Submitted by manuel escott, Feb 17, 2007 11:23

The refusal by many Western nations to admit thousands of Jews seeking to flee Nazi Germany is possibly one of the most shameful episodes in a shameful, bloodstained century. Which human being can watch film of the St.Louis episode, in which the U.S. Canada turned away a ship carrying hundreds of asylum-seeking Jews, without a feeling of outrage. As I grow older, the thought of what was lost to the world in terms of human spirit and genius, fills me with grief. Now, ofcourse, the pedulum has swung too far the other way. My adopted country, Canada(whose prime minister in the late 1930s said the admission of one Jew was "one too many", now gives refugee status to Egyptian and Algerian Muslim extremists by rote because Canada will not send such applicants back if they likely to be tortured or executed. With this Catch 22, we have been stuck with the Islamist who plotted to blow up Los Angeles airport.

Note: Comments are screened, and in some cases edited, before posting. We reserve the right to reject anything we find objectionable.