Berlin, August 13, 1961

by Richard L Rubenstein (August 2011)

 

There was an apocalyptic atmosphere of extreme crisis in Berlin. Sixteen years after the end of the war in Europe, many Berliners were fearful that the Third World War was about to start. People were afraid that nuclear war might suddenly break out, bringing the world to an end.

The streets of East Berlin were fairly empty, save for two Volkspolizei, in their green uniforms, at practically every street corner as far as I could see. They were armed with automatic rifles and accompanied by large, intimidating dogs. I was told that the Vopos were from Saxony, not Berlin. It was said that the regime did not know whether Berliners could be trusted to control their own fellow citizens in the crisis. As I walked through the streets of East Berlin, I was not disturbed but I was careful not to call attention to myself. I was understandably relieved when I returned to my hotel and told the desk clerk to take down the red flag from my mail box.

Apart from interviewing a number of German leaders about German-American relations, Israel, and the state of West German politics, my most memorable interview was with Probst (Dean) Heinrich Grüber, an interview the Bundespresseamt was especially interested in arranging. Dean Grüber had been the only German to testify against Adolf Eichmann at his trial in Jerusalem in April 1961. During the war Eichmann, an SS-Obersturmbannführer (Lieutenant Colonel), had been the SS officer responsible for organizing the mass deportation of Jews to the extermination camps.

I have often written about my conversation with Grüber that afternoon fifty years ago.[ii] As I entered his home, American tanks were rumbling down the street, one after another, in a welcome show of strength. Our conversation dealt largely with the Holocaust, especially the subject of God and the Holocaust concerning which we strongly disagreed. That was to be expected. Both of us were theologically trained. He told me that it was ultimately God who sent Adolf Hitler to punish the Jews at Auschwitz, a view I unconditionally rejected. Nevertheless, I recognized that his views were not motivated by anti-Jewish hostility. Grüber almost died as a result of his efforts to save Jews. The Nazis kicked out his teeth and at one point he was left for dead in Dachau. His views were actually grounded in his literal understanding of Scripture. Nor did he give Germans a free pass. He asserted that their defeat and its consequences, including the Berlin Wall, were also ultimately divinely inflicted.

I had occasion to visit East Germany several times after the Wall crisis and before German reunification. In spring of 1983 and again in 1984, I was invited to give a series of lectures at the Theological Faculty of an East German university. I had come to know the dean of that faculty at several international conferences and he asked me if I would be willing to lecture at his university. Curious, I said that I would.

Photos by Richard L. Rubenstein, Berlin, August 1961.

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[ii] See the chapter, “The Dean and the Chosen People” in Richard L. Rubenstein, After Auschwitz: History, Theology and Contemporary Judaism, 2^nd ed. (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992, pp. 3-13.

[iii] After Auschwitz, 2^nd ed., pp. 293-307.

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