Information Issued by The- Associ Ation of Jewish Refugees in Great Britain

VOL. XX No. 5 MAY, 1965 INFORMATION ISSUED BY THE- ASSOCI ATION OF JEWISH REFUGEES IN GREAT BRITAIN a FAIRFAX MANSIONS, FiNCHLEY RD, (corner Fairfax Rd,), London. N,W,3 Office and Consulting Hours: Telephone : MAIda Vale 9096/7 (General Oflice and Welfare for the Aged), Monday to Thursday 10a.m.—Ip.m. 3—6p.f MAIda Vaie 4449 (Employment Agency, annually licensed by the L,C,C„ Friday lOa.m.—lp.m. and Social Services Dept,) fiobert Weltsch in the personal fate of miserable sub-human creatures who took part in those massacres. To condemn these deeds today requires no heroism. If the Germans choose to live FLASHBACK TO MAY 1945 with murderers and to admit them to honoured places in their society—what to Twenty years have elapsed since that tears ", notes Saul Bellow's Moses Herzog, many of them appears abhorrent, as we niemorable event, VE-Day, that final defeat one of the modern spokesmen of such a know from at least two moving speeches ot Hitler's forces of evil. If we consider situation, almost twenty years after the in the Bundestag—it is their affair. But it |hat the whole period of Nazi rule had event. is certainly a point of principle that crimes fasted only twelve years and seemed unend- If we now try to draw a balance sheet of this kind cannot " expire ". Unfortun I'lg, we become aware that we have now and to compare our world of 1965 with the ately the establishment of this principle in "loved on a great deal. A new generation expectations of those days, we have to all clarity immediately after the end of hos has grown up which has not known Hitler ; admit that the material damage of the war tilities was omitted. It is an omission on ôr them Nazism is a thing of the past of has been repaired much faster than was the part of the Allied governments which, Which one learns from history books. Nor anticipated. Europe has been enjoying an in spite of some solemn declarations, did nave they any personal experience of the unparalleled post-war prosperity, and the not evaluate the uniqueness of the matter. cinie preceding the Hitler rule, when loss of colonies has brought no real material We should not forget that the war crime yerman Jewry was still intact, albeit harm to the former empires. Technology trials of the Allies which started twenty imperilled, and was an active and creative has had an unprecedented upsurge. years ago did not have the desired effect. community. Jewish youth, even from Conti- But moral values were not so easily True, the top Nazis were hanged. But many •i.ental families but often born already out-' restored. The optimism of a dawning of the principal criminals, some of them îde Germany, has no clear idea of what world of United Nations and of the " no sentenced to death, were released By the German Jewry once meant; neither, of more war" type had to be discarded as Allies after a few years of prison. That was course, have most young Germans of the thirty years before, and had to give way to not consistent with the uniqueness of the post-Hitler age. the split world of antagonistic blocs facts. .But for all of us who were privileged to equipped with nuclear weapons. New On the other hand it must be admitted Witness it, that first week of May, 1945, dangers menace mankind and turn our time that the Federal Government, however Will remain unforgettable. It was certainly into an age of fear for which English writers reluctantly in a difficult position, has made a. feeling of incomparable relief, of elation are also using the German word Angst, an effort to find and indict the murderers, Similar to that expressed in the famous referring to Freud and Kafka. though it is no less evident that much of this endeavour is frustrated by the appli Chorus of Sophocles' Antigone, hailing the Impact of the Past '"ay of the sun after the departure of the cation of ordinary procedural rules which enemy. The world, so it seemed, had not, Moreover, the world is still haunted by are not tailor-made for such cases. The after all, succumbed to the dark forces of the nightmare of the concentration camps. whole affair is a very sad chapter and—in ^vil. Although for some time the defeat of What happened there still remains inexplic a wider sense—shows the impotence of f'azi Germany was assured one had able in human terms. It is understandable Man when confronted with events which jTembled what they would still be able to that human beings would prefer to extin transcend the power of rational under o^raw to the abyss with them in their guish this memory and to find some kind of standing. GdtterdammerMngf. And, alas, soon enough peace of mind again. But can that be done We have also to realise that the West ihere came an anticlimax. Only when the by simply forgetting, so as not to be dis German Government does whatever it does curtain rose again could the public at large, turbed in the enjoyment of life ? Only in the face of open resentment on the part ^s distinct from the informed few at the last year, the twentieth post-war year, some of German public opinion. We should not ôp, fully realise what had been destroyed. of the horrors of those times were revealed be interested to make it more difficult for *ûrope was in ruins, large cities were to the generation which has grown up in the them than it is anyhow, or iôt to appreciate deduced to debris, fertile plains to waste meantime, by the trials against the people the good will where it is sensible. There •and. Whole populations were displaced and responsible for the conduct of the camps. fore there is no point in ill-conceived mixed up, there was despair and perplexity, One of them, different from other trials demonstrations like those staged in and no quick remedy seemed at hand, because not a criminal case, occurred in America by unauthorised bodies. One ^xperts argued it would take decades to England, of which we have now a record in cannot fail to appreciate that the Federal c'ear up the mess and to build some new a book " Auschwitz in England" (Mac- Government, both under Adenauer and organised civilised life on the ruins. Gibbon & Kee). There a British judge under Erhard, has shown good will and „ For the Western world it was also the could give the memorable verdict that readiness to atone for the crimes that had Irst encounter with the truth about the Auschwitz represents the greatest crime in been committed on behalf of the German extermination of Jews and about the con history. In Germany the public—if it nation. No similar attitude, alas, was forth centration camps which were now liberated. listens—can hear of the undeniable facts coming from the East German State. It is Many had suspected that there was day by day in the protracted Frankfurt also significant to compare the attitude of unspeakable horror in these camps, but it Auschwitz trial and others. We should keep the two German States to the State of Was outrageous to see all expectations in mind that the question to be decided Israel during the last weeks ; it is in some and guesses surpassed, and to be faced with there is only the establishment of individual way dictated by general international the mechanism of a systematic extermina guilt of the persons accused; the facts them policy, but it cannot be separated from the tion industry which had never before selves are not in dispute. And from the cardinal point of responsibility towards the ^xisted in human history. Mankind—and moral and historical point of view these Jews. ^ne Jewish people in a special way—was facts are what really count. As to the decision reached on the ques divided into two parts, the victims and the We all feel that we are helpless in the tion of the time limit, the compromise which suryivors. This could not fail to create a face of such unbelievable human behaviour has been achieved may perhaps satisfy lasting neurosis and a guilt complex, and nobody is able to react properly or to practical requirements, but it has not, as jl-yidence of this we have in life and also in give moral satisfaction. It has been said many Germans themselves admitted, the literature. " To realise that you are a that crimes of this magnitude cannot have a moral grandeur expressed in the speeches survivor is a shock—at the realisation of time limit. This does not imply a desire for such election you feel like bursting into vengeance. We can hardly be interested (,Continu£d on page 2, column 1) \ Page 2 AJR INFORMATION May, 1965 FLASHBACK TO MAY 1945 (Continued from page 1) Anglo-German Compensation Agreement of the two deputies mentioned above. It TIME LIMIT FOR REGISTRATIONS ueberwiegenden Teil erhalten wurden und suffers from the smell of any compromise eme soziaie Beduerftigkeit gegeben ist. achieved in interparliamentary bargaining, According to the Anglo-German Agreement Durch die Bestimmungen des Opfeifu^r- especially in an election year. What is more of June 9, 1964, the German Federal Republic sorgegesetzes wurde fuer die ueberwaelti- perturbing is the outspoken aversion of the undertook to pay to the United Kingdom the gende Mehrzahl der Konzentrationslager- majority of the German population to be sum of one million pounds sterling for the haeftlinge und ihre naechsten Angehoerigen reminded of the Nazi crimes.

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