German government magazinepulled for anti-Semitic article

15 April 2004

BERLIN – A magazine published by the German government’s Federal Agency for Civic Education has been recalled and is being pulped for running an article deemed anti-Semitic, officials confirmed Thursday.

The latest issue of “Deutschland Archiv” is being pulled because the article by Konrad Loew, a retired University of Bayreuth professor, contains “views of anti-Semitism … which do not conform with the Federal Agency’s self-image,” said a letter from the agency.

“We strongly regret this entire episode,” said the letter, adding that the next issue will include a contribution by a leading scholar of anti-Semitism.

The 10-page article by Loew, a political scientist, is ostensibly on Germany’s constitutional identity but dominated by what he terms “the German-Jewish symbiosis.”

Loew’s arguments include the following:

– That there was only one “German Jew hater” for every 50 Germans who sympathised with Jews persecuted during the Nazi era.

– It is “outrageous” to say the vast majority of Germans living under the Third Reich were guilty of complicity in the Holocaust.

– That some Jews made “considerable contributions” in the Final Solution owing to their roles as “Jewish overseers (Judenraete), bloodhounds and police at the gas chambers.”

The Federal Agency’s letter retracting the article concludes: “We ask for the forgiveness of readers of the magazine who feel they were libelled by the contribution of Konrad Loew.”

On its website, the Federal Agency for Civic Education says its role is to promote awareness for democracy and participation in politics.

DPA