Saturday, September 02, 2006

Anti-Semitism in Eastern Europe

We were limited to only being able to see anti-Semitism in the form of graffiti (except for the young woman in the hostel in Vienna, who told me that the attacks on September 11th were a Jewish conspiracy). I didn't go with any intention of documenting or seeking out anti-Semitism.

Sofia, Bulgaria. This is on the side of a school. (I learned later this is anti-fascist: check the comments)


Sofia, Bulgaria. I have no idea what this says (I learned later this is also anti-fascist: check the comments).


Budapest, Hungary. "Juden Unter Alles" (it's written in German). I was told that this is a play on the German national anthem saying that the Jews are underneath the trash.

Budapest, Hungary. This is very faint, in the corner of a bridge. I'm not really sure how I saw it. In Budapest, they have statues of cows (or bulls) and a couple of them had Stars of David drawn on the ass (presumably not by the sculpturer).


Vienna, Austria. In the Jewish museum. It's meant to show how the Nazis "aryanized" Mozart. I was offended that the main exhibition in the Jewish museum centered around Mozart and one of his minions (a minion that converted away from Judaism at 14 years of age and never looked back).

On my bus ride from Warsaw to Munich, I saw a few Stars of David spray painted on the walls. They're not going to spray paint swastikas in Poland (think about it), so this is how they show their anti-Semitism. I didn't see any anti-Semitic graffiti in Bucharest, Bratislava, or Warsaw. Doesn't mean there's no anti-Semitism there and doesn't mean that it is there either.

4 comments:

knibilnats said...

A man who works the security beat for Sofia's synagogue also told me that the relationship beween Jews and Bulgarians have historically been good. Bulgaria is 1 of 2 countries to save all of their Jews during the War.

Thank you very much for the info and I'll add a little note by the pictures. I'm still going to leave them up there so your comment makes sense. Thanks again.

Anonymous said...

It is sickening to present antifascist graffities as antisemitic.
This is how the zionist propaganda works.
The posting is an offense to the Bulgarian nation.

knibilnats said...

hahaha, are you serious?

C'mon man, I don't speak Bulgarian and I saw swastikas in several places. What am I supposed to think? But I learned more, and also the first nice person above left a very INSIGHTFUL comment. (Imagine that: dialogue instead of accusations).

I'm not sure what this has to do with Zionism though. To be honest, I think you have an agenda in writing a comment in this manner. But I'll make things clearer to avoid confusion.

peace and love

Anonymous said...

I just came upon your blog while looking for additional information on "Juden Unter Alles." We just returned from Budapest and found the same graffiti there, also on the garbage pails. It's very disturbing. I have a photo, but can't seem to figure out how to post it along with this message.