I hope everyone was as shocked as I was upon reading Lufthansa’s supposed “apology” to Jewish passengers who were thrown off a flight last week for their terrible and egregious crime of being Jewish.
In their apology, the airline wrote that it “regrets the circumstances surrounding the decision to exclude passengers…” Seriously? You purposefully targeted Jews – you know, the people your grandparents tried to exterminate – and now won’t even mention it? How about trying to say that “we are deeply troubled and ashamed for excluding JEWS from our flights”?
Let’s remember what Lufthansa is. It’s not just the national airline of a country which systematically murdered 6 million Jews in the Holocaust. It’s founders were Nazis!
While not a direct legal successor of the Nazi flag carrier Deutsche Luft Hansa that was closed after the allied victory in World War 2, Lufthansa was founded in 1953 by staff of the former Nazi company including Nazi war criminal Kurt Weigelt and Nazi official Kurt Knipfer. Weigelt was chairman and later the honorary president. Initially operating as Luftag, the company acquired the name Lufthansa and the logo in a deal with the liquidated Deutsche Lufthansa, continuing the tradition of the name for the German flag carrier.
You’d think that a company with deep roots in Nazism would at least make an attempt to show that they have moved on from their dark past. But no. When their own employees target Jews – many of them the direct descendants of survivors of Nazi brutality – they have nothing to say but that they “regret the circumstances.”
You’ve got to be kidding me. Shame on you, Lufthansa.
Name withheld upon request
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28 Responses
I often see Lufthansa airline staff at Brooklyn Marriott Hotel.
We Brooklyners need to accost and protest these Lufthansa staff right here in our own backyard in Brooklyn NY, and maybe stop having Jewish Dinners & conventions at Brooklyn Marriott Hotel, for their having huge contract with Lufthansa, for dorming Lufthansa staff
My complaint goes back against the letter from Aguda yesterday. Where do they come off of admitting or accusing guilt on people when they weren’t even there? There were so many other ways to word the letter rather than to even remotely admit that some of inzireh we’re guilty of, God forbid, lowering their mask to eat.
The mask laws on the airplanes especially when flying international are completely insane to begin with. Dan’s Deals wrote this up beautifully explaining everything. They pointed out contradictions between airports and airplanes, as well as airports within the same country, or airplanes within the same airline just depending where you fly from, it’s a complete balagan.
I don’t care what political organization I was with,; but I would have never written a letter insinuating any guilt on my people! Never!
Such a sad “circumstance”.
Yet, not wanting to point fingers, its seems we brought it upon ourselves.
Expecting from Goim to respond with the sensitivities due to Yidden , is unrealistic.
However , expecting from us to abide by the rules, is realistic.
Had we all been respectful of their rules, this never would have happened.
We need to shift our attitudes regarding the way we present ourselves.
Well if any Yidden who wondered how they would be treated by today’s Deutsch, here is your answer.
I disagree
Your apology should have been much more than that
But exploring the word JEWS wouldn’t bring us much honor
I think a boycott of Lufthansa is in order. We all refuse to fly with them for a year. This will also put others on notice that there are consequences.
What’s the big deal? We’re in galus, why such entitlement? Thank Hashem that they’re apologising for anti-semitism (which their apology did call out) instead of killing us.
Apparently the fact there’s been Nazi involvement in Lufthansa wasn’t enough not to fly with them. Now that your unhappy with them it’s Nazi, Nazi, Nazi. Either fly with them and don’t claim their Nazis or hold it against them when you’re unhappy. Or don’t fly with them because of their Nazism. But you can’t have it both ways.
and, of course, constantly reminding them that their grandparents were nazis (as people have been writing to them) will make them stop wishing that hitler had won and love jews instead
I disagree. They are Germans, not (to our knowledge) Nazis. They should not have discriminated against any group.
Yes, there is an additional sensitivity in that group having been Jewish and that they are descendants of those who murdered millions of Jews.
But the need for an apology is simply that they discriminated against an entire group, and the apology should not be rejected due to them omitting the religion of those against whom they discriminated.
Rav Chaim Kreiswirth ZTL once had to take a Lufthansa flight. He was very uncomfortable throughout the flight. A stewardess noticed his discomfort and asked him if something was wrong.
He replied, “I always try to fly Sabena. I never fly Lufthansa.”
“Why is this?” asked the stewardess.
He answered, “because maybe your father killed my father.”
I don’t think complaining if they said Jews or not would change what happened and have them agree they are wrong either fly with them or don’t. Don’t keep in demanding from them to act a certain way.
But that story with R Chaim is amazing just say what you feel to them. I like that.
Dr Nat,
That’s got to be the stupidest thing I’ve heard. What’s gained by saying that? Does it make them feel good about Jews? Its just an immature thing to say that serves no purpose and gains nothing positive. Besides, what the chance their father killed his father? .000000001%?
Crazy. I flew luftwaffe a few years back and wasn’t happy either. But this is crazy disrespect.
Imagine for a second if a certain color person did something bad on a flight and then the airline said no one of that color can fly bc of that one person that happens to be that same certain color. It would be on EVERY news outlet for the next two months!
This? Nothing. Except dansdeals. Kudos to good ol Danny!
Two people misbehaved and they threw off large groups of people because of those two. That IS antisemitism.
Imagine a black guy refused to put on a mask, so they go ahead and throw the rest of the blacks on the plane. The outrage would be insane.
These people’s grandparents put Jews in ovens, don’t be so forgiving.
If your going to compare to it happening to Blacks make an apples to apples comparison instead of conveniently leaving out key information.
Kuvult
I don’t think calling what R Chaim said the stupidest thing you ever heard is a smarter thing to say then flying Lufthansa airline. Oh wait you probably never heard of anything else smarter than that!
And that story isn’t literal obviously he didn’t think that the stewardess’s father killed his father it was just an idea that he knew that they are bad and we see this proven with this story that they didn’t allow Jews on the plane!
Kuvult,
So according to you, a generation after the Holocaust, it is our obligation to forgive and forget, and make the Germans feel good about themselves? Especially someone whose relatives were killed by the Germans? Are you a Xtian who was taught to turn the other cheek? Sorry, wrong religion.
147 –
I hope you are just trolling. And I hope it’s obvious to everyone else why it would be a terrible idea to accost Lufthansa staff at their hotel. But in case it’s not:
(1) the staff who are staying at the hotel most likely had nothing to do with the despicable incident in Frankfurt – it is the management of the company who are responsible
(2) it makes them look like the victims and distracts from the real issue
(3) it makes a terrible chillul Hashem
Also, let’s keep things in perspective, what they did was terrible but today there are whole organizations dedicated to murdering Jews, not just denying them a seat in an an airplane – some of which are supported by people in the countries we live in – those people should be the main targets of outrage.
Not diminish anything from the story, we all know that the WHOLE world hates Jews, but WHY do so many Jews live in Germany now that we have Eretz Israel. ? Have we not learned our lesson.?
@dr nat I don’t know that person who you say said that but I can say with upmost certainty that it never happened and if it did then that person probably wasn’t a rabbi…most likely someone made that up and now your spreading it In that person’s name…either way you would have to be a moron to beleive that actually happened.
No question that some Lufthansa staff has always had an “attitude issue” with yidden. However, davening in the galleys is an issue for El Al and just about every airline, especially when the flight crew asks that you return top your seat and these ehrliche yidden ignore the requests. Sit down, shut up and daven in your seat the way so many rabbonim have urged for decades.
Dr. Nat,
There’s a difference between forgiving and forgetting and saying to every German you interact with, “Maybe your father killed my father.” If you can’t distinguish the difference, sorry I xant
Dr. Nat,
There’s a difference between forgiving and forgetting and saying to every German you interact with, “Maybe your father killed my father.” If you can’t distinguish the difference, sorry I can’t help you with that.
I guess you’d be ok with every Black person you meet saying, “Maybe your great-great-grandfather owned my great-great-grandfather.”
Allan:
“We” do not have E”Y.
The wicked Zionists invaded and control a portion of E”Y which is known as the State of Israel.
That State has never known a day of peace in its bloody existence (and the Zionists were at war even before they declared the State in 1948), and is statistically (of places where Jews commonly live) the least-safe place for any Jew. It’s also the greatest force of shmad in the world, including, of course, against its own citizens.
That might explain a little…
Crazy how Jews are justifying antisemitism. Thought it was only the far left liberal Jews that were self hating, clearly I was wrong
If 2 African Americans were on an airline and they did something wrong and than that airline said that no African Americans can go on then do you know how much fighting there would be. When they were treated badly they had a whole uproar. When us Jews are treated even worse than them we just have to live with life.