European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - January 4, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse Germans increasingly resent reminders of nazi legacy the past that won t go away associated press reminders of the brutal legacy of Adoll Miller s third Reid and the systematic murder of More than 6 million jews Are almost everywhere in West Germany. Bui 41 years after world War ii there Are growing signs of Public discomfort Al constantly facing the past that won t 90 the nazi Era Springs up in dozens of books and movies on the siege and on television. During Ana november week atone the two National West German television networks broadcast More Man 16 hours of films and stows related id the nazi past. They ranged from the Slick mini series fathers and sons about a wealthy Industrial family caught in the nazi web to horrifying soviet film footage of the liberation of the notorious aur jew ill death Camp. On one night two of the programs overlapped on the iwo nationwide to channels during evening prime time and in estimated 19 million people in this nation of 61.4 million were watching. Other reminder abound including Chancellor Helmut Kohl s disputed comparison in october of the Public relations skills of nazi propaganda chief Joseph Goeb Bete to those of soviet Leader Mikhail s. Gorbachev. A newly formed jewish theater is touring several cities with the touching tale of a jewish puppeteer traumatized by his Auschwitz experiences. Yet Many prominent West germans say there is growing irn tation Over the reminders of the nazi past. For some time the voices have been growing loud saying we should bring these things loan end says historian Wolfgang j. Mommsen. That s the prevailing mood among the Public contends Mommsen a history professor at the University of Dusseldorf. In the political area the Pitburg act of reconciliation was supposed to be such in end said Mommsen. 56, re Imong to president Reagan s bitterly disputed visit to a German War cemetery in May 1985. Some conservative German historians Are Page 13 the stars and stripes challenging the concept that the holocaust was h unique event standing apart from other atrocities in human history. They have caned for the nazi crimes to be put into perspective noting for example the deaths of millions of prisoners in the stalinist Era gulag Camps in the soviet Union. Historian Ernst Nolle 63. The most noted of the conservative historians called the nazi Era from 1933 to 1945 the past that won t go Chancellor Helmut Kohl. 56, has infuriated jews and Liberal commentators by routinely referring to the Pardon for those born later critics see it As an attempt to erase or Al least dilute the nazi legacy. Other members of Kohl s Christian democratic Union have taken a similar line whoever wants to misuse the coping with the past to make our people unfit for the future must be opposed right Wing politician Alfred dragger told the bundestag lower House of parliament. The 66-year-old cd caucus Leader added the German nation was t founded in 1933, end it was t buried in 1945." a week earlier a defense lawyer in a nazi War crimes trial in Frankfurt had objected to an expert witness because his Grandfather was jewish and thus the witness might be biased. Some commentators in conservative newspapers have grown increasingly shrill in rejecting any historically inherited collective guilt of contemporary germans Tor the nazi Era Claue jacob59, writing in the nov. 30 edition of the conservative newspaper Walt am sonntag repeated a familiar refrain in claiming the majority of the germans knew Little of nothing of me murders in concentration Camps. The scenes of the horror were relatively far from the German Homeland he wrote. The Auschwitz Camp for example was located in Modem Day Poland. The number of culprits was relatively Small Jacobi contended in the nationally circulated newspaper based in Hamburg he argued that critics of Germany nevertheless knew How to exploit Hie guilt that eventually touched the entire nation and urged germans to isolate the sunday january 4, 1987 truly guilty by questioning aging witnesses. The City of Dachau plans to publish a new guide to the City next Spring emphasizing the town s cultural attractions rather than the horrors of its past. Visitors will be Able to get a positive image of Dachau to supplement the negative notion of the cily government said in explaining its action Dachau was the site of the firs of the notorious concentration Camps where thousands of jews and opponents of the nazi regime were held and mad unlit it was liberated by american troops in 1945. Michel Friedmann a Frankfurt City Council member and leading member of the City s jewish Community fears the trend toward playing flown the past May Lead to renewed anti semitism. People Are saying if there had t been any jews there would t have been any Auschwitz and if there had t been any Auschwitz then Germany would have had a much brighter past.1" Friedmann says. There has been a reversal of the victim culprit roles he says. Friedmann 30, said that Young people in particular have an insufficient grasp of the holocaust and the nazi Era. For example. Friedmann said Only five months of his secondary school instruction specifically focused on the Era and he called the course insufficient. Holger Bornard governor of the state of Hesse warned against the potential dangers of comparing the crimes against the jews with other atrocities of history. Ii would be disastrous if this discussion were to give the later bom the legitimation to wipe the years 1933 to 1945 out of their picture of history said the 55-year-old so governor. The spa the main opposition party has promised to seek extra compensation Money for certain jewish and non jewish holocaust victims when the new bundestag convenes alter elections Taler this month West Germany already has paid 77 billion Marks about $36 billion to holocaust survivors. The figure is expected to reach 102 billion Marks about $50 billion by the turn of the Century and then slow As the last holocaust survivors die
