closer to the Israeli border and are saying they attack Israel, that it is time to wipe them out.
This is Syria, the country we just gave $60million to, and someone refresh my memory, are giving them weapons as well?
And, oh yes, they kidnapped UN relief workers, holding them as hostages until Assad steps down. And why would Assad be concerned about UN workers?????
Scremin: that's why we need to stay out of these tribal squabbles, like Syria, Afghan, Iraq. All the people in the region are fighting over insults going back to yesterday or 1,000 years ago. Somebody somewhere is always trying to even the score as they see it. From Afghan and Pak east to Morocco the only time in history there has been peace is when a strongman takes over and puts down his opponents. It's not really peace - more like a cease fire. With people holding their ammo waiting for a chance to start a new revolt. When the strong man dies the game is on again. It's the idiots in the US gubmint who think a 20 year period of no major violence means the people there have reached a level of tolerance and will start being fair with each other. But when you look into it, it's just a strong man holding down his opposition. It's not real peace. Israel is in the middle of it. They are refugees of the holocaust returned to their native land. Recently they have been too rough for their own good. Perhaps some there think the ceasefire means they can be nasty to Palestinians and the US has their back. That's going to be a big mistake. The US is losing it's strength quickly now, and Israel better figure out how to get along with it's neighbors if that is possible. Their neighbors are full of old scores to settle and have thousands of years of history trying to do just that.
@CNORTON
Both National ("right wing") Socialism and Marxist ("left wing") Socialism devalue the individual by demanding that you give up your own wants and needs - the right-wingers "for the state/nation" and the left-wingers "for the people."
In practice they're quite similar, the main difference being that National Socialism retains the private sector as a partner (appendage?) of the State. Hence Mussolini's saying that "Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the merger of state and corporate power."
This cannot be restated enough. Almost everyone has forgotten that the Holocaust was not just about Jews. It was an attempt to "purify" Europe - anyone considered unclean or inferior was thrown in too. Poles, Gypsies, Slavs, homosexuals, other religious minorities, and on and on. Political dissidents, especially Communists, were treated especially brutally (the initial tests of the gas chambers at Auschwitz were on captured Soviet commissars). Jews were the largest target, yes, but not the only target.
Yeahbuhwha: It's all in the history books. People, particularly our students do not read history. They know nothing of the history of the world, civilization, American history in particular and modern history. They know nothing of "civics". They do get a heavy dose of African American history to the point where I've actually heard people say that the black slaves built America. IF the young could get away from the internet, their phones, facebook and twitter for just a couple hours a week, and spend one of the those hours reading actual history books (the paper kind) they'd find the pictures interesting and the stories fascinating. Then maybe they'd not fall prey to the mistakes of popularism about what happened and how the world got shaped. I'd invite them to listen to Pres Carter's interview abou the movie on the Iran hostage rescue. Too many young folks think hollywood movies like Lincoln are historically accurate.
Max^108 banned, two years of anti-Semitic remarks. No, thanks.
There is no news in this story. I guess since WWII ended in 1945 and this is 2013 I just don't get excited about Nazis any more. Let it go.
Bill, u seem to be ignorant of history. Even in 1940 the American opinion was that we weren't "excited about Nazis." If Japan had not attacked, you could have been writing in German. The new Nazis go by different names and the movement is gaining more popularity, imagine Germany in 1925. Wake the frack up!
While you all are at it, don't forget to thank the Choctaw and Navajo Code Talkers for the fact you aren't speaking German or Japanese as a national language.
David, in 1940, Jews in the US were not thought of as first class citizens. They were not free to live in just any part of town or eat in just any restaurant. They were treated better than Negros, but not that much better. We went to war to save England, not the Jews
There is no doubt, if we hadn't entered the War, Germany would have won. But we didn't go down that street so we will never know where it would have taken us.
And here we are. The most powerful country on earth...and the richest...and the most charitable. And we are the most envied and despised people on earth. Go figure.
Bill: add the Irish, the Poles, Hungarians, Chinese to the list. OF course the Japanese after 12-7-41. Eventually we all come around and accept everyone - each other. But only after each one is made to earn their way into the club we call America. Show up in America and expect someopne to hand you "the dream", ha ! it ain't happening. But it beats the crap out of where your parents were from. I ain't making the rules, only commenting on what I see.
No one should be treated badly because of their religious beliefs or lack of religious beliefs. during WWII the Jews suffered terrible and this memory will haunt them for 200 years. You can easily understand their sensitivity and concern. They need to be left along and allowed to live in peace.
Religion is a mental disease. Until they can provide proof of their beliefs, yes, people should be ridiculed mercilessly for their inane beliefs. It's either that or they should be locked up in a mental institution. Either way they should not be in any positions of authority.
Let us not forget the last group in America for which it is still "o.k." to discriminate against: Atheists.
Captain Jack,
What symbol do they burn in front of atheist meeting places?
Evidently, religion is something you will never embrace, therefore you will never understand the meaning of faith. Do I discriminate against you? No, I really feel sorry for you. I don't believe that my belief in God is a mental disease, as radical statements such as this from non-believers such as yourself, shows your discriminatory behavior against anyone who believes in God. I don't feel that I should be locked up for my beliefs. It's fascinating that in every post an atheist will bring up the fact that he or she is an atheist, no matter the topic, but I don't include my beliefs or lack of beliefs in every single post that I write. You just struck a chord in me when you stated that I have a mental disease and suggested that I be locked up for it. Grow a set.
@denver bill 2
Being that religion is all about symbols, why do you assume atheists need to burn anything?
Captain Jack - if anyone should be locked up in a mental institution it's YOU.
@Captain Jack Wigal: Let us not forget the last group in America for which it is still "o.k." to discriminate against: Atheists.
The "last group"? BAHAHAHAHA!!!!
The joke's on you, Jack. EVERY group is discriminated against. It doesn't matter if you're Catholic, WASP, Catholic, Jew, Muslim, Republican, Democrat, Jehovah's Witness, or left handed, EVERYONE is.
In fact, I think it was YOU who just posted this?
Who gives a crap what Catholics want? Why has NBC News been so wrapped up in this death cult? Every day for weeks now, this has been the headline news.
http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/03/10/17237548-a-ceo-with-the-common-touch-expert-views-on-the-top-5-qualities-for-a-pope?commentId=74723054#c74723054
HELLO KETTLE, MEET POT!
I've got to ask... And I ask this as an agnostic who not only doesn't believe in the existence of God - I simply refuse to take on faith that an intelligent designer doesn't exist, since humanity simply doesn't have access to proof one way or another at this point - how are atheists today discriminated against? Do they not let you into Church or something? As someone who will admit "I do not believe in any design being" and the most you'll get out of me on a theological stance is "I do not *completely* rule out the existence of some sort of intelligent designer," I have never so much as got a hint of discrimination. Hell, I volunteer at a local Church sometimes because they're the most up-and-up charity gig in town and I never get the cold shoulder despite them all knowing I don't share their beliefs. On the other hand, if I started talking about "magic sky fairies" or "imaginary friends" as so many self proclaimed atheists I know seem to enjoy doing, I might get a bit of flak, but I show them basic respect and we're all good...
So yeah... How are atheists discriminated against, exactly? I'd like concrete examples. Really, I would.
Steve, as Denver Bill pointed out elsewhere, it is just the culture of the US now to be a proud victim. Everything you said is completely true, yet you will never convince someone that wants to be a victim of the truth.
The only group in the US ever forbidden to (killed for, had their entire culture almost eliminated, their children removed from them, forbidden the speaking their ancestral language) practice any aspect of their spiritual ceremonies what so ever are the American Indians.
"Kill the Indian to save the child" was the mantra of the US government and the religious orders.
Atheists can't hold a candle to that. The only group that come close to matching that kind of persecution is the Jew.
The Japanese have a claim to that as well, unfortunately. So, to some extent, do Mormons, Communists, and homosexuals.
No, they do not. The Mormans were told to limit their number of wives to one, not to completely eradicate their entire culture on pain of death.
The Japanese were put in concentration camps, a shameful part of our history, but they were not killed outright, on the spot, for speaking their own language.
Communists and homosexuals are a different kettle of fish, and neither can compare with the genocide and other atrocities committed against Native Americans. Both those groups could hide what they were and pretend to be something else in order to live; Indians could not.
Neither of the groups you mentioned had their children forcibly removed from them and put in "schools" hundreds of miles away, not to see them again until they were eighteen, where they were beaten, raped, and murdered without consequences to the offenders, and were refused food, water, and made to stand in a corner naked until they passed out from exhaustion and hunger and thirst, simply because they forgot, at the age of four or five years old, and spoke a word in their Native language.
No, none of the groups you mentioned have a claim to that. As badly as the black slaves were treated, even they have no claim to attempted genocide by the US government. Only the Jews share that dubious honor with Native Americans.
The Mormons were driven from nearly everywhere they tried to live. The governor of Missouri in 1838 signed an Executive Order stating that "The Mormons must be treated as enemies, and must be exterminated or driven from the State." Anti-Mormonism at that time had as much to do with their power as a political bloc and their vocal opposition to slavery as it did their practice of polygamy.
Japanese-Americans were put in concentration camps for no reason other than their parentage.
Communists and homosexuals could hide what they were, yes. That doesn't change the fact that if they were "outed", they would be persecuted for no crime other than their own identity.
Yes, the persecution of the American Indians was much more horrible than any of these. It was more intense, and it was not temporary. As a result, the race of American Indians has nearly been exterminated. However, that does not mean that they are the only group in America who can ever claim to have been persecuted simply for being who they were.
Captain Jack, Stalin and Mao are the 2 top mass murders in history. Guess what- they were both ATHEISTS. Stalin killed any kind of religious person because he thought religion gave a person free-thinking views. Judging by your comment, you are no different from him.
If anyone thinks that the Austrians are bigots, they should try spending some time in the United States. We have more bigots and victims of bigotry than any other nation on the planet. The poor, the disabled, the mentally ill, the homeless, the unemployed, the Christians, the non-Christians, the non-fundamentalist-Christians, the Muslims, the welfare recipients, the illegal immigrants, the legal immigrants, the people of color,the liberals, the single moms, the Catholics, the gays and lesbians, single men, loners, the shacked-up couples, and (insert about fifty more groups here).... they're all on the @!$%# list here in America. And, of course, if you're a Jew, you're on the @!$%# list, too!
Big difference between illegal aliens and everything else you mentioned. None of the other groups are breaking the law just by being here.
J.P.Dog, I live in both Austria and America, and couldn't have said it better, myself. Who are we (Americans) kidding?
I'm not sure about bigots, but there are definitely more victims in the US than anywhere else. The lawyers have seen to that.
Everybody is the victim of something, that is simply called life.
Oh yes, the poor disadvantaged Jews in America... amazingly enough they still managed to build up the most powerful lobby and most effective special interest group in US politics, sucking up billions of dollars in all sorts of governmental giveaways for Israel every year.
The Europeans are the most tolerant people on Earth!
...just not if you live in Europe. And you're a Gypsy, or a Jew, or a Arab, or a Turk, or an African, or...
Truer words were never spoken.
So far those groups here in the US don't have to worry about wholesale extermination of their group by government sanctioned killers, except maybe the Native Americans.....
oh....excuse me!!.... you didn't mention Native Americans in your comment!
Somehow, they always get over looked when the discrimination game is being played, or religious persecution is being discussed.
Damn Indians need to make more noise, they are entirely too stoic and accepting of the status quo.
Every country has bigots, and yes Jews can be bigots even when it comes to different sects. There have been lots of instances where the ultra Orthodox Jews have looked down on reformed and conservative Jews. Frankly I would think with Austria's history they would be concerned about this issue nationally and the politicians would try to address it head on. Oh well, maybe it will take the US and other anti bigot nations to invade them and burn their country down around them once again to make them think. Problem with history is if you don't study it you might be forced to relive it.
Jews should feel at home in America because all the other countries have expelled their social waste to America. In fact, the Jews should leave the middle east and come to America because if they don't they will be killed sooner or later in the middle east. There is nothing there that's alive anyway. Bring the stones and whale at a new wall for Gods sake. Leave.
Meanwhile Bibi, the traitor, allows evangelicals into Israel.
No one "stuck up for them" for being on the wrong train? And this is presented as evidence of "anti-semitism"? Maybe it's time for the mainstream press in America to stop obeying whenever AIPAC pushes a story on them.
That's what I first thought; "What if they really just were on the wrong train?" Also why should bystanders oppose the Conductor when he tells a stranger "Hey, these are the wrong tickets for this train." Should we shift blame from the passengers to the Ticket Counter? Is it in the realm of possibility that all this emerged from what could be an honest mistake and maybe we should hold off on notifying the Simon Weisenthal Center?
I thought the same thing when I read this. So next time something trivial happens like someone boarding the wrong train, I should immediately defend them and if I don't and it just so happens that they are of a different race or ethnic group than me, that means I'm racist? The words racism and antisemitism are thrown around for such mundane reasons anymore that I almost always view the accusations of racism with a skeptical attitude.
My thoughts exactly. I had the same experience in Germany during the 2006 World Cup. I bought wrong ticket and was asked off the train. I was clearly a foreigner, and many of the Germans onboard expressed sympathy, but no one seemed to have any doubt that I had to get off the train. People have to be aware of the cultural differences when they are in a foreign country. Since I had been to Germany half a dozen times I knew that I was not experiencing "discrimination", but simply experiencing the sometimes silly German sense of "Ordung" (order).
Holocaust, it's always a holocaust. Even when that pedo rabbi was busted on to catch a predator he squealed like a pig over the holocaust.
No wonder this country is screwed up, with people like you. Listen to yourselves! Hate, distrust, bigotry and stupidity.
There is no news here. A lady is not allowed on a bus 17 years ago because she had the wrong tickets, ergo Austria is ripe with anti-semitism. The rest of the article just rehashes things from 80 years ago. What a joke. I guess since all the nazis from wwii have died, they must keep the victimization status alive. Does anyone ask themselves "Why did the Germans and Austrians hate the jewish people so badly, that by any means necessary, they wanted them out of their country ?"
100% agree. I kept reading hoping I would find some proof of a significant rise of anti-semetic behavior. Nothing. "Quiet rise"? Yeah it's quiet alright. So the author heard an old story about a jew in Austria getting "weird" looks in the 80s and desided to paint the entire country as a bunch of anti-semetic bigots? Why do you have a job?
Of course anti-semitism is on the rise if everything negative that happen to a Jew is labeled as such.
Notice I wrote Jew and not jew, didn't want to create another anti-semite incident.
Overuse of the anti-semite accusation has led to that. And who keep calling others anti-semite ?
Good Lord, I sit here and read all of comments on this situation and I can't believe the hate involved. Did the majority of you learn NOTHING from the history of history of the Nazi regime? It wasn't just Jews that were murdered but Catholics, gays, people who disagreed with Hitler's policies, basically anyone that did not look to be Hitler's standard for the Aryan race! You throw rocks at a people that you think have done something wrong but I doubt any of you are so totally perfect. We need to remember the lessons taught by the slaughter of millions of people during Hitler's regime because if it happens again, it may be you that is targeted!
They all need a trip to visit a concentration camp ... I saw them after WW II -- something I will never, ever forget.
What hate, people are tired of hearing holocaust every time a Jewish person stubs their freaking toe.
In 7th grade a guy was picking on me nonstop, one day I said F' this, meet me here tomorrow and we're fighting. He agreed. The next day we slugged it out as middle school kids do. We both walked away and that was the end of that. The school admins heard about the fight and called us into the office. He pulled the race card and said that I! beat him up because he was asian, fake crying and all. I was suspended, he wasnt.
Now, does this kid lying to get out of trouble mean that in my area anti-asian feelings are on a quiet rise? Would this be included in the "135" incidents this author recklessly claims? Stop being lazy and give us some facts before you try to persuade people that Austria is anti-semetic.
World War II ended almost 70 years ago. Please stop blaming Germany and Austria, the people resonsible for the Halocaust are dead now. And last time I checked Germany and Austria are among the most progressive democracies on the planet.
The forces that allowed Nazism to flourish in the 1930s still exist today in Europe. Unemployment, spending and overbearing government are not just US problems, Europe feels them too. And when people are scared and feel powerless, they look to blame others. The forces of bigotry have not gone away, they are simply dormant, dulled by the passage of time. To "stop blaming Germany and Austria" because the perpetrators are dead is a dangerous mindset. As the old saying goes, those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it.
"Kosherland"
Poor choice of names for a business owned by jews. The "in your face" jewish attitude will get funny looks from anyone.
Just what is the problem with calling a kosher grocery store "Kosherland"? Should we have to hide the fact that we follow the dietary laws given in the bible? Should Jewish visitors have to rely on word-of-mouth to find kosher food, because advertising it is somehow bad?
Austrians thinking things weren't bad under Hitler, Russians longing for the days of Stalin...
Further evidence that people have a short memory. And are really, really stupid.
Dale, you said it well, and yours is the first comment I've seen here pointing out the amnesia of the common person.
Sadly, it appears that we in fact ARE doomed to repeat history.
The question was "Were things all bad under Hitler?" The key word that you forgot is all bad. The economy flourished, infrastructure exploded, and modern medicine spread out of the cities nearly everywhere.
The fact that unspeakable evils were happening just next door, and all semblance of liberty eradicated, does not take away from the fact that there were in fact some small benefits to fascism. That is not meant to defend it, nor we should allow something like that to ever happen again, but to say that the situation at the time was all bad is a bit myopic. Understanding history means learning all facets, not just the surface.
YEAHBUH... are you familiar with post-WWII Germany? Yes, things were ALL BAD.
Gee, I wasn't aware Hitler was in power in post-WWII Germany.
Get over it, get thicker skin! The Holocaust ended almost 70 years ago, Nazi Germany ended almost 70 years ago. Israel does pretty well in the Middle East compared to other neighboring countries and plus it has 110% backing from the US in ANY future large scale conflict. It's time to move on, ALL races have been discriminated against and still are somewhere in the world, what makes anti-semitism worse than any other form of racism?
Get over it!
I'm 40, and knew people whose parents were killed at Aushwitz. 70 years is NOTHING.
Show me where any country since 1945 has rounded up people and exterminated them and you have a point, strawman.
What makes it worse? Pretty simple really: millions put to death for what they were, not what they did. Austria was a PART of Nazi Germany.Do you have any sense of history at all?
To give you a kind of parallel: suppose Georgia decided one day to bring back the Jim Crow laws. Or Connecticut brought back the Blue Laws (can't cross a bridge on the Sabbath, that's time for Church!). Would you be for that? How about only white men that own property can vote?
How about:
Cambodia 1975-1979
The Rwandan Genocide of 1994
Changchun China 1948
And there are much, much more. You seem to feel that they have the monopoly on persecution and poor treatment, how about the Palestinian torture, imprisonment, ill treatment, racism against Black Jews IN ISRAEL (forced birth control). Of course you are not going to agree with me because you have a mental block the only one group is being persecuted.
Pol Pot killed his own people. He did not single anyone out. That's a genuine reign of terror.
As for Rwanda, that occured during a civil war precipitated by an invasion from Uganda. While it was a mass killing of civilians, it isn't quite the same: the Jews (and Gypsies and Catholic Priests...) in Europe weren't fighing ANYONE when they were rounded up and shipped to the camps.
The Siege of Changchun? That's warfare: a foreign government inflicting pain on a population they don't rule is not abnormal.
Not at all. But I do feel that the Palestinians *could* integrate but choose not to. They got Gaza and what to they do? Same old, same old. And I feel that they have no right of return, that is, unless the Muslims want to give the Orthodox back Constantinople.
Good luck Mark, as I said the US is 110% behind Israel in all conflicts, land grabs, settlement building,etc. I guarantee there will not be another Holocaust until every last US soldier is dead defending Israel, after that you are on your own.
Thanks, but can you list the names of all the US soldiers that have fallen fighting for Israel?
...I can't think of a single one.
"I am on my own"? I'm not Jewish! I'm a Roman Catholic from the former Czechoslovakia!
I'm sorry, but I don't understand your quote, below. Are you saying it is okay for the"Palestinians" (a made-up people) to kidnap, torture, and murder Jews? Or are you claiming that Israel's actions in imprisoning terrorists and other murderers is somehow wrong? Would you like them all to be released into your neighborhood, along with all of the felons in your local jails?
Israel has a justice system very similar to the USA, with jury trials, and appeals processes. Israel does not have a death penalty, so they imprison convicted murderers, after a fair trial. And by the way, there are a fair number of Arab judges in Israel, and Israeli Arabs serve on juries just like any other citizen.
As for your claim of forced birth control, please try to back up your fairy tales with at least a semblance of evidence. Can you at least provide a link to the anti-Israel site that made this spurious claim, so we can see where you get your nonsense?
Mark, the Rwandan genocide was a mass killing of one ethnic group by another ethnic group for no reason other than who they were. The fact that a Tutsi group invaded with Ugandan backing did not make it somehow OK for the Hutus to slaughter 800,000 Tutsis.
@yeahbuhwha?: I'm not saying it is alright, I'm saying that it isn't the same as it was a civil war. Recall that the Genocide only started AFTER a cease-fire and AFTER the President's plane was shot down.
The Nazis rouding up undesriables and shipping them to camps? Yeah, not the same.
I really don't understand how that's not the same.
First of all, the genocide was planned long before the assassination of President Habyarimana. Second, the vast majority of people killed had as little connection to the war between the Hutu government and the RPF rebels as the vast majority of Jews did to Hitler's wars. Third, the Germans saw themselves as in a civil war with undesirable elements of their society. Whether or not the Jews or Gypsies actually rose up in arms (which many did) is irrelevant. Fourth, many of the people killed in the Holocaust were in fact at war with Nazi Germany: Poles and Russians, for example.
Other than the number killed, I really don't see how you can call them different.
@yeahbuhwha?
Okay, how it is different:
First of all, the genocide was planned long before the assassination of President Habyarimana.
In Rwanda, did a legally elected government systematically eradicate group(s) of people that could not fight back? No. It was during a civil war.
I'll go a step further: unlike the Hutus and Tutsis, I don't recall the Jews every running Germany. I also don't recall the SA and SS arming ordinary Germans to kill the Jews.
Second, the vast majority of people killed had as little connection to the war between the Hutu government and the RPF rebels as the vast majority of Jews did to Hitler's wars.
Sure, except that the Jews were citizens in a peaceful nation, which many of them had fought FOR in World War One.
Third, the Germans saw themselves as in a civil war with undesirable elements of their society. Whether or not the Jews or Gypsies actually rose up in arms (which many did) is irrelevant.
Oh, please. That's like me saying it's okay to assassinate doctors that perform abortions because they're murderers.
What great Jewish uprising are you taling about? The Warsaw Ghetto? Again, warfare is not the same. I don't recall a Jewish Home Army within Germany fighting in Dusseldorf!
Fourth, many of the people killed in the Holocaust were in fact at war with Nazi Germany: Poles and Russians, for example.
Um, yeah. Except that the Polish Priests were non-combatants and the Katyn Forrest Massacre was against Prisoners of War whom had laid down their arms in surrender!
*Very* few Russians were killed in the Holocaust, actually.
Why doesn't the Austrian "Freedom Party" find a more worthy group to despise, such as the Muslims? It works for our (the USA's) Republican Party! (But then again, the Republicans despise almost everybody.)
I seriously wonder how many rank-and-file Republicans would happily send all the Muslims living in the USA to concentration camps? More than a few, I suspect.
The difference, of course, is that Islam actually does preach war and violence, and for the most part, Judaism is non-violent and peaceful.
Still, I am forced to wonder what are the real benefits of being one of Yahweh's chosen people?
You mean like what the Democrats did to the Japanese/Americans in WWII? Ouch, history hurts, when you're trying to insult someone falsely.
My religion does NOT preach war and violence. You should actually read the Quran (in its entirety) and learn about our Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) and stop listening to the media that is run by a system designed to get rid of Islam. All they do is take verses out from the Quran out of context and twist them so that it sounds horridly violent. Why do they want to get rid of Islam? Because it is truth. And it is about peace and EQUALITY, which they cannot have because they will no longer be that 1% and they will no longer 'control' the world. Please wake up and stop parroting what these liars say. I would never practice a way of life that preaches war and violence. And I'm speaking for many Muslims who feel the same way.
עני עני היהודים ......... לאפשר לאנשים שלך עבור
Note: It is against Vine policy to post in another language without an accurate English translation.
The woman says she does not look Jewish, but assumes she was asked off the train for having a wrong ticket because she is Jewish. This assumption is complete nonsense. I had the same experience in Germany. I bought a wrong ticket and was asked off the train during the World Cup in 2006. I was clearly a foreigner, and many of the Germans on board expressed sympathy, but I had to get off the train. It's just part of the German mentality of "Ordung" (Order) that seems silly to us. If you don't believe me, try crossing a street when the pedestrian crossing sign is in red and there's no car in sight. I bet you that more that one person will scream bloody murder and let you know in no uncertain terms that you're contributing to the death of children by setting a bad example.
My brother ran a yacht for a Jewish couple. They attempted to utilize a yacht club claiming reciprocity with their Jewish yacht club, which there wasn't reciprocity between the two. The guy dressed like a slob and went in to "charm" them. He got turned away and claimed the yacht club was anti-Semitic.
That's how irrelevant some phrases that should hold important meaning are to some people. They use words that they shouldn't when they don't get what you want, or when someone disagrees with them; eg, "you're a racist because you disagree with the president"
On a side note, his Jewish yacht club never allows anyone that is not Jewish to utilize the facilities, which is fine because it is private, but extremely hypocritical.
I get tired of this dead horse getting beat. Here's our prime opening example of 'anti-semitism" in this article: An event from 1986: she and her brother had the wrong tickets - got kicked off the tram - which is what happens if you don't have the right tickets - but because they didn't get special treatment, it was because they were Jews. Seriously?
Scary how much this anti-semitism crap is suddenly getting thrown in our faces.....normally means that Israel is getting ready to do something nasty.
WELCOME TO "OUR WORLD" JEWS!!
Remember that this the next time you all wish to "turn your noses" up at a "Black man" trying to "get ahead"...
You might be the "right complextion" but you obviously didn't ALWAYS have "The Protection"....
It is astonishing to me that so many commenting here consider the holocaust simply "discrimination". Are you kidding? the correct term is "mass murder". It is also sickening to read comments from those stating their younger ages and urging people to "get over it". Just more proof that our species has become even more selfish, insensitive and disgusting. My father fought in the US Army against these monstrosities and brought home the photos to prove it. I will never forget his descriptions of the concentration camps and their few survivors among so many dead. Nor will I forget the photos of the infamous ovens shown to me at a young age. I am thankful my Dad made sure I understood that this should never happen again. Wake up people and show some appreciation for those who stopped the Nazis, freed those imprisoned and allowed you to grow up in a safer world. NO this should NEVER happen again and the reason it could is because self centered, ignorant, prejudiced little creeps are in denial of history. How dare you show such disrespect for EVERY human destroyed by the Nazis and for the men and women worldwide who fought for the freedom of all.
Technically if you really look at it, the holocaust wasn't discrimination at all. It was tactical. At the point of Hitler's rising it was very easy to create an atmosphere of complete hatred for the Jews, and they were a great place to start as a strategy. They were in control of much of the country and the money, so if your goal was to over-take the country, where would you start?
Hitler hated just as many people as much as he hated Jews, they were just comparable to taking over Poland first. Every war doesn't start in Poland because people hate the Polish, it is tactical. Once the Jews were out of the picture Hitler would have moved onto to every other race, religion, ethnicity that had any chance of standing in his way. It was just easiest and strategically smartest to systematically remove one group at a time because if other groups felt safe they would not intervene and it was easiest to blame the Jews first at that point in history.
I tend to believe Hitler was more sociopathically tactical than evil, evil is such a senseless word when used in the really real world.
I've got to ask... If I get on a train and get booted off because I don't have the right bloody tickets to be on the train, can I claim discrimination against my race/religion too if no-one sticks up for my being on the train with improper fare? And can NBC do an article on it then?
Ok, going to go try the city bus with a movie ticket for fare now. Get your trumpets ready people - I sense some racial/religious discrimination a comin'!
again just another weekly article about the jews and how bad it is out there. just ask the PALESTIANIANS! maybe the press should pay more attention to the real news!
Does not anyone remember their history? Vienna (although a beautiful city) was a hotbed of antisemitism prior to WW I. In fact antisemitism was very, very popular and common prior to WW I and WW II throughout Europe and even in the United States. (Why do you think that so many countries refused to accept Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany? Prejudice/antisemitism.) Even church leaders taught that the Jews were the "Christ-killers" (conveniently forgetting that Jesus Christ was a Jew).
Hate does not go away unless each generation is taught otherwise, and unfortunately the very people who hate teach hate to their children and grandchildren. And when hate crimes occur, those who commit the crimes are not sufficiently punished.
As for some of people commenting online on this article, their comments clearly demonstrate that the same hate, prejudice, and lies still continue despite the efforts of good people everywhere. And I bet they consider themselves good Christians.
Sad, isn't it?
I wonder what Jesus, a Jew, would say....
You're awfully optimistic. I'd be shocked if even 10% of people these days know much pre-WW2 history on anything but a very basic level. Heck, if you say "Habsburg" to most people you get a vacant stare, nevermind much else!
Wouldn't it be irrelevant that Jesus was a Jew because it was still the Jews that killed him? I'm not sure why you think that is a sticking, clever argument.
There is a fundamental mistake in understanding the meaning of being human being.
Each one of us have a name and a surname. We some times have a middle name often relating to one of our elder ancestor.
Our surname is the record of our family tree, we have no choice to chose but it is a name posed on us by our birth to a family. It is the name which relates to our religion, nationality, ethnic belonging etc.
Our first name relate to our person which should be the determining factor for our character value by which others evaluate us for like and dislike.
How ever social and political life put us into social communities and assign us a new social or ethnic name like Jews, Germans, Turks, based on our family or surnames, or the country we live in.
It is a pity that human history is a history of the evolution of war; a technology often used to survive or dominate others.
Postmodern war of to days world is a dirty war of terror, a very complex war involving the whole society.
Enemies and allies of modern dirty war are nations as a whole.
The special feature the Jews have is that the are resident among nations allover the world and are important players in their national and political life. They also have their own young nation in Middle East.
They have important role in the new integrated world order. they are blamed for the fast changes that are taking place in the world.
I think it is high time now to set the urgently needed transparency in the global politics to normalize the highly disturbed international relations.