Liechtenstein prince angers Jews

Prince refers to modern-day Germany as Fourth Reich; Jews accuse him of trivializing Nazi atrocities.

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
Germany's Jewish community sharply criticized Liechtenstein's head of state Thursday, accusing him of trivializing Nazi atrocities after his comments appeared to describe modern-day Germany as a "fourth" Reich. It was the latest development in the fractious relations between the tiny Alpine principality and its much larger neighbor to the north. In a letter sent by Liechtenstein's Hans-Adam II to the Jewish Museum in Berlin, the prince declared that his nation "has already outlasted three German empires in the past 200 years. "I hope we will also outlast a fourth," he added in the letter, which was reprinted in Thursday's edition of Swiss newspaper Tages-Anzeiger. "Describing the Federal Republic of Germany as a Fourth Reich places it in one line with the Third Reich, and trivializes the crimes of the Nazis in an irresponsible manner," museum spokeswoman Eva Soederman told The Associated Press. The prince could not immediately be reached for comment, but a statement from his office said Hans-Adam "in no way intended to play down the horrific events of the Third Reich. Rather, the letter refers to the clearly difficult issue of dispossession during the Second World War and afterwards." Soederman confirmed that the letter was received in June in response to the museum's request for the prince to loan it a painting. In the letter, Hans-Adam told Jewish Museum director Michael Blumenthal that he would not loan out the work by 17th century Dutch artist Frans Hals because Germany had shown itself to be "less and less inclined to abide by basic principles of international law." The prince has waged numerous legal battles in Germany to recover artwork he claims was looted from his family by the Nazis during the Second World War. More recently, Liechtenstein has been embroiled in a spat with Berlin for allegedly allowing its banks to help rich German citizens evade taxes. In February, German authorities paid a former employee of Liechtenstein's LGT bank to obtain the names of some 1,400 alleged tax cheats. The move provoked angry comments from the bank, which is wholly owned by the prince and his family. Soederman said the painting - "Portrait of a Man" - was supposed to be part of an exhibition later this month about looted art and the issue of restitution. A senior member of Germany's Central Council of Jews said he expected Hans-Adam to apologize to Blumenthal, a former US treasury secretary during the Carter administration whose family fled Nazi Germany in 1939. "The prince's comments are completely absurd," the vice-president of Germany's Central Council of Jews, Salomon Korn, told Tages-Anzeiger.