Thus The Wall Street Journal today. “The Simon Wiesenthal Center has begun a campaign to change the name of the French hamlet of La-Mort-aux-Juifs, which translates to ‘Death to the Jews’,” explains the newspaper. There was a recent story of this ilk about a Spanish town with an equally nasty name. In existence since at least the Seventeenth Century, Castrillo Matajudios recently changed its name to Mota de Judios or “Hill of the Jews.” Matajudios translates to “Kill the Jews,” very like the French one. In spite of this success, I wonder about the effort to change Europe’s history. Nasty as it is, and not only toward the Jews, it ought to stay just as it is. Nasty. And history should be taught with just such town names as obvious examples of murderous hatred toward newcomers. There must be plenty of others, too. In short, the Simon Wiesenthal Center is misguided in its effort. History can be taught with due candor, but it cannot be changed. Changing it only helps it repeat itself in all its nastiness.