Abstract

The more Germans become normal, the more Jews feel paranoid. These two tendencies best describe the conditions of Jews in Germany today. Some German Jews maintain there is even a “new” awareness among Jews since 1984 as a response, first, to the putative anti-Semitic endeavor to produce Rainer Werner Fassbinder's provocative play, The City, Garbage, and Death (Die Stadt, der Müll und der Tod) in Frankfurt and, second, to the successful but disgraceful 1985 commemoration ceremony in Bitburg, where former President Reagan and Chancellor Kohl honored those German soldiers, including SS troops, who fought valiantly for the Nazis in WWII.