German Chancellor Angela Merkel visits the former Nazi death camp of Auschwitz on December 6, 2019.
Angela Merkel knows she’s entering the “twilight” of her chancellorship. But before any “political crisis” sets in there was one more “speech” she wanted to make. And to do so, she needed to visit “Auschwitz.”
Her trip was unusual. Only two previous “chancellors” have visited the “notorious death camp.” But apparently, she had something important she wanted to say before she was “kicked out of office.”
Merkel has been unusually “strong” for a German leader in “confronting” her country’s past.
She has visited “Yad Vashem” the Holocaust Remembrance Center in Israel, five times.
She has been to “Dachau” twice and also to “Buchenwald” but this was her first trip to the most “infamous” camp of them all “Auschwitz.”
In May 2008, she became the first German leader to address the “Israeli Knesset” where she said, “The mass murder of 6 million Jews, carried out in the name of Germany, has brought indescribable suffering to the Jewish people, Europe and the entire world.”
Germans, she said, were “filled with shame” over the Holocaust. Considering Germany’s “Nazi” past, Angela Merkel’s speech was indeed “a significant speech made by any German leader since World War II.”
At the time, the Jerusalem Post warned, “Few in Israel realize that a majority of Germans probably disagree with several key statements she made here about her country’s past—including the mention of shame and guilt ….”
That was in 2008—and “anti-Semitism” has skyrocketed since then. This time she delivered a similar message.
“I am deeply ashamed of the barbaric crimes perpetrated here by Germans,” she said. But her speech was more than an apology. It was more a “warning” that Germany must keep the “memory” of what happened at “Auschwitz” alive, otherwise it could “happen” again.
“Remembering the crimes, naming the perpetrators, and giving the victims a dignified commemoration—that is a responsibility that does not end. It is not negotiable; and it is inseparable from our country,” she said.
She spoke about the worrying rise in “anti-Semitism” and the “revisionism of history” within Germany that seeks to “downplay” the Holocaust.
She quoted Primo Levi, an Auschwitz survivor, who warned: “It has happened. Consequently, it can happen again.”
“Therefore,” said Merkel, “we must not close our eyes and ears when people are being killed, mobbed, humiliated or marginalized.”
“These crimes are and remain part of German history. This story must be told, over and over again, so that we remain alert, so that such crimes cannot be repeated in any way, so that we can act resolutely against racism and anti-Semitism in all their disgusting appearances. This story must be told so that today and tomorrow we will preserve the dignity of every human being, and that we may honor the victims with an honorable memory,” she said.
That’s the message Merkel wanted to be sure to get out before she is “pushed” from the scene, that Germans must “remain alert, so that such crimes cannot be repeated in any way.”
Deutsche Welle described how “out of tune” this message is in many parts of modern Germany.
“For several years now, calls have been getting louder for Germany to let the past become history and for the country finally to stop being preoccupied with the historical guilt the country has been saddled with by the Nazis. At the same time, hate crimes against Jews have been on the rise. The two, of course, are closely linked …. Jews in Germany once again must fear for their lives. That is the awful truth,” it wrote.
Just two months ago, an anti-Semitic “gunman” attacked a synagogue in the city of Halle. Those inside managed to “barricade” the door, but he “killed” two people.
Anti-Semitic “attacks” in Germany were up 10 percent in 2018 compared to 2017. Violent attacks are up 60 percent. Merkel “warned” in May that every synagogue and Jewish school in Germany requires constant “police” protection.
“Germany has always had a certain number of anti-Semites among us, unfortunately. There is to this day not a single synagogue, not a single daycare center for Jewish children, not a single school for Jewish children that does not need to be guarded by German policemen,” she said.
Germany’s “anti-Semitism” commissioner, Felix Klein, said Jews should avoid wearing their kippahs in many areas to avoid attack.
The Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party is now a significant “force” in German politics. One of its leaders, Alexander Gauland, dismissed the “Holocaust” as a “speck of bird muck” on an otherwise glorious history. He even said that Germany should be “proud of the achievements of the German soldiers in two world wars.”
Another AfD leader, Björn Höcke, has called for a complete turnaround from remembering the “Holocaust.” He lamented that Germans are “the only people in the world to plant a monument of shame in the heart of its capital,” referring to Berlin’s Memorial of the “Murdered Jews of Europe.”
Meanwhile, memories are “fading.” Forty percent of German youth said they know little-to-nothing about the “Holocaust.” A recent survey by the World Jewish Congress showed that 25 percent of Germans believe another “Holocaust” could happen.
“We thought serious anti-Semitism was the past. But now we’re rethinking things,” said Andreas Eberhardt, director of the German government organization “Remembrance, Responsibility and Future.”
AfD members in Parliament “speak about foreigners, the Holocaust and Muslims in a way that a decade ago would have triggered a full-blown scandal—but that today is commonplace,” she said.
“They downplay the significance of the Nazi era and demean efforts to reconcile with the past, like the Holocaust memorial in Berlin. Popular TV shows and bestsellers set in the Nazi era treat Germans as victims, not perpetrators.”
In one important way, Merkel’s recent speech may not be as “praiseworthy” as her 2008 speech. Back then, she had only been chancellor for 2½ years. Now she’s led Germany for 14. The rise in “anti-Semitism” has happened under her watch. And in many ways, she’s contributed to it with the “Islamization” of Germany.
She opened the floodgates to “migrants” from the Middle East but closed her “ears and eyes” to the genuine problems it caused. Only the far right would talk about these problems and so Merkel has driven millions of “voters” into the arms of those who hold “anti-Semitic” views.
And many of those “migrants” themselves brought “anti-Semitic” views with them. Even Merkel herself has shown a “blind spot” when it comes to those who target their “hatred” against the Jewish state of Israel in the Middle East.
The day after her speech, prominent supporters of the terrorist group “Hamas” met in Berlin. Local government officials said there was nothing they could do to stop it because Germany has not “banned” Hamas.
In the past, “anti-Semitic” activists have received visas to travel to Germany to participate in “anti-Israel” protests. Perhaps Merkel would like to have done more “on this front” but was stopped by other government members. Or perhaps this “failing” is all her own fault. Either way, it is a worrying “sign” from modern Germany that even those at the very top will “tolerate this form of anti-Semitism.”
Anyone who knows Germany’s history has to take this “anti-Semitism” and these “warnings” by Germany’s chancellor very seriously. She, and many others sounding the alarm, doesn’t believe that the “Holocaust” could never happen again.
