Page 1 of 2 BOOK REVIEW The incredible lightheadedness of being German I Sleep in Hitler's Room: An American Jew Visits Germany by Tuvia
Tenenbom
Reviewed by Spengler
Reading the news reports from the weekend party conference of Germany's
Christian Democratic Union, it is hard to shake the feeling that Chancellor
Angela Merkel has lost her grip on reality. "It is time for a breakthrough to a
new Europe," she said, and added, "this Europe is a community of destiny in the
globalized world," which is now "in its most difficult moment since the Second
World War."
Really? The "most difficult moment since the Second World War"? Europe nearly
got swallowed up into the Evil Empire during the late 1970s and the early
1980s. Now, that would seem to
count as a difficult moment. I'll review that story later. Today's question is
why Ms Merkel - a trained scientist, and a person of high intelligence and
considered judgment - is acting like a lunatic in public. "The task of our
generation now is to complete the economic and currency union in Europe and,
step by step, create a political union," she told her party.
The problem is not that Merkel is crazy, but that an entire generation of
Germans is crazy. That is the theme of Tuvia Tenenbom's report of his random
(and sometimes not-so-random) conversations with Germans from all walks of
life, from the political and business elite to bottle-throwing anarchists.
Tenenbom has written extensively for the mainstream European press, including
Die Zeit and Corrieredella Sera. He has written an irritating, frustrating and
sometimes infuriating book that the reader occasionally wants to throw full
force against the wall. By the end, though, it becomes clear that this is due
to the fact that the Germans are irritating, frustrating and sometimes
infuriating.
Tenenbom comes off as a Jewish Hunter S Thompson, and his book would sell
better under a title like "Fear and Loathing in Germany." Every encounter with
an interview subject is an experimental drama, redolent sometimes of Pinter or
Beckett, more often of Brecht or the Marx Brothers.
Much of it is in execrable taste, and some of it makes the reader cringe. But
that is literary collateral damage in the context of a highly directed plan of
attack. The book is a record of spontaneous street theater provoked and
directed by Tenenbom. He is not interested in reporting as much as in
manipulating his subjects into an on-the-record catharsis.
What emerges from his peregrinations is that World War II and the Holocaust
have left the Germans with a terminal case of post-traumatic stress disorder.
It was self-published because Tenenbom's German publisher demanded that he
sanitize some of the more startling incidents which, of course, would defeat
the purpose of the book. It would be like Macbeth without a murder or Hamlet
without the Ghost.
As a Jew, Tenenbom has a distinct advantage as provocateur. A Jew with a sense
of humor is a predator with no natural enemies in today's Germany. When I lived
there, I would bring up the sticky topic of Germany's demographic decline and
add, "Germans don't breed in captivity," or, "If you Germans were as clever as
we Jews, you would have gotten your own national homeland right after the war
like we did," or (my favorite), "What a shame! There's no way Hitler could have
lost that war, if only he had gotten us on his side."
Germans hate Israel because if the Israelis can be represented to be as bad as
the Nazis, then perhaps the Nazis weren't so bad. That is a common observation,
but Tenenbom portrays it in a set of theatrical encounters that strip away the
veneer of sanity from his subjects. Among many such incidents is the matter of
the "Wailing Wall of Cologne," an installation next to the city's famous
cathedral, Germany's leading tourist attraction:
This, of course, is a
reference to the holiest shrine of the Jews in Jerusalem, the Wailing Wall.
What a name. Cologne's Wailing Wall. Stick it to the Jews, why not? This wall
exhibits posters, pictures, flyers, political statements, and news. These are
Peace and Love Germans. The only problem is, wouldn't you know, the Jewish
state of Israel stands in their way. Israel, they make it clear, is engaged in
"Massacre", "Land Grabs", "'Ethnic Cleansing", and other gems. This Wailing
Wall showcases photos of dead little Palestinian children in pools of blood.
Tenenbom confronts the fellow manning the setup and asks, "So, you love the
Palestinians and you hate the Israelis? Yet another surreal conversation
ensues:
"No. Both sides are wrong."
Really?
"Yes. And I am tired of them."
Let's see what the sign next to you reads: "Boycott Israel." That's your
demand. Should we boycott only the Israelis or also the Palestinians?
"Both."
Then why are your posters demanding only the boycott of Israel?
"We mean both of them."
So, maybe your posters should say "Boycott Palestine" and we would know that
Israel is also included?
"Don't ask me these questions. I'm not the boss."
It turns out
that this "Wailing Wall" is closed on Monday. But where are the stones that
form its foundation? Tenenbom won't give up until he finds them. It turns out
that they are stored at the local offices of the public broadcasting network
WDR. He demands an explanation from a stunned receptionist, who first denies
that the stones are in the building, and then refers him to a flak.
The flak claims that the offending Wall "is not there anymore," to which
Tenenbom responds that he was just there and has pictures.
"I didn't know," the flak says. All of them are complicit in a nasty exercise
in Jew-hatred, but none of them will come out and say it. Tenenbom has his own
unresolved issues with Judaism. Raised in an ultra-observant Israeli home, he
has a visceral antipathy to the Orthodox.
When he hears Turkish Muslims in Germany talking nonsense about the Koran, he
sneers that they sound just like the religious Jews in Israel. But the running
joke is that much as he wants to, he can't get away from the Jewish issue,
because the Germans remain obsessed with the Jews. An Iranian woman who fled
the Khomeini revolution for Germany commiserates with him.
"With the
financial crisis going on in the world, she asks me, 'What will happen to the
Jews?'" Should something special happen to the Jews? I ask her.
"Now the Jews will be blamed," she says.
The Jews? Why the Jews?
She looks at me as if I were totally retarded. "They are the financiers!" she
says.
Jews, again. Almost every day.
I never felt so Jewish in my life as I feel here, in this Germany.
I came to Germany to find the Germans, but what happens is that they find me.
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Tenenbom has written extensively for the mainstream European press, including
Die Zeit and Corrieredella Sera. He has written an irritating, frustrating and
sometimes infuriating book that the reader occasionally wants to throw full
force against the wall. By the end, though, it becomes clear that this is due
to the fact that the Germans are irritating, frustrating and sometimes
infuriating.
