Historical blame belongs to individuals of the generation that committed the excesses, but their legacy is usually transmitted to those born later and influences, in more than one direction, the behaviors and perceptions of present-day citizens, including governments and institutions. When the outrages are so horrible that history judges them unique in their characteristics, the past takes on contemporary impact. The Germany of the 21st century, rightly praised for how since the post-war it has assumed the historical memory of the Nazi atrocities against the Jews, is beginning to have difficulties in combining that legacy with the political response to conflicts in which Israel figures.
The murder of six million Jews in the Holocaust led to a special feeling of guilt and responsibility in Germany, which marks its foreign policy towards the country founded in 1948 in the Middle East where Jews aspired to finally feel safe. The existence and security of Israel are “reason of state” for Germany, as then-Chancellor Angela Merkel said in 2018 before the Knesset, the Israeli Parliament.
The brutal terrorist attack by Hamas against defenseless Israeli civilians almost two weeks ago aroused horror and solidarity in German society, and the Government of social democrats, environmentalists and liberals rushed to express its horror and condemnation. The chancellor, Olaf Scholz, has since alluded several times to that “reason of state” – whose practical contours are difficult to delimit – and was the first Western leader to travel to Israel. Scholz then traveled to Egypt. The hasty, and highly criticized, unconditional pro-Israel stance of the German Ursula Von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, who later qualified her words, can also be framed in this mentality.
As Israeli bombs kill innocent Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, the echo of Nazi Germany’s crimes continues to drown out criticism of Israel. “Free Palestine from German guilt,” protesters chanted in Berlin in front of the Foreign Ministry the day before yesterday, a way of summarizing the idea that, almost 80 years after the Holocaust, the country of the perpetrators should stop having a bad conscience regarding Israel.
The slogan circulates among the left, a classic sympathizer of the Palestinian cause, while the other parties (social democrats, conservatives, greens and liberals) emphasize their support for the Israelis. The far right has been torn in two, unable to decide whether it hates Jews or Muslims more.
These days, among the German intelligentsia and media, the defense of Palestinian civilians in Gaza is not usually as forceful as the loud and clear condemnation of Hamas. At the opening of the Frankfurt Book Fair, part of the audience left the hall in protest when the Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Zizek said that he condemned “the Hamas attacks without mitigation” and granted “Israel’s right to defend itself,” but that “ Persecution also corrupts victims.” He was barely able to finish his speech, in which he lamented another very illustrative previous incident. Last Friday, in the run-up to the fair, the presentation of the LiBeraturpreis to the Palestinian writer Adanía Shibli had been removed from the program.
Certainly, the situation is delicate. The authorities are facing an increase in anti-Semitic attacks – on Wednesday two men threw Molotov cocktails at a Berlin synagogue, without causing damage – and at the same time they are extremely cautious for fear that criticism of Israel’s military escalation could be interpreted as antisemitism. Pro-Palestinian demonstrations are not authorized due to the risk that they may lead to the exaltation of Hamas. Some nights there have been riots between the Muslim population and the police in the neighborhoods of Neukölln and Kreuzberg and at the Brandenburg Gate. The Middle East conflict is history in real time here.
