The Auschwitz Bookkeeper

I'm just about to fly off to Warsaw to lead a 2 week holocaust study trip. Therefore sorry for this very rushed flow of consciousness written on my iPhone! I just wanted to react to the Oscar Gröning "Bookkeeper of Auschwitz" case though as it's something I feel very strongly about:

Lots of people are apparently pointing out 1) he has "repented", 2) he came forward voluntarily to challenge holocaust deniers, 3) some are calling this "vengeance" rather than justice; 4) and of course he's extremely old.

They're missing a set of points.

1) and 2) These are relevant in law only to mitigation in sentencing, not to establishing culpability. What matters was whether he committed a crime then, or not. His subsequent behaviour might be admirable (I indeed think it is and he comes across as a good, decent person now) but that doesn't affect his involvement at that time. The court found he broke the law. 

He was facing 3-12 years and was sentenced to 4, ie right at the bottom end of the scale. The court therefore correctly applied the mitigating factors to reduce his sentence. End of debate. Christian bullshit about repentance and forgiveness of sins has no place in this legal discussion. He can take that nonsense up with "God" if he believes in one.

3) criminal law broadly has three  purposes: a) individual prevention of reoffending and rehabilitation, b) societal deterrence, and c) retribution. It's clear he won't be doing this again, so the first point here is irrelevant. In terms of societal deterrence however it sends out a message that even after 70 years those involved in genocide will be punished. Therefore this is good. Finally retribution (or "vengeance") is a relevant element of criminal law. It must not be the only motivating factor, but it does provide valid and necessary comfort to victims and it provides a sense of justice being done more widely. Again therefore this is good. 

4) I remember reading about a friendly Gestapo policeman in Cologne who helped an 89 year old German Jewish woman to her round up point by giving her a lift on the back of his  bicycle. She was deported to a ghetto in Poland where her life expectancy would have been days. Gröning's age now is utterly irrelevant to what he was part of back then, at least in terms of culpability (it might be relevant to sentencing). Old people and babies were murdered. He's had 70 long years of freedom and happiness that was denied to millions.

Another interesting point is the small cog in big wheel discussion. He didn't put people in gas chambers, but without the administration the camp could not have operated. As a book keeper, his exact job was to record the currency stolen from the murdered victims.  In his own words he witnessed the gas chambers and believed that the Jewish children murdered in them represented a danger to Germany because of "their blood". He chose this "cushy SS office job" voluntarily. The court found that the whole site was involved in mass murder, and therefore anyone involved was complicit in it. That's absolutely correct. 

Last of all it is never, ever, our place to forgive. We just literally do not have the standing as the wrong was not done to us. Only survivors can do that, or not, on a personal basis for the wrongs committed against them, and not against the other millions affected.  Our job as a society is to keep the memory alive and for our courts to deal with all these issues in a way set out by law. I therefore really welcome this. He will be accorded dignity and care in prison in Germany, which reflects the civilised society it has now become. The victims had no such fortune.

Germany's Jews - 75 years after Reichskristallnacht

I was walking through an U-Bahn station in Berlin last week and I saw a copy of "Jüdische Allgemeine" (you can translate it as "Jewish Weekly" if you like) on a completely regular subway newsstand.  It's a far cry from the situation almost exactly 75 years ago in Germany, when on 9 November 1938 the state organised pogrom known as Reichskristallnacht took place.  I don't think too many people are aware of the position (or even existence!) of the Jewish community in Germany today.  The combination of this anniversary and my seeing that paper have therefore prompted this post.

Winding the Clock Back

Let's wind the clock back, a little bit further than Reichskristallnacht, and go back 80 years, to 1933.  The German Jewish community stood at 505,000 at the time of the June 1933 census, a few months after the Nazis had come into power.

It's often not realised quite how small a percentage of the entire German population that the Jews made up: just 0.75%.  That's not vastly different to the percentage of Jews in the UK today, which at 292,000 is estimated to be around 0.47% of the general population.  In both cases, these are really small numbers and it's worth reflecting on that.  The Nazis were obsessed with the "Jewish Question" and the influence of this tiny group of people on German society.

The German Jewish population in the years leading up to 1933 was small, then, but it was also highly integrated, generally secure and confident.  It had been in Germany for 1600 years: the country has one of the longest and richest Jewish traditions and history in Europe.  The traditional language of many European Jews was Yiddish: a High German dialect.  Many American Jews of course still carry German surnames: the Morgensterns, Silberbergs and Rosenthals came from Germany, via Poland or Russia, and on to the US.

There's no doubt that when most people think of the words German and Jewish they inevitably start at the end, with the unique and murderous catastrophe of the holocaust.  If you want a different perspective, I can highly recommend Amos Elon's "The Pity of it All" which beautifully describes the 150 year history of the Jews in Germany from 1743 to 1933.  Elon writes about a period of successful integration and individual achievement that produced a genuine Golden Age that peaked shortly before the coming to power of the Nazis.  He does not see what came next as inevitable by any means, and rejects the view that the German anti-Semitism which began with Martin Luther's vicious Jew-hating tracts had to end up in Auschwitz.  He convincingly sets out how the fate of Germany's Jews was uncertain until the end.  It could have gone differently.

Reichskristallnacht

Jews rapidly left Germany as the Nazis' grip on power intensified.  The boycotts, racial laws and increased persecution led to a flood of people leaving.  Over 300,000 left during the 30s, which meant that "only" around 36% of Germany's original Jewish population was eventually murdered in the holocaust.  Other countries, such as the Netherlands, who were not able to flee in the same way because by then the War had started, suffered up to 90% murder rates of their Jewish populations.

A major impetus for German Jews' leaving the country was the pogrom of 9 November 1938.  It's that anniversary that is approaching: 75 years ago.   In August 1938 Germany had announced that all residence permits of foreigners would be cancelled.  These included a sizeable number of Polish born Jews, who were faced with going back to Poland.  Germany forcibly expelled 12,000 of them on 28 October 1938 and shipped them off to the border in one night.  At the border, 8000 were refused entry to Poland.  They were made to live in temporary camps in the bitter cold and rain in no-man's land.

17 year old Herschel: an unlikely killer

Two of the deportees were Sendel and Riva Grynszpan, whose 17 year old son, Herschel, was living in Paris.  In desperation at their fate, on 7 November Herschel rang the bell of the German embassy to France.  The person who answered the door was an aristocratic career diplomat, Ernst vom Rath, who happened to be under investigation by the Gestapo for his anti-Nazi sympathies.  Herschel shot him repeatedly.  On 9 November he died. 

In response to the assassination, Goebbels sent out his famous message to all local Nazi party leaders from the Altes Rathaus in Munich that "the Führer has decided that... demonstrations should not be prepared or organized by the party, but insofar as they erupt spontaneously, they are not to be hampered."  The message was clear that local party branches should attack German Jewish targets.  They did so with a passion: over 1000 synagogues were burnt down across the country (many of them ancient, beautiful buildings), 7000 Jewish businesses were attacked, 91 Jews were beaten to death, and 30,000 were rounded up and sent to concentration camps (many temporarily).  The foreign press looked on in horror: the Times wrote of attacks on defenceless, innocent people and the disgrace that had blackened Germany's name.  It was a modern day, organised pogrom without equal.

The location of the former Heidelberg Synagogue

The name "Kristallnacht" refers to the tonnes of smashed glass of the windows of synagogues and Jewish businesses.  Across Germany today, from the largest city to the smallest town you will find plaques marking the location of the destroyed synagogues.  In places like the pretty university town of Heidelberg the synagogue foundation stones have been preserved to preserve the indelible shame of that night.    To add insult to injury, the German Jewish community was fined 1 Billion Reichsmark (£3.5 billion at today's prices, or £17,500 per person) for the clean-up operation.  That night was what many historians regard as the beginning of the holocaust.  The indescribably brutal fate of the six million is well-known. 

Today's German Jewish Community

Immediately after the War, it's a little known fact that many Jews from across Europe took refuge in Germany.  This is perhaps counter-intuitive, but it's because the American and British occupied zones were safe havens where, unlike the hostility and sometimes violence that survivors faced when they returned home, they could pick up the fragments of their lives and plan their futures.

In Kielce, in Poland, for example, 42 Jewish holocaust survivors were stoned to death in a river on 4 July 1946, charged with the abduction of a Christian boy and medieval blood libel allegations.  For the few surviving Polish Jews this was the end of their future in the country, and they moved to the protection of the Allies in Germany, before heading off to new lives in the US or Palestine.

The swell in Jewish numbers in Germany was therefore temporary.  By 1989 the Jewish community of West Germany stood at around 30,000 - about 1/20th the size it had been in 1933.  In East Germany there were only a few hundred: most took the rare opportunity of emigration to Israel in the 1970s when it was offered to them.  Both communities were introspective, private, elderly and tended to be very private.

Then came Reunification in 1990, and the fall of the Soviet Union in 1992.  Germany opened its doors to Jewish immigration from the East once more.  In 2003 the Social Democratic chancellor, Schröder, signed an important and highly symbolic agreement with the German Jewish Central Council that placed Judaism on the same semi-established, elevated status as the Catholic and Lutheran Churches in Germany.  Also in 2003, ten new rabbis were ordained in Berlin: the first since WW2.  In 2006, the new rabbinical seminary in Potsdam ordained three reform rabbis: the first since 1942. 

Russian Jews with Yiddish surnames, whose families had started off in the Rhineland, and who had moved eastwards in the early Middle Ages, started to come "home".  The trickle became a flood.  The renaissance in Jewish life as a result, right across Germany, has been remarkable.  In a mere twenty years the Jewish population has grown around 300% to around 200,000.  There are 120,000 active, practising members of the faith.  Germany's is the fastest growing Jewish population in the world.  There's an annual net emigration from Israel to Germany, mainly because Germany is seen as a much safer place to live.  The irony of that fact is striking. 

Synagogues are opening up across the country, not just in the major urban centres of Berlin and Munich.  Hamelin, of Pied Piper fame, a small, sleepy town in northern central Germany, very close to where I grew up, has just opened the first new reform synagogue to be built in the country since well before the War.  Its Jewish population in 1933 was 153 members.  Now it stands at 200, which is the same level as at its heyday in 1880.  The new synagogue is on the exact location of the one destroyed on 9 November 1938.

The Ohel Jakob "New Main Synagogue" in Munich

The Jewish population of Munich is similarly back up at pre-Third Reich levels.  I visited one of the synagogues there with Harriet, an English Orthodox friend, a few years back.  She was blown away by the number of people attending on an ordinary Thursday night, and her reaction was a quiet and reflective "ultimately they didn't win, did they?"  Remember, this was in Munich, the capital of the Nazi movement: Hitler's favourite city.  I always take people to visit the magnificent New Synagogue there, which was opened on 9 November 2006.  The roof represents the tents used during the biblical flight from Egypt, and also reminds us of the original Temple in Jerusalem.  It is flooded with light inside.

Of course, not all is rosy.  There are xenophobic and anti-Semitic far-right attacks in Germany, as elsewhere in the world.  The difference is that here they automatically grab the world headlines, because people are so sensitive about them.  Attacks on synagogues or Jewish graveyards in France, a worryingly regular occurrence, don't have the same press impact, so don't make the headlines in quite the same way as any in Germany might.

Long May It Continue

Germany now has the third largest Jewish community in Europe again (after France and the UK).  Nothing can replace those who were murdered, or "make good" the harm of those 12 terrible years of the Third Reich.  But the fact that Jews are once again choosing to live in Germany (after all, they really don't have to) because it is considered a good, safe, stable place to bring up their children makes me, as a half-German, enormously proud.

This 9 November I shall, along with millions of others, reflect on the events of 75 years ago and what was to follow.  I shall also think about the present and the future of Jews in Germany, and how positive things once again look.  It is a testament to the efforts of politicians and ordinary people in the Federal Republic that we have reached this point.  Long, long may it continue.

The Art of Self-Loathing

Can a Jew make anti-Semitic remarks?  Can a gay man be a homophobe?  The idea seems oxymoronic or laughable.  Sadly, however, I've seen them both in action of late on Twitter.   The next question is whether the person is somehow excused from making the comment, just because he or she belongs to the group?  Is it a "get out Jail free" card to mock Jews for having "big noses" because you are Jewish; or to characterise other gay men as "uppity, in-your-face, camp-as-tits-faggots who'll rape you as soon as look at you" because you are gay?
 
Jewish anti-Semitism

Jewish anti-Semitism goes back a long way.  In the 12th century Benjamin of Tuleda records in his "Travels of Benjamin" animosity towards Jews from the Greeks of Constantinople.  Wealthy Jewish merchants explained this to Benjamin by blaming poor, "filthy" Jewish tanners for the problem.  It's a classic example of victims ignoring the actual roots of hatred directed at them, and instead focusing their dislike and anger on poorer elements of their own community.  Rather than challenge the endemic Christian anti-Semitism, the merchants accept the prejudices, differentiate between themselves and other Jews, and indulge in their own Jewish anti-Semitism.   

This can neatly be summarised some 700 years later by the Austrian Jewish writer Max Nordau.  He wrote in 1896 "It is the greatest triumph of anti-Semitism that is has brought the Jews to view themselves with anti-Semitic eyes."

The concept gained widespread modern recognition after the publication in 1930 of the book Der Jüdische Selbsthass ("Jewish Self-hatred") by German Jew Theodor Lessing.   He explained in his book the phenomenon of intellectual Jews who regarded Judaism as a source of evil in the world, and who incited physical anti-Semitism against other Jews.

Another example of the phenomenon struck me reading the diaries of Professor Victor Klemperer.  Klemperer, from Dresden, wrote the only complete set of diaries of a German Jew during the Third Reich.  In an entry of 10 January 1939, Klemperer brings up and actually implicity accepts the Nazi concept of the "Jewish Question".  He rejects it explicitly with reference to atheist, assimilated Jews such as himself, but acknowledges there is an issue with the Yiddish speaking "Ostjuden" or Jews who have immigrated from Eastern Europe.  That he should accept this anti-Semitic Nazi concept on any level, having suffered at their hands, just months before the beginning of WW2, is extraordinary.

One of the leading experts on this phenomenon is Kenneth Levin, clinical instructor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School.  I understand the basic idea is that the victimised accept on some level the attacks of, and develop empathy with, their abusers.  This may be a manifestation of chronic low self-esteem: you are in effect accepting that you deserve to be attacked.

"Bigotry and Big Noses"

To me, there is absolutely no question that Jews can mock, dislike, or even actively hate and wish harm on other Jews as a category.  Taking a step back, this is no more exceptional than suggesting human beings can hate other human beings.  Just because you belong to any group does not mean you like, defend or feel empathy towards the other members of it.

Some would disagree and get really quite agitated about this logic.  Look at these recent outbursts from Milo Yiannopoulos (aka @Nero, the founder of the troubled technology/gossip magazine The Kernel):

It's a bit "loopy" to suggest a Jew can be anti-Semitic

Again the excuse "I'm Jewish" so can't be anti-Semitic

It's "mental" to say a Jew can be anti-Semitic 

I assume Milo has not heard of Benjamin of Tuleda, Nordau, Klemperer or Levin.  There's no crime in that, of course.

Also, in his favour, it should be explained that Milo isn't the happiest little soul at the moment.  The background to these tweets is that he is reacting very aggressively to a piece written about him and posted by Max Dunbar which Milo claims is libelous.  The post sets out offensive, threatening emails allegedly sent by Milo to a writer at the Kernel who wasn't paid.  It mentions his non-payment of bills to other writers at the magazine, which is a recurring theme the Guardian has picked up on.  A lot of journalists and photographers are extremely unhappy about the Kernel's apparent repeated refusal to pay its contributors.  An award of over £16,000 was made just yesterday by a tribunal, for example, to the journalist Jason Hesse against Sentinel Media Limited t/a Kernel Magazine.  If unpaid, enforcement action could include a winding up petition against Sentinel and depending on his actions, personal liability on behalf of its sole director, Milo.

Despite all this, what seems to have upset Milo the most in the post is the comment "He doesn’t like lesbians, very much it seems.  Then we might take his view on Jews."  There follows a link to this thread of tweets:

Jews' characteristics include "bigotry and big noses".  Is this an offensive, stereotypical and (extremely unoriginal) anti-Semitic comment?  In my opinion it is.  Milo states his faith as Roman Catholic elsewhere, but during this exchange he has repeatedly said that he is a Jew.  This is presumably by virtue of birth.  As we have seen, he claims this prima facie entirely anti-Semitic tweet cannot be so, simply because the author is Jewish.  Plenty would disagree.

Like any other form of prejudice, Jewish anti-Semitism can be subtle and one-off (I'm sure Professor Klemperer would not have categorised himself as anti-Semitic), or it can be overt and repeated.  One anti-Semitic comment obviously does not however make someone an anti-Semite.  Despite Milo's repeat attempts to characterise it as otherwise, the post on Max Dunbar's did not actually say that, and simply pulled him up on this one mocking anti-Jewish comment.

Iron Crosses and Hitler Biographies

The Iron Cross dates back to 1813.  It is a Prussian medal first awarded by King Frederick William III during the Napoleonic Wars.  It was reintroduced during three wars of German aggression: the Franco-Prussian war, the First World War and finally by a Reich decree on 1 September 1939.  This was the very day that Nazi forces invaded Poland, that the subjugation of the people of Eastern Europe began, and the foundation stones for the genocide of the Jewish people were laid.

Iron Cross Decree: 1 September 1939

The Iron Cross is the very embodiment of German militarism, and for many people they think of it as one of the core symbols of the Nazi period.  Hitler himself was awarded the Iron Cross, Classes 1 and 2. 

Therefore the Iron Cross is perhaps not the type of thing you'd expect to see most young Jews embracing and wearing.  Nonetheless, above is an interesting shot of 22 year old Milo Wagner (as Yiannopoulos was then calling himself) wearing one during the summer of 2006.  It's from a publicly available Flickr account (see postscript) in a set called "Me".  Is it actually Milo?  Well yes of course it is.  Here's a head shot this time, with the same shirt and the earphones. 

Anyone would think he'd be ashamed to be identified with this symbol of German and Nazi Third Reich militarism and that's why he cropped his head from the photo.  Now, if we scroll back past four pictures of Milo posing in some public toilets (entitled "Railway Toilets I, II, III, IV") on the same photo stream, we come to this picture of some Hitler biographies:

The Kershaw biographies are standard reads for students of the Third Reich.  I'm glad Milo is looking through them: they are an excellent study into what an evil philosophy Nazism was.  He may even have educated himself on the Reich decree of 1 September 1939 and what the Iron Cross represents. 

Given there are just 30 pictures in this photo stream, mainly of Milo's face, I'm genuinely not sure what exactly he is trying to say by assembling the images of the Iron Cross and the Hitler biographies together.  Oh, and are those actually Milo's hands?  Well judging by the ring it certainly looks like a match.  The photo below is taken from the same photo stream by Milo Wagner entitled "Me":

Same type of ring, same finger, similar hands.

UPDATE:  This image has just come to light that was reposted by Milo (top left) in 2009.  

If this were Twitter, one could defensively claim that "RTs aren't endorsements".  Whether one's employers, for example, would see it like that is a different matter of course.

However, the image is not from Twitter.  It is from a now defunct service called "Popjam".  There when you "RT"d something, it had an explicit point: that you thought people would find it funny.  It wasn't like Twitter where people will RT vicious things said to them in order to shame someone, for instance.  On Popjam, it was all about the LOLs. That's the key point. "See this image, laugh like I'm doing." Not "see this image, be revolted by it" or "see this image, consider its truth."  You actually scored points for getting LOLs on Popjam.

If you'd like an explanation of Popjam ("Ever get bored of endlessly surfing around the net, looking for LOLs") just click here.  The short little piece is by none other than Milo Yiannopoulos.  It was written before the Telegraph parted company with him, following the posting of the image.

If you look at the bottom of the image there is a LOL button.  At the top you can see it was reposted by Milo.  Milo claims that he flagged it as inappropriate.  He says that it is "misrepresenting" he actions to suggest otherwise.

How odd, then, that this search (scroll down to "In yo' face!" which is the name of the post) shows that he in fact did no such thing.  It was in fact LOLd by him (twice).  Perhaps his memory doesn't serve him well.  That would be strange, given that the image caused such difficulties for him and his journalistic career.

Again, if it's necessary to state the obvious, making jokes about Hitler killing Jews doesn't make you anti-Semitic, or suggest you agree with any aspect of Hitler's policies.  It's a "joke" - but it does mean you have a sense of humour that most people would find distinctly unpleasant.  It's doubly curious from someone who is a young Jew and would, I'm sure, attract the disdain of many in the Jewish community.

Homosexuality is Wrong

I've known plenty of gays who suffer from low self-esteem.  It can manifest itself in destructive behaviour, addiction and sometimes an active dislike of other gay men.  You hear jokes where gay men call each other "poofs", "queers" and use the third person feminine to mock someone ("What's she up to tonight?" when referring to another gay man etc).

Another group of gays belong to the "straight acting" category, who dislike anyone who acts "camply" and is too effeminate for the way they think people should behave.  Their homophobia towards such people is as strong and vicious as anything I have ever heard from a straight person.

The reason I set out the material on anti-Semitic Jews at the beginning of this post is two-fold.  It counters the argument that a Jew cannot ever be guilty of making anti-Semitic comments.  Of course they can.  But it also is interesting to draw parallels with other forms of dislike of a group you belong to, because the psychology is so similar.

Using Levin's analysis, homophobia by gay people must be the very same pattern of acceptance and internalising of prejudice from abusers.  The abused then apply this to themselves and to members of their own group.   To alter Nordau's quote, is it perhaps the greatest triumph of homophobia that it has brought gays to view themselves with homophobic eyes?


Milo is gay.  Let's look at some of his thoughts on the subject taken from his public blog:

"The thought that I might influence my child towards a lifestyle choice guaranteed to bring them pain and unhappiness – however remote that chance may be – is horrifying to me."

"I’d describe myself as 90-95% gay. I would never have chosen to be this way. No one would choose it. You’d have to be mad. "

"No one would choose to have a gay child rather than a straight one. It would be like wishing that they were born disabled – not just because homosexuality is aberrant, but because that child will suffer unnecessarily. Again, you’d have to be mad. Or evil. "

"Is being homosexual “wrong”? Something somewhere inside of me says Yes."

"The feelings of alienation and rejection [growing up gay] engenders are responsible for the sorts of repugnant tribal posturing you see on the streets of Soho on a Friday night, as bitterly unhappy queers engage in degrading and repulsive behaviour, simply because they want to feel a part of something after a lifetime of marginalisation."

"All these preening poofs in public life do is make life more difficult for regular young gay people by reinforcing the stereotypes about gay behaviour: reminding a struggling child’s myopic dad that queers are uppity, in-your-face, camp-as-tits faggots who’ll rape you as soon as look at you."

"I don’t hate myself and I don’t hate my sexuality. (Granted, I have a complicated relationship with the latter.) Nor do I hate other gay men. (Where would fat girls be without them?)"

Milo posing: "Railway Toilets III"

Are the above comments homophobic?  If a straight person called me a "bitterly unhappy queer", a "preening poof" or "a camp as tits faggot" I'd say this was the very definition of homophobic abuse and hate language.  This poisonous bile actually makes me feel a bit sick.   Milo's post led me to write my own blog post a while back on why I would actually, genuinely choose to be gay.

Dislike of lesbians is another expression of gay homophobia and prejudice: this might not be strictly speaking because of self-hatred, but it is certainly a noticeable and unpleasant characteristic of more than a few gay men.  Here's a selection of tweets that show our friend Milo spewing out repeated homophobia directed at lesbians:

The one that pretty much seems to sum up Milo's views is the typically articulate one below.  It is a response to a series of portraits of trans* men.  There is actually nothing to suggest they are lesbian, so Milo gets a tick for transphobia too whilst we are at it:

A Media-Hungry Influencer

Does it matter that anyone who is apparently so deeply unhappy with his own life should use their self-proclaimed "semi public position" to put this stuff on homosexuality into the public arena? 

I rather think it does.  Milo controls an online magazine.   He is a angry opponent of marriage equality and is not shy of getting himself quoted to show that some gay people are opposed to the move.  In a similar vein, he also somehow managed to convince Channel 4 News that because he was opposed to the LGBT friendly Catholic Soho Masses this represented a split in gay Catholic opinion.

When a prominent evangelical pastor declares his support for same-sex relationships this is inherently more newsworthy and of interest than a gay campaigner saying he supports them.  Similarly when a gay man goes out into the media and attacks the attempts of his community to achieve equal treatment, it is seized upon as representing something much more than the self-loathing tendencies of one individual. 

Like it or not (I do not), Milo is an influencer and not just on Twitter.  For how much longer he remains so is anyone's question, of course, given his publication's financial troubles and his general standing amongst the journalist community.  There are times when you can't help but feel a lot of pity for him - and then you read his comments about "fat girls", "preening poofs" or Jews being "bigoted and having big noses" and you change your mind.

Get Out of Jail Card

What is clear is that just because you're a member of any given group or groups, you are not immune from indulging in bigotry towards those groups.  However, do you warrant a "Get out of Jail Card" if you choose to express these prejudices?

In my opinion you do not.  Anti-semitism, homophobia, sexism and racism are all accepted by most people (and by the law) as being objectionable and wrong.  Milo's excuse for his anti-lesbian comments is that he is gay.  Does that make them any less nasty or unpleasant for a lesbian reader of the comments?  No: in fact you could say that it makes the culpability worse.  He apparently has experienced pain and unhappiness as a result of being gay, yet he's happy repeatedly to turn his hatred on other gay people in a public forum.

Is it okay for a Jew to make an anti-Semitic "joke" or to wear an Iron Cross?  I think most Jews would say it isn't - and in the case of the Iron Cross, in fact it's even more offensive and disrespectful for a member of the people who suffered so horrendously to wear this symbol of German militarism.  Of course ultimately it's entirely up to him: people will make their own judgements and he can live with that.  I'd just advise him heavily not to try pulling this prank on one of his regular jaunts to Berlin.  His defence that he's a Jew "so this is okay" might not be too readily accepted.  In my experience, 19th and 20th century right wing military symbols aren't terribly in vogue at the moment in modern day Germany.

A Wider Phenomenon

I feel sorry for Milo.  It can't be pleasant carrying all this round with you.  He is just an easily referenced example for a much wider phenomenon though.  It's important to get that there's nothing self-contradictory at all about a Jew mocking other Jews, or for a gay to be deeply homophobic.  The question is whether we dismiss it, or reflect on it, and point it out to those engaging in it.









POSTSCRIPT

I gave Milo the opportunity of confirming or denying whether the photo stream (including the image of him wearing the Iron Cross and with the Hitler biographies) was his.  He neither expressly confirmed nor denied it, but within an hour the Flickr account had been deleted, having been inactive for over six years.

The name Milo Wagner with the word [deleted] behind the account still appears on comments he previously left on Flickr, however.  Here's one left on a photo posted by David Haywood Smith.  He happens to be Milo's business associate at the Kernel.

One screenshot of the (now) deleted Milo Wagner account