Behind the Headlines the Jews of East Germany

“Gut Shabbos. We speak Ashkenazi Hebrew here,” Helmut Aris, chairman of the Association of Jewish Communities of the German Democratic Republic (GDR), responded to our Israeli-style greeting of “Shabbat Shalom.” Aris evidently wanted to make it pointedly clear that his first allegiance was to his native homeland, and not to the homeland of the Jewish people.

A native and current resident of Dresden, Aris is leader of the some 600 members of the eight Jewish communities of the GDR. As head of the association, he represents his fellow Jews in discussions with the State Secretary for Church Affairs, the Central Committee of Anti-Fascist Resistance Fighters and other official bodies. He also travels to the West, as an observer at World Jewish Congress meetings. He plans to attend such a meeting in Jerusalem, this month.

ATTITUDE TOWARD THE PLO

Asked if it was difficult for Jews to live in a country that strongly supports the Palestine Liberation Organization, Aris responded: “We feel about the PLO as all Jews feel. The Jews of the GDR and all Jews are against any kind of terrorism, no matter where it comes from.” He said that he favored United Nations Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338, and that they “guarantee for all countries in the Middle East and the people of these countries the right to live within safe borders.”

“Jewish citizens, just as all other citizens of the GDR, support these resolutions,” he added. “The question of territory has to be decided by the states involved. I am of the opinion the remainder of the Second Temple, the Wailing (sic) Wall, should remain in Jewish hands. But it’s up to the states involved.”

Aris, now 73, did forced labor in the Dresden area during the war. Only 110 Jews survived in Dresden, and 40 of them were killed there during the Feb. 13, 1945 air raid.

Asked to describe his feelings when he heard the announcement of Israel’s statehood in 1948, he replied: “L’Shanah Habbah b’Yerushalayim” (“Next year in Jerusalem”). He immediately added, however, “But let’s become serious again.”

WARM FEELINGS FOR ISRAEL

Other members of the Jewish community throughout the GDR privately expressed warm feelings for Israel in subtle ways–a hope to go there one day, a request for an Israel-made religious object, or just a sad smile, a sigh. It is difficult for the Jewish community to get a clear picture of current and historic events in modern Israel, because Zionist writings are “verboten.”

In the library of the East Berlin Jewish Community headquarters, for example, Zionist and fascist literature are both relegated to a back room, requiring special permission for entrance.

The press, like the government, is pro-PLO. One official of the Jewish community said he knew the newspapers were one-sided, but he doesn’t have sufficient information to give answers. He can, however, listen to a number of Western radio stations beamed in from West Berlin and elsewhere.

GDR ‘ESPECIALLY CLOSE’ TO THE PLO

Werner Handler, a “Communist of Jewish descent” who heads the international desk of GDR Radio, described the GDR’s relationship with the PLO as “especially close.” “It is too easy to say the PLO is terrorist,” he said.

“It is the political representative of the Palestinian people. We maintain that all peoples in the Middle East should have the right to live in peace. We do not support terrorist activities. I condemn all terrorist acts, including those supported by the Israel Government. There are not only Palestinian terrorist, but the Begin government also acts terrorist at times … I’m worried about the course Israel is forced upon by this policy.”

While Handler acknowledged the GDR’s support of the PLO’s political aims and the existence of a large PLO office in East Berlin, he denied any military support of the PLO. Despite this denial, a reliable source said that some 80 wounded PLO terrorists were being treated in an East Berlin hospital.

“All peoples, including Israelis, should have the right to live in the (Middle East) area,” Handler said. “But Israel should behave like any other state. Israel does not have the right to be a state extraordinaire … the only state with the right to expand.”

When asked if he has read the PLO Covenant, which calls for Israel’s destruction, Handler refused to acknowledge its existence. He also said: “I don’t accept that Israel was invaded in 1967.” He described the 1956 Sinai Campaign, which he covered as a correspondent in Cairo, as the “First Sinai Aggression.”

ATTITUDE TOWARDS ISRAEL

Handler admitted, “it is not good for an anti-fascist German state not to have relations with Israel.” He added, however, “it is impossible, with the expansionism going on there. At the beginning, Israel didn’t want to, or couldn’t have, relations with the GDR. Now the situation is very complicated,” he said. (The complications are the results of Israel’s ties with the United States, and with West Germany, through reparations; and the GDR’s allegiance to the Soviet Union.)

Rudi Helmer, an official of the Anti-Fascist Resistance Fighters, one of the most highly respected groups in the GDR, explained his country’s position as follows: “The Palestinian people are entitled to determine their own fate. They have the right to construct their own state and the right of independence. We still maintain that safety and security must be safeguarded, and, frankly, we say we do not agree with some of the imperialist attitudes of Israel toward her Arab neighbors.” Helmer’s group has connections with resistance fighter organizations in Israel.

Asked how GDR teachers deal with Zionism in their classes, Education Ministry official Doris Wetterhahn (also a “Communist of Jewish descent”) said: Zionism is not taught as racism, but as “a bourgeois ideology that developed at the time when British imperialism ruled in Palestine. This was the root of the developments we see today in Israel. No one has anything against a peaceful Israel that lives on an equal basis with her Arab neighbors,” she explained. “We teach the students that progressive people in Israel and in the Arab countries fight together against imperialism.”