Defense Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg spoke of 15 years of "partnership and trust" at Tuesday's celebration of an unusual alliance between the German military, the Bundeswehr, and the American Jewish Committee, whose mission is to promote Jewish interests and democracy around the world.

"This occasion is a sign of the trust which has grown between the German federal state and the Jewish community in the US and Israel, as well as in this country," Guttenberg said.

Guttenberg said the Bundeswehr's cooperation with the American Jewish Committee (AJC) was a "stroke of luck" that helped to stamp out anti-Semitism by encouraging tolerance through shared knowledge.

German-Jewish roots

Founded by German Jewish emigrés in 1906, the AJC, one of the world's leading Jewish advocacy groups, is proud of its pioneering relationship with post-war Germany.

"The distinctive quality of the AJC was that it was the first and for many years the only major Jewish organization involved with Germany after the Second World War," David Harris, AJC director since 1990, told Deutsche Welle.

"That was not done out of any love, it was done out of a recognition that Germany would re-emerge, and we wanted to have a hand in shaping its democratic direction," Harris said. "So the AJC was very much a natural partner for this partnership (with the Bundeswehr), and I think we're recognized as the agency that has invested the most and often taken risks.”

But he acknowledges the relative strangeness of the cooperation. "I think it's quite an unusual partnership," he said, explaining that it began when German diplomats in the Unites States contacted the AJC and said there was a delegation of youth information officers who would like a meeting.

"We were very happy to meet with them. We weren't really sure what German youth information officers were, but it began a process, a kind of mutual love affair, and it continued and grew," Harris added.

Guttenberg said the Bundeswehr and the AJC would continue to promote "a world in which individual human rights are not allowed to be offended by anyone, a world in which peace and security are a given - in a nutshell, a human world."

Wearing uniforms at the Holocaust memorial

In addition to an educational program in which members of the AJC speak at Bundeswehr officer colleges, the two sides have worked closely on humanitarian projects. Most notably, they teamed up to deliver medical aid to Muslim refugees in Kosovo in 1999.

Professor Reiner Pommerin, retired colonel and Senator for Culture in the state of Saxony, was extremely enthusiastic about Harris' speech. "Some years ago, Mr. Harris encouraged German soldiers to go to the Holocaust memorial wearing their uniform," he told Deutsche Welle. "Today he said ‘you should be proud of the Germany you founded in 1945 - there's no reason to hide'."

Harris gave some idea of the scope of the joint project over the years, and its vision. "It's been encounters involving literally several thousands of people on both sides of the ocean," he said.

"We signed an agreement today with the German defense minister, and that agreement speaks about expanding our efforts, and we're very excited about that."

Autor: Ben Knight
Editor: Susan Houlton