The president of German’s Central Council of Jews, Charlotte Knobloch, has drawn parallels between recent extremist attacks in eastern parts of Germany and the 1930s era under Adolf Hitler when the Nazi’s were consolidating power – writes Anli Serfontein for Ecumenical News International. Her warning came ahead of the anniversary on 9 November 2006 of Kristallnacht (also known as Reichspogromnacht) in 1938, the night on which purges were launched against Jews in Germany. “These incidents have reached an aggressiveness and a frequency, which awake harrowing memories,” said Knobloch. In the Bavarian capital of Munich on 9 November, a new main synagogue is to be inaugurated in place of the one destroyed by the Nazis, the German Protestant news agency epd reports. “We selected this date quite consciously, because this day is to represent in the future the connection of the past, present and future. We must never forget what a part of the German population did to the other Jewish part did, on 9 November 1938,” noted Knobloch. Speaking in Berlin, on 23 October, at the launch of an initiative against extremism, Knobloch said: “Anti-Semitism and radical rightwing attacks have reached an obvious level of aggression that reminds one of the time after 1933” when Hitler came to power. Among incidents in the former communist East-Germany in recent weeks have been the opening burning of the book “The diary of Anne Frank”; a pupil was forced by fellow pupils to wear a placard with anti-Semitic slogans sprayed on it; and a regional league soccer game in Berlin was called off because of anti-Semitic chants. Knobloch said it was unfortunately clear that “rightwing extremism and anti-Semitism is strongly embedded in some sections of the population”. A survivor the Holocaust as a child who hid on a farm in Bavaria, Knobloch has called on politicians to come up with counter measures to fight anti-Semitism, racism and Neo-Nazi’s. The Jewish council was founded in 1950 and is an umbrella group with more than 100,000 members. In the last 15 years it has assumed a stronger profile, and increasingly participated in debates on the Holocaust and anti-Semitism in Germany. [With acknowledgements to ENI. Ecumenical News International is jointly sponsored by the World Council of Churches, the Lutheran World Federation, the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, and the Conference of European Churches] The president of German’s Central Council of Jews, Charlotte Knobloch, has drawn parallels between recent extremist attacks in eastern parts of Germany and the 1930s era under Adolf Hitler when the Nazi’s were consolidating power – writes Anli Serfontein for Ecumenical News International.
Her warning came ahead of the anniversary on 9 November 2006 of Kristallnacht (also known as Reichspogromnacht) in 1938, the night on which purges were launched against Jews in Germany.
“These incidents have reached an aggressiveness and a frequency, which awake harrowing memories,” said Knobloch.
In the Bavarian capital of Munich on 9 November, a new main synagogue is to be inaugurated in place of the one destroyed by the Nazis, the German Protestant news agency epd reports.
“We selected this date quite consciously, because this day is to represent in the future the connection of the past, present and future. We must never forget what a part of the German population did to the other Jewish part did, on 9 November 1938,” noted Knobloch.
Speaking in Berlin, on 23 October, at the launch of an initiative against extremism, Knobloch said: “Anti-Semitism and radical rightwing attacks have reached an obvious level of aggression that reminds one of the time after 1933” when Hitler came to power.
Among incidents in the former communist East-Germany in recent weeks have been the opening burning of the book “The diary of Anne Frank”; a pupil was forced by fellow pupils to wear a placard with anti-Semitic slogans sprayed on it; and a regional league soccer game in Berlin was called off because of anti-Semitic chants.
Knobloch said it was unfortunately clear that “rightwing extremism and anti-Semitism is strongly embedded in some sections of the population”. A survivor the Holocaust as a child who hid on a farm in Bavaria, Knobloch has called on politicians to come up with counter measures to fight anti-Semitism, racism and Neo-Nazi’s.
The Jewish council was founded in 1950 and is an umbrella group with more than 100,000 members. In the last 15 years it has assumed a stronger profile, and increasingly participated in debates on the Holocaust and anti-Semitism in Germany.
[With acknowledgements to ENI. Ecumenical News International is jointly sponsored by the World Council of Churches, the Lutheran World Federation, the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, and the Conference of European Churches]