"Burn, Jew, burn"

Or: Why there is one choice only - to build the holocaust memorial immediately

It is enough to say: "I am shivering from boldness when I declare: Auschwitz is not to be used as a menacing routine, it is not the right tool of intimidation nor is it a cudgel of morality". It is enough to say this and our nation of poets and philosophers will immediately award you a peace prize, and indeed: Martin Walser got a peace price for this declaration. Together with the rest of German poets and philosophers Klaus von Dohnanyi, social democrat and former mayor of Hamburg, attacks Ignatz Bubis, head of the Jewish community, who properly called Walser an intellectual arsonist. Nobody brings it to the court that Dohnanyi publicly asks Ignatz Bubis whether the Jews would have been at all more courageous than the Germans were, had not their families been burnt in the KZs but rather those belonging to different minorities. Germany wants to return to normality and German normality starts with the declaration that Auschwitz is nothing but propagandist lies and with the peace prizes for those who make this declaration. On German soil only one serious attempt has been made to make the recurrence of Auschwitz impossible: The German Democratic Republic, founded fifty years ago, constitutes this attempt. The annexation of the German Democratic Republic, ten years ago, put an end to this experiment. The poet Walser wants us to finally forget this and he wants any memory of Auschwitz to be deleted: " It will be obvious later what kind of harm was done by those who, in the discussion about the holocaust memorial, felt responsible for the conscience of others. To concrete the centre of a capital with the football field sized nightmare! To monumentalize the ignominy!"

Chancellor Schröder even wants to see a memorial which can be approached with a feeling of relief and happiness.

It is not up to us to answer to Mister Schröders or Mister Walsers conscience. It is up to us to answer to our own conscience. It is our responsibility to prevent any recurrence of the monumental ignominy of German normality. Therefore and against all politicians of German normality we demand that the holocaust memorial as planned by Peter Eisenman be immediately constructed. "Take all towns in the world. Check whether in any of these towns there is a memorial of national ignominy. I have never seen such. The holocaust is not an appropriate subject of a memorial and such memorials should not be constructed" says Walser.

It must be constructed right away. And be it merely in order to save the remnants of reason and decency against those who want to return to German normality which is Auschwitz.