The Simon Wiesenthal Center sent a letter of protest to the Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte for showing a virulent anti-Semitic video, which was recently exposed by Arutz Sheva.
The video, which shows Dutch teens saying that they regret that Adolph Hitler did not finish the job he began of obliterating the Jewish nation, evoked almost no reaction in the Dutch government or media.
The footage was sent to Arutz Sheva by Dr. Manfred Gerstenfeld and upon its posting with an English translation, the story went viral.
“The Simon Wiesenthal Center is shocked at the overt anti-Semitism recently expressed in a video aired on Netherland 2 TV last month,” Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Center and Mark Weitzman, director of government affairs, wrote in a letter to the Dutch prime minister.
“The statements made by young Dutch immigrant teenagers lauding Adolf Hitler and his efforts to murder Jews, are deeply dismaying, especially considering that they were made in the country that was the home of Anne Frank and that was only two years ago, Chair of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (formerly the International Task Force for Holocaust Education, Research and Remembrance).
“It was even more shocking to hear that during the video the students who spoke claimed that their feelings were shared by native Dutch teenagers, saying, 'Nobody in our school likes Jews',” the letter read.
“We call upon you to take action on a broad front to investigate the presence of anti-Semitic attitudes in Dutch society, and to take steps to vigorously combat the spread of those beliefs. Anti-Semitism cannot be allowed to flourish and poison the minds of the next generation.”
“lf Jews are at risk in the Netherlands, then the health of Dutch civil society itself is compromised,” the letter concluded.