THE HOLOCAUST IS OVER WE MUST RISE FROM ITS ASHES

essential. But if our eyes are turned to the expanses of the world, to human history,then this law, even as a monument to our past torments, perpetuates our un-historicbeing and condemns us to separate ways of life and conduct.We should no longer be strange exhibits in a preserve for creatures in danger ofextinction, but must integrate with the whole of human society, in which a crimeagainst the Jewish people is naturally a crime against humanity. There is not, and theremust not be, a separate Jewish humanity. Humanity is humanity, without compromisesand exceptions. Not even us. With the annulment of this notion from our law books,we will be free and liberated.In the detention cell of humanity there is only one detainee left from the dark days,and it is Germany. There will be those who will justify it and claim that they deserve itforever. But others may understand that the best interest of the human race requiresthe unshackling of the problematic relationship between the Jewish guard and theGerman prisoner. A wise person once described the future relations with Germanylike those between two Siamese twins that will never be separated, as their fates areintertwined. In my view, Israel and Germany are two nations that live by a sea ofcommon torments. They are very different, but are always neighbors. As long asIsrael was in the pole of seclusion, Germany was bound there as well. In the day weleave Auschwitz and establish the new state of Israel, we also have to set Germanyfree.True, we must not forget, but at the same time we should not be forever heldhostage by memory. We should not live in the past, but be cured of it. When Israelreleases Germany, the world will be better. This will be our contribution to thesufferers of the world and those currently persecuted. Today Germany and Israel aresynonyms of one experience, the Shoah, which unites the two and creates for us andfor them an impenetrable private space. As a result, Germany cannot exercise its fullpower in the international arena. On the day that we are set free, we will set free.When the Jewish people recognize that the Shoah is much bigger than us, and that itis not only ours and we have no monopoly over it, that it is our disaster but it belongsto all humanity, and that we are but part of one expanding family of nations that is notwilling to accept any harm to any people—then and only then will the Jewish peoplebe able to “donate” its Germany to the effort. Germany’s economic capability,together with profound awareness and the will to atone for the crimes of the past, canchange the picture of world evil and paint it with goodness. A statement by Israel’s