A Lesson from History

I was intrigued enough, on reading that ‘The Gemlich Letter’ had been bought by the Simon Wiesenthal Centre, to read it for the first time:
read it here

Written in September of 1919, the letter espouses Adolf Hitler’s views on what he considers to be the ‘Jewish threat’ to post World War I Germany.
Whilst I do not, and emphatically reject, the central premise of the letter, and it’s conclusions, whether attached to Jews or any other ethnic minority, two paragraphs stood out as a chilling reminder of the dangers to any society of the separation of one culture from the mainstream of their country of residence, and here I quote from the letter:

“The danger posed by Jewry for our people today finds expression in the undeniable aversion of wide sections of our people”.

“And thus comes the fact that there lives amongst us a non German, alien race which neither wishes nor is able to sacrifice its racial character or to deny its feeling, thinking, and striving. Nevertheless, it possesses all the political rights we do”.

The persecution of any ethnic minority is now prohibited by law, and rightly so, but no-one could have imagined that one of the most civilised and cultured of nations, as Germany was, and is again, could have ever embarked upon the course of conduct it did in the 1930’s and 40’s.
That being said, there will always exist the danger that where there “lives amongst us” an “alien race which neither wishes nor is able to sacrifice its racial character or to deny its feeling, thinking, and striving” racial intolerance will flourish and will fuel the fires of extremism.

If we can learn one lesson from history it is this; that in any socio/economic conflict the minority will, in the end, lose, they will not re-build society in their own image nor impose their will upon the majority.
Integration will always involve sacrifice by those wishing to integrate; it is to be hoped that in this new multi-cultural Britain the will to make such sacrifices exist.