It went wrong at a cemetery southwest of the German capital Berlin, which is managed by a Protestant church. 48-year-old neo-Nazi Henry Hafenmayer was buried there last Friday, writes The Guardian. That happened exactly on the spot where the Jewish singer and music scientist Max Friedländer, who died in Berlin in 1934, was laid to rest.
Tomb emptied
Friedländer’s grave had already been emptied, something that is customary after a few decades. His tombstone was still there because it was a monument. There was room for new graves, but according to the church a neo-Nazi should never have been buried.
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Hafenmayer described the Holocaust as a “lie” and was sentenced to prison, making him a celebrity in German right-wing extremist circles. Neo-Nazis attended his funeral last week and Friedländer’s headstone was covered with a black cloth.
Right to final resting place
Hafenmayer’s relatives had first requested a more central place in the cemetery, but the church did not agree to this for fear that it could become a gathering place for right-wing extremists.
Because everyone is entitled to a final resting place, he was assigned the new location, but according to the church that should never have happened. “This is a staggering turn of events in light of our history,” the church said in a statement.
‘Consciously chosen’
An anti-Semitic movement in Berlin has already filed a complaint about the state of affairs. “It is obvious that right-wing extremists deliberately chose a Jewish grave to disrupt eternal peace by the burial of a Holocaust denier.”
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