German Police Cadets claim Holocaust Overload

[zgrams at zgrams.zundelsite.org]

-- 


Anti-Semitism charges shake German police / 
globalnews/gn_archives/2007/03/gn_070321_german.html

21 March 2007

Berlin's police authorities have launched an investigation into 
reports of anti-Semitism at a police academy in the German capital.

"If these accusations prove correct, there will be consequences," 
warned police commissioner Dieter Glietsch, who was said to be angry 
that he had not been informed of the recent events at the Berlin 
police training school.

There have been a number of reports of latent anti-Semitism among 
police trainees. In late February, officers apparently responded to a 
compulsory class on the Third Reich by saying that they were bored of 
being constantly reminded of the Holocaust and that Jews were known 
to be wealthy. Classes on xenophobia and Germany's Nazi past are part 
of the school's curriculum and trainees are obliged to attend the 
lectures. These regularly feature accounts of eyewitnesses and 
survivors.

Holocaust survivor Isaak Behar, who has been giving talks at schools 
for many years, told the 'Berliner Zeitung' newspaper that the 
alleged anti-Semitic comments his talk in February elicited were not 
the first he had heard. But he added: "I am satisfied with the way 
the school's teachers and director responded, and in particular by 
the police president's reaction."

Berlin rabbi Andreas Nachama told the same newspaper that the 
incident was symptomatic of a wider trend in German society. "A rise 
in anti-Semitism is apparent everywhere," he said. "This is both 
regrettable and disturbing."

However, official statistics show that anti-Semitic offenses have 
fallen in recent years, with the figure dropping from 326 incidents 
in 2005 to 274 in 2006.

Meanwhile, the Jewish publicist Michel Friedman has accused the state 
governor of Hessen, Roland Koch, of not saying anything about a 
recent scandal involving Friedman's former bodyguards, who were 
discovered wearing Nazi uniforms and having Nazi music on their 
computers. The security men are members of Frankfurt's police force 
and currently under investigation. Friedman criticized the silence of 
the conservative government of Koch, which is in charge of 
Frankfurt's police. Koch refused to comment, saying "Not every issue 
on which Mr. Friedman chooses to comment requires a reaction by the 
governor."


\