I Approve My Tax Dollars to do that: Prevent Another Holocaust

“Get the stench out of Greece”

When learning about Nazi Germany in middle and high school, I found the world’s initial refusal to get involved one of the most repulsive aspects of the Holocaust. Nations closed their eyes to the isolating, confining and eventual exterminating of Jews and other minorities in concentration camps. Looking back, one may ask how we let such an atrocity occur. How did we not see what the Third Reich was doing? Why didn’t anyone intervene sooner?

They say history repeats itself. So if we had the opportunity to prevent another Holocaust, should we? I think we should.

Concentration camp detainees. 

Photo credit: http://moot.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/holocaust.jpg 

Jews were rounded up like cattle and packed onto trains that shipped them to what began as concentration camps and later became extermination camps. 

Photo credit: http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/red/blue_pics/2008/09/03/Holocaust276.jpg 

Corpses that better resemble Halloween decorations than people after having been confined to a concentration camp. 

Photo credit: http://isurvived.org/Pictures_iSurvived-4/HOLOCAUST-2corpses.GIF 

Sixty-seven years after the end of World War II and the fall of the Nazi Regime, the nationalist group Golden Dawn is setting a similar stage in Greece. The group won its first-ever seats in Greek Parliament this past spring and has become increasingly popular in a country crippled by financial crisis ever since. 22 percent of Greeks view the party favorably (http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/anti-immigrant-golden-dawn-rises-in-greece/2012/10/20/e7128296-17a6-11e2-a346-f24efc680b8d_story.html). The group orchestrates violent attacks on immigrants, which are often condoned by sympathetic police. (http://www.businessinsider.com/bbc-newsnight-report-on-golden-dawn-violence-2012-10) They vandalize immigrant-owned shops. They provide legal counsel to tenants wanting to evict their immigrant tenants. They also provide much-needed aid exclusively to those of Greek ancestry in a time of spiking poverty and unemployment (http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/anti-immigrant-golden-dawn-rises-in-greece/2012/10/20/e7128296-17a6-11e2-a346-f24efc680b8d_story.html ). Sound familiar?

Supporters rallying for Golden Dawn. Similar economic conditions in the early part of the 20th century precipitated Hitler's rise to power in Germany so there is reason to think that another violent, nationalist extremist group will once again assume authority. 

Photo credit: http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2012/5/6/1336336568882/Golden-Dawn-supporters-008.jpg

With 50-60% of the police force said to be in support of the group, immigrants have little recourse (http://www.businessinsider.com/bbc-newsnight-report-on-golden-dawn-violence-2012-10). Broke and essentially powerless, the Greek government has little motivation to pursue the group and its alleged attacks (http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/anti-immigrant-golden-dawn-rises-in-greece/2012/10/20/e7128296-17a6-11e2-a346-f24efc680b8d_story.html). If Greece either refuses to take action or buckles under financial pressure, the UN needs to get involved against Golden Dawn. Its symbol, a modified swastika, is a flagrant insult to victims of the Holocaust and shows its willingness to associate itself with the Third Reich. Based on such obvious desire to equate themselves with that regime, there is no telling to what extent the group will go to purge Greek of immigrants. The world appeased Hitler, thinking the situation would resolve. It didn’t. Millions had to die before the world finally intervened. Now in 2012, we cannot allow ourselves to appease Golden Dawn.   

Golden Dawn's party symbol. Notice its blatant resemblance to the swastika.

Photo Credit: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/b/b7/Chrisi_Avgi_Logo.svg/150px-Chrisi_Avgi_Logo.svg.png

I approve my tax dollars to do that: prevent another Holocaust.