European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - April 7, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse Has Germany really buried the past / by Marc Fisher Washington pos Tanna Rosmus s own Mother in Law wont talk to her. For years Rosmus received bomb threats. She was sued for slander. A Man punched her As she ate a pizza in a restaurant. Even now people on the streets of her Hometown Call her Quot the Nasty what Rosmus did when she was still in High school in Passau West Germany a charming town on the Danube was to ask her friends and neighbors for help with an essay titled Quot my Hometown in the third she had set out to write about resistance to Hitler in her Corner of Bavaria. But when no one would talk when even Public documents were closed to her Rosmus dug deeper. After years of research and court Battles she Learned that a Passau Churchman who for 40 years had told people How he resisted Hitler actually had written that the nazi Leader was a Good Man. She found out about the nazi past of prominent people and about the nazi deeds that Ordinary people watched a roundups of jews confiscation of houses and shops the creation of three concentration Camps. As East and West Germany move closer to being United for the first time since the third Reich foreigners and germans Are canvassing the culture for evidence that the racial and religious hate that swept through German society 50 years ago cannot recur. In Poland and the soviet Union political leaders worry openly about How the new Germany will behave. In Western Europe and the United states political support for a single Germany is tempered by concern Over the depth of change in a society that spawned the holocaust. Quot i can understand the anxieties people have Quot West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl said recently. Quot we have our history the crimes committed by the nazis in the name of the German people dark periods. But in the last 40 years we have proved ourselves. We would like to be a Normal country in West Germany has created a thriving democracy with stable political parties and a vibrant free press. East Germany however had known nothing but dictatorship from 1933 until the past autumn when mass demonstrations toppled the communist government. Quot we have not dealt with our past a said Wolfgang Templen an East Berlin philosopher. Quot we tried to throw it away like an old jacket. When i see the mentality of the germans in history i say there is Good reason to fear East germans were taught in school that they Bear no blame for the nazi genocide that instead West germans Are the True descendants of nazism. West germans have had a varied More probing approach to their past the government has paid reparations to jews and other victims of the nazis and filled to screens with documentaries on the causes and effects of the third Reich. Vet Many West germans say their schooling included hardly a word about the period. Many families have maintained a rigid silence on their past. West Germany has institutionalized its Battle against the legacy of authoritarianism teaching military recruits to disobey immoral orders and adopting the world s strictest privacy Laws. Yet German workplaces retain a strict formal Hierarchy and the Constitution gives preferential treatment to people Quot of German Stock Quot despite the objections of other immigrants. Even the Rosmus Case is More Complex than it first seems. Just As some Passau residents made it Clear that her curiosity was unwelcome other germans have shown that they want to hear her message. Quot people want Only to forget Quot said a Passau town councilman . Heller. Quot Young people have no connection to it they have their own problems. And old people done to want to hear about it but Rosmus a Walls Are covered with awards from her countrymen and she gets dozens of letters from germans who want to know How to find out about the nazi period in their towns. Some people look at such contradictions and say they Are evidence of a thriving open society. But others look at the same facts and see a dangerous unwillingness to Deal with the past. Quot the German Way of thinking has not changed Quot said Rosmus now a doctoral student in sociology. Quot they re afraid of anyone thinking in a different Way. I asked and i asked about Passau s concentration Camp but nobody would remember a not private people not City officials not the Bishop. Only my grandmother told me yes it was right Here in our what Rosmus experienced according to a prominent East German sociologist is a natural desire to forget to move on combined with a particularly German hostility to those who go against the Grain. Quot for years germans could not show any Pride in themselves Quot said Irene Runge a sociologist at East Berlin s Humboldt University who has studied German attitudes toward foreigners. A a new generation wants to say their culture and country Are o.k.,&Quot she said. Quot they done to understand Why someone would want to go around talking about things that happened before they were As a result according to Runge s studies anti foreigner attitudes thrive. German antipathy to foreigners is not a modern phenomenon but has been traced through centuries by historians who attribute it to the germans tribal origins. Although modern Germany did not coalesce into a single country until 1871, the German Folk culture has been marked since medieval times by a deep romantic affection for the land. Despite Germany a traditional View of itself As a homogeneous society More than 8 percent of West germans now Are foreigners most of them from Turkey and Yugoslavia. Quot turks have never been accepted As part of German society and now it is getting worse Quot said Kadir Ercan who runs a West Berlin housing service for turkish immigrants. Quot suddenly with All these East germans coming in needing apartments and jobs we turks get the feeling we Are not expected to West Germany a 1.5 million turks initially were received with open arms. In the 1970s, they were invited to help provide the booming West German Economy with needed manual labor. But in the last 20 years a and especially in the past year As a country of 61 million has absorbed nearly a million immigrants a attitudes have shifted turks say. Even As it welcomes ethnic germans from Poland and the soviet Union with immediate citizenship and settlement Aid the Bonn government encourages turks and other foreigners to leave the country offering them $6,000 each to go Home with a $1,000 Bonus for every child they take along. About 40,000 jews live in West Germany today the number is Uncertain because Many jews decline to identify their Faith on the government tax forms from which statistics Are drawn. Many fear a resurgence in nationalism and anti semitism according to jewish leaders in Berlin Frankfurt and Bonn. Quot despite the fact that there Are so few jews Here anti semitism is still Strong Quot said Andrew guinness a Magazine publisher who is Active in the West Berlin jewish Community. Quot of course democracy is firmly established Here. People done to fear a return of National socialism but rather a Rise in anti semitic feelings especially if the economic situation gets attitudes toward jews in the two Germany differ considerably. While West germans often Are interested in Judaism and the holocaust East germans a whose fallen government portrayed communists As the primary target of third Reich terrors a have barely acknowledged nazi crimes against jews. Despite that difference Runge a founder of Berlin s new jewish cultural organization argues that antisemitism could Rise again in a United Germany because she says a jews Are seen As something non German separate from their the Only answer is for germans themselves to examine their past and make it Clear that they will not accept intolerance anymore Runge s discounted easter books you la save 25% off or More on our comprehensive selection of children s easter books available at your Community stars and stripes bookstores. You la find colouring books fun pads Board books Frame tray puzzles activity books bedtime stories a Book of children s prayers sticker books and much More. Stop in and save on children s easter books today m w m it saturday april 7, 1990 the stars and stripes a a a Page 17
