The Efficacy of Hate

Here's a fascinating factoid: Did you know that there are more Jews living in Alabama, USA than in Poland? (In fact three times the number in Alabama.) More Jews in New Hampshire than in Poland?

Grief and History

Or, how's this: There are more Jews living in Colorado than in Germany? And more in Arizona than in Germany?


Or, Missouri has more Jews than Ukraine.


Or, Maryland has more Jews than Russia, by about 100,000 souls.

Wowser.


I suppose it should be no surprise, when you think about what happened to Jews between 1935 and 1945 in Germany, Poland, Ukraine and, of course, Russia has a long history before and after of killing or otherwise being unkind to Jews.
So Poland has 3,200 Jews; Ukraine has 63,000; Germany 99,695 and Russia 186,000.


Before the Holocaust Poland had 3.5 million Jews, near as I can tell from Professor Google. Afterwards, 3,200, a reduction of 99.9%.
Germany had only 525,000, (reduced by about 80%) and Ukraine had almost a million (down 95%) .
Each of the countries surrounding Germany (Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Austria) had more than Germany itself. But when German troops stormed over the border, the slaughter of Jews followed the Wehrmacht troops, as special Jew killing brigades rounded up Jews for slaughter. I haven't figured the reduction in their Jewish population.


So, when Hitler and his merry gang of murderers conceived of "The Final Solution," well, they got pretty close to finality. They did not quite exterminate every last Jew within their boundaries, but apparently, they came pretty close.


And these reductions have been durable: They've held up for 70 years.


You have to say this  was a government program which achieved its stated goals.

Hank Greenberg

I suppose none of this is surprising, really. If you were a Jew living in Germany, Poland or Ukraine where the local folks so enthusiastically joined in rounding up Jews and killing them, even if you managed to escape that dragnet, would you want to hang around, living among these people?  Would you not try to hop the next train, boat or horse to get as far away from these nasties as you could?



There are some curiosities in the numbers:  There are 465,000 Jews in France. France cooperated with the Nazis when the Nazis occupied France and sent thousands off to die in the concentration camps. But, apparently, at least that core stayed on after the war. More recently, with a rise in anti Semitic attacks in France, Jews have been crossing the Channel to live in Britain, which has only 269,000 Jews, which is fewer Jews than Massachusetts or Illinois or Maryland.

Why so few Jews in Britain?  The Brits  weren't collaborating with the Nazis during those years, not hardly. Quite the opposite. But the gentile anti Semitism of the Brits may be unsettling in its own way. It goes back to Dickens and Shakespeare--Oliver Twist and the Merchant of Venice.


Here's one nugget: Texas, which is one of our three  big mega states, has only 160,000 Jews. The other big ones (California, New York) have more than a million each.  So maybe Jews have got the vibe from Texas not a good place to be, if you're a Jew.


Most Southern states have few Jews, but Georgia, Florida and South Carolina, North Carolina have as many or more than Poland.


And those four states have the Ku Klux Klan.


I guess this goes to show that government programs can be effective.  If you want to get rid of people you hate, you can do it. First, you publicly announce your animus. Then you quietly execute the implications of that attitude. And then you simply allow people to vote with their feet.


If Donald Trump wants to rid the United States of those brown skinned rapists from Mexico and Latin America, he's at least taken the first step.


Have Russia, Poland, Ukraine or Germany regretted the loss of the Jews?
Well, maybe some folks there regret it.
Is their loss our gain?

I would think so.  For one thing, Hank Greenberg did a lot for the Detroit Tigers, in a city where Henry Ford wrote the screed, "The International Jew." 

Oh, and then there was Einstein, who luckily was working for us. 
If that atomic bomb had been dropped on Washington rather than Hiroshima, our lives might be significantly different.

We'll take him and give you a high draft choice

I know I'd miss the Hispanics I know. For that matter, I'd miss the Chinese, the Koreans, the Vietnamese--you name it. I can think of immigrant groups up and down the line and I keep thinking: I'd miss every single one of these groups, and it's not just that I love Thai food. They each add something. And they'd miss each other.


If it weren't for the Jews, who would eat in Chinese restaurants on Christmas day?