Reportage on Hebron and the ultra-Orthodox settlers living there.

SPIEGEL interview with Arafat’s deputy Abu Massin on the latest developments in the Middle East.

The power struggle continues in Yugoslavia.

“I’m Not Giving away My Country”

SPIEGEL interview with Taiwanese president Chen Shui-bian on the threat of a war with China, the offer of negotiations with Beijing’s communist leaders and the expansion of economic relations:

“I do not see any immediate danger of war. As long as the People’s Republic of China does not take violent action against Taiwan I will not declare independence. … Taiwan’s safety is inextricably linked to the stability of the entire region. It is in the interests of all the Pacific countries, but particularly of Japan and the USA, to ensure our safety. … We want to normalise the economic relations with mainland China on the basis of reciprocity and respect for market principles. We will soon be setting up direct trade relations. However, our security must continue to be guaranteed.”

“It Was Completely Crazy”

SPIEGEL in-depth interview with Jeff Bezos, founder of the on-line department store Amazon, on the success of Harry Potter, the crazy year of 1999, frauds at the stock exchange and the future of electronic trading:

“In 1999, many business plans simply aimed at driving the share prices up very rapidly and then getting out and leaving others to cope with the problem. Those were frauds. … Our aim is to create a place where people can find everything. Really everything. We can’t do that on our own, of course, we need thousands of partners …”

“Expensive Discounts”

Car industry: A shock for group director Jürgen Schrempp – the quarterly balance is slipping into the red. Two causes are mainly to blame for the losses: this quarter Chrysler has to shoulder the cost of launching new models while at the same time offering huge discounts in order to first sell off the cars of the previous generation that were built and stockpiled. Schrempp has to face up to the question what benefits the merger with Chrysler actually offers – its customers, the staff and the shareholders.

“The Silent Heroes”

Contemporary history: They offered hiding places, supplied documents – several tens of thousands of Germans helped Jews threatened by death to conceal themselves from the Nazis, disproving the theory that there were only fellow travellers and accomplices. The stories of those saved about their rescuers now take their place alongside classic Third Reich historiography. The atrocities committed in the Third Reich can scarcely be toned down by pointing to the few upright individuals: the fact that some people stood by those persecuted for humanitarian reasons even refutes the argument that there was nothing you could do in that totalitarian Big Brother state. But Goldhagen’s hypothesis of – as it were – genetically determined collective guilt is also annulled by the other, good Germans.

“Sugar for the Fiends”

Schindler’s settlement: after the war, the man who saved 1200 Jews wrote down how he bent the will of the SS murderers to achieve his humanitarian mission. The put-up job is described in a report that Schindler probably wrote for the Jewish aid organisation Joint Jewish Distribution Committee as early as 1945. In it, it becomes clear in many facets – not only from Schindler’s own point of view – what a huge financial effort the legendary rescuer made to protect his business and smuggle his protégés through a system of corrupt SS henchmen to avoid the Holocaust. Schindler’s records also describe how, when necessary, he would coolly give the SS men a good dressing-down, with utter contempt for the danger to his own life.

SPIEGEL interview with Eric Kandel on his research and the awarding of the Nobel prize.

“Heroine without Blame or Blemish”

Interview with American writer and director David Mamet on realism, melodrama and his courtroom film “The Winslow Boy”:

“My interest in “The Winslow Boy” focuses mainly on its structure, its theatrical form. To me it is the perfect example of a melodrama, which is why I had long wanted to produce it on stage or as a film. … The more you know about your own art, the more form gains in importance. In this sense my first plays were sloppily put together. But if you would rather hear that one inevitably becomes more conservative with increasing age, I don’t mind.”

“The Map of World Culture Is Changing”

Interview with Polish writer Ryszard Kapuscinski on Europe’s dwindling importance:

“The fact that Poland is a key theme of the Frankfurt Book Fair is proof of the special position held by German-Polish cultural relations – and at the same time it is the culmination of them. … The fact is that at the dawn of the 21st century Europe appears as a small area of land with a increasingly disproportionate number of old people. We are surrounded by continents and cultures whose societies are younger and more dynamic. … To the vast majority of Africans, Asians and Latin Americans of today, Europe is no longer a model. They may be poor, but they are aware of their identity and each is proud of their own culture.”

“Rickshaws and Flagpoles”

World Exhibition: Two weeks before closing, the liquidation of the Expo has begun. Auctioning off computers, bus-stops or pavilions is to bring in 30 million marks – as quickly as possible.

“A Glimpse of the Treasure Chamber”

Art taken as war booty: Euphoria alternated with sobering up when a delegation negotiated on the return of works of art in Russia. As a sign of good will, the German experts were permitted to inspect depots in the Hermitage that have hitherto been kept sealed.

“The Search for Pure Bliss”

Writers: France’s star pessimist Michel Houellebecq has written a new book: “Lanzarote”, a sarcastic typology of tourism. Now, the author is touring the highways and byways of Germany with a new CD of lyrical verse.

“Orgies in the Guest House of the GDR”

German literature: Ten years after the disappearance of the SED state, its landscapes are wondrously reappearing in the East, as the settings for numerous novels and short stories by German authors – increasingly also from the West. What is it that is suddenly driving so many authors to turn to the old GDR? The anniversary of its downfall can hardly be the sole reason. More likely, it is the fascination of the transition: the fading of the old and the lighting up of new images, the looming disappearance of those differences that at the moment still allow you to perceive more clearly where you yourself stand.

“Oral Decline”

Dental medicine: A single tooth can be inhabited by billions of bacteria. Until now, dentists have primarily been fighting those that cause caries, or tooth decay. But the tissue-devouring agents of periodontosis are even trickier. They not only lead to the loss of teeth, but can also cause heart attacks and premature births. Poor hygiene accelerates the outbreak. In a mouth that is cleaned several times a day, only a thousand to one hundred thousand bacteria settle on a tooth. In the mouth of an “oral pig” (dentists’ jargon) a tooth may be infested by up to a billion microbes. The organisms form a highly complex structure, a biofilm, which protects them against the toothbrush and antibiotics alike.