MID-WINTER

CLOSEOUT

SALE $35.

Born in Berlin to parents
who had fled Germany
before World War II, he is in
the midst of a career change.
Educated as an attorney and
trained as a journalist, Gut-
tmann recently left his job as
a commentator for West
German Broadcasting to
become the secretary-
general of the Central Coun-
cil of Jewish Germany.
He is candid about the
future of - Germany's Jews.
Most of the smaller Jewish
communities, aging rem-
nants with anywhere from
20 to 50 members, will
dissolve in the next two
decades, he predicts.
Whatever the size,
however, Jews will always
need political representa-
tion, says Guttmann, whose
organization is the public re-
lations, lobbying, news and
culture-coordinating arm of
the Jewish community. The
Bonn-based zentralrat, as it
is known in Germany, cam-
paigns for federal funds for

Jewish schools and muse-
ums, and on behalf of Israel.
In terms of real size, Gut-
tmann calls Germany's Jews
politically negligible. But in
terms of influence, including
the 60,000-circulation week-
ly newspaper published by
zentralrat, and especially on
Holocaust-related issues or
matters of anti- Semitism,
"we definitely have a voice."
"For me, anti-Semitism is
a reality, but no more than
in other countries, like
France," says the 42-year-
old resident of Cologne. "I
am not afraid of it, like my
parents."
Instead, he has chosen to
combat it by making in-
creased contacts with Ger-
man Jewish youth — Jews
who, like himself at the Free
University of Berlin in the
1970s, are trying to forge
their Jewish identities
through study, Zionism,
travel to Israel and dialogue
with non-Jews. ❑

Jewish Telegraphic Agency

East Germany Admits
Role In Holocaust

New York (JTA) — East
Germany has for the first
time formally acknowledged
its share of responsibility for
Jewish victims of Nazi
persecution and affirmed it
has material obligations
toward them, the World
Jewish Congress has an-
nounced.
The dramatic reversal of a
40-year policy of denial was
contained in a letter from
Prime Minister Hans
Modrow of the German
Democratic Republic to WJC
President Edgar Bronfman.
The WJC said it was "an
important first step."
Modrow's statement was
also welcomed as "a first
step" by Dr. Israel Miller,
president of the Conference
on Jewish Material Claims
Against Germany.
Miller has been in recent
communications with
Modrow on the issue.
Modrow's letter to the
WJC, dated Feb. 1, was ac-
companied by an official
declaration by the prime
minister containing the
same points which he said
"might be published immed-
iately."
It stated that the GDR rec-
ognizes "the responsibility
of the entire German
people" for the crimes of the

Nazis and that it commits
itself to "material support"
to the Jewish victims.
The responsibility,
Modrow's letter and state-
ment noted, "is a conse-
quence of the deep guilt of
Hitler fascism which com-
mitted terrible crimes
against the Jewish people in
the name of the German
people."
Modrow said that East
Germany "recognizes its
humanitarian duty with
regard to the survivors of the
Jewish people who suffered
under Nazi oppression, and
confirms its readiness in a
spirit of human solidarity to
provide material support to
former persecuters of the
Nazi regime of Jewish
origin."
The letter also vowed that
East Germany would do
everything it can to prevent
anti-Semitism and hatred
from again taking root in
German soil.
Until Modrow's statement,
East Germany rejected any
share of responsibility for
the Holocaust and refused to
accept any obligation of ma-
terial support to the victims.
The GDR maintained that
since it only came into exis-
tence in 1949, it bore no
responsibility for the actions
of the Third Reich.

White
Melamine
Bookcase,
27"x10"x331/2",
3 for $99,
Cash & Carry.

SALE $69.

Teak Television Cart,
Reg. $105.

house of denmark 113

R,_ NCE

SALE $92

(JW!.

Teak Bookcase, 70"x32"x111/2",
3 for $269, Cash & Carry, Reg. $138.

Only at Keego Harbor 3325 Orchard Lake Rd.
(1 Mile North of Long Lake Rd.) 682-7600.

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THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

35

