INFORMATION - The Association of Jewish Refugees

Page 2 AJR INFORMATION October, 1973
THE PAST AND THE PRESENT
Continued from page 1
connected. Emotions cannot always be controlled,
they intrude through a back door. Of
events of the near past, which we ourselves
have witnessed, we find often strongly different
versions, even on such matters as the
merits of Churchill and Roosevelt. It may
become very difficult already for the very
next generations to decide how it really was.
It is a melancholy thought to reflect how the
past forty years of Germany may possibly be
represented as authentic history fifty or a hundred
years hence, perhaps under the impact
of new factors or of constellations we cannot
foresee. It wLU be very gratifying if the
method of history, as explained by Dr. Plumb,
prevails in such circumstances to prevent
falsification.
In Jewish historiography distortions undoubtedly
occurred, mostly by people who admittedly
did not regard themselves as historians
in the scientific sense of the word. The
Bible itself is an example of naive presentation
of "facts," and the conjectiu-e that
parts of the so-called historical books abound
in tendentious material is quite convincing. It
is appropriate that one modem writer, Stefan
Heym, used the story of King David as the
pretext for a parody actually less concemed
with ancient Judaea than with autocracies of
oiu" own time where those in power dictate
what to tell and what not to tell about a certain
historical figiu-e, and how to manipulate
evidence and documents.* Heym also indicates
that threatening and intimidating
writers has been practised through the ages.
The questionable credibility of documents
created by mehods—here exaggerated and
humoristically adorned—is apt to arouse distrust
against any Past handed down to
posterity. The thesis of Professor Plumb is
that because of the unreliability of the
sources the Past is "dead", at least since
these shortcomings were discovered from the
Enlightenment of the eighteenth century
onward. He comes to the conclusion (p. 16)
that the aim of conventional historians of the
pre-critical sort had been to establish a past
as "a created ideology with a purpose, designed
to control individuals ... to justify . . .
the subjection and exploitation of men and
women, to torture them with fears, or to
stifle them with a sense of their own
hopelessness . . . Nothing has been so corruptly
used as concepts of the Past". But
does that not also apply to other ideologies
which have to do less with the past and more
with the present? They, too, cannot be forgiven
when they are used for intimidating
and for "torturing men and women" simply
for the sake of political power. On the other
hand, has not the Past also been used for the
sake of nobler purposes?
To come back to our Jewish situation and
to topical matters, it is certainly legitimate to
invoke the Past in order to strengthen the
teaching of our Sages. The saying of Hillel
not to do to others what we do not want to
be done to us is not merely a philosophical
maxim like a similar formula of Kant. It is
based on the Jewish past which is rich with
events where Jews were unjustly treated or
discriminated against. It conveys the message :
remember the cases of maltreatment, which
are documented by History and hardly disputed
in their essence. We are constantly
reminded that we, i.e., our forefathers
with whom we are identical ("so eins mit
4 Stefan Heym: Der Kdnig David Bericht. Kindler Verlag.
MCinchen. 1972. (The bool( will be reviewed in this paper
shortly.—The Ed.)
mir als une mein eignes Haar"), were slaves
in the land of the Pharaohs, and that we,
throughout the centuries, should never forget
the mood of such helpless people. Our New
Year is called the Day of Memory, Yom ha-
Zikkaron. Memory is the link with the Past.
And if we distrust the accuracy of the far
distant stories of the Jewish people's bondage
in Egypt, we have, nearer to hand, examples
of the maltreatment suffered by Jews at a
time which the older among us vividly
remember from our own experience.
We Jews of the 1970s have entered a new
stage of our history owing to the re-entrance
of the State of Israel into the world of socalled
political reality. This is everywhere
the classical world of misuse of the Past in
defence of nationalism or "raison d'etat." In
this respect, the extraordinary position of
Jewry as a community held together mainly
by a common Past is the parallelism of Israel
and Diaspora, two different social categories.
This fact also imposes duties. Loyalty to
Judaism does not require overt or tacit approval
of every step taken—^for whatever
reasons and perhaps erroneously—by functionaries
of the State of Israel. World Jewry,
too, has to retain its spiritual power and its
own independent moral judgement. If the
Diaspora is regarded as an indispensable ally
of Israel in the struggle for a Jewish future,
it must not confine itself to taking part in
material achievements. Its voice must be
heard, not only in order to defend Israel
against hostile and cunning outside forces
(this should be self-understood), but also in
advice and warning in matters which affect
the image of Judaism.
Last Rosh Hashana I mentioned in these
pages the case of the Christian villagers of
Biram and Ikrith whose demands to be allowed
to return to their homes and churches
after their deceptive and illegal expulsion 25
years ago, have been denied. Strong public
support was voiced in Israel, particularly
from Jewish youths, and I ventured the suggestion
that this incident might acquire for
Israel importance similar to the Dreyfus case
in France at the end of the nineteenth century.
Shortly afterwards, other events pushed
back this affair from the public mind, and
after the govemment veto it sometimes
seemed as though the uneasiness had subsided.
The problem remained unsolved.
But with a growing list of wrongs and of contempt
of justice and in view of the steadfastness
of the villagers and their enlightened
and moderate leadership by the Archbishop
Raya the debate has recently been reopened.
The Dreyfus character of the affair became apparent
again. It means that Justice, like Peace,
is indivisible. It is incompatible with national
or racist bias stemming from a "corrupting
concept of the Past". This was stressed
during the last weeks in the Hebrew press in
Israel by prominent liberal-minded Jewish
figures. In the first place one has to pay
tribute to Pofessor Amnon Rubinstein, dean
of the Law School at Tel Aviv University, on
whose shoulders the mantle of Emile Zola
has fallen. Among other university professors
raising their voices are many of Central European
origin like Hugo Bergmann, Ernst Simon,
Martin Plessner. Moreover, it became a battle
cry of part of the youth who had fought the
battles and achieved the victories of Israel.
This is perhaps not widely known outside
Israel; but I feel it is a good signal at the
arrival of a new year.
GERMAN NEWS
EAST BERLIN PX.O. OFFICE
Mr. Heinz Galinski, the chairman of the
West Berlin Jewish community, h^s condemned
as " the biggest scandal in German postwar
history " the plans to open an pffice of tne
Palestine Liberation Organisation in Easi
Berlin and other official East German help tor
Arab terrorist groups. He pointed out tnav
after the horrible events perpetrated by tne
Nazis, a German State was now helping a
terrorist organisation to continue its canjpaign
of hatred and violence against Jewisn
people.
DR. WEICHMANN'S PREVENTED
LECTURE PUBLISHED
When, at the invitation of the University o^
Kiel, Professor Dr. Herbert Weichmann wanted
to give a lecture on the subject " *^'"^^ji.
tiitifvn tution in Danger Danffpr ? ","
extremists pxtrpmists in the
aUiu
ence disrupted the meeting and preven ted
him from speaking. Now the text of the Je
ture has been puolished and distributed oy
the Press Department of the City of Hamburg-
In the preface, the Mayor of Hamburg, F^^,*
Schulz, states that the undignified scenes »
the meeting on June 22 had been particulan-'j
depressing because they were directed again ,
a man " who, throughout his life, had worKe
for the creation and development of a Stav
which was to be guided by the principles "
justice, constitutional order and respect i
the dignity of the individual."
AWARD FOR RESCUE WORKER
The Roman Catholic priest, Eugen Weil^J^
was awarded the German Federal Cross
Merit, First Class, in recognition of ^.^
courageous activities under the Nazis. In^gte
he illegally brought a Jewish woman, '^^^uy
Maier-Lasker, a granddaughter of the P9,'ji.
clan Eduard Lasker, from a place near /^o ^
stance to Switzerland. Weiler was caught aw _
had to spend several years in the concenw^jj
tion camp of Dachau where, together w *
other priests, he was incarcerated in a sPf'lce
barrack. He recorded the happenings of ^fiije
years in a 1,200-page standard work, ,^:jj
Geistlichen in Dachau ", recently publisheo^gj^
Austria by the Missionsdruckerei Sr. Gaon
Moedling.
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