Recent anti-Semitic remarks by West German political figures drew expressions of grave concern at a ceremony in Stuttgart Tuesday where Werner Nachmann, chairman of West Germany’s Jewish Community, was presented with the Theodor Heusse Prize for his “contribution to the process of reconciliation between Germans and Jews.”
Hildegard Hamm-Bruecher, chairperson of the Theodor Heusse Foundation which presented the award, observed that “the hidden or open identification with recent anti-Semitic utterances has certainly not been just by accident.”
She was referring to the slur by Hermann Felner, a ranking member of the Christian Social Union (CSU) Bundestag faction, that surviving Jewish slave laborers of the Nazi era who seek reparations create the impression that “Jews are quick to show up when money jingles in German cash boxes.”
Outrage over Felner’s remark was still running high when it was disclosed that Mayor Wilderich Von Mierbach of Korschenbroich, a member of the ruling Christian Democratic Union (CDU), had suggested to his town council’s budget committee that “a few rich Jews should be slain” in order to balance the budget.
RESPONSIBILITY CAN’T BE EVADED
Annemarie Renger, Vice President of the Bundestag, said at the award ceremony that Germans, regardless of whether they are of the wartime or post-war generation, cannot shrug off responsibility for the crimes against the Jews. She expressed dismay at the political climate which tolerates anti-Semitic statements by public officials.
Another speaker, Martin Stoehr, a Protestant clergyman, said a new beginning in relations between Christians and Jews is impossible without rooting out what he called the racial “poisoning” of church and theology. He urged a public campaign against anti-Semitism in all walks of life.
Nachmann, in accepting the award, said Jews are deeply disappointed with what has been said and written lately. There are some in this country who speak out in a provocative, thoughtless way, he said but concern over this must not be limited to Jews who are sensitive to anything that hints of Germany’s past.
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