Bavaria
Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial: Anti-Semitic leaflet in the archive
Bavaria’s Deputy Prime Minister Hubert Aiwanger came under pressure over the weekend because of an anti-Semitic leaflet. photo
© Pia Bayer/dpa
At the weekend, an anti-Semitic leaflet put Bavaria’s Deputy Prime Minister Aiwanger under pressure. Now it has become known: The leaflet is publicly available.
The anti-Semitic flyer from school days for which the brother of Bavaria’s Deputy Prime Minister Hubert Aiwanger took over responsibility as the author is archived as part of a student work in the Dachau concentration camp memorial site. This was confirmed by a spokeswoman for the memorial in the evening. The “world” had first reported about it.
The newspaper found out that the flyer was printed in Roman Serlitzky’s student work “Last Homeland Steinrain? On the History of the Jewish Cemetery near Mallersdorf-Pfaffenberg”. The work was written in the 1988/89 school year and won second prize in the “German History” student competition held by Federal President Richard von Weizsäcker. Since then it has been in the Dachau concentration camp memorial, writes the “Welt”.
Leaflet as part of student work
The spokeswoman for the memorial explained that the leaflet was printed in the student work without naming an author. “The flyer is not available as a single copy, but only as part of the student work.”
According to “Welt”, the author of the work contrasts the leaflet with a leaflet from the “Schülermitresponsibilities” (SMV) of the Burkhart-Gymnasium, in which they had called for a vigil at the Jewish cemetery in 1985. He wrote: “As a negative example of how other young people of the same age are dealing with the 3rd Reich, do not hide a leaflet that circulated in school toilets and was cashed in by the school management in good time.” The leaflet confirms a “subliminal anti-Semitic trend that is always present,” it said. “Where such non-spirit (sic!) stirs, no Jew has a chance of finding a home. The brown swamp still exists.”
Serlitzky: Nothing known about the author
Roman Serlitzky told Welt that he had received a copy of the leaflet from his teacher. “I hadn’t heard anything about the flyer at school beforehand. I didn’t and don’t know anything about the authors.” The pamphlet was “deliberately kept small” by the school, his teacher said. “The school had partnerships with French and Polish schools. They didn’t want to attract too much attention so as not to jeopardize the partnerships.”
Bavaria’s Economics Minister and head of the Free Voters, Aiwanger, came under pressure over the weekend because of the leaflet. On Saturday evening, Aiwanger had denied in writing that he had written an anti-Semitic leaflet in the 1980s that the “Süddeutsche Zeitung” reported on. At the same time, however, he admitted that “one or a few copies” were found in his school bag. Shortly thereafter, Aiwanger’s older brother admitted to having written the pamphlet. He later said he believed his brother Hubert wanted to collect the leaflets again.