THE PLANK FEBRUARY 16, 2008
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If you are looking for an interesting glimpse into the character of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, you could do a lot worse than Saturday's New York Times story on the teaching of the Holocaust in French schools:
President Nicolas Sarkozy
dropped an intellectual bombshell this week, surprising the nation and
touching off waves of protest with his revision of the school
curriculum: beginning next fall, he said, every fifth grader will have
to learn the life story of one of the 11,000 French children killed by
the Nazis in the Holocaust.“Nothing is more moving, for a child, than the story of a child his
own age, who has the same games, the same joys and the same hopes as
he, but who, in the dawn of the 1940s, had the bad fortune to be
defined as a Jew,” Mr. Sarkozy said at the end of a dinner speech to France’s
Jewish community on Wednesday night. He added that every French child
should be “entrusted with the memory of a French child-victim of the
Holocaust.”
This seems reasonable, although one wonders why students are only learning about the fates of French children. Still, this is another well-intentioned Sarkozy initiative that appears to have rubbed people the wrong way. Maybe that's because in announcing his plans he makes comments like this:
Adding to the national fracas over the announcement, Mr. Sarkozy
wrapped his plan in the cloak of religion, placing blame for the wars
and violence of the last century on an “absence of God” and calling the
Nazi belief in a hierarchy of races “radically incompatible with
Judeo-Christian monotheism.”
Er, okay. And:
In Saudi Arabia last month, he infused his speech with more than a dozen references to God, who, he said, “liberates” man.
I'm sure the liberated Saudi Arabian women in the audience were appreciative of these remarks, assuming they were allowed to watch the speech. Finally:
“Every day the president throws out a new unhappy idea with no
coherence,” said Pascal Bruckner, the philosopher. “But this last one
is truly obscene, the very opposite of spirituality. Let’s judge it for
what it is: a crazy proposal of the president, not the word of the
Gospel.”
If nothing else, Sarkozy has sure made French politics fascinating.
--Isaac Chotiner
15 comments
Because all this Holocaust education has done wonders for Rwanda and Darfur. Have a good Olympics in genocide-enabling China, France -- we'll see you there.
- Lymon1
February 16, 2008 at 5:26pm
wow, Pascal Bruckner is a genuine jerkass. What is obscene about personalizing history of children for children? It seems little Pascal's philosophy is "oh listen to me, I have something nonsensical, hence profound in a typical french fashion"
lymon, the US is just as genocide enabling of the genocide in Darfur as is China. We could have cut the chinese in on Aramco oil at the beginning at cut rate prices provided they shaft the Sudan. We didn't because there is nothing more important to us then oil.
- blackton
February 16, 2008 at 7:14pm
All of this is distracting nonsense. School children curriclums? God, etc? What business is that of his?What about the rest of the complicated, concrete problems going on in the world? In the EU? In his country? That is is actually responsible for dealng with?
France is an important voice in the world and this President is setting a tone of shallow silliness. He's done an amazingly crappy job so far.
- Wandreycer1
February 16, 2008 at 7:22pm
I don't see it that way Wandrey. France is in the grip of anti-semiitism, where better to nip it in the bud then with children. Besides, did everyone complain with Bush's NCLB? Besides, French Presidents have always involved themselves with educational matters, why should he be different. Where else do you think banning the scarf in public schools come from if not Chirac?
- blackton
February 16, 2008 at 8:36pm
blackton -- I know you favor constructive engagement for China wrt Darfur and other issues, but not cutting them in on a joint venture is NOT the same thing as running interference at the security counsel. And yes, there is something more important to us than Sudanese oil -- apparently it was Sudanese intellegence on Al Queda -- look how the Darfur Accountability Act got squashed in the House after unanimously passing the senate after Sudan's Salah Gosh coughed up the goods.
And as the subject here is France, given their role along with Belgium in supporting the genocidal Hutu factions in Rwanda (outdoing even Bill Clinton, who ordered then un ambassador Albright to run China-like interference at the U.N. in 1994 rather than give Newt Gingrich another Somalia to clobber him with), the difference between words and action is particularly striking.
February 17, 2008 12:14 AM
- Lymon1
February 16, 2008 at 9:34pm
blackton -- also, if Darfurians were Jews, Albanians, Latinos, or pretty much anybody other than Black Africans, we'd see more than just George Clooney and Mia Farrow taking an interest.
- Lymon1
February 16, 2008 at 9:37pm
Gee, I hope the French are enjoying their American-style president...
- cspencef
February 16, 2008 at 9:42pm
But why only French victims? We had to read The Diary of Anne Frank in 7th grade, and that more than did the trick for us; Nazis Bad, Holocaust Sad. But here he is making everyone pissed off for nothing. How is that helping?
- psantillana
February 17, 2008 at 1:53pm
psantillana, why french victims? These are children, and the point is to help them learn by using names and people whose heritage and culture are nearest to their own.
Americans learn American history mostly, most children know George Washington and the cherry tree or countless other bits and pieces of Americana. Without consulting google, can you name one leader of Mexico's independence from Spain, or tell me the birthplace of Benito Juarez? And if you say Ciudad Juarez I will digitally slap you.
Why is anyone being pissed off for what is absolutely a good idea?
lymon, I actually support bombing the hell out of the Sudanese leadership compound in Khartoum, so I am far more about constructive engagement.
- blackton
February 17, 2008 at 4:10pm
blackton -- haven't you heard Barack Obama? "Those of us who care about Darfur don't think it would be a good idea." Can you imagine if there had been a single Jewish senator in 1940 voicing similar statements about U.S. citizens backing stronger action against the Nazis? Alas, all the candidates serious about Darfur were out of the race before Super Tuesday...
- Lymon1
February 17, 2008 at 5:50pm
He has made defensible statements. Such comments don't lend themselves well to one offs for superficial survey mediums.
- boxofrox
February 17, 2008 at 5:59pm
that was weird. My comment disappeared in the middle of me typing.
I will ignore what was obviously a sign from God and plow on..
blackton: It's not a bad idea, which is kind of funny that he's actually managed to offend people with it. It's the God bit that offended them, of course, not the fact that the kids have to learn about French kids. But I do think it's tiresome that the kids have to learn empathy through studying French kids. If they can't feel sorry for Anne Frank because she's not French then what the hell. I felt plenty sorry for her - and it made me think of foreign kids as more like me, which seems like a worthwhile thing to teach kids. That foreign kids and people are no more worthy of genocide than you are. That would be nice.
- psantillana
February 17, 2008 at 10:39pm
Sarkozy deserves all honor and praise for his brave stance against the anti-Semitism that is so trendy among the European left, and that is becoming increasingly popular among American "progressives". By the way, have any of you "liberals" considered how a Democratic victory might increase the likelihood of a second Holocaust in the Middle East? Is that possibility a problem for you?
I wonder. I suspect that many of you believe that any misfortune that befalls the West is well-deserved, and that our granddaughters' having to wear burkas and having their genitals gouged out is a small price to pay for the expiation of our sins.
Why the typical New Republic comment writer wants to be a eunuch in Bin Laden's court is a mystery to me. Could someone please explain?
- bulbman1066
February 18, 2008 at 12:49am
Read the excerpts below, wandrey. Not for the faint of heart. This is why Sarko is stirring things up. Not such a bad thing when your nation is as weary, nasty and self-hating as his nation is...
Anti-semitism is a huge and growing problem in France. Here's a very distrubing, in-depth New Yorker analysis of France's most popular comedian, Dieudonne, a vicious anti-semite who plays before sellout crowds everywhere he goes:
www.newyorker.com/.../071119fa_fact_reiss
The beginning of l’affaire Dieudonné came in December, 2003, when he appeared on “You Can’t Please Everyone,” a popular political talk show, in which celebrities discussed issues in a civil roundtable atmosphere. To the surprise of everyone there, he arrived on the set wearing a camo jacket, a black ski mask, and an Orthodox Jewish hat with fake sidelocks. He launched into a speech that called on the audience to join “the Americano-Zionist Axis—the only one . . . that offers you happiness, and the only one to give you a chance of living a little bit longer.” While the panel of comedians invited for the show (it included Jamel Debbouze, France’s most popular Muslim comic) laughed, the show’s host, Marc-Olivier Fogiel, looked on nervously. Dieudonné finished his polemic by raising his arm and crying, “Isra-heil.” He then took off his mask and joined the panel, to a standing ovation....
Two months later, Dieudonné opened a show at the Main d’Or called “Mes Excuses,” but those who thought he was going to apologize were mistaken. The curtain rose on a dark, smoky landscape more reminiscent of Beckett than of standup comedy. A choir could be heard, chanting dolefully, and then Dieudonné staggered onto the stage. He was dressed in black and was almost invisible. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry!” he wailed. “I’m sorry, O Chosen People. Forgive the beast that I am, the offenses that I have caused, but I have no soul.” He laughed and snarled. “My words are but meaningless grunts. They make no sense, no sense. I submit to your greatness, O Chosen People! Thank you for having spared me, master.” He then suddenly snapped upright, one fist raised. “Fuck you up the ass, O master!” he shouted.
As Dieudonné proceeded to his multi-character sketches, the sound crew appeared onstage, surrounded by prison bars. The men, who were wearing the blue helmets of U.N. soldiers, pretended to monitor Dieudonné’s jokes for unacceptable content. When he said the word “Palestinian,” they shut off his microphone and explained their rules: the first time he pronounced that word, they would shut off the sound; the second time, they would turn out the lights; and the third time they would evacuate the theatre. Dieudonné declared that he’d been put under supervision and deemed unfit to express himself. It’s Bernard Henri-Lévy and Alain Finkielkraut “who speak for me,” he said.
Dieudonné gave two performances of “Mes Excuses” in Algeria in early 2005, and held a press conference at which he told his Algerian audience that those in power in France—here he specifically mentioned Jean-Pierre Rafarrin, the French Prime Minister—are forced to “lick the ass” of the C.R.I.F., France’s main Jewish organization, and called the group “a Mafia that controls the republic.” He also said that “the Zionist lobby cultivates the idea of their unique suffering,” adding that “a war has been declared on blacks.” A news report on the now defunct site, ProcheOrient.info, which quoted Dieudonné as referring to the Shoah as “memorial pornography,” caused an uproar. ...
On February 26, 2006, pamphlets depicting Dieudonné and Fofana above the words “Thinker. Murderer” were distributed during a March in Paris to protest Halimi’s murder.While French politicians were holding vigils for Halimi, Dieudonné invited to his theatre the family of another victim of a kidnap-murder and called for an end to the “discrimination among victims” that allegedly favored Jews. A few days later, Dieudonné held a rally on the theme of “Republican equality against discrimination among victims,” adding an Algerian and an Armenian to the list of those whose killings had gotten scant notice. At about this time, Dieudonné added to his show impersonations of Hitler (“You’ll see, the future will present me as a moderate!”) and the French Holocaust denier Robert Faurisson.
...In May, 2006, a group calling itself the Tribu Ka marched down the Rue des Rosiers, the main street of the Orthodox Jewish neighborhood in Le Marais, chanting anti-Semitic slogans. The Tribu Ka’s leader, Kémi Séba, a French-born man of Ivory Coast and Haitian parentage, reportedly issued a “warning” to France’s Jewish community: “If by any chance the French Jews brush even a single hair of Brother Fofana’s head, we will take care of the curls of your rabbi.” In July, Sarkozy, who was then the interior minister, had the Tribu Ka banned. All of this meant further embarrassment for Dieudonné, who, it was revealed, allowed Séba to use the Théâtre de la Main d’Or for meetings in which he reportedly praised Hitler’s ideas on race.,,,
In August, 2006, Dieudonné left town on an “anti-Zionist solidarity mission,” and arrived in Beirut in the wake of Israel’s war with Hezbollah. He was accompanied by his Presidential campaign manager, Marc Robert; the September 11th conspiracy theorist Thierry Meyssan; and Ahmed Moualek, the leader of the youth organization La Banlieue S’Exprime! (The Suburbs Speak!). Dieudonné met with the chief of Hezbollah’s television network, Al Manar, and was photographed shaking hands with Jesse Jackson, who looked befuddled. By his side during all these encounters was his new friend from the National Front, Alain Soral.
- teplukhin2you
February 18, 2008 at 3:50am
Wow, thanks Tep - not sure if anyone is still reading this thread.
Anti-semitism does have a long, evil history in France, and it does show an welcome, valuable awareness on the President's part that he addressed it. His job is to set a macro tone and lead, this is a good first step. I should have emphasied that. Who cares if he pissed people off?
My point is that this is kind of piddly stuff for a man in his position and really, how brave was it? Why not make a speech at the UN openly decrying the rise of French and European anti-semitism - with examples of it and what he suggestts the world do about it? Why not call on the French people to be *accountable* for what they are teaching their children in this speech?
His minions ten levels down can suggest curiculums.
That''s what I meant.
- Wandreycer1
February 18, 2008 at 8:43am