Roger Waters Under Investigation for Inciting the Masses: Pink Floyd Musician Suspected of Nazi Glorification and Anne Frank Desecration

Rome, 26 May 2023 – Roger Waters, former Pink Floyd musician, is under investigation by the German police by inciting the masses.

“Dressed similarly” to a member of the SS: this is the suspicion that was immediately relaunched also via social media after the performance at the Mercedes Benz Arena in Berlin on May 17th. Even if among the symbols worn there was no swastika.

L’indagine sull’ex Pink Floyd

“We are investigating the suspicion of inciting public hatred because the clothes worn on stage could be used to glorify or justify Nazi rule. And once the procedure is completed, we will forward it to the prosecutor for a final legal assessment,” said the police spokesman, stressing that it will be up to the prosecutor to take any legal action.

Criticism from the Israeli community

They had already arrived the day after the concert criticism from the Israeli communitythrough the words written on Twitter by the Foreign Ministry, according to which the former Pink Floyd musician had spent the evening “desecrating the memory of Anne Frank and of 6 million Jews killed in the Holocaust”.

What had happened during the concert

During his performance, Waters scrolled various names across a giant screen, metaphorically equating those of Anne Frank, Sophie Scholl, the anti-Nazi activist killed by the SS, Mahsa Amini, whose death was attributed to the Iranian morality police, of George Floyd, the African-American killed by the police in Minneapolis and also of Rachel Corrie, US activist hit and killed by an armed Israeli bulldozer in southern Gaza in 2003.

Il caso di Shireen Abu Akleh

But above all Waters wrote the name of Shireen Abu Akleh, the Palestinian journalist of Al Jazeera killed last year in Jenin in firefights between armed militiamen and the Israeli army. Israel had emphatically denied her willingness, while admitting the possibility that the reporter could have been hit by weapons of its own armed forces. At the end of the list, an inscription read that “they” are so brutal “because they want to crush our resistance and continue to rule the world”.

Quotes about the war in Ukraine

This isn’t the first time Waters has made headlines for his offstage actions. “It is not true that the Russian invasion of Ukraine it was not provoked”, he declared on 8 February before the UN Security Council, where he had been invited by Russia to speak. And it is certainly not the first time that Waters has come into conflict with Israel. The former Pink Floyd musician has never hidden his position on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, defending action to boycott Tel Aviv products.

May 28 performance

While waiting for the German prosecutor to comment, Waters could have more trouble in Germany. The Frankfurt authorities had tried to delete his performance on May 28th, although the administrative court denied it on the grounds of freedom of expression. Now, however, a demonstration is scheduled for Sunday where he will perform, called in particular by the local Jewish community and the Green Party. Who knows if the Pink Floyd icon will be talked about again.