Copyright (c) 2008 Agostino von Hassell Paul Célan: Death Fugue Excerpts from a 1952 Poem He writes...

Copyright (c) 2008 Agostino von Hassell

Paul Célan: Death FugueExcerpts from a 1952 Poem

He writes when dusk falls to Germany your golden hair. Margarete

he writes it and steps out of doors and the stars are flashing

he whistles his pack out

he whistles his Jews out in earth has them dig for a grave….

Black milk of daybreak we drink you at night we drink you at noon death is a master from Germany

we drink you at sundown and in the morning we drink and we drink you

Death is a master from Germany his eyes are blue


Modern Anti-Semitism in Germany

Agostino von Hassell

Alliance of Enemies

March 25, 2008Presentation to the 92nd

Street “Y” in New York City


Agostino von Hassell Agostino von Hassell spent his formative years in the

United States, studying European History at Columbia University graduating with a B.A. in 1974. He then attended Columbia Journalism School, graduating with a M.S. and with honors in 1975.

He wrote numerous political and historical articles for publications as diverse as The Marine Corps Gazette, Die Zeit (Germany), Naval Proceedings, Defense News, The Navy Times and others.

St. Martin’s Press, New York, published in the fall of 2006 An Alliance of Enemies, a book on the untold story on the secret contacts between Germany’s resistance the Abwehr and the OSS in World War II.


Europe and Anti-Semitism This is an acute

crisis and the anti-Semitism sentiments are growing

It is a serious crisis yet utterly ignored by “Christian” Europeans

British Academics and Israel

Attacks on Jews in Germany Poland Italy France Belgium


Ulrich von Hassell – Nov. 25, 1938 after the “Kristallnacht”

I am writing under crushing emotions evoked by the vile persecution of the Jews after the murder of von Rath….

As a matter of fact there is no doubt that we are dealing with an officially organized anti-Jewish riot which broke out at the same hour of the night all over Germany! Truly a disgrace!


Deep Shame

For a German born in 1953 today’s anti-Semitism is a major issue. It causes shame and disgust.

Yet when in Europe, this sentiment is rarely shared.

Germany is inherently an evil nation – with a strong lack of moral character.


Did Germans Know of the Holocaust?

“Countless Jews have been gassed in specially built chambers.

May 15, 1943 – Diaries of Ulrich von Hassell

Yet the majority of the Germans after the war denied any knowledge at all.

Over 150,000 Germans were part of the machine of death. Did none of them ever speak about this?


The Allies Knew Well and Did LittleFrom Alliance of Enemies

By this time [1941], Hitler’s policies on Jews were fairly well known. It is safe to assume that Dulles had known a good deal about them even before he arrived in Europe.

In early 1943, Visser ’t Hooft notified Washington and London that he had incontrovertible evidence of a “campaign of deliberate extermination” of Jews,” and urged immediate rescue action.

In the end the Americans agreed not to ruffle British feathers by insisting on anything that might offend the Arabs in Palestine. The British agreed not to press the U. S. on its immigration policy. It emerged that neutrals might, with the proper incentives, take some Jews, or Jewish children, and small camps for refugees could be built in North Africa.


Germany and The Holocaust Contrition is a true

religious and often very catholic concept but has never applied to modern Germany as such.

There has been lip-service but no deep contrition, no true effort to see forgiveness


German Prosecution of War Crimes Germany declared grand

plans to prosecute its own war criminals after the country was formed in 1949.

Yet actual proescutions were very limited

Amnesty laws in 1949 and 1954 allowed many to avoid prosecution.

By 2008 less than 1,250 people in Germany were convicted for complicity in Nazi-area murders.

Overall Germany conducted 6,498 individual trials – minimal compared to the over 100,000 investigations.

Der Spiegel, March 2008


German Government Efforts:Camouflage of True Feelings? Open-minded support

of Israel until about 1990

Efforts – at times half-hearted – for a true settlement of all Holocaust Claims.

A governmental policy of seeking forgiveness yet this policy has limited appeal to the vast majority of the Germans.

Efforts to crack down on anti-Semitic violence has been limited and has been more of a lip-service

The stability of the former Eastern Germany has taken precedence over stamping out the growth in racial and anti-Semitic violence and feelings.

Teaching in schools is limited.


Julius Schöps, "Antisemitismus ist Teil dieser Kultur," Taz, 25 October 2002 Protests against anti-Semitism, organized by small groups,

do not get extensive attention in Germany. Resolutions by the German parliament to reject anti-Semitism are drivel of the worst kind....But all those ineffective actions are presented to the world as a strong defense against the charge of anti-Semitism. The truth is: no one is really interested in these matters. No one really cares.

Schöps is the son of the preeminent Prussian Jewish historian Hans Joachim Schöps who wrote in October 1933: “We are distinguished by our religion and our origins as

Jews - not as non-Aryans - in a distinction that transcends mere biology. To be precise, we have no culture ( Kultur ) of our own, but only our own religion (kultus). We have no spoken language of our own, but merely a holy tongue. Apart from the religious aspect, we have no specifically Jewish desire but only a German one. It is for Germany that our hearts pound.”


Anti-Semitism Attacks in 2008 January: In Angermuende - A gravestone in the Jewish

cemetery of Angermuende, near Berlin, was vandalized with a swastika.

January: A group of youths in central Berlin shouted anti-Semitic slurs and set a dog on five students who were leaving a Jewish school yesterday, according to police.

January: In Berlin - In a Jewish cemetery in the eastern part of Berlin, vandals damaged a window of the Lapidarium building, which houses gravestones dating to the 19th and early 20th century.

January: In Berlin - A window of a Jewish institution in the western part of Berlin was damaged by gunfire, according to police reports.

February: Unknown perpetrators have attacked and vandalized a Jewish nursery school in the German capital.

February: Vandals daubed a swastika on one of the slabs that make up the Holocaust memorial in downtown Berlin towards the end of February, police said.


Today in GermanyInsults Against Jews on the

Rise - By Björn Hengst and Jan Friedmann

Right-wing adolescents and young Muslims are displaying levels of anti-Semitism that were long considered unthinkable in Germany. At many German schools, the word "Jew" is becoming an insult again. German politicians don't seem to know how to respond.

March 2006, Der Spiegel


German Anti-Semitism Pushes The Envelope … since in recent years the word “Jew” has again become a general

purpose insult, precisely among young people. Some German rappers also use the term “Intifada Rap” to describe their music and they see themselves as belonging to a “Generation Jihad.” They do everything they can to adopt the look and tone of Jew-haters. In videos that are accessible to anyone on YouTube, rap fans celebrate Hamas activists and other Islamist terror groups and challenge the right of Israel to exist. In these circles, Osama bin Laden has long since replaced Che Guevara as a symbol of emancipation.

...But Robert Peschke is right to point out that this development is not simply to be explained by the Muslim immigrant background of the rappers: “Not a single German rapper would have enough money to keep his refrigerator stocked, if it was not for the purchasing power of the white middle class kids who buy their recordings. They are drawn to the toughness of the Islamophile German rap and they pay hard cash for it. But they also can get their anti-Americanism and anti-Semitism on offer from ‘white bread’ rappers.”

www.israelforum.com March 2, 2008


Being Leftist and Anti-Semitic in Germany – By Susanne Urban in 2007

After the reunification of Germany, 1989 surveys indicated that there was much more anti-Semitism in West Germany than in East Germany. This was a fallacy arising from the distinction between anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism. Since then, Eastern German "anti-Zionism" has merged with Western German "anti-Semitism" into a homogeneous whole.

Since 2000, the German Left has voiced its solidarity and support for the Palestinians and for suicide bombers. This is an extension of the New Left anti-Zionism of the 1960s, with the same structural motifs and expressions.

There is also a major trend in the German Left of Nazifying and demonizing Israel, opening the door to proclaiming Jews to be the source of the world's evils.

For the New Left, nothing could discredit anti-Zionism. Even after Israeli athletes were taken hostage and murdered during the Munich Olympic Games in 1972, the leftists strengthened their solidarity with the Palestinian terror organizations.


"a new dimension of anti-Semitism."

Berlin's Jewish community has already issued warnings about "a new dimension of anti-Semitism." Jewish children increasingly face the hatred of Muslim adolescents in addition to aggression from right-wing extremists. The Jewish community advises parents to send their children to Jewish schools in case of conflicts, pointing out that there they will at least be safe. Statement of February 2008


The Holocaust Settlement Why did Holocaust

Settlements come so very late? Germany 1999 (and

ongoing) Austria (2001) Switzerland (1999) Portugal (1997)


The Settlements The separate settlement funds were negotiated

starting in the early 1990's after the fall of Europe's Communist governments and the reunification of Germany. They include $1.25 billion for unclaimed Swiss bank accounts held by those murdered; $5 billion from Germany and German companies to compensate Jews and non-Jews who worked as slave laborers; a half-billion dollars from European insurance companies that never paid off the policies of the dead; $1 billion from Jewish property that was plundered by the Nazis in what was later East Germany; and $1.7 billion largely for reparation payments that East Germany never made.


Resisting a Settlement Many now fear open

support for Israel as well as support for Jews the world over?

Why? Why again?

Holocaust Settlements were not politically convenient.

It took too much time and too much effort and it is a serious mark of shame on European countries – mostly Germany, Austria, and Switzerland – as well as the United States which avoided this issue for the sake of rebuilding post-war Europe


German banks deny claims by 5 survivors In the meantime, two German banks asked a U.S.

federal court on Friday to dismiss an $18 billion class-action suit brought against them by five Holocaust survivors.

Deutsche Bank and Dresdner Bank, in a 70-page motion filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, denied the survivors' allegations that the institutions profited from property stripped away from death-camp inmates by Adolf Hitler's Nazi soldiers.

The banks asked that the suit be thrown out for several reasons, including that most of the evidence and witnesses are in Germany and that the matter of the property was essentially resolved at the close of World War II.

CNN - November 21, 1998


It goes on and on…Children of Holocaust survivors file class action suit

against Germany

The Associated Press Sunday, July 15, 2007 JERUSALEM: Raised on fear and depression, children of

Holocaust survivors say the Nazi terror has crossed generations, and want the German government to pay for their psychiatric care.

On Monday, Israelis who call themselves second generation survivors are filing a class action suit in a Tel Aviv court against the German government to finance therapy.

Thousands of people from Holocaust families are incapable of working, live with an irrational fear of starvation and suffer incapacitating bouts of depression, said Baruch Mazor, the director of the Fisher Fund which is filing the suit.


Stuart E. Eizenstat – a man with courage

Author of "Imperfect Justice: Looted Assets, Slave Labor, and the Unfinished Business of World War II"

He served in a number of senior positions in the Clinton administration, including undersecretary of state, while simultaneously leading the effort to obtain reparations for World War II victims.


The Settlement Effort Started in 1995 – 50 Years after the War "It's the story of political intrigue and diplomacy at the highest

levels, with a cast of characters that would fit in well with a Shakespearean play," Eizenstat said.

In January 1995, while serving as U.S. ambassador to the European Union, Eizenstat received a call from Richard C. Holbrooke, assistant secretary of state, asking him to encourage the new democracies of Eastern Europe to return the communal properties that had been owned by religious communities. The properties—churches, synagogues, schools, community centers and even cemeteries—had been confiscated by the Germans during World War II, then nationalized by the Communists.

Eizenstat said the U.S. government also gave him permission to work on seeking restitution for these accounts. Class-action lawsuits all over the United States were filed against the Swiss banks.

Switzerland fought the disclosures and resented the pressure. Germany was cooperative, understanding it must once again pay for its wartime sins. Austria complained that it, too, was a victim of Hitler, but eventually faced its past and reached a $1 billion settlement. France, for the first time, accepted responsibility for the Vichy regime.

Copyright (c) 2008 Agostino von Hassell Paul Célan: Death Fugue Excerpts from a 1952 Poem He writes...

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