Opinion: France and another roundup of Jews
Paris conference just another attempt by Europeans to solve the 'Jewish Question'.
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| NEVER FORGET - NEVER FORGIVE - NEVER AGAIN - PM (ADD-ON) |
Honest, I thought they were kidding when I read that leaders from 70
countries were heading for Paris to once and for all solve “The Jewish
Question.”
The meeting took place on Sunday and yes, it wasn’t put quite like that; they have it as a Paris Conference to solve the Israeli/Arab issue – as if they really have Israel’s best interests at heart. This is baloney. All they care about is some new trick to divide Israel out of existence. The paperwork has already been done.
First of all, 70 countries? How many bigots can you squeeze into one room? Apparently most of the world.
So that’s the story. They have nothing better to do than zoom in on six and a half million Jews at home in the Jewish State. That Obama is a part if this makes is doubly obnoxious.
Trump will have to fix this and pronto.
That these Jews live with nearly two million Arabs in the only democracy in the Middle East – never mind.
That the Arab/Israeli conflict is the least important issue facing the world at the moment – forget this too.
It’s about nostalgia. The French and the rest of them can’t get over the good old days when Jews could be rounded up and TRANSPORTED to Auschwitz.
The Wannsee Conference comes to mind and if you don’t know what happened there we’ll talk about it some other time.
Except that it was at Wannsee where Hitler’s top lieutenants got together to discuss how best to TRANSPORT Europe’s entire Jewish Population.
We know the result. No amount of diplomatic double-speak can hide the fact that this is the same Europe all over again.
Why am I bringing up Wannsee when more to the point, for me personally at least, I should be bringing up Vel’ d’Hiv. This was a French indoor bicycle stadium that was used by the French as a way station, a first stop toward transport to the death camps.
Jews brought there had no food, no water, no air, no pity, no hope. They had nothing but horror. (Drancy was another and actually the first transport stop.)
The history books have it as the Vel’ d’Hiv Roundup, or The Roundup of Paris, but my family needs no history book to know what happened.
Over a period of two days and nights, July 16/17, 1942, more than 13,000 Jews were rounded up for transport – among them 4,000 children and infants.
The Gestapo were delighted. They had asked for only about half that number. The French had never been so efficient.
Our home was Toulouse. This was the Free Zone according to Vichy. Free Zone?
“Not at all,” says Sarah. “The Gestapo were all over the place. They were directing traffic on my way to school – in German.”
Jews were being picked off along the streets. Everybody waited for the knock on the door. We were next…and all of it happened awfully fast.
One day you’re a proper citizen of France surrounded by hospitable Christian neighbors. Next day you’re a criminal.
Altogether more than 70,000 Jews living in France were handed over to the Gestapo throughout the war.
My sister covers it in her memoir “Sarah and Abraham.” I tell it in my memoir “Escape From Mount Moriah.”
The film “The Sorrow and the Pity” documents France’s shame. Alain Delon tells it well in the movie drama “Mr. Klein.”
So this is a big story and it is nothing new. It is simply happening again. Once again the nations are disturbed.
They are disturbed by the fact that the Jewish people can’t be rounded up for transport. It used to be so simple.
Now the Jews have a home – Israel. This is what irks them and here they come again to fix their “Jewish Problem.”
So I have a personal say in this and I say France’s shame will endure longer than a meeting on Sunday. This is a shame unforgivable and everlasting.
Ditto the rest of this heartless world.
New York-based bestselling American novelist Jack Engelhard writes a regular column for Arutz Sheva. New from the novelist: “News Anchor Sweetheart,” a novelist’s version of Fox News and Megyn Kelly. Engelhard is the author of the international bestseller “Indecent Proposal.” He is the recipient of the Ben Hecht Award for Literary Excellence. Website: www.jackengelhard.com
The meeting took place on Sunday and yes, it wasn’t put quite like that; they have it as a Paris Conference to solve the Israeli/Arab issue – as if they really have Israel’s best interests at heart. This is baloney. All they care about is some new trick to divide Israel out of existence. The paperwork has already been done.
First of all, 70 countries? How many bigots can you squeeze into one room? Apparently most of the world.
So that’s the story. They have nothing better to do than zoom in on six and a half million Jews at home in the Jewish State. That Obama is a part if this makes is doubly obnoxious.
Trump will have to fix this and pronto.
That these Jews live with nearly two million Arabs in the only democracy in the Middle East – never mind.
That the Arab/Israeli conflict is the least important issue facing the world at the moment – forget this too.
It’s about nostalgia. The French and the rest of them can’t get over the good old days when Jews could be rounded up and TRANSPORTED to Auschwitz.
The Wannsee Conference comes to mind and if you don’t know what happened there we’ll talk about it some other time.
Except that it was at Wannsee where Hitler’s top lieutenants got together to discuss how best to TRANSPORT Europe’s entire Jewish Population.
We know the result. No amount of diplomatic double-speak can hide the fact that this is the same Europe all over again.
Why am I bringing up Wannsee when more to the point, for me personally at least, I should be bringing up Vel’ d’Hiv. This was a French indoor bicycle stadium that was used by the French as a way station, a first stop toward transport to the death camps.
Jews brought there had no food, no water, no air, no pity, no hope. They had nothing but horror. (Drancy was another and actually the first transport stop.)
The history books have it as the Vel’ d’Hiv Roundup, or The Roundup of Paris, but my family needs no history book to know what happened.
Over a period of two days and nights, July 16/17, 1942, more than 13,000 Jews were rounded up for transport – among them 4,000 children and infants.
The Gestapo were delighted. They had asked for only about half that number. The French had never been so efficient.
Our home was Toulouse. This was the Free Zone according to Vichy. Free Zone?
“Not at all,” says Sarah. “The Gestapo were all over the place. They were directing traffic on my way to school – in German.”
Jews were being picked off along the streets. Everybody waited for the knock on the door. We were next…and all of it happened awfully fast.
One day you’re a proper citizen of France surrounded by hospitable Christian neighbors. Next day you’re a criminal.
Altogether more than 70,000 Jews living in France were handed over to the Gestapo throughout the war.
My sister covers it in her memoir “Sarah and Abraham.” I tell it in my memoir “Escape From Mount Moriah.”
The film “The Sorrow and the Pity” documents France’s shame. Alain Delon tells it well in the movie drama “Mr. Klein.”
So this is a big story and it is nothing new. It is simply happening again. Once again the nations are disturbed.
They are disturbed by the fact that the Jewish people can’t be rounded up for transport. It used to be so simple.
Now the Jews have a home – Israel. This is what irks them and here they come again to fix their “Jewish Problem.”
So I have a personal say in this and I say France’s shame will endure longer than a meeting on Sunday. This is a shame unforgivable and everlasting.
Ditto the rest of this heartless world.
New York-based bestselling American novelist Jack Engelhard writes a regular column for Arutz Sheva. New from the novelist: “News Anchor Sweetheart,” a novelist’s version of Fox News and Megyn Kelly. Engelhard is the author of the international bestseller “Indecent Proposal.” He is the recipient of the Ben Hecht Award for Literary Excellence. Website: www.jackengelhard.com