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Artwork from Newsday by Gary Viskupic. Copyright C 1989, Newsday. Distributed by Los Angeles Times Syndicate:
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Germans And The Holocaust:
Just Another PR Problem?
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JAMES D. BESSER
Washington Correspondent
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FRIDAY, APRIL 13, 1990
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VISA
or Washington's busy
corps of Jewish ac-
tivists, the question of
German unification is like a
dull ache lurking in the back
of their consciousness. It
doesn't go away — but at-
tempts to deal with the
discomfort only seem to in-
crease the awareness of the
pain.
In recent weeks, West
German officials have been
seeking out Jewish activists
to explain the headlong
plunge towards unification,
and to seek Jewish input
into the process.
But the resulting dialog
has an almost surrealistic
quality. Both sides politely
voice their concerns; par-
ticipants all say the right
things to show that even in
the shadow of the Holocaust,
it is possible to be sensitive
about the nightmarish past.
And just beneath the sur-
face are churning emotions
that only heighten the
chasm between the two
groups. There is a lot of talk-
ing, but very little satisfac-
tion. Neither side is capable
of giving the other what it
craves.
More often than not, the
Germans come away ir-
ritated at the stubbornness
of Jewish memory, and the
Jewish participants come
away frightened by their
impotence and afraid of the
ominous echoes they hear in
the arguments of the Ger-
mans.
The dialogue resembles
conversations between a
formerly abusive husband
and-his ex-spouse. No matter
how reformed the abuser
may be, the pain of the vic-
tim never goes away. The
distrust may soften over the
years, but it can never
transform itself into trust.
The tone of these off-the-
record sessions has a chilling
consistency that tells a lot
about the difficulties of
creating a Jewish position
on German unification.
For their parts, the Jewish
activists tend to accept the
inevitability of German
unification. They also seem
to accept the fact that Jew-
ish concerns are not at the
top of Germany's current list
of priorities.
As a result, there is a kind
of pleading quality to their
participation — a desperate
desire to hear the Germans
say more about the Holo-
caust, and about how a
united Germany will avoid
the excesses of nationalism
that resulted directly in the
death of so many Jews.
The Jewish activists make
these pleas even as they rec-
ognize that the German re-
sponse will inevitably be far
from satisfying. At the same
time, they recognize that the
United States is unlikely to
play a major role in shaping
the Germany of the future,
and that the Jews of the
world will have even less
impact.
On the other side of the
chasm, the German voice in
these dialogues is curiously
schizophrenic. On the sur-
face, the German officials
are open and frank; there
seems to be a genuine desire
to hear Jewish concerns
about unification, even
though it is a message they
have heard countless times
before.
But there is a barely-veiled
impatience — a feeling that
Jewish discomfort is just one
more loose end in a process
that cannot be stopped.
Dealing with American
Jews is a public relations
problem, not a complex
moral dilemma.
The Germans want to tell
the world that their country
has been transformed since
the end of the war. But in
making that argument, they
understandably want to
draw a clear line between
past and present. This comes
across as an eagerness to
consign the Holocaust to
historical memory.
This, in turn, frightens the
Jews, to whom it is an article
of faith that the Holocaust
must remain a living force in
international life, who are
determined to prevent the
death of millions of Jews
from becoming just one more
historical fact in books clut-
tered with wars and
massacres.
The Jews need palpable
evidence that something