Young Germans Cheer Israeli Victory, Rutgers Sociologist Reports After Tour
(Direct JTA
Wire
to The Jewish
Tel News)
NEWARK—The older generation
in West Germany still considers
Jews a race or religion, but the
youth think of them and vigorous-
ly support them as the people who
founded and maintained the state
of Israel, a Rutgers University
sociologist reported Tuesday.
Dr. Werner Cahman reported
this evaluation as the most
"striking" finding of a recent tour
of West Germany at the invitation
of the government. He spoke to
young people, educators and poli-
tical officials in a half dozen major
West German cities, and through-
out his visit, he said. He saw dem-
onstrations and other signs of sup-
port for Israel during the recent
Middle East crisis and war.
"The Israeli situation provided
a major breakthrough in German-
Jewish relations," he said. "It
gave German youths an opportu-
nity to express themselves." He
added that "This feeling on the
part of German youth toward Is-
rael is not an unmixed blessing.
There is the danger that the more
complex problem of the Jews and
Judaism throughout history might
be circumvented by the enthusi-
asm over the much simpler Israeli
situation."
He said that while he did not
believe that the West German
youth of today should be "bur-
dened with guilt" for the Nazi
persecution of Jews, be also felt
"They canot escape responsibil-
ity for history." He summed up
the feeling of the youth with the
comment of a young West Ger-
man to him that "If I belong to
the people of Goethe and Schil-
ler, I belong to the people of
Hitler."
He reported also complaints
about the attention in the American
press to nationalistic and anti-
Semitic manifestations in Ger-
many, as contrasted with such
"positive actions" as the pro-Israel
demonstrations.
He said he was planning to set
up an organization to bring Ameri-
can Jewish youth to West Germany
to engage in "constructive dia-
logue" with West German young
People. He said the idea had the
full support of West German
authorities.
Dr. Cahman was invited to visit
West Germany also in his capacity
as chairman of the American Com-
mittee for Dachau, to check on
progress in building a monument
to the victims of the Nazi death
camp, scheduled for completion
next spring. He said that the Ba-
varian government had taken over
responsibility for the camp site,
which is visited by more than
400,000 persons each year.
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Friday, July 14, 1967-5
FLEET MANAGER
LARRY STERN
Will Appreciate
Your Continued
Patronage
German Reaction to Arab-Israel Conflict
BY ALFRED WOLFMANN
JTA Correspondent in West Germany
(Copyright 1967, JTA Inc.)
BONN—For the first time since
the end of the Second World War
an entirely new attitude in Ger-
many broke through in respect to
Israel. A wave of enthusiasm to-
ward Israel seized nearly the entire
German population. While in the
past 22 years only Germans in cer-
tain ranks, part of the German
press and of the German youth
engaged themselves in Israel's pro-
gress, this time the vast majority
of German people showed more
than open sympathy for Israel in
its struggle against the Arab coun-
tries.
Just when the Arabs blocked
the Gulf of Aqaba and called for
the "holy war" against Israel, and
when it seemed that the surround-
ed State of Israel would be over-
run by the big Arab countries,
young Germans in great numbers
volunteered at the Israeli Embassy
in Bonn to help Israel, either as
fighters in the Israel Army or to
work in a kibutz or whatever
they could be of help to Israel.
When these Germans were asked
by TV reporters why they had
volunteered for Israel, they re-
plied that the Arab threat to ex-
terminate Israel was their main
motive for action in favor of Israel.
The press, TV and the radio in
West Germany and West Berlin
stood nearly entirely on the side
of Israel. In comments and reports,
it was explained who really was
the aggressor and why Israel had
to act as it did. The Arab League
in Bonn and Arab students pro-
tested in vain against this pro-
Israel attitude.
What seems to be new is the
fact that sympathy for Israel did
not have to be organized by some
German leaders, but that it came
from below. While the government
was more or less officially neutral
in the conflict, the population
showed no such neutrality. Of
course, among leading German
politicians there were more pro-
Israelian feelings that the officially
proclaimed neutrality, but this was
shown mainly in private conversa-
tions.
In many big German cities
demonstrations were sponsored by
German writers, artists, political
leaders, trade unions and students.
All of them called for help to
Israel. The famous German poet
Bible Lesson in Mid-East War
It wasn't only the pious who
were turning to their Bibles dur-
ing the 'period of Israel's travail.
Even as they followed the develop-
ments in the daily newspapers.
Jews throughout the world could
find a historic parallel in each
weekly scriptural or prophetic por-
tion.
Early in June, as the Israelis
mobilized for the impending hos-
tilities in the Sinai Peninsula, the
Tora passage being read in the
synagogue was Numbers 1:1-4:20:
"On the first day of the second
month, in the second year follow-
ing the exodus from the land of
Egypt, the Lord spoke to Moses in
the wilderness of Sinai, in the Tent
of Meeting saying:
"Take a census of the whole
Israelite community by the clans
of its ancestral houses, listing
the names, every male, head by
head. You and Aaron shall re-
cord them by their groups, from
the age of 20 years up, all those
in Israel who are able to bear
arms."
That Sabbath, as the Israelis
were exulting in the leadership by
the newly appointed defense min-
ister, Gen. Moshe Dayan, the
weekly portion in Judges (13:2-25)
related the birth of Samson.
The Israeli air force and tank
command took over the Sinai Pen-
insula, and on Shavuot (Exodus
19:1-20:23), we read that the Is
raelites "on that very day, they
entered the wilderness of Sinai."
God commented to Moses: "Thus
shall you pay to the house of Jacob
and declare to the children of
Israel: 'You have seen what I did
to the Egyptians, how I bore you
on eagles' wings and brought you
to me' . . ."
Habakkuk (3:1-19) added poetic-
ally: "Thou (God) marchest
through the earth in indignation/
Thou threshest the nations in
anger/ Thou art come forth for the
deliverance of Thy people/ For
the deliverance of Thine anointed
. . . Thou hast stricken through
with his own rods the head of his
rulers/ That come as a whirlwind
to scatter me .. ." And in an ob-
vious reference to the Gulf of
Aqaba: "Thou hast trodden the sea
with Thy horses/ The foaming of
mighty waters."
The smoke had cleared by the
Sabbath of June 17, but God was
warning Moses for future refer-
ence: "This shall be for you an
institution for all time through.
out the generations. When you
are at war in your own land
against an aggressor who attack
you, you shall sound short blasts
on the trumpets, that you may
be remembered before the Lord
your God and be delivered from
-your enemies" (Numbers 8:1.12:
16).
In that portion, the Israelite
refugees were crying a familiar
tune to their leader: "Moses heard
the people weeping, group after
group, every person at the en-1
trance of his tent. The Lord was
very angry, and Moses was dis-
tressed." His call to the Lord
sounded like an appeal in the
United Nations: "Where am I to
get meat to give to all this people,
when they whine before me and
say, 'Give us meat to eat!' I can-
not carry all this people by myself,
for it is too much for me .. ."
And when the Lord became
slightly miffed with the whining
refugees, he warned that by the
time He was through with them,
they'd be saying " 'Oh, why did
we ever leave Egypt!' "
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Guenter Grass called the German
youth to fight against the Arab
aim of destroying the Jewish state.
German trade unions bought 3,000,-
000,000 marks in Israel bonds.
The "German-Israel Society" col-
lected 500,000 marks for Israel,
which they handed over to Israel's
Ambassador Asher Ben-Nathan. Of
course, the small Jewish com-
munities made every effort to give
their share in the worldwide
Jewish support for Israel.
It must be said, however, that
the official Communist policy in
East Germany was most hostile
toward Israel. The East German
press, TV and radio called Israel
an aggressor and repeated the
unbelievable insults of Soviet
Ambassador Fedorenko. The hate
propaganda of East Germany
surpassed the anti-Israelian pro-
paganda of all the other East
European Communist countries.
The language of the official
Commuist newspaper Neues
Deutschland was identical with
the anti-Semitic language of the
neo-Nazi newspaper in West
Germany Deutsche National-and
Soldatenzeitung. Extremists of
left and right found common
cause in their hate propaganda
and language reminiscent of that
of Hitler and Goebbels.
But there is evidence that many
Germans in East Germany — and
even members of the Communist
Party— are engaged in opposition
against the Communist pro-Arab
and anti-Israel policy. At party
meetings they stood up and pro-
tested against the support of Nas-
ser and other Arab leaders who
had started aggression against
Israel and who render asylum to
Nazi leaders who had fled Germany
to Arab countries. The Communist
leaders find it rather difficult to
explain why they support the
Arab leaders who are so openly
against peaceful co-existence with
another state.
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