AJ R Information '. :>.!; ivKHi Volume XLVII No. 8 August 1992 £3 (to non-members) Don't miss . Reflections on Amos Oz, Heisenberg and Bomber Harris Reader's questionnaire p3 Encapsulated history p5 Apportioning guilt Assimilation - public enemy number one pl3 he award of this year's Peace Prize of the war. The whole complex of war and morality is a German book trade to the Israeli writer Amos tangle in which truth can be lost among special TOz is significant. Alternatively dubbed 'the pleading and posturing hypocrisy. Nothing illustrated Cloaca conscience of Israel' or 'a traitor to his country' by his this better than an article in The Independent lauding compatriots, Oz has long been a hero to the interna­ the Third Reich's physicists for not developing an maxima tional peace movement for advocating a peace-for- atom bomb. This is pure mythology designed to tide of land compromise with the Palestinians. However, the inculpate Allied scientists engaged on Project Man­ revisionist' hero instantly turned villain in peacenik eyes some 18 hattan. The reason why Heisenberg's team can polish Afilth is months ago when he supported the Gulf War against their haloes in retrospect is that they were too far polluting Europe. Saddam Hussein. By honouring Oz with their prize behind in the race to pursue a nuclear option. A street name in the Frankfurt jury are making overdue amends for the Just as Heisenberg's boffins have no call to feel Lvov honours the discreditable stance the German peace movement, in morally superior to Anglo-American physicists so Ukrainian particular, took over Iraqi aggression. German, and other, critics of the statue to Bomber pogromist Petljura. The nub of the matter - in the Gulf crisis as Harris have little reason to vent moral outrage. Even if Zagreb radio gives elsewhere - is that the cause of peace may be better Dresden was not a prime military-industrial target it air times to the served by the readiness rather than the refusal to go to served as a communications centre for Wehrmacht daughter of the units facing the Red Army in Poland. The Germans in war criminal Dresden, Hamburg and Cologne were only reaping Pavelic. The the harvest sown earlier by the Nazis in Guernica, Kronenzeitung, Warsaw, Belgrade and Coventry. read by one Was there in fact a marked difference between Austrian out of Germans and Nazis? This is, admittedly, a complex two, denies the question; nonetheless the answer would appear to be existence of Nazi in the negative. In 1933 about half the electorate gas chambers. A voted for Hitler, and over the next few years support few short years indisputably rose to about 90 per cent. Even the turn after the fake diaries of Hitler in the fortunes of war had little impact - so that the we are regaled men engaged in the July 1944 Officers' Plot were with the widely considered traitors rather than patriots. In the very last week of the war, while the Italians were outpourings of his meting out summary justice to Mussolini, the archi­ Mephisto-like spin tect of their misfortune, Goering fetched up in a public Doktor. In the process the air raid shelter in Berlin and fellow shelterers did not sensation-hungry even boo him. Sunday Times Bomber Harris' strategy has been condemned - legitimises David rightly - both for its waste of air crews and Irving's 'work', counterproductive effect on German civilian morale. and the Daily Mail Yet it had a positive effect on British morale and enriches the Swiss raised spirits in a usually forgotten quarter: in Nazi Genoud. February 1945, as the SS closed down Auschwitz and Printer's ink is organised the survivors' death march in a westerly poisoning the wells direction, some walking skeletons will have drawn of truth; Goebbels The controversial statue of 'Bomber' Harris at Aldwych. fresh hope from the pall of smoke that hove into view stalks the land. D Photo: Newman. over Dresden on the far horizon. D AJR INFORMATION AUGUST 1992 «0i Golden Twenties' afterglow Profile A glance at London's theatre scene reminds one of the description of Berlin's Weimar Almost a foundation member of AJR, years as the Golden Twenties. First there Model mennber postwar he joined the Hyphen — a group was Pam Gems' adaptation of the Blue comprising refugees in the age range inter­ Angel (which, incidentally, hewed closer to mediate between adults and Kindertrans­ Heinrich Mann's Professor Unrath than portees. At the Hyphen he met his (similarly Josef von Sternberg's film classic). Now the Viennese-born) wife. They married in 1951 Dominion Theatre is staging Vicky Baum's and had two sons. Unlike many youngsters Grand Hotel—a memorable starring vehicle who grew up in the turbulent Sixties, the for Greta Garbo in 1932 - as a musical, lads were diligent at school, gained scholar­ while the Greenwich Theatre hosts Carl ships and went to Cambridge. They also, Sternheim's comedy Biirger Schippel. This Fred reflects happily, felt Jewish and is the third time in recent years that evinced an interest in their Central Euro­ Sternheim's satire on the mores of German pean roots. provincial Spiesshiirger has been put before Seven years ago Fred was widowed. He London audiences. Now called Schippel the bore the blow with fortitude, immersing Plumber it features actors who were himself in voluntary work, both locally — he coached in Lieder singing to fit in with the is a school governor - and at AJR head requirements of the plot. D office. In addition he has written papers Mr i-red Dunston. I'hoto: Newma about his past work for the Vienna Not only vandals Community, Kitchener Camp and Youth The long-neglected Jewish cemetery at the he elderly hero of a Viennese inter­ Aliyah; these repose in the Wiener Library. first gate of the Vienna Zentralfriedhof is war comedy is told by the Lord But Fred has also (in a manner of gradually being rehabilitated. Those TMayor 'As long as our city has speaking) worked for the future: both involved in the work include Bundesheer citizens like you I don't fear for its future' - Dunston 'boys' serve on the AJR executive. soldiers, police cadets and a sizable number lines remembered after well over 50 years Sometimes his past mirrored the future; just of volunteers from secondary schools. D because they were spoken by Hans Moser. as he got to know his own wife at the It is a colleague of Moser's, Szoke Sakall, Hyphen, so his elder son met his at the Rabbi honoured whom Fred Dunston resembles, both in ACJR, the Association of Children of Jew­ appearance and air of benign avuncular ish Refugees. Henry Brandt, Landesrabbiner of Lower concern. At the end of our talk I was tempted to tell Saxony, has been awarded this year's Hed­ Born in 1917 into a Viennese middle class Fred {pace Hans Moser) 'As long as our AJR wig Burgheim medal by the University of family of Hungarian extraction, Fred had a has members like you I don't fear for its Giessen for his work in fostering Christian- happy childhood, with his eight Gymna­ future!' However, knowing his modesty, I Jewish understanding. D sium years still unshadowed by the rise of resisted the temptation. I herewith repair Nazism. He joined the Scouts and looks this omission in print. back on attendance at two Jamborees as the D R.G. highlight of his teens. His rank as group East-Germany scout master made him an experienced youth leader, so that the Vienna Jewish community asked him after the Anschluss and Berlin to run courses for hundreds of youngsters We give immediate attention. thrown out of school. COMPANIONS We process and buy properties/claims. His charges belonged to diverse Zionist youth groups, from the rightwing Betar to OF LONDON We pay cash. leftist Shomer Hatzair; Fred's face assumes a troubled expression when he recalls the A specialist home care service intra-Zionist faction fights he had to resolve to assist the elderly, people We have proven track records and furnish in those traumatic days. In early 1939 he documentation. with disabilities, help during came to England to help prepare Kitchener and after illness, childcare Camp. Later he moved on to run a tented and household needs. Write to; transit camp for Youth Aliyah. (It was a less Nagel & P.^rtner For a service tailored to your individual needs Kui-furstendamm 182 • 1000 Berlin 15 than happy experience: the agricultural by Companions who care - Please call Phone:030-882 56 31 training on offer consisted of unskilled Fax:030-881 39 16 work on a bulb farm.) 071-483 0212 Then came internment, followed by war 071-483 0213 work as a centre lathe operator. Eventually 110 Gloucester Avenue, he joined a small firm making watch straps Primrose Hill, set up by his only surviving close relative. London NWl 8JA This was to be Fred's one and only job till (Emp Agy) retirement in 1985. AJR INFORMATION AUGUST 1992 thought the present pictures-to-text ratio Readers' questionnaire just right. Bitter-sweet return On the question of which topics readers A widespread positive wanted more fully — or newly - covered the fter 50 years I've been back to response ranking was as follows: 1 Jewish affairs, Aachen as guest of the town in the 2 European politics, 3 Israel, 4 British Afullest sense of the word 'guest' — he questionnaire we sent out in April politics, 5 Literature, 6 Music, 7 Travel, with everything paid for. We were treated to has yielded around 1,100 replies, 8 Theatre, 9 Art exhibitions, 10 TV/films, a crowded programme of visits, guided city representing just over a quarter of the T 11 Sport.