Posted on 02/17/2006 12:08:23 PM PST by Hannah Senesh
Several anti-Semitic graffiti, including one saying "Holocaust is a Jewish Lie," appeared Thursday on the walls of a World War II Nazi death camp in central Serbia.
Jasna Ciric, the head of the Jewish community in Nis, said the graffiti was apparently timed to coincide with the 64th anniversary of the massacre of some 1,100 Jews, Serbs and Gypsies in the camp.
"It's unbelievable that such messages are still alive in the 21st century," Ciric said, adding that about 12,000 people were killed by Nazis in the Bubanj concentration camp during World War II.
The other paint-written graffiti included: "Serbia for Serbs" and the infamous "Arbeit Macht Frei" (work liberates) slogan of the notorious Auschwitz death camp.
Serbia has seen a surge of anti-Semitism in recent years, fueled by nationalists who claim that all the republic's problems stem from the powerful Jews who allegedly support anti-Serb policies in the United States and elsewhere in the world.
I've seen more than a few comments by one poster at FreeRepublic alluding to that very thing.
Most distressing.
But lots of people here keep telling us the Serbs are our buddies!
What I find bizarre is that so many ethnic Serbs were themselves killed by the Nazis and their allies.
Was it signed by the "President" of Iran?
Were they written in arabic, or Farsi?
Weren't a good portion of the Muslim serbs collaborating with the Nazis?
Don't mistake some looney's vandalism for the opinion of the whole country. You don't necessarily say Germans are going to go creating the next Reich when you see some German neo-nazis, do you ?
The Serb supporters at FR make non stop posts about the Terrorist Moslems in Bosnia and the destruction of Serbian Churches by the Moslems, and the Bosnians regard the Serbs as Nazi supporting animals who slaughtered the Jews with glee.
Very confusing
I went to Birkenau years ago It was not well-maintained then the way nearby Auschwitz was, and the buildings were deterioriating. There was anti-Semitic graffiti scratched into one of them, in Italian IIRC. It happens.
What's so bizzare about the people resisting Nazis being killed en masse ?
Quite correct.
These people are ignorant, and their opinions on this subject, and probably many others, are worthless.
Something is wrong with this picture. Why wouldn't they be most upset with Albanian mooslims?
But then... They have every reason to hate us and hate us forever. If they perceive we are the land of the Jews, then the anti-semitism might be understandable. But the fact remains we bombed the crap out of a society that was trying to fend off the islamists. We committed a war crime. One day perhaps we will admit it, but probably not because that would imply that Bush 41's "other" son is a war criminal.
They're not our buds, they hate our guts, and with good reason.
Terrific screen name.
I was totally confused back during the bombing, but I didn't understand the Religion of Piece® as well then as I do now.
And for the most part, they are all correct.
I don't declare support for either balkan faction directly. But maybe I can clarify a bit with some history.
Fact : Serbian churches are being torched in Kosovo. Or have been, very recently, since we bombed Serbia, and allowed Albanians to set up their de-facto state.
Fact : During WWII, there were serious collaborators on all sides. More notorious ones were Muslim - there was a Nazi SS muslim brigade and Croatian Ustashe, and some Serbian 5th column elements.
What the bosnians think of as 'Nazi supporting animals' were Chetniks, a Royalist/Loyalist faction, which fought for restoration of the king/monarchy against the communist partisans (led by communists, encompassing Croats, Serbs and Muslims) and the Nazis. They were neither nazi supporting, nor animals. At least no more so than the rest. It's just that Bosnian history books don't agree with the ones you'd read in the US, for example.
Since WWII everyone had their grievances, and those were ruthlessly supressed by the communist regime. When the communism collapsed, all the nationalistic elements came to power by stirring old grievances. And then everyone made new ones.
The reality at this time (important, because we live in present day as opposed to some people who live in the past) is that the Bosnian muslims that existed there in the 80s and 90s (relatively secular, normal , european people) got very much radicalized after the Bosnian war. Turning to Saudis for help since there was noone else does that. Also most of the intelligencia on all sides, Croatian, Serbian, and Muslim, left Bosnia. What is left now is only a shadow of the former society, and, again, a fertile ground for extremist points of view.
While everyone and noone was to blame for what happened in the past (I'm chalking it up to post-cold war geopolitics), the truth is that Bosnia *today* is bordering on a nightmarish terrorist scenario. All caucasian, ethnic Serbs forcibly converted during 800 years of Ottoman rule, that are virtually indistinguishable from other europeans, are being indoctrinated in Saudi founded/funded mosques. Do the math.
"Don't mistake some looney's vandalism for the opinion of the whole country."
This is symptomatic of something far, far more than just the activities of a few "loony" vandals. From the article:
"Serbia has seen a surge of anti-Semitism in recent years, fueled by nationalists who claim that all the republic's problems stem from the powerful Jews who allegedly support anti-Serb policies in the United States and elsewhere in the world."
And no, "I don't necessarily say Germans are going to go creating the next Reich when I see some German neo-nazis." It does make me wonder though when close on 60% of Germans believe that the Israelis are similar to the Nazis.
I never cease to be amazed by those who always wish to downplay anti-Semitism. Because their relatives were not murdered and because they are not affected by anti-Semitism, they are always willing to slough off even the most outrageous incident.
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