BACKGROUND

The Sisterhood of
Temple Beth El

cordially invite you to our

ANNUAL PARTY PLANNING SHOWCASE

on

Sunday, February 4, 1990
10:00 A.M. — 4:00 P.M.

at

Temple Beth El
7400 Telegraph, Birmingham

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FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 1990

minimum'

Push Toward Reunited Germany
Is Scaring Europeans And Jews

HELEN DAVIS

Foreign Correspondent

F

or the past 40 years,
Western leaders have
paid lip-service to the
idea of German reunifica-
tion. Now that it is well on
the way to becoming a fact,
their enthusiasm appears to
have gone off the boil and an
embarrassed gap is
separating the old rhetoric
from the new reality.
According to a recent opi-
nion poll published in the
Los Angeles Times and the
London Economist, most
people in the United States,
Great Britain and France
favor German reunification.
At the same time, however,
a clear majority of those
questioned view the prospect
with profound unease.
The dominant fear among
the French is that a united
Germany will overwhelm
the rest of Europe econ-
omically, while fears in the
United States and Britain
are rooted in the specter of a
Nazi revival.
Two points are already
certain:
Firstly, the two parts of
Germany are moving inex-
orably toward reunification,
either as a unitary state or
confederation. The only
questions still open for
debate are not if, but when
and how it will take place.
Many suggest that within
two years, the "new Ger-
many" will become a neutral
nation or a member of
NATO.
Secondly, French concern
about German economic
dominance appears to be
misplaced. A reunited Ger-
many will not become the
most powerful economic
force in Europe. West Ger-
many has achieved that sta-
tus already.
What West Germany lacks
is the will to translate its
economic fat into solid polit-
ical muscle. The effective
addition — of 16 million East
Germans into its population,
however, will help establish
its emphatic primacy.
It's a small wonder that
the prospect of living under
the shadow of a German
superpower is already caus-
ing alarm bells to ring in the
capital of Europe.
Now add European Jews to
the list of those who fear the
emergence of a politically
and economically reunited,
dominant Germany.
Jewish leaders have al-

ready given voice to their
anxieties about the powerful
attraction that right-wing
and far-right political par-
ties have exerted on West
Germans over the past year,
and now on East Germans as
well.
They have also expressed
concern about the dramatic
increase in crude anti-
Semitism in East Germany.
Last year, there were 144
acts of neo-Nazi violence, up
by 300 percent over 1988.
And Jewish leaders are con-
cerned about such conduct
spreading beyond the Ger-
man borders.
East Germany's Commu-
nist Prime Minister Hans
Modrow was rudely slapped
down when he, too, raised
the issue of resurgent anti-
Semitism. According to new-
ly emergent opposition
spokesmen, Modrow was
simply using the issue as an
excuse for rebuilding the
hated Stasi security ap-
paratus and perpetuating
the vicious Communist reign
over East Germans.
The threat of anti-
Semitism may well have
been a red herring, a Com-
munist ploy designed to help
the Party cling to power. But
anti-Semitism is never-
theless a very real phenom-
enon, showing an alarming
capacity for regeneration in
the fertile seedbed of a polit-
ically uncertain, econ-
omically strapped East
Germany.
Jochen Hoffmann, a 22-
year-old skinhead, is

perhaps typical of the trend.
Sitting in East Berlin's
Punktchen pub, his leather
jacket emblazoned with the
legend, "Germany, My
Homeland," he admits that
he had been dismayed to
discover that his grand-
father had been a Waffen SS
officer during the Third
Reich.
"At first I was ashamed,"
he says. "Then I realized
that a lot of my friends
whose grandfathers had
been normal soldiers were
jealous."
School had taught him
that the roots of fascism had
been torn out when East
Germany — "the anti-fascist
state" — was established in
1949. His grandfather had
joined the Communist Party
and graduated to the ranks
of the Stasi security police.
Today, the young East
German is angry.
"Our teachers, parents
[and] politicians lied to us for
40 years," Hoffmann says.
"At least the Nazis were
honest about what they
wanted."
What does Jochen Hoff-
mann want?
He wants to continue go-
ing to mass demonstrations
with his friends to chant
their demand for a Fourth
Reich and unfurl their home-
made banners which pro-
claim the message:
"Germany, One Fatherland
— Your Children Will
Avenge You." He also wants
to be proud again.
"We are not afraid to ad-

