Berlin: Israeli embassy encourages to not label Germans as "Nazi"

[King Mongo]

07.04.06 16:10

The Israeli paper, Jedijot Achronot, wrote about a recommendation from the Israeli embassy in Berlin for Israelis to not use the term "Nazi" in Germany.

The Germans are very sensitive to this and don't understand jokes. Officially, the advice says: "It is not wise to use the word 'Nazis' in public in Germany".

The reason for the recommendation was Nazi-comparisons from Israeli tourists about customs officers used by a woman who wanted to smuggle cigarettes, as well as travellors who complained about the small tax refund.


Translated from:
http://shortnews.stern.de/start.cfm?overview=1&id=617719&rubrik1=Politik&rubrik2=Ausland&rubrik3=Israel&sort=1&sparte=4

Which was summarized from:
http://www.n-tv.de/653541.html

[Name removed]

1. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[no_hypocrisy]

2. "It is not wise to use the word 'Nazis' in public in Germany".

In public?! You mean it's okay to call people 2-3 generations removed from the Third Reich "Nazis" because they live in Germany?!

As a correlate, I certainly wouldn't want to be labeled a Bush-lover just because I'm an American.

How about some desensitization training, huh?

[King Mongo]

4. I once made a Nazi comparison...

stating that a massacre is a Nazi-like activity. As a result, every single supporter of Israel in the thread attempted to pressure the forum moderators against me. When I provided evidence which showed that many Israelis make Nazi-like comparisons, my evidence was removed, for one reason or anther, and I finally yielded to the pressure to not make nazi-like comparisons when criticizing massacres.

In any case, I think that it is fair to criticize a massacre as being a Nazi-like activity, but one should never criticize any non-Neo-Nazi of being such, nor should one demand from others not do do what one does.

[no_hypocrisy]

5. There is a difference between describing something as "Nazi-like" and

labelling a group of people as "Nazis", especially if they have historical baggage of their ancestors.

I am active in German-American affairs and to this day, there are certain non-German-Americans who refer to us as "Nazis", even though most of us have been born post-1945, even less elderly immigrants were in Germany during the Third Reich and they don't endorse what happened. (The latter immigrated during the 1920s as children).

My argument is publicly making "Germans" and "Nazis" synonymous in this day and age. As the classic logic axiom goess: Although all Nazis were German, not all Germans were (and are) Nazis".

[Tom Joad]

3. I wonder if they ever saw a certain Seinfield episode, re. soup eom