Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Figures, Tables, and Maps
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction: Race, Illiberalism, Central Europe
- 1 How Eastern Europeans Became Less White
- 2 How Central Europeans Became Eastern European
- 3 How Central Europeans Became Central European (Time and Time Again)
- 4 Central Europe: Half-Truths and Facts
- 5 The Last of the White Men: Central Europe’s White Innocence
- 6 ‘Have Eastern Europeans No Shame?’ Anti-Semitism, Racism, and Homophobia in Central Europe
- 7 Imitators Spurned: Why the West Needs Central Europe to Stay in its Eastern European Place
- 8 ‘We Will Not Be a Colony!’
- 9 Slavia Prague v. Glasgow Rangers: Lessons from a Football Match
- Conclusion: When the Migrants Come
- Postscript: Confessions of a Canadian Central European
- Notes
- References
- Index
6 - ‘Have Eastern Europeans No Shame?’ Anti-Semitism, Racism, and Homophobia in Central Europe
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 13 October 2022
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Figures, Tables, and Maps
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction: Race, Illiberalism, Central Europe
- 1 How Eastern Europeans Became Less White
- 2 How Central Europeans Became Eastern European
- 3 How Central Europeans Became Central European (Time and Time Again)
- 4 Central Europe: Half-Truths and Facts
- 5 The Last of the White Men: Central Europe’s White Innocence
- 6 ‘Have Eastern Europeans No Shame?’ Anti-Semitism, Racism, and Homophobia in Central Europe
- 7 Imitators Spurned: Why the West Needs Central Europe to Stay in its Eastern European Place
- 8 ‘We Will Not Be a Colony!’
- 9 Slavia Prague v. Glasgow Rangers: Lessons from a Football Match
- Conclusion: When the Migrants Come
- Postscript: Confessions of a Canadian Central European
- Notes
- References
- Index
Summary
Not all Central Europeans are racist. To recognize this is a moral necessity. But hate in Central Europe is rampant and dangerous. Its open expression has become more common than in much of the West, both among the general public and at the highest levels of political leadership. At the same time, hate there is not entirely different in form from the West, nor does it spring from completely different sources. That also means that, just as in the West, there is hope for overcoming it.
As we have seen earlier, when East Central European states refused, in 2015, a compulsory quota for refugee resettlement, which had been decreed against their objections in Brussels, they were accused of transferring to Muslim migrants an intolerance spawned by centuries of anti-Semitism. The eminent Princeton historian, Jan Gross, asked:
‘Have Eastern Europeans no sense of shame?’ […] When the war ended, Germany – because of the victors’ denazification policies and its responsibility for instigating and carrying out the Holocaust – had no choice but to ‘work through’ its murderous past. This was a long, difficult process; but German society, mindful of its historical misdeeds, has become capable of confronting moral and political challenges of the type posed by the influx of refugees today. And Chancellor Angela Merkel has set an example of leadership on migrants that puts all of Eastern Europe's leaders to shame.
Eastern Europe, by contrast, has yet to come to terms with its murderous past. Only when it does will its people be able to recognize their obligation to save those fleeing in the face of evil.
Gross’ anger at the inhumane attitudes against the migrants was justified. His outrage was shared by people in Europe and the world. Yet his generalizations about Germany and about the implied difference between Eastern and Western Europe are problematic.
If anyone has the right to comment on the murderous past, it is Gross. It was he who forced the Polish public to take a look at anti-Jewish atrocities committed by Poles during the Holocaust and even after, when survivors returning from the camps to reclaim their property were attacked by Polish mobs. Emblematic of the wartime horrors was the incident at Jedwabne, where a large number of local Jews – estimates range between 350 and 1,600 – were massacred by the local Poles.
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- White but Not QuiteCentral Europe’s Illiberal Revolt, pp. 160 - 181Publisher: Bristol University PressPrint publication year: 2022