“A northern Swedish city has decided to cancel a planned Holocaust Memorial Day torchlight procession due to the recent IDF offensive in Gaza, it was reported Tuesday.”
“The official reason given for the decision, made by the municipal board and local church in Lulea, was safety concerns, but Bo Nordin, a clergyman and spokesman for the church, cited the war in Gaza.”
“It feels uneasy to have a torchlight procession to remember the victims of the Holocaust at this time,” Nordin told Swedish National Radio. “We have been preoccupied and grief-stricken by the war in Gaza and it would feel just feel odd with a large ceremony about the Holocaust.”
Engage 
January 28, 2009 at 4:18 pm
This reaction dovetails with Sweeden’s reaction to the Shoah while it was in progress. They made ignored or made light of it then, and they are trying to ignore it now.
It’s been reported that some people in the town ignored the ban and held a torchlight procession anyway:
“Swedish city cancels Holocaust event”
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1232643759716&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FPrinter
The decision drew fierce criticism from various organizations as well as residents of the city, and a defiant group of Lulea locals has decided to hold the torchlight procession anyway.
“”To compare the Holocaust with Gaza is like comparing apples with pears,” said Inga-Lill Sundström, one the organizers of the ceremony.”
And here:
“Holocaust remembered – after all”
“A lot of criticism has been directed against the Swedish church in Luleå in the very north part of the country. They first canceled their ceremony and referred to the war in Gaza. They claimed, according to the Christian newspaper Dagen, that performing the ceremony at this time would be “misplaced” and “uncomfortable” in the light of what happened in Gaza.
They received however a lot of protests, many newspapers editorials and bloggers were very upset by the decision. In the end they changed the decision and conducted the yearly remembrance ceremony.”
http://www.stockholmnews.com/more.aspx?NID=2585
Still the original decision by the Church authorities speaks volumes about the desire to make light of the Shoah.
January 28, 2009 at 7:52 pm
Not so sure about some of the facts in this piece, but perhaps people would be interested in reading his over all argument: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123309682003921603.html
And this is a strong piece: http://cgis.jpost.com/Blogs/harris/entry/hypocrisy_posted_by_david_harris
January 28, 2009 at 11:25 pm
You can find confirmation of this attitude in Sweden in the most interesting and unlikely places. Henning Mankell, creator of the fictional Swedish detective Kurt Wallender (Branagh on tv just a month ago) investigated Sweden’s murky past in relation to Nazism in his book “The Return of the Dancing Master”.
The book is an excellent policier, but it also looks at just how deeply this Nazi past lies in the country. Interestingly, none of his contemporary 1990s policeman is further right than the conventionally conservative Centre Party, and none show any sympathy to racism.
Actually, this of course reflects the author’s own politics; or so one would presume.
January 29, 2009 at 12:31 am
“The book is an excellent policier, but it also looks at just how deeply this Nazi past lies in the country.”
Let’s not forget that Ingmar Bergman was a member of the Nazi youth once upon a time and that Raoul Wallenberg was the black sheep of his family which did a handsome business with the Hitler regime.
One of the more harrowing movies about WW2 that I have seen is called “God afton, Herr Wallenberg,” (1990) translated as “Good Evening Mr. Wallenberg.”
January 29, 2009 at 10:14 pm
“Israeli Soldier’s Letter to Gazans”
“This “Open Letter to a Citizen of Gaza: I am the Soldier Who Slept In Your Home”, originally published in Hebrew in the Maariv newspaper, shows the compassion and humanity of Israeli soldiers and also points the way to a solution to the conflict. Please consider copying and pasting this soldier’s letter into a new message and forwarding it to government leaders, clergy, editors, friends and family. It is very powerful.”
http://blog.camera.org/archives/2009/01/post_45.html
January 30, 2009 at 7:49 am
Just goes to show that quite often when people say “Israelis” or “Zionists” these days, they mean “Jews.”
Regards,
Inna