I have been living at an independent living home, where many of the residents are over 80 years of age.  The food is delicious, and our lives are filled with interesting activities.

The people who live here are from every state and several foreign countries.  They also had experience in numerous occupations.  It is fascinating to see how we all bring our personal history to this melting pot and benefit from our neighbors' pasts. 

It is here that I have found a different interpretation of the Holocaust from what I had previously observed among family and friends.  The general population here has never mentioned the Holocaust.  Those who lived in Germany during the 1930s do have an answer for this atrocity.  They all say, "The Jews had too much money."  This is a German given response to questions of the origins of the Holocaust.  A friend from Minneapolis wrote that a German friend had also said that "the Jews had too much money," along with some elaboration on the view that Jews were intrinsic money-grabbers.

Is this the beginning of a new wave of anti-Semitism?  It always seems to start spontaneously, when there is a need for someone to blame.

Enough time has passed since the German atrocity for the impact to have faded.  There is a need for those who bemoan the state of the world and must fashion an enemy who is powerless to reciprocate.  What could be better than the eternal "devil" — the Jew?  And to use "the Jews have too much money!"  They could build upon this phrase and then apply it to any present-day problem when they need a victim upon whom to lay guilt.  Thus, we must have our usual victim.

The Rockefellers were of German descent and the epitome of great wealth.  Would they have been targeted as evil the way the Jews have been?