Jewish Herald-Voice (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 100, No. 32, Ed. 1 Thursday, November 6, 2008 Page: 6 of 44
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Page 6
Jewish Herald-Voice
November 6, 2008
World
Kristallnacht provides sub-theme to anti-Semitism project
By TOBY AXELROD
BERLIN (JTA) - Teachers
and family gave Erik Thews some
strange looks and comments when
he began his school project about
anti-Semitism in the former East
Germany. His work, and that of many
other German students, is on display
now in a traveling exhibit called
“There was no such thing! - Anti-
Semitism in the German Democratic
Republic.”
This week, it opens in a new venue
in time for ceremonies marking the
70th anniversary of Kristallnacht,
the pan-Germanic pogrom against
Jews and their property on Nov. 9,
1938. Given the German tendency
toward self-critical analysis, it is not
surprising that programs are planned
throughout the country marking the
major anniversary of a mass riot
that, in hindsight, was a revealing
precursor to the Holocaust.
Kristallnacht is marked annually,
but this year with particular inten-
sity. The German government and the
Central Council of Jews in Germany
are jointly sponsoring a ceremony
at the Rykestrasse Synagogue in the
former east Berlin, one of the few
synagogues to survive the war intact.
Berlin’s Jewish community will
mark the day at the community center
on Fasanenstrasse, the former site of
a synagogue destroyed in the pogrom.
Among the dozens of other ceremonies
in Germany, some are sponsored by
civic and religious organizations.
Survivors and eyewitnesses are
returning to talk with a generation
for whom this is all distant history.
Israeli investigative journalist Yoran
Svoray announced recently that he
had discovered Kristallnacht detritus
in an old dump outside Berlin.
The theme has brought con-
troversy in the German parlia-
ment, where legislators had hoped
to pass a resolution on combating
anti-Semitism in time for Nov. 9. A
carefully crafted, nonpartisan state-
ment fell apart when conservative
legislators insisted on mentioning
anti-Semitism in the former East
Germany, and the Left Party sug-
gested the conservatives look within
their own ranks.
“To be very frank, it is sad to
observe that in the very last moment,
there is this kind of trouble occurring,”
project initiator Gerd Weisskirchen of
the Social Democratic Party told JTA
in a telephone interview. “We had
been working on this issue since last
March” in anticipation of the anni-
versary, he said, adding that “there
is still hope that we could overcome
this turbulence” in time for the com-
memorative ceremonies.
Meanwhile, the traveling exhibit
on East German anti-Semitism,
booked through 2010, illustrates
Germans looking within. This week
it opens in Pasewalk, a town in the
former East Germany.
By no means does the display
suggest that postwar anti-Semitism
was only a problem in the former East
Germany, but it does suggest that
the phenomenon there remains less
explored. “There was no such thing!” is
a project of the Berlin-based Amadeu
Antonio Foundation under director
Anetta Kahane, a Berlin Jew who grew
up in the former East Germany.
The exhibit, in German, covers
several aspects of anti-Semitism in
the communist state. They include
the culture of Holocaust remem-
brance and negative attitudes toward
reparations; rejection of Israel; van-
dalism of Jewish cemeteries; right-
wing extremism in the transitional
period to German unification; and
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PROPERTIES
the Middle East conflict.
Kristallnacht is a sub-theme. In the
last days of the German Democratic
Republic, or GDR, the communist
state’s leaders made a major effort to
commemorate the 50th anniversary
of the pogrom - but were their efforts
sincere? Researching archives and
documents with student volunteers,
“We found that the GDR was looking
for most-favored-nation trade status”
and thus tried to impress the United
States with its concern for Jews and
Israel, said foundation staff member
Heike Radvan, who worked on the
exhibit.
East Germany “was in such bad eco-
nomic shape, and so they were looking
for international support. Certain anti-
Semitic stereotypes were still in the
minds of the leaders. They thought the
support of Washington could be reached
through Jerusalem, so to speak.”
So, “all of a sudden, it was possible
to finish certain projects that Jewish
communities [in East Germany] had
been trying to realize for years” -
like the renovation of the synagogue
at Oranienburgerstrasse in Berlin,
and a big public ceremony marking
Kristallnacht.
Such apparent philosemitism
was really just another face of anti-
Semitism, says author Salomea
Genin, who has written about her
experiences as a Jew in former East
Germany. “The problem of anti-
Semitism in East Germany was very
subtle and never expressed directly,”
Genin said, but “to say anti-Semitism
didn’t happen here” is “nonsensical,
absolutely nonsensical.”
Genin, who was born in Berlin in
1932, fled with her family to Australia
but later moved to East Germany out
of political conviction. It was a deci-
sion she would regret. “Most people in
the GDR were convinced that all Jews
were rich,” said Genin, who read from
her autobiography at a recent opening
of the exhibit. “They did not even
know it was an anti-Semitic stereo-
type because it wasn’t discussed. They
thought that to be an anti-Semite, you
had to be a murderer.”
East Germany’s support for terror-
ist groups such as Abu Nidal particu-
larly interested Thews, 21, who since
has graduated from the John Lennon
Gymnasium in Berlin and wants to
be an actor. With help from founda-
tion intern Konstanze Ameer, he and
other students were able to review
documents from East German archives.
Ameer, now a paid consultant for the
foundation, “brought us a thick pile of
documents” from the formerly secret
archives, Thews said.
One document, reproduced in
the exhibit, lists forms of political
and military assistance to Abu Nidal
- under a code name - including
instructions on how to use rocket
launchers.
According to the Soviet-steered
East German doctrine, Palestinians
were defined as “freedom fighters,
so you had to support them,” Thews
said. “But Abu Nidal [which found
the PLO too mild] was a pure murder
group. And I find it quite crass that
they got government support.”
Ameer told JTA that some stu-
dents had a hard time grasping what
this had to do with anti-Semitism,
but at least they were trying. Some
Germans, Ameer said, couldn’t and
did not want to understand.
“When we opened the exhibition
for the first time, there was a woman
who broke into tears,” but not out of
sympathy, Ameer said. The woman
shouted that she had always cleaned
swastika graffiti off walls and she had
raised six children in East Germany.
“How dare you now talk about my life,
my children and my work and passion
in this way?” she yelled.
One student told Ameer her
parents were unhappy about the
research project. They told the
student that East Germany never sup-
ported terrorists. The student chal-
lenged her parents, saying, “You told
me the GDR was a state that lied and
lied and lied. So what is the point?
Now, you tell me that the advisor at
the foundation is a liar.”
Thews’ parents were more sup-
portive. But his grandfather “asked
me what I was up to,” Thews said.
“The coordinator of my school-leaving
exam laughed at me. He said there
was never anything like that.” □
NCW Ze3.l3.Il(l From Page 5
Judaism. He accrued his wealth in
London, where he worked for Merrill
Lynch before returning home in 2001
and embarking on his political career.
Key told JTA, “I am very respectful of
the Jewish faith and in general I’m
very respectful of religion, but I’m
just not actively religious myself.”
The president of New Zealand’s
Jewish Council, Stephen Goodman,
said Key has “a Jewish identity, even
if he doesn’t identify as Jewish.” But
some Jewish leaders fear that Key’s
roots may work against him because,
as one put it, “There is a deep anti-
Jewish, anti-Israel sentiment in New
Zealand. If Kiwis know he’s Jewish,
he would need to prove that he is not
biased toward Israel.”
Mike Regan, the editor of the
monthly New Zealand Jewish
Chronicle, said Key “has almost
become the pinup boy for the Jewish
community. He has been invited to
speak at more Jewish functions in
the last year than I can recall of any
other politician.”
Nathan Lawrence, president of the
Zionist Federation of New Zealand,
believes that a Key government
would be more sympathetic to Israel.
“The current Labor Party has within
its leadership several people that are
ideologically fixated on certain posi-
tions, some of which mean an auto-
matic disdain of Israel’s policies,”
Lawrence said.
“There is likely to be greater
balance” under Key, he said. “This
will have little to do with Key’s Jewish
background, but more so the greater
open-mindedness of the center-right
parties to the realities of the world.”
Key would be the nation’s third
prime minister of Jewish descent.
Julius Vogel served in the 1870s, and
Sir Francis Henry Dillon Bell, who
later converted to Christianity, was
at the helm for two weeks in 1925. □
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Samuels, Jeanne F. Jewish Herald-Voice (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 100, No. 32, Ed. 1 Thursday, November 6, 2008, newspaper, November 6, 2008; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth544115/m1/6/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; .