16 Friday, January 23, 1981
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Jews of East Germany Free from Repression, But Face Isolation
By ROCHELLE
SAIDEL-WOLK
ALBANY, N.Y. (JTA) —
Most American Jews know
virtually nothing about the
German Democratic Repub-
lic (GDR or East Germany),
and even less about its
Jewish population.
Although America has
maintained diplomatic re-
lations with the GDR since
1974, this Warsaw Pact na-
tion is generally ignored
here. For most Americans
and Israelis, the Federal
Republic of Germany (West
Germany) is the only Ger-
many.
In an effort to part the
Iron Curtain enough to
show to Western Jewry that
the Jews of the GDR are
well-treated, for the first
time the Liga fur Volker-
freundschaft (League for
Friendship Among the
People) of the GDR invited a
delegation of three Anglo-
Jewish journalists, includ-
ing this correspondent.
The GDR was pro-
claimed on Oct. 11, 1949,
following a series of
People's Congresses in
the Soviet Zone. The lead-
ing party, the Socialist
Unity Party (SED), was
formed in 1946 from the
Communist Party and
the Social Democrats.
(The U.S. State Depart-
ment describes the coali-
tion as a "forced fusion";
the government of the
GDR refers to a "volun-
tary merger.")
- The GDR was recognized
by the Soviet Union and the
Soviet bloc nations im-
mediately after proclaiming
itself a nation, but it was
largely unrecognized by
non-Communist countries
until the 1960s. America
withheld recognition until
1974. Even today, the
United States considers
East Berlin, the capital of
the GDR, as the Soviet sec-
tor of that city and not a le-
gally constituent part of the
GDR.
According to Helmut Aris
of Dresden, chairman of the
Association of Jewish
Communities in the GDR,
there are about 650 'mem-
bers registered in the eight
Jewish Gemeinden (com-
munities) of the GDR. (Dr.
Peter Kirchner, head of the
Berlin Gemeinde, used a
figure of 550.)
About half of the total
Jewiih community is in the
East Berlin Gemeinde, with
the rest in Dresden, Karl
Marx Stadt, Halle, Leipzig,
Magdeburg, Mecklenburg
and Thuringen. In East Be-
rlin, Dresden and Leipzig, I
spoke with the leaders of the
Gemeinden and visited
their • headquarters,
synagogues, cemeteries and
memorial sites.
Unlike the United
States, where organized
Jewry counts "unaffil-
iated" Jews as part of the
Jewish population, only
Voluntarily "registered"
Gemeinde members are
considered Jews in the
GDR. "Otherwide, we
would be following Hit-
ler's racist theory," Aris
and numerous state offi-
cials explained.
But if the "unaffiliated"
Jews of the GDR were
counted, as they are in
America, the Jewish popu-
lation would rise considera-
bly. One Gemeinde official
estimated the number to be
as high as 8,000, with half
that number in East Beilin.
Amidst these and other
ironies, the ever-smaller
Jewish Gemeinde of the
GDR exists, encouraged by
the government. The
Gemeinde publishes a quar-
terly magazine, Nac-
hrichtenblatt, a Jewish
calendar and information
booklets. A kosher
slaughterer comes to Berlin
from Budapest regularly,
and a rabbi comes for the
high holidays. (At other
times, Gemeinde members
lead services.) There is a
summer camp for Jewish
children. Kirchner and Aris
often represent the Jewish
community at international
meetings, with observer
status at the World Jewish
Congress.
There is still a viable
Jewish community in the
GDR. In the not too distant
future, possibly within our
lifetime, this once glorious
Jewish community may
disappear.
When leaders of the
Jewish community are
asked to predict the fu-
ture of Judaism in the
GDR, most take a stance
of unrealistic optimism.
According to Aris: "When
we review the history of
the Jews, we notice there
are ups and downs. We
survived the Holocaust,
and we hope we will sur-
vive in the future ... We
do not think about it so
much. I already have two
grandchildren who are
members of the
Gemeinde (community)."
Aris admitted, however,
that there was no Jewish
wedding in Dresden in re-
cent years, and none in the
entire GDR last year. "By
living today and working
for our community, we are
preserving Judaism ... We
will do our best," he said.
Eugen Gollomb, head of
the Leipzig Gemeinde, said
simply: "Jews live with
hope." But statistics belie
his. hopefulness. In his
community of 54 Jews, the
most recent Jewish wedding
took place in 1955. There
are only five Jewish chil-
dren in Leipzig. Twin boys,
sons of a Jewish mother and
a father who converted to
Judaism, became Bar
Mitzva two years ago. Their
parents are now divorced,
their father no longer
Jewish.
Gollomb is the Hebrew
and ritual teacher. An Au-
schwitz survivor, he
laughed as he recalled his
father forcing him to study
in a yeshiva in his native
Lodz, Poland. Now the once
reluctant scholar is the only
source of traditional Jewish
education for his Gemeinde.
Gollomb's wife is not
Jewish. The wife of another
community leader, Aaron
Alderstein, converted to
Judaism, as did his daugh-
ter's husband.
Isolation from other
Jewish communities is a
serious problem for the
Jews of the GDR. Dr.
Peter Kirchner, a 45-
year-old neurologist who
heads the East Berlin
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Gemeinde, attributed
this to the negative image
among Western Jewry of
the GDR as a Communist
state. "They do not know
of our unhindered life as
Jews here," he said.
"There is no anti-.
Semitism, as in West
Germany."
With the world's Jewish
population severely di-
minished by the Holocaust,
it is ironic that many
American Jews have "writ-
ten off' the brave remnant
of Jewish people in the
GDR, nearly all of them
survivors or children of sur-
vivors.
Some of the possible ex-
planations for this may be
the Communist East Ger-
man government limits
compensation for Holocaust
victims to those who live in
the GDR; the government is
pro-Palestine Liberation
Organization; political ac-
commodation to West Ger-
many of the part of Ameri-
can Jewish leaders and
their disapproval of East
Germany's policies in other
countries have not pre-
vented American Jews from
building bridges to those
Jewish communities.
Aris explained the image
of Jews (Gemeinde mem-
bers) in the GDR as follows:
"A Jewish citizen in the
GDR is entirely the same as
any other citizen in the
GDR:He can hold any posi-
tion." He cited as an exam-
ple non-Communist
Gemeinde member Dr. Kurt
Cohen, a retired Supreme
Court Justice. (But Cohen is
an exception. Unless a
Gemeinde member is also a
communist, he is rarely in
government.)
"I stress that anti-
Semitism has been eradi-
cated and will be
punished by law," Aris
said. "I cannot deny there
are still some anti-
Semites here, people now
60 years old who sucked
up anti-Semitism with
their mothers' milk," he
added.
To insure that anti-
Semitism and other forms of
racism will not be transmit-
ted to future generations,
the Communist regime of
the GDR has made anti-
fascism the overriding
theme of all education. "Af-
ter the war, we carried out a
democratic school reform,"
Rudi Helmer, an Anti-
Fascist Resistance Fighters'
official explained. "Anti-
humanist -and fascist
ideologies were eliminated
from school books. New
teachers with democratic
views were employed .. .
Nazi sympathizers were
removed (from teaching
jobs) 100 percent. There are
laws to prohibit fascist
propaganda, such as the
1950 Law for the Protection
of Peace."
Asked if it was difficult
for Jews to live in a country
that strongly supports the
Palestine Liberation
Organization, Aris re-
sponded: "We feel about the
PLO as all Jews feel. The
Jews of the GDR and all
Jews are against any kind of
terrorism, no matter where
it comes from." He said that
he favored United Nations
Security Council Resolu-
tions 242 and 338, and that
they "guarantee for all
countries in the Middle East
and the people of these -
countries the right to live
within safe borders."
"Jewish citizens, just as
all other citizens of the
GDR, support these resolu-
tions," he added. "The ques-
tion of territory has to be de-
cided by the states involved.
I am of the opinion the re-
mainder of the Second Tem-
ple, the Wailing Wall,
should remain in Jewish
hands. But it's up to the
states involved."
Other members of the
Jewish community
throughout the GDR pri-
vately expressed warm
feelings for Israel in sub-
tle ways — a hope to go
there one day, a request
for an Israel-made reli-
gious object, or just a sad
smile, a sigh. It is difficult
for the Jewish commu-
nity to get a clear picture
of current and historic
events in modern Israel,
because Zionist writings
are "verboten."
In the library of the East
Berlin Jewish Community
headquarters, for example,
Zionist and fascist litera-
ture are both relegated to a
back room, requiring spe-
cial permission for
entrance.
The press, like the gov-
ernment, is pro-PLO. One
official of the Jewish com-
munity said he knew the
newspapers were one-sided,
but he doesn't have suffi-
cient information to give
answers. He can, however,
listen to a number of West-
ern radio stations beamed
in from West Berlin and
elsewhere.
Werner Handler, head
of the international desk
of GDR Radio, admitted,
"it is not good for an
anti-fascist German state
not to have relations with
Israel." He added, how-
ever, "it is impossible,
with the expansionism
going on there. At the be-
ginning, Israel didn't
want to, or couldn't have,
relations with the GDR.
Now the situation is very
complicated," he said.
(The complications are
the results of Israel's ties
with the United States,
and with West Germany,
through reparations; and
the GDR's allegiance to
the Soviet Union.)
Rudi Helmer, an official
of the Anti-Fascist Resis-
tance Fighters, one of the
most highly respected
groups in the GDR, ex-
plained his country's posi-
tion as follows: "The Pales-
tinian people are entitled to
determine their own fate.
They have the right to con-
struct their own state and
the right of independence.
We still maintain that
safety and security must be
safeguarded, and, frankly,
we say we do not agree with
some of the imperialist atti-
tudes of Israel toward her
Arab neighbors." Helmer's
group has connections with
resistance fighter organiza-
tions in Israel.
Asked how GDR teachers
deal with Zionism in their
classes, Education Ministry
official Doris Wetterhahn
(also a "Communist of
Jewish descent") said:
Zionism is not taught as ra-
cism, but as "a bourgeois
ideology that developed at
the time when British im-
perialism ruled in Pales-
tine. This was the root of the
developments we see tod
in Israel. No one has an.
thing against a peaceful Is-
rael that lives on an equal
basis with her Arab
neighbors," she explained.
"We teach the students that
progressive people in Israel
and in the Arab countries
fight together against im-
perialism."
At present, the Jewish
community of the GDR is
struggling to stay alive de-
spite formidable demog-
raphic odds. If the future of
Judaism in the GDR seems
less viable than the present,
probably even hopeless, the
government does not appear
to be at fault.
Based on my observations
and interviews, it does not
seem that the GDR, like
some other Communist
countries, forcibly represses
religion. The Jewish com-
munity receives support
from the government for
synagogue and cemetery
maintenance, cultural
events and other activities.
But isolation and attrition,
and not government repres-
sion, are gradually dissolv-
ing the community.
110-
Soviet Emigres
Assisted by COIF
NEW YORK — Since
1972, 250,000 Jews have
left the Soviet Union, of
which some 90,000 have
settled in the United States,
where a comprehensive re-
settlement program has
been implemented with the
assistance of $46.7 million
from the Federal Block
Grant. More than an equal
amount has been contrib-
uted by local Jewish com-
munities which have ab-
sorbed the Russian immig-
rants.
Through this nationwide
effort, Jewish emigres from
the Soviet Union have re -
ceived financial assistance,
vocational counseling, lan-
guage and vocational train-
ing, health services and
personal counseling in
multi-faceted programs
coordinated by local Jewish
federations. The Council of
Jewish Federations has
administered the matching
grant on the national level.
Tremor Check
SAFED (ZINS) Israel's
National Institute of Seis-
mology has set up earth-
quake monitoring equip-
ment in Safed and
elsewhere in the Galilee.
A spokesman said tremor
activity is expected early
this year. Israel is situated
on a geological fault run-
ning from the Dead Sea and
the Sea of Galilee.