YouTube or "anti-Jew-Tube"?

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YouTube or "anti-Jew-Tube"?

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The internet portal "Youtube" has proven to be a popular forum for sharing video clips with anyone who would care to view them. Unfortunately, "YouTube" is also proving to be a viable forum for neo-Nazis to disseminate their hateful propaganda - some of it dating back to Adolf Hitler's Third Reich era. The availability of this material has raised the ire of German policians and the Jewish community in Germany

A program broadcast by Germany's ARD national television network revealed a number of neo-Nazis videoclips uploaded to YouTube. One clip has music describing the torching of a home for asylum seekers followed by a comic-style quote balloon saying "Kill them all!". A video glorifying war that accompanies a song by the right-wing music group "Landser" ["Soldier"] has been downloaded over 400,000 times.

 

The video considered by many to be the most offensive is the World War II Nazi film "Jud Süss" ["The Jew Suess"] produced under the direction of Joseph Goebbels' propaganda machine. Youtube 'Jud Süss'The movie was released in 1940 and was intended to condition the German people for the additional persecution of the Jewish people. Although the movie is about the historical figure Joseph Süß Oppenheimer (1698-1738), it is not based on the historical records of the state archives of the region where Oppenheimer actually lived. After the war the Allies prohibited the film from being shown. In today's Germany it may not be distributed and may only be shown with special permission and must include an appropriate disclaimer about the content.

According to the ARD report, "www.jugendschutz.net" – the internet watchdog group responsible for reporting on material considered to be harmful for youth – has complained to "YouTube" over 100 times in the last four months because of the availability of neo-Nazi video clips. When asked by the ARD about the situation, the vice-president of the Central Committee of the Jewish Community in Germany, Samuel Korn, said he "expects prosecutors, government agencies and even the federal government to take action." According to Korn, the Central Committee of the Jewish Community is considering legal action against "YouTube". The neo-Nazis content placed on "YouTube" has the potential to give Google a black eye in Germany, since Google owns the internet video portal "YouTube".