World Jewish Congress officials said Monday economic hardship has fueled anti-Semitism in Eastern Europe and they planned a solemn ceremony at the site where Nazis plotted the extermination of the Jews. On the second day of the congress' annual meeting, a U.S. Justice Department official said Washington has rejected Austrian President Kurt Waldheim's repeated requests for a lifting of the ban that keeps him out of the country. The official said the ban remains in effect because of Waldheim's role ``Nazi-sponsored persecution.'' The three-day meeting in Berlin is the Congress' first in Germany since the organization was founded in Switzerland in 1936 amid the horrors of the Third Reich. Some delegates declined to attend, saying a visit to Berlin, the former Nazi capital, would be too traumatic. Six million Jews were killed by the Nazis between January 1933 and May 1945. On Tuesday, Congress officials will visit Berlin's Wannsee Villa, where on Jan. 20, 1942 leading Nazi officials plotted the Third Reich's so-called Final Solution to exterminate Jews worldwide. A solemn ceremony at the villa will coincide with the 45th anniversary of the Nazis' unconditional surrender in World War II. Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir used the anniversary to speak out against arms sales to the Jewish state's Arab enemies. He told Israel's Parliament that a united Germany should ``learn the lessons of the past'' and not sell weapons to Arab nations. At a news conference Monday in the heavily guarded West Berlin Jewish Community headquarters, World Jewish Congress leaders warned about present dangers and emphasized the need to recall past tragedies. ``The Jewish people have something to say to the new Germany that is going to be created in a short time,'' said Congress President Edgar M. Bronfman. He opened the meeting Sunday by saying a united Germany must ``forever teach'' about the Holocaust, ``the lowest point ever reached in man's inhumanity to man.'' Congress leaders said that in Eastern Europe there were indications of growing anti-Semitism, fueled in large part by economic hardship. Decades of Communist mismanagement have driven the economies of East European countries to the brink. Many jobless youths have turned to right-wing extremism, often blaming Jews and foreigners for economic ills. ``Unfortunately, as the economic situation worsens ... and the search for scapegoats goes on, the age-old scapegoat _ the Jew _ again takes his place in the forefront of those to be kicked around,'' Bronfman said. ``When you see tens of thousands of Jews leaving the Soviet Union and going to Israel, one of the main reasons they're going is because of the rise of anti-Semitism,'' he said. Hundreds of thousands of Jews are expected to emigrate to Israel over the next years, in part because of looser Soviet emigration policy but also in response to what they say is increasing religious persecution at home. There are up to 2 million Soviet Jews. Bronfman said that when he visited Poland a few months ago, government leaders and Solidarity chief Lech Walesa issued ``strong statements'' against anti-Semitism. ``The only way to fight it is to expose it,'' Bronfman said of anti-Jewish feeling. Lionel Kopelowitz, head of the European Jewish Congress, said there were indications of growing anti-Jewish feeling in Romania. ``The people are hungry. They look for a scapegoat,'' he said of Romania, home to about 25,000 Jews. Heinz Galinksi, leader of West Germany's 35,000-member Jewish community, said he also sees increased neo-Nazi activities and anti-Semitism in East Germany. Neo-Nazis and other rightists recently went on a rampage in East Berlin, shouting insults against Jews and foreigners. Galinski, a survivor of the Auschwitz death camp, said the Congress meeting in Berlin was ``perhaps one of the most important events'' since the downfall of Nazi Germany. The World Jewish Congress executive director, Elan Steinberg, said 10 percent of delegates from outside East and West Germany declined to participate. About 80 of the 600 delegates were from countries other than East and West Germany. ``There are people who will not come to Berlin, and they have a right not to come to Berlin,'' Bronfman said. ``We're dealing with huge, huge emotions here.'' Neal M. Sher, head of the U.S. Justice Department's Office of Special Investigations, said in a speech to delegates that ``Kurt Waldheim had engaged in Nazi-sponsored persecution.'' The U.S. government in April 1987 put Waldheim, an officer in the German army during World War II, on a ``watch list'' of people denied entry into the country. The ban followed allegations Waldheim was involved in Nazi atrocities during the war. Waldheim has denied wrongdoing. ``It is also well-known that Waldheim has tried hard and often to be a removed from the list,'' Sher said. ``But all such approaches to our government have been rebuffed. He will remain persona non grata.''
