m "^ n Volume UII No. 10 October 1998 £3 (to non-members) Don't miss... Gombrich's blotting paper Refleaions on the deformed nationalism of parts of Europe Richard Grunberger P3 Carl Sternheim Dr Anthony GrenviHe p5 Demons that resist exorcism Second generation perspectives Barbara Dorrity p 15 ationalism is a force with a gut appeal long awaits canonisation - for his opposition to Tito's Russian underestimated by Liberals and Marxists atheist communism. N alike. However, not every manifestation of And in Brussels, the political heart of Europe, a enigma it was necessarily malignant. Flemish nationalist deputy has laid a Bill before the aifa When the French invented la patrie they also Belgian parliament to compensate erstwhile collabo­ century ago, Ls.sued a universal Declaration of the Rights of Man. rators for punishments meted out to them after HChurchill Italian unification was inspired by Mazzini's lib­ Liberation. In extenuation of their wartime conduct described Russia as eralism. In our own lifetime Catalans and Basques he conjures up a prewar spectre of Flemings as a riddle wrapped fought against Franco. .second-class citizens chafing under the misrule of a up in an enigma. Nonetheless, in the la.st war the Axis powers were French-speaking elite. The observation still immeasurably helped by the slights - real or imagi­ There may be a grain of truth in this - but to holds good today. nary - that had been inflicted on national groups in argue that exposure to relative discrimination justi­ An example is Eastern Europe. In consequence, Slovaks and Croats antisemitism which fied collaborating with occupiers who wiped out caused every third actively helped to effect the breakup of Czecho­ Belgian independence and practised total discrimi­ Jew to leave in the slovakia and Yugoslavia respectively. Lithuanians nation against millions of victims is mendacious 1980s. Even today and Latvians were sufficiently embittered by Russian logic-chopping. It is rather like comparing the synagogues are annexation to collaborate enthusiastically with the germ that spreads the common cold with the Aids attacked and copies Germans - 'even' in genocide. Hungary and Bul­ virus D of Mein Kampf sold garia itched to have post-Great War frontiers in public. redrawn to their own advantage, and so forth. Yet, at the .same Western Europe, too, witnessed collaboration time, many players born out of nationalist resentment. Within Belgium in the Kremlin rural Flanders harboured grievances against the power game are French-speaking indu.strial South and Brussels. wholly or partly Jewish. They range Though quite different circumstances obtained, in from reformers - Ireland the burden of ancient resentments engen­ Yavlinsky, Chubais, dered a similar myopia, and produced equally Nemtsov - through deplorable results. Quite apart from Lord Haw- 'facing-both-ways' Haw's Nazi broadcasts and Irish despatches from Primakov to London, De Valera's policy of neutrality worked in the oligarch Germany's favour. Berezovsky, and Today, fifty-odd years after Hitler's war, those the neo-Fascist nationalist demons have not been laid to re.st. In the Zhirinovsky. One Baltic States, veterans of the Waffen-SS parade hopes the present through the streets of capital cities. .Sovereign upheaval will not end like 1917, Slovakia disseminates history schoolbooks glorifying when Trotsky made the founder of the guards that herded Jews into the Revolution camps, as well as Hitler's puppet Monsignor TLso, as Left to rifibt: Theo am I .Anne .\tar.x irilh l.iiiUrii> Spini at .AJK's 'pioneers of nationhood'. Croatia's wartime Primate SOtk) Anniversary Cone':ert, Carl Ko.w Opera s production o/l)ie and Bronstein paid Flederiiiaus', at lk>e Qiuleen Hlizaheth Hall, which played to a full for it' D Stepinac, a pillar of the genocidal Ustasha regime, and appreciative kiouse AJR INFORMATION OCTOBER 1998 had plundered from their Jewish victims. SWISS BANKS AGREE $1.25 BILLION PAYMENT All in all, the World Jewish Congress has estimated that $14 billion would be re­ he Union Bank of Switzerland and million was rejected as inadequate. quired to return Jewish looted assets the Credit Suisse Group agreed to The investigations of the Senate Bank­ during the war, including bank accounts, Tpay the unprecedented sum of ing Committee and its high profile insurance policies, investments, jewellery $1.25 billion (i.770 million) in restitution chairman, Senator Alphonse D'Amato, and works of art. to Holocaust survivors, their heirs and the helped to expose the Swiss cover-up, as Within 90 days of the court's final sanc­ descendants of victims, in response to a did the US Government's historical re­ tion it is intended that the first payment joint court action in New Jersey, USA. It view, led by Under-Secretary of State of $250 million be made. A further three was brought by representatives of 31,000 Stuart Eizenstat, which unequivocally instalments will then be paid at annual survivors. Prior to the outbreak of World documented damning evidence of Swit­ intervals. As part of the agreement, these War II, the money had been deposited zerland's complicity in the Nazi war payments will represent the settlement into the safekeeping' of Swiss bank machine. The action of the Union Bank of all claiins made against all Swiss accounts. of Switzerland security guard Christopher banks and industry, including the Swiss For half a century after the war Swiss Meili in rescuing Holocaust-related National Bank. banks largely denied the existence and records he had unlawfully been ordered The Jewish Chronicle believes that extent of such accounts, and made the to destroy, undermined the banks' cred­ several months will elapse before any impossible demand of heirs that they had ibility and added immeasurably to the Holocaust survivor receives a payment. A to produce death certificates for their moral standing of the plaintiffs' cause. system has yet to be devised by the relatives who had perished in concen­ Pressure brought by the threat of finan­ World Jewish Restitution Organisation to tration camps. cial sanctions from some 20 American inform potential claimants throughout the Three years ago the World Jewish Con­ states - among them New York, New world and grant them the opportunity to gress launched a campaign for the return Jersey, Florida and California - and from register their opinions and claims. Any of these 'dormant accounts'. Faced with a 30 US local authorities, finally helped to final disbursement plan, whether to indi­ potentially huge lawsuit in the USA, the secure the agreement. viduals or to organisations representing Swiss banks began negotiations with the In addition to unacknowledged ac­ those in need, will require ratification by World Jewish Congress earlier this year, counts, the SwLss National Bank profited Judge Edward Korman whose court arbi­ though talks broke down temporarily in from the laundering of millions of dol­ trated the agreement. the summer after a final offer' of $600 lars-worth of gold which the Germans n RonaW Channing was appointed to a full-time post at Profile Wembley United Synagogue. For the next ten years he was at the centre of thi-s warm and appreciative community, work­ Melody man ing in close co-operation with both Ralibi antor Stephen Robins has Berman and his successor Rabbi Abranis. an enviable reputation in the As well as devoting himself to all aspects C Anglo-Jewish community and of a mini.ster's life, he was invited to sing beyond for the sheer pleasure of his in most of north London's newer ortho­ melodic tenor voice, often heard as guest dox communities and founded what chazan at wedding, barmitzvah or bat became the Shabbaton Choir. chayil ceremonies. In 1986 he responded to a call from Stephen was born in Lytham St Anne's Edgware Synagogue, serving one of in 1944 where his cabinet-maker father Europe's largest communities, and devel­ and his mother had been evacuated from oped his teaching of voice production London during the war. He made his solo and cantorial studies (on which he lec­ debut in the synagogue when only six tures at Jews' College), taking his guest Cantor Stephen Robins years old and his talents - he was also an appearances into Europe, Israel and the accomplished pianist - were recognised literally an act of faith; to experience at States. by benefactors who sponsored singing first hand the burdens and joys of life- Stephen Robins established himself as ;i lessons. cycle events and to commit himself to freelance cantor and teacher last year and At the age of 18 he came to London communal service 24 hours a day. He now takes services and gives recitals in with his mother, making a living as a enrolled at Jews' College to train as a what he calls the global village' - from singer, pianist and cabaret artist, .supple­ chazan, at the same time taking up a Eilat to New York. He has just recorded mented with work in Hatton Garden's part-time position at Yeshurun Synagogue his first CD, singing a wide selection of jewellery trade. He formed a group in Edgware, soon after meeting his wife- chazanut, including modern works and called the Sundowners in which he to-be Rosalind. Stephen further enhanced Israeli and Chasidic pop. His fine voice, played the double bass! his reputation, being in great demand at backed by Stephen Glass and his choir, By the time he was 27 Stephen had de­ Friendship Clubs and JACS. make a highly pleasurable collection. cided on a complete change of direction, On graduation in 1976 Cantor Robins URDC AJR INFORMATION OCTOBER 1998 Jewish contribution to Austrian culture Gombrich's was very patchy, 1 trace that back to his 'astigmatic' vision. Had he looked at early NEWTONS blotting paper twentieth, instead of nineteenth, century Leading Hampstead Solicitors n a recently published lecture, Professor music he would surely have taken cog­ 22 Fitzjohns Avenue, E.