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May 2nd, 2007 issue

Iran watch

And this is going on at a time when the Iranian authorities expressed a will to negotiate with the United States the improvement of relations between the two countries (“U.S. warns of Iran threat,” News, April 25–May 1). Which was (no surprise there) dismissed by the Bush administration.
The times we are living in … seem somewhat out of sync with reason.
Paul Bremner
Calgary
Shadows from the past
“Hannah Arendt, who was sent to Jerusalem that year to cover the story for The New Yorker, came to the extreme conclusion that all official Jewish leaders contributed to the efficiency of Nazi killing and presented her opinion in the Swiss newspaper [Neuer Zuercher Zeitung]. So, without the official Jewish infrastructure there, there would have been fewer Jews killed during the Holocaust, Arendt concluded.” (“Time to ask questions,” Opinion, April 15–May 1)
Her statements are so absurd and, presented without other facts, almost sound plausible. That the Jewish people have among us unscrupulous and immoral people is not unusual. That some of them tried to save themselves during the Holocaust, at any cost, is also not unusual. Who among us can state that, when faced with such unspeakable terror, we would behave differently? Arendt’s statements, inferring that the leaders willingly cooperated and therefore contributed to the destruction of more Jews, are not only ridiculous, they’re utterly false.
Can any of us state emphatically that we would be brave and act righteously when faced with fear or death, then or now? Who among us is trained for situations in life when one must decide to collaborate or die? I am by no means condoning the actions of some weak and terrified souls who sold their people to the devil for the chance to live better, or for the chance to live. How can we even understand what that type of terror does to one’s psyche?
Communist state police had their own very unique way of dealing with people who refused to cooperate with them. Volumes have been written about their means of persuasion. But communism is not longer in power in Prague or the Czech Republic.
Mr. Jelinek asks about the “acceptance degree of collaboration” and I say there is no acceptable degree. In modern times, it is never all right to be the fifth column among your own people. The collaborators should be immediately removed from power, and, depending on the consequences of their actions, should be dealt with appropriately.
In modern times, we have an obligation to remove these people from power because their rationale and motivation has obviously gone askew. Unfortunately, being a leader is not a shield from corruption, and modern day collaborators should NOT be tolerated at all; zero percent tolerance!
Valentina Factor
Toronto


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