A protester makes the sign of the “quenelle”

A French black comedian, Dieudonné, has been censored by the government for allegedly inciting anti-Semitism with a crude gesture, now known as the “quenelle,” which some say resembles a “reverse Nazi salute,” a rather far-fetched interpretation of what it appears to mean. His tour was banned as a result, as Galliawatch reports.

Dieudonné has come to symbolize, for a certain segment of the French population roughly between the ages of 20 and 30, the elevation of the Holocaust, or Shoah, to a state religion and the demonization of French patriotism, writes Dian Johnstone:

By placing Auschwitz as the most significant event of recent history, various writers and speakers justify by default the growing power of the European Union as necessary replacement for Europe’s inherently “bad” nations. Never again Auschwitz! Dissolve the nation-states into a technical bureaucracy, free of the emotional influence of citizens who might vote incorrectly. Do you feel French? Or German? You should feel guilty about it – because of Auschwitz.

Europeans are less and less enthusiastic about the EU as it ruins their economies and robs them of all democratic power over the economy. They can vote for gay marriage, but not for the slightest Keynesian measure, much less socialism. Nevertheless, guilt about the past is supposed to keep them loyal to the European dream.

Dieudonné’s fans, judging from photographs, appear to be predominantly young men, fewer women, mostly between the ages of twenty and thirty. They were born two full generations after the end of World War II. They have spent their lives hearing about the Shoah. Over 300 Paris schools bear a plaque commemorating the tragic fate of Jewish children deported to Nazi concentration camps. What can be the effect of all this? For many who were born long after these terrible events, it seems that everyone is supposed to feel guilty – if not for what they didn’t do, for what they supposedly might do if they had a chance.

When Dieudonné transformed an old semi-racist “tropical” song, Chaud Cacao, into Shoah Ananas, the tune is taken up en masse by Dieudonné fans. I venture to think that they are not making fun of the real Shoah, but rather of the constant reminders of events that are supposed to make them feel guilty, insignificant and powerless. Much of this generation is sick of hearing about the period 1933-1945, while their own future is dim.

There is no serious, functional anti-Semitism in France, except in Muslim communities, which Jewish politicians and intellectuals have warmly welcomed. The Jews of France, on the other hand, have used their immense moral weight, power and influence to protect  liberal messianism and to help obliterate traditional France.

— Comments —

John writes:

Why in blazes should the French feel guilty about the Holocaust? They fought the Nazis, for heaven’s sake. Or is it that they’re are guilty simply because they are white? The Jewish journalist Jacobo Timmerman once expressed his disgust with Holocaust guilt manipulation and exploitation by commenting, “There’s no business like Shoah business.”

John P. writes:

In reply to John, the problem is that many French cooperated with the Nazis in identifying and exporting French Jews to Auschwitz as did people all over Europe. The overwhelming portion of anti-Semitism in France comes from Muslims but it’s still there in the French.

 Laura writes:

I believe many French people also harbored Jews in their homes.

Mike writes:

John: Why in blazes should the French feel guilty about the Holocaust?

John P.:   The problem is that many French cooperated with the Nazis in identifying and exporting French Jews to Auschwitz as did people all over Europe.

The preceding are not logically connected. There is a missing premise that links the two:

“If someone of your blood, your race or your ethnicity has committed bad acts in the past, you share the responsibility, the guilt and the shame for those  bad acts.”

Now that John P. established the moral principle of race-guilt and blood-guilt, I just want you to know that  I am still waiting for you Catholics to atone for the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre!  Until you Catholics show the proper sensitivity and shame for that–over and over and over again until I am satisfied–John P. has to wait in line.  And when you see the Chinese, tell them I am still waiting for a proper apology for the depredations of the Mongol Hordes.

Laura writes:

Exactly.

Thank you for clarifying the discussion.

Paul T. writes:

I don’t believe Mike did clarify the discussion – he placed words in John P’s mouth (the ‘missing premise’) that aren’t in fact there by necessary implication. John P was responding to John’s too-simple-by-half comment that ‘[the French] fought the Nazis, for heaven’s sake.’ John P responded with a reminder about the collaborationists among the French, which in context seems entirely fair. I don’t imagine that any participant in this discussion actually believes in race-guilt and blood-guilt. People tend to talk carelessly, as when they say things like ‘the French are still antisemitic’ or ‘the Jews never stop whining about the Holocaust.’ These are what I’d call admitted overgeneralizations.

 Laura writes:

Both John and John P. were addressing the issue as viewed by those who believe the French should feel guilty. So yes, I’m sorry, John P. did not himself avow any principle of race-guilt. He was speaking of the leftist view — at least I think he was.

Mike’s point goes to those who accept that the French today are responsible for betrayals to the Nazis.

John writes in response to Paul:

Oh, so it’s “too-simple-by-half” that the French fought the Nazis. Not hardly. Yes, some French collaborated to send Jews to the camps. But before we assign the the Mark of Cain to France, we should weigh in the balance the 200,000 French servicemen who gave their lives to fight Hitler, a sacrifice proportionally greater than that of America during World War II.  My point is that the guilt trippers are profoundly dishonest when they ignore this fact. In my estimate, what the French military and resistance did far outweighs what the collaborators did to assist the Holocaust.

Laura writes:

Agreed.

James N. writes:

Your discussion has taken an interesting turn. If I may deviate a little further from the main thrust:

In the United States, we have accepted the notion that INDIVIDUAL whites owe to individual blacks, and blacks as a group, special favors and exceptions to rules, because of what some individual whites did in the past (or yesterday, for that matter).

But we abjure, on pain of expulsion from society, the reverse – that individual BLACKS owe to individual whites, and whites as a group, special favors and consideration because of what some individual blacks did and continue to do to whites.

It makes no more sense that I owe a black or blacks something because of the nefarious deeds of some other whites than that a black or blacks owe me something because of the Knoxville Horror, or the knockout game, or…. (you get the point).

Laura writes:

The difference is that slavery was institutionalized and legal. Black violence is not exactly condoned by law.

But the state rectified the wrong of slavery by outlawing it.

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