Chancellor Helmut Kohl got disturbing evidence from leaders of the American Jewish Committee Tuesday that his government’s special relationships with the Jews and Israel do not reflect the attitudes of large numbers of Germans.
The chancellor, who conferred for two hours with an AJCommittee delegation led by the organization’s president, Sholom Comay, was presented with the findings of a recent survey the group conducted among a representative sampling of adults in what had been West and East Germany before unification.
The study, the first of its kind, found a disturbingly high tendency to “put the memory of the Holocaust behind us.”
A majority of the respondents rejected the notion of a special relationship between Germany and Israel. But there was strong agreement in both parts of Germany that the history of the Nazi period should be taught in schools and that anti-Semitic organizations should be banned.
In the face of the report, Kohl reaffirmed Germany’s special relationship with Israel, the AJCommittee delegation reported. He indicated a willingness to assist Israel in resettling hundreds of thousands of Soviet Jews.
He also suggested that the European Community, of which Germany is a key member, explore ways to help end compliance with the Arab boycott of Israel.
Kohl cited new legislation before Germany’s parliament, the Bundestag, to tighten restrictions and increase penalties for illegal exports of technology through which German firms helped both Libya and Iraq develop chemical weapons.
He told the group there are nearly 100 legal proceedings pending against German exporters.
PAYS TRIBUTE TO AJCOMMITTEE
According to Kohl’s spokesman, Dieter Vogel, the chancellor acknowledged AJCommittee’s early, strong support for German unification. He also paid tribute to the 86-year-old American Jewish human relations agency for its longstanding cooperation with successive Bonn governments.
He stressed the long tradition of German-Jewish coexistence and cooperation despite the horrors of the Nazi past. Kohl said the united Germany wants to perpetuate those traditions.
He said Germany intends to work together with the United States and its European allies for a Middle East settlement that guarantees Israel’s right to exist and resolves the Palestinian problem.
Vogel reported that Comay thanked the chancellor for Germany’s recent political and humanitarian assistance in the Persian Gulf war.
The delegation was in Germany for three days of meetings in Bonn, Dresden and Berlin in partnership with the Konrad Adenauer Foundation.
Joining the delegation was Seymour Reich, immediate past chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, and Morton Kornreich, an AJCommittee board member who is chairman of the board of the United Jewish Appeal.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
