"Almost nothing" he has done in the seven years as President of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, Ignatz Bubis had said in 1999 in an interview with the "star". Jewish and non-Jewish Germans remained alien to each other.
At that time, his successor, Charlotte Knobloch, had still contradicted him. "But now these words reach me." That's what she said in an interview with Die Zeit, in which she took a bitter look at her efforts at reconciliation. "When I look at the current situation, I sometimes think: You have achieved nothing."
She had hoped that the togetherness of Jews and non-Jews would pass into normality and that she would still experience it, Knobloch told the weekly. "At the moment, I tend to see the opposite." She has learned that hatred is limited and never completely overcome.
Hidden in Middle Franconia
The 87-year-old Knobloch survived hidden in Middle Franconia, the Holocaust and was from 2006 to 2010 President of the Central Council of Jews. Today she is the President of the Jewish Community of Munich and Upper Bavaria.
Her predecessor Bubis, who also experienced the Holocaust and died in 1999 (read an obituary here) decided earlier that he wanted to be buried in Israel - for fear that his grave would be disgraced in Germany by right-wing radicals.