The Jewish Candidate

by David Crossland

  He put the bag into a small rucksack and stood up. “Remember, we never met, Mr Carver. And we shall never meet again.” He shook Carver’s hand. “Thank you.”

  He started down the hill. After a few paces, he turned. “I’m sorry about your friend. I hope he’ll be OK. You know, none of this was your fault. It was life.” He pointed to the brightening sky. “Fate!”

  Carver said nothing. He watched him walk down the path and disappear into the mist. From the boat far down on the lake, a trumpet pierced the silence. The melancholy tune echoed softly down the valley. Rebecca was here.

  Epilogue

  The suggestion was sincere and gracious. Two days after Gutman’s death, his widow received a phone call from Moshe Stein, the Israeli ambassador to Berlin. He had been instructed by his government to convey its deepest condolences and offer that as a prominent and cherished member of the Jewish diaspora, Gutman could be buried in Jerusalem.

  Birgit’s refusal was a tad brusque, the ambassador wrote in a cable to his masters in Jerusalem. “When will you guys understand that my husband was German!” she shouted. “Leave him in peace! The last thing he’d want is to be buried in a strange country!”

  The following Friday morning, in a quiet ceremony attended only by family and close friends including Heise, Gutman was laid to rest in the little Jewish cemetery of Bernkastel, on a slope high above the Moselle, surrounded by steep golden vineyards, overlooking the valley he loved.

  Acknowledgements

  I am deeply grateful to Piers Blofeld, my agent at Sheil Land, who showed tenacious faith in the idea for this book. His advice over more than two years and his excellent editing were an education. Without him, The Jewish Candidate would not have been completed.

  I would also like to thank Sonia Land for her advice and her invaluable help, and much appreciation to Gabrielle Hancock.

  I am also indebted to my wife Madeline, a fellow journalist who was a critical sounding board.

  I would like to thank the many people who have provided me with information on the phenomenon of neo-Nazism in Germany over the years. They include leading experts like Bernd Wagner, the founder of Exit, an organisation that helps neo-Nazis to get out and start new lives away from their former comrades, and Professor Hajo Funke, a political scientist whose warnings about the threat of right-wing terrorism were ignored for so long. I am equally indebted to the many pro-democracy groups in towns across eastern Germany who have helped me in my research on stories over the last decade, and whose lonely battle against everyday racism and violence doesn’t get enough recognition or political support.

  I am also grateful to historians including Volker Dahm and Moritz Pfeiffer who have done an admirable job explaining the old Täterstätten, or “sites of the perpetrators,” like Hitler’s Berghof or Wewelsburg Castle, to younger generations with well-devised new permanent exhibitions that help to preserve a collective awareness of what happened here, not so very long ago.

  Members of Germany’s far right are worth mentioning as a startlingly open and copious source of information. They trivialize and tacitly cast doubt on the Holocaust, sing the praises of the Third Reich while dreaming of a Fourth, and complain about a lack of recognition for Germany’s own suffering in the Second World War.