BACKGROUND SOMERSET CLEANERS Same Day Service Monday thru Saturday No Extra Charge SAME DAY SHIRTS 80C BEAUTIFULLY LAUNDERED AND FINISHED Reg. $1.00 SAME DAY SHIRT SERVICE: SOUTHFIELD: 12 Mile at Evergreen FARMINGTON HILLS: Middlebelt at Northwestern LATHRUP VILLAGE: Southfield Rd. at 101/2 Mile With any incoming dry cleaning order of $6.95 or more. May not be combined with any other coupon. MIN MIMI MINII NMI ABSOLUTELY 'MIM. 1 I Artwork from Newsday by Gary Viskupic. Copyright C 1989, Newsday. Distributed by Los Angeles Times Syndicate: FREE Germans And The Holocaust: Just Another PR Problem? 1 PAIR OF PANTS CLEANED AND PRESSED JAMES D. BESSER Washington Correspondent with any incoming dry cleaning order of $6.95 or more. May not be combined with any other coupon. Expires 5/6/90 mom. =II OM ME MIMI NM 11=1. F ABSOLUTELY FREE STORAGE Minimum $20.00 order Excluding fur and leather THIS COUPON WORTH THIS COUPON WORTH When presented with any $6.95 incoming dry cleaning order. Coupon must be surrendered when leaving order for processing. Not valid with any other coupon. Expires 5/6/90 When presented with any $6.95 incoming dry cleaning order. Coupon must be surrendered when leaving order for processing. Not valid with any other coupon. Expires 5/6/90 • Suede & Leather Cleaning • Invisible Reweaving • Alterations and Repairs • Drapery Cleaning • Executive Shirt Service • Wedding Gowns • Fur Cleaning OPEN: Mon. - Fri. 7am - 7pm, Sat. 8am - 6pm TROY 643-0807 LATHRUP VILLAGE 569-7440 2862 W. Maple (at Coolidge) 26079 Southfield Rd. (at 10th Mile) TROY 583-1574 FARMINGTON HILLS 477-0818 5119 Rochester (at Long Lk. in Meadowbrook) ROCHESTER 656-8544 1978 S. Rochester (at Hamlin) BIRMINGHAM 644-6667 794 N. Woodward (4 blks. N. of Maple) FRANKLIN 737-0721 32740 Franklin (3 blks. S. of Cider Mill) SOUTHFIELD 559-9232 19715 W. 12 Mile Rd. (at Evergreen) 40 FRIDAY, APRIL 13, 1990 25882 Middlebek (at 11 Mile) FARMINGTON HILLS 474-2866 20417 W. 12 Mile Rd. (at Middlebeft) FARMINGTON HILLS 851-7665 31799 Middlebelt (at Northwestern Hwy.) 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