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Holocaust Remembrance Day: Antisemitism raises major concerns
The Holocaust memorial in Berlin commemorates the Shoah. The Central Council of Jews complained about “threatening developments in our society”. Photo: Carsten Koall/dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
77 years after the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp, the millions of victims of Nazi terror are commemorated again. But many also look at today with horror.
On Holocaust Remembrance Day, the Central Council of Jews complained about the alarming level of anti-Semitism and called for swift countermeasures.
“If we want to stop the threatening developments in our society, words must be followed by deeds,” said Central Council President Josef Schuster in Berlin. Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser called anti-Semitic hate speech “a disgrace to our country” and announced a law to promote democracy. Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier warned that the memory of the Nazi crimes should be kept alive.
January 27 has been a day of remembrance for the victims of National Socialism in Germany since 1996, including millions of Jews, Sinti and Roma, homosexuals and political opponents of the Nazi regime. It is the anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp in 1945.
Steinmeier in Sachsenhausen
Steinmeier visited the former Sachsenhausen concentration camp north of Berlin the day before. According to the memorial, more than 200,000 people were imprisoned in the camp between 1936 and 1945, and tens of thousands perished there. Steinmeier called it a training ground for perfecting genocide.
“We commemorate the millions of people who were taken to concentration camps, tortured and murdered there,” said the Federal President. The responsibility today is to counteract all forms of anti-Semitism, racism and discrimination.
Central Council renewed demands
The Central Council of Jews in Germany also demanded this. There have been efforts by politicians and civil society to combat anti-Semitism for years. These must be implemented quickly. Public prosecutors should have anti-Semitism officers in all federal states. Judges and teachers should learn more about Nazi injustice during their studies. The Central Council also advocated a democracy promotion law.
There was agreement on the project, said Federal Interior Minister Faeser. “Resolutely countering deeply rooted enmity is not just a task for the police, judiciary and security authorities. It is a task for us as a society.” The trivialization of the Nazi genocide by yellow stars at Corona demonstrations is shameful. “As a democratic constitutional state, we are resolutely opposed to all of this,” assured the SPD politician.
Family Minister Anne Spiegel (Greens) also campaigned for the Democracy Promotion Act. Berlin’s Governing Mayor Franziska Giffey also called for a clear stance against everyone “who wants to make anti-Semitism and right-wing extremism acceptable again”.
Minister of State for Culture Claudia Roth announced that educational work would be strengthened in the federal memorial concept. “An important task will be to keep the memory of the crimes alive in Europe, to make them more visible throughout Europe and to anchor them in the collective memory.” Some memorials are breaking new ground in their work and also use short video clips on Tiktok to reach young people with information about the Nazi era. The pilot project was presented in Berlin on Wednesday.