Page 2507 - Week 12 - Tuesday, 14 November 1989
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Germany, school children were taken to Berlin to witness the events in a special memorial place where the evidence of the Holocaust is displayed graphically. School children and school history books in Germany have been written appropriately, most unlike in Japan where the Japanese people have failed lamentably to recognise their history, and that will be a source of future problems.
The Germans have put a lot into recognising their misdeeds as a corporate group under the leadership of Adolf Hitler. But I do say to Minister Grassby that she should be, at the same time, generous to the German people who may well found another powerful middle Europe. This event of the last week has seeds of instability for the European Common Market if it goes the other way. With the mass of cheap labour available to the east of Germany, there is the possibility of the formation of a new market force. They are significant foreign policy considerations even for Australia, given the market. With east and middle Europe as a market, as Russia now divests itself of its empire and as it may come together with the extraordinary industry and technological skills of the German people, we may see the beginnings of a new world force factor. That could be welcomed by us at this stage. I say that guardedly, depending upon other events.
But, indeed, the German people are still coming out of the ashes that they brought upon themselves. Their misery has been obvious for many years. Those of us who have been in Eastern Germany have seen one of the most sinister communist regimes alive - or formerly alive. I believe, from the textbooks, that it ran one of the most effective intelligence services. It trained the Cuban intelligence services. It has been extremely active, even in Australia. East Germany's demise is something we must all welcome because it puts aside the Marxist-Leninist totalitarian approach that has bedevilled the world for the last 45 years.
I welcome the emergence of the new Germany. I say that as someone whose family suffered at the hands of the German people - not because they were Jewish; they were Australian. I think we need to be generous. There is a good German population in the ACT region and I think it should be on record that we wish them well with their family reunion plans in the near future.
Holocaust
MR STEFANIAK (5.11): As Mr Collaery said, he has had the benefit of hearing Mr Berry's speech and, having heard both Mr Berry and Mrs Grassby, perhaps the Berlin Wall might not be a pretty apt analogy. What we are talking about is an event 51 years ago - Kristallnacht - and we are talking about the Holocaust. Indeed the events in Germany in recent weeks are significant, but the question of what is
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