ZGram - 8/14/2003 - "Heil Schwarzenegger?"
zgrams at zgrams.zundelsite.org
zgrams at zgrams.zundelsite.org
Thu Aug 14 02:56:53 EDT 2003
ZGram - Where Truth is Destiny: Now more than ever!
August 14, 2003
Good Morning from the Zundelsite:
When I read articles like the one below, I always think of what
Joseph [Gins]Burg, a German Jew who testified on behalf of the
defense in the Zundel trials of the 1980s, told Ernst: That there
existed "bureaus" all over the world whose sole function was to take
news articles and editorials that had nothing to do with the
"Holocaust" per se, and equip them with a "Holocaust sortie" before
they were unleashed on the wire.
Lookee who's calling the kettle black:
[START]
The cynical manipulation of Hitler's legacy for political purposes
By Zev Chafets
I want to say something about the accusations that California
gubernatorial candidate Arnold Schwarzenegger is - how to put it? -
too Austrian.
But before I do, I need to make something clear about my attitude
toward Austria: I don't like it.
All my life I have endeavored to avoid Austrian products (not hard if
you're not into beer and cookies). I've never visited the place and
don't intend to.
My aim isn't to singlehandedly destroy the Austrian tourist industry.
It's just that hanging out with Adolf Hitler's countrymen isn't my
idea of a relaxing vacation.
I'd probably dislike Austria no matter what kind of country it became
after World War II. But the modern version strikes me as an
unnecessarily nasty place. Decades after Germany took responsibility
for the crimes of the Nazis, Austria still falsely portrays itself as
Hitler's victim instead of his enthusiastic supporter.
The country seems to have a passion for louses. In the 1970s,
Austrian Chancellor Bruno Kreisky was a prominent supporter of Yasser
Arafat and other Arab terrorists. More recently, the neofascist
Freedom Party has been a member in good standing of Austria's
coalition government. That party's leader is Jorg Haider, an admirer
of Hitler and friend of Saddam Hussein's.
Before Haider, there was Kurt Waldheim. The fact that the former UN
secretary general was a Nazi war criminal didn't deter the Austrians
from electing him president in 1986.
Which brings me back to Arnold. Since announcing his candidacy on the
Jay Leno show, he has become the object of a campaign to smear him as
a Nazi sympathizer. The paint comes mostly from "Arnold: An
Unauthorized Biography," written by Wendy Leigh and published in 1990.
Waldheim is the brush.
According to Leigh, Schwarzenegger is close to Waldheim - so close,
in fact, that he invited the ex-Nazi to his Hyannis Port, Mass.,
wedding to Kennedy cousin Maria Shriver. Waldheim thoughtfully didn't
show up, but he did send a gaudy gift. This reportedly prompted
Arnold to declare his love (and Maria's) for Herr Waldheim.
This friendship forms the basis of a politically motivated gambit to
disqualify Arnold from political office. Slate's Timothy Noah summed
up the campaign nicely: "If Schwarzenegger doesn't renounce Waldheim
in a highly public way, he can forget about ever becoming governor of
California."
Really?
Schwarzenegger was born in 1947. He has lived most of his life in the
United States. True, his father was a Nazi police official in the old
country, but that isn't Arnold's fault. In fact, it was Arnold who
outed the old man by asking the Los Angeles - based Simon Wiesenthal
Center to investigate his father's past.
Schwarzenegger himself is a strong supporter of Israel and a generous
contributor to Jewish causes. For this he has been declared kosher by
no less a hardliner than the head of the Wiesenthal Center, Rabbi
Marvin Heir.
Don't get me wrong. I'm not an Arnold fan. I've never liked his
movies or his cheesy public persona. I also don't care who becomes
the next governor of California. To me, it's like the debate over gay
bishops in the Episcopal Church - interesting, but not my problem.
What I do care about is the cynical manipulation of Hitler's legacy
for political purposes. Casting Schwarzenegger as a Nazi sympathizer
- for the greater good of Gov. Gray Davis or any of the other
candidates - is a crime against human memory.
By trivializing evil, California's Holocaust impliers become,
wittingly or not, allies and accomplices of the Holocaust deniers.
(Source: http://www.jewishworldreview.com/0803/chafets_2003_08_13.php3 )
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