A Look at the Portuguese World

 

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A museum with a story

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It was a trip motivated by reading a diary of a young Jewish girl.

The Diary of Anne Frank was one of the books most stroke me in my youth. Its forced clandestine existence, in a confined space, the famous secret annex in Amsterdam, motivated by the racism of the III Reich always motivated my admiration and affection for this Jewish girl who I never met. So when I decided to visit Holland my first stop was the Anne Frank house, as it should be. I do not intend to speak again of what I saw, but rather how I felt, now that I see again a Europe on the brink, where several governments trade prejudice accusations that raised the old ghosts of that dark period of world history. It was precisely a crisis that led Germany to a new war, the second of the twentieth century. A wounded pride and exaggerated nationalism which caused millions of deaths and a trail of destruction that left deep marks that have been difficult to erase. It was precisely from the ashes of this world that was born the dream of a united Europe. And it is here and now that I remember this young Jewish girl, a time when prejudice and racism unfortunately returned to the media agenda, thanks to another crisis that has caused the misery and desperation of thousands of Europeans, I remember one of the annexes of the house Anne Frank, a small room where it was addressed the various forms of intolerance.

 

Now, imagine a room full of people of various nationalities whose function is to vote on what they consider to be personalities who promote the same kind of xenophobic discourse that killed millions of Jews. Recall examples, Jean Marie Le Pen during one of his campaigns in France, the late Jörg Heider, leader of the extreme right party in Austria and the American Eminem. Now which of these three represents to itself the greatest danger to freedom of expression and tolerance among peoples? Consider the fact that I have visited the museum several years ago, today; the models would be possibly by others. The answer given by this unknown group in which I was fully included, responded that party leaders were seen by all as dangerous, only the singer was left out. Why politicians? Because one of them could ascend to a position of power that would allow them to restrict the freedoms of others! And more, when we were asked if we should restrict their right to freedom of expression, taking into account the content of their speeches, opinions were divided. Makes you think, does isn't? After nearly sixty years of this tragic event we again hear those same speeches gaining ground within the European public opinion that do nothing more than promote rampant xenophobia and help in the disintegration of the European dream. I think everyone should read the diary of this young girl again and visit or revisit the museum in her honor to remember, why we are all different, but equal.

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