German Chancellor Olaf Scholz sharply criticized the manifestations of anti-Semitism in the country, which he said were shameful. His comments came amid Israel’s bombing of the civilian population in the Gaza Strip.
On November 9-10, 1938, Nazi stormtroopers in Germany smashed and burned Jewish shops and synagogues. The November pogrom, called “Crystal Night”, was a prelude to the largest genocide in Europe.
Scholz said he was “ashamed and outraged” by the wave of anti-Semitic acts in Germany, warning that Berlin would not put up with such hatred of Jews, Reuters reported, BTA reported.
Scholz made the statement on the occasion of today’s 85th anniversary of the Nazi pogroms against the Jews, which went down in history as Kristallnacht. The chancellor spoke at a commemorative ceremony at Berlin’s Beth Zion synagogue on the anniversary, which he honored alongside leaders of Germany’s Jewish community. Beth Zion was among the thousand synagogues across Germany that were damaged or destroyed by the Nazis during Kristallnacht on November 9, 1938.
At least 91 Jews were killed, about 7,500 Jewish shops were destroyed, and nearly 30,000 men and boys were arrested in the raids that preceded the Holocaust (or Shoah, as the Jews call it), during which more than six million people. The synagogue where Scholz spoke was attacked with firebombs (“Molotov cocktails”) in a series of anti-Semitic acts following the surprise attack by the radical Palestinian movement Hamas on Israel on October 7 and the subsequent Israeli offensive against the Gaza Strip.
In the week after the Hamas attack, the German Association of Centers for Research and Information on Anti-Semitism reported 202 anti-Semitic incidents in Germany related to the October 7 attack, a 240 percent increase from a year ago. Police reported that mosques were also attacked during the same period, with packages containing torn pages of the Koran mixed with faeces delivered to as many as eight. “Any form of anti-Semitism is poison to our society. We will not put up with it,” said Scholz, who wore the traditional Jewish kippah, as mandated by the presence of men in the synagogue. Manifestations of anti-Semitism have been observed on a global scale since the beginning of the conflict between Israel and the Islamist Palestinian movement “Hamas”. In Germany, they are a cause of internal anguish among politicians, because the country prided itself on its culture of memory in relation to its dark past, from which it leaves itself a historical duty to fight hatred against Jews, according to Reuters.
Last week, a ten-minute video was released in which Germany’s economy minister, Robert Habeck, expressed concern about the rising tide of anti-Semitism. He warned German citizens that any display of anti-Semitism would be prosecuted, and any foreigner risked having their residency status revoked. In fact, the new regulations for obtaining German citizenship are categorical that no anti-Semite can be a citizen of the country, Chancellor Scholz said today. He noted that instilling in the nation a historical responsibility regarding the Holocaust is of particular importance, given that the generations who suffered it personally are no longer with us to share their first-hand memories. Scholz added that the past becomes even more significant in light of the fact that Germany is currently flooded with immigrants, many of whom have not studied the Holocaust in their home countries, or have had the events presented to them through a different perspective.
“At the same time, we must not be misled by those who now see an opportunity to deny the right of more than five million Muslims to be part of our society,” the German chancellor said. He pointed out that “Never again” also means friendship with Israel. “Israel has the right to defend itself against the barbaric terror of Hamas,” said Olaf Scholz, reaffirming his government’s commitment to the release of hostages held by the radical Palestinian movement in the Gaza Strip. Jewish culture flourished in Berlin before the Nazis came to power, notes Reuters. The German capital is one of the world’s ten Jewish centers, and many of the country’s leading scientists are Berlin Jews. Before Adolf Hitler took power, there were 160,000 Jews in Berlin, while in 1945, at the end of World War II , they are only 1400. The others either escaped or died in the death camps.
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2023-11-09 16:05:00
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