Nazism Is Not a Thing of the Past in Europe

For many in Europe, the Holocaust is hardly a thing of the past. Strains of the virulent and violent anti-Semitism that gave rise to the gas chambers at Auschwitz are still very much alive, and while the chances of a return of a plan to exterminate European Jewry are virtually nil, paranoia over the destructive power of this hatred is very much in order.

This weekend, Holocaust memorials in Warsaw, Poland were defaced with multi-lingual anti-Semitic graffiti declaring "Jew Out" and "Hitler Good." Last year, the "Arbeit Macht Frei" sign was stolen from the front gates of Auschwitz. A right-wing presidential candidate in Austria was recently forced to denounce Nazism after commenting on her desire to lift the country's anti-Nazi laws (she also happens to be married to a prominent former neo-Nazi), and the government of Hungary recently passed a law banning Holocaust denial.

Many Americans have difficulty understanding bans on Holocaust denial and Nazi activity in Europe, but this loyalty to freedom of speech -- not in itself a bad thing -- lacks context. The massive world war brought on by the Nazis destroyed much of Europe, and the genocide of Jews, homosexuals, the Roma people, and other social "undesirables" happened to their people, on their soil, and often with their participation or complicity. The effects of the ensuing post-war trauma and paranoia -- if it happened once, it could happen again -- are not easy to grasp from this side of the pond.

We can speak of tolerating hate speech as the price for free speech, but American hate groups never amassed the level of power that the Nazis did in Europe, even in the (substantial, and not to be undermined) heyday of the KKK in the American South. Laws against Nazi activity are an expression of the will of the people in European countries -- a will traumatized by the very real and tangible history of hatred and destruction.

Photo credit: Institute of National Remembrance, Polish child in the ruins of Warsaw, 1939.