A Berlin student leader said today that while he and many of his colleagues accepted the principle of collective German responsibility for Nazi crimes, the Jews should avoid a “hate psychosis” that would impede reconciliation between Germans and Jews.
The statements, by H. Zwingmann, chairman of the Association of Socialist Students at the University of Berlin, was made at a public forum arranged by the Berlin Jewish community on the subject, “Are Berliners Anti-Semitic.” A Jewish student leader charged that fundamentally anti-Semitic mentality of the Germans had not changed.
Heinz Galinski, a member of the executive council of the community, attacked the attitude of the occupation authorities who, he said, instead of carrying through a policy of democratizing Germany, had for reasons of expediency “given free rein” to German nationalists. The speaker also described a “new type” of German anti-Semite–the man who was in possession of property taken from Jews under duress during the Nazi regime and anxious to have his ownership legalized.
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