The memorial act for the victims of National Socialism began on Wednesday morning in the plenary hall of the state parliament with the famous theme from the film Schindler’s List, arranged for cello and piano. This event has been taking place in the Maximilianeum since 2011 with many guests of honor, young people and politicians – and this year it became even more topical than the topic always is.
State Parliament President Ilse Aigner made a clear commitment against right-wing extremism, anti-Semitism and for the state of Israel and devoted almost more words to the present than to the past. Anyone who wants to destroy Israel is inheriting the legacy of the Nazis, she said, recalling Hamas’ attack on Israel in October. It didn’t matter to the terrorists who the people they killed were – because they were Jews. “It is clear to us more than ever these days that this story does not end in 1945. The ‘never again’ has caught up with us,” said Aigner.
“It is unbearable when Jewish people do not dare to be recognizable as Jewish,” she said. The President of the State Parliament also demands a clear commitment from all people who want to live in Germany. “Anyone who wants to be part of our country must be part of our culture of remembrance, our fight against all anti-Semitism and our commitment to the State of Israel,” she said. Tolerance and hospitality ended at this red line without any ifs or buts.
Aigner also addressed the AfD, whose members of the state parliament also attended the memorial service. “When radical forces make plans to deport entire population groups, history becomes a template. We recognize the pattern, the conscious reference,” warned Aigner, referring to a meeting of right-wing extremists in November, attended by some AfD politicians and individual members of the CDU and the very conservative Union of Values in Potsdam. For example, the deportation of people with a migration background was discussed.
Aigner speaks directly to the AfD parliamentary group leader, who just laughs
She directly addressed AfD parliamentary group deputy Martin Böhm, who “found the aim of delegitimizing me personally in favor of a suspected agitator as charming. That’s a new quality.” Böhm had advised the new MP and fraternity member Daniel Halemba, who was wanted on an arrest warrant, to get himself arrested in the state parliament and thus harm the state parliament president. Now Böhm sat next to Halemba in the plenary hall and laughed at Aigner’s words.
The AfD is pushing the perpetrator-victim reversal to the extreme, said Aigner, and an AfD man had already talked about an enabling law in the House. “You put yourself on the same level as victims who stood for freedom, for humanity, for resistance against the National Socialists,” said Aigner. “This is outrageous.”
It is felt more than ever that commemoration should not be a ritual and should not become a routine, said Aigner. She concluded by saying, “Never again is now.” Foundation director Karl Freller of the Bavarian Memorials Foundation even said in his speech: “Never again is always.”
Abba Naor, who lost many family members, including his mother and brothers, in the Holocaust and is a member of the international Dachau Committee, will soon be 96 years old. “We, the survivors of the Shoah, will soon be no more,” he said – even though his cardiologist in Israel had announced that he would get a new pacemaker for his 100th birthday. “I won’t miss it.”
6000 marks for a stolen childhood? “No one can make up for this”
It is the quiet humor as well as the personal nature of his descriptions that make his words so impressive. At that time he did not accept reparation from the German state, 6,000 marks for his stolen childhood, for his dead mother and his dead brothers. “No one can make up for this.” But no one is born an anti-Semite; it is the job of parents and society to protect children from this. Talking to contemporary witnesses is “the best prevention against the poison of anti-Semitism,” said Naor. And the conversation with the children is also his personal compensation.
Holocaust survivor Abba Naor spoke at a memorial event in the state parliament on Wednesday.
(Photo: Peter Kneffel/dpa)
Students from the Gisela-Gymnasium Munich gave a performance on the topic of anti-Ziganism. Their conclusion was: “When we hate, we lose. When we love, we become rich.”
Franz Duke of Bavaria, who was also interned in the concentration camp with his family, also took part in the ceremony, as did Ernst Schneeberger, the chairman of the regional association of Sinti and Roma, who lost many of his relatives in the Holocaust. Josef Schuster, the President of the Central Council of Jews, was there, as were representatives of the churches and many members of the state government.