EDITORIAL
Time To Remember
Last week, in an ironic coincidence of dates, Jews began
celebrating Passover and tried to ignore the 100th anniversary of
the birth of Adolf Hitler. Centenaries are usually reserved for events
that have enriched the world. The birth of this man defamed it with
his presence.
The anniversary left Germans and Austrians in an awkward posi-
tion. To ignore it might imply that they had glossed over their igno-
ble past, papered it with a disgraceful mass amnesia. To mark it
might imply a triumph of the revisionists, those hollow, intellectually-
mangled apologists for the Thousand Year Reich.
What occurred was a bit of both. Eight people were arrested at
a neo-Nazi rally outside Hitler's birthplace in Braunau, Austria. The
demonstration occurred a block away from Hitler's birthplace, out-
side of which a block of granite from the former Mauthausen con-
centration camp was recently erected with the inscription: "For peace,
freedom and democracy. Never again Fascism. Millions of dead are
a warning." Nothing on the stone explains why it stands in front
of the house.
According to recent polls, many Austrians and Germans have
failed to learn the lessons of the Holocaust. A large majority of
Austrians still harbor feelings of anti-Semitism, and 25 percent of
Germans give Hitler a positive rating. Thirty-two percent said
teachers present the Hitler era "too negatively" and a majority said
"others did things just as bad" as Hitler.
Forty-four years after Auschwitz and Buchenwald were liberated,
this is appalling. But it is an important, perhaps jarring reminder
that the events, the tragedies and the lessons of the Holocaust still
must be recorded, discussed and remembered.
Two of the five plead guilty to charges last fall in an assault on
a black student at Birmingham Groves High School. Are these
isolated cases, with hatred by a few? Possibly. But we must ques-
tion the societal climate, the prevalence of ethnic jokes and racial
debasement that encourages a few teens to attack strangers for hav-
ing a different skin color.
The lesson of the Holocaust is that we can not be indifferent.
We can not simply dismiss as bad humor off-color jokes, snide remarks
and racial slurs. Events at the University of Michigan and Michigan
State University campuses, at a Birmingham high school and in
Auburn Hills should be ample warning that racism and stereotyp-
ing did not end with the Nazis. Nor are they problems unique to
Austria and Germany.
The people who paid the highest price for learning this lesson
will mark Holocaust Memorial Day at 1:30 p.m. Sunday with their
annual memorial academy at the Maple/Drake Jewish Community
Center. Shaarit Haplaytah — the Survivors of 1945 will gather to
remember their loved ones. We must join with them to recall again
the terrible cost of hatred, prejudice and world indifference.
Lesson At Home
We do not have to travel to Germany or Austria for reminders
that the Holocaust must be remembered. District court arraignments
were held this week for five young people accused of slurs and assault
in Auburn Hills.
BEHIND THE HEADLINES
The PLO May Be Edging Toward Elections
completely withdrawn from
the territories and been
replaced by a United Nations
peacekeeping force.
Almost
immediately,
however, Israeli sources were
privately expressing con-
fidence that the proposal —
reinforced by United States
guarantees — would be
ultimately accepted by the
PLO.
HELEN DAVIS
Foreign Correspondent
D
iplomatic sources in
London confirmed
this week that the
Palestine
Liberation
Organization is willing to
compromise over an Israeli
formula for elections among
Palestinians in the occupied
West Bank and Gaza Strip,
despite public declarations to
the contrary.
The elections are designed
to enable Palestinians to elect
non-PLO representatives who
will negotiate a far-reaching
form of autonomy with the
Israeli government as a step
on the path to a final settle-
ment of the conflict.
The proposal for the elec-
tions were put to President
George Bush by Prime
Minister Yitzhak Shamir
during the Israeli leader's
1 —
6
FRIDAY, APRIL 28, 1989
Yitzhak Rabin:
Plan would call for withdrawal.
visit to Washington earlier
this month.
The PLO initially rejected
the Shamir plan and insisted
that elections could be held
only after Israeli troops had
According to the sources in
London, a secret PLO plan
was presented to senior
British Foreign Office of-
ficials last week by Bassam
Abu-Sharif, a senior aide to
PLO leader Yassir Arafat.
It is understood that the
PLO is seeking to win sup-
port for its own plan in West
European capitals before for-
mally presenting it to
Washington.
The PLO plan does not coin-
cide with Shamir's proposal,
but it does contain a signifi-
cant degree of overlap and
there now appears to be suf-
ficient common ground bet-
ween the two sides to bridge
the gap.
The PLO has dropped its in-
sistence on a complete Israeli
withdrawal from the ter-
ritories before the elections
and is now seeking a
withdrawal only from the ma-
jor centers of Palestinian
population.
It has also dropped its de-
mand for a United Nations
force in territories, which
Israel declared would be
hostile, and is now suggesting
a "multinational" force. "We
will accept anyone the
Israelis choose," a PLO source
was quoted as saying.
The PLO is understood to
be seeking guarantees which
will ensure that elections in
the territories and the crea-
tion of an autonomous regime
under Israeli rule will not
represent the final fate of the
territories and that it will
simply be an interim measure
leading to a comprehensive
settlement.
One Israeli government of-
ficial was quoted in London at
the weekend as predicting
that elections in the ter-
ritories could be held within
three to four months.
In another dramatic
development, it has been
reported that Israeli Defense
Minister Yitzhak Rabin has
been engaging in secret con-
tacts with Arafat via an un-
named Palestinian emissary
in the West Bank.
Observers note that a close
aide to Rabin held extensive
talks with Faisal Husseini,
regarded as the most promi-
nent PLO activist in the ter-
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