The rise of anti-semitism in Europe has become a fact. It has been a decade since the first alarm bells rang in Europe.
But in some countries, more than others, anti-semitism is not just taking a hold, it is almost seen as a welcome change.
What has caused this shift is a very complicated social question, which has been dealt with in a few books that have already been written on the subject.
But apart from trying to find what caused it, more important as time goes by and numbers of nazi sympathyzers swell, is why the population in these countries is so willing to embrace them, or at least tolerate them.
Changes that are subtle in other places, are instead quite loud in Austria, which is now coming under scrutiny from International watchdog groups.
It begun nearly 30 years ago, with small incidents of discrimination against jews.
Austria is one of the wealthiest and most well structured countries in the world. But for many Jews there is the quiet realization that in Austria long held sympathies developed in the Nazi era have never disappeared.
But if the Austrian people bothered to conceal such sympathies before, it is not doing so now. Children who are recognized as Jews get dirty looks in the street. Some are being asked to get off a bus. Others are harassed, rabbis are abused in the streets, and a far right politician has posted a cartoon that is obviously anti-semitic. If that were not enough, a strong debate recently ensued on the subject of mandatory circumcision.
A poll of the population in fact revealed that 3 out of 5 Austrians want a 'strongman' to lead them, and 2 out of 5, think that Hitler's period was not a bad one at all. The poll also indicated a rise in far right leaning thinking in the population.
But the Jewish population in Vienna are extremely sensitive to these changes and are trying to bring awareness to them. After all, Vienna was ground zero. It was the place were the final solution was first enacted. Only 15,000 Jews now live in Austria, but they are a vibrant and diverse community.
While many Austrians will depict Hitler's rule of their country as a disaster to which they were unwilling victim, testimony from that time, including photographic evidence, shows that the Austrian population welcomed the furher with open arms.
What alarms Jews in Austria however, is how complacent the authorities are on the events that surround neo-nazi harassment. Most cases are not prosecuted, and are seen as an unfortunate, but normal, part of life.
And the number of anti-semitic incidents has doubled just the past year. In fact, the far right wing politician who published the cartoon has seen a 20% rise in popularity after his antisemitic stance was made public, and is now eligible to gain a seat in the government next year.
Source: NBC 3.11.13
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