Day 4

How was it possible that during the 20th century people from Germany, a cultured nation at the heart of Europe, perpetrated such crimes? In my attempt to answer this, I was helped by two accidents of history. The first was that I met many former Nazis at exactly the moment when most of them had nothing to lose by speaking openly. Fifteen years earlier, holding down influential jobs and pillars of their communities, they would not have spoken. The second fortuitous circumstance was the fall of the Berlin Wall and the access to Eastern Europe – not just to the archives but the people as well. As I travelled, however, I became aware that the question was not confined to Germany. In the newly liberated countries of Eastern Europe, I encountered something frightening: virulent an- tisemitism. I had expected people to tell me how much they hated the Communists. But to hate Jews? It seemed ludicrous, especially since there were hardly any Jews left in the places I was visiting – the Nazis had seen to that. Yet the old man in the Baltic States who had helped the Nazis shoot Jews in 1941 still thought he had done the right thing. And even some of those who had fought against the Nazis held wild antisemitic beliefs. One Ukrainian veteran, who had fought bravely for the Ukrainian Nationalist partisans against both the Nazis and the Red Army and had been persecuted as a result, asked me: “What do you think of the view that there is an international conspiracy of Jewish financiers operating out of New York which is trying to destroy all non-Jewish governments?” I looked at him for a second. Not being Jewish myself, it is always something of a shock to encounter naked antisemitism from an unexpected source. “What do I think of that view?” I replied finally, “I think it’s total garbage.” The old partisan took a sip of vodka. “Really,” he said, “That’s your opinion. Interesting.”

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