American Edition Apr. 15

AMERICAN EDITION APRIL 15, 2009 Dear Friends: The picture at left is not of me, It is my candidate for the most important German national in New York. Who is he? Keep reading. When this newsletter arrives in your e-mailbox I will almost be on my way to Atlanta and Pensacola for a brief vacation. However, I’ll be checking my e-mails so if you have comments please write and I’ll try to respond – from the beach I hope. IN THIS ISSUE: *WANTED: AN AMERICAN AMBASSADOR TO GERMNANY *WHO IS THE MOST IMPORTANT GERMAN IN NEW YORK? *THE GOOD NAZI? *AJC BERLIN (RAMER INSTITUTE) *ISRAEL - GERMAN RELATIONS: AN OMINOUS SIGN? *THE NEO-NAZI CONVENTION WANTED: AN AMERICAN AMBASSADOR TO GERMANY The post of American Ambassador to Germany remains unfilled. I have a few possible candidates. If you want to know who they are and why I think it’s important to appoint one soon, click here: http://www.dubowdigest.typepad.com/ (http://www.dubowdigest.typepad.com/) WHO IS THE MOST IMPORTANT GERMAN NATIONAL IN NEW YORK? Frankly, it wouldn't surprise me if you couldn't name even a single outstanding German citizen let lone the most important one. By and large German nationals here in New York are quiet, mind their own business and are engaged in all the professions and business that all other New Yorkers find themselves involved in. They blend in so well you hardly know they're there. So, since you can't help me, I'm going to appoint myself as a committee of one and make the selection all alone. My choice is Horst Freitag, the German Consul General in New York (picture left). In all likelihood, the German Ambassador ranks higher but he is in Washington and he does not have the responsibility of dealing with the Jewish community of the Greater New York Area. So not only does Dr. Freitag have to deal with America's most

important city but also with the largest Jewish Diaspora population in the world. Not an easy job! In reality he’s the “German Ambassador to the American Jews”. So who is this man? Horst Freitag was born in Würzburg/Bavaria; he attended the Law School of Bonn and received his PhD in International Law from the University of Munich and Passau. Prior to this new assignment Dr. Freitag served as the Commissioner for the Middle East Affairs at the Foreign Office in Berlin advising Foreign Ministers Joschka Fischer and Frank-Walter Steinmeier. After the end of the German EU Presidency in 2007 he joined the Center on the United States and Europe at the Brookings Institution in Washington as a Visiting Fellow. During his career Dr. Freitag held various key appointments, including the Director of the Defense and Security Policy Division as well as Director of the Special Task Force on Iraq. His diplomatic career has taken him to postings in Tegucigalpa, Washington and to Ramallah as Head of the German Representative Office to the Palestinian Authority. Dr. Freitag and his wife Chantal have one daughter, Elena. They both have close ties with the United States. Dr. Freitag attended the German School in Washington D.C. and Chantal Freitag the Lycee Francais in Los Angeles. If you’ve met Dr. Freitag you know him to be a warm and very personable man. However, more important, he knows the Middle East, knows international relations and is a dedicated transatlanticist. It’s very good for those of us interested in German – Jewish relations to have him among us. AJC BERLIN (RAMER INSTITUTE) The official name of AJC's Berlin Office is the Lawrence and Lee Ramer Institute named after the Los Angeles couple who started and have supported the agency's activities in Germany for the last 15 years. Their picture is at the right. And... Every once in a while I enjoy taking you behind the scenes of what goes on at the Ramer Institute to give you some insight into what Deidre Berger and her staff are doing. I know from my Berlin days and my many years as an AJC Area Director that it’s not always easy to keep everyone who is interested updated. So, Deidre has been good enough to supply me with copies of the reports she sends to National and I want to share with you what has taken place in just one week’s time. *Hosted Hillel Nauer of UN Watch for two meetings. The first with NGO personnel and educators

and the second at the Bundestag with the Foreign Ministry’s Director of Human Rights, diplomats, government officials and parliamentary staff. *With the Aspen institute held a planning meeting for a conference on Iran *Met with the head of strategic planning at the German Interior Ministry, to discuss ways in which the Interior Ministry is helping with implementation of the parliamentary resolution on anti-Semitism. They also discussed the potential composition of an experts’ commission that will be convened to write reports on anti-Semitism. *Deidre attended an OSCE-sponsored experts’ workshop in Vienna on antiSemitism that was chaired by AJC’s Rabbi Andy Baker who is an advisor to the OSCE on the subject. * Deidre was interviewed on Deutschland Radio about the upcoming Durban Review conference in Geneva. *Attended a workshop conducted by the German Institute for Human Rights on Durban that featured Chris Mburu from the UN High Commissioner’s office preparing the conference. *Prepared and moderated a lively and well-attended session of the “Task Force: Education on Anti-Semitism” that featured a discussion of the debate surrounding several controversial events organized by the Center for Research on Anti Semitism in Berlin * Deidre attended a presentation at the Cornelsen schoolbook publishing company of an interactive CD-Rom on anti -Semitism that was prepared by the Center for Research on Anti-Semitism, in cooperation with AJC Berlin and the Berlin Teachers Education Institute. Had enough? And this is only in a week’s time. Actually there is a great deal more. But, as you can see the AJC presence is an important factor in Berlin and is producing at what I would consider a very high level – and believe me, I’m an expert on the subject. THE GOOD NAZI? I must admit that I'm no expert on cultural matters. I'm certainly no expert when it comes to the cinema and as a moral judge I have absolutely no credibility. However, an article in Der Spiegel caught my attention when it reported on a film portraying a dedicated Nazi as its hero. The film "John Rabe," a biography of the "good German of Nanking," tells the story of a man who was born in Hamburg in 1882 and is still revered as a national hero in China today. Director Florian Gallenberger, 38, paints a jarring image which is no less

bizarre for all of its historical accuracy: The swastika, a symbol of Nazi barbarity, is used to save the lives of innocent people. John Rabe is a film about a Nazi who saved tens of thousands of lives. It depicts Rabe as "He looks anxiously at the sky, watching the low-flying fighter planes drop their bombs into the fleeing crowd. It is December 1937, and German businessman John Rabe, the representative of the Siemens Group in the eastern Chinese city of Nanking, is witnessing Japanese fighter pilots as they attack the company's facility there, killing helpless civilians. In that moment of despair, he suddenly has an idea. Rabe, a long-standing member of the Nazi Party, quickly orders his workers to unfurl an enormous swastika flag that the party had sent to him in China. Then Rabe and large numbers of Chinese crouch under the flag. The ruse works, and the Japanese, allied with the Germans, call off the attack. There is much more to movie and to the article which mostly deals with how, finally, Germany in cinema is beginning to deal with national heroes. The issues are complex and you really should read about him. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Rabe (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Rabe) Now, down to what interests me. I think Germany is entitled to heroes. In fact, the suppression of positive thoughts about their nationalism is not healthy for them or for us. People should be proud of their country and those who have done extraordinary things should be looked up to. In addition, I do not think that every German who lived under the Hitler regime was evil - even some who had to join the Nazi Party for economic reasons. The father of one of my closest friends, in order to keep his job as an engineer, had to join some sort of a Nazi professional organization and was no real Nazi. I believe that’s true Rabe worked in China for many years. He was appalled by the Japanese atrocities in Nanking. According to Wikipedia, "On February 28, 1938 Rabe left Nanking, traveling to Shanghai and then back to Germany. He showed films and photographs of Japanese atrocities in lecture presentations in Berlin and wrote to Hitler (https://app.e2ma.net/wiki/Adolf_Hitler) to use his influence to persuade the Japanese to stop any more inhumane violence. As a result, Rabe was detained and interrogated by the Gestapo and his letter to Hitler was never delivered to him. Due to the intervention of Siemens AG, Rabe was released. He was allowed to keep evidence of the massacre, excluding the film, but was not allowed to lecture or write on the subject. Rabe would continue working for

Siemens, which posted him briefly to the safety of Afghanistan. Rabe subsequently worked in the Berlin headquarters of the company until the end of the war. After the war, Rabe was denounced for his Nazi Party membership and arrested first by the Russians and then by the British. However, investigations exonerated him of any wrongdoing. He was formally declared "de-Nazified" by the Allies in June 1946 but thereafter lived in relative poverty. His family was also starving at one point in time when he (Rabe) was partly supported by the monthly food and money parcels sent by the Chinese government in memory of his actions during the Nanking Massacre. Rabe was obviously a man with some sort of conscience and he did a lot more than many others to save human life. However, I still have questions. What was he thinking when he actively joined the Party? Because of his stature in it he was able to maintain an important position overseas. Certainly joining the Nazis removed him from the ranks of those that could or wanted to help his fellow Jewish citizens. It's true that he was largely in China but I wonder whether he accepted the Nazi philosophy about Jews. Did he even think about them? Did he approve of making Germany free of Jews? Maybe he was a nice guy who just "went along with the program" because he couldn't do anything about it. However, active Nazi membership indicates to me a different narrative. The same goes for Col. Claus von Stauffenberg recently played by Tom Cruise in Valkyrie. Yes, he tried to kill Hitler but that only had to do with Germany's future and nothing to do with the Jews. The Germans I know today are a very different lot. History has told them they have to stand up when moral questions arise. To be honest about it, they are a helluva lot more sensitive about such matters than many of us are. Their legacy impels them to be serious about those sorts of issues and to never let “it” happen again. But, for me, a child of the 1930's and '40s, a big question remains when talking about German "heroes" of that same era. That question is, “What were they thinking when they joined the Nazi Party - particularly about the Jews?” ISRAEL - GERMAN RELATIONS: AN OMINOUS SIGN? Last March the German and Israeli cabinets met for the first time in a joint session in Jerusalem with the promise that these sorts of meetings would become a regular feature of the bilateral relationship.

More than a year has now passed and, as we know, there is a new Israeli government in office – one that is much further to the right politically and one that, so far, is not pledged to a “Two State Solution” with the Palestinians. That stance runs counter to the Germany’s stance on the issue as well as that of the United States. Ben Weinthal in the Jerusalem Post responding to a report in Der Spiegel Online that claimed German Chancellor Angela Merkel of the Christian Democratic Union party had postponed a planned June 9 meeting because of the right-leaning government of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. Weinthal reported, “When asked about the joint cabinet meeting, however, a German government spokesman told The Jerusalem Post on Monday that the joint session had "not been postponed or agreed upon." The spokesman, who declined to be named because he was not the designated spokesman for the Merkel administration, denied the Spiegel report and said a joint German-Israeli cabinet meeting could occur before the summer break. While not formally refusing to meet with the new Israeli government, Merkel delayed the meetings in her telephone conversation with Netanyahu, according to Spiegel. Merkel's official spokesman Thomas Steg said on Friday that "the Chancellor agreed with Benjamin Netanyahu that, indeed, a cabinet consultation will occur this year. Because of the formation of a new government at this time in Israel, however, it is unlikely that such a meeting, a joint cabinet meeting, will still take place before the summer break." Ilan Mor, the chargé d'affairs at the Israeli Embassy in Berlin, told the Post on Monday that in the "good tradition of the Merkel administration, efforts will be made as fast as possible to give priority" to convene a joint cabinet meeting. Meanwhile, conflicting reports on diplomatic tensions between Germany and Israel swirled around Social Democratic Party Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who

sent a letter with an "admonition" to his new Israeli counterpart, Avigdor Lieberman. Steinmeier, according to Spiegel, exhorted Lieberman to maintain the "momentum of the peace process," and in a break from diplomatic protocol, did not propose a meeting date with him. Asked about the German media report, a German Foreign Ministry spokeswoman who declined to be named because of German press council rules told the Post that "there was no admonition" in the letter to Lieberman. The spokeswoman would not furnish the Post with a copy of the letter. While terming the report "speculation" about Steinmeier's alleged rebuke of Lieberman, the spokeswoman stressed that Steinmeier had "made his position clear like Chancellor Merkel" that "there is no alternative to the two-state solution." A meeting is not planned between Steinmeier and Lieberman, according to the spokeswoman, who added that the Foreign Ministry's letter contained an affirmation of "Israel's right to exist." I’m not ready to read too much into the article or the current situation. Diplomatic relations can be very peculiar and sometimes hard to read. Is there a difference in the outlooks of the German and Israeli governments on the Palestinian issue? No doubt! The answer is yes – for the moment. I’m not yet ready to say exactly what the Netanyahu Administration’s position is. It doesn’t seem to be clearly stated – and there may be differences between his seeming pragmatic approach and that of Foreign Minister Lieberman. And since we’re talking about differences, there might very well be differences between the positions of Chancellor Merkel and Foreign Minister Steinmeier. After all, come this fall they will be head to head in the German elections. I think the sensible thing to do is to wait and see – and follow the situation closely – which we will do. If you’re interested in the Der Spiegel article you can read it by clicking here: http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,617589,00.html (http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,617589,00.html) THE NEO-NAZI CONVENTION I have frequently written

about the Neo-Nazi National Democratic Party (NPD) which is not very democratic and barely national. Recently I wrote about the fact that they are on the cusp of bankruptcy (and they don’t even make cars). One would think that the head of the Party would get voted out of office because of a financial scandal. However, Deutsche reported “…Udo Voigt, party leader since 1996, beat challenger Udo Pastoers by winning 136 of 218 votes at the Berlin NPD party convention. Hundreds of police prevented more than 650 protestors from disrupting the two-day event at a municipal building in an outer borough of the German capital. About 450 police blocked off a road leading up to the building and prevented the crowd from approaching the entrance. "We plan to have a compact team assembled for the 2009 election...We are a German-friendly party, and consider the German people to be in danger," spokesman Klaus Beier said on Sunday after leaving the convention. The NPD, which is represented in Germany in state and local government, but not at federal level, is in financial difficulty after the German parliament fined it for accounting irregularities. It has until next month to pay a balance of 2.2 million euros although it has lodged an appeal against the fine. The political party is frequently the target of German prosecutors for its neo-Nazi stances. State prosecutors charged Voigt last month with inciting racial hatred for comments about a German soccer player soccer player. In a pamphlet, published to coincide with the 2006 World Cup, the NPD insinuated that Patrick Owomoyela, born of a German mother and a Nigerian father, was not worthy to play for Germany. The party has some 7,000 members in Germany. Last year it took seats on every local council it contested in the eastern state of Saxony and won 25.3 percent in a neo-Nazi stronghold near the Czech border. I don’t think it’s terribly important that one Udo beat another Udo. However the fact that 650 protestors came out to voice their displeasure with 354 Nazis says something about “strength”. The fact that the NPD has only 7,000 members in a country of 82 million also says something. Of course, even 7,000 is 7,000

too many but I think we should be realistic in thinking about what sort of a force they are. The fact that they are under a microscope in Germany is a good thing. So, let’s keep worrying but with a bit of sensible leavening. Passover’s over so leavening is back on the good list. P.S. The toughest Udo was not Pastoers or Voight. It was Richard Widmark in the 1947 movie Kiss of Death playing the psycho killer Tommy Udo not some neo-Nazi creep. Click here to see an Udo worthy of the name. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6XQMxXgfos (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6XQMxXgfos) By the way, the neo-Nazis tried to have a demonstration in Lueneburg (Lower Saxony) but they were met by a counter group of 2,000 and had to call it off. http://www.thelocal.de/society/20090412-18595.html (http://www.thelocal.de/society/20090412-18595.html) PERSONAL NOTES Remember, the DD website is http://www.dubowdigest.typepad.com/ (http://www.dubowdigest.typepad.com/) If you're interested you can read the Germany Edition of DD there. If you have an interest in German culture you should be in touch with the Goethe Institute. This is a worldwide institution with Centers in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco and Washington. Information is available at: www.goethe.de (http://www.goethe.de/) (Look for the British flag in the upper right hand corner for English)