Friday, February 4, 1983

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

WJC Official Recalls Hitler's Ascendance

pointed Chancellor was
an enormous shock for
(Editor's note: Last us. For years, we had
Sunday marked the 50th been aware of the danger
anniversary of Adolph of such a development.
Hitler becoming Chan- But in the general elec-
cellor of Germany. Dr. tions only a few weeks
Gerhart Riegner, secre- earlier the Nazi Party
tary general of the World had suffered its first
Jewish Congress, was great defeat, losing more
then a 21-year-old law than a million votes.
I particularly remember
student, working as the
assistant of a district the evening of Jan. 30, 1933,
judge in Berlin. Riegner when tens of thousands of
gives the following per- Nazis marched with torches
sonal impressions of the through the streets of Be-
birth of the "thousand- rlin, giving a foretaste of
year Reich," its im- what was to come. I re-
mediate impact on the member, too, the radio
600,000 Jews of Germany, speeches of Hitler, Goering,
his feelings about Goebbels, in the first weeks,
present-day Germany, shouting insults and
and the anniv e rsary's threats at the Jews and
lessons half a century la- other political enemies.
They created an unbear-
ter.)
able atmosphere in our
LONDON (JTA) — I be- homes, finally causing us to
longed to a well established turn off the radio al-
bourgeois family which had together. The terror system
strong roots in Germany which was thus installed
and was deeply imbedded in very soon showed its real
the German Jewish face.
humanistic tradition. Louis
One of the most spectacu-
Lewandowsky, the com- lar events was, of course,
poser of modern synagogue the burning of the
music, and Hermann Co- Reichstag (Parliament)
hen, the neo-Kantian building, destined to influ-
philosopher, were close ence the general elections of
relatives of my March 5. Soon we learned of
grandparents.
the places in Berlin where
As a student, I had taken the Nazis were beating up
part in the electoral fights and torturing their political
at the universities of enemies, and of the first
Freiburg and Heidelberg in concentration camps in
1929 and 1930 where, as Oraienburg and Sac-
Republican supporters, we hsenhausen.
fought a courageous but
The central institutions
hopeless battle against the of German Jewry had
Nazi students who already fought well against the
formed the overwhelming Nazis and their„calum-
majority of the student flies. But they had done
body.
so by frying to persuade
It was at the universities the enemy of the insanity
that I had my first direct of its theses by rational
encounters with the Nazi arguments. They had
terror and I remember viv- never realized that they
idly when Jewish students were completely missing
were chased out of the Uni- the point, that the
versity in Berlin by SA enemy's beliefs came
troops and had to jump out from deep irrational,
of the windows in order to emotional and mythical
avoid being beaten up.
sources which no logical
The day Hitler was ap- argument could over-

By DR. GERHART
RIEGNER

Book Aids Christian Understanding

NEW YORK — Two • tress Press, the book out-
Christian leaders have lines the history of the
hailed the publication of a Jewish people in the land of
book that is intended to help Israel and the rise of
Christians understand Is- Zionism. It also addresses
rael. some of the issues facing the
The Rt. Rev. John H. Jewish state today: Palesti-
Burt, Episcopal Bishop of nians, the Holocaust,
Ohio, speaking last week at Jerusalem and refugees. In
a press conference called by addition, it presents an
the American Jewish analysis of various re-
Committee to introduce "Is- sponses and attitudes held
rael for Christians: Under- by Christians toward mod-
standing Modern Israel,” ern Israel.
described the book as "suc-
cinct . . . forthright . . . Annuity Appeal
NEW YORK — The
readable . . . and a breath of
American Jewish Commit-
fresh air."
Rev. Edward H. Flan- tee has joined with the
nery, who was the first American Civil Liberties
executive secretary for Union and a number of
Catholic-Jewish rela- other organizations in ask-
tions in the United States, ing the U.S. Supreme Court
and currently serves the to bar Arizona from dis-
Diocese of Providence, criminating against women
R.I. as director of con- state employees.
tinuing education of the
The issue arose when
clergy, called it "required Arizona established an an-
reading for Christians."
nuity plan permitting
Written by Rabbi A. smaller monthly annuity
James Rudin, AJCommit- payments to female em-
tee's assistant national di- ployees than to male em-
rector of interreligious af- ployees contributing the
fairs, and published by For- same amount.

DR. GERHART RIEGNER

come.
There was even a small
group of German
"nationalist" Jews who had
sympathy with the Ger-
mans' national "awaken- _
ing."
It was the Zionists who
gave leadership in those
days of panic. There was the
unforgettable article of the
late Robert Weltsch in the
Jewish newspaper,
Judische Rundschau, with
its slogan: "Wear the Yel-
low Badge With Pride."
And there were the un-
forgettable speeches of Mar-
tin Buber and the sermons
of Rabbi JoaChim Prinz,
which later helped to re-
establish the morale of
German Jews and notably
of the Jewish youth.
My attitude towards
the Germany of today is
that of a distant but
watchful observer. I have
not forgotten what Ger-
many had done to us and
I cannot forget it. I know
that two-thirds of the
German citizens of today
were born after World
War II or were small chil-
dren at the time of the de-
struction of European
Jewry and I know they
had no part in what hap-
pened.
But they are the heirs of
German history and as such
they have to assume the
heritage, good and bad, of
their people. They should do
this in good faith and with-
out grudges. They should
inderstand that it will take

several generations before a
fully normal relationship
can be established between
Germans and Jews.
What are the lessons to be
drawn for 1983 from the
events of 50 years ago?
Firstly, never to undere-
stimate our enemy as Ger-
man Jews did in the 1930s
and never to believe that
deep irrational trends and
tendencies which prevail in
a specific historical situa-
tion within a people can be
cured by logical arguments.
Our "damned Jewish op-
timism," as (German
idealist philosopher Ar-
thur) Schopenhauer called
it, which had helped us to
survive many situations, is
no sure guide in the brutal
power struggles of the 20th
Century.
Secondly, one should
combat false theories and
hostile ideas from the
start and not wait until
they have powerful sup-
port. The renewal of
ideologies which preach
the inequality of races
and draw from it political
consequences is as
dangerous as the grow-
ing movement of
pseudo-historians who
deny the Holocaust. We
have learned that no lie is
too big not to be believed
in certain political and
social circumstances.
The third lesson is to rec-
ognize and analyze the
specific political, economic
and social conditions under
which Hitler came to power.
While history does not re-
peat itself generally, we
should recognize that with-
out a three-fold crisis the
Nazis would never have
formed a government.
Finally, we have to sup-
port the state of Israel, so
that it will always be capa-
ble of receiving Jews in need
of asylum if somewhere a
catastrophe occurs. This is
the decisive difference be-
tween 1933 and 1983. Today
there is a Jewish state. We
have to watch over its
safety.

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