European soccer has long dealt with a vile, bigoted thread of thug fandom, but this minutes-long chant by “dozens” of Utrecht fans describes a stirring of that fascist remnant growing larger, more ominous. Imagine, say, the notorious Philadelphia Eagles fans carrying on like this. You can’t, because this sort of thing isn’t occurring here — our obnoxious fans stop several miles short of genocide these days.
Now imagine what life is like for Dutch Jews today, many of whom must have been in the stadium. Europe is at a crossroads.
The chants were documented on Sunday at Galgenwaard Stadium in Utrecht, a city situated 40 miles southeast of the Dutch capital Amsterdam, during an honor division match between Amsterdam’s Ajax team and FC Utrecht, the De Telegraaf daily reported.
Utrecht supporters chanted the slogans to insult rival fans, whom they often call “Jews” because of the historical Jewish presence in Amsterdam, which is sometimes colloquially called “Mokum” after the Yiddish word for “place.”
During the match, dozens could be seen and heard chanting: “My father was in the commandos, my mother was in the SS, together they burned Jews cause Jews burn the best” and “Hamas, Hamas, Jews to the gas.” The chanting went on for several minutes, according to The Post Online news website.
Here’s video (HT William Jacobson):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQd-hKmpmd0
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