Conversation in Berlin

Solly Ganor

On a recent trip to Berlin our group of Holocaust survivors met a German theologian and political science professor who had a most refreshing and interesting views of the Arab-Israeli conflict and the origins and contemporary anti-Semitism.

We met him at the famous Liebeskind Jewish Museum of Berlin.

His knowledge and information on the two subjects can be an eye opener to many who are perplexed by both subjects.

I thought that it will interest you as well and you would wish to send it on to your readers.

Shavua tov, With best wishes, Solly Ganor

CONVERSATION IN BERLIN

By Solly Ganor

"One doesn't need to waste too many words to sum up the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: The Palestinians are part and parcel of the intolerant and brutally violent Arab- Islamic culture, while the Jews have been for the last two thousands years the most peaceful people on Earth. These are undeniable historical facts.

Further more, fifteen million Germans were uprooted and expelled from East Prussia, The Sudeten Land, Schlesien and other places, because Germany lost the war they had started. We feel that we have no moral right to demand all this land back. The Arabs who started five wars against Israel to annihilate it, definitely have no moral right to demand their land back. Besides, all one has to look at the map of the Middle East, and you can see the immense amount of land owned by them, not to mention the largest deposits of oil in the world. The clinching argument that can be made is, that there were six hundred thousand Arab refugee because of the wars against the Jews, while at the same time the Arabs expelled nine hundred thousand Jews from their land, robbing them of all their money and possessions. It was tiny Israel that absorbed them ."

The above statement was made by a theologian named Thomas Hoffman, whom we met at the Liebeskind Jewish Museum in Berlin. Some times it takes an objective observer with a bird's eyes view of our conflict to see things that we don't readily see. Here is the story of how we met and our conversation in Berlin.

For Yom Hashoa we quite often go the Museum of Dachau to commemorate our perished brethren who died there. We are a group of Dachau survivors who formed an Association to keep the memory of our murdered friends alive. They are buried there and the least we can do is to visit their mass graves and say Kadish every year.

This year we decided to go to Berlin to see the new Liebeskind Jewish Museum we had heard so much about. And indeed we found the architecture of the building most impressive. Liebeskind managed to create a highly unusual, but at the same time dignified monument for the perished German Jewry. The jagged broken lines of glass and metal reaching out to the sky give the structure an alien appearance contrasting sharply with its surroundings. It stands out sharply and unforgettably, reminding the viewer that the Jews were never really accepted by the Germans. But what is even more impressive are the contents of the Museum. As you walk through its chambers you come upon the heritage the German Jewry left to the German people. Room after room, you see photos and artefacts of Jewish families, some of them world famous, some less, but they all had one thing in common, the enormous contribution they had made to Germany.

In philosophy, music, art, literature, law, architecture, science, medicine, commerce, to name but a few.

We spent a full day there and when we left I was both baffled and disgusted. I was baffled because I couldn't understand how the Germans could become so hostile towards a people that did nothing but good for Germany.

Disgusted, because after all what the Jews did for them, the Germans paid them back with plunder and murder. The Liebeskind Museum presented to me one more piece of evidence of the Nazi evil and the evil of anti-Semitism in general.

Leaving the Museum I expressed my feelings to my wife in no uncertain terms, when I noticed a tall middle aged man looking at me. He finally approached us and said in an German accented Hebrew:

"I quite agree with you. I couldn't have expressed my feelings in a better way."

Surprised, I looked at him closer.

He was about forty five- fifty, with dark blond hair, blue eyes and distinctly "Arian" features. Hitler, Goebels and Himmler would have given an arm and a leg to look like him.

"My name is Thomas Hofmann. I am a theologian and a political scientist," he introduced himself.

"And If you wonder how come I speak Hebrew, I spent more than a year working as a volunteer in Israeli kibutzim. That was in 1967, after your astonishing victory over the Arabs. I still remember distinctly the Arab masses in practically every Arab country capital, dancing in the streets screaming hysterically, "Death to the Jews, throw them into the sea!" The television and radio stations broadcasted the same messages.

And then we watched with ever growing fascination as fourteen Arab nations with a population of over a hundred million surrounded the tiny Jewish state with thousands of tanks, planes and missiles, and threatened the Israelis not just with war, but with extermination. I remember that the head of the Arab Liberation Front, Achmad Shukairy, (Arafat's predecessor) openly boasted: 'There will be no Jewish survivors in Israel after this war.'

'We shall liquidate the Jews.Came the voice from radio Amman. We are prepared to annihilate Israel', stated King Hussein of Jordan.

And the man who incited the war against Israel, Nasser: 'We shall destroy Israel.'

I was a young man at the time, and couldn't believe that history would repeat itself and the whole world would silently stand by, as they did during the years of the "Holocaust", waiting for the Arabs to finish what Hitler started. To many of us of the younger German generation it seemed incredible that no one would be willing to lift a finger in Israel's defence. No one believed that tiny Israel could stand up against the regular well equipped Arab armies who were being supplied by the Soviets with massive shipments of modern arms.

Then I started believing in G-d again. Israel's incredible victory proved to me that miracles still happen, and I wasn't very surprised that it happened in Israel, the land of the miracles."

I was fascinated by his flow of words. He sounded as if he had it bottled up for a long time and was just waiting for someone like us to unload it on.

When he invited us for a beer to the nearby old Jewish quarter of Berlin, we agreed. I was curious about him. The way he expressed himself in Hebrew, he sounded as if he spent much more time studying the language than just one year in a kibbutz.

The old Jewish quarter of Berlin lately became what Soho is to London, or the Village to New York. There was a large square surrounded by old buildings. In the square were dozens of small coffee shops and pubs. The square itself was full of rough wooden tables and benches where hundreds of young people sat drinking beer and discussing what students discuss.

We picked a free table and we ordered a round of beer. We told him about our Dachau survivor's association and the purpose we came to Germany for.

He shook his head:

"Yes, I know, you are among the most tolerant people on earth I wonder what other people would be sitting and speaking to Germans after what the Germans did to you. I was eighteen years old after your victory over the Arabs in 1967, and I decided to find out more about Israel and the Jewish people. There were quite a few German volunteers who came to Israel at the time and what surprised us all was the tolerance and even friendliness expressed towards us by the Israelis. That really won me over. I was sure that Israelis would react towards us with hostility after what the Germans did to the Jews during World War Two. Their tolerance was no less astonishing than the victory over the Arabs."

After the atmosphere of hostility we felt towards Israel in Europe, what this man had to say was refreshing.

We ordered another round of beer and encouraged him to continue talking.

"After returning from Israel I decided to follow my mother's entreaties to study for priesthood. She was a devout Catholic and had only one wish in life, she wanted me to become a priest. The year in Israel convinced me that priesthood is my vocation. Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Nazareth, The Sea of Galilee, and especially the Israelis, it all made an indelibly spiritual impression on me.

I threw myself into my studies with the zeal of a fanatic. My teachers thought I had a great career ahead of me and I would most likely end up in the Vatican where the sky was the limit. My mother was radiant with happiness.

It didn't take me long to realize that I made a mistake. The more I studied the more I realized the influence the church had in inciting the Christian world against the Jewish people. While my fellow students took it as a matter of course, after spending a year in Israel and getting to know Israel, I was not ready to do so.

I was especially disgusted by some of the gospels that depict the Jew as the vilest creature on earth. St. John in his gospels calls the Jews the children of the devil and goes on to absolve all guilt from Pontius Pilate, the Roman ruler over the land of Israel at the time, while at the same time vilifying the Jews.

When I pointed out to my teachers the inflammatory anti-Semitic expressions of the Gospels, the looked at me aghast.

That's blasphemy! The holy scriptures, can not be discussed like mundane matters! Have you never heard the expression "Gospel Truth"!? How dare you to question them! I was finally informed that in view of my attitude I would be advised to choose another profession than priesthood.

That didn't prevent me from studying theology at the University, of course. After years of study I came to the conclusion that the twenty century old incitement by all churches against the Jews, was the foundation of European anti-Semitism. I also came to realize that Hitler was only the tip of the iceberg. Millions of Jews were murdered throughout Europe way before the Holocaust. The chief contributors to the murder, if not the only ones, were the churches that never ceased their venomous incitement against the Jews. It is all documented for anyone who wishes to discover the truth.

Any rational man knows that never in the history of men was there a more innocent people than the Jews, who were maligned, slandered, and demonized from the pulpits of all the churches in Europe. The persecutions and murder of the Jews soon followed. Perhaps the priests didn't tell the masses of Christians whom to kill, but they certainly told them whom to hate. The founding fathers of the church in Rome were also the founding fathers of the malevolent anti-Semitism.

In 1988 on the 50th anniversary of the Kristal Nacht, the Bishop of Canterbury made a short statement:

If it weren't for the anti-Semitism of the churches, the Holocaust would never have taken place.

Today, I am not surprised by the new waves of ant-Semitism in Europe. For a while, shocked by the brutality of the Holocaust, anti-Semitism became unfashionable. New generations of anti-Semites were born since who have no such qualms about hating Jews. Fanned by the brutal Islamic incitement against the Jews and with the help of millions of petro dollars flowing from Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries, the flames of anti-Semitism are being fanned in every country of Europe.

Take for example the attempt by the Belgians to charge your Prime Minister Ariel Sharon with war crimes. Doesn't it sound familiar? The Christian Falangist massacred Palestinians in Sabra and Shatila, and whom do you think they blame? The Christians?

No, they blame the Jews, the way they blamed the Jews for crucifying Christ, while every sane man knows that the Romans did it.

But today there is one big difference, the existence of the State of Israel . An ever growing number of Christians believe that the prophecy of the resurrected Israel has been fulfilled and it is a holy obligation of all Christians to support the state of Israel. Whatever their reasons, Israel needs all the support it can get. Twenty centuries of incitement can not be eradicated so easily, but the new wave of Christian support for Israel is a step in the right direction.

With the Islamic threat at their door step, perhaps they realize that they are in the same boat as the Jews now. After September eleven in the States, Bali, Tunis and other terrorists attacks on the international community we are beginning to wake up to serious threat of fanatical Islam. A growing number of people in Europe are not buying the hate filled message of Islam against the Jews. Many of us are getting organized to counter act that message. We have to fight the media that is so biased against the Jewish state and we wonder why?

You will find people like us in many towns of Germany and even in Europe as a whole. The biggest danger though, are your own reporters who are quoted day and night by the enemies of Israel."

He was right in that. Our meetings with writers and intellectuals in Germany always centered on the articles appearing in the Israeli press, which is more damaging than those reporters themselves realize.

Perhaps many should hear what Thomas had to say, especially our own self haters, and Israel denouncers who in the Israeli press provide the ammunition our enemies need to fan the flames of hate not only against the state of Israel, but also against the Jewish people in Europe.

Free press is undoubtedly a necessary condition for democracy, but in war time, if it helped the enemy, all democracies applied some kind of censorship, and that we are fighting a war here, no one doubts.

Solly Ganor

P.S. Solly Ganor's book: Light One Candle, has been recommended by Elie Wiesel as an excellent educational tool. See Elie Wiesel's recommendation on PBS web.

(http://www.pbs.org/eliewiesel/teaching/activity1.html ) This book is available at Amazon.com and Barnesandnoble.com http://www.NaomiRagen.com