Wilders: Dutch government should apologize for ‘passive’ attitude to WWII deportation of Jews

washingtonpost ^ | 1-4-12 | AP

[bayouranger]

THE HAGUE, Netherlands — Outspoken Dutch lawmaker Geert Wilders called on the government Wednesday to apologize for the country’s “passive” response to the mass deportations of Jews by Nazi occupiers during World War II.

The move is likely to re-ignite debate about Dutch attitudes to the wartime persecution of the country’s Jewish population.

Of the 140,000 Jews who lived in the Netherlands before the war, more than 100,000 were deported and murdered. About 30,000 Jews live here now, out of a total population of nearly 17 million.

Wilders is best known for his strident criticism of Islam and also is a strong supporter of Israel. He wrote to Prime Minister Mark Rutte on Wednesday asking if he would apologize based on comments by two former government ministers in a recently published book about postwar reparations to Jews.

[Ramius]

The U.S. didn’t lose somewhere north of 400,000 men in WWII?

[Riodacat]

The U.S. didn’t lose somewhere north of 400,000 men in WWII?

We didn't declare war or fight Germans or Japanese or Italians to save Jews. There was not even a single major operation specifically planned or initiated to save European Jews during the war.
. Our participation in WW2 had nothing to do with saving European Jewry..

[Ramius]

Life is full of happy accidents, then.

[Mashood]

“There was not even a single major operation specifically planned or initiated to save European Jews during the war.”

Nor were there any plans specifically to save priests, gypsies, homos, intellectuals, etc... Jews were not the only ones rounded up and sent to camps.

To target the “Dutch government” for failure to “step forward” is disingenuous because THERE WAS A WAR GOING ON.

You should watch a movie entitled “Flame and Citron” to see what some Dutch were doing while the Nazis occupied Holland.

[dfwgator]

Considering that the death camps were located in occupied Poland, what kind of operation could have saved Jews. Bombing the camps, ok, so the Jews that weren’t killed by the bombs, would just wind up getting shot. In the end, would it have shortened, or lengthened the war, had we diverted resources to such endeavors?

[Riodacat]

Life is full of happy accidents, then.

You got to be kidding.
Most of European Jewry (including 1,500,000 children) were murdered. There were few survivors.
How was any of that "a happy accident"?
We did have a chance to save a few boatloads of these people, but we turned them away and back to death camps.
Even for the few European Jews who survived, most of their families had been murdered.
My guess is that there was no happiness in what remained of the Jewish community.

[Riodacat]

Considering that the death camps were located in occupied Poland, what kind of operation could have saved Jews. Bombing the camps, ok, so the Jews that weren’t killed by the bombs, would just wind up getting shot. In the end, would it have shortened, or lengthened the war, had we diverted resources to such endeavors?

If you read what the article and subsequent posts said and what I replied to, you would see that it was not me who suggested that our participation in WW2 was to save Jews or that we should have mounted an operation to save Jews.
My original point was to those who said that Holland should apologize for her participation or blind eye to the holocaust during the war - that they should also then consider that the U.S. should apologize for not allowing Jews on refugee boats fleeing Nazi Germany to enter the U.S. just prior to WW2.

[TheOldLady]

Click Florida

Free Republic Is America's Brightest Hope

Abolish FReepathons
Donate monthly

[Ramius]

I don’t see why you feel like jumping down my throat. I was just saying that it wasn’t fair to say that the U.S. did “nothing” to stop the holocaust. The U.S. was instrumental in stopping the fascist domination of Europe. Of course WWII wasn’t just or even mainly about saving Jews... nobody is saying that.

I do think that any such “apologies” as discussed are just a little pathetic. The people who were wronged are gone, as are the people that wronged them. Few things are as useless and empty as apologies by people that weren’t there to some other people that weren’t there, for stuff they didn’t do. It means nothing. History is history. It was what it was. Would things happen the same way today? Of course not. History is a product of specific times and the people too are cast within their own context of prevailing beliefs and perceptions. It’s not really fair to them or us to re-script long passed events with a modern moral perspective. There’s no particular point in trying to take responsibility now. It changes nothing.