Debating the merits of the Third Reich; The thugs who won’t go away

Germany

Debating the merits of the Third Reich

Andreas Petzold

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Stern

It shouldn’t be necessary to say this, but it is: The Nazi regime was an unmitigated evil, said Andreas Petzold in Germany’s Stern. Yet many Germans haven’t mastered this simple truth. Ever since TV presenter Eva Herman was fired over the summer for saying that the Nazis’ pro-family policy wasn’t all bad, Germans have been debating the merits of her argument. Fully one-quarter of respondents surveyed by this newspaper said that National Socialism had its good points. Herman cited generous maternity leave; others have pointed to the Nazis’ health insurance policies for the elderly. Such parsing misses the point. The entire apparatus of government in the Nazi era was constructed for one goal: preparation for a war of extermination to make room for the Aryan race. That so many of us clearly do not understand what a monstrous perversion of government that was means that something is lacking in our education. How clueless do you have to be to even enter

Ireland

The thugs who won’t go away

Editorial

Irish Independent

The Provisional IRA may be officially disbanded, but its former members are still causing trouble, said the Dublin Irish Independent in an editorial. The group, a hard-line offshoot of the Irish Republican Army, was once the fiercest of the Irish terror groups. Last weekend, it proved it still sees itself as the real power in the border region near Northern Ireland, when at least seven Provos armed with iron bars and cudgels brutally beat a young man to death in south Armagh. Paul Quinn, 21, had offended the Provos by brawling with one of their republican sympathizers. The attack shows that little has changed since the ceasefire. In the old days, the IRA acted as a Mafia group. Failing to pay proper respect to the godfathers and their henchmen was a serious infraction, punishable by death. Evidently, some of these activists still see themselves as untouchables, with the power to punish those who dare to cross them. But police say they will not rest until they find Quinn’s killers. Justice in this case would prove that Ireland truly has entered a new era.