Europe’s tragic trade-off

There is no need to recount the Holocaust on this page. What is needed is to examine the present in Europe and compare it with the past — specifically the 1930s, as Hitler consolidated his power in Germany. Almost immediately Hitler began acting against Jews; the 1933 one-day boycott of Jewish stores, the 1935 Nuremberg Laws, the 1938 Kristalnacht. Many thousands of Germany’s Jews left for other European countries only to be captured by the Nazis during the occupation. When the war ended Europe’s Jewish population could be counted in the thousands.

Those Jews who chose to stay, rebuilt their lives either in Germany or other countries they had fled to. Malmö, Sweden was a case in point. Many of the Danish Jews who were clandestinely shipped to that Swedish port across from Denmark stayed and built a community there. France has had the largest Jewish community in Europe. In the decades that Europe examined its shame over their respective involvement and collusion with Germany in the Holocaust, Jews were able to live peaceful lives.

That has all changed. For Jews, Europe has reverted back to the 1930s again. Today, Jews in major European cities in Germany, Belgium, France, Holland, Sweden, Norway and other western European countries cannot walk the streets in Jewish garb lest they be insulted, spat upon, or assaulted. Synagogues and Jewish cemeteries are once again being vandalized and desecrated. Worst of all, Jews have been singled out for deadly assaults in places like Paris, Toulouse and Brussels. Why?

Is it because Europeans have suddenly decided to be Nazis again? Is it white nationalists, neo-Nazis, or skin heads? While in some cases, these groups have been guilty, they are not the major perpetrators.
The major perpetrators of these crimes are immigrants and their off-spring. More specifically, they are Muslim immigrants, who have brought their centuries-old hatred of Jews with them to their adopted countries, where they live in isolated suburbs and neighborhoods, angry and unassimilated.

Not too many decades ago, Western Europeans decided that they needed mass immigration into their heretofore homogeneous countries. There were many reasons, some of which exist to this day. The highly educated Europeans needed manual labor that their own people were not willing to do. Europeans to this day have a low birth rate, just over one child per family in some countries-not enough to sustain the population. Who would do the work and pay the taxes to sustain the welfare state and take care of the older generation? In addition, countries like Sweden simply decided that they were too homogeneous. They wanted diversity. They wanted to be multi-cultural.

First, it was the Italians who went into Germany. I witnessed their presence as Gastarbeiters (guest workers) when I was an American soldier in Germany in the 1960s. Gradually, thousands of them assimilated and became entrepreneurs, especially in the restaurant business. In addition, the Turks began arriving in huge numbers. To be accurate, they suffered discrimination. Today, they are the largest immigrant group in Germany. Many are well assimilated while others are not. With the rise of Erdogan in Turkey, they are becoming very restive.

Gradually, other nationalities began arriving from the Middle East and Africa. They spoke different languages, had different customs, ate different food, but many of them shared one feature: They were Muslims.

That has led to enormous problems in lack of assimilation and an unwillingness to respect and accept national traditions, like freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and even the freedom to act Western. It must also be said that most of the European countries, perhaps all, did not pay any attention to assimilation. That was partly due to disinterest in the immigrants beyond their work ability and partly due to Western post-colonial guilt and an emphasis on multi-culturalism over assimilation. The result has been a catastrophe, and it is probably too late to remedy the problem now. For years now, Western Europe has suffered high crime rates and periodic rioting in places like Paris, Malmö, and Stockholm. Had they taken care in who they allowed in, had they paid attention to assimilation, they could have had their multi-cultural society, plus the workers from many parts of the world without all these tragic results.

For Jews the situation is particularly acute. Malmö, Sweden, previously a haven for Jews fleeing the Nazis, has become a hell-hole in a city now 25% Muslim. Jews are leaving the city in droves. The previous mayor, Ilmar Reepalu, felt no sympathy, taking the attitude that if the Jews were not willing to condemn Israel, they were welcome to leave. France has also seen thousands of Jews decide there is no future in France, the country with the largest Islamic population in Europe. It is the great shame of Europeans that they have failed to act to protect their Jewish population from Islamic hate. What they have done is to tolerate intolerance in the name of tolerance.

And I haven’t even gotten to the horrors of Islamic terrorism and ISIS yet. Nor have I even gotten to the wave of mass migration into Europe by mostly young, unaccompanied Muslim men from the Middle East and Africa, some just to live off European welfare, others with the aim to carry out terror attacks, or simply live a life of crime.

So once again, a dark chapter has opened in European history. The Europeans in their seeming drive to commit continental suicide, have traded their productive Jewish citizens for others who are largely unproductive, and downright dangerous as well. I don’t mean to be unfair to the many decent Muslim immigrants in Europe who live and work quietly and who wish no harm to anyone. They are being hurt by all this as well. But are we to remain silent out of respect for them? I am afraid not. Coming back to my point, Europe has made and is still making a trade-off that is foolish and tragic. Say goodbye to the Jews and say hello to living with (or under) Islam.