How can anybody be so bloody insensitive?
When a German lawmaker, Martin Schulz, questioned a new Italian law giving Berlusconi immunity from criminal prosecution during his premiership, the Italian leader responded by seeming to imitate Schulz's German accent and saying, "Mr. Schulz, I know there is a man in Italy producing a film on the Nazi concentration camps. I would like to suggest you for the role of kapo. You'd be perfect."
A kapo was a guard usually drawn from the ranks of the prisoners.
As Berlusconi made the statement, his head cocked to one side, he broke out laughing. The chamber of the 626-member European Parliament, however, erupted in jeers.
In comparing a German politician to a concentration camp guard, and seeming to make a joke of the Nazi era, Berlusconi broke one of Europe's long-standing taboos. And by singling out a politician for a personal gibe, he violated unspoken rules of etiquette in Europe's central institutions.
Better he should have shown the exquisite nuance of, say, former German Justice Minister Herta Daeubler-Gmelin:
Bush wants to divert attention from his domestic problems. It's a classic tactic. It's one that Hitler used.
See, the difference is that Berlusconi was (however lamely) joking. As far as I can tell, Daeubler-Gmelin was serious (though those twinkling eyes hint at quite the mischievious little imp).
And it's not as if the sentiment is expressed all that often. A Google search turned up 251,000 hits on Bush +Nazi. Whereas Hitler +Nazi still holds the lead at 396,000.
So it's not like people are throwing this Nazi stuff around lightly. No sirree, Bob.