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MY GERMAN DATE AND THE HOLOCAUST MOVIE

ORIT ARFA

The Holocaust movie would be the test.

DATE AND a movie? Not so fast.. (photo credit: REUTERS)

For our eighth date, he was the one to offer to watch a Holocaust movie.

I had just purchased the DVD of A Blind Hero, an obscure 2014 German film that tells the story of Otto Weidt, a righteous gentile who sought to save as many Jews as possible by employing them in his “Workshop for the Blind.” As a Jewish tour guide in Berlin, I take tourists to the site of the “blind Schindler’s” workshop in the former Jewish quarter of Berlin, the “Scheunenviertel.”

We snuggled on my sofa, like we did when we watched Scarface together. Only this time, I didn’t let his hands wander.
“No funny business,” I said. “This is serious.”

Until then, most of our dates consisted of bike rides in Berlin and through the Brandenburg countryside. We were a picture-perfect vision of lovers, lying on new grass near sparkling lakes, eating dinner by candlelight on my balcony against the bright leaves of the Berlin spring. This was an apt correction of history: a German offering a Jewess good times and pleasure.
I came to Berlin over two years ago for the same reason many Israelis do: the quiet, relaxed quality of life, the creative vibe, and – for me – the unexpected depth. Since befriending Germans in Israel, I’ve been fascinated by interactions between third generation descendants of Holocaust survivors and perpetrators, especially the romantic kind. Our fates are intertwined. I always felt that our healing must happen together.

To that end, I wrote Underskin, a steamy romance novel between the granddaughter of Holocaust survivors and the grandson of probable Nazis. Now, fiction could meet and possibly mimic reality. Like my German hero, my date was a musician who grew up in Dresden, a city known for the Allied 1945 firebombing, where I also give tours.

The Holocaust movie would be the test.

It’s not as if we never spoke about the Holocaust. Usually, on my second or third date with Germans, I brave the question many Israelis secretly like to ask 30 and 40-something-year-old Germans: “Do you know what your grandfather did during the war?”

He knew the basics: His maternal grandfather fought in the Wehrmacht and became a POW in the United States, while his paternal grandfather had sought an “Aryan certificate” to prove his ethnic purity so that he could get a good Nazi job as a lawyer. The latter worked for IG Farben, possibly in the division that produced Zyklon B gas, but he couldn’t say for sure.

At first I cringed upon hearing that, but I already decided upon moving to Berlin that I would not blame young Germans for the sins of the fathers. They weren’t even born at the time. And I admit: with his thick reddish-brown hair and blue-gray eyes, I was very attracted to him.

“I tried to talk to my father, even wrote him letters, but he didn’t want to talk about it,” he had revealed to me. I already knew that in many German families, discussion of possible family involvement with the Nazi regime is taboo. He believed he suffered from his parents’ silence. They were never truly his confidants. He lacked emotional and intellectual intimacy with them.

I took his prodding into his family past – and his reading of my novel – as a good sign. He was ready for introspection into this devastating period.
AS WE watched A Blind Hero, he seemed riveted. His hands did not stray.

I’m not sure if he had ever watched a Holocaust feature. As a child of the anti-Zionist East Germany, he may have received even less education about the Holocaust than his Western counterparts.

The film dramatized how Weidt bribed Gestapo officers to prevent them from deporting his Jewish workers. He went to great pains to save his favorite worker, Alice Licht, from sure death at Auschwitz by bribing locals to track her down and communicate with her on his behalf. Thanks to his calculating efforts, Licht escaped the brutal Nazi “Death March” and made it back to Berlin, a survivor.

Closing credits listed the fate of the workshop’s major characters. Most were murdered.

The ending also murdered the prospect of a romantic night together, but maybe the time had come for more intellectual intimacy, especially about the Holocaust and present-day German atonement. He seemed so moved by the film, I thought he might even cry. I anticipated a moment of catharsis in which he would emotionally connect with the pain his grandparents’ generation caused mine and seek new insight on how to prevent such atrocities in the future.

He sat up straight and brought it up first by asking, his voice heavy: “What do you think Germany needs to do today?”

“I think this generation has to do more research into how their families were involved in the Holocaust and the Nazi regime. If they don’t make the Holocaust personal and understand the details, the Holocaust will become too abstract, universalized.”

He asked me what I meant, so I reminded him of our recent attendance at a “kippah rally.” A few days before, young Germans handed out white kippahs at various Berlin parks to display solidarity with Jews following a recent antisemitic incident in which an Israeli Arab in Berlin tested antisemitism in Berlin by wearing a kippah. No sooner was the Israeli belted by a Syrian refugee shouting “Yahud!” One of the young German women participating in the rally lamented how Holocaust education is diminishing in schools.
“Germans must learn empathy,” she had said, before adding: “For all people.”

I told the Dresdener, as he reclined into the sofa, that empathy for all religions is not the right lesson for the Holocaust.

“Once you make the Holocaust about all religions, then you will equally defend Islam and Judaism when the religions are entirely different. You’ll allow Muslim antisemites into your land as compensation for the Holocaust.”

Whereas once he couldn’t take his hands off me, he froze in the corner of the sofa, curled up. His hands retracted to his heart. “You can’t generalize,” he said with stereotypical German stoicism.

“That’s not to say all Muslims are antisemites, but antisemitism can be found in the Koran,” I countered. “Recent surveys show that a majority of refugees bring with them the antisemitism of their Muslim countries.”

He didn’t argue back – only sat there stone-faced. He seemed to be listening intently, receptively, so I continued, this time making my argument personal.

“I studied the nature of Islam. I had to. I lived in Jerusalem during the second Intifada. People were getting blown up all around me: on cafes, buses, nightclubs. That’s not fighting for a policy, that religiously-inspired hate! I wanted to believe in peace, but I’ve suffered from too much Islamic terror. I don’t want to face it here, now. You in Germany don’t know how good you have it. You don’t deal with a struggle for survival. But my life’s at stake!”

JUST WHEN I thought he would hold me, because I was crying, he sunk further into the corner and looked straight at me, his grayish-blue eyes turning cold and mean. I shivered because I saw his grandfather in them.

“I don’t think we’re a match,” he said.

“Why? Because what I’m saying is disagreeable to you?”

“I don’t know what to think. I need to study the issue. I don’t know so much about Islam. I’m sure there are problems there, but I don’t like these generalizations.”

He had already known I was a critic of Islam, but something changed after we watched the Holocaust movie. The past was no longer an abstract. It was there. In the room. It was clear that he bought into what is becoming prevailing wisdom in intellectual circles in Germany: Muslims are the “new Jews.” For this reason, Muslim immigration provides peace to the German psyche, a peace I broke for him that night.

What had kept us together until that point was a need for companionship and especially human touch – a touch he could no longer give me.

He proceeded to put on his shoes, looking around to make sure he didn’t leave behind his vintage “Interflug” East German airline T-shirt like he had in the past. It was the middle of the night, but he couldn’t get out of my apartment fast enough.

“I don’t think we’re a match,” he repeated and left.

I sat alone in my bed, sad and bewildered. Was my romance novel, which I doubt he’ll ever finish, an exercise in naiveté? Are romantic relationships between third-generation victims and third-generation perpetrators doomed from the start? Survivors and their descendants are perceptibly, tangibly affected by Nazi crimes. My orphan grandfather wore his suffering on his arm – in the form of a tattooed Auschwitz prisoner number. Perpetrators and their descendants are also affected, but more subliminally. They could more easily hide the past – and run from it.

Germany likes to portray itself as a country that has made amends for the Holocaust with its beautiful Holocaust memorials and declarations about Israel’s security being Germany’s “reason of state.” But what about the memorial in the hearts of Germans, who understand intellectually the sins of World War Two, but who have not connected the crimes to their lives and families – and to the Jewish plight of today?

Since that night, when I visit the Otto Weidt Workshop for the Blind Museum, I silently thank the blind hero. He rescued another Jew – from a man who probably would not have saved me had we lived 80 years ago.

The writer is an American-Israeli journalist based in Berlin and author of The Settler, a coming-of-age novel following the 2005 pullout from Gaza, and Underskin, a German-Jewish love story. www.oritarfa.com

ARE THERE WINDS OF WAR ON THE NORTHERN BORDERS OF ISRAEL?

SARIT ZEHAVI

At the end of the week in a speech marking the anniversary of Iran’s Jerusalem Day, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah made it clear that the war against Iran will not stay there.

Israeli soldiers stand near the area where Israeli military personnel continue their work on exposing and thwarting cross-border tunnels dug from Lebanon into Israel, as seen on the Israeli side of the border, near the town of Metula December 19, 2018. (photo credit: RONEN ZVULUN / REUTERS)

In the past two weeks, tensions in northern Israel may have reached a new stage. Mutual attacks between the IDF and the Syrian army on the Golan Heights; tension between the United States and Iran in the Persian Gulf; and increasing economic pressure on the Shi’ite axis due to the sanctions on Iran and Hezbollah, may mark the end of a relatively quiet period on the northern border.

Moreover, paradoxically, in the Middle East even peace talks may be a sign of war. There are two such channels now: the “Deal of the Century” led by US President Donald Trump – apparently in coordination with the Sunni Arab states – and at the same time, an agreement to settle Israeli-Lebanese border disputes mediated by the United States. The Saudi newspaper Al-Hayat also reported that as part of these contacts, the Americans raised the issue to the Lebanese of Hezbollah’s precise missiles, making it clear that the United States would not be able to prevent Israel from acting against them.

Therefore, Hezbollah and its boss in Tehran are under pressure. They will not gladly accept these two American initiatives, especially with regard to Lebanon – which may obviate the need for “Resistance” to Israel there. In addition, the “Deal of the Century” will probably strengthen the inter-bloc polarity in the Middle East between the Sunni countries supported by the United States – led by Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states – and the Shi’ite elements, headed by Iran. Qatar and Turkey have been playing for both teams until now and will soon have to choose a side.

How will this affect Israel’s security? At the end of the week in a speech marking the anniversary of Iran’s Jerusalem Day, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah made it clear that “the war against Iran will not remain within the borders of Iran” and that “the whole region will be ignited and all US forces and American interests will be destroyed – and all those who had conspired will pay a price, first and foremost Israel and Saudi Arabia. The price of a barrel of oil will reach $400.”

Nasrallah added that Hezbollah has accurate missiles in sufficient amounts that are capable of “changing the region and the equation.”

Iran has already raised the tension on Israel’s southern border in the past year, and now it looks like there is full coordination of policy and messages between radical elements in the northern and southern borders of Israel. Thus, coordination meetings between Hezbollah, Iran, Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad have been held several times in recent months. In an interview with Hezbollah’s Al-Manar television channel, the leader of the PIJ, Ziyad Nahala, recently made it clear that “we have no redlines in the war with Israel” and promised attacks against the Jewish state, including in the West Bank.

ISRAELIS ARE used to such threats. But the timing – and the clear statement that Hezbollah will stand by Iran – indeed indicate that there is no shame. Hezbollah, despite the internal restraints, will continue to defend its Iranian boss and is fully prepared for this in terms of its military level.

So far, the exchange of blows between Israel and the Shi’ite elements has been concentrated almost totally on the Syrian side of the border. Indeed, the critical point will be if and when Hezbollah acts against Israel from Lebanon. What will life in the North of Israel be like with intermittent showers of rockets, like those that have been falling in the South for 15 years? And how long will it take for these showers to make the lives of Israeli citizens unbearable and in fact lead the region to war?

A balance of deterrence has existed between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon for the past 13 years. It was clear to both sides that war would exact a heavy price. It was also clear to them that any security incident at the border could lead to a war that no one was interested in. The big question now is whether the Shi’ite side is willing to take the risk of escalation on the Lebanese border, along which there are many settlements on both sides of the fence, based on an assessment that escalation does not necessarily mean war.

As indicated both by the rocket fire from Syria toward Israel this week and from Nasrallah’s speech, Iran will certainly strive to increase the pressure on the United States by heating up Israel’s northern border. However, the question is what the IDF will do – and how it will maintain the balance of deterrence without being dragged into a war that it would prefer to avoid.

The writer is the founder and CEO of Alma, a leading research and education center that focuses on Israel’s security challenges on the northern border. She is a lieutenant-colonel in the IDF reserves, who served for 15 years in the military specializing in intelligence and holds a masters degree in Middle East Studies from Ben-Gurion University.

Postcard from Israel – Eilat

  21see

‘Anti-Semitism must be confronted immediately’

Nitsan Keidar

Former British PM Tony Blair blasts Labour over its anti-Semitic conduct.

Tony Blair

Tony Blair, former British Prime Minister and currently chairman of the Institute for Global Change, visited Israel as a guest of Bar-Ilan University’s Sir Naim Dangoor Centre for Universal Monotheism.

Blair spoke at the opening gala event of Bar-Ilan University’s 64th annual Board of Trustees and was interviewed at the gala event by Channel 12anchorwoman Yonit Levy.

In his remarks, Blair was critical of the Labour Party, which he once led, over its anti-Semitic conduct.

“If you’d told me back in May 1997 or at any time in the next ten years that the Labour Party – which I led for 13 years – would have a problem with anti-Semitism today, I wouldn’t have believed it. Anti-Semitism must be confronted immediately. It is a poison that must be rooted out and eradicated,” he said.

On Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, Blair said, “Is Jeremy Corbyn anti-Semitic? Some of the remarks are not explicable in any other way, I’m afraid, and that’s very sad. Does he think he is anti-Semitic? No, he doesn’t think at all that he is.”

Regarding the peace process and the Trump administration’s peace plan, the former British Prime Minister said, “The State of Israel needs to know that any independent state of Palestine will be properly and securely governed. If that isn’t the case, no matter who the prime minister is, it will be hard to make peace.”

“The two-state solution will only happen if first there is a genuine cultural acceptance of the State of Israel and Palestinian politics is unified and accepting of this, and secondly, by building the links between the Arab world,” he continued.

Blair also discussed the Brexit saga and said, “Brexit is a destiny changing decision for the country. The dilemma is that there’s a painful version of Brexit and a pointless version. We’re three years on without a resolution, so I think to resolve it, it should go back to the people.”