n e r b l e

And you wonder why so many Americans hate the french.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satelli...256783&apage=1

While on a tour of the museum at the Auschwitz death camp in Poland on Sunday, a group of around 50 Jewish university students from Israel, the U.S. and Poland were verbally attacked by a three-member gang of French male tourists.

Evidently incited by the presence of an Israeli flag wrapped around the shoulders of Tamar Schuri, an Israeli student from Ben Gurion University, the first assailant ran at the group while its members were being guided through a model gas chamber and crematoria and began swearing and hurling anti-Semitic and anti-Israeli insults.

"He told us to go back to Israel and said that we were stupid and should be ashamed to walk around with an Israeli flag," testifies Maya Ober, a 21-year-old Polish student at the Academy of Fine Arts in Poznan and member of the Polish Union of Jewish Students (PUSZ), which organized the 16-day summer learning program along with the World Union of Jewish Students (WUJS).

After the initial altercation, a second assailant
grabbed Ober by the arm. "One of the guys held me by the arm and wouldn't let go," says Ober, who lost several members of her family at Auschwitz. "I was afraid. I couldn't move and I didn't know what he was going to do.

"I was shocked. Although I have met anti-Semitism many times, I never expected to meet it at Auschwitz, where so many of my relatives were killed," she says she spoke to the assailants in French and that in addition to being "brutish and vulgar," their sentiments "made absolutely no sense."

"Violence was narrowly averted," adds Laurence
Weinbaum, Director of Research at the World Jewish
Congress and resident scholar for the group, who says the Polish police were not notified of the incident because the assailants did not commit an actual crime.

"But, if the two sides hadn't been separated, it would have come to blows."

Weinbaum, who has been to Poland more than 30 times on educational tours, says he never before saw anything like what happened, happen. "It was simply shocking," he says. "In some way, I felt that these men were satisfied to visit Auschwitz. This was another reminder that in Western Europe there is sympathy for dead Jews; it's just the live ones that they cannot tolerate."

"This event shocked me," adds 24-year-old tour
participant Yigael Ben-Natan from Zichron Yaacov, a recent graduate from the University of Haifa. "But, it bought into focus a small part of what it's like to be a Jew in the Diaspora today and a little bit about what it was like to be a Jew in the Diaspora during the Holocaust.

"Auschwitz is a place where everyone who visits shows a certain degree of respect," he says. "These people's total disregard for the feelings of the people who come here, especially the Jews who come here to mourn, is horrible. But, I suppose some people don't come to mourn; some people come for completely different reason, which we cannot completely comprehend."

The students on the tour, which came as part of a
year-long educational project funded by the Claims
Conference for Lost Jewish Property and the JDC,
gathered together in Poland to learn about the history of its Jewish community, to participate in the revival of the country's contemporary Jewish community by strengthening its ties to Israel and the American Diaspora and to work to restore the Jewish cemetery near Krakow, Czchow, which unlike the neighboring Christian cemetery, hasn't been properly maintained since the Holocaust.

"These students went out there to learn what is
happening and unfortunately, they learned a more
practical lesson than we would have liked," says Peleg Reshef, Chairperson for WUJS. "The fact that someone could say all of the things that these men said at the Holocaust museum at Auschwitz, is unthinkable.

"But, we are trying to teach our students to learn
from other cultures and to proud of who they are and I am proud to say that they stood up and said that they were proud to be Jewish, that they were proud to be Israeli and that they were proud to bear our national flag."

*perfect

That is utterly horrible. Though, I wish they hadn't of mentioned that the men were French, being that some people are ignorant enough to put a bad sentiment on the nationality merely for the actions of three idiots. Please find yourself some logic.

*Ledi*

I'm sorry but I think that was totally unnecessary.. and rude.

And I didn't really know that Americans hate "the french"?

imajica

I think that its incredibly sad that people would act this way in such a place. Its a terrible fact that there are ignorant people all over the world. I really don't think that it is fair however to attribute the stupid actions of a few to a whole nation.

n e r b l e

after the terrorist attacks americans were supposed to ask themselves why they hate us. well so should the french.

*Ledi*

I really think you should stop talking for your whole country, cause its not true, and its very rude. And I haven't met any other American who hates "the french"... well, besides you.

sick little jag

I don't know why you felt the need to say americans hate the french. I, as an american, don't hate the french. I think hating them just because they didn't agree to back us up on this unesscesary war in Iraq doesn't mean we have reason to hate them. If you want to dislike them because of how much Anti-semitism goes on over there, be my guest. I however, don't hold it against the rest of them for the actions of a few *******s.

I know that anti-semitism is a big problem over in France, and I also know that they are doing things to try and correct that problem.

However, this is so horrible. Someone verbally attacking a group of mourners visiting Auschwitz is so low. They do deserve some extrodinarily painful comeupance.

n e r b l e

actually 1) every person i talk to agrees with me on the french. HOWEVER i also posted "so many Americans" not ALL americans b/c i knew that there were people out there who disagreed with me.

also just to prove that this isn't just some crazy thing i came up w/

http://www.i-hate-france.com

http://www.francesucks.net/

the quote "cheese eating surrender monkeys" and weird al's "genius in france"

"i hate france" googles 3,700 whereas "I hate germany" is under 600. however an astounding 5,700 results for "i hate america."

if you'd like to know why i personally dislike the country it's b/c they're a dictator propping, anti semitic country that hasn't done anything for us since the US's emancipation from england.

TheAngel

I don't like the government of France and the people of Paris...I've been there, know what I'm talking about.
However the people up north, in Normandy are wonderful people. I don't like the government because...alright, they could have not agreed with our occupation of Iraq, that's fine, but they insult us, call us every name in the book, and the next time they're in trouble they'll be crawling and asking us to bail them out. The people of Paris will go out of their way to be rude and crude to Americans, at least they were while I was there, and in general it is a very uncomfortable place to be.
This act is terrible and I feel sorry that things like this are still happening, however their nationality is relevant because if they had been American than people would say something about those filthy americans, if they had been German people would be calling them Nazis.

Timeo

nerble, I find it terribly sad, and somewhat pathetic, that you're using the recountings of these people's misfortunes as a platform to attack another nation and its peoples. While I find it terribly offensive that these French tourists would speak such rude and disrespectful language at such an inappropriate location, I find it despicable as well that you're using this unfortunate happening to bad mouth a nation and its citizens as well. When American tourists visit my home city and make an ass of themselves and ruin the fun of local citizens, I don't go "Ugh, all Americans are like this: loud-mouth, ignorant and stupid people who know nothing." I judge on individual bases. If you're going to take this one event and make a big fuss out of it, I think you'll be saddened when you hear about all the stupid and rude things that Americans do elsewhere.

The people of Paris were incredibly nice to me when I was there, and no, I didn't display any Canadian flags so that they would like me, nor speak French to them. I acted like a normal English-speaking tourist. No hate. No rudeness. No crudeness. Unlike you, I found Paris to be one of the most comfortable places that I've been in in a while. It's a matter of perspective I guess.

And...the United States is not a dictatory propping, anti-Palestiian country that hasn't done anything for France since WW2?

n e r b l e

and i find it sad timeo that you don't seem to realize how bad the anti-semitism is in france nor do you seem to care. to you this is an out of hand incident completely ignoring all the jewish churches that have been attacked and the feirce anti-semitism in that country.

and please, tell me which dictators that america has propped up under republican adminsitrations? iraq? why yes, after jimmy carter did such a fine job of allowing the once conservative iran to fall into the regime that they are now. and we went in and finally took care of sadaam but not without carping from the left ad infinitum, and still even now. and what about fidel castro? ah, the misunderstood child of the left. yes, we do prop dictators but we are far more likely to do so under democrat adminsitrations and a million times more likely to try to oust them than france.

and please tell me why i should be pro pallestine when their self admitted raison d'etre is to kill all jews?

and let's compare less than 60 years ago to oh, say almost 200.

Timeo

I do know of the history of anti-semitism found in France, and pretty much all over the Western world. There have been anti-semetic attacks found in Canada, Australia, USA, Britain and all the other countries as well, but you don't go around saying that the British suck or that the Canadians suck because of the actions of a few. Guilt by associated nationality is ridiculous.

I never defined it to solely republican administrations that propped up dictators and their associated governments. I said "And...the United States is not a dictatory propping...country..."? Stop trying to narrow it to something where it wasn't before. It's not working.

But since you asked, uh how about Noriega in Panama, Pinochet in Chile, Qaddafi in Libya, Nasser in Egypt...need I go on?

Enigma, I.C.

Tim, you forgot about Ronald Reagan giving chemical weapons and millions of dollars to our old friend Saddam Hussein and supporting the terrorist "Contras" in Nicaragua and death squads in El Salvador. Also, Eisenhower presided over the overthrow of (the freely elected) Arbenz in Guatemala and Mossadegh in Iran.

Timeo

Haha. Oh right. Yeah those too, before I forget.

n e r b l e

ok. and when we went to depose sadaam who screamed bloody murder? when we went to fix our mistakes who was against it? that's right. the french and the democrats.

also the contras were in an attempts (albiet a bad one) to free american prisoners. and the contras he was supporting were trying to overthrow a dictator also.

as for Mossadegh he was a friend of stalin, whom we expected to funnel oil to the soviets. and Arbenz was a communist who spent the rest of his life after being overthrown in cuba, a revered friend of castro.