200
PARTISAN REVIEW
Mr. Franck, serious and composed, justified the portrayal of the crit–
icized episodes. He tried to depict his personal drama as the son of a
prominent azi within the context of the sinister Germany of Hitler and
the postwar period. He contended that de-Nazified Cermany was
infused with meanness and cowardice. The hostility of his listeners no
longer surprised him; he had met with similar Jewish responses in
Vienna and elsewhere.
Many of the survivors told of their own sufferings under General
Franck. The discussion became heated, and the
Stern
editor vehemently
repeated his charge against present-day Germany: a country incapable
of real change. To him, Germany was the heiress of National Socialism,
cynically aglitter with riches it had built up with wretched, amoral
capitalism-a capitalism that was no stranger to the old Teutonic,
power-hungry, totalitarian spirit.
The audience was foaming at the mouth. The new Cerman citizens,
probably financially compensated for their lost years and living symbols
of the successful entrepreneurship of the postwar period, would not tol–
erate slander of their new home. They had recognized the author's tirade
as an implicit criticism of their new social status.
As much as Fra nck's leftist a track on postwa r Germa ny surprised me,
the furious defense of the Federal Republic by Jewish Holocaust sur–
vivors seemed still more unbelievable! The critical mind with which they
had received the book about General franck had completely disap–
peared when postwar Germany came up for debate.
In
the provincial and closed East from which I came, one could talk
about neither the Holocaust nor its far-reaching, disastrous implications.
Nor, of course, about the "compensating consequences." I still had
much to learn about the normality of surprises, about the right
to
be
wrong. We should probably not deny anybody the right
to
imperfection.
EK:
And yet the great German guilt cannot be reduced to imperfection.
NM:
Of course. During my sojourn in Berlin I spoke with many locals
about German guilt, about sincerely examining it. for the .Jewish (and
not only the Jewish) consciousness, Germany remains inextricably
chained to Auschwitz. We can't forget it, even when we are considering
the dynamic and open Germany of today. But we also cannot let our–
selves be blinded by fiery, bloody tragedies of history; we ought not
always hold to the primacy of the collective over the individual. We
must, I believe, as much as possible, distinguish between the social, eth–
nic, political, religious, sexua l
identity
and the singular, inner
entity.
