The number of European politicians who have managed to learn anything from Israel’s experiences over the last decades seems minimal. The outbreak and handling of the recent mass sex assaults in Cologne and other German cities has also demonstrated their inability to learn anything from what has happened to Jews in Europe during the current century.

On 31st December 2015 a wave of sex assaults broke out in various German cities. Incidents also occurred in Zurich, Helsinki,1 Salzburg, Vienna2 and in Sweden3, reports of which were published later on. Cologne was the worst hit. Initially it was reported that an estimated 1000 men of Arab and North African extraction sexually attacked and robbed women at the town’s central station.

By 5th January, the Cologne police had already received over 100 theft and sexual harassment complaints submitted by female victims.4 By January 10th the number of complaints had increased to over 500.5 In Hamburg by January 10 the police received 133 complaints.6 On the night of December 31 the Cologne police lost control of the situation, despite the town’s police chief’s insistence that his people had done their best .

7 The police even issued a statement on 1st January that the night had been quiet.8 It took until January 6 before the Cologne police arrested the first two suspects. This is also surprising, as it later became known that many of the perpetrators had already been identified by the police on the evening itself. The police also knew that evening that many of those who harassed the women were recent refugees from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. This information was concealed during the early days after the mass sexual assaults.