FIR S T CA LL

Old Wounds

Germans rally against racism,
but comments stir some division.

GOING ON NOW

RICHARD CHAIM SCHNEIDER
Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Berlin

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E

xpectations were high in
Germany for the big rally
held here last week to corn-
memorate Kristallnacht,
the Nov. 9-10, 1938, anti-Jewish riots
that heralded the Holocaust.
But comments from a conservative
politician and a Jewish leader caused
some division during what had been
billed as a time for the country to
unite against racism.
This year, Nov. 9 was also an impor-
tant date in the new Germany. A
recent wave of right-wing attacks and
killings of foreigners, mainly in the
eastern part of the country, has
prompted a public discussion about
the right way to fight neo-Nazism.
The last few weeks have seen attacks
against synagogues in Erfurt, Berlin
and Dusseldorf. At a news conference
in Dusseldorf, German Chancellor
Gerhard Schroeder called for an
"uprising of the righteous" in
Germany to fight Nazism.
Earlier, reacting to the arson of his
synagogue and other anti-Semitic
attacks, Paul Spiegel, president of the
Central Council of Jews in Germany,
said, "Maybe it was a mistake that we
re-established Jewish communities in
Germany after the war."
The Nov. 9 rally against racism was
meant as a demonstration to the world
that there is another Germany.
At the same time, though, conserva-
tive Parliament member Friedrich
Merz started a controversial discussion
about German immigration policy.

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32

War Of Words

"The immigrants have to be integrated
but they have to accept the 'primacy
of German culture,'" he said.
Other Parliament members attacked
Merz for using that term, which they
say could be used by members of the
extreme right wing who are anti-
immigrant.
Some 200,000 people gathered at
the Brandenburg Gate in the center of
Berlin. In a speech before the crowd,
Jewish leader Spiegel attacked the dis-

cussion about "Leitkultur," accusing
conservative politicians of inciting the
public. He asked, is it the primacy of
German culture "to persecute and kill
foreigners and arson synagogues?"
Conservative politicians reacted
angrily, accusing Spiegel of "provoking
a polarization" in Germany's society.
"The Central Council will not with-
draw its criticism," Spiegel told the
Jewish Telegraphic Agency. "We say
clearly we do believe in German
democracy and we do understand and
accept the necessity of a public discus-
sion on immigration politics for
Germany. There is no doubt that
immigrants have to learn German and
accept German law. But any kind of
incitement of racism and xenophia
will not be accepted by us."

More Incidents

Michel Friedman, vice president of the
Central Council of Jews in Germany,
made it very clear what he thinks of
the term. "I do not want anymore to
be permitted ("gelitten") or to be led
("geleitet") by anyone," using a word-
play on forms of the German word for
"lead."
Anetta Kahane, head of the
Amadeu-Antonio Foundation, an anti-
neo-Nazi nongovernmental organiza-
tion named after the first victim of
racism after German reunification,
accused the government of mainly
paying lip service to fighting the far
right.
"We have been warning for many
years that we do know that right-
extremist structures are getting more
and more complex and stronger, but
very often the politicians do not lis-
ten."
Meanwhile, as the political debate
goes on, more incidents have been
reported.
In Ueckermuende, a town in eastern
Germany, a banner with anti-Semitic
slogans was unfurled in the Jewish
cemetery. In Eberswalde, a stronghold
of right-wing extremists, vandals dese-
crated a memorial to Jewish victims of
the Holocaust.
In the eastern German city of
Weida, a group of skinheads beat up a
36-year-old Tunisian man. ❑

