Europe and the Jews

Despite contentions to the contrary from some kooks on the far-left (is there another kind?) and the far-right, not to mention the mainstream press and academia of the Middle East (not counting Israel, natch), the wholesale genocide of the Jews in Europe DID happen. The proof is in the pudding, specifically in regards to the meticulous records the Nazis kept. Though I've not been there, there are voluminous records at places like Auschwitz, Bergen-Belsen, Treblinka, etc. that document every person that came through the gates, save the weak, the elderly, and the crippled, who were dispatched on the spot. Either the Holocaust is the greatest, most meticulous, enormous fraud ever perpetrated, or the records the Nazis left behind are real. Why this is of any question to anyone is beyond me, and it never ceases to amaze me that the more execrable elements of the world deny that it happened, YET wish that it WOULD happen. In one fell swoop, they deny it happened, yet wish for it. Amazing. But more than anything else, the thought that crossed my mind this week was this: did Europe snuff out its greatest minds? Consider the scientific, medical, technological, and artistic achievements of the Jews; as a people, I can't think of too many that rival them in regards to being at the vanguard of human progress. Europe snuffed them out. A few went to Israel before and after 1948, a few stayed in Europe, but a large portion of them came to America. Is it just happenstance that America has been the pre-eminent world power since the Second World War? Is it happenstance that the vast majority of medical breakthroughs, technological breakthroughs, artistic breakthroughs, and engineering breakthroughs all seem to derive from the United States these days, particularly since WWII? Does one need to wonder why our economy trumps all others? Was it luck? IS it luck?

Before WWII, America was a sleepy little nation; Western Europe was at the front of the upward surge of humanity. Now America is. Coincidence? Or is it the European Jewry, who were lucky enough to flee before the war, or lucky enough to survive the war, got to America, and contributed to its present-day pre-eminence? I'm not saying that they account for ALL of America's great 20th Century achievements, but one cannot discount their significant contribution to American supremacy in so many important fields of endeavor either. If one cares to debate this point, one can simply think of Albert Einstein (Swiss Jew who left before WWII), Edward Teller (fled Hungary prior to WWII), Jonas Salk (parents were Russian-Jew refugees from Czarist pograms), Milton Friedman (Hungarian Jewish parents), Henry Kissinger, Andy Grove, and Yitzhak Perlman. All of them either emigrated from Europe, or had parents that did. In all likelihood, all of them were fleeing for reasons of persecution. This is just a partial list; I can spend the next fifty sentences plugging in the names of Jewish-Americans who can count their emigration, or their parents, to the United States in the last hundred years.

Europe let the Holocaust happen...no, they ENCOURAGED the Holocaust to happen. Now Europe, particularly Western Europe, is a backwater with 12% unemployment, stagnant economic growth, and unsustainable welfare states.

Jeez....if only they didn't chase Milton Friedman's parents out the door, they might have someone with some economic sense.