By Alex Gordon in Haifa, Israel
Of the 150 biographical essays I have published in English on prominent Jews—scholars, writers, composers, philosophers, and political figures— 68 were devoted to German-speaking Jews in Germany and Austria. Some of these essays were also published in French, Russian, and German.
For 15 years, I gave lectures on the history of the Jews of Germany and Austria in Jewish communities throughout Germany. On the eve of one of these lectures, I met with a German architect, W. D., an acquaintance of a colleague of mine who had no connection to the Jewish community. He asked me where I was rushing off to. I told him I was on my way to give a lecture at a Jewish community center. Upon learning of my plans, W. D. told me the following story.
On June 5, 1967, Israel launched a preemptive Six-Day War against three Arab armies armed to the teeth with Soviet weapons. Thousands of West German citizens took to the streets to demonstrate their support for Israel. On the very first day of the war, 1,500 young Germans from West Germany submitted applications to the Israeli Embassy in Bonn as volunteers, expressing their readiness to take part in combat operations on Israel’s side. Among the first volunteers to apply to the embassy was W. D. He was 27-yearss-old at the time. However, Israel’s victorious war ended very quickly—after six days. Therefore, these 1,500 brave young men were unable to demonstrate their noble and sincere enthusiasm on the battlefield.
The Israeli embassy expressed its deep gratitude to all the German volunteers and organized a free trip to Israel for 12 of them. W. D. was among them. These 1,500 young Germans were prepared to fight for the security of the Jewish state.
I was rushing to a lecture and didn’t have time to hear my conversation partner’s answer to the question of how the German volunteers explained their desire to defend Israel from Arab aggressors, but his story remained vivid in my mind during the lecture at the Jewish community center.
I will try to explain the motives of these brave volunteers. While the GDR, or East Germany, took a hardline anti-Israel, Soviet stance in 1967, many Germans in West Germany sided with Israel. Twenty-two years after the end of World War II and the Shoah, threats by Arab leaders to “drive the Jews into the sea” sparked fears among the population of West Germany of a possible “second Holocaust.” Support for Israel was seen by Germans as a moral duty and a form of atonement for historical guilt. For many, it was a way to prove to the world and to themselves that Germany had changed.
In the 1960s, the image of Israel as a progressive, socialist, and egalitarian state was popular among young people in West Germany (both those with left-wing and liberal views). Thousands of young Germans volunteered to work on Israeli kibbutzim, which forged strong personal and cultural ties between the two countries.
There was also a hidden psychological element in the older generation of Germans’ sympathies: the swift and technologically flawless victory of the Israel Defense Forces evoked in many a subconscious admiration for pure military efficiency, which was associated with German notions of the art of war. This wave of solidarity led to West German citizens donating money and blood en masse for Israel during the Six-Day War, while German politicians, despite their declared neutrality, secretly sent military equipment and supplies (such as gas masks and trucks) to the Israelis.
Most of my listeners were from the former Soviet Union. I gave them lectures on the history of a country they didn’t know. I gave a lecture to German Jews about their great compatriots. The fallen heroes in my books had deep roots in Germany, but they never truly “belonged” there. The people sitting in front of me wanted to put down roots in Germany. They lacked the intimate, unique connection to the country that German Jews had had before the Holocaust. They were lost in their sense of identity, wandering among churches to which they had no connection, passing by Jewish cemeteries where their families were not buried, reading stories and poems about love and the homeland written by people whose spirit was far removed from their own. They were a generation of the desert in a land of abundant rains, great rivers, and beautiful lakes.
The German authorities wanted to revive the Jewish community, but the Jews they had brought from the USSR thought, felt, and lived according to images, concepts, and ways of life borrowed from Soviet life, and their children were far removed from the Jewish communities in which their parents spoke and thought in Russian. The life of Germany’s Jewish community came to an end with the disappearance of the old community in the 1930s and 1940s. Was it revived with the arrival of Soviet Jews in the country? Did these Jews feel a connection to the history of their people and solidarity with the Jews of Israel? Will there be 1,500 volunteers among the new German Jews who will support Israel, just like those 1,500 German volunteers who had no connection whatsoever to Jews or Israel?
It is unlikely that in today’s Germany, where an anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian atmosphere prevails, there would be 1,500 German volunteers willing to fight for Israel’s security. The Holocaust and the responsibility for it are now a thing of the distant past. The Germans who remembered the Holocaust and felt guilt and responsibility have given way to new generations. Young people in Germany have different priorities and a different perception of history. The genocide carried out by Germans during the Nazi era has been pushed into the shadows, while a false counter-accusation—that Israelis are committing genocide in Gaza—has come to the forefront. Many people of Middle Eastern origin live in Germany, which influences the country’s agenda and leads to a rise in anti-Israel sentiment at rallies, in the media, and in culture.
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Alex Gordon is professor emeritus of physics at the University of Haifa and at Oranim, the Academic College of Education, and the author of 12 books.