By Paul F., Grüne Jugend 70 years after the liberation of Auschwitz, Germany is far from having an open and tolerant society: many people want to leave the country’s dark history behind, right-wing movements are on the verge of entering the German Parliament (1), and the head of the Rhineland-Palatinate CDU (a regional branch…
Month: January 2015
Concentration Camp School Trips: A British hindsight 70 years later
I have never had the sheer awfulness of the Holocaust illustrated more vividly than when I visited the Sachsenhausen concentration camp in Germany as part of a school history trip. Though the buildings of the camp are now empty and sanitised, their histories neatly explained on modern information placards, it was hard not to feel…
Germany – Champion of Remembrance? – An German hindsight 70 years later
By Jamila Schäfer, Member of the Executive Committee of Grüne Jugend, Germany “A new categorical imperative has been imposed by Hitler upon unfree mankind: to arrange their thoughts and actions so that Auschwitz will not repeat itself, so that nothing similar will happen,” says philosopher Adorno in his book “Negative Dialectics.” According to this imperative,…
The Holocaust In the Eyes of My Grandmother: An American hindsight 70 years later
By Guy Tabachnick (photo of Lucy and Friends in Rivoli, Italy in a Displaced Persons Camp, ca 1946-47. Taken from www.lucymandelstam.com) Last week, my mom sent me video of her mother’s testimony given in 1989 at Yad Vashem, Israel’s Holocaust memorial. It’s on YouTube now, in three hour-long sections: my grandmother’s childhood in Vienna; the…
Porajmos, an excluded part of the Holocaust: A Czech hindsight 70 years later
By Josef Šmída, Member of the Executive Committee of the Federation of Young European Greens One of the biggest horrors in human history ever is the Holocaust. A genocide of human diversity widely known as a genocide of Jews in the name of Nazi ideology before and during the WWII. A nightmare which afterwards gave…
Never Again! Never Fascism: The European Hindsight 70 Years Later
By Michael Bloss, Co-Spokesperson for the Federation of Young European Greens The day of the liberation of Auschwitz was a cornerstone to the end of the worst time in European history. Its survivors, freed by the Soviet army, coined the famous slogan: „Never Again!“ – a parole that inspired generations of anti-fascist activists in the…
The Holocaust: A Greek hindsight 70 years later
By Dimitrios Moschos, member of the Coordination Committee of Neoi Prasinoi (photo of the Holocaust Memorial in Greece) The Nazi savagery took a heavy toll from Greece during WWII. An estimated 5-10% of the country’s population was killed during the war, while the country’s Jewry had 77% of its members murdered in German concentration camps….
GMOs on the European Menu
The new legislation, approved the 13th January by 480 votes to 159, allows EU member states to restrict or ban the cultivation of genetically modified organism (GMOs) crops on their territory. More flexibility for member states that from next spring, they can negotiate directly with the companies and they can even ban the cultivation of…
From Freetown to Athens: I.B.’s Story
Interview by Eugenie Manisalidi (edits by Phelan Chatterjee and Joshua Miguel Makalintal) Originally published in the Ecosprinter’s Migration Working Group blog. I.B. is an educated 26-year old ex-refugee from Sierra Leone, who has been living around the multicultural area of Amerikis square* in Athens, Greece for the past 5 years. I met him…
2015 Elections in Greece
By Dimitrios Moschos and Evangelos Astyrakakis, members of the Coordination Committee of Neoi Prasinoi Can the radical left gain power in Greece? Can it sustain that power long enough to alter the paradigm applied in Greece? Why is this particular election of such great importance for Europe? Can the Greens play a part in it?…