- BERLIN (Reuters) - A rowdy
dispute that broke out during a ceremony to rename a Berlin street Judenstrasse
-- Jews Street -- six decades after the Nazis removed the name has aroused
fears and anger in Germany's tiny Jewish community.
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- Paul Spiegel, head of the Central Council of Jews, said
reports that protesters in the working class district of Spandau disrupted
the ceremony earlier this month with ugly shouts of "Juden raus"
(Jews out) recalled the darkest chapter of Germany's Nazi past.
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- Although police at the ceremony abruptly ended by the
disturbance have said they did not hear the shouts, Berlin's city government
has launched a criminal investigation.
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- "It is further proof that inhibitions about anti-Semitic
sentiments are falling if ordinary people start shouting slogans such as
'Juden raus' in public," Spiegel said. "Germany hasn't seen anything
like this since 1945."
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- The controversy over the new street name is only the
latest incident fueling angst among the country's 100,000 Jews a half century
after the Holocaust that killed most of the 600,000 German Jews, and some
6 million Jews throughout Europe.
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- A swastika was recently drawn on a guest book at the
Sachsenhausen concentration camp; a memorial to Jews in a town north of
Berlin was painted with swastikas and damaged by fire; charges of anti-Semitism
have been raised against a top politician; and a survey found most Germans
believe Jews are exploiting the Holocaust to further their interests.
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- Even in the leafy Berlin district of Steglitz, attempts
to change a street name from "Treitschkestrasse" after 19th century
historian Heinrich von Treitschke because he had claimed Jews were "Germany's
misfortune" have run into firm resistance from the conservative local
council.
-
- An initiative to change the street named after the notorious
historian, whose writings were adopted by the Nazis, to "Kurt-Scharf-Strasse"
after a Protestant bishop who hid Jews from the Nazis have repeatedly failed.
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- "We've seen a new dimension of anti-Semitism,"
said Michel Friedman, vice president of the Central Council of Jews. "Inhibitions
are falling, and not only in Germany." He added that "anti-Semitic
positions" could be found in the governments in Austria, Denmark and
Italy.
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- REMINDER OF EARLIER GERMAN ANTI-SEMITISM
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- The dispute over the name "Judenstrasse," a
tidy avenue lined with small businesses near the local town hall, attracted
widespread coverage and raised the level of anxiety among Jews.
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- "This was a painful reminder to us of the conditions
in the late 1920s," said Spiegel, referring to the period just before
Hitler took power when German Jews went from being largely integrated in
society to being increasingly ostracized.
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- The leader of Berlin's Jewish community, Alexander Brenner,
said he was giving a speech at a ceremony in Spandau Nov. 1 when a group
of demonstrators opposed to renaming the street Judenstrasse from its current
Kinkelstrasse shouted: "Juden raus," "Jews have no God,"
and "Jews are to blame for everything."
-
- Brenner stopped his speech, turned toward the booing
demonstrators, and before breaking off his address, said: "You are
putting yourselves in the same category as neo-Nazis."
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- Karl-Heinz Bannasch, a local leader of the liberal Free
Democratic party (FDP) who has tried to overcome local resistance to rename
the street Judenstrasse since 1985, said he was also harassed by protests
from a group known as "Save Kinkel Street." He said he received
hate mail for his efforts.
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- "I was making some opening remarks for Brenner and
was constantly interrupted by the demonstrators," Bannasch told Reuters.
"I heard shouts 'Juden raus' and 'Jews are godless."'
-
- Bannasch said a local resident told him: "We understand
that you're here for this, but why did you bring this Jew with you?"
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- Berlin police rejected complaints officers on duty at
the ceremony failed to take any steps against the demonstrators.
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- Berlin police chief Dieter Glietsch said the police officers
had heard boos and whistles but did not hear any anti-Jewish shouts. He
said officers said there was so much commotion at the ceremony that they
could not hear any slogans shouted.
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- "Aside from the question of whether or not the comments
said to have been made are a criminal offense, there is no doubt whatsoever
that the incident is a disgrace," Glietsch said.
-
- Glietsch turned the case over to criminal investigators.
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- Berlin Interior Minister Ehrhart Koerting, who is in
charge of the police, said prosecutors would find out what happened.
-
- "I hope the guilty parties are brought before a
judge," he said. Inciting racial hatred is the probable charge.
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- BERLINERS ADMIT OPPOSITION
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- Several residents in Spandau, a northwest Berlin suburb
that was once famous for the prison that long housed convicted Nazi war
criminals including Rudolf Hess, openly admitted their opposition to renaming
the street Judenstrasse.
-
- "I can understand why people are angry," said
Klaus-Juergen Kuehl, who runs a bar called Roby's Bistro on Judenstrasse.
"I really don't care what the street name is. But look at all the
costs for new stationery and business cards."
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- A 35-year-old coffee shop salesman named Oliver said
the FDP had provoked the protest by inviting the Jewish leader to speak.
"The whole thing was a provocation," said the salesman who declined
to give his surname.
-
- "It's unfair and insulting to be labeled a Nazi
by the media," said Agnes Meyer, 27, a clerk. "Why isn't there
the same kind of outcry when refugee centers in Germany are burned down?"
-
- The Spandau incident came as the newspaper Die Zeit published
a survey of 3,000 Germans by Bielefeld University that found 52 percent
believed Jews "exploit the Holocaust and making Germans pay for the
Nazi past."
-
- The survey also found 22 percent believe "Jews have
too much influence" and 17 percent said "Jews are partially responsible
for their persecution." The study also found, however, that 68 percent
"welcome the fact more Jews live in Germany again."
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- The row also came shortly after Juergen Moellemann, then
FDP deputy leader, was forced to apologize for anti-Semitic remarks that
upset German Jews. He had enraged many by saying Israel's army used "Nazi
methods" against Palestinians.
-
- Moellemann had also criticized Friedman, who is also
a popular television host, for a "spiteful manner" and suggested
Friedman encouraged anti-Semitism with his own words.
-
- Spiegel, the leader of Germany's Jewish community, had
warned before the latest incidents of a growing backlash against Jews in
Germany even as a growing number of Jews had moved to the country from
Eastern Europe in the last decade.
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- "People are no longer shy about hurling their anti-Semitism
directly into my face," said Spiegel, a Holocaust survivor.
-
- "We are being slandered as money-grubbing ... But
what frightens me the most is the large number of those who are indifferent.
They don't have anything against Jews. But they lack the courage to take
a stand against rabble-rousers."
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