, I found quite compelling.The book is a series of interviews of Soros that were conducted by Gregor Peter Schmitz, European correspondent for Der Spiegel. As the title indicates, the central theme of the book is the European Union in light of the recent crises in EU countries such as Greece. However, at the start of the interviews, Schmitz asked Soros, a Jew, about his survival in Hungary at the time of Nazi occupation. His complete answer is reason enough to buy the book, it points out the value of preparation. Here is a snippet:
Anti-Semitisim gave my mother ulcers, but it did not bother me very much...One day I passed two bodies hanging from a lamppost in the middle of Budapest. Affixed to one was a sign reading: "This is what happens to a Jew who hides."Be prepared my friends and never trust the government.
Schnitz: That scared you?
Soros: Of course, yet I felt relatively safe because we were prepared. My father had foreseen what was coming and arranged false identities for us. He saved not only the family, but also a number of other people...There was one particular experience that stood out. All Jewish students were ordered to work for the Jewish Council. My first job was to deliver notices to a list of people, which turned out to be a list of Jewish lawyers. The notice ordered them to report to the Rabbinical Seminary with clothing, a blanket and food for twenty-four hours.I took the notices to my father, who told me to deliver the notices, but tell the people that if they report, they will be deported. One lawyer said to me, "I've been a law-abiding citizen all my life and therefore, I should be safe if I report." And, of course, he wasn't. That incident made a lasting impression on me.
Is this what they mean when they say Soros helped round up the Jews?
ReplyDeleteThe political divide isn't between Left and Right. It isn't between Liberal and Conservative. It's between the naive and the skeptical. It's between those that don't understand the human condition and the nature of man/power and those that do.
ReplyDeleteWhen time get tough, the skeptical survive. The naive don't.
I've read a lot of Soros' writings over the years and I've never been able to understand how a man that went through what he did as a child has such an affinity for the totalitarian state. Perhaps it's simply the oligarch in him that needs the rest of us to comply in order for him to prosper.
ReplyDeleteLike any hypocritical parasite he's completely ok with totalitarianism as long as HE gets to benefit from it.
DeleteBernie Madoff speaks: Politics, remorse and Wall Street
ReplyDeleteNow, he sounds like a campaign finance reformer. “I basically think everybody would be better off… if people weren’t able to exert so much influence on politicians with money,” he said. “Politicians themselves would probably prefer not to deal with them—both begging for and being beholden.”
Still, Madoff let the campaign money flow. Madoff and his wife Ruth made several hundreds of thousands of dollars in political donations since the 1990s, according to Federal Election Commission records. The recipients were mostly Democrats, and the roster included Sen. Chuck Schumer, ex-New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine, Rep. Joseph Crowley, Sen. Jeff Merkley and Hillary Clinton during her Senate bid.
The solicitations were “never ending,” Madoff recalled. “These politicians take money from anybody — Democrats, Republicans.” (Madoff said he registered as a Democrat long ago but now considers himself an independent.)
Madoff said Schumer, whom he described as a “personable guy,” would ask him for money a couple of times a year. “They would come up [to Madoff’s office] just to say hello and collect the money,” he said.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2014/03/bernie-madoff-interview-104838.html#ixzz2wWM9iMi8