By Arnold Eisen
October 2, 2004
Let me tell you a story. It happened just a little over a month ago.
Sara, my girlfriend, came from Israel to stay with me this past summer. We were invited to Stockholm, Sweden, by my Brother for the Bar Mitzvah of his son.
After checking around for flights, I found that one of the best deals going was Icelandair from JFK, and considering it has been a lifelong dream for me to go to Iceland, with a no-cost stopover for up to a week there. I booked the trip.
As a retired military man, I made arrangements to stay the week in the Navy Lodge at the US Naval Air Station in Keflavik, which is where the airport is located. We rented a car from the Navy Exchange and set out to enjoy a week of day trips touring the island nation.
We did in fact just that and enjoyed the sights of the lagoons, geysers, and waterfalls for four days. Then we set our sights on Reykjavik for a day of downtown shopping and souvineer gathering.
This is where we discovered something underneath the land of fire and ice.
We parked the car downtown along the wharf in a lot just in front of a large white building that was the situated on the corner of a triangular intersection.
We walked for a counple hours checking out the stores and shops and having some coffee. Upon returning to the car we noticed something that made us feel like rats in a maze.
As we walked toward the street where our car was located, we noticed that large white building again, but from the front. We saw at the top were large black letters with some Icelandic words written and above that was a large circle with a big giant Swastika at the center. I have enclosed a picture of it so you can see it yourself.
I couldn't believe it. Plain as day. And the feeling that came over me as well Sara, we just can't describe.
Before getting in the car we stopped a couple and asked them if they spoke Engish, which they said they did. So I asked them to translate the words at the top of the building just under the Swastika. The man remarked that is says Icelandic Steamship Company and after asking him why they use that particular symbol, he remarked that it was "the symbol they had before the Second World War and just never got around to changing it." We thanked them and got in the car to leave.
But the story doesn't end just there.
A bit confused over our feelings we drove around the waterfront road discussing things. We made our way out to the end of the waterfront to a lighthouse park where we could get a nice view of the sea coming in. There was a class of school children around the ages of 12-15 there sightseeing as well and walking around the parking lot.
I stopped the car and got out by myself to snap a picture and I saw one boy pulling on anothers' shoulder to get his attention and then pointing to the top of his head and then to me saying something about the yarmalka I was wearing. And then, the second boy snapped to attention and clicked his heals and made the 'heil hitler' salute. Several of them began laughing.
At first I didn't want to belive what I had seen. I denied it in my mind and Sara just looked at me. Then we decided to leave and drove the car in a large u-turn.
By that time the class had begun to walk down from the parking lot and were in front of us. The boys in front clasped hands and made a chain across the road so we couldn't pass. We were only able to go about 1 or 2 miles per hour behind them. A couple of the other boys that were behind the car were laughing and calling to the boys out in front and pointing to the car and running around the car to inhibit us from going any faster.
Eventually, the chain broke and a gap appeared and we drove through it and left. We went back to the Base and stayed there for the remainder of the two days and then left Iceland for Sweden.
Sara and I talked on the way back and she was the one who emphasized to me what I didn't want to believe. But it was true. It happened.
The hardest thing to accept is that we, The United States of America are the protectors of this nation. You would think that 60 years was plenty of time to get around to changing a symbol that incited and glorified the anti-semitism we experienced in this land of fire and Ice.
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