West Germany’s Chancellor Ludwig Erhard expressed hope that the dialogue on German-Jewish relations held here last Thursday night, would be a confrontation that “would clear the air for better relations and better times.”
The presidium of the Congress, holding its fifth plenary assembly here, made public today the text of a message received from Chancellor Erhard prior to the dramatic symposium on German-Jewish relations which had been addressed, among others, by Dr. Eugen Gerstenmaier, president of the Bundestag, lower house of Bonn’s parliament.
After expressing his hope that the dialogue would aid toward improvement of German-Jewish relations, Chancellor Erhard stated in his message: “Jewish citizens have made a lasting contribution to German life in the past. The German people remember with deep agony the terrible suffering to which the Jews were subjected under Nazi rule. Let mutual understanding and mutual respect be fostered by this exchange of views. I send to the World Jewish Congress my best regards and wishes for a fruitful conference.”
Issued today also was the pre-dialogue message received from Willy Brandt, Governing Mayor of West Berlin, and Fritz Erler, leader of West Germany’s Social Democratic Party. They cabled: “The presidium of the German Social Democratic Party sends heartfelt greetings to the Brussels assembly. We particularly welcome the decision of the World Jewish Congress to discuss German-Jewish relations frankly, and we hope that honest discussion will help find the right steps which we can take in the future.”
GOLDMANN SAYS W.J.C. SYMPOSIUM ON GERMANY IS NOT RECONCILIATION
Dr. Nahum Goldmann, president of the WJC, said in summarizing the symposium: “The crimes by the Germans against the Jews in the Nazi era are of a different category and, in their enormity, are quite outside the scope of what was known until then. But what now? Shall we ignore Germany? But we don’t live in a ghetto. There is Israel which has diplomatic relations with Germany.
“This dialogue with the Germans started 15 years ago, and not here at the assembly,” Dr. Goldmann continued. “There are many Germans who want to forget the crimes. But there are also many other Germans who prevent them from doing so.” Referring to the symposium, he said “this is not reconciliation; nobody advocates that; what we are dealing with and speaking about is co-existence.”
Dr. Joachim Prinz, former president of the American Jewish Congress speaking as chairman of the Presidents Conference of Major American Jewish organizations, said: “The German who does not remember what his own people did to the Jewish people does not command my respect — nor should he be respected by other Germans and by Jews of our generation. Between us, there can never be normalization. We can talk to each other and, indeed, we must — but only for the purpose of clarifying each other’s mind. It must be understood that Germany can never be the home of Jews again. There are Jews who live there today but that is a different matter. The dialogue between Germans and Jews is possible. It is even necessary. But it will remain a dialogue. It will lead to no concrete consequences.”
Dr. Hendryk G. van Dam, general secretary of the Central Council of Jews in West Germany reported: “After the war, there were almost 200,000 Jews in the German Federal Republic, but their number has dwindled. Today, there are small, scattered Jewish communities, ranging from 6,000 in West Berlin to small groups of a few hundred. The average age of the German Jew today is 59, which shows that young Jewish people do not tend to stay in Germany and there is a tendency for the young to leave the country. Therefore, it must be assumed there will not be a large Jewish community in Germany in the years to come, but just a group of Jews living there.”
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.
