Nederlands – The cabinet sees no reason to apologise for the Dutch government’s attitude to Jews during World War II, prime minister Mark Rutte said on Thursday in answer to questions from the anti-Islam party PVV.
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The PVV said last week the current government should apologize for the way the regime in exile in London ignored the deportation of Jews during the war. Wilders was reacting to a newspaper article about a book on the official Dutch attitude to the Holocaust which was published last June.
In his answer, Rutte referred to the government’s standpoint in 2000 which led to then prime minister Wim Kok apologizing for the cold reception Jews who survived the concentration camps were given on their return to the Netherlands.
However, there was no ‘broadly supported advice from the people involved or objective information’ that would merit a change in that position, Rutte said.
Over 100,000 Dutch Jews were killed during World War II.
My father once told me that a lot of people from the Netherlands were the chasdai umos ha olam, well.look at them today and look at Germany, moshiach must be on his way
Listen up – before you cry foul and label him as an antisemite, understand that the request to apologize came from Mr. Wilders, who is the head of an extreme right political party. While I personally think Mr. Wilders does not want to bother the Jews – he definitely wants to hurt the Muslims. That being said – Mr. Wilders will not always be on top of this party ,and he will possibly be replaced by someone more extreme that WILL bother the jews. Mr. Wilders has his own agenda here, and the jews did not ask for this apology. Had the jews of Holland requested this apology, they probably would have gotten it. Unlike here in the US, the jews of Europe prefer to keep a low profile, and as long as they can live in peace – it’s good enough for them. I think we can take a leaf out of their book and learn to live without apologies as well – b/c the fact is Eisov Soine L’Yakov. And don’t forget this is the same party that pushes against shechita in order to bother the Muslims – and we ARE being hurt by this.
There is no need for an apology. Dutch Jews have not asked for one, end of story.