“Never again”: Scholz pledges to protect Jews in Germany

Chancellor Scholz promised Jews in Germany on Thursday to protect them by commemorating the 85th anniversary of the Nazi Kristallnacht pogrom, in a context of a resurgence of anti-Semitic acts since the war between Israel and Israel. l and Hamas.

The promise to “never again” tolerate anti-Semitism, “this is a promise that we must keep now”, launched the chancellor in the Beth Zion synagogue in Berlin, which had been devastated and vandalized by the Nazis on the night of November 9 to 10, 1938 like many other places of worship, businesses and Jewish homes.

It is a promise “on which democratic Germany rests”, added the leader.

Attending the ceremony were almost the entire German government, the head of the central committee of Jews in Germany Josef Schuster, 102-year-old Holocaust survivor Margot Friedländer, and relatives of Israeli hostages held by Hamas since 'bloody attack of October 7.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz greets Holocaust survivor Margot Friedländer (l), aged 102, during the commemorations of the 85th anniversary of Kristallnacht, at the Beth Zion synagogue in Berlin, November 9, 2023 ©  POOL – JOHN MACDOUGALL

“All forms of anti-Semitism poison our society. As now during Islamist demonstrations”, insisted Olaf Scholz.

And to promise to “pursue all those who support the terrorism and are anti-Semitic.”

The chancellor also recalled that with the entry into force of a new law on citizenship, no person suspected of anti-Semitism could be naturalized as a German.

— “Historical responsibility” —

At the end of October, German intelligence declared having recorded around 1,800 anti-Semitic crimes in the country since the surprise attack by the Islamist movement Hamas on the 7th October in Israel.

Chancellor Scholz wears a kippah during the commemorations of the 85th anniversary of Kristallnacht, at the Beth Zion synagogue in Berlin, November 9, 2023 © POOL – John MACDOUGALL

In Berlin, in the Neukölln district with a large population of Arab and Turkish origin, the Samidoun network, which claims to support Palestinian prisoners, distributed pastries to celebrate “the victory of the resistance” after October 7. Samidoun has since been banned in Germany.

The Beth Zion synagogue, where the ceremony took place, was targeted on October 18 by Molotov cocktail throwing, which caused no damage or injuries.

“All those who live in our country and all those who want to live there must understand the responsibility arising from our history” towards the Jews, insisted Olaf Scholz, in a barely veiled allusion to migrants who recently came to Germany.

More than a million of them arrived from the Middle East during the refugee crisis of 2015-16.

“Our historic responsibility must be transmitted in schools , in universities, in professional training, in integration courses and in daily life”, he continued.

“So that we can make ourselves understood in Germany, a land of immigration, by all those who come from countries where we do not talk about the Shoah or in a completely different way,” he said. “It’s an absolute necessity.”

He nevertheless added: “We must not fall into the trap of those who see the opportunity to wholesale deny more than five million Muslim citizens their place in our society.” A note for the attention of the extreme right which is on the rise in Germany

On the night of November 9 to 10, 1938, the unprecedented violence during Kristallnacht — so called cause of the broken glass littering the streets after the acts of vandalism–had been presented by the Nazi regime as retaliation for the assassination of German diplomat Ernst vom Rath in Paris by a Polish Jew.

These pogroms, provoking international outrage, marked the intensification of persecution by Nazi Germany against the Jews. Six million of them perished during the Shoah.

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