Ethnic Cleansing in Germany: A Symposium
Xenophobia in Modern Germany
Harry James Cargas
Author and lecturer
Advisory Board Member
Catholic Institute for Holocaust Studies
It is an honor to have been asked to be a part of this panel tonight, but it is certainly not a pleasure. There is no good feeling that can accompany the preparation for a talk that will deal with the persecution of human beings by other human beings. But it is an obligation which must be accepted. I was asked to address the problems that minority groups are faced with in Germany today and will spend a few minutes on each of these topics with the unspoken understanding that some of the issues discussed are not peculiar to Germany alone.
|
Whatever solution we conclude with regarding suggestions for improving the situation will have to begin with a more tolerant, mature society. If this were a debate, the topic might be ‘Resolved, that modern Germany is an intolerant nation.’ |
Germany is a democracy with a constitution which guarantees freedom of religion, yet Germany is being criticized for discrimination on several levels.
I speak not as a Scientologist. I am not one. I am a Catholic. I say this to indicate my words are meant to have a certain neutrality. I speak not in support of one religion or another, but these are the unhappy facts.
We can begin with some questions.
Why, in 1985, did Simon Wiesenthal, the Nazi hunter, testify in Darmstadt regarding the victimization of Gypsies there whose
houses were taken away from them by the mayor of that city because of an insult to honor?
Why did Jeri Labor, the executive
director of the Helsinki Watch, send a letter to Chancellor Helmut Kohl in 1992 stating that his organization has been “closely
following the increase in violent attacks against foreigners in Germany...,” including Gypsies? Labor wrote that “Gypsies in Germany have a long history of persecution, and they continue to face prejudice and hatred.” Remarking on the fact that Germany was embarking on a plan to pay Romania a considerable amount of money to take back Gypsy émigrés, Labor cited this as deportation which
“is discriminatory treatment that violates Germany’s obligations ’to engage in
no practice of racial discrimination’ as established in international law.”
Another question: Why did Harvey M. Meyerhoff, the chairman of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council, in 1993 condemn the German government’s decision to deport immigrant Gypsies to Romania (where, by the way, historically, they have been
miserably treated)? In writing to former Acting Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger, Meyerhoff said that “the Gypsies today must be understood in the context of history. Most Gypsy survivors [of the Holocaust] did not receive restitution or any form of financial reimbursement after the war.
Next