In short, we Jews embody the irrational. Emperors, landlords, bishops, and petty tyrants have employed us as money-lenders, merchants, and tax collectors, and most classically, court Jews. Thus, they have shielded themselves from popular outrage while offering us a limited protection. This partnership extended even to the so-called Age of Reason. When nation-states wanted to invoke a demon, they turned to Jews, and gave us another name: Capitalism, Bolshevism, sexual deviance—anything that would provoke a restless, powerless population and keep them from turning against the nation-state that was the true object of their rage. Returning briefly to the ideology of the Enlightenment, we might speculate that one of the things that makes men brothers is their subterranean and visceral response to Jews.
Thus, the recent German fascist experiment in genocide was merely the expression, in complete terms, of an established dynamic. However, the distinguishing feature of German fascism was not the hatred of Jews generally, but the abolition of Jews altogether. In this, they came close to success. Yet like an overheated engine, the fascist machine spent its fuel in ways that guaranteed destruction. We are that fuel. We have survived them.
At the time of this writing, survivors are dispersed throughout the globe, though we have gathered in increasing numbers in the zones of occupation here in Germany. It is clear that we can no longer serve as partners for conventional nation-states, with their flags, anthems, and armies.
The concentration of power in the United States and the Soviet Union has, to a great extent, made Nations obsolete. To be a Nation now is to have not only a common culture and landmass, but to establish a relationship with one of these two central powers. In our current landscape, no nation-state can exist unless it is, essentially, a colony.
For Americans, those colonies are a means to protect global capital. For the Soviet Union, the colonies are a means to secure borders against hostile forces and supply their own population with goods and services. In both cases, we survivors are offered an opportunity to renew and expand our historic role. We might accommodate both global capital and Soviet security by serving both interests.
We Jews will establish ourselves as a vanguard for both parties which, indeed, are only superficially in conflict. For the Soviets and the Americans, we will provide a center for world trade where resources can cross borders in both directions without calling either party’s ideological principles into question. After all, we Jews are demons. Who expects demons to have principles?
We will certainly be met with revulsion and terror. That is our expectation. As survivors, we have suffered the ultimate catastrophe, all the more reason why we might deflect outrage. An irrational response from a survivor of genocide is expected, and credible. Thus, both the Soviet Union and the United States might use our irrationality to mask their own base actions.
On those terms, we will establish a haven where the following will be pretty much generally applicable:
1. Refuge for all survivors.
2. Concentration of banks and headquarters of international industries.
3. Permanent occupation by both Soviet and American forces.
4. Collective ownership of the Churban and a claim to the unique nature of our genocide.
You are horrified that we depend upon the same deep-set revulsion that inspired persecution and arguably led to genocide. Yet if we return to our own countries, certainly we return into similar conditions, and far less security. Fear of Jews is as deep-seated as fear of the dark.
Furthermore, who among us can claim a country? What is our history but a series of border-crossings, flag after irrelevant and foolish flag? The only banner for the Jews is the banner of memory. It is memory that defines us. It is memory that they fear.
As individual Churban survivors, we know that a personal response cannot move beyond vengeance. By uniting, we achieve breathtaking power. We use the very fear that we inspire to create a bridge between reason and terror, between the visible and invisible worlds. We ourselves become a monument.
A monument to what?
That is a question history will answer. Just as we believe that the very thing that makes men brothers also makes them butchers, we might also agree that the very thing that makes Jews hated makes us free. Consider where that freedom led such men as Marx, Freud, and Einstein, Jews who crossed into countries that no map could mark, and who returned to a landscape changed by their very crossing. The bridge they crossed transcends national utility. It is a bridge to the irrational, and to the future.
As survivors, we will never cease for a moment to instill in our fellow Jews the clearest possible recognition of the corruption of both East and West, and we openly declare our ends can only be attained by being hated as the cunning face of worldwide capital and the vanguard of Soviet oppression. Yet what shall we do with our freedom?
We promise this: we will refuse to hate ourselves. Let all who defy us tremble and recoil.
We have nothing to lose.
5
FREDERICKA was, as she put it, “pumped” for the premiere at Parliament that night. She confided to Judit that the director of the Conrad Wolf Academy was near retirement, and if she “performed up to standard,” she’d not only fill his position but reinvent the institution as a true Center for German Media. “Watch. In a few years, we’ll be the capital of Europe.”
Judit said, “I’m not from Berlin, Freddi.”
She shrugged. “Okay. But face it. We’re leading parallel lives. We’re even dressing alike.” She gestured towards their shoes and stockings. “I like the patterned ones too. They’re a little campy, a little racy, keep you from looking like a man in a skirt. You’ll move right in and make this place world-class.”
Judit looked at the stockings and wondered who’d chosen them. They looked like something a prostitute would wear. She said, “I haven’t been asked to move in. I’m not sure I want to.”
“You want some turtle in charge? Oh, no you don’t!” Fredericka said. “The era of the turtles is behind us now. It’s the year of the hare. Don’t look like that. What? You want Gluck running the museum?”
“He’s welcome to it,” Judit said.
Freddi persisted. “It’s really essential that we help each other now. I mean, everything’s happening so fast. There are so many opportunities, and with your people pulling for you, with your connections abroad—”
“I don’t have connections abroad,” Judit said. Her tone was hostile.
“I don’t mean to imply anything,” said Fredericka. She seemed genuinely hurt. “I mean, with your people in Hollywood—”
“My father’s family lived in Dresden for over a hundred years. My mother was born in a village in southern Poland that I can’t even pronounce the name of.” Judit was overwhelmed with weariness. What she really wanted to do was ask Freddi about her own connections in Berlin, if she knew a private, inexpensive way to end a pregnancy, but such was the direction of the conversation that, instead, she said, “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to sound that way.”
“Well, you do sound that way,” Freddi said. “And I don’t deserve it. I know you’re under a lot of pressure, but you’ll have to think differently now. Especially after the premiere. We’ll be working together one way or another.”