The Phoenix Jewish news., 1954-09-30
ALL is FORGIVEN
By Sam Mitler
Copyright, 1854, Jewish
Telegraphic Agency, Inc.)

BERLIN = West Germany has
seen fit to bestow one of it's highest
decorations upon an actor identi-
fled with the most odious manifes-
tations of Jew-baiting seen on the
Nazi stage and screen.
Werner Krauss, theatrical fig
ure who has in the public mind
become the very symbol of the
eager cultural" auxiliarieS and TO
mentors of Jew-hatred and muir
der, was awarded the impressive
Grand Cross of Merit on the oc-
casion of his 10th birthday by the
head of Berlin's cultural and edu-
cational affairs, Senator TiburtiuS,
after gala performance at the
Schiller Theater here.
This demonstrative homage marks
another milestone on the road of
forgive-and-forget. For the first
time, the Bonn government has Of
ficially accorded one of the most
eminent honors at it's command to
someone whose anti-Semitic zeal
is matter of public record-So
much so that, not long ago, his
mere appearance in Berlin pro-
voked bloody riots.
IN CONSEQUENCE, heated dis
cussions about the entire question
of Bonn decorations agitate Jewish
and anti-Nazi circles in Germany.
Some Jewish leaders have in the
recent past declined proffered
medals, but others have accepted
and even solicited them. Now that
Werner Krauss sports the Grand
Cross of Merit, can men of honor
still wear it?
Ever since 1913, Krauss has
basked in the alteration of Berlin's
theater-going public. When the
NaziS took over, he was so prom
inent that he did not need to
curry favor with them.
Nonetheless, he fell all over him.
self in his eagerness to please.
Goebbels had no sooner created
the Nazi "Reich Theater Chamber" /"
shortly after Hitler's advent, than
Krauss assumed it's vice-presidency.
He managed to become the Nazi
regimes pampered pet.
IN THE EARLY FORTIES, when
the deportation of Germany's Jews
was under way to the gas cham
berS of Poland, Nazi Propaganda
Minister Goebbels felt the need Of
smothering any lingering German
compunctions. The vehicle he chose
was film designed to insinuate
that, since the Jews are and al
ways have been innately criminal,
their elimination is a measure of
self-defenSe and good thing.
Yet Goebbels was too Shrewd a
propagandist to adopt the blunt
meat-axe treatment favored by
other Nazi bigshots. He wanted a
celluloid masterpiece which aver
age Germans could look at with
out affront to their Sensibilities.
To provide a semblance of OBJ
jectivity, he used-without permis-
sion and in a warped verSion-a
novel by Lion Feuchtwanger, the
Munich Jewish author who is now
a resident of California. Goebbels'
"Jew Suess" appeared on the
screen as the sex-suffused tale of
an obnoxious court Jew who cor
rupts the currency, despoils the
treasury, battens on the people
and uses his financial leverage to
seduce and rape German girls.
TO ACCOMPLISH his insidiouS
purpose and to camouflage the ear
marks of propaganda, Goebbels
needed the best available talent.
Some movie-makers turned thumbs
down.
Werner Krauss had no such scru-
Piles when he was asked to star in
this pseudo-historical spectacle,
produced as an invitation to mur-
der at the very time European
Jewry passed through the valley
of death. He played, with the
acting prowess that transmitted
his performance into so sinister a
Nazi weapon, not one but five jew
ish roles.
Did he, perhaps, not know what
was going on in Poland, which
Nazi Germany had turned into a
charnel house? Quite the contra
ry. Always avid for realism in his
acting, Krauss journeyed expressly
to the martyred Warsaw ghetto to
absorb atmosphere" For him the
heavily guarded gates opened. It
has even been charged that, at
his behest, the SIS elite troops
whipped venerable rabbis into Ca
vorting before him, so that he could
study their reactions.