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Germany And Turkey: Similar In Crime, Different In Penance

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  • Germany And Turkey: Similar In Crime, Different In Penance

    GERMANY AND TURKEY: SIMILAR IN CRIME, DIFFERENT IN PENANCE
    Harut Sassounian

    http://www.hairenik.com/weekly/2009/05 /19/germany-and-turkey-similar-in-crime-different- in-penance/
    May 19, 2009

    The Los Angeles Chapter of the American Jewish Committee (AJC)
    traditionally invites as guests to its "Annual Meeting" (banquet)
    members of the local consular corps and leaders of various religious
    and ethnic groups.

    On April 22, when I attended AJC's annual gathering, I was surprised
    to see that the keynote speaker was Dr. Christian Stocks, the consul
    general of Germany. Despite the fact that the German government has
    long acknowledged the Holocaust and paid substantial compensation
    to the victims' families, many Jews still feel uncomfortable dealing
    with Germans or visiting Germany.

    I soon discovered that the German consul general was not only
    the honored guest, but also the recipient of AJC's prestigious
    "C.I. Neumann Lifetime Achievement Award."

    I was not the only one taken by surprise. When the German consul
    general took the podium, he admitted that he was so astonished by
    AJC's invitation that he was "speechless for a few seconds."

    Dr. Stocks' 45 minute-long empathetic remarks amply demonstrated
    why the AJC was fully justified in honoring this distinguished
    diplomat. His words deeply touched those in attendance-many of whom
    were Holocaust survivors and descendants.

    As the only Armenian in the room, I could not help but make a mental
    comparison between the remorseful way the German Federal Republic
    has reacted to the Holocaust and the Turkish government's incessant
    denials, lies, and distortions of the Armenian Genocide.

    I wondered if the day would ever come when a righteous and enlightened
    Turkish leader would acknowledge the Armenian Genocide and make amends,
    paving Armenians to similarly honor a Turkish diplomat! Should that
    day come, Turkish leaders would be the recipients of many accolades,
    not just from Armenians, but from people around the world.

    Ironically, the current Turkish consul general in Los Angeles was also
    at this banquet. I wondered what thoughts were going through his head
    as he listened to his German counterpart's deeply apologetic speech,
    and whether he wished he could make similar remarks someday to an
    Armenian audience.

    I have reprinted below brief excerpts from the German consul general's
    lengthy speech. While reading these remarks, if you substitute Germany
    and Germans for Turkey and Turks, and Israel and Jews for Armenia and
    Armenians, you will get a sense of how I felt, on the eve of April
    24, when listening to the representative of one repentant government,
    while the representative of another unrepentant and denialist state
    was sitting just a few feet away.

    *** "Yesterday, on Yom Ha-Shoah or Holocaust Memorial Day, Jews
    all over the world commemorated the victims of the Holocaust. They
    remembered the attempt to eradicate an entire people; they remembered
    the murder of six million European Jews, murdered by Germans, at
    German hands, on German command. Millions of people were humiliated,
    defrauded of their rights, persecuted, and murdered because they were
    born Jews...

    "The Shoah's cruel effects continue to this day. There is almost no
    Jewish person anywhere in the world unaffected by it. And because it
    was Germans that committed or instigated these crimes, I simply cannot
    begin my speech without paying my profound respects to the Holocaust
    survivors and their families, and to those who have not survived,
    to those who have perished, and to those who have no graves where we
    can mourn them.

    "And I join the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, who said in her
    speech to the Knesset last year, celebrating the 60th birthday of the
    state of Israel, and I quote: 'The Shoah is a source of great shame
    for us Germans. I bow before the victims; I bow before the survivors
    and before all those who helped them to survive...'

    "Former Israeli ambassador to Germany, Avi Primor, once asked:
    'Where in the world has one ever seen a nation that erects memorials
    to immortalize its own shame? Only the Germans had the bravery and
    the humility.' Let me add on a personal note: The crime itself was
    so horrendous, that not a million memorials would be sufficient to
    constantly remind us of the past...

    "Last year, in his message of greeting on the 60th anniversary of the
    founding of the state of Israel, Federal President Horst Kohler said:
    'We accept this responsibility for the past and for the future. This
    means that the citizens, politicians, and leaders of society must
    raise their voices against denial or trivialization of the Shoah
    and against intolerance, racism and anti-Semitism. It means we must
    not look away; rather we must see and act. And it means we preserve
    and pass on the memory so that future generations also will remain
    vigilant... Only those who take responsibility for the past can gain
    trust for the future.'

    "Synagogues that had been gutted by fire during Kristallnacht have
    been restored or received extensive makeovers. New synagogues and
    cultural centers like those in Munich and Dresden are now centers of
    flourishing Jewish life. You again find Jewish schools and colleges."

    From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
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