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| Europe |
| Nazi row mars German leader vote |
| 2004-05-21 |
| Germany’s ruling party and Jewish groups have criticised the conservative opposition’s selection of a Nazi-era judge to help elect a new president. The Christian Democratic Union (CDU) chose Hans Filbinger to sit on the assembly selecting the next president. The 90-year-old is a former military judge accused of ordering the execution of German deserters in World War II. Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder’s Social Democrats and the leaders of Germany’s Jewish groups criticised the CDU move. "This is a tasteless act," said Klaus Uwe Benneter, a deputy leader of the Social Democrats, on German TV. "No-one will ever forget his past as a terrible judge..." said government spokesman Thomas Steg. ’Puzzling’ "I cannot understand why the CDU has decided to send him," said Paul Spiegel, a Germany Jewish community leader also sitting on the special federal assembly. "There are surely other worthy candidates without a past like this." The Nazi-hunting Simon Wiesenthal Center in America launched an online petition calling for his removal as an elector. But CDU leader Angela Merkel said she found the outcry "puzzling". "I don’t understand why he’s being criticised," she said, adding that he had been on a number of previous federal assemblies. Mr Filbinger was forced to resign as the premier of Baden-Wuerttemberg state in 1978 after he was quoted as saying of Hitler’s dictatorship, "what was right then cannot be wrong now". What the hell this sort of maggot is doing in German (or any sort of) politics goes beyond imagination and into the realm of pure outrage. That, even today, Germany is unable to make a total dosconnect from its Nazi past is symptomatic of much more significant issues, not the least of which are persistent anti-Semitism and institutionalized discrimination against Muslim "guest workers." This level of denial properly justifies extreme concern that Europe in general may be breeding up terrorist resentment in ways that affect the entire west. The comments sparked a furore, but he claims they were taken out of context. It’s pretty d@mn difficult to take something like, "what was right then cannot be wrong now" as being "out of context." He also insisted he never actively sentenced anyone to death, and in fact saved lives by handing out mild verdicts. Collaboration with Nazis is just that, collaboration with Nazis. The federal assembly, which selects the president, is made up of 1,205 people. Around half are from the Bundestag lower house of parliament, and the rest are chosen by state parliaments. It was the CDU in Baden-Wuerttemberg who chose him to sit on the assembly. Despite the row, CDU candidate Horst Koehler is expected to beat Mr Schroeder’s nominee Gesine Swan as the CDU and its allies have a majority of seats. Are they handing out stupid pills in Germany these days? I don’t recall appropriate cututral tolerance ever being extended to include Nazi members or collaborators. As Muslim resentment brews up more Euro-terror, one need only look to incidents like this for its sources. People in my mother’s family died at the hands of the Nazis during the occupation of Denmark. Others in her family actively fought in the resistance. I’ll be triple-d@mned-in-hell if I’m going to let this one slide under radar. Naziism, like terrorism, is one of those things that you cannot simply "forgive and forget." |
| Posted by:Zenster |
| #8 Check out the relationship between Arafat's hero, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem and the Nazi SS. Today's fanatical jihadists has his roots in fanatical German Nazism when it comes to Israel. LINK: http://www.cdn-friends-icej.ca/antiholo/arabnazi.html |
| Posted by: Mark Espinola 2004-05-21 9:24:08 PM |
| #7 I don't think the Muslims would care about this at all. TGA, are you saying that all the skinhead attacks on gastarbeiters do not play any part in generating resentment among Muslims in Germany? However much Islamists might applaud the Nazis for their determined effort to eradicate all Jews, I do not see where they would have the least compunctions about simultaneously decrying racist violence against them as a cause for jihad. Even if that persecution came from those that they applaud. Such duplicity has never seemed to deter them in the past. Why now? |
| Posted by: Zenster 2004-05-21 9:16:56 PM |
| #6 I think they'd approve, actually. The Arabic translation of Mein Jihad is said to be quite popular. |
| Posted by: Robert Crawford 2004-05-21 8:14:02 PM |
| #5 I don't think the Muslims would care about this at all. |
| Posted by: True German Ally 2004-05-21 2:07:04 PM |
| #4 The Muslim radicals don't need any excuses. But why hand them one on a silver platter, BigEd? |
| Posted by: Zenster 2004-05-21 2:05:16 PM |
| #3 This guy is 90 years old. Even if the Christian Democrats weren't aware of his NAZI past you would think they might go for someone a bit younger to help elect a new president wouldn't you? |
| Posted by: ruprecht 2004-05-21 2:01:48 PM |
| #2 I'm rather upset about this and I DID let the CDU know. Since I have been sitting in that assembly in former elections, I had one reason more to do it. If I were sitting there this time I would leave. |
| Posted by: True German Ally 2004-05-21 1:55:30 PM |
| #1 I don't think the CDU was thinking this one out. Filbinger should have been left in retirement, and someone could have been chosen who didn't have the baggage. As Muslim resentment brews up more Euro-terror, one need only look to incidents like this for its sources. However, I don't think one proto-Alzheimer Nazi is any more a source for Muslim terror in Germany than an unsafe Autobahn lane change. The Muslim radicals don't need any excuses. |
| Posted by: BigEd 2004-05-21 1:36:53 PM |