Before I go into today's ZGram, I want to remind my readers who have not yet looked for their Zundelsite-Sock - as in "Sock it to 'em" suggested at
http://www.lebensraum.org/english/zgrams/zg1999/zg9907/990718.html
and in its follow-up letter at
http://www.lebensraum.org/english/zgrams/zg1999/zg9907/990719.html
- that I meant what I said: Tomorrow evening I will purge my list of Zundelsite fence-sitters. These placid folks may still find my archived ZGrams, as per usual, at
http://www.lebensraum.org/english/zgrams/
but I want them to know that I only post my dailies every ten days or so - so if they don't mind getting stale ZGrams, that is the place to go.
I have thought about this long and hard. I would rather have a small but active and dependable list because our struggle is serious than a huge list of people who contribute little except sage advice. It's not for kindergartners who like to play in a sandbox. I don't ask a lot - I ask that my readers contribute ***twice a year*** what their wallet allows and their conscience dictates. This "Nachschub" is needed - or I wouldn't be asking for it. The deadlines are July 31 and January 31 of each year.
Exceptions are the following, as stated previously:
* This open, unabashed "sales pitch" does not apply to those of you, of course, who are already in my data base and who are the recipients of my print letter. A big fat "Danke Schön" to you! You are the best! I cherish you! You are my valued "Kameraden"!
* It doesn't apply to those who very recently joined my list and who don't know me yet. If you would like to lurk a bit - just let me know you are lurking. (Small sidebar: I just found out that Mr. Z. thinks "lurking" is derogatory - CHRC, take note!)
* It does not apply to those of you who help in other ways - my dentist who does not charge me interest on my outstanding bill, my accountant who does my taxes pro bono, my various ZGram attorneys, my friends who send me office supplies, my volunteers who stuff my envelopes, the special friend who gave me a brand new computer etc.
* It does not apply to patriots who publish their own newsletters and who have an exchange agreement with me.
* It does not apply to those who help me actively with research for my ZGrams, who spend hours and hours surfing the Net and sending me up-to-date stuff.
* And it doesn't apply to true hardship cases. If you have eight children and nothing but a ketchup bottle in your fridge, you are exempt from Ingrid's playing hardball. You are exempt if you are an elderly couple surviving on the edge with only a computer as a lifeline to a world that has forgotten you.
This is the ***bad news*** this morning: Tomorrow is your last Pigeon ZGram Day - unless I hear from you.
The ***good news*** is that quite a few have heeded my S.O.S. and have rushed to my side already. My genuine thanks to you! I will send you a couple of my "Lebensraum!" newsletters in addition, if you have included your snail mail address, so you may familiarize yourself about the many additional projects I do in addition to my Zundelsite work - in hopes that I can count on your support in the future.
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VERY IMPORTANT: SOME OF YOU HAVE SENT ME A CONTRIBUTION BUT HAVE FORGOTTEN TO GIVE ME YOUR E-MAIL ADDRESS.
I DON'T KEEP TRACK OF YOU BY NAME - I ONLY KEEP E-MAIL ADDRESSES
!!! BE SURE TO TELL ME WHO YOU ARE - AND THAT YOU HAVE CONTRIBUTED !!!
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One final word: My going on a cyber strike and putting down an ultimatum was not about some grouch objecting to my spelling - which weakens as the day goes on because my vision weakens in front of that computer screen. It was about Complainers Wholesale Inc. - those folks who not only do little or nothing to help us succeed, but who keep sapping our fighting spirit by their habitual and irritating negativity. Let them unload their unhappiness elsewhere - or let them try to do better themselves!
So there. That's it by way of lecture on patriotic duty until a month into the Year 2000!
The rest of you, my cyber friends - stay close! You haven't seen anything yet!
Now to today's main ZGram content - and a real gem it is!
According to an article by Andrew Gimson carried by several wire services and titled "Germans attacked for 'forgetting' Holocaust", we meet a most unhappy Mr. Ignatz Bubis, head honcho of Germany's Jews.
Herewith:
Gimson:
THE leader of Germany's Jews has bitterly attacked modern Germans who, he believes, feel Auschwitz has nothing to do with them and want to stop thinking about the Holocaust.
Ignatz Bubis, president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, said: "The responsibility for Auschwitz is not anchored in the public consciousness. "Every person in Germany feels responsible for Schiller, for Goethe and for Beethoven, but none for Himmler." Mr Bubis believes that a large part of the population thinks it is "time to draw a line" under the Holocaust and "only look forward", but he warns his fellow Germans that the future cannot be faced without also facing up to the past.
Zundelsite:
Maybe it is time that we Germans remind Mr. Bubis and his ilk that he should apply the same yardstick to his own people's history. As soon as we see them commemorate the murders caused by Bela Kun, Kurt Eisner, Ilya Ehrenburg, Trotsky and Beria, we will think about his ideas.
Gimson:
Although (Bubis) was born in Germany and is a German citizen, Mr Bubis, 72, says he does not want to be buried there. "I should like to be buried in Israel, because I do not want my grave to be blown up, like Heinz Galinski's," he said. Mr Galinski, a concentration camp survivor and a celebrated predecessor of Mr Bubis as leader of Germany's Jews, is buried in Berlin, where his grave was recently damaged by a bomb.
Zundelsite:
How many Germans would give a hoot where Mr. Bubis is buried? He is welcome to have himself taken to Israel.
Gimson:
At the heart of Mr Bubis's sadness, expressed in an interview with today's Stern magazine, is the sense that he has failed to break down barriers between Jews and other Germans. "I wanted to get rid of this division, here Germans, there Jews . . . But no, I have had almost no effect. The majority of people have not even understood what I was trying to do," he said.
Zundelsite:
Maybe he would have better luck with the Germans if he stopped singing the same old tune at the famous Wailing Wall and become more even-handed in his criticism. He would do well to start chastising Jewish murderers, war criminals in the former Soviet Union, Jewish Bolsheviks and their misdeed - not to forget Israeli treatment of the Palestinians.
Gimson:
About 70,000 Jews live in Germany, including about 11,000 in Berlin, and some of them believe Mr Bubis is being far too gloomy about his achievements during his seven years in office. His colleague Michel Friedman said yesterday that he did not realise what he had achieved,
Zundelsite:
Interesting that ever more Jews from Israel and from the former Soviet Union want to live in Germany - despite the Goldhagen speculation (assertion might be more like it) that all Germans carry this murderous gene. They don't seem at all troubled by the Germans saying "Enough Holocaust mea culpas! Let's get on with our lives!" Does that in itself not speak volumes?
Gimson:
Mr Bubis, who lost most of his family in the Holocaust and was 18 when he was freed from Nazi imprisonment, said he did not expect young Germans to get out of bed each morning and pour ashes over their heads. He said he tells schoolchildren that they "must know what human beings were capable of doing".
Zundelsite:
Let Mr. Bubis look in the mirror and check out his postwar smuggling and profiteering record, for which he was convicted by an East German court.
Gimson:
The novelist Martin Walser recently said Auschwitz was being used as a "moral club" to beat the Germans over the head, and gave warning that the heavy coverage of the Holocaust on German television could prove counter-productive. But these remarks appalled Mr Bubis, who saw them as confirmation that most Germans wanted to look the other way and forget what happened.
Zundelsite:
Who any longer cares what relics of the past, like Mr. Bubis, think? About anything? Who needs a Black Marketeer's opinions on moral questions?
Gimson:
When asked why he went on living in Germany, Mr Bubis said it was because he "feels at home", a reason given by many Jews for living there, while others who have emigrated since the collapse of communism in the former Soviet Union say Germany is now a much safer place for them than Russia. The Holocaust is passionately debated in the German press along with the decade-long argument about whether and, if so, how to build a memorial in Berlin to the murdered European Jews.
Zundelsite:
How very telling that these former Soviet Jews think that it is safer in Germany than Russia! Could it be that the record left in Soviet Russia speaks volumes - while many records still in Germany are carefully kept under lock and key?
Remember Arolson!
Ingrid
Thought for the Day:
"As with extermination, cleansing leaves millions behind to talk about surviving it."
(Letter to the Zundelsite)