By KATHERINE BAKAITIS
Staff Writer
Neo-Nazis: yes, those people still exist in modern society. Anti-Semitism is still a real issue today, especially in East Germany. Nearly 70 years after the Holocaust, young soccer fans in Germany have become targets of neo-Nazis who preach the hatred of Adolf Hitler’s Third Reich. “Again and again we see neo-Nazi presence in fan clubs (sports) and my office asks that action be taken against them,” said Winfriede Schreiber, head of the Brandenburg branch of the German government’s intelligence service. “For example, we see the fan club in Cottbus (a German city) consisting of a lot of neo-Nazis. We asked the football club to do something about this.”
Why are neo-Nazis targeting sports, you ask? Well, that is where most people gather; the more people, the more likely anti-Semitism will spread. Schreiber explained how neo-Nazis look like everyone else and how they now blend in with the locals. “Gone are the jackboots and black leather jackets that used to make it easy to expose them,” she said. Neo-Nazis are against democracy and they work to alienate young people from democracy. They have made “Jew” a swear word, even if there are no Jews playing on the soccer field. Neo-Nazis take young soccer fans to homes built in the Nazi times as holiday retreats for elite members of Hitler’s party (because that is not weird at all).
Fortunately, the German government has launched programs in 2011 to make soccer coaches more aware of neo-Nazi tactics. Unfortunately, Germany is not the only place where anti-Semitism and neo-Nazis live. In England, fans of London-based Tottenham Hotspur (which has a strong Jewish following) have been subjected to anti-Semitic abuse for many years. They have suffered from being hissed at and have been mocked about the mass execution of Jews during the WWII. While they have become used to all of this (it is sad that this has become the “norm” for them), they also had to be subjected to “Adolf Hitler, he is coming for you,” chants. An American college student was stabbed when a mob of 50 masked men armed with knives and baseball bats, shouting “Jews, Jews”, attacked Tottenham Hotspur fans before a Europa League match in Rome.
Prime targets of anti-Semitism on the soccer field are the Makkabi teams, Jewish athletic clubs located in 15 German cities. “Every Makkabi team in Germany is confronted with anti-Semitism, as are teams with Jewish roots,” said Deidre Berger, director of the American Jewish Committee (AJC) in Berlin, an advocacy group. Soccer coach Claudio Oppenberg, who is Jewish, said his team also faced anti-Semitism from Muslim immigrants. According to Oppenberg, who’s coached Tus Makkabi Berlin for seven years, only two members of the current team are Jewish. The rest are from North Africa and Turkey. During a game last March, Oppenberg said members of a Turkish team shouted at fellow Turks on the Makkabi team: “How can you play for these damned Jews?” The Turkish team beat the Makkabis 1-0. Oppenberg said the Turkish coach confronted him after the game and said: “We f%#*&d you Jews.” Oppenberg filed charges with the German Football Federation and the Turkish coach was suspended for a year. Let me just point out that Turks are to Germany as Mexicans are to the United States (that is how much they are hated), so image how low on the totem pole you have to be to be mocked, as a Jewish German, by a Turk.
It is really horrible how people are still harassed because rants from a mad man dictate so. Senseless stereotypes do not just surround Jews; it is everywhere – even in America (especially in America). Look at how we categorize Muslims; we just assume that they are terrorists because of one group of people within that faith (the Taliban). We, too, have heard the ranting’s of a mad man who led us into war with the wrong people. Stereotypes are everywhere, and it is weak of people to give into them, whether they are the harasser or the harassed. All of us need to re-examine our views on others.
