German Jewish Aide Who Defended Speaker Resigns

BONN —  The deputy leader of West Germany’s 30,000-member Jewish community was forced to resign his post Wednesday because of his defense of the much-criticized speech last week by the Speaker of Parliament on the 50th anniversary of the Nazi pogrom known as Kristallnacht.

Michael Fuerst, 41, drew fire when he said on television that he thought the speech by Philipp Jenninger, which sought to convey the atmosphere of the Adolf Hitler period, stated “blunt truths.”

Jenninger resigned last Friday, a day after giving the speech. Before the resignation, Fuerst said the Speaker should stay in office.

“If he resigns now,” said Fuerst, “the Jews will get the blame.”

Fuerst’s stand, however, was opposed by his superior, Heinz Galinski, a West Berliner who heads the Central Council of German Jews. Galinski announced Fuerst’s resignation Wednesday in Frankfurt.

Ignaz Bubis, the leader of Frankfurt’s Jewish community and a member of the council, said Wednesday that Fuerst had been asked to step down as deputy leader of the council during a special meeting of Jewish leaders.

Bubis said there have been other differences between Galinski and Fuerst that predated the Kristallnacht (Crystal Night) observances.

However, Galinski said that it was Fuerst’s decision to resign. “He gave as a reason the longstanding lack of agreement between me and himself,” Galinski said.

Galinski, 75, said the national council backs him “100%.” He said 16 of the 18 council members were present at the Frankfurt meeting.

Last Thursday, Jenninger gave the only speech in the Bundestag, West Germany’s Parliament, to commemorate the anniversary of Kristallnacht, the 1938 “night of broken glass” when a Nazi-led rampage left hundreds of Jews dead or injured and thousands of Jewish homes, businesses and synagogues ransacked. The event marked the beginning of the Holocaust.

Speech in Cool Tone

Jenninger’s speech attempting to explain why Germans accepted Hitler was cool and analytical in tone, and it was criticized as being inappropriate for an occasion that called for an expression of atonement. Among other things, he said Hitler’s political triumphs “created an atmosphere of optimism and self-confidence” among Germans.

Fuerst’s point was that Jenninger had finally expressed publicly why the German people were anti-Semitic and blandly accepted the Holocaust.

“Everything which Hitler did, which Hitler participated in, found clear resonance among all Germans,” said Fuerst.

Fuerst, a lawyer in Hanover, said earlier this week that he had received many telephone calls expressing approval of his remarks on television defending Jenninger.