AN AMERICAN JEWISH GERMAN INFORMATION & OPINION

NEWSLETTER dubowdigest@optonline.net

AMERICAN EDITION
February 6, 2013 Dear friends: I realize that not a full month has gone by since the last edition but because of my trip to Berlin and the fact that there is much to talk about Ive decided to just go ahead and send this out. Besides, I never said this was a monthly. It follows a different calendar The When Im Ready Calendar and ---- Im ready! IN THIS EDITION THE 15TH ANNIVERSARY: A PERSONAL ACCOUNT AJC Berlin (Ramer Institute) has become everything I (and AJC) hoped it would be largely thanks to Deidre Berger. A POLITICAL SETBACK? The Chancellor and the CDU take it on the chin. A loss but probably not a fatal one. ANTI-ISRAEL---ANTI-SEMITIC? Does one cross the line being strongly anti-Israel? ANTI-SEMITISM IN EVERY DAY LIFE- Living with it every day. Its no fun. 19th CENTURY GERMANY Fascinating pictures THE ELYSEE TREATY Treaties between countries are mostly forgotten or dont stand the test of time. This one hasnt been and does. SAVING NAZI WAR CRIMINALS: A GENUINE DISGRACE Its an ugly story. HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL DAY Who is Inge Deutschkron? Why is she important?

THE 15TH ANNIVERSARY: A PERSONAL ACCOUNT There is no doubt - it was because I had been part of it. However, I was more than just touched by the recent celebration of the 15th anniversary of the opening of AJC's Berlin Office (now known as the Ramer Institute). As the Founding Director it was like seeing one of your children grow to maturity and receive some sort of recognition. For some, 15 years seems practically a lifetime. In this case 15 years seemed to me more like 15 minutes. AJC's physical entry into the Berlin landscape actually began in 1997 (not 1998 when the present office was opened.). When I arrived in Berlin on July 2, 1997 the Mosse Palais Building, where the office was to be, was not yet completed. So, Wendy Kloke, my first assistant, and I worked out of my apartment on Bruchstaller Strasse. The great dream of AJC's Executive Director, David Harris along with the support of Larry and Lee Ramer, to have an AJC office in Germany (and be the first American Jewish organization to do so) came to pass on that date. I plugged my new laptop into the phone connection and AJC Berlin was in business! It was a real startup. Though my colleague Rabbi Andy Baker and I had held a wellattended press conference a few months before and had many contacts made over many years, opening an office - a physical presence - was something new and quite different. German and Jewish leadership had welcomed visits by AJC groups over the years but having a staffed outpost, as they say in Kentucky, is a "horse of a different color". There were a lot of smiles but suspicion ranked supreme. Many government officials wanted to know if we were coming to "watch them". Some of the top Jewish leaders thought we might be there as the "rich American uncle" to tell them how to run their business. Neither was the case but it took some time to establish trust relationships and get across the real meaning behind AJC's investment (an expensive one at that) in opening an office. A lot happened in my 2 years in Berlin. The German government moved from Bonn to Berlin and after making all the connections in the Kohl government his party (CDU) got voted out and the Social Democratic Green coalition came in with all new people to relate to. I did a lot of scurrying around. By 1999 almost everyone that counted had been contacted and been made aware of what AJC was all about and it was time for me to go home. God (or some suitable facsimile) sent Deidre Berger to me as a replacement. By the end of the millennium I was able leave with better hands than mine taking care of the store for AJC. The Berlin Office had become a permanent part of the Berlin landscape. What is it we were trying to do in Berlin? Actually, it became clearer to me as we went along. A voice of American Jewry had impact in Germany. It still does. On the other hand, many Germans, I found, were deeply interested in people who were both Jewish and American; a combination almost unknown to the vast majority. We tried to fill in the blanks. 2

The importance of Germany to Israel and Jewish interests became increasingly apparent. Its role in Europe was important in 1997. It has become even more vital in 2013. AJC has done all it can encourage German leadership to understand the needs of Israel and Jews around the world. Everything we did was aimed in that direction. As a by-product AJC has been able to develop deep and abiding friendships with individuals and institutions in the Federal Republic. The relationships go far beyond the political. Many of them are genuinely personal. It is of those that I am most proud. In all likelihood the 15th anniversary of AJC in Berlin to most was just a nice occasion. To me it was that something special that does not come down the pike to a working Jewish professional all that often.

A POLITICAL SETBACK? The next to last State election in Germany before the national election in September took place in late January in Lower Saxony. {Prior to the election Chancellor Merkels party, the CDU was partnered with their natural conservative party mates, the Free Democrats (FDP). Since the FDP has been so weak in the polls (national and local) it was expected to be a tough and close election. It was! As it turned out, the combination SPD (Social Democrats) and their partner the Greens won a one seat victory and therefore will take over the majority position in the State legislature. Needless to say, the winners were ecstatic. Spiegel On-Line reported, Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats suffered a defeat in Sunday's state election in Lower Saxony, depriving her of the boost she had been hoping for ahead of the September general election and indicating that she will have to fight harder for a third term than many had expected. It was the 12th consecutive setback in a state vote for her party, and even though the election is still eight months away and Merkel remains highly popular, the opposition Social Democrats and Greens have smelt blood. They won a combined 46.3 percent against 45.9 percent for the center-right alliance of the CDU and the struggling probusiness Free Democratic Party. That will enable the center-left to govern with a majority of one seat in the Lower Saxony state parliament after the cliffhanger vote. "I won't deny it, after such an emotional roller coaster such a defeat is all the more painful, so we are all sad today to some extent," Merkel told a news conference on Monday. But, matter of fact as ever, she shrugged off the implications for her reelection, saying: "We don't have a campaign for the general election, that will come later, we have a whole series of serious problems to solve, the economic situation is fragile, we want to ensure that the labor market situation remains as it is or can even improve a little, we have big tasks in Europe."

Commentators said Sunday's vote made clear that the general election could be a very tight race indeed. Merkel had campaigned heavily in Lower Saxony, making a number of speeches there in recent weeks, but her presence didn't provide enough of a boost. Lower Saxony is the latest in a long list of major defeats for the CDU in some of Germany's biggest regional states. It lost North Rhine-Westphalia, population 17 million, last year, and the conservative bastion of Baden-Wrttemberg, a wealthy industrial region, in 2011. The loss of Lower Saxony, home to VW and Germany's fourth-largest state by population, is an additional blow because it means the center-left parties have an increased majority in the upper house of parliament, the Bundesrat. That will make it harder for Merkel to get legislation approved. This last point about the Bundesrat is important. Most domestic legislation must also be approved by the Bundesrat and Chancellor Merkel does not have a majority there. It should remind you of our own Congress where we have a political split. There is only one more State election before the national one in September. That one will be in Bavaria where the CDUs sister party the CSU runs in its place. To say the least, a bad outcome there wont be helpful. However, theres a lot of water yet to go under the political bridge before September. Hang with me. Stay tuned!

ANTI-ISRAEL---ANTI-SEMITIC? The question of what is anti-Israelism and what is anti-Semitism is a delicate and confusing topic. In Germany where the matter of relations with Jews and Israel is so sensitive, it is fraught with a great deal of emotion. Therefore, when something pertaining to it appears in print it gets a great deal of attention. Last month Spiegel On-Line ran a story entitled, What is Anti-Semitism? It asked, Just how strongly are Germans allowed to criticize Israel? Accusations of antiSemitism against SPIEGEL columnist Jakob Augstein have brought the question to the fore. The article came about because a well-known German-Jewish journalist accused Augstein of having written articles so critical of Israel that they crossed the line into antiSemitism. The Spiegel On-Line article is quite long so I cannot print it all. Below you will find important excerpts. I would strongly advise you to read the whole thing which you can do by clicking here. http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/dieter-graumann-and-jakob-augsteindebate-anti-semitism-controversy-a-877427.html In the article Augstein debates the issue with Dieter Graumann, the leader of 4

Germany's Jewish community. Since the Los Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Center placed German journalist Jakob Augstein, 45, on its list of the world's top 10 antiSemites, Germany has been embroiled in controversy over his columns for SPIEGEL ONLINE. Augstein, publisher of the Berlin-based weekly magazine Der Freitag and a prominent shareholder of the SPIEGEL publishing house, has attacked Israeli policies on a number of occasions. Dieter Graumann, 62, the president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, voices criticism of Augstein's articles and engages in a debate with him on the sensitive issue. SPIEGEL: Let's get back to the definition of anti-Semitism. Graumann: Anyone who senses a pervasive, worldwide Jewish conspiracy or who holds "the Jews" responsible for all bad things that transpire among nations. Anyone who denies Israel's right to exist demonizes it or is prepared to accept its annihilation. Anyone who makes plump comparisons with Nazis to condemn Israeli policies. Augstein: I agree with that definition. Indeed, you have also defined who is not an antiSemite, namely anyone who views Israel like any other state and criticizes it when its government violates international law. In other words, anyone who does not apply a double standard to Israel. And I would say that this definition applies to me. SPIEGEL: Mr. Graumann, is this type of normality desirable? Graumann: If it were as Mr. Augstein describes it -- but that is unfortunately not the case. He absolutely does not treat Israel like any other state. He conveys an image of Israel that is simplistic and distorted. In fact, he conveys -- and I find this particularly pernicious -- anti-Jewish clichs. If I were to rate the cold contempt with which he treats Israel on a scale from 1 to 10, I would give him a solid 13. Graumann: Oh, let's just drop the whole ranking analogy! There is a world of difference between the people on this list, between a Holocaust denier like Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, for instance, or Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, and Augstein. It's also not a matter of whether people in Germany are allowed to criticize Israeli policies. Of course they can do that -- and it constantly occurs in the press. As far as I'm concerned, it can even be harsh criticism. But the question is: When does this criticism become obsessive and hostile, when does it deviate from objective arguments, and when does it become irresponsible? And this is where Mr. Augstein continuously goes beyond the limits Augstein: Apparently there are contentious, perhaps contaminated terms that you now simply imbue with your own, personal interpretation. At the same time, you are sidestepping the political facts. Now, let's talk about the submarine deal: In violation of its own foreign policy guidelines, Germany is delivering vessels to a highly explosive region -- vessels that can be armed with nuclear weapons, which is something that was long kept secret from the German parliament, the Bundestag.

Graumann: I call Germany's support a responsible policy that helps safeguard the existence of the Jewish state. Furthermore, Social Democratic chancellors have also endorsed such sales. Augstein: I see this as highly dangerous. What's more, these submarines were partly paid for by the German government, and partly sold below their value. And this supposedly happened without political pressure from Israel? There are witnesses at the Chancellery to Netanyahu's insistent phone calls to Chancellor Angela Merkel. And as far as the term "Jewish lobby" goes, which I only use in relation to the US, what's wrong with that? You can see the heated nature of the debate. I would imagine that these sorts of questions move through the minds of many Germans and for that matter, many Americans. The co-mingling of Jews/Israel/anti-Semitism is confusing to well-meaning people as well as those on the periphery of anti-Semitism. Again, I would strongly suggest that you take the few minutes it would take to read the entire five page article.

ANTI-SEMITISM IN EVERY DAY LIFE I frequently write about anti-Semitism in Germany as there is a great deal of it just as there is, unhappily, in many places including the Good Old U.S. of A. However, there is more of the overt variety in the Federal Republic and the Jewish community feels it more intensely. For some it feels as if its there all the time. DW ran a piece by Naomi Conrad on this very subject. In part she wrote, Insults and name-calling, even physical violence - yes, nods Berlin Rabbi Daniel Alter as he sits in a cafe near one of the Berlin synagogues, "That's completely normal in Germany." He quotes research which shows that almost one out of three Germans is anti-Semitic. "You can find it at all levels of society," says Alter, who's the Berlin Jewish congregation's new anti-Semitism envoy. Part of his job is to sort the letters and e-mails to the congregation: those with slanderous content go straight to the prosecutor's office. In the drizzly rain, two security guards hover under an archway just a few steps from the Jewish caf, hands deep in their coat pockets, carefully watching who goes in and out. For security reasons, cell phones, laptops and other electronic gadgets must be turned off. Armed security guards and security checkpoints watch over Jewish life in Berlin; they stand guard outside the synagogues and the Jewish school. Alter is not happy with the situation, but he accepts it. He has taken to wearing his skullcap hidden underneath a black woolen hat since four young ethnic Arab men last year beat him so badly he was taken to a hospital. Ahmed Mansour says many ethnic Arab and Turkish people in Germany think like those four young men: he describes them as "latently anti-Semitic." Mansour is an Israeli Palestinian who has lived and worked in Berlin for nine years. He works in an outreach 6

program and gives workshops on tolerance. Mansour says the families are to blame for the current mood. Many Palestinians fled to Germany during the Arab-Israeli wars, he says: "They are highly traumatized." They pass on to their children a warped view in which they are the victims and Jews are the offenders, he told DW. "They do not discern between Jews and Israelis. All Jews are held responsible for the Middle East conflict." Videos in the social media and sermons by hate preachers goad Muslims on, Mansour says. Both Rabbi Alter and Mansour made presentations at the AJC Board meeting in Berlin. Both, in different ways, are trying to confront anti-Semitism and hate. I think it would fair to point out that anti-Semitism is far worse in Eastern Europe and even in France. Of course, because of its history there should be less of it in Germany. However, Europe is Europe and this virus is tightly woven into the culture of many nations there. I dont expect miracles. Its not going away anytime soon if ever. However, again to be fair, Germany is doing much to combat it but people are people even after a disastrous war and almost 68 years of time it still exists. We just have to keep working to defeat it. You can read the entire story by clicking on the link. http://www.dw.de/anti-semitism-aneveryday-phenomenon/a-16560724

19th CENTURY GERMANY Im always intrigued by historic photos. Since photography first came into being in the 19th Century it became possible to see places, people and things that preceded you. In particular, one can imagine and fill in the spaces between what was and what is. For most Americans, particularly those born after World War II, most pictures of Germany we see today show the ruins of Berlin in the 1940s or, occasionally, some castle that was not destroyed. Granted, I was not around in the 19th Century (even though with todays aches and pains some days I feel like I might have been) but I have travelled throughout Germany enough to see many quaint & beautiful sites. Of course, the War destroyed many others. Spiegel on-Line recently ran a series of 19th century photos they describe as, A stunning collection of 19th century photographs of German cities, landscapes and festivals has just been published in a book and provides an intriguing insight into how the country has changed -- and how it has remained the same. Its worth clicking on the link below which will open the article. You can run through the pictures by clicking on the first photo (Brandenburg Gate) which comes up. http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/book-of-photographs-show-germany-in-the19th-century-a-877730.html

THE ELYSEE TREATY Treaties between countries are frequently just pieces of paper that are made and then forgotten (or abridged). How about the Munich Agreement of 1938 between Great Britain and Nazi Germany basically giving Czechoslovakia to the Nazis? A year later World War II started. In 1963 a treaty between Germany and France was signed and that has lasted for 50 years and has brought dramatic results for Europe and the rest of the world. At the end of January, according to DW, President Francois Hollande and Chancellor Angela Merkel have launched a full day of activities marking 50 years since the signing of the Elysee Treaty. The 1963 accord cemented peace between Europe's old adversaries. French President Hollande received Chancellor Merkel at France's Berlin embassy on Tuesday morning, officially beginning Tuesday's celebrations. Subsequently, the pair met with French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault and German President Joachim Gauck at his Schloss Bellevue palace in the capital. On January 22, 1963, Germany and France signed the Elysee Treaty - the cornerstone of modern peace between the two countries after three wars in less than a century. Post-war leaders Konrad Adenauer of Germany and Charles de Gaulle of France signed that original document. A joint Franco-German cabinet meeting, followed by a simultaneous meeting of the parliaments in Paris and Berlin with keynote speeches from Hollande and Merkel, were billed as the highlights of Tuesday's agenda. The two houses of parliament were expected to agree on further measures of cooperation; several partnership agreements and commitments for regular political summits are among the existing terms of the Elysee Treaty. Only 18 years before the signing, and for hundreds of years before that, the nations were almost constantly at war with each other. Without the treaty the European Union would not have been possible and resorts to war might have remained possible. It now seems virtually out of the question for anyone in either France or Germany to think about armed conflict between the two countries. They share a common currency and, to a large degree, are bound together politically in the EU. When one thinks about it, the Elysee Treaty comes about as close to a diplomatic miracle as is possible in todays world.

SAVING NAZI WAR CRIMINALS: A GENUINE DISGRACE I know that WW II ended more than 67 years ago. And, it is no grand secret that after 8

the War many of the Nazi criminals headed to South America where, to a large extent, they lived out their lives without ever being caught and tried for their crimes. How did they do it? Who helped? Were Germans themselves involved? Felix Bohr writing in Spiegel On-Line notes, Of the hundreds of guilty Nazi officials and mass murderers who had fled to South America after the surrender of Nazi Germany, only a handful of them were ever held to account. How could so many criminals manage to go unpunished, even though they were clearly guilty? It's a conundrum that mystifies academics to this day. Was it because of the lack of cooperation by West German officials? The lack of interest on the part of South America regimes? Were there even secret ties and collaboration between Nazis on both sides of the Atlantic? Historian Daniel Stahl has conducted research in European and South American archives in the process of writing a new book entitled "Nazi Hunt: South America's Dictatorships and the Avenging of Nazi Crimes." The work supplies a certain and disgraceful answer to what has long been suspected: that there was a broad coalition of people -- across continents and within the courts, police, governments and administrations -- that was unwilling to act or even thwarted the prosecution of Nazi criminals for decades. Stahl believes that the motives for being part of what he calls a "coalition of the unwilling" differed widely. West German diplomats sabotaged the hunt for Nazis out of solidarity. French criminal investigators feared that cooperation might expose their own pasts as Nazi collaborators. And South America dictators refused to extradite former Nazis out of concern that trials of war criminals could direct international attention to the crimes their own governments were then committing. It wasn't hard for this coalition to torpedo the hunt for Nazis. Countless players -- in politics, the judiciary, the government and the administration -- had to work together in order to arrange and execute successful criminal prosecutions. Indeed, a small mistake or minor procedural irregularity was enough to foil the arrest of the criminals. Stahl leaves no doubt that the West German judiciary was especially guilty of serious lapses. His findings confirm that it neglected to forcefully pursue Nazi murderers for decades. According to Stahl, Germans who worked in the Foreign Office before 1945 failed to cooperate with public prosecutors and Interpol was another guilty agency. Stahl uncovered one particularly revealing document, the minutes of a meeting of Interpol's executive committee from May 1962. A short time earlier, the World Jewish Congress had asked Interpol to participate in the global search for Nazi war criminals. Interpol's then-secretary general, Marcel Sicot, responded angrily. Why should war criminals be prosecuted, the Frenchman is quoted as asking in the minutes, "since the victor always imposes his laws, anyway? No international entity defines the term 'war criminal.'" In 9

fact, Sicot regarded the criminal prosecution of Nazi crimes as "victor's justice." Stahl also notes that one of the major obstacles in the hunt for Nazi criminals was the fact that South American dictators wanted to cover up their own crimes. On June 22, 1979, the German ambassador in Brasilia wrote that the extradition of someone who had committed war crimes almost 40 years earlier would "bolster the demands of those who insist that all crimes should be prosecuted, including those committed by the military and the police." In Germany, a new generation had entered the government bureaucracy -- and one that wasn't afraid to use unconventional means to put Nazi criminals behind bars. In 1982, the Munich public prosecutor's office initiated proceedings to apply for the extradition of Klaus Barbie, the former chief of the Gestapo in Lyon, France. Fearing that Barbie could be acquitted in Germany for lack of evidence, Justice Ministry officials asked their Foreign Ministry counterparts to hint to Bonn's French allies that "they should also seek Barbie's deportation, specifically from Bolivia to France." When Paris agreed, the Foreign Ministry instructed the German embassy in La Paz, the Bolivian capital, to "encourage such a development with suitable means." In early 1983, Barbie was deported to France. The notorious "Butcher of Lyon" died in a hospital in that city in 1991. None of this should come as a great surprise to anybody who knows even a little bit of Holocaust history. The interesting thing is that a major German publication has made a top story of it. There is no question that much of the new generation feels strongly about justice and, unhappily for them, they know that even after the war it was not always sought out by their parents and grandparents. Luckily for everyone, things are very different today.

HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL DAY According to DW, On Sunday [Jan. 27th], organizations [held] events across Germany to commemorate the victims of the National Socialist dictatorship under Adolf Hitler, who ruled Germany from 1933 to 1945. Chancellor Merkel emphasized the importance of the Day of Remembrance for Victims of National Socialism during her podcast posted online Saturday. "We must clearly say, generation after generation, and say it again: with courage, civil courage, each individual can help ensure that racism and anti-Semitism have no chance," she said.

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Because the number of eyewitnesses to the crimes against humanity perpetrated by the Nazi regime dwindles every year, people must take the opportunity to listen to survivors, she added. "Naturally, [Germany has] an everlasting responsibility for the crimes of nationalsocialism, for the victims of World War II, and above all, for the Holocaust." In 1996, former German President Roman Herzog proclaimed January 27 the Day of Remembrance for Victims of National Socialism, in order to stress the importance of vigilance toward intolerance and hatred. The date was chosen for its significance in Holocaust history. On January 27, 1945 Soviet troops liberated Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest concentration camp where over one million men, women and children were killed. The United Nations designated the same day in 2006 as the International Day of Commemoration in memory of the victims of the Holocaust. Over six million people perished in concentration camps from forced labor, starvation, disease or extermination. The majority of the victims were Jews. The Nazi regime sent hundreds of thousands of others to their deaths during their reign of terror, whom the state deemed degenerate or a political threat, including the disabled, the mentally ill, homosexuals, Sinti and Roma, political enemies and members of religious organizations. Because the memorial day falls on a Sunday this year, the German parliament [held] its "hour of commemoration" on Wednesday. The German-Israeli author and journalist Inge Deutschkron [spoke] about her experiences surviving the Holocaust at the event. You might ask, Who is Inge Deutschkron and why was she selected to be the one to address the Bundestag? Wikipedia notes, Inge Deutschkron was the daughter of a Jewish secondary school teacher who moved the family to Berlin in 1927. But by 1933 her father was fired from his job and fled to Great Britain in 1939leaving Inge and her mother in Berlin.[1] Between 1941 and 1943, she worked for Otto Weidt in his brush workshop. Otto Weidt supported mainly deaf and blind workers (a large proportion of which were Jews), and it was with the help of Otto Weidt that Inge Deutschkron managed to evade deportation. From January 1943, Inge lived illegally in Berlin, and hid with her mother in order to escape the Holocaust. Inge Deutschkron and her mother moved to London in 1946 where she studied foreign languages and became secretary to the Socialist International Organization. From 1954 Inge traveled to India, Burma, Nepal and Indonesia before eventually returning to Germany in 1955 where she worked in Bonn as a freelance journalist. In 1958, Israeli newspaper Maariv hired Inge Deutschkron as a correspondent and she acted as an observer for Maariv at the Frankfurt Auschwitz trial in 1963. Inge Deutschkron became an Israeli citizen in 1966. Moving to Tel Aviv in 1972, Deutschkron became editor of the Maariv newspaper until 1988, dedicated to international and Middle East politics. She 11

returned to Berlin in December 1988 for the stage adaptation of her autobiography "I Wore the Yellow Star" at the Grips-Theater. Since 1992, Inge Deutschkron has lived as a freelance writer in Tel Aviv and Berlin. She strives to ensure that the silent heroes, people who have rescued Jews from the German government are acknowledged, overseeing the work of the Museum of Otto Weidt and the Silent Heroes Museum in Berlin. She has written a number of books for children and adults on her life and the life of Otto Weidt. Frankly I did not previously know who Inge Deutschkron was. However, I now understand that she is very well known in both Israel and Germany. In thinking about this 86 year old woman it occurred to me that more thought should be focused on the ability of Holocaust survivors to rebuild their lives after the horrors they went through. What enormous internal strength and fortitude it must have taken to have risen from the Nazi nightmare and then to make a meaningful life for ones self. There are politicians and public figures with bigger names but I cannot think of a better representative of the Holocaust survivors to appear before the Bundestag and all of Germany on this very solemn day than Inge Deutschkron.

See you again in March or when I get around to another edition. DuBow Digest is written and published by Eugene DuBow who can be contacted by clicking here Both the American and Germany editions are posted at www.dubowdigest.typepad.com Click here to connect BTW all editions are posted at www.dubowdigest.typepad.com

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