Everything made by human hands has a story to tell, a life of its own that cannot be divorced from that of its creator or creators, not to mention the time and place in which it was created. Sometimes the story is clear - for example, we know quite a lot about the Gettysburg Address, its author and context, while if we turn instead to the massive stone heads dotting Easter Island, many more questions remain surrounding who made them, what the impetus was for their creation and what cultural or historical meanings they may have held for the people who once lived there.
When we look at art objects, whether ancient, contemporary or somewhere in between, we often explore the time and place in which the art was made in order to better understand its meaning and significance. We also look at the provenance as a means for establishing the authenticity of a piece and to better understand the history of the object itself. With all of this in mind, I found myself somewhat surprised by media reports that several paintings by Adolf Hitler were recently sold at auction in Germany, fetching a total of nearly half a million dollars. As The Boston Globe reported online, the sale itself was highly controversial, noting that while sales of works which contain Nazi imagery are illegal in Germany, the paintings in question, which include landscapes and focus on other apparently inoffensive subjects (though clearly reflective, in some cases, of the delusions and fantasies which helped fuel the Shoah) may be sold.
This sale and the logic behind it are deeply problematic in several ways, including, primarily, the idea that the sellers are essentially deriving financial benefit from the Holocaust, profiting off of the deaths of millions of Jews, Christians, Poles, homosexuals, individuals with disabilities, Roma and many others.
The other major problem here is a worldview that sees these paintings as "art," as opposed to "historical artifacts," the latter, in my mind, being a much more accurate way of viewing them. Seen as "art," these works are likely considered curiosities tied to a notable, infamous figure. To me, this is both a morally flawed and ignorant way of viewing them - instead of having the paintings put up for auction and transferred from one private owner to another, they should instead be seen as historical artifacts and stored in a secure archive somewhere, accessible to scholars, but otherwise invisible. There are likely those who say these paintings should be destroyed, and perhaps they are right, but given the fraught history of Nazi-era Germany's relationship to the arts and culture, such a move would also undoubtedly be controversial, and rather perversely, increase the value of any paintings which managed to avoid destruction.
For all of these reasons, I think there is a strong case to be made for the removal of these paintings from the international art market. Perhaps it is too late now for the paintings and the proceeds from this sale in Nuremberg, but the next time such deplorable items come up for sale I hope that some sense of decency will prevail, and potential buyers and sellers will be shamed out of profiting from mass murder.
Copyright Daniel E. Levenson 2015.
Wednesday, June 24, 2015
Friday, June 19, 2015
US State Department report highlights value of cooperation in countering terrorism
The recently released US State Department Country
Reports on terrorism for 2014 isn’t likely to become popular beach reading this
summer, but it may well be one of the most sobering publications to appear this
month. Outlining both terrorist activity and government responses, this lengthy
document provides a useful overview and timeline, on a country-by-country basis,
of global terror activity.
A document such as this does not stand alone, and requires
much more background information to be understood in context. For this reason, I found comments made by Tina S. Kaidanow,
Ambassador-at-Large and Coordinator for Counterterrorism, and posted on the State Department website, to
be particularly noteworthy. Addressing
the need for greater collaboration and engagement by police and civil society
actors around the issue of terrorism, Ambassador Kaidanow also highlighted the importance
of respecting human rights and the rule of law, saying, “The United States
needs partners who can not only contribute to military operations, but also
conduct arrests, prosecutions, and incarceration of terrorists with their
facilitation networks. Addressing terrorism in a rule of law framework with
respect for human rights is critical both for ensuring the sustainability of
their efforts and for preventing the rise of new forms of violent extremism.”
Trying to strike the proper balance between security and
respect for foundational elements of civil society is not an easy thing to do,
and has been an endless source of public debate these last 14 years in both the
US and abroad. At this very moment, congress is wrestling with this issue
against the backdrop of a looking presidential contest, a factor which only
further fuels the intensity of this debate.
While many countries are working both domestically and in partnerships
across borders to counter violent extremism, there are, as the report notes,
several which are doing the opposite. In some places, such as Cuba, the
government has taken meaningful steps to demonstrate it is distancing itself
from terrorism, while in others, such as Iran, the official leadership continues
to actively support terrorism, contributing to instability and violence across
the globe. In fact, in the case of Iran, the report notes of the country, that,
“While its main effort focused on supporting goals
in the Middle East, particularly in Syria, Iran and its proxies also continued
subtle efforts at growing influence elsewhere including in Africa, Asia, and,
to a lesser extent, Latin America. Iran used the Islamic Revolutionary Guard
Corps-Qods Force (IRGC-QF) to implement foreign policy goals, provide cover for
intelligence operations, and create instability in the Middle East.” As
author Matthew Levitt and others have extensively documented, such actions by
Iran and the IRGC are nothing new and this report confirms that these activities
continue apace, raising serious questions ahead of the June 30 deadline about
how committed to peace and stability Tehran actually is.
Aside from governments
which actual sponsor terrorist activity, there are also a number of places with
weak central governments, including failed or failing states, where terrorists
and their supporters are able to operate with a great deal of freedom. In such
places, the breakdown in political infrastructure has undoubtedly put even
greater stress on civil society and community-level institutions, creating an
even more fertile environment for crime and terror activity. These places
include the southern Philippines as well as those which are more often reported
on in the US news as terrorist havens, including Iraq, Yemen, Afghanistan, Pakistan
and Somalia. In these areas the problem is not that the central government is
actively sponsoring terrorism or has declined to work with international partners
to combat it for overtly political or ideological reasons, but rather that the
governments themselves lack the capacity to adequately muster the police,
intelligence and civil society resources needed to prevent terrorist groups
from planning and operating within the borders of their state.
These two very broad questions
– how to respond to state-sponsored terrorism, and what to do about places which attract terrorists by virtue of their lack of adequate
security or political infrastructure – appear somewhat simple on the surface,
but are incredibly vexing upon closer examination. In the case of
state-sponsored terrorism virtually all of the activity surrounding such
sponsorship is carried out clandestinely. The role of Iran in the bombing the
AMIA Jewish cultural center in Buenos Aires in July of 1994 is a good example of
this. By acting in the shadows these nations can engage in a thinly-veiled kind
of plausible deniability, making it very hard for another nation or international
body to hold them accountable. It’s not impossible, just difficult. In this
sense, combating state-sponsored terrorism should involve shining a bright light
on these covert relationships and activities. Exposure may have the practical, short-term
affect of limiting government involvement in supporting attacks and over the
longer term could degrade these relationships to the point where they do not
pose a serious threat. The other necessary element is to try and hold these
nations accountable for their role in terrorism through aggressive sanctions
and efforts to limit their influence in international organizations. Doing this
will not bring about an immediate end to state-sponsored terror, but it could reduce
its efficacy, and by extension, perhaps save some lives.
The question of what to
do about failed, failing and under-governed states is equally as challenging. The
first hurdle we must get over is convincing citizens of Western countries that
vital national interests are at stake when other nations anywhere in the world begin to fall apart. When the central government is corrupt, bankrupt or so distracted
by other issues that it does not pay attention to who is crossing its borders
or what they are doing there when no one is looking, terrorists who are likely
to have western countries in their sights are going to take advantage of this
opportunity.
At the same time, people living in the
countries which have become unstable need to feel like there is a possibility
of a return to normalcy. In other words, the people who will rebuild government
and civil society need to see the value in it, and be willing to take the
required risks to make it happen. Aside from cooperation between military,
intelligence and police forces, this is the kind of collaboration which is
needed to make a real long-term difference when it comes to terrorist
exploitation of political instability.
Anyone reading the State
Department report will see that there are indeed many programs and initiatives
designed to do these things, often in conjunction with civil society partners.
Outside of such partnerships I think that all people have a responsibility to
support this kind of work, because ultimately we all have a stake in its
success. In my mind, this is what makes reports like this one valuable, by
serving to remind us that the threat of terrorism is not monolithic, nor is it
rooted in one particular place or motivation. Instead, what we broadly call “terrorism”
is a multi-faceted, ever-evolving threat that takes many forms and requires an equally
varied response. I’m not usually one to suggest that bureaucracy, government or
otherwise, is often a source of clarity, but as a reminder of the complicated
nature of the threats we face, this report offers a refreshing note of clarity
amidst so much media noise about the nature and extent of terrorism today.
Copyright Daniel E. Levenson 2015.
Thursday, June 18, 2015
Attack in South Carolina raises unanswerable questions about hate, violence and society
When Islamist terrorists attacked the offices of the French satirical publication Charlie Hebdo and a kosher supermarket in Paris earlier this year, I wrote on this blog about how these crimes were not only despicable acts of murder, but assaults on civil society itself. This morning when I woke up and read the terrible news about the killing of 9 innocent people at an historic African-American church in Charleston, South Carolina, I had the same thought once again. To attack a place of worship, whether a church, a mosque, a Sikh temple, a synagogue or wherever else people gather in prayer and community, demonstrates a blatant desire to spread terror by undermining the very sense of peace and security that such places are built to foster.
Of course it is for this very
reason that terrorists from Hezbollah to the Ku Klux Klan have often targeted
symbolically important institutions - any place that serves to bring people
together in friendship, anywhere that provides a place for the free exchange of
ideas or encourages progressive thinking, is seen as a threat. At a very
practical, operational level, I would guess that that the alleged
perpetrator chose to target this particular church because he determined that
there was a high likelihood of "success" in carrying out this attack. Ideologically, if it was indeed an act motivated by hate as early media
reports suggest, this horrible crime was meant to spread fear and damage an important symbol as well.
Inevitably such moments are followed by national soul-searching, as politicians and pundits try to come to grips with what has happened, attempting to understand how prejudice and intolerance can grow into something even more monstrous. There will be practical questions raised and debates begun around gun control, and how to balance the desire for an open society and the need to provide security. While we know that there are ways to make our communities more physically secure. and we applaud the important work that NGO's do to encourage empathy and connections across ethnic, religious and racial boundaries, we are still left with deep questions about what triggers such tragic events, and where, in the human soul, darkness that leads to this kind of bloodshed, dwells. We may never find an adequate answer to this particular question, but on days like today I find myself asking it, again and again.
Copyright Daniel E. Levenson 2015.
Wednesday, June 17, 2015
Reflections on Germany, Part 3: Landscape, vision and the future
This piece is the third and final in a series on my recent trip to Germany at the invitation of the German Foreign Office. In this last installment I offer some final thoughts on the experience and look at the enduring memory of fascism and totalitarianism in Germany.
In Frankfurt, Germany ornate craftsmanship and modern construction stand side by side. Image copyright Daniel E. Levenson 2015. |
In my mind, Germany
has shifted on the map. No longer simply another piece of terra incognita seen
solely through the lens of WWII and the Shoah, it now feels much more real to
me. Perhaps this should not come as a surprise - after all, a place known
only through photos and descriptions, a culture never experienced, is like a
bygone era - the things it produces can be studied and dissected, but hard to
truly understand without the experience of being there. Over the course of 7 days, meeting people, seeing important historic and cultural sites, and simply walking the streets of
Berlin and Frankfurt, Germany became much more a
concrete reality and less of an abstract idea to me.
I think that it was largely the physical landscape and architecture I encountered which
caused this change in perception. Walking the streets of Berlin I was struck by
many aspects of the built environment, from the imposing facade of the
Reichstag, to the life and color of the Berlin Zoo and the expansive green
space of the Tiergarten. There were some old, beautifully crafted buildings
which evoked the grandeur of Berlin before the war, standing beside much newer
construction - both serving as reminders of what happened there seven decades
ago. In fact, it felt like everywhere I turned, there were reminders of the
impact of the Nazis, the war, and in Berlin, the legacy of Communism and the
Cold War. In this way, the buildings constructed after WWII are as much
reminders of what Totalitarianism brought to Germany as anything else, rising
up as part of the rebirth of cities after the conflict.
Heavily damaged by Allied bombing during World War two, today Frankfurt is a thriving city and a major center of economic activity in Germany. Image copyright Daniel E. Levenson 2015. |
Before I went to Germany
I read the book “The Germans,” by historian Gordon A. Crag. Well-written and
engaging, one of the areas where Craig probes the psychic landscape of the country
is in looking at the role of memory and nostalgia in German society. Gordon’s
work suggests that in some ways Romanticism, and a sentimental longing for, and
idealization of, a past that never really existed, contributed not only to feelings
of xenophobia and intolerance, but the violent nationalistic ideology that was
at the heart of the Shoah. Craig notes how during the period of economic
distress and social upheaval which prevailed in Germany following the first
World War, that Romanticism and some of its darker qualities proved highly
attractive in German society. He also notes that such a resurgence was not without strong
roots, writing, “These were manifest in a burgeoning antimodernity and
cultural pessimism that became particularly insistent during the Willhelmine
period, made some contribution to the coming war, and survived it in more
virulent, and tragically, more seductive forms.”
Craig puts forth the
idea in his work that it was a combination of fear, escapism and utopianism
that contributed to xenophobic violence on a massive scale. The idea that this
distortion, this willingness to fly from reality toward a more ideal and
self-fulfilling form of reality, was not doubt deeply destructive for Germany
and the rest of Europe. But it might have been otherwise, as Craig later notes
in his book, “It is possible that the economic and political problems of the
Republic, however intractable they appeared, might have been amenable to
rational solution, but these intellectuals refused to place their undoubted
talents at the service of reason.”
I’m sure I will
continue to think about Germany and my experiences there, and perhaps I will
even visit again one day. But as I sit now and think about the things I saw and
experienced, I can’t help but think about them in the context of Craig’s
analysis – that when faced with seemingly impossible tasks, Germany was all too
often, in its past, eager to turn away from reason and decency, instead
plunging headfirst into a Romantic mirage, a shimmering image of a nostalgic neverland
which does not exist. I think this is a pretty fair assessment of how Germany
has dealt with difficult issues and responded to crises in the past, but today,
in the Stopersteine’s, the Jewish Museum in Berlin, the rebuilt synagogues and
Jewish community centers, bus stop signs, standing remnants of the Berlin Wall
and many other instances of the preservation of reminders of difficulty
realities, there does appear to be a turning toward reason and away from the dangerous
Romantic political ideas which caused the murders of millions of innocent people
in the last century.
The generations of
Germans who have come after the Shoah, and those righteous individuals who risked
their own lives to save others in the war, stand out as exceptions to Germany’s
brightest minds who might have saved Europe from the cataclysm of World War
Two. They have done the exact opposite of what Craig describes in pre-WWII
Germany, literally altering the landscape, in ways both obvious and not, to
reflect not an idealized romanticized past that has no room for the “other,”
but a realistic reflection of what happens when people believe in (and act on)
such dangerously misguided ideas. In these actions and intentions they have given
Germany another chance, another opportunity to act differently the next time.
In this sense these memorials and reminders stand in testimony, calling out to
all who see them to resist violent ideology, anti-Semitism and totalitarianism.
As long as these things remain a part of the physical landscape they will continue to call out – the question we
must ask ourselves, the question only history will be able to answer is, when the time comes again, what our answer will be.
Copyright Daniel E. Levenson 2015.
Tuesday, June 16, 2015
Reflections on Germany, Part 2: Jewish life today
The historic Westend Synagogue in Frankfurt, Germany was completed in 1910 and remains a significant Jewish institution in the city today. Image copyright Daniel E. Levenson 2015. |
During the week I
spent in Germany I had a chance to encounter several different Jewish
communities from many angles, meeting lay leaders, rabbis and others who are
actively engaged in the important work of building and maintaining Jewish life
in the country. What makes this experience all the more remarkable is that such
an effort would have been utterly unimaginable 70 years ago, and is happening
today in a climate in which minority communities across Europe find themselves at
the center of contentious debates surrounding identity and immigration.
Even in very small
communities there are differences in opinion, family custom and religious
practice. This is true in the US, It's certainly true in Israel and perhaps it
should come as no surprise that the same can be said of Germany. In fact, I don't
believe there is anywhere in the world where the Jewish community is entirely
homogeneous, and I seriously doubt this has ever been the case. Such differences
can be harmfully divisive at their worst, but in the best circumstances they
actually strengthen the community, providing space and opportunity for robust
dialogue about the things we care the most about.
To add another layer
of complexity to the topic of modern Jewish identity in Germany, the community
there is supported directly by the government. This means that in order to access
most (if not all) services provided by the official Jewish institutions, Jewish individuals must officially
"join" a community and pay a religious tax to the government as part
of this arrangement. At the same time, there are individuals in Germany which
opt not to join a community, who still live Jewish lives (however they
interpret that idea), yet are not eligible for services or counted as part of
the "official" Jewish population by the German government.
At the Jewish Museum in Berlin exhibits explore centuries of Jewish life in Germany.Image copyright Daniel E. Levenson 2015. |
One thing I was really fascinated by when it
came to the question of modern German Jewish identity was how some of the
people we met with would tell us right away that, "today there are no
German Jews in Germany, the community was rebuilt immediately after the war by
other European Jews who found themselves in Germany at the end of the
war." For the moment I'm going to leave aside the veracity of the details
of this claim, since I did, in fact, meet Jews living in Germany today who told
me that one or both of their parents had been born in the country. What really
interested me about this claim, though, was that it seemed to contain some very
interesting ideas, emotions and notions of legitimacy surrounding identity.
To unpack this a bit further, the first thing
that strikes me in this sentiment is that it puts foremost the idea that all
German Jews living in the country prior to the war were either permanently
displaced or murdered by the Nazis and their collaborators. Based on other
things I heard and saw, this appears not to be entirely true, and yet for at least
part of the community, it seemed like an essential foundational myth. Just to
clarify, I use the term "myth" here in a value-neutral way, simply in
the sense that a "myth" is a story that we tell ourselves about
ourselves, in order to better understand ourselves. But why? I kept coming back
again and again to this question throughout 5 days of meetings - does believing
this grant greater "legitimacy" to the displaced European Jews who
did indeed form the core of the first new community after the war? Does it
simplify the narrative in conversation with the German government and other key
interlocutors? Is it a survival mechanism - a way to provide psychic and
emotional distance in a place where practically everywhere one turns there are
reminders of the Shoah? I don't know what the answer is, but the question
remains in my mind.
In addition to displaced European Jews who
wound up in Germany at the end of the war and stayed, the Jewish population of
the country has also been bolstered by subsequent Jewish immigration. The largest,
and perhaps most influential example of this is the influx of more than one
hundred thousand Jews from the Former Soviet Union, who found a new home in
Germany following the collapse of Communism. The most recent, and I think most
interesting chapter in the story of post-WWII Jewish immigration, is the case
of thousands of Israelis to moving to Berlin and other parts of Germany.
In discussions surrounding the arrival and
integration of Russian-speaking Jews to Germany I heard echoes of similar
challenges faced in Israel and the United States. Traumatized by Communist societies that simultaneously denied
them a chance to understand their heritage while at the same time penalizing
them for being Jewish, so-called "FSU Jews" and the communities which
attempted to welcome them in the US and other places found integration to be a difficult
process. In Germany we heard much about the "Russian-Speaking Jews,"
but only had the chance for an impromptu conversation with two such individuals,
who found themselves unexpectedly pressed into service as (clearly nervous)
representatives of all Russian-speaking Jews in the country. The story of
Soviet Jewry both during and after Communism is long, complicated and will not
be explored further here, but suffice it to say that as in many other places,
in Germany, work remains to be done if Russian-Speaking Jews and their
descendants are to become an integral part of the larger Jewish community.
Israeli entrepreneur Daniel Paz shares insights on business and life as an Israeli in Germany on the terrace of the Max Liebermann Villa in Potsdam, Germany. Image copyright Daniel E. Levenson 2015. |
The question of why Israelis have been moving to
Germany, and specifically to Berlin, has been a source of great speculation in
the media, and I admit it seems somewhat surprising at first glance. In an
engaging conversation with Israeli entrepreneur Daniel Paz and Israeli
journalist Tal Alon, I gained some insights into what brings Israelis there and
how they feel about living in Germany. In the case of Mr. Paz, it was an
opportunity to live somewhere new, expand his view of the world and build a new
business. For Ms. Alon, family ties brought her to Germany, where she founded
Spitz, the first Hebrew publication to exist in post-WWII Germany.
That this
conversation took place in the garden of the Liebermann Villa in Potsdam
only added to the somewhat surreal character of the conversation. At the same
time, I suppose it’s not so surprising that young Israelis would be drawn to a
modern European nation where English is widely spoken. Furthermore, as several
Israelis noted, Germany and Israel are not that far from each other, making it
easy for those living in Germany to maintain ties with home. The two main
questions surrounding the presence of Israelis in the country, both among
Israelis and the larger Jewish community, was when and if there would be more
integration between the two groups, and, whether this Israeli community in
Germany is an historical blip or the start of an enduring trend. Only time will
tell, but my guess - and it is only a guess - is that Berlin will continue to
attract young Israelis, especially artists, for years to come, but whether a
significant number will remain and raise families in Germany seems doubtful to
me.
In terms of the infrastructure of Jewish life in Germany it was interesting to visit several synagogues and organizations, including the main synagogue and Jewish Community Center in Frankfurt, as well as the Central Council of Jews in Germany, located at the Leo Beck Haus in Berlin. In many ways the challenges the communities in Germany face are similar to what we see here in the United States and yet there are many important and quite stark differences. To begin with, the relationship between the community and the government is clearly still a freighted, if not fraught, one.
In terms of the infrastructure of Jewish life in Germany it was interesting to visit several synagogues and organizations, including the main synagogue and Jewish Community Center in Frankfurt, as well as the Central Council of Jews in Germany, located at the Leo Beck Haus in Berlin. In many ways the challenges the communities in Germany face are similar to what we see here in the United States and yet there are many important and quite stark differences. To begin with, the relationship between the community and the government is clearly still a freighted, if not fraught, one.
The University of Potsdam in Germany is now home to a thriving program in Jewish studies, attracting students from across Europe and beyond. Image copyright Daniel E. Levenson 2015. |
In many ways the
German government has done an outstanding job of providing vital resources,
including funding and security, to Jewish communities across Germany. At the
same time, there exists a disparity between the support that Jewish communities
get from the government and that which is provided to other immigrant or ethnic
communities - this is problematic, since it suggests that robust support for
Jewish life in Germany is based at least partly on guilt, something which can,
and has, led to some feelings of resentment in some segments of German society.
At the same time, this apparent favoritism has the potential to stoke tensions
between the Jewish community and other ethnic and religious minorities in
Germany. I'm not arguing in any way that Germany does not have an historical
obligation to help rebuild what it once destroyed, just that the picture of
Jewish community in Germany today, and the relationships that exist with the
government and society, is not a simple one.
For me personally there were many moving and encouraging moments as I looked at Jewish life in Germany today. One image that stands out in particular is visiting the Jewish Community Center in Frankfurt and seeing Jewish children playing outside, wearing kippot and speaking German as they laughed and ran around. I also had the opportunity to standing a Synagogue in Berlin, badly damaged during Kristalnacht and now once again home to a thriving community. The idea alone that Jews are willing to emigrate to, and build Jewish lives within, Germany is a testament to both the resilience of the Jewish people and the willingness of the German government to support this Renaissance. Although in absolute numbers there are somewhere around two-hundred thousand Jews in the country, from the conversations we had, it still felt like the active community is fairly small.
In this context, it
strikes me that the future of Jews and Jewish community in Germany will really
depend on the level of commitment by
current leaders to not only better integrate various smaller communities, but
to create the expectation that successive generations will seek to do the same.
There were a few signs of cooperation that made me think that this can actually
be achieved – for example, the fact that the Westend Synagogue in Frankfurt is
home to three separate communities which pray separately but share almost
everything else, is very positive. There is also some indication that as young
Israelis are getting married and beginning to raise children in the country they
are slowly reaching out to some of the Jewish institutions in Germany. In the end, Germany may have the Jewish
population to continue to rebuild the community, but if these divisions
continue to serve as defining elements I fear that German Jewry will face the
same fate which befalls small communities everywhere, which is not a very
bright one.
(This piece is the second in a series of three on my recent trip to Germany at the invitation of the German Foreign Office as part of an international group of 16 Jewish community and civil society leaders, representing nations from Uzbekistan and the Ukraine to Argentina, Australia, Canada and Slovenia. My fellow participants, both Jews and non-Jews, as well as our guides, brought a wide range of perspectives and ideas to the experience, something for which I shall be eternally grateful.)
Copyright Daniel E. Levenson 2015.
Monday, June 15, 2015
Reflections on Germany, Part 1: The legacy of the Holocaust
(Introductory note: From June 7 to June 13, 2015 I visited
Germany at the invitation of the German Foreign Office as part of an international
group of 16 Jewish community and civil society leaders, representing nations
from Uzbekistan and the Ukraine to Argentina, Australia, Canada and Slovenia. My fellow participants, both Jews and
non-Jews, as well as our guides, brought a wide range of perspectives and ideas to the experience,
something for which I shall be eternally grateful. In this first piece in a
short series on my time in Germany, I look at the impact of the Holocaust on
the country and how the experience and its lessons continue to reverberate
today)
More so than if I had been travelling alone, or with a group
comprised solely of other Americans, the diverse nature of my company added
immensely to the quality of the experience I had. These new friends, who shared
amazing family and personal stories of connections to the Holocaust or
experience with totalitarian regimes enriched my experience in innumerable ways.
At the site of the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe in former East Berlin, visitors are invited to walk among 2,711 blocks of gray stone. Image copyright Daniel E. Levenson 2015. |
On my first morning in Berlin we took a bus tour of the city
and I was immediately struck by the degree to which memories and images of the
Holocaust were woven into the fabric of the city itself. Apart from formal
memorials and museums, there were reminders at city bus stops and under the
feet of pedestrians in the form of Stolpersteine's, small memorial stones placed
in locations where individuals killed or persecuted by the Nazis lived.
Honoring the memory of both victims and those who resisted the Third Reich,
these “stumbling stones” make it impossible for anyone walking through Berlin
to ignore the Jews, members of the LGBT community, Communists, Roma, Jehovah’s
Witnesses and others whose lives were either lost or changed forever simply by
virtue of who they were.
During my trip I had a chance to see a new one of
these Stolpersteine laid by Gunter Demnig, the artist who created this project,
at a moving ceremony attended by the daughter and granddaughter of Hans and
Ruth Gosler, who were murdered by the Nazis. More than just a memorial stone or
point of curiosity for visitors, these artifacts are a daily reminder to everyone
walking by the homes of these victims that they were not some abstract “other”
person, but real people who walked down these very same sidewalks, who may even
have lived in the same buildings or houses that they do today. I like this way
of honoring Nazi victims because it has a solid and (quite literally) grounded
feel – there is really nothing abstract about it, which is part of the appeal.
The memorial, which was created by architect Peter Eisenmen was designed so that visitors are swallowed up by the stone blocks around them as they walk. Image copyright Daniel E. Levenson 2015. |
At first, my reaction to this theme of “disorientation” and
abstract representations of the Shoah was wholly unfavorable. I walked away
feeling that while it was perhaps true for the victims of the Shoah there was a
profound sense of instability as they saw their families, friends
and very existence being destroyed before their eyes. Yet at the same time, for the perpetrators
of this crime, both those who led the effort and the vast, vast majority of
those who went along with it, there was nothing disorienting at all about the
experience. In fact, for the Nazis and their collaborators, what they were doing
was not an attempt at destroying the world, but a carefully planned effort to
impose upon Europe – and whatever other parts of the globe they could reach – a carefully ordered new reality, reflective of their own deeply disturbed ideas
about race, religion and identity. That such notions are abhorrent does not
mean they were illogical to those who held them. My worry is that if someone
were to visit only these memorials which are largely devoid of context and
explanation, they would come away from the experience thinking that the
Holocaust was unique not because it represented the horrific ultimate
expression of hate, intolerance and centuries of anti-Semitism in Europe, but
rather because Hitler was a master manipulator who was somehow able to
brainwash otherwise normal people into doing abnormal things in a topsy-turvy
world in which no one had freewill.
In my final analysis, I’m not sure how worried I am that visitors are likely to base their total understanding
of the Shoah solely on these kinds of memorials and exhibits, since there are other
places which do explain, with great clarity and depth, the events of the
Holocaust. Taken together, things like
the Stolperstein and the East Berlin memorial work best in concert, speaking to both head and heart about what
took place in Germany some 70 years ago.
I also had the chance to hear from leaders in civil society
and the Jewish community, about how the legacy of the Holocaust influences the
community today and its relationship with the German government. For Germans, it is abundantly clear from many conversations that a great deal of shame and
guilt exists in the country when it comes to the Shoah – whether expressed in
the form of philo-Semitism, outright Anti-Semitism, or a quiet sense
of injustice, my sense was that the way that Germans seem to feel about
this period in their history is complicated and continues to play a significant
role in modern German identity, even for those who were born long after the end
of World War II.
When documentary series on the Shoah began to be shown in Germany the reaction of many young Germans, who had been taught very little about the Holocaust, was one of guilt, and members of the Jewish community we met with spoke of how this impacted their non-Jewish friends. It was hard to judge to what extent these previous experiences with hyper-xenophobia and identity are applied when it comes to contemporary questions around immigration and identity in Germany. Although I asked a few people if the experience with the Holocaust was having an impact today, for example, on relations with the large immigrant Turkish population in the country, I didn’t get much of a clear answer.
When documentary series on the Shoah began to be shown in Germany the reaction of many young Germans, who had been taught very little about the Holocaust, was one of guilt, and members of the Jewish community we met with spoke of how this impacted their non-Jewish friends. It was hard to judge to what extent these previous experiences with hyper-xenophobia and identity are applied when it comes to contemporary questions around immigration and identity in Germany. Although I asked a few people if the experience with the Holocaust was having an impact today, for example, on relations with the large immigrant Turkish population in the country, I didn’t get much of a clear answer.
After decades of sitting in disrepair the Max Liebermann Villa and grounds have been authentically restored in Potsdam, Germany. Image copyright Daniel E. Levenson 2015. |
The former home of the artist Max Liebermann now stands as a monument cerebrating the work and life of his tremendously influential Jewish artist. Image copyright Daniel E. Levenson 2015. |
Through the bars of this gate the home were the Wannsee Conference took place can be seen. Image copyright Daniel E. Levenson 2015. |
It would have been easy, I think, for Germany to present the
Shoah in fairly black and white terms – portraying the Nazis and their allies
as a malevolent force beyond comprehension and everyone else as hapless victims.
Instead, I saw this determination to fight back against hate and intolerance in
both leaders and ordinary citizens, whether discussing the problem of growing
Islamist Anti-Semitic ideology in Germany among a small segment of the community,
or when we emerged from a train station to find fresh anti-Semitic graffiti
spray-painted on a sign marking the location of Rothschild Park in Berlin. The energy, the focus that I saw and felt in
these cases was perhaps the most encouraging example of the idea that Germany
is a far different country than the nation which sought to murder or enslave a
significant part of the world’s population, laying waste to Europe in its path.
An information sign about the Rothschild Family, defaced with
Anti-Semitic, Anti-Israel graffiti. Image copyright Daniel E. Levenson
2015.
|
Graffiti on a poster protests a planned Neo-Nazi rally this month in Frankfurt, Germany. Image copyright Daniel E. Levenson 2015. |
Perhaps this is the most emotionally complex lesson and inheritance
of the Shoah, that those of us who live after the devastation of the Holocaust,
whether as a survivor or someone born 60 years later, bear a responsibility not
only to remember the humanity of the victims and the cruelty of the
perpetrators, but to speak up when we see racism, intolerance hate today. Some
people have written that the only real response to the horror of the Holocaust
is silence, that words cannot begin to help us understand or process what
happened in this period, but the real lesson of the Shoah is that silence is
not an option, not then and not now. It is a lesson that is at the core of any
healthy civil society, and one which was clearly on display in many parts of Berlin, Frankfurt and Potsdam.
Copyright Daniel E. Levenson 2015.
Friday, June 5, 2015
Preparing for the complexity of Germany
This weekend I’m headed to Germany at the invitation of the German Foreign
Office and the German Consulate in Boston, to learn about contemporary Jewish life in the country. As part of a
group of twenty Jewish communal leaders from around the world, I’ll have the opportunity to meet with scholars, journalists and clergy, as well as civic and community leaders, in an effort
to get as holistic a view as possible of the country today. Or at least the
best sense one can get in 7 days – but looking at the itinerary, which includes
opportunities to explore both Berlin and Frankfurt, experiencing cultural and
historic sites, it looks like the organizers of the trip are focused on providing
a wide range of opportunities to see the country from many different angles.
When I first learned that this trip might be a possibility I
spent a good deal of time thinking about how to prepare for it – whether I
should look for a good history of the country, talk to others who had been
there, etc. in the end I settled on reading the World section of the New York
Times to see the latest news on what’s happening in the country and at the recommendation
of the former director of AJC in Boston, I ordered a copy of an interesting book
called “The Germans” by Gordon A. Craig, which offers a succinct, erudite
overview of various aspects of German history and culture.
One idea in this book that really caught my
attention was Craig’s suggestion that the mass trauma inflicted by the 30 Years
War (in the mid-17th century) was passed down from one generation to
the next, finding perhaps its most horrific expression in the sense of
obedience to central authority that abetted the rise of Hitler and the Third
Reich. Another really fascinating aspect of the book was its exploration of how
the German people themselves dealt with this inclination toward obedience following
World War Two and the ways in which it influenced their sense of national
identity, attitudes toward the military and ideas about political reform. I
also spoke with friends who had visited Berlin in the last few years who talked
non-stop about the vibrancy of the city as a major center of cultural and
artistic creativity.
As I finish packing there are any number of thoughts going
through my mind about what it will be like to actually be there and what I will
learn from the local people, as well as our tour guides and my fellow
participants. I’m also looking forward to having some time during the week to
pause and reflect about what I’m learning and seeing, although I imagine that
with such a packed schedule the bulk of my reflection will come once I am back
in the United States. In 2015 the temptation also exists to retreat into smart
phones and other electronic devices, something which I plan to try and avoid –
I’ll be sharing some thoughts and photos via Twitter (@DanielELevenson) as the
week goes on, and I may post short pieces on this blog, but as much as possible I plan to
immerse myself in the experience and spend time absorbing everything around me.
Whenever I speak or write about Israel (the country other
than my own which I happen to know best) I am always reminded of the intense complexity
of the Jewish State and its people – so it is for other nation-states,
especially in the case of those which have entered the modern era with a
complicated and conflicted history, a category which clearly includes Germany. It is this
complicated past and the ways that Germans navigate their sense of individual
and communal identity today that fascinates me, something I look forward to sharing
my thoughts on here on 36 Voices.
Copyright Daniel E. Levenson 2015.
Thursday, May 28, 2015
Visiting Germany to better understand the past, as well as the present
In a little more than one week I depart for Germany - a
someway strange thing to write, and perhaps even stranger to contemplate. And
yet, this trip feels oddly natural: As someone who has taken on many different
volunteer and professional leadership roles in the Jewish community, I figured
in the back of my mind that one day I would visit Germany, but I had no idea
when or how. Within my own family, my maternal grandparents traveled all over
Europe, but as far as I know they never went to Germany, while my great aunt
Betty, an inveterate world traveler, visited both East and West Berlin. It’s a
little embarrassing to admit, but I don't know whether any of the family
members who stayed behind when my great-grandparents came to America survived
or perished in World War Two or the Holocaust - I do know that sometime in the
1920's or 1930's the last letters from those who remained in Eastern Europe,
written in Yiddish and describing conditions of desperation and poverty
arrived, followed by silence.
So for me, Germany - as well as Poland and Russia and the Baltics - sit in my mind like distant ghosts shrouded in a fog, present, but somehow not quite real. In thinking of these places I am reminded of "A Tale of Love and Darkness," the great, sad memoir of Amos Oz, in which he evokes the vanished Europe of his mother's youth, rendering it as some combination of terra incognita, mythic homeland and blighted landscape.
In most of my work and writing I tend to focus on events in the Middle East and North Africa, sometimes touching on Central Asia and Europe where relevant, but when an opportunity to visit Germany came up, at the invitation of the former German Consul General to New England Rolf Schutte and the German Foreign Office, I jumped at the opportunity to go and see for myself what Germany looks (and feels) like today. But it's not only this invitation from someone for whom I have great respect and admiration that made me want to go - there are other important factors as well. In my work for the American Jewish Committee, the Israeli Consulate and the Jewish Federation I've had the chance to get to know several representatives, both official and otherwise, of Germany, and in getting to know them I've been struck by the ways in which they connect with the Jewish community are not for show but have real meaning and depth.
The connections that I saw Mr. Schutte and his predecessor, Friedrich Lohr, form with Jewish organizations and individuals, was not merely intellectual, but clearly based on mutual respect and genuine friendship. This was on display at the farewell reception for Mr. Schutte, which was attended by Israeli Consul General Yehuda Yaakov and Israel Arbeiter, a leading figure in the Holocaust survivor community in Boston. As I stood there listening to remarks by friends and colleagues of the departing Consul General, especially those who represented the Jewish community, I was struck by the impact that German diplomacy has had, at least in New England, in furthering German-Jewish relations.
The other thing that makes me feel like I should go to Germany is that there has been a significant revival of Jewish life happening there. I'm sure I'll learn more about the composition and character of this revitalized community while there, but I'm especially looking forward to meeting Israelis who've made their homes in places like Berlin and finding out more about what it's like to be Jewish in Europe today.
When I come back from Germany I plan to write more about the experience and share some of what I saw, learned and felt, and when I'm in Berlin, Frankfurt and Potsdam I'll try to Tweet (@DanielELevenson). I hope that if you find this topic to be of interest that you will follow along with me on social media. I don’t know exactly what I will find when I get to Germany, but I'm looking forward to learning as much about the present and future of Jewish life in Germany, as I am about the past.
Copyright Daniel E. Levenson 2015.
Monday, May 25, 2015
A Review of Anand Gopal's "No Good Men Among the Living"
In more ways than we can imagine, the course of history following the September 11, 2001 attacks and the 14 years of ensuing war in Afghanistan have shaped not only the lives of tens of thousands American military personnel and their families, but those of the people of Afghanistan as well. While events in this far-flung, mountainous nation have drifted in and out of the national consciousness as the extent and nature of U.S. involvement waxes and wanes, for the ordinary people who live in Kabul and Kandahar and any number of small villages, the war that began following the Al-Qaeda assault on New York and Washington is a constant presence.
In his book "No Good Men Among The Living," by Anand Gopal, it is life in this climate of violent instability and its impact on the people of Afghanistan, that takes center stage. While the media has profiled individual Afghans in newspapers and magazines, it is in this book-length exploration of the lives of three individuals doing their best to survive, that we get a sense of what it must be like to live life perpetually at the edge of ruin. At its core, this is a book about survival in every sense- emotional, political, physical and intellectual - in a landscape of constantly shifting allegiances, norms and rules.
It is on this shaky ground that Gopal introduces us to the person who may be the most compelling figure in the book, a woman by the name of "Heela," who sees her life and family torn apart by the war, shattering her comfortable, middle-class urban reality and condemning her to one of rural poverty, misogyny and fear. One of the brilliant things about this book is that Gopal humanizes issues by taking us into the lives of individuals, but also manages to tie what's happening on a small scale in someone's life to larger challenges in Afghan society.
One area where he does this well is in regard to the treatment and status of women, highlighting the clash that occurs when traditional ideas and male-dominated leadership structures come into contact (and often conflict) with modern, western ideas about the role of women in society. On this topic, Gopal writes, "For the ancient Pashtun mountain families, anything that marauding rivals could plunder was worth protecting and controlling - and this included women. Females were a family commodity; in some cases mountain clans even tattooed their animals and their women with the sane markings."
By providing historical context, the author helps us to better understand the present era in Afghan life, which is valuable considering that most coverage of the country today tends to lack both depth and nuance. Gopal does a service to his readers as well in offering a succinct overview of the legacy of damage left behind in the wake of the Afghan-Soviet conflict, the ghosts of Russian infantry and Soviet hegemony constantly whispering around the edges of his narrative. It was from the rubble of this earlier conflict that the modern Taliban would build their base of support, providing a sense of order in an otherwise chaotic place. Gopal observes that, "In times of strife, taliban have usually mobilized in defense of tradition. British documents from as early as 1901 decry Taliban opposition to colonialism in present-day Pakistan. However, as with so much else, it was the Soviet invasion and US response that sent the transformative shock." This is a theme that appears again and again throughout this work, and Gopal presents a credible argument that while the history of the region is rife with violence and instability at every level, that this sequence of events has had a uniquely deleterious and perhaps permanent impact on the country.
Throughout the text he stays focused on the lives of his characters and the ways in which external forces, from senior Pakistani intelligence officials to provincial governors, tribal leaders and the US military influence their lives on a daily basis. This feeling of uncertainty, of being at the mercy of outside powers, echoes throughout the book and is illustrated in his portrayal of a Taliban leader called "Mullah Cable," who earned his nom de guerre by carrying around a whip to hit people he encountered who were, in his mind, engaging in "un-Islamic" behavior. For this man, the thirty years of war which have engulfed his country lead to a dizzying and often dispiriting array of highs and lows as he fought against US troops and endured starvation-level poverty.
None of the people presented in this book are hapless or cartoonish. The genius of Gopal's book is that while he could have easily slipped into stereotypical descriptions or coasted in places, he assiduously avoids such literary laziness, bringing the reader into the darkened rooms and conflicted mind of a widow entirely dependent on her husband's family for her survival, of a former Taliban commander forced back to the battlefield by abject poverty and of an anti-Taliban activist who sought to reform the political structure of his country at considerable risk to his own life. In doing this he humanizes the tragic trajectory of life in a perpetual war zone, bringing those of us for whom the war, and its consequences, seem impossibly distant, closer to the reality of life in Afghanistan.
His work is also important because it provides a glimpse into a war in which thousands of American and allied forces were killed or seriously injured trying to uproot the Taliban and rebuild the country, all from a different angle than most media coverage. In telling the stories of these ordinary afghans he is contributing to our understanding of this complex and devastating war, and for this he deserves our thanks.
Copyright Daniel E. Levenson 2015.
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