"The quantity of evil has changed, not the quality"
Sigi Feigel on an invincible enemy of humanity: Violence
Sigi Feigel on an unconquerable enemy of humanity: violenceFor 20 years, Sigi Feigel has been using peaceful means to fight violence as part of the Foundation against Racism and Anti-Semitism (GRA), which he initiated. In order to curb it, the 80-year-old lawyer is now calling on the public to show more civil courage through the "Together against violence" campaign (see also page 10).What result do you expect from the "Together against violence" campaign?
Sigi Feigel: A sensitization. It's not just skinheads beating up black people. It's not just a lunatic who murders a Jew, but there is something behind all acts of violence that we have to think about and combat in good time. I have become convinced that we have to try to grasp the whole roots, that we have to go to the beginning. The beginning is discrimination in general, prejudice, hatred, which is then directed against individual minorities. I show this using the example of Hitler, who came to power through hatred of the Jews. National Socialism did not really have any other unifying program. It began with the extermination of 6 million Jews. The end was a world war that cost the lives of 50 million people.
Why is the campaign's credo "together against violence"?
Feigel: Discrimination against minorities does affect minorities, but it is the problem of the majority. It's about civil courage, about what everyone does themselves against physical violence. The majority of people are decent and want decency to prevail. But many of them think that nothing can be changed. We want to motivate and sensitize them through the campaign by saying: "Beware, violence can also affect you." The campaign will make people aware of the problem and they will probably be better able to defend themselves.
Why is the campaign being launched now?
Feigel: At the moment, there are many foci where fire is mouldering. If I look at the history of the world, every century has had its gruesome wars, and where religions have intervened, they have left the widest trails of blood. But whereas in the past a soldier with a halberd might kill ten enemies and then tire, today he can kill 250 people in a minute with a machine gun. The quantity of evil has changed, not the quality, which is still the same. But our time is no worse than others. On the contrary. But we live in the so-called information age. If a train derails in the remotest state in India, we know about it half an hour later. That dulls us. The time has come to make people aware that violence is not something that is limited to certain insignificant individual incidents that have no effect on the whole, but is an expression of a way of thinking that is dangerous to the democratic state order, which is based on respect and human dignity, and therefore to human freedom.
What are your motives for getting involved in the fight against violence?
Feigel: My father came to Switzerland from Russia at the age of 14 to escape the persecution of the Jews. He actually wanted to go to Germany. In order to find a job as an assistant mechanic, he pretended to be four years older. But Jews couldn't get such work. In the end, he went to Switzerland, where he found a job. I was born in Switzerland, grew up there, did my military service, and not a hair on my head was harmed in anything that happened. People died horrible deaths left and right. In the beginning it was gratitude that motivated me, but now it has become an obligation to stand up against violence. Not just for us Jews. The first Italians who came to Switzerland were "Tschinggen". I simply saw that minorities are in a bad position. We know where violence, terror and discrimination begin, but not where they end. We have to fight the beginnings. In the interests of the whole,
of humanity and democracy.
Do you really believe that you can change people?
Feigel: You can't get the violent out of people completely. Humans have milk teeth and meat teeth. He will always remain a bit of a predator, otherwise we wouldn't need criminal law. The anti-racism law, for example, does not eradicate racism, but it does combat it. The law does not eradicate murder, theft and fraud either, but it keeps control in your hands and you can do something about it. The challenge is not to lose heart despite all the difficulties and to keep going. The "success" in the fight against violence is modest. The most I can say is that it would be even worse if nothing had been done about it. You can't fight violence in the sense that it will disappear. It is part of human stupidity, which we will never have to protect. There will always be an abundance of human stupidity.
Do you sometimes hate?
Feigel: I have to be honest, when I hear that another bus full of children has been blown up, I get angry. But then my mind kicks in and says that the perpetrators are tempted, seduced and unfortunate existences who have no home and perhaps nothing to eat.
Can there be lasting peace?
Feigel: There will never be real peace as long as the most important basis of discord is not eliminated: the misery of the people. As long as so many people live on the breadline, there can be no peace. Only when everyone has a livelihood and a home, can educate their children and send them to school, will not all, but a large part of the violence disappear. We must work towards this. Instead of guns and ammunition, we need to give people shovels and pickaxes and the courage to build a house with them. But with millions of new people arriving every year, this is an almost unsolvable problem.
Interview: Ernst Weber
Sigi Feigel: A sensitization. It's not just skinheads beating up black people. It's not just a lunatic who murders a Jew, but there is something behind all acts of violence that we have to think about and combat in good time. I have become convinced that we have to try to grasp the whole roots, that we have to go to the beginning. The beginning is discrimination in general, prejudice, hatred, which is then directed against individual minorities. I show this using the example of Hitler, who came to power through hatred of the Jews. National Socialism did not really have any other unifying program. It began with the extermination of 6 million Jews. The end was a world war that cost the lives of 50 million people.
Why is the campaign's credo "together against violence"?
Feigel: Discrimination against minorities does affect minorities, but it is the problem of the majority. It's about civil courage, about what everyone does themselves against physical violence. The majority of people are decent and want decency to prevail. But many of them think that nothing can be changed. We want to motivate and sensitize them through the campaign by saying: "Beware, violence can also affect you." The campaign will make people aware of the problem and they will probably be better able to defend themselves.
Why is the campaign being launched now?
Feigel: At the moment, there are many foci where fire is mouldering. If I look at the history of the world, every century has had its gruesome wars, and where religions have intervened, they have left the widest trails of blood. But whereas in the past a soldier with a halberd might kill ten enemies and then tire, today he can kill 250 people in a minute with a machine gun. The quantity of evil has changed, not the quality, which is still the same. But our time is no worse than others. On the contrary. But we live in the so-called information age. If a train derails in the remotest state in India, we know about it half an hour later. That dulls us. The time has come to make people aware that violence is not something that is limited to certain insignificant individual incidents that have no effect on the whole, but is an expression of a way of thinking that is dangerous to the democratic state order, which is based on respect and human dignity, and therefore to human freedom.
What are your motives for getting involved in the fight against violence?
Feigel: My father came to Switzerland from Russia at the age of 14 to escape the persecution of the Jews. He actually wanted to go to Germany. In order to find a job as an assistant mechanic, he pretended to be four years older. But Jews couldn't get such work. In the end, he went to Switzerland, where he found a job. I was born in Switzerland, grew up there, did my military service, and not a hair on my head was harmed in anything that happened. People died horrible deaths left and right. In the beginning it was gratitude that motivated me, but now it has become an obligation to stand up against violence. Not just for us Jews. The first Italians who came to Switzerland were "Tschinggen". I simply saw that minorities are in a bad position. We know where violence, terror and discrimination begin, but not where they end. We have to fight the beginnings. In the interests of the whole,
of humanity and democracy.
Do you really believe that you can change people?
Feigel: You can't get the violent out of people completely. Humans have milk teeth and meat teeth. He will always remain a bit of a predator, otherwise we wouldn't need criminal law. The anti-racism law, for example, does not eradicate racism, but it does combat it. The law does not eradicate murder, theft and fraud either, but it keeps control in your hands and you can do something about it. The challenge is not to lose heart despite all the difficulties and to keep going. The "success" in the fight against violence is modest. The most I can say is that it would be even worse if nothing had been done about it. You can't fight violence in the sense that it will disappear. It is part of human stupidity, which we will never have to protect. There will always be an abundance of human stupidity.
Do you sometimes hate?
Feigel: I have to be honest, when I hear that another bus full of children has been blown up, I get angry. But then my mind kicks in and says that the perpetrators are tempted, seduced and unfortunate existences who have no home and perhaps nothing to eat.
Can there be lasting peace?
Feigel: There will never be real peace as long as the most important basis of discord is not eliminated: the misery of the people. As long as so many people live on the breadline, there can be no peace. Only when everyone has a livelihood and a home, can educate their children and send them to school, will not all, but a large part of the violence disappear. We must work towards this. Instead of guns and ammunition, we need to give people shovels and pickaxes and the courage to build a house with them. But with millions of new people arriving every year, this is an almost unsolvable problem.
Interview: Ernst Weber
