EURO-ANTI-SEMITISM WATCH: Regular readers will remember Gretta Duisenberg, the anti-Semitic wife of the European Central Bank chairman, Wim. When asked how many signatures she would like on an anti-Israel petition, she once joked, "Six million?" and laughed. Now she's getting more explicit. "Taking the Holocaust out of consideration, the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories is worse than the Nazi occupation of The Netherlands," she opined this week. "The cruelty of the Israeli knows no bounds. That they, for instance, blow up Palestinian houses is not exceptional. The Nazis never did that during the occupation of the Netherlands." For the record, 250,000 people were killed by the Nazis in Holland from 1940 - 45, 110,000 of whom were Jewish. Maybe she doesn't count those. Her husband is not to be held responsible for her bigotry, but it's surely getting a little difficult for one of the most powerful men in Europe to support his wife 100 percent, when she is clearly a Jew-hater. - 3:08:41 AM

-- Anonymous, January 11, 2003

Answers

My hazy memory says there was some sort of agreement with the Germans, that the Dutch would capitulate as long as the Germans didn't destroy their cities and hurt civilians. I believe it was Rotterdam and Amsterdam that took the brunt of the carpet-bombing that followed. A very large number of Dutch civilians was killed. To equate Israeli actions with those of the Germans during WWII is so 'way off target, it's not een pitiable. But so many Europeans believe it! As I recall, whenever there was a raid by the resistance, scores of civilians were lined up and summarily executed, sometimes a hundred for each German killed in a raid. As for blowing up houses, I have only two words: Warsaw Ghetto.

-- Anonymous, January 11, 2003