Did I Really Just Open the Newspaper and Read This?
I really have no idea what to say.
Following accepted climbing practice, the first person to tackle a route has the right to name it. However, concerns have been raised after it was revealed that routes in the popular Järfälla climbing area outside Stockholm had been given names inspired by the Third Reich. Between 1987 and 2001, climbers christened new routes "Kristallnacht", "Crematorium" and "Little Hitler". Another was named "Zyklon B", after the cyanide gas the Nazis used to murder the Jews.
I just took another look--yes, I really read that right.
Mikael Widerberg, a climber who named "Little Hitler" in 2001 dismissed the controversy, saying the names should be interpreted as an "internal thing between climbers", adding "there are other mountains around called worse things".
Uh, Mikael--like what?
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Comments :
Aug '10
Re: Did I Really Just Open the Newspaper and Read This?
It sounds bad, I agree. But we should consider that they are the ones making the torturous climb. For them, it very likely 'feels like' Kristalnacht, or Little Hitler.
May '10
Re: Did I Really Just Open the Newspaper and Read This?
Even if that was their intent, you have to bring perspective to bear on the situation. The terms they used should not be applied to anything in a remotely flippant or trite manner. News like this is troubling - if people are so cavalier with these names, is it possible the lessons of or knowledge of the Holocaust are fading with time?
Aug '10
Re: Did I Really Just Open the Newspaper and Read This?
Well said, Matthew. Yes, the lessons of the Holocaust are fading with time and the ongoing horrors of the Sudan, Islamofascism, Bosnia/Herzogovina, etc. These climbers probably didn't think this would become world news.
How can we defend our present day delight in pirates? Pirates throughout history were generally psychopathic killers and terrorists; responsible for unspeakable acts of rape, torture, mutilation, property destruction, and spreading anarchy.
My infant nephews are wearing skulls and crossbones on their jammies now!
Re: Did I Really Just Open the Newspaper and Read This?
River was being sarcastic (I hope).
Re: Did I Really Just Open the Newspaper and Read This?
I note that a "torturous climb," that ain't. The highest mountain in Sweden is what, 6,000 feet? We're not talking Everest here.
Aug '10
Re: Did I Really Just Open the Newspaper and Read This?
Claire, Your point that there are clear signs of re-emerging and virulent anti-Semitism in Europe is absolutely valid and inarguable. It's dangerous and deadly, especially with radical Islam and Sharia law asserting itself. I was choosing to be charitable toward the climbers by assuming that they're very young and don't have a full grasp of adult reality. But they may very well be neo-Nazis.
Jul '10
Re: Did I Really Just Open the Newspaper and Read This?
I suppose that with the growing number of climbers in the world since the the 1980s that it was inevitable that some relatively talented nutcase would put up a few new routes and name them something obscene. Climbers do get to name the routes they put up, but the vast majority of people who climb do not do so for political reasons and have a reasonable sense of propriety about naming their routes. Newspapers don't normally publicize the names of insignificant routes either. I would agree that antisemitism, or at least open antisemitism, has become more fashionable in Europe. It has always simmered below the surface which is something that American Jews need to keep in mind when electing a president with Muslim sympathies. They tend to think that the horrors of European antisemitic behavior ended in 1945. I think it just took a short vacation. It is, for Jews, the greatest danger of world government and the UN.
May '10
Re: Did I Really Just Open the Newspaper and Read This?
This is really scary. I've noticed Europeans have less PC-sensibilities than Americans do. But this anti-Jewish stuff is beyond un-PC. It is downright scary. And they don't seem to get it.
Edited on Sep 6, 2010 at 8:03pmOct '10
Re: Did I Really Just Open the Newspaper and Read This?
I'm going to be sick.