Wednesday, March 25, 2009

76 Years Too Late, Bavarian Town Will Vote To Recall "Honorary Citizen" Title from Hitler

B"H

Well, better late than never, I guess.

It seems that there would have been some opportunities over the last 70-odd years to do this, but I guess it just slipped their minds? They didn't think of it? They forgot he was an honorary citizen?

I guess the last one is probably more in keeping with what happened. Who knows?

I know that in the US we still have some really stupid laws still on the books--for example, Nevada had "cattle rustling" and "horse theft" still on the books as capital crimes until a few years back, and I hear that you are not allowed to tie a giraffe to a light pole in Atlanta--but still. Wasn't the whole "genocide" thing something that people wanted to distance themselves from after the war, and don't you think that ONE PERSON would have remembered that the evil Hitler had "honorary citizen" from their town stamped on his passport?

Well, I'm just glad to know this is coming up for a vote. The only question now: what if the vote fails? Today there is such a high rate of anti-Jewish/anti-Israel sentiment in Europe that I am worried about that possibility. Isn't that sad?

When I had my first child, only about 20 years ago, I couldn't imagine a world where he might face a holocaust, a pogrom, or even a time when people cursed him in the streets.

Now, I see such hate against us that I worry every day for the futures of my children and grandchildren in this world where everything, as the Talmud predicted, is upside down. Good is bad, bad is good. Evil is celebrated. Victims are blamed and perpetrators are excused. Even in Israel, murderers go free while Jews who were trying to protect themselves from being killed are imprisoned.

I hope this vote succeeds.

M
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Mayor wants Hitler stripped of honorary citizenship
http://www.ejpress.org/article/35537

BERLIN (AFP)---The mayor of a Bavarian town pushed on Tuesday to put an end to an embarrassing hangover from Germany's dark past: the honorary citizenship of Adolf Hitler, awarded in 1933.

"It can be perceived as a little disconcerting if a place does not officially withdraw the honorary citizenship," Matthias Thuerauf, the mayor of the town of Schwabach, said in a statement.

He said that it might put a strain on the town's relationship with organisations dedicated to remembering victims of World War II.

On Friday, local politicians will vote on the whether or not to recall the title, as well as that of senior Nazi officials Julius Streicher and Adolf Wagner.

Hitler, born in Austria, needed to become German to advance his political career. Other cities which had awarded Hitler honorary citizenship during his totalitarian reign have also revoked it.

Ahead of the 2007 G8 meeting in the German town of Heiligendamm, the town council of Bad Doberan -- to which Heiligendamm belongs -- voted unanimously to revoke the honorary citizenship conferred on Hitler in 1932.

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