The Ghost of Angela Merkel

This article first appeared in New English Review. 

Many writers and commentators like to make reference to the “ghost of Adolf Hitler” when referring to Germany. It’s a rhetorical twist that sometimes has relevance and sometimes does not when referring to current events in Germany. But what about the ghost of former Chancellor Angela Merkel (who is still alive)? To me, such references are valid though in no way would I compare Merkel to Hitler. Yet, Merkel committed a crucial error in judgment in 2015 that has left its mark, not just on Germany, but most all of Western Europe. That is when she opened the floodgates to “refugees” in the midst of Syria’s horrific civil war. The result is that to this day, “refugees” and migrants are flooding into Europe not just from Syria, but countless other countries in the Middle East, Near East, North Africa, and sub-Saharan Africa. They are mostly single, unaccompanied young men as opposed to women and children. Whatever could possibly have gone wrong has gone wrong in terms of social welfare costs, housing, crime, turmoil in schools, gangs, mafias of various nationalities, terrorism, anti-Semitic attacks, attacks on churches and synagogues, murders, rapes, drug traffic-have I left anything out?

Oh yes, growing Islamization. Mosques are sprouting up everywhere, most presided over by hate-filled, radical Islamist imams. In cities like Paris, Milan, and others, entire streets and plazas are taken over by hundreds of men praying in public.

Meanwhile, Jewish citizens are now reliving the 1930s in Europe, afraid to walk down the street in Jewish garb lest they be insulted, spat upon, or physically attacked by the “new Nazis”, not so much indigenous Europeans, rather Muslim immigrants. Synagogues and other Jewish institutions operate under police guard-as to traditional Christmas markets in December.

It is true that Europe has been bringing in workers from poorer countries for several decades now attempting to remedy the declining birth rate, its need for more workers, and desire for more diversity. Somewhere along the line, they forgot about the need for assimilation. As long as the newcomers were working, doing manual labor, and paying taxes to support the welfare state, who cared if they assimilated and embraced the values of the host country? Now Europe realizes its mistake. It is too late, however. More than even the earlier immigrants, those who are coming now, claiming asylum, or just coming, have no regard for the values of the West. They prefer to enforce the values they brought from places like Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, etc.

The anecdotal incidents in Western Europe are too many to list. The number of dead citizens, women who have been raped, are too numerous to mention individually. Here is just the latest that happened in Angela Merkel’s Germany just this week: In the southwestern town of Wangen in Baden-Wuerttemberg, a 4-year-old girl, out with her mother, was attacked by a Syrian migrant. The child was stabbed and was rushed to the hospital with life-threatening injuries, eventually surviving. The suspect, who had a Dutch passport, was overpowered and held for police by a witness.

Every time something like this happens, every time someone is injured, raped or murdered by these so-called immigrants or refugees, European leaders have blood on their hands, not just the prime ministers, interior ministers, other politicians, and judges, but the leadership of the EU as well. They refuse to listen to the pleas of their people. They refuse to protect their citizens, particularly their Jewish citizens. They don’t seem to care how many people die. The floodgates are still open. The refugee centers are overflowing. In the Netherlands, the country is suffering from a severe housing shortage, yet Dutch citizens are pushed to the side to make room for the asylum-seekers, who get priority.

Lest I be accused of hypocrisy, our own country, the US, is not far behind. Under Biden and DHS chief, Alejandro Mayorkas, our border with Mexico is wide open, and crime in our cities is exploding. Yet our leaders do nothing to stop it.

But I digress.

It was Angela Merkel back in 2015 who took the lead in Europe when it came to receiving refugees. Yes, we have a tradition in the West of welcoming true refugees, but can anyone really argue this is what we are talking about here? From Germany, the “Syrian refugee” wave exploded into other Western European countries as their leaders followed Merkel’s example. Merkel may be still walking among us, but walk down the streets of a major European city, ride a train or metro, wear Jewish garb, if you are a female (of any age) walk alone outside at night, and you just might feel the ghost of Angela Merkel.