THE DETROIT JEWISH NEW S — Friday, May 26, 196 1 The Aftermath of the Holocaust — the Events and Challenges in Germany Purely Commentary BERLIN, West Germany—Berlin's Jewish com- munity is an oasis in Germany. Berlin itself may be considered an oasis. There have been assurances by Jewish spokesmen that more Jews were rescued in Berlin and Baden-Baden than anywhere else in Germany—especially by trade unionists who helped hide their Jewish friends. - There were not many who were saved in this fashion, but they are being accounted for here. The Berlin Jewish community is the largest in Germany—it numbers 6,000 out of the total of 22,000 registered German Jews. Heinz Galinski, chairman of the Berlin Jewish community (Judisches Gemeinde) since its organi- zation in its present form in 1949, speaks with enthu- siasm about the set-up in his kehillah. The visitor from the United States who accompanies him on a tour of the magnificent Judisches Gemeindehaus shares his enthusiasm and often wishes that other Jewish communities throughout the world had such facilities. There is a fine synagogue, comfortable con- ference rooms, lecture halls, a well organized kinder- garten. The community has a school .for 250 students for afternoon Jewish studies and a, Talmud Torah for more extensive religious training for 30 more pupils. There is a mikvah, and there are five syna- gogues in Berlin—two consecutive, one hassidic, one liberal and one orthodox. On Holy Days there are supplementary services for an overflow atten- dance. There are two cooperative apartment houses for older people who can care for themselves and prepare their own meals in these well equipped apartments—named in memory of Leo Baeck and Heinrich Stahl—and a home for aged starting with the age of 60, the oldest present resident now approaching her 98th birthday.•- There is a Jewish hospital—Judisches 1Cranken- haus=and "while it' does not have many Jewish patients, it reinains under JeWish supervision, juSt as the synagogues are always under communal supervision. Thus, there is a cultural life, there are exhibitions of arts and crafts, the Berlin Jewish community has a large and expanding Jewish li- brary, it sponsors a kosher restaurant in the Ju- disches Gemeindehaus at Fasanenstrasse 79-80, in the Charlottesburg area. An effort is made to encourage Jewish interests among the youth, non- Jews attend all the functions and the government takes a deep interest in the community's efforts, frequently financing Jewry's cultural functions. Heinz Galinski and the community's secretary, Ger- hard Schaefer, whose offices are at 13 Joachim- talstrasse, speak enthusiastically about the Chris- tian-Jewish relations. But the figures these men provided speak louder than any of the enthusiastic reports thus far recorded. The Gemeinde has monthly records of the numbers of •Jews in Berlin. For April, the record shows the following numbers according to ages: 686 31-40 139 0-3 908 113 41-50 4-6 1,301 51-60 450 7-15 1,280 61-70 .140 16-20 '785 70 and older 310 21-30 During March there were three births and 13 deaths, and during April no births and 12 deaths. These figures reveal conditions that are not to be overlooked. Like the rest of German Jewry, Berlin is a community mostly of old people. The young are few in numbers. There is very little hope of an increase in the population of the youth, and the birth rate is low. Furthermore, the indications are that the young, in the main, have no intention to remain in Germany. One of our guides, Bernd Scholz, a student of journalism at the Berlin Free University, a liberal young chap who does not tolerate the Nazis or their ideas, told us there are three Jews in his classes. He added that "they stick together." He implied - a "clannishness" that is unmatched anywhere else, because of the meth- ories that haunt the Jews in Germany. He ex- pressed - regrets that it should be so, but he hastened to add that he can understand why it should be so. It is not to be doubted that the government also understands why it should be so. It is a good government, and the Berlin municipal government, under the mayoralty of Willy Brandt, is especially good. The entire Federal Republic of Germany is im- bued with a desire to atone for the crimes, to make Jews feel at home, to welcome Jews, to finance all Jewish cultural activities. There is a governmental friendship of so high an order that it defies com- parison. Everything smacking of Nazism or anti- Semitism is banned by law. Everything Jewish vir- tually is supported by law. But this friendship does not solve anything. It does not cure. The memories are here. There is this to be said. The anti-Nazi demon- strations are visible, and if there are memories of a friendly nature for Nazism they are not notice- able and are invisible. Every German who knows the story of the rise of Nazism and the resistance to it constantly deplores the fact that the gesture of friendship for Hitler by Britain's Prime Minister Chamberlain should have ended a coup to eliminate Hitler, that trade union opposition to Hitler should have been destroyed by Stalin's pact with Hitler, in 1938 and 1939; and that the German generals' plot to kill Hitler, on July 20, 1944, should have failed. In tribute to the latter, a memorial has been erected on the spot where the executions of the rebels were ordered by Hitler. Berliners visit the memorial on July 20 to pay tribute to the participants in the abortive attempt on , Hitler's life. There are other occasions when Germans honor those who resisted. Members of the government participate in Warsaw Ghetto commemorations, in concentration camp libera tion anniversaries and similar events. The catastrophe is remembered. The memory it- self awakens the haunting thoughts which perpetu- ate recollections of the tragedies. It is no wonder that the Hitler era can not and will not be forgotten. Berlin is a divided city, and the split adds to the uncertainties of life, the Jewish community sharing in the challenges created by the East-West conflict. There are 1,500 Jews in Russian-controlled East Germany, 800 of them in ,East Berlin. There is a synagogue there, the East Berliners get their kosher meat from West Berlin, and the hazanim in the latter perform funeral services whenever there are deaths in East Berlin. Very close to the elegant Kurfurstendamm shop- ping area the Jewish central quarters functions well. It is doubtful, however, whether they have much of a future. The Gemeinde lives under the shadow of destruction that occurred on the same Kurfurstendamm when the avenue was full of Jew- ish-owned shops — shops whose windows were smashed and store contents pilfered on Kristallnacht in November 1938. In East Berlin a Communist spirit hides the facts. Unlike West Germany, East Ger- many refuses to pay reparations. The tragedy is hardly reduced by the East-West conflict. * • * Frau Jeanette Wolff is one of the more inter- esting Jewish personalities in West Germany. A resident of Berlin, she represents the Berlin dis- trict in the Bundestag and is the most positive Jewish member of the Parliament of the Federal Republic. While Jakob Altrneyer, another Jewish member, is interested in German-Israel relations and was a participant in planning the reparations agree- ment, he has little interest in Jewish life. Bundestag Deputy Frau Wolff survived the concentration camp atrocities with a daughter, but her husband and two other daughters perished. She has been active in Jewish communal work since 1912 and was a leader in the trade union movement. Approaching her 73rd birthday, Frau Wolff is one of the co-chairmen of the Judisches Frauen- bund which has chapters in all German Jewish communities. There are 7 00 members in this wom- en's organization in Berlin, but the WIZO in Berlin, the women's Zionist organization, numbers only about 50 members. A WIZO exhibition during the first week in May, however, had community-wide participation and attracted wide interest. Frau Wolff's only surviving daughter married a survivor from Nazism who was sterilized in a concentration camp. Mrs. Wolff relates how a Cath- olic priest, Schubert, advised her relatives, who happened to stray out of a camp, not to return there, since it would mean certain death. He thus saved _several lives. Mrs. Wolff had befriended a number of Ameri- cans, including Victor Reuther, the Detroit labor leader. She is the oldest of 16 children and the only survivor in the family. Five brothers lost their lives as German soldiers in World War I. * * * The echoes of the Eichmann trial in Jerusalem are heard here uninterruptedly. The German press gives a fair and complete account of the court pro- ceedings, and there is more than passing interest in the thrice-weekly television reports from Jeru- salem. Government officials especially follow the trial proceedings with keenest interest. While the press. is, in the main, fair and ob- jective—and emphasizes the need for all Germans to know the past in order to atone and to prevent recurrence of Nazism—there is a frequent echo of prejudice. Thus, the Spiegel, which is viewed as the German likeness of Time, contained a letter from a lady from Frankfurt who signed herself Gerlinde Kuhne who ended her missive with the words "die Juden selbst waren die Teufel." The same issue of Spiegel (Mirror) contained a Council of Judaism type of self-hating letter by a man from Dortmund - Marten, Jeshu Goldmann, who wrote: "Die Juden als Kulturferment haben als zweitausend Jahren keine Volksaufgabe haben." Likened to the recent assertions of Council of Judaism spokesmen in Philadelphia, this is the type of letter that fans hatred. Christian Germans would not dare to be as anti-Semitic as the Council for Judaism emerged in its convention. What is disturbing government officials in West Germany more than anything else is the fear of in- crimination of many former Nazis in the Jerusalem proceedings. The protests that have been raised against the retention of Hans Globke, a former Nazi collaborator, as Chancellor Adenauer's Secretary of State, are mounting, but Dr. Adenauer is deter- mined to retain him. Since, however, the names mentioned by Eich- mann's defense counsel Robert Servatius as possible defense witnesses are mostly imprisoned Nazis, there has been an easing of feeling here, and attention is focused on the television transmissions of actual trial . . By Philip Slomovitz scenes as means of enlightening the German people on the events in Jerusalem. When the Eichmann trial first commenced, there was fear of possible repercussions in Germany. But there have been very few outright manifestations of pro-Eichmannism. In only isolated instances have pro- Nazis asserted their anti-Jewish sympathies and very few signs of "Life to Eichmann, Death to Jews" have been seen. In one small community the painting of such a sign inspired a public meeting of the commu- nity's citizens at which solidarity was expressed with the Jewish residents and the sentiments were express- ed that the truth must be made known and the Eich- mann trial fully exposed. The major emphasis, inspired by the government, is that the youth should ask questions about the Hitler era, that the parents should not hesitate to tell the story and to admit guilt in order that the new order may function in a cleansed atmosphere. Government efforts to express friendship for the remaining German Jewish population of approxi- mately 22,000—out of a pre-Hitler German Jewry that numbered 600,000—manifested themselves in many ways. One of them was the broadcasting of a commentary, by Col. Gerd Schmuckle, in behalf of the Federal Ministry of Defense, indicating the ex- tent of Jewish participation in Germany's armed forces until the advent of Elitlerism. Schmuckle's statement goes into great length to show "the true image" of the Jews of Germany who lost 12,000 men in battles in World War I, who had a number of heroes who were officially recognized by Ger- many. The official statement condemns and repudi- ates the Nazi attitude. Nevertheless the Jewish tragedy in Germany re- mains unchecked. As a result of the Hitlerite trends, there are no Jews in the present Bundeswehr, the West German army, due partly to Jewish suspicions and partly to the German desire to bend backwards in friendship to Jews—even to the extent of cancelling the drafting of Jewish boys—something that is now being deeply resented in Jewish ranks. Cologne's Rabbi Is Pessimistic COLOGNE, Germany. — Dr. Alexander Ginsburg, the chairman of the local Jewish community, is proud of the numerous activities that have been set up here. He and his associate, Sally Kessler, the secretary of the synagogue and the Gemeinde, point with satisfac- tion to the manner in which the government assists in the development of Jewish projects. They are less happy about the social status of Cologne's Jews and about the reactions of the youth to communal planning. One of Cologne's leaders, when asked about the reactions of non-Jews to their Jewish neighbors, said that outwardly all is wonderful, but—and he accom- panied the but by quoting a Russian proverb: he said you can feel a bear's fur, but not his character. "How can we look into the heart of people?" , he asked. Dr. Zvi Azaria (Helfgott), who has been rabbi of the Roonstrattse Synagogue for eight years, is plan- ning to go back to Israel before the year is over. He says that he will have to return as a- halutz, before establishing what vocation he will pursue. He has written and lectured extensively on questions relating to German-Jewish history, especially the history of Cologne. His attitudes are marred by disappointments and some elements of despair over the future status of Jewry in Germany. In the presence of a representative of the Bundes- presseamt, he complained about the manner of assist- ance that has been given to German Jewry by the German government. He acknowledged the material aid given Jewry, but complained that there has been little assistance in providing greater spiritual suste- nance to Jewry. "I told it to President Luebke, and I repeat it," he said, "that little has been done to give us spiritual aid. There are only six rabbis in Germany —in Frankfurt, Hamburg, Stuttgart, Essen, Cologne and Dortmund. There should be more, and there should be greater effort to establish Jewish schools and related agencies." Later we found that there are rabbis also in East and West Berlin. Rabbi Maria was the extremist among complainants. But he insisted, addressing the non- Jewess from Bundespresseamt, "ich verlasse Deutsch- land mit kein Hass"—"I leave Germany without hatred." But he insisted that "die Regierung ist nicht richtig beraten," that the government is not properly advised, and he declared, in recognition of all that the government does and aims to do to establish the best German-Jewish relations, that "ich habe Mitleid mit Deutschland" — "I sympathize with Germany." In explanation of his attitude, Rabbi Azaria re- called that, as rabbi and community leader in Belsen, after the camp's liberation, he served 50,000 sur- vivors who then led an enthusiastic Jewish life. He said there was a college, a theater, a library, all facilities for a highly standardized Jewish existence, and that all of that had vanished when the inmates wandered away, leaving no trace of it among those who remained in Germany. For the latter, he said, there should have been built up a higher Jewish spiritual existence. He blamed the government for having failed on that score. Dr. Azaria was a bit skeptical about the "frater- nal" and "brotherhood" efforts of the Kristlich- Judische Gesellschaft. He insisted that those who helped rescue Jews are silent, but there are many who claim to have done so but could not prove it. He urged the setting of a genuine honor roll of those who did risk their lives to save Jews from Nazism. The Cologne rabbi said that often Christians hesi- tate to acknowledge responsibility. He also mentioned (Continued on Pages 20 and 21)