German Holocaust studies have always been interesting, to say the least. There’s always been an attempt on the part of German historians, while they deplore the excesses of the Holocaust, to “put the event in context”. This typically involves lengthy recountings of the Allied bombings of German cities during the war, and the raping and pillaging of various portions of Eastern Germany by the Soviets in the last months of the war. The point that these events weren’t connected to the Holocaust (the Allies bombed to cripple German industry, whether the attacks were well-conceived or not, and the Soviets were retaliating for German atrocities in their country, not restricted to just Jews) seems lost on German historians, who desperately grasp for a cultural reletavism thing, and try to insist that the bombings, for instance, were morally equivalent to the killing of the Jews at Auschwitz.
So this latest round of cultural relativism silliness doesn’t surprise me. Much of the previous generation of Germany wasn’t a Nazi the same way this Bosl character wasn’t. They were Nazis when it was convenient, and probably were what I call “courteous anti-semites” before the advent of Naziism and then acquiesced in the Holocaust when it was proposed by others. A “courteous anti-semite” wouldn’t try to kill all the Jews, and he might have business dealings with one (buying a wedding ring for his wife from the Jew who runs the jewelry store, for instance) but he would never allow his children to play with Jewish kids, and he’d certainly not invite any Jews to that dinner party he’s holding next week. Anyway, this type of anti-semite acquiesced in the Holocaust, but at the end of the war was indignant at the idea that they would be held responsible for anything anyone else did. The point that an honest, decent, honorable person would have *stopped* what occurred never seems to have entered their minds.
The irony here is that Muslim extremists, themselves, are among the current world’s worst anti-semites themselves. Equating their prejudice with criticism or caution when dealing with them is perverse, to say the least.
