“Michel Friedman discusses anti-Semitism and democracy at the ‘Against Forgetting’ exhibition in Bad Vilbel”

As part of the exhibition “Against forgetting – 90 years of book burning” by Naturfreunde Bad Vilbel, the Frankfurt lawyer, publicist and philosopher Michel Friedman was a guest in the city library on Niddaplatz.

Bad Vilbel (cka). Under the title “Against forgetting – anti-Semitism today”, Michel Friedman made a current connection between the book burnings 90 years ago and anti-Semitism today. All 160 places in the city library were occupied.

Norbert Nakoinz, chairman of the Bad Vilbeler Naturfreunde, opened the evening and in his short speech emphasized the importance of freedom of expression and freedom of the press. The “World Map of Press Freedom” on a display board in the exhibition shows how endangered both are, created by Reporters Without Borders, who are committed to freedom of the press and against censorship worldwide. Friedman was pleased with the venue – the city library – and opened his talk with a plea for reading. This is still a privilege today, which makes it possible to get to know the world, to develop one’s own imagination, to become critical and to raise doubts qualitatively. And with that he was already in the middle of one of his big topics of the evening: education – by which he meant both the acquisition of knowledge and the ability to empathize. “Education must not be accidental,” he said. Through them you learn to understand the world.

His actual topic of the evening was democracy, he continued. They live from human rights that everyone enjoys through being human. But he also noticed a certain weariness with democracy, which is shown by attacks on politicians and media workers – keyword “lying press” – and the contemptuous view of the social system. He backed this up with figures: around five percent of people in Germany supported the idea of ​​Reich citizenship, and around 15 percent had latent hatred of Jews. These are 20 percent who threaten democracy. However, if the other 80 percent spoke out loud for democracy, she was safe. He appealed to stand by those who are hostile and to ensure that people are protected, not excluded. After all, Germany is a “wonderful country” because it is democratic and offers people a great quality of life: the freedom to travel, to express any opinion and to enjoy media diversity without censorship.

Michel Friedman spoke freely and without manuscript for an hour and received a lot of applause from the audience for his remarks. In the discussion that followed, moderated by Malik Eberhardt and Horst Seißinger, he answered questions that the audience could write down during the lecture and hand in afterwards. In the conversation, he returned to one of his major themes of the evening: being human and standing up for other people – even in the argument, which is the basis of thinking, combined with curiosity and doubt.

The exhibition in the city library can be seen until May 26th. For school classes and interested groups, the nature lovers offer a lecture on the subject during opening hours. Anyone who also wants to get to know the city library with its wide range of literature and media can book a “double pack – compact”: an introduction to the library’s offerings and a short presentation on the exhibition, each lasting 15 minutes.