Research Findings...

In the book "The Seventh Million," by Tom Segev, I found some interesting information about Israeli prejudices against Germany. Segev tells how at the outset of the Gulf War, a wave of rumor and controversy spread around Israel, that the Germans were providing Saddam Hussein with technology and chemical weapons. Forty-five years after the Holocaust, Israelis were reluctant to forget the German atrocities of WWII, and extrapolated them to the Germany of their present time. The old man in my primary source epitomizes this mindset because he urges the children to avoid buying German goods and to actively seek revenge against them. In the greater scope of my paper, this information demonstrates how the Holocaust has so deeply permeated Israeli society, that its memory reveals itself in many national matters. As a side note, today's Israel is more welcoming of German goods. When I got off the plane in Tel-Aviv last year, I saw an enormous Volkswagen (a German brand) advertisement in the airport. Still there are some Israelis who refuse to buy anything German.