With the two Germanys rushing toward unification, Jews here are determined to remind them not to forget the events of a not-too-distant past, which resulted in a divided Germany.
But they are probably striving in vain, according to Marcel Reich-Ranicki, a prominent West German literary critic who thinks the Jewish community is too small to exert much influence.
Reich-Ranicki, who is Jewish but is not officially registered as such, observed that with Germany becoming larger and stronger, the percentage of Jews in the general population will shrink further.
But Heinz Galinski, chairman of the West German Jewish community, won’t let that bother him. Speaking in Berlin on Monday, he warned against forgetfulness.
Galinski called attention to an historic coincidence: the night of Nov. 9, 1989, when Berliners rejoiced over the opening of the Berlin Wall, was the 51st anniversary of Kristallnacht, the first organized pogrom of Germany’s Jews, the prelude to the Holocaust.
At a time when the political and geographical changes wrought by the war are being shaken, the Germans have a duty to remember what led to the collapse of their former state, Galinski said.
While the Germans as a nation may not forget what Nov. 9 stands for in Jewish eyes, they are so overwhelmed by their new problems and tasks that they pay little attention to other peoples’ concerns.
Germany nowadays is just too preoccupied with itself, and will be for years to come, a Berlin scholar said.
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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.
