A number of young West German army recruits have recently protested a decision by the Defense Ministry to exempt Jews from the draft if their parents or even grandparents suffered under the Nazis.
Former Defense Minister Rupert Scholz — who was relieved of his position last week in a governmental shakeup — made the decision last year. He told journalists last week that protest letters keep coming into his office, but he added that the decision, while very difficult to make, was the correct one.
“This is a very sensitive issue,” he said, “and I felt I had the duty to take into consideration the arguments of the Jewish community.”
The West German Jewish community asked Scholz for the exemption after young recruits of the “third generation” of Nazi victims opposed the draft on the grounds that they couldn’t deal emotionally with wearing German uniforms. Formerly, the exemption applied only to the second generation.
The Jewish community said that appearing in such uniforms in front of their grandparents would be a shock to both sides.
West German non-Jewish recruits who protested Scholz’s decision say that if Jews chose to live in this country, they should be treated as any other citizen.
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