Showing posts with label anti-Semitism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label anti-Semitism. Show all posts

Friday, December 05, 2025

Holocaust Survivors Call on Nigel Farage to Apologise over Alleged Antisemitic Comments

THE GUARDIAN: Exclusive: Group’s open letter says Reform UK leader must take responsibility for behaviour as a schoolboy

A group of Holocaust survivors have demanded Nigel Farage tell the truth and apologise for the antisemitic comments that fellow pupils of Dulwich College allege he made toward Jewish pupils.

The Reform UK leader has said he never racially abused anyone with intent but may have engaged in “banter in a playground”.

But in a letter to Farage seen by the Guardian, the 11 survivors said: “As Holocaust survivors, we understand the danger of hateful words – because we have seen where such words lead.

“Let us be clear: praising Hitler, mocking gas chambers, or hurling racist abuse is not banter. Not in a playground. Not anywhere.

“When allegations arise about invoking Nazi attitudes toward Jewish children, the responsible response is honesty, reflection, and commitment to truth.

“So we ask you: did you say ‘Hitler was right’ and ‘gas them,’ mimicking gas chambers? Did you subject your classmates to antisemitic abuse?”

The survivors include Hedi Argent, who lost 27 members of her family in the Holocaust. Another member of the group, Simon Winston, was held in a ghetto before escaping in September 1942 and spending the rest of the war in hiding.

Another signatory is Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, who was sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau where she spent nearly a year. In October 1944, she was moved to Bergen-Belsen, where she was liberated by the British in April 1945. » | Henry Dyer and Daniel Boffey | Friday, December 5, 2025

Friday, November 28, 2025

Antisemitism Allegations against the Teenage Farage Matter – Look At What He Went On to Do

THE GUARDIAN: Farage has cosied up to US figures who espoused conspiracy theories about Jews. That kind of talk is becoming alarmingly mainstream on the Maga right

Nigel Farage could have strangled this story at birth. Confronted with the testimony of more than 20 former schoolmates, who shared with the Guardian their memories of a young Farage taunting Jews and other minorities in the most appalling terms – telling a Jewish pupil that “Hitler was right”, singing “Gas ’em all” and making a hissing sound to simulate lethal gas – he could have said: “I have no memory of what’s been described, but such behaviour would of course have been atrocious and if I was involved in any way, I am genuinely sorry.”

Sure, it would have been more of an “ifpology” than an apology, its admission of guilt wholly conditional, but it would surely have closed the story down. Reassured that the Reform UK leader had declared racist and antisemitic abuse unacceptable, most observers would have allowed that these events took place half a century ago and moved on.

But that is not what Farage did. Instead, he and his party have offered shifting accounts, moving from outright denial to non-denial denial and back again. That slipperiness itself raises questions about the character of the man who, according to the polls, is on course to be Britain’s next prime minister. But this episode also points to a larger and more alarming phenomenon, one that stretches far beyond these shores. » | Jonathan Freedland | Friday, November 28, 2025

Sunday, November 09, 2025

November 9: A Day of Destiny?

Nov 8, 2025 | Why is November 9th such a significant date in Germany and what does it have to do with German democracy? In this History Story we explore the questions: Why did the Nazis choose November 9th, of all days, for marches, festivities - and for their first major violent attack on Jews, known internationally as "Kristallnacht" or "The Night of Broken Glass"? How did the date come to symbolize new beginnings, and freedom? And why is November 9th a day of mourning for so many people? The date, known in Germany as “Schicksalstag” or “Day of Destiny”, has been instrumentalized to overwrite history and decide the fates of German citizens.

We talk to historian and author Wolfgang Niess, who in his book "Der 9. November - Die Deutschen und ihr Schicksalstag", explains the background and historical context of this day. Israeli filmmaker Yael Reuveny shares the feelings and associations that November 9th evokes and how Jewish people feel living in Germany. For many years, Berlin was a refuge for Israelis dissatisfied with their home country's politics. However, since the October 7th multi-front terror attacks on Israel by the militant group Hamas and the ensuing Israeli bombardment of Gaza, Germany is experiencing a wave of antisemitic crimes. Although state policy upholds the protection of Jewish life, antisemitism is nonetheless deeply rooted, and on the rise.

German democracy - a fragile achievement. It's been fought for time and again in Germany. On November 9th, we are reminded of the need to remain vigilant in its defence.


Saturday, November 08, 2025

IHIP News: MAGA Turns On JD Vance in Disgusting Racist Civil War. They Want Usha Out.

Nov 8, 2025 | MAGA men cannot stand up for their diverse families when the racist they associate with inevitably turn on them.


Very strong language alert!

Wednesday, October 22, 2025

The Path to Nazi Genocide | 2025 | Holocaust Education

Oct 20, 2025 | This 38-minute film introduces the history of the Holocaust. It begins by looking back at the major changes from 1918 to 1933 that created the political climate for the birth and rise of the Nazi Party in Germany. It explores the basis for the party’s support among ordinary Germans and the military, government, and business establishment before and after Hitler was appointed chancellor in January 1933.

After 1933, Nazi leaders used violence and intimidation, propaganda, laws and decrees, and parliamentary maneuvers to quickly destroy the remains of democratic rule. Having established a dictatorship, leaders began pursuing ideological goals. These included the purification and strengthening of the “superior” German “race” and the return of Germany to great power status through economic revival and the build-up of the military.

Jews, who were viewed in Nazi ideology as a separate and dangerous “race,” went from being German citizens with full equal rights to outcasts. They were pressured to immigrate and excluded from the racially based “people’s community” that gave many Germans, especially youth, a sense of belonging. Other excluded groups included Roma, persons with disabilities, gay men, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and political opponents.

During World War II, which began in 1939, German military conquests and alliances endangered Jews living in countries across German-dominated Europe. The German invasion of the Soviet Union in summer 1941, envisioned by Nazi leaders and the German military as a “war of annihilation,” was a key turning point on the path to the genocide of Europe’s Jews. The murder of 6 million Jewish men, women, and children required the active participation or acquiescence of countless Germans and Europeans from all walks of life.


Sunday, October 05, 2025

For Britain’s Jews, a New and Deadly Sign of Rising Antisemitism

THE NEW YORK TIMES: In the hours after an attack, a blanket of fear and grief fell over synagogues and Jewish community centers across the country.

When Manchester, England, joined Boulder, Colorado, Washington and other cities in the tragic roll call of anti-Jewish violence on Thursday, British Jews were shocked and saddened by the recognition that antisemitism, already on the rise in their country, had mutated again into something deadlier.

Like other European countries and the United States, Britain has recorded a marked rise in antisemitic incidents in the nearly two years since the attack by Hamas militants on civilians in Israel and the Israeli military campaign in Gaza that followed.

There had been no recent acts of targeted violence at synagogues in Britain, although Jewish people and places of worship have featured in several terrorist plots thwarted by the police over the past decade.

“We haven’t had an incident like this here,” said David Feldman, the co-director of the Birkbeck Institute for the Study of Antisemitism in London. “This is, in the most literal sense, extraordinary.” » | Mark Landler | Reporting from London | Thursday, October 2, 2025

Saturday, October 04, 2025

Why Didn't the Jews Leave Nazi Germany?

May 17, 2024 | After twenty years of teaching about the Holocaust, a number of questions keep recurring. One of the most persistent is why German Jews, after suffering years of abuse and discrimination under the Nazis didn't just leave the country? Tragically, it was not that simple.

Friday, October 03, 2025

ITV News Obtains First Photo Believed to Show Manchester Synagogue Attacker Jihad Al-Shamie

Oct 2, 2025 | ITV News can exclusively reveal the first image of the Manchester synagogue attacker, who has been identified as Jihad Al-Shamie.

In a statement, Greater Manchester Police confirmed that, although formal identification is yet to take place, they believe the person responsible for Thursday's attack is the 35-year-old.

According to the force he is "a British citizen of Syrian descent".

ITV News understands he was a father and his family had lived in Greater Manchester for at least 30 years. His father appears to have worked as a trauma surgeon for several NGOs in warzones across the world. Al-Shamie appears to have worked as a tutor teaching English and computer programming.

Greater Manchester Police confirmed that according to their records, Jihad Al-Shamie had no previous Prevent referrals - that means authorities were not aware that he was at risk of becoming involved with terrorism through radicalisation.



Israel blames Starmer after synagogue terror attack: Suspect shot dead after killing two people in car and knife rampage at Yom Kippur service in Manchester »

Manchester Attack: Two Killed and Four Injured after Terrorist Drives into Grounds of Synagogue and Stabs Worshippers

THE GIARDIAN: Police say Jihad Al-Shamie, a British citizen of Syrian descent, was behind car and knife attack that left four people seriously injured

Police have shot dead a terrorist who killed two people and seriously injured four others in an attack at a synagogue in Manchester on Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar.

Using a car to ram into the grounds of the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation synagogue in Crumpsall, the man then stabbed worshippers in a six-minute rampage that only ended when armed officers shot at him twice, fearing he also had an explosive device tied to his chest. It was later found to be a fake.

Police named the attacker on Thursday night as Jihad Al-Shamie, 35, a British citizen of Syrian descent. Greater Manchester Police revealed that three other people – two men in their 30s and a woman in her 60s – had been arrested “on suspicion of commission, preparation and instigation of acts of terrorism”.

It is understood the attacker entered the United Kingdom as a young child and was granted British citizenship in 2006. » | Josh Halliday, Chris Osuh, Emine Sinmaz, Vikram Dodd, Hannah Al-Othman, Robyn Vinter and Dan Sabbagh | Thursday, October 2, 2025

Sunday, August 31, 2025

Has Gaza Made the UN Irrelevant? | Jeffrey Sachs | Real Talk

Aug 29, 2025 | The overwhelming will of the world is for a state of Palestine now… I want it to be imposed on Israel, pure and simple."

Jeffrey Sachs joins Real Talk to discuss Israel’s genocide in Gaza, America’s complicity, and why he believes the UN still offers a hope for peace.

The renowned economist and public policy analyst explains why Israel “does not speak for me” as a Jew, the danger of conflating criticism of Israel with antisemitism, and why he’s pushing for Palestinian statehood to be imposed through international law.

Real Talk is hosted by Mohamed Hashem.


Tuesday, August 26, 2025

Iran Directed Arson Attacks in Australia and ‘Fanned the Flames’ of Antisemitism, Country’s Spy Chief Says

THE GUARDIAN: Iranian ambassador expelled from Canberra as Albanese government announces it will list IRGC as terrorist organisation

The Iranian government “lit the matches and fanned the flames” of antisemitism in Australia, directing at least two arson attacks in the last year – on a Melbourne synagogue and a Sydney Jewish restaurant – Australia’s spy chief has said.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Tehran’s paramilitary defenders of the 1979 revolution, will be proscribed by Australia as a terrorist organisation.

As Australia’s prime minister announced his government had expelled the Iranian ambassador, on Tuesday local time, the head of the Australian Security and Intelligence Organisation (Asio), Mike Burgess, said Tehran was “likely” behind even more antisemitic attacks across the country.

Iranian diplomats posted to Australia were not involved, Burgess said. » | Ben Doherty | Tuesday, August 25, 2025

France Has ‘No Lessons to Take’ from US on Tackling Antisemitism, Says Minister

THE GUARDIAN: Comments come after US ambassador accused government of failing to do enough to stem hate crimes against Jews

Cabinet ministers and Jewish groups have said France has “no lessons to take” from the US on tackling antisemitism, as Washington’s ambassador to Paris was summoned after accusing the government of failing to do enough to stem hate crimes against Jews.

Charles Kushner, who is Jewish, was ordered to report to the foreign ministry on Monday after he wrote a letter to Emmanuel Macron criticising a “lack of sufficient action” by the government to confront the “dramatic rise” in antisemitism in France.

“In France, not a day passes without Jews assaulted in the street, synagogues or schools defaced, or Jewish-owned businesses vandalised,” Kushner, whose son Jared is Donald Trump’s son-in-law, said in the letter, published in the Washington Post on Sunday.

He urged the French president to enforce hate-crime laws and tone down criticism of Israel, saying Macron’s pledge that France would formally recognise a Palestinian state at the UN in September had further fuelled antisemitic incidents in France.

French diplomatic sources told Agence-France Presse that since Kushner was not in Paris on Monday, the US embassy’s chargé d’affaires attended the ministry in his place. The summoning of an ambassador is considered a formal and public notice of displeasure on the part of the host government. » | Jon Henley, Europe correspondent | Monday, August 25, 2025

Liens connexes/Related links ici/here.

Convocation de l’ambassadeur américain à Paris : Charles Kushner envoie son chargé d’affaires pour le remplacer : Le diplomate américain était convoqué ce lundi au Quai d’Orsay après l’envoi d’un courrier critiquant vivement l’action du gouvernement français face à l’augmentation des actes antisémites. »

Tuesday, July 29, 2025

Jewish Father Attacked by Mob at Italian Service Station

THE GUARDIAN: Man said chants began when a cashier shouted ‘Free Palestine’ after noticing he and his son were wearing kippahs

A Jewish father and his six-year-old son were targeted by a mob on Sunday chanting “Free Palestine” and “murderers” at a service station near Milan, with the man eventually pushed to the floor and repeatedly kicked, in the latest of a sharp rise in antisemitic incidents across Europe.

According to the victim – a 52-year-old French Jew who lives in France and gave his name only as Elie– the incident began when a cashier shouted “Free Palestine”, upon noticing that he and his son were wearing kippahs. » | Lorenzo Tondo in Palermo | Tuesday, July 29, 2025

Friday, July 18, 2025

France 1942: When the Police Deported Their Own – Historical Documentary

Jul 16, 2025 | July 16, 1942: 13,000 arrests in 48 hours.


VÉL D’HIV (THE VÉLODROME D’HIVER): The Vélodrome d'Hiver (or "Vél d'Hiv") roundup was the largest French deportation of Jews during the Holocaust. It took place in Paris on July 16–17, 1942. Read about it here

Tuesday, March 11, 2025

Germany 1933: The Rise of Hitler and the Persecution of the Jewish People | Slice Full Documentary

Feb 5, 2025 | Germany, 1933. Adolf Hitler, at the head of the Nazi Party, has just become Chancellor and is faced with leading a republic in the throes of economic crisis and rampant inflation. He used the cult of personality nurtured by his propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels, who spread the Nazi’s xenophobic and anti-Semitic ideology which Hitler had been touting since the First World War and which he reiterated in Mein Kampf: the Jews, he claimed, were part of an international conspiracy against Germany.

He would use the power of the German state, which had become the Third Reich in 1934, to progressively exclude the 600,000 German citizens of Jewish origin from society, first by forcing them to emigrate, then annihilating them.

Physical violence against Jews became widespread from the summer of 1935, the growing number of exactions leaving German society largely indifferent. Meanwhile, in the interior ministry, Nazis lawyers defined what it mean to be Jewish, thereby identifying who should be excluded. The Nuremberg laws of September 1935 notably withdrew German nationality from the country’s Jews.

On 12 March 1938, the Third Reich annexed Austria without encountering any opposition, and without the slightest reaction on the part of Western democracies. Eichmann set up a central bureau to force Austria’s 100,000 Jews to emigrate, leaving behind all their possessions which were seized by the Reich.

But Western democracies were not prepared to welcome the refugees, and the Evian conference, initiated in July 1938 by US president Franklin Roosevelt, was doomed to failure. As a neutral country bordering Germany, Switzerland called for the passports of Jews fleeing the Reich to be stamped with a “J”, so it could refuse them entry for fear of them wishing to stay in the country.

Documentary: Annihilation EP1 : The End of Illusions (2016)
Director: William Karel & Blanche Finger
Production: ZADIG PRODUCTIONS


Tuesday, January 28, 2025

Eighty Years after Holocaust: Jewish Life in Germany Still Faces Threats | DW News

Jan 27, 2025 | Today marks 80 years since the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp, recognized in Germany as a nationwide day of remembrance for the victims of the Nazi regime. But even now, Germany’s synagogues and Jewish institutions still require police protection due to antisemitic attacks and threats. The prospect of the far-right AfD performing strongly in German elections next month have only added to the sense of unease.

Friday, November 08, 2024

Amsterdam Attacks on Israel Football Fans Condemned by Mayor | BBC News

Nov 8, 2024 | Amsterdam's mayor has condemned "hit and run" attacks on Israeli football fans visiting the city.

Mayor Femke Halsema said the city is looking back at a "black night and a dark day". She said men on scooters roamed the city attacking supporters after trouble between Maccabi Tel Aviv football club fans and pro-Palestinian protesters.

Amsterdam police chief Peter Holla said Maccabi supporters attacked a taxi and set a Palestinian flag on fire on Wednesday.



Related articles here.

Jews Kicked, Beaten and Humiliated: How a Night of ‘Pogrom’ in Amsterdam Unfolded

THE TELEGRAPH: Fans of Maccabi Tel Aviv were subjected to attacks by pro-Palestine hooligans before and after their team’s Europa League match against Ajax

One unconscious man is kicked in the back. Another pleads for mercy in a narrow alleyway before being punched in the head. And a third Israeli citizen is made to shout “Free Palestine” after jumping into a canal to save himself.

Amsterdam is reeling from what has been called a “Jew hunt” and “ pogrom” on its streets that has rekindled memories of Europe’s darkest hours.

After Maccabi Tel Aviv had played a Europa League match against Ajax on Thursday night, Israeli fans were chased with knives, humiliated and assaulted across the Dutch capital.

“I am ashamed,” said Femke Halsema, the mayor of Amsterdam, as she described hit-and-run attacks on the Israeli fans, announcing a temporary ban on protests. » | Henry Samuel, James Crisp, Europe Editor | Friday, November 8, 2024

LE FIGARO :

Supporteurs de football israéliens agressés à Amsterdam : ce que l’on sait des faits : Emmanuel Macron a condamné «fermement» ce vendredi les violences subies par les supporters israéliens jeudi soir en marge d’un match de football entre l’Ajax et le Maccabi Tel-Aviv. »