What Harry Lime Knew

I read an article about how a memorial service to commemorate the bombing of Dresden during World War II was disrupted by neo-Nazis. While a small minority can make a big noise, I read that 5,000 people with neo-Nazi sympathies demonstrated. 5,000 is not an insignificant number. While the article focused on the march, it did talk about an increase in popularity of the neo-Nazi political party the National Party of Germany. Disturbingly, the NPD won a seat in Saxony's parliament. Britain's ambassador downplayed this by saying that it was a fluke caused by low voter turnout. Still, it should be a cause of consternation.

The whole thing reminded me of Harry Lime's comments in The Third Man. I'm pretty sure they come just after his famous cuckoo clock diatribe - about how the Germans need to be put down once and for all because, being a bunch of Goths at heart, they'll try to conquor the world again. While I don't know much about the situation in Germany, I find these developments disturbing. The NPD candidate didn't get elected dogcatcher, the Herr or Frau was elected to parliament. One NPD voter is quoted, "We believe that the German state favours foreigners and the Jews." Does that unholy marriage of xenophobia and anti-Semitism sound familiar? Apparently the unemplyment rate in the former Easy Germany is around 20%. And now it seems that an increasing number of people are blaming it on foreigners and Jews. Ya know, people ought to try to get to those kinds of people. "Hallo Frau Scheißkopf. There are reasons for unemployment that have nothing to do with foreigners and Jews and I'd bet a dollar to a doughnut that these explain the high unemployment over there. If the Juden were so crafty and powerful, you'd think they'd have figured out a way to control everything secretly. They have had thousands of years to practice and many a pogrom for incentive.

While the NPD may not have a blueprint for another Reich, that they captured 9.2% of the vote in an election is cause cause enough to start sounding klaxons. It sure seems like there's a cancer growth that must be removed.