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Alex Klaushofer's avatar

I too find the hostility to making references to Nazism in the current crisis inappropriate and rather telling. (For background: I'm half Austrian and my PhD involved rather a lot of research into the subject). For me, the point is not to attempt any kind of exact comparison - history never actually repeats itself - but to see patterns in human behaviour and history from which we can learn. In this case, the history is recent and took place in the same part of the world. To me, it's no coincidence that the most oppressive measures in Europe are being led by Austria and Germany. And Macron is doing the same, claiming 'the unvaccinated' are not citizens.

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Anneliese Gordon's avatar

Well, you're brave!! I am berated for making the comparisons; I am ridiculed for suggesting such a thing. My data is wrong, I've been brainwashed (actually my stepmother accused me of being just like a certain person in our community who is vociferously vocal in his anti (this) vaccine, lockdowns, masks etc- she thought she was being derogatory to me, but this person is a scientist and has worked in pharma so I took it as a compliment to be honest- if I sound like him, I'm pretty chuffed!), I'm shouted at by my sister to "just get the bloody vaccine and then you'll be able to go on holiday". I cannot make any of my family (we're Jewish), or Jewish friends, here or in Israel, see the similarities or the coercion. The irony of the FB posts I see, from people in Israel, not only accepting the 'othering' of their fellow Israelis but holding them up to be responsible for their situation (where the bloody hell did we hear that before???) but calling for them to be restricted further, is beyond shocking. Yet on this day, Holocaust Memorial Day, they're all putting candles on their FB pages, and declaring "Never Again" and "Never Forget". How quickly we do actually forget.

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