Article

2007-02-27 Europe

Smoke bomb thrown into Jewish kindergarten in Berlin

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Posted by Steve White 2007-02-27 00:00|| || Front Page|| [11132 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 the spray painting of swastikas

Looking the photo, the swastikas are backwards. One would think neo-nazis would get that little detail right...

Posted by Pappy 2007-02-27 00:09|| 2007-02-27 00:09|| Front Page Top

#2 Pappy - yep. They should be looking for goons with dyslexia...

Posted by PBMcL 2007-02-27 00:40|| 2007-02-27 00:40|| Front Page Top

#3 no surprise here, when I was in Germany the summer before 9/11 the hate towards jews was very evident with hate banners displayed in the streets, with them spewing out hate jargon in German. Nothing was done to stop them either.
To the point of making me nervous walking past them. The looks we would get was awful too. I felt I had to watch my back every minute.

Posted by Jan 2007-02-27 01:11|| 2007-02-27 01:11|| Front Page Top

#4 It's possible (though unlikely) native neo-Nazis would never have seen a swastika; Nazi insignia are illegal in Germany.

Posted by Robert Crawford">Robert Crawford 2007-02-27 05:16|| http://www.kloognome.com/]">[http://www.kloognome.com/] 2007-02-27 05:16|| Front Page Top

#5 It don't exactly understand that Jews are doing in Germany...

Posted by gromgoru 2007-02-27 06:02|| 2007-02-27 06:02|| Front Page Top

#6 A large percentage of the the Jews in Germany are from the former Soviet Union, gromgoru, and an even larger percentage of those who have children. Apparently Jews have automatic right of return to that country, even those with no blood connection to Germany. Or perhaps it's automatic right of refuge or something. At any rate, the Soviet Jews started flowing in after the Wall came down, and the German-Jewish community was faced with teaching an entire population about the heritage and religion they claimed but knew nothing about. Hence the Chabad school.

For those who aren't up on the various subdivisions of Judaism, Chabad refers to some of the Chassids, our extreme mystical branch. They also see educational outreach within the larger Jewish community as their own group responsibility, and spend freely of their time and funds to reach those unreached by the traditional Jewish organizations.

Posted by trailing wife 2007-02-27 06:39|| 2007-02-27 06:39|| Front Page Top

#7 Old lessons forgotten. There's a lot of that going around these days.

Posted by gorb 2007-02-27 07:19|| 2007-02-27 07:19|| Front Page Top

#8 the attack as a "cowardly act" and called it a particularly brutal oneone that had taken anti-Semitic acts to a new dimension.

New dimension? In Germany?? Something kind of hinky about this crime. Smoke bomb that doesn't go off, backwards swastikas, "coincid[ing]with the inauguration of a new Torah scroll which took place on Sunday, several kilometres away".

I know that in Germany there is no reason not to believe that this could have been a hate crime against the Jewish community. But in this particular case, it seems like there could be more to this story. This story peggs the Not Quite Right meter.

Posted by Thromoger Thrumble5163 2007-02-27 07:40|| 2007-02-27 07:40|| Front Page Top

#9 Throm:

"not quite right?"

Not sure what you mean, actually, other than it wasn't perpetrated by "true" neo-nazis. Do you mean to say it was done by Jews themselves?

Posted by PlanetDan">PlanetDan 2007-02-27 08:38|| 2007-02-27 08:38|| Front Page Top

#10 I think France with its huge Muslim population might be an even more potent antisemitic nexus in the future, but this problem is clearly rearing its head again throughout Europe.

Posted by Snomoger Phutch3367 2007-02-27 08:54|| 2007-02-27 08:54|| Front Page Top

#11 Do you mean to say it was done by Jews themselves?

Oh please. Go give yourself a pat on the back for stifling thought in the name of poltical correctness.

No. I'm not saying anything other than what you had to notice yourself: this story doesn't sound quite right.

If you want to make the case that anti-semitism is rising in Europe, there are plenty of examples. Until I had more infomation, I would caution against putting this one on the poster.

Posted by Thromoger Thrumble5163 2007-02-27 09:00|| 2007-02-27 09:00|| Front Page Top

#12 Attacking women and children is the hallmark of the enemy.

Posted by Excalibur 2007-02-27 09:30|| 2007-02-27 09:30|| Front Page Top

#13 Planet Dan: Perhaps you are right and I should have better clarified my point. My point was not to imply anything other than the fact that this story strikes me as odd. Could it have been neo nazis? Absolutely. Could it have been Muslims? No doubt.

My point was only that there seem to be some red flags on this story. Think Duke Rape Case: despite the fact that that story could have easily been true, there were red flags. It is wise to note them no matter how likely it is that the story could be true. IJMHO.

Posted by Thromoger Thrumble5163 2007-02-27 09:36|| 2007-02-27 09:36|| Front Page Top

#14 Muslims wouldn't necessarily know which way the Nazi swastika faced. For that matter, dyslexic schoolboys would likely get it wrong as well. And actually, if it was only dyslexic schoolboys, what does it say about Germany that terrorizing nursery school kids because they're Jewish (Kindergarten actually means ages 3-6 years over there) is a prank acceptable to schoolboys?

Posted by trailing wife 2007-02-27 11:46|| 2007-02-27 11:46|| Front Page Top

#15 We're going to have to go "over there" again, this time we need to virtually empty the place. Put our boot on the necks of the survivors, and never let them up.

If we are going to be paying for their defense, we should rule them and force them to obey our laws, and do things our way. Pax Americana, its time has come.

Posted by Chiper Threreger8956 2007-02-27 12:33|| 2007-02-27 12:33|| Front Page Top

#16 I don't care if it's the Brave Lions of Islam™ or some run-of-the-mill scum. Attacking children is the most cowardly act conceivable, and I'm damn sick of it.

Posted by Dar">Dar 2007-02-27 12:52|| 2007-02-27 12:52|| Front Page Top

#17 Throm:

I reread my post. Didn't mean to come across as accusatory. I meant to come across as confused! No offense.

Posted by PlanetDan">PlanetDan 2007-02-27 13:20|| 2007-02-27 13:20|| Front Page Top

#18 Hindus and Buddhists also have the swastika, but somehow I think they not the ones we looking for. And, somehow, as a school-boy prank, TW, nope, I think not. Stink-bombs in the girl's toilets, maybe, (as happened at my daughter's school last week), but not the Kindergarten.

My guess is Mossies, the usual suspects, the world over.

Posted by rhodesiafever 2007-02-27 14:14|| 2007-02-27 14:14|| Front Page Top

#19 Planet Dan, my comment begged the question so I'm not surprised you asked. If I were to make a guess, the crime was committed by local a local teenager young enough not to know how to paint a swastika.

The title and comments imply that a smoke bomb was thrown into a room full of kindergarteners and I was outraged. But the article doesn't really deliver.

Whoever did this crime actually went to quite a bit of trouble to be sure no one was there. They did it at a time when the entire school was known to be elsewhere. They did it between the hourly security guard visits. And why throw a smoke bomb into a school room that you knew was empty? I suppose it could smoke up the walls or set off the fire alarm but it is not going to scare anyone, so what's the point.

It seems more like the act of someone who wanted to send a statement but wanted to make sure that no one got hurt.

Posted by Thromoger Thrumble5163 2007-02-27 14:21|| 2007-02-27 14:21|| Front Page Top

#20 My guess is Mossies, the usual suspects, the world over.

No I don't think so. Too much care and planning went into making sure no one got hurt.

Posted by Thromoger Thrumble5163 2007-02-27 14:52|| 2007-02-27 14:52|| Front Page Top

#21 "Smoke bomb that doesn't go off, backwards swastikas, "coincid[ing]with the inauguration of a new Torah scroll which took place on Sunday, several kilometres away".

Ive seen lots of backward swastikas in my time, presumably drawn by illiterate youths unconnected with formal neo-nazi parties. And homemade bombs go awry all the time, IIUC.

So, my guess is not AQ, and probably not a big organized Neo-Nazi group, but some local skinhead type thugs.

Posted by liberalhawk 2007-02-27 15:31|| 2007-02-27 15:31|| Front Page Top

#22 LH, I agree. Our own idiots mis-draw the peace sign as the Mercedes-Benz symbol often enough, so I don't attach much significance to getting the Hakenkreuz wrong. More to the point, there are no misspellings, and only native speakers write their "Js" that way. Homegrown thugs.

Posted by exJAG 2007-02-27 17:55|| 2007-02-27 17:55|| Front Page Top

#23 "Nie wieder" == "Immer wieder"

Posted by Dar">Dar 2007-02-27 18:07|| 2007-02-27 18:07|| Front Page Top

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