Benjamin J. Buttenwieser, Manhattan investment banker, onetime president of the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies and now Assistant U.S. High Commissioner for Germany, made a trip home to make a couple of speeches. One of them was to be given to a convention of the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith, a group dedicated to "promoting better group relations."
He was going to say: "Of course there are former Nazis in many public positions . . . Let us keep in mind, however, that though these people were certainly not heroes, not all of them were devils."
He doubted whether it was wise to...