Réflexions sur le bureau d'Hitler à Munich et le port de la kippa en Allemagne

L'ancien siège du Parti nazi à Munich s'est reconverti en académie de musique. Au deuxième étage, salle 105, se trouve le bureau personnel d'Adolf Hitler.  Lors d'une visite en Allemagne, le rabbin américain Shmuley Boteach y est entré et demandé à l'étudiant qui y jouait du violon si c'était bien l'endroit où furent signés les infâmes accords de Munich en 1938.  L'étudiant confirma et lui montra la cheminée d'Hitler.  Remarquant sa kippa l'étudiant lui demande ce qu'il ressentait dans ce lieu.  "Un sentiment palpable du mal", répondit le rabbin.   Aucune plaque n'indique au visiteur ou au passant ce que fut le bâtiment. Passez, rien à signaler.  L'étudiant continue à jouer.

Le rabbin s'est adressé plusieurs fois à des Juifs allemands.  Il leur dit qu'ils devraient poter la kippa et être fiers d'être identifiés en public en tant que Juifs - ce serait une revanche sur l'étoile jaune.  Or ce message ne passe pas bien en Allemagne.  Un rabbin allemand lui a dit lors d'une célébration de chabbat à laquelle assistaient 400 personnes que, compte tenu du climat hostile, encourager les Juifs à porter la kippa c'est mettre leur vie en danger.  L'Allemagne devrait être ce symbole. Hélas, elle ne l'est pas.  A Bruxelles, capitale de l'Europe, où l'on vient de tuer quatre Juifs, non plus: "Il faut être clair, en Belgique, un jeune garçon ne peut pas se promener en ‘kippa’ dans la rue sans risquer d’être agressé physiquement ou verbalement". Et il ne faut pas se faire d'illusions - ça ne changera pas.

With Hitler in Munich. Extraits:

"The is the infamous Fuhrer House in Munich. Specially built by Hitler once he had come to power. It is surrounded by all the organs of the Nazi party, most of them no longer standing. The building has miraculously survived the allied bombing and though the U.S. Army detonated the temple to Nazi martyrs that is immediately next door, they have left this building intact.

It is today a German music academy. There is not a single sign on any part of the building, or on Hitler’s private office, of who built it or for what purpose. Belatedly, the city of Munich is building a documentation center around the corner to chronicle the Nazi origins that are all around us. They have likewise expanded a small sliver of a square in the city that commemorates victims of National Socialism. The monument is breathtakingly ugly, easily ignored, and pretty pathetic. Even these things have come about only seven decades after the Second World War and the Holocaust.

It remains shocking how little Munich has done to face up to its truth as the birthplace of Nazism whose beer halls, hotels, and crowds gave rise to Adolph Hitler. Contrast this with Berlin that has a national holocaust memorial just a few blocks from the German parliament and Nuremberg that has an admirable museum to the Nazi trials.

In Munich the ghost of Hitler is omnipresent. It is in the Hofbrauhaus, the world’s most famous beer hall, where in February 24, 1920, Hitler named the Nazi party and gave his first major speech before an audience of 2000. It’s also the place of Hitler’s infamous “Beer Hall Putsch” of 1923 which brought Hitler national fame and public sympathy. But most of the Nazi monster’s presence is felt around Konigsplatz, the square where books were first burned in 1933, the very epicenter of Nazism, with the headquarters of the Hitler Youth, the SA, and the SS.

That Munich is only now building anything to acknowledge the infamy of the area is deeply disturbing. That German youth play instruments in Nazi national headquarters and Hitler’s private office without feeling a little creeped out is distressing. It’s as if Munich has a subterranean, sinister past, lurking just beneath the surface, that noone wishes to acknowledge or discuss.


While I did not have time to go there on this trip, on my last trip to Munich I visited the site of the murder and hostage-taking of the 11 Israeli athletes of the Munich Olympic games of 1972. Even then I was disappointed to see the tiny, insignificant stone marker outside what is today a residential unit. For goodness sake, they didn’t make the residence into a museum to educate the public about 11 Jewish athletes that came to an international competition and then through German police incompetence were mercilessly butchered?

I have spent a week now in Europe, lecturing to groups in Germany, Switzerland, and Holland. I have publicly commended Germany, on the whole, for their efforts to educate their public about the holocaust, their efforts to warmly welcome and help build a new Jewish community, and Angela Merkel’s strong friendship with Israel.

I have spoken to German Jewish audiences about wearing Yarmulkes and being proudly and identifiably Jewish in public (a reverse of the Yellow star of shame). Of all the messages I carried this one met with the most resistance. A rabbi told me before 400 people on Shabbos that I am unwittingly endangering people’s lives by encouraging them to wear Yarmulkes. The climate in Europe is too hostile, he told me.

I am not a European but I did live in Europe, in Oxford England, for 11 years. And I had my share of anti-Semitic incidents. But a continent that has experienced such a long history of anti-Semitism requires a Jewish community that stands up proudly and unafraid for their identity. And where could it possibly be more important or symbolic than Germany.



Read more: With Hitler in Munich | Shmuley Boteach | Ops & Blogs | The Times of Israel http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/with-hitler-in-munich/#ixzz34XfjkIWe
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