When Will They Ever Learn

When Will They Ever Learn?

By Ephraim Ben

In the mid 1960's there was a very popular song written by Pete Seeger and performed by Peter, Paul & Mary and also by Joan Baez.  The song was "Where have all the flowers gone" and the last line of the chorus was "when will they ever learn?"

Since the horrendous attack by ISIS on Paris on the night of November 13, 2015 there is a growing debate in this country as well as in Europe on whether to restrict asylum for Syrian refugees, whether to permit them to come to the United States, whether we should in fact take in these refugees for fear of terrorists being among them.

It reminds me of the Evian Conference of 1936 in the south of France.  In 1923 Adolf Hitler had written his book "Mein Kampf" (My Struggle), in which he blamed Germany's Jews for all of Germany's problems [SIC] and predicted that if he ever would become Germany's prime minister (chancellor) he would expel all the German Jews from Germany.  In 1933 he in fact became Germany's chancellor calling himself "Fuehrer' (Leader) and surely enough he started to unleash his venom for the Jews of Germany. 

America's president, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, called for an international conference in Evian to discuss the problems of the German Jews.  Leaders from all major countries attended, except Mr. Roosevelt himself.  He sent a delegate to attend the conference on his behalf.  All the leaders, one by one, stood up and expressed their disgust with Mr. Hitler, how unacceptable it was what Hitler was doing.  But in the end they all said, without exception, that their countries could not help and could not take in any Jewish refugees.  The only person to stand up and promise to take in 5000 Jews was the leader of the Dominican Republic Rafael Trujillo.

Making a long story short, since no country was willing to take in Jewish refugees, it forced Hitler's hand.  Hitler had never had a plan to annihilate the Jews.  He just wanted Germany to be rid of the Jews ("Judenrein").  Since no country would accept the Jews it gave Hitler license to murder the Jews in various concentration camps in Germany and Poland.  All in all the German Nazis murdered six million Jews and six million non-Jews who were declared enemies of the state, which included gypsies, communists, socialists, chronically ill people and opponents to the German Government of the time.

Among those six million Jews were my thirteen year old brother, my paternal grandparents, and my father's two brothers.

On the other hand some German Jews did make it to the United States and contributed to the community of mankind:  Albert Einstein, Sigmund Freud, many players (actors, directors, musicians, producers etc.) in Hollywood as well as scientists, especially in the medical sciences and Dr. Henry Kissinger, who became Nixon's National Security advisor and who opened China to America.

Eight hundred Jews accepted Trujillo's invitation to come to the Dominican Republic.  There, in Sosua, they started a dairy industry which became the biggest and the best dairy industry in the Caribbean.  After two decades these former German Jewish Refugees moved on to developing Real Estate in the Dominican Republic and made Sosua one of the biggest and greatest resorts in the 1960's, becoming a flagship resort for Club Med vacationers from the US.

As far as the German Jewish refugees in America were concerned not a single German Jew ever sabotaged America, although German spies and a fifth column did manage to enter the United States by U-boats to sabotage America.  They were caught by the authorities and their attempts to do so were foiled.

If America takes the same stand as many of the delegates took at the Evian Conference, who knows how we will be depriving ourselves of valuable talent.  America has taken in Koreans, Vietnamese and many, many other ethnic groups and all of them have made valuable contributions to our society.

In the 1960's Germany was experiencing an "Economic Miracle".  It had full employment and was forced to invite foreign workers from Turkey, Romania and Italy to come to Germany to supplement Germany's labor force.  Many of the Turks have remained n Germany and created new Turkish conclaves in Berlin, lifting Berlin's economy.  Recently Germany has offered to take in 800,000 Syrian refugees because Germany has an aging labor force which needs to be replenished.  I saw one Syrian woman on the News proudly showing that she already was taking German lessons and could already count in German.  The Syrians were known to be the most educated and enterprising people other than the Israelis in the Middle East. 

If America is afraid that members of ISIS will come with the flow of refugees, those terrorists may already be in America or can easily enter America without the help of refugees, as did Al Queda before 9/11.  As the there is this enormous income gap in America now there is a big chance that some Americans are already so frustrated that they may be planning lone wolf attacks themselves on America.

I happen to believe that the attack on soft targets in Paris on Friday, November 13 2015 were the beginning phase of ISIS's end.  It may still take another couple of years for ISIS to die completely but the fact that ISIS has attacked Russia and now France, it has now created a bully force as the Allies were in World War II.  Sooner or later we will defeat ISIS.

There is also a chance that America's economy will even be lifted by Syrian refugees.  Let's open our minds, our hearts and our doors and be more welcoming to those refugees rather than keeping them out of America.  If we don't do this we will only make ISIS stronger.  These refugees have the same rights as human beings as we had before we came to America, not just the German Jews, but the Irish, the Italians and so many others.

When will we ever learn?