For those who don't know what the "Greece" problem in Europe is about - here's the explanation

[JDPriestly]

33. Have you read The Lost City by John Gunther?

It's about Austria on the evening of WWII.

Anti-semitism was a huge cause for the rise of Hitler but it was to a great extent related to the economic problems -- first inflation then bank failure then the shoring up of the job market through war and social programs.

Here is what I learned about it from talking to ordinary people in Germany and Austria. (I have to confess that I am very pro-tolerance and pro-Jewish for personal reasons, so I paid great attention to this.)

Germany and Austria like a lot of Europe became more tolerant about religion in the late 19th century. Evangelical Lutheran churches, at some point during that time were allowed to ring their church bells -- an act that had previously been forbidden.

Jews were allowed to attend at least some of the schools from which they had apparently been barred.

This is horrible to say, but what Germans and Austrians I met stated was that the Jews excelled in their classes making it hard for Germans and Austrians to compete.

Hitler is a good example, I was told, of an Austrian who really wasn't good enough to compete and who blamed his failures on the unwarranted successes of others he identified as Jews. So jealousy was a big factor with regard to anti-semitism on the personal level. Germans and Austrians were and still are to some extent addressed by the position they hold in terms of their career. So the wife of a man with a PhD is called Frau Doktor. That was weird to me, but that is the way it was. That may have changed since I was there. There is also Diplomkaufman ____, etc.

No doubt you are very familiar with the history of the role of the Jewish people, their ostracism, etc. prior to the late 19th century or so.

But, as we see in the US today, this kind of jealousy about the rise of minorities is most severe in economically difficult periods. When there are lots of jobs and opportunities, members of an erst-while dominant group, say a religious or racial majority do not perceive opportunities for other groups as a threat.

But when jobs are scarce and life is hard, when prices are rising all the while, religious and racial intolerance become expressions of the frustrations that are really due to economic problems. That is my view.

That is what we see in the US. Unless the availability of jobs and education improves for all Americans, we are in for a tough time in my view.

I know (and have a copy of) William Shirer's Rise and Fall of the Third Reich although I have not read all of it.