Kosovo and "the Jewish Question"

Monthly Review

Volumn 51, Issue 9, 2000, Pages 24-42

  Rosenthal, John ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 0347017324     PISSN: 00270520     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.14452/MR-051-09-2000-02_3     Document Type: Article

References (29)

1. Goldhagen himself, who, whatever the virtues or otherwise of his book on Nazi Germany, has given no sign of actually knowing anything about the Balkans or Yugoslavia, nonetheless substantially contributed to the popular currency enjoyed by this analogy. See Daniel Jonah Goldhagen, "A New Serbia," The New Republic, May 17, 1999. I use the term "Holocaust" in scare-quotes, by the way, because it is quite literally a mystifying expression and hence, to my mind, in general better avoided. The Greek holocauston is the biblical term for a burnt sacrifice.
2. Associated Press, March 29, 1999. For the enthusiastic uptake of the Defense Minister's remark in the boulevard press, see, for example, "Scharping: Völkermord an den Albanern hat begonnen," Berliner Kurier, March 30, 1999. 43uriously, some three weeks later, Scharping spoke merely of "increasingly strong indications of mass executions." (See "Protokoll des Grauens," Berliner Kurier, April 20, 1999 and Associated Press, April 19, 1999.) How did he know, then, three weeks earlier, that "the genocide had begun?"
3. Associated Press, March 29, 1999. For the enthusiastic uptake of the Defense Minister's remark in the boulevard press, see, for example, "Scharping: Völkermord an den Albanern hat begonnen," Berliner Kurier, March 30, 1999. 43uriously, some three weeks later, Scharping spoke merely of "increasingly strong indications of mass executions." (See "Protokoll des Grauens," Berliner Kurier, April 20, 1999 and Associated Press, April 19, 1999.) How did he know, then, three weeks earlier, that "the genocide had begun?"
4. Associated Press, April 16, 1999; and see "Fussball mit den Köpfen der Opfer," Berliner Kurier, April 17, 1999. In a similar register, German Minister of Foreign Affairs Joschka Fischer remarked that the Serbs were even taking away the toys of Albanian children - before himself returning to the "Holocaust" allusions by describing the flight of Albanian refugees from the region as a "deportation." See "Serben nehmen Kinder sogar ihr Spielzeug weg," Berliner Kurier, April 4, 1999. As will be seen further on in the main text, Scharping's "soccer" atrocity story was not exactly original.
5. Associated Press, April 16, 1999; and see "Fussball mit den Köpfen der Opfer," Berliner Kurier, April 17, 1999. In a similar register, German Minister of Foreign Affairs Joschka Fischer remarked that the Serbs were even taking away the toys of Albanian children - before himself returning to the "Holocaust" allusions by describing the flight of Albanian refugees from the region as a "deportation." See "Serben nehmen Kinder sogar ihr Spielzeug weg," Berliner Kurier, April 4, 1999. As will be seen further on in the main text, Scharping's "soccer" atrocity story was not exactly original.
6. In fact, though the identity of the victims has changed, the "Holocaust" association has been a standard trope of anti-Serb propaganda at least since 1992 and the first reports of alleged "deathcamps" in Bosnia. On the twisted history of such reports, see, for example, Peter Brock, "Dateline Yugoslavia," Foreign Policy, no. 93, Winter 1993-94; Jacques Merlino, Les vérités yougoslaves ne sont pas toutes bonnes à dire (Paris: Albin Michel, 1993), pp. 125-32; and Thomas Deichmann, "The Picture that Fooled the World" in NATO in the Balkans (New York: International Action Center, 1998).
7. In fact, though the identity of the victims has changed, the "Holocaust" association has been a standard trope of anti-Serb propaganda at least since 1992 and the first reports of alleged "deathcamps" in Bosnia. On the twisted history of such reports, see, for example, Peter Brock, "Dateline Yugoslavia," Foreign Policy, no. 93, Winter 1993-94; Jacques Merlino, Les vérités yougoslaves ne sont pas toutes bonnes à dire (Paris: Albin Michel, 1993), pp. 125-32; and Thomas Deichmann, "The Picture that Fooled the World" in NATO in the Balkans (New York: International Action Center, 1998).
8. In fact, though the identity of the victims has changed, the "Holocaust" association has been a standard trope of anti-Serb propaganda at least since 1992 and the first reports of alleged "deathcamps" in Bosnia. On the twisted history of such reports, see, for example, Peter Brock, "Dateline Yugoslavia," Foreign Policy, no. 93, Winter 1993-94; Jacques Merlino, Les vérités yougoslaves ne sont pas toutes bonnes à dire (Paris: Albin Michel, 1993), pp. 125-32; and Thomas Deichmann, "The Picture that Fooled the World" in NATO in the Balkans (New York: International Action Center, 1998).
9. On the process of exclusion of the German Jews under National Socialism, see Karl Schleimes, The Twisted Road to Auschwitz (Urbana: University of Illinois, 1970); Wolfgang Wipperman and Michael Burleigh, The Racial State: Germany 1933-1945 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991), ch. 4; and Avraham Barkai, From Boycott to Annihilation: the Economic Struggle of the German Jews, 1933-1943 (Hanover: University Press of New England, 1989). More generally, on the history of German citizenship law and the ius sanguinis, see Rogers Brubaker, Citizenship and Nationhood in France and Germany (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1992).
10. On the process of exclusion of the German Jews under National Socialism, see Karl Schleimes, The Twisted Road to Auschwitz (Urbana: University of Illinois, 1970); Wolfgang Wipperman and Michael Burleigh, The Racial State: Germany 1933-1945 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991), ch. 4; and Avraham Barkai, From Boycott to Annihilation: the Economic Struggle of the German Jews, 1933-1943 (Hanover: University Press of New England, 1989). More generally, on the history of German citizenship law and the ius sanguinis, see Rogers Brubaker, Citizenship and Nationhood in France and Germany (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1992).
11. On the process of exclusion of the German Jews under National Socialism, see Karl Schleimes, The Twisted Road to Auschwitz (Urbana: University of Illinois, 1970); Wolfgang Wipperman and Michael Burleigh, The Racial State: Germany 1933-1945 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991), ch. 4; and Avraham Barkai, From Boycott to Annihilation: the Economic Struggle of the German Jews, 1933-1943 (Hanover: University Press of New England, 1989). More generally, on the history of German citizenship law and the ius sanguinis, see Rogers Brubaker, Citizenship and Nationhood in France and Germany (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1992).
12. On the process of exclusion of the German Jews under National Socialism, see Karl Schleimes, The Twisted Road to Auschwitz (Urbana: University of Illinois, 1970); Wolfgang Wipperman and Michael Burleigh, The Racial State: Germany 1933-1945 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991), ch. 4; and Avraham Barkai, From Boycott to Annihilation: the Economic Struggle of the German Jews, 1933-1943 (Hanover: University Press of New England, 1989). More generally, on the history of German citizenship law and the ius sanguinis, see Rogers Brubaker, Citizenship and Nationhood in France and Germany (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1992).
13. In fact the decree's derivation of the status of the "half-Jew" with two "Aryan" parents involves a classic example of the reductio ad absurdum. According to the decree, a "half-Jew" with two "Aryan" parents - unlike a "half-Jew" with one "Jewish" and one "Aryan" parent - would not count as a "Jew." But by definition the "half-Jew" must have two "Jewish" grandparents. Hence one of the grandparents of each of the parents of the "half-Jew" who does not have one "Jewish" and one "Aryan" parent (i.e., who has two "Aryan" parents) must him- or herself be "Jewish." But by definition of the law, a "half-Jew" one of whose parents is "Jewish" is a "Jew." Hence the "Aryan" parents must be "Jewish."
14. Indeed, inasmuch as the Federal Republic recognizes claims to German nationality based on the collective naturalizations of putative ethnic Germans in the occupied territories undertaken by the Nazi regime, the 1913 law is still today interpreted through the lens of its radicalization by the National Socialists.
15. The revised version of the citizenship law reform, passed by the two houses of the German parliament in May, will ascribe German citizenship to children born in Germany of "foreign" parents for, in effect, a probationary period. By the age of 23, such "foreign children born in Germany" must decide between retaining their German passport or a passport issued by their parents' presumed ethnic-national "homeland" (thus, for example, Turkey for persons of presumed Turkish ancestry, whether or not they were themselves born there). In an analogous fashion, candidates for naturalization will under "normal" circumstances be required to renounce the citizenship of their countries of origin. Under present conditions, this refusal of so-called "dual-citizenship" will create serious disincentives for both these categories of prospective citizens. In any event, the reformed version of German citizenship law, like the hitherto existing law it replaces, remains implicitly racist and discriminatory, since it does not in principle or in fact deny the possibility of "dual-citizenship" to "German nationals," i.e., putatively ethnic Germans. German law distinguishes between the latter [deutsche Volkszugehörige] and German citizens [deutsche Staatsangehörige], and guarantees "nationals" the right, supposing they were born in Germany, to acquire the citizenship of another country without foregoing their German citizenship, and the right, supposing they were born elsewhere, to acquire German citizenship without foregoing the citizenship of their country of origin.
16. Though here too, it must be said, there are parallels. Thus, in 1997, Germany's so-called "Foreigner Law" was revised such as to require that children under sixteen who are not citizens of an EU member state obtain a visa in order to travel to Germany to join parents living there. Given the peculiarities of existing German citizenship law, this stipulation applies, among others, to German Turkish children born in Germany who happen in the meanwhile to have traveled abroad. In other words, these children must currently apply for a visa in order to be able to return home. At least as concerns children henceforth born in Germany, this particular anomaly should be eliminated with the citizenship law reform.
17. Formally considered, the 1935 Citizenship Law did not quite complete this process, since while it deprived the German Jews of citizenship [Reichsbürgerschaft] , it continued to attribute to them the subordinate status of "state members" [Staatsangehörige]. The German Jews lost even this latter status upon "taking up residence" in a foreign country - even if this came to pass by way of deportation. See Brubaker, pp. 167-168. The distinction between Bürgerschaft and Staatsangehörigkeit does not, incidentally, exist in current German law, which is why in this latter context both the one and the other can be translated without further ado as "citizenship." (See note 8.) Apart from the rare cases of naturalized citizens, German Turks do not even enjoy the status of "state members." Their status is quite simply that of foreigners legally resident in Germany.
18. In fact, having been pressured to emigrate in the years leading up to the war, a relatively smaller percentage of German Jews were murdered by the Nazi regime than Europeanjews in general; and the German Jewish victims of the regime represent only a small percentage (just over 2 percent) of the total number of Jews murdered.
19. It has also become acceptable, for instance, in the halls of the German Bundestag where, since 1992, sessions devoted to Balkan politics have featured constant references to "genocide" by representatives of all parties except the post-Communist PDS.
20. See Le Figaro, January 20, 1999; "Les morts de Racak ont-ils vraiment été massacrés froidement?," Le monde, January 21, 1999; and "Racak: les victimes 'tuées par balles à distance, selon des legistes'," Agence France-Press, February 23, 1999. Photos provided to the press by Rudolf Scharping in late April, and allegedly documenting another Serb-orchestrated "massacre" from January, clearly depict fallen combatants, complete with cartridge-belts, automatic weapons, and KLA insignias on their uniforms. The news agency Reuters responded to Scharping's supposed "revelation" by indicating that it had already published photos of the scene and that the dead were KLA guerrilla. See "'Massaker schon vor Rambouillet'," April 28, 1999, Berliner Zeitung. Interestingly, in a recent interview with Le monde, French Minister of Defense Alain Richard casually remarks that the NATO attack was "organized starting in autumn 1998," a date which suggests that NATO was not in any case responding to internal events in Kosovo. See "Instaurer des critère de convergence peut inciter efficacement des Etats européens à une défense commune," Le monde, July 14, 1999.
21. See, for example, "No Bodies at Rumored Grave Site in Kosovo," Reuters, October 12, 1999. Immediately after the cessation of hostilities in June, ten thousand was the figure which began to circulate as representing the number of Albanians killed by Serb forces after the inception of NATO bombing. But even supposing this figure were to withstand scrutiny as a general casualty figure, who can honestly say that every body found is that of an Albanian, rather than of a Serb or Roma or ethnic Turk? And does the mere discovery of a body tell us who did the killing and under what circumstances? Again, there is no question that the KLA has in the past itself conducted reprisals against ethnic Albanians who refused to cooperate with it. In early August, Bernard Kouchner raised the figure to eleven thousand, claiming to cite information gathered by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia - which quickly denied that this was its estimate. (See Le monde, August 4, 1999.) KLA militants are evidently less discrete than UN "high representatives" when discussing the origins of Kosovo's war-dead. Thus the KLA appointed "mayor" of the town of Malicevo, reflecting upon the battles that took place in the area, casually remarked to a French reporter: "We had 300 dead, but the Serbs lost at least twice as many...." See "Les soldats russes subissent la vindicte des Albanais," Le monde, August 3, 1999.
22. The reason for the cautiousness of my formulation here is that it is not clear that the prerogatives enjoyed by the Kosovo Albanians under the 1974 Constitution were the result of any generally recognized "right." The Serbian "autonomous provinces" of Kosovo and Voivodina had an exceptional status within the Federation; although Republics besides Serbia also comprised territories in which "nationalities" other than the "titular" ones (as in the "Croatian nationality" in Croatia or the "Macedonian" in Macedonia) constituted the local majority, none of these territories was accorded autonomy.
23. For a detailed discussion of "minority rights" and the logic of ethnic-national state-building in the Balkans, see Robert Hayden, Blueprints for a House Divided: the Constitutional Logic of the Yugoslav Conflicts (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1999). Specifically on Bosnia-Herzegovina, see Part 2.
24. On the foregoing, see Barkai, ch. 2.
25. The full text of the letter is reproduced in Max Domarus, Hitler: Reden und Proklamationen (Neustadt: Verlagsdruckerei Schmidt, 1962), pp. 916-918. Hitler intentionally wrote "Tschechoslowakei" with a hyphen as "TschechoSlowakei", in order to emphasize the "ethnographic" distinctness of its "Czech" and "Slovak" components.
26. See Engelbert Schwerzenbeck, N-S Pressepolitik und die Sudetenkrise 1938 (Munich: Minerva, 1979), pp. 356 and 362.
27. See Domarus, p. 904.
28. See Ernst Nittner, ed., Dokumente zur Sudetendeutschen Frage (Munich: Ackermann-Gemeinde, 1967).
29. Carl Schmitt, Völkerrechtliche Grossraumordnung (Berlin-Wien: Deutscher Rechtsverlag, 1939), p. 88.