Status: 09.11.2021 6:25 a.m.
At demonstrations by “lateral thinkers”, measures against the pandemic are repeatedly equated with Nazi terror. This form of anti-Semitism is becoming entrenched, experts warn – and demand consequences.
Corona protests in Leipzig last weekend: YouTuber Juni M. walks through the crowd with her camera and comments on what she sees. She gets into a conversation with a reporter from a well-known TV magazine, the activist claims she is from the broadcaster ntv. The reporter doesn’t want to believe that – and asks for the woman’s press ID.
But the YouTuber first wants to see the reporter’s press card, which she then gladly presents. Thereupon the YouTuber withdraws and scolds to herself that such correct press IDs actually only existed in the “3rd Reich”.
In short: The YouTuber suggests that today’s press pass is comparable with the NS Editor’s Law of 1933, with which journalists were robbed of their independence and made servants of the Nazi state. As a lesson from this, access to the journalist profession is not regulated in the Federal Republic of Germany. There are also no legal access restrictions for the function of the editor.
Press cards will be from professional associations, not the state, issued and granted certain privileges to ensure the independent work of journalists and reporters. Today’s free press is thus the alternative to the media that were brought into line during the Nazi era.
It is just one example of many how today’s conditions are equated with the Nazi dictatorship: Again and again people from the “lateral thinking” milieu refer to themselves as “Jews of today”, yellow stars are attached with the inscription “unvaccinated” – and thereby play down the persecution of the Jews and the totalitarian regime as a whole.
Vaccine as Zyklon B
These stars are particularly perfidious, emphasized the Jewish Forum for Democracy and Against Anti-Semitism (JFDA) at the request of tagesschau.de. “Other negatively remembered examples were the equation of the former AfD politician Stefan Bauer of vaccinations with Zyklon B, the statements by Attila Hildmann that Judaism was responsible for the pandemic and all the evil in the world and that a new Holocaust was imminent – or that the Neo-Nazi Sven Liebich posed with a copy of the ‘Diary of Anne Frank’ at the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin. “
“Significant increase in Shoah relativizations”
Remko Leemhuis, director of the American Jewish Committee in Berlin, says in an interview with tagesschau.de“With the beginning of the protests against the infection control measures, we not only saw a significant increase in Shoah relativization and anti-Semitic conspiracy narratives, but also that these are no longer limited to the right-wing extremist spectrum.” Rather, these meanwhile reached far into the middle of society and were “expressed more and more openly”.
The JFDA is on site at numerous demonstrations and documents the events. Nazi relativizations can be observed in almost all actors from the heterogeneous “lateral thinking” milieu, according to the JFDA – from right-wing extremist and right-wing populist circles as well as “free left” as well as alternative-esoteric milieus. “These equations have now solidified at almost every rally and demonstration as well as on the Internet.” Stephan Kramer, President of the Thuringian Office for the Protection of the Constitution, says in an interview with tagesschau.dethat the widespread downplaying of the Nazi regime in the “lateral thinking” milieu is a “clear sign of the influence and the takeover of the scene by right-wing extremists”.
Again and again equations
Michael Blume, representative of the state of Baden-Wuerttemberg against anti-Semitism, emphasizes, “Part of this anti-Semitism stems from Israel-related conspiracy myths, as they are mainly cultivated in left and migrant milieus. In bourgeois, right-wing and esoteric circles, the Holocaust is hardly like anymore previously denied, but attributed to an alleged Rothschild world conspiracy. ”
Subsequently, “the conspiracy believers interpreted the democratically decided measures against the Covid19 pandemic or the climate crisis as a continuation of this alleged, Jewish-controlled conspiracy and equated themselves with the real victims of the Holocaust”. This “digitally fueled mockery of the persecuted, brutalization and radicalization unfortunately runs right through society and leads to anti-Semitic hatred in Germany as well, not infrequently even to violence”, warns Blume.
Anti-Semitism as a “world explanation model”
On the anniversary of the Reichspogromnacht, the Amadeu Antonio Foundation emphasized that there was a need for a stronger public debate on anti-Semitism and how it works. After the Shoah (Hebrew for Holocaust) “there was rightly a lot of preoccupation with the fact that hostility towards Jews should be outlawed,” said the chairwoman of the foundation, Anetta Kahane. But society is only now beginning to deal with the deeper concept.
Anti-Semitism is a “cultural technique,” said Kahane. For example, it is about holding Jews responsible for grievances. Unlike racism, anti-Semitism is a “world explanation model,” said human rights activist Düzen Tekkal. Remembrance in Germany should not be limited to showing empathy for the Jews killed in Germany.
“The ongoing relativization of the persecution and suffering of Nazi victims through the instrumentalization and misuse of symbols is” disturbing and deeply repulsive, “says Thuringia’s President for the Protection of the Constitution, Kramer tagesschau.de he emphasizes: “Neither freedom of expression nor legitimate criticism of political decisions in the pandemic can somehow justify this.” Kramer calls for a “unanimous social reaction – namely a defensive democracy movement supported by all social classes”.
“Perfidious mockery of the victims”
For the survivors of the Holocaust and their descendants, the open Nazi relativizations are often unbearable the measures taken by the federal government to combat pandemics are seen as the same. ” It is a perfidious mockery of the victims of National Socialism.