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Angela Merkel
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Germany must take decisive action against anti-Semitism, given the rise of right-wing extremist crimes, Chancellor Angela Merkel was quoted as saying by BTA.
“We are concerned that anti-Semitism is becoming more unrestrained and open,” said the soon-to-be-left chancellor at an award ceremony for a student campaign against anti-Semitism and for the lasting memory of Nazi crimes.
The award was given to groups of children from Leipzig, Halle, Warburg, Kassel and the German Medellin School in Colombia.
Merkel presented the award with Holocaust survivor Margo Friedlander, who turns 100 in November.
Merkel cited the fact that during protests against lockdown in recent months, some participants wore yellow stars with the words “unvaccinated” to show that they felt persecuted by the government as an example of the emergence of anti-Semitism in public places. “This is an unbearable mockery of the suffering of Holocaust victims,” she said. “We do not tolerate racism, we do not tolerate anti-Semitism – it is humiliating that we have to emphasize this.”
She pointed out that in 2020, anti-Semitic crimes committed by right-wing extremists increased by nearly 18 percent.
“The life of the Jewish community must be able to develop freely and safely in our country,” the chancellor stressed. She added that preserving the memory of the Holocaust and what Germany had done during World War II was vital to the future of German society.
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