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- 12/08: Seth Greenland
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Homage To (Neo-Nazi Bookstores In) Catalonia |
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 by Daniel Koffler, June 18, 2008 |
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TAGS:
Jewcer Roi Ben-Yehuda wrote up his recent trip to Barcelona for Haaretz. If you
European Antisemitism: Straight up, no chaser want to see antisemitism done right --- or if you want to restore your confidence in the importance of Zionism --- go to Europe and then wait around a while:
If the presence of swastikas were not enough, Barcelona also has the dubious honor of being home to Europe's most infamous neo-Nazi bookstore, brazenly titled "Europa Bookstore: Persecuted Books - The Truth Will Set You Free."...
The books in the store were a literary mix covering revisionism, fascism, Israel-bashing, Hitler-praising, anti-immigration and homophobia. To this was added DVDs and CDs of Hitler's "greatest hits."
In my best Spanglish, I told a young woman who asked if I needed help that I would like to take some pictures and talk to her. She hesitated and then declined, but told me that I could "come back tomorrow and speak to the leader."...
[A]s I walked around I had a "for the six million!" moment. One of those moments that lead Jews to do something about injustice. So I took out my camera and started taking pictures...
"Give me your camera," she had raised her voice. "I want to see the pictures. I want to eliminate the pictures!"
"Leader"; "eliminate." The great thing about European fascists and racists is that they traditionally haven't put up much of a pretense of not being fascists and racists. Sadly, though, the new crop of the European far-right seems to be taking trans-Atlantic PR cues. Even the most deranged neo-Nazis on these shores feel compelled to wrap their hatred up in some public interest cause --- like saving the wombs of white women from the Pornocaust. So it's comforting, in its way, to learn that there's a little corner of Catalonia where the good stuff, the real unadulterated neo-Nazism is served straight up, no chaser.
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August Esch
Do you think Roi can publish the address for us so our resident antisemite, ThorsProvoni, can stop by this charming bookstore on his next trip to Europe? I'm sure he could spend hours wandering the aisles, though he'll have to remember have to bring a box of tissues to make sure his drool (or maybe other bodily fluid) doesn't ruin the books.
Anonymous
http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Librer%C3%ADa_Europa
(pero es todo en español)
Cambridgeport
I lived in Barcelona in the 90s when Spanish democracy came into
itself. Spaniards on every side proudly informed this visitor "que no
existe" censorship in Spain. Before, during Franco, you had actual
fascists but no bookstores worthy of the name. Now you have no
fascism--Spain is very liberal in Europe--and one fetishist bookstore.
I bet the bookstore probably caters mostly to Northern Europeans, as
well as the local neo-fascists, who are most urgently anti-immigrant.
In other words, not everything is about the Jews, even if it pretends
to be about the Jews...
Anonymous
"In other words, not everything is about the Jews, even if it pretends
to be about the Jews..."
That is a luxury that history has taken away from us, don't you think?
Anonymous
"In other words, not everything is about the Jews, even if it pretends
to be about the Jews..."
That assumption is a luxury that history has taken away from us, don't you think?
Ismail
"...or if you want to restore your confidence in the importance of Zionism --"
Taking this squalid little nest of Hitler fetishists as confirmation of the importance of Zionism is like taking an infestation of skinheads in Idaho as confirmation of the importance of Garveyism.
August Esch
That little snippet you quoted from does not refer to the (merely) bookstore. If you care to read the end of the sentence, you'll notice it refers to Europe as whole—and implicitly the many cases of modern antisemitism to be found there—of which the bookstores and benches of Barcelona are only a small part.