GERMANY: Racism and fascism (2)
01 January 1991
GERMANY: Racism and fascism
artdoc August=1994
Anti-Semitism Attack on Lubeck synagogue
Thousands of people demonstrated across Germany following a
right-wing attack on a synagogue in the northern German coastal
town of Lubeck. No-one was injured in the attack, which took
place on the eve of Passover, although those living above the
synagogue had to flee for their lives. Four youths, aged between
16 and 24, have been arrested, and charged with attempted murder.
They reportedly come from a neighbourhood known for high levels
of membership of the far-Right DVU and Republican parties.
Amazingly, the initial response of the press to the attack was
to blame it on Palestinians (Taz 4.5.94).
After the attack, hundreds of local residents gathered outside
the synagogue which had been reconstructed and due to be re-
opened for the first time since the Second World War. Children
carried placards which read: `We oppose violence and want the
world to know that these cowards do not have the support of the
community' (Daily Telegraph 26.3.94).
Implications of Lubeck attack
Ignatz Bubis, head of the Central Council of Jews in Germany,
says that there have been more attacks on Jewish cemeteries in
Germany in 1992 than between 1926 and 1931. His remarks were
seized upon by the head of the far-Right Republikaner party,
Franz Schonhuber who called Mr. Bubis a `provocateur' who
`incited anti-Semitism' (see below).
Internal security agencies say there is some evidence to
indicate that the far-Right had embarked on a systematic anti-
Semitic campaign aimed at polarising public opinion after the
introduction of tighter immigration laws that take the steam out
of the far-Right's campaign against immigrants and asylum-seekers
(Guardian 5.4.94).
Steglitz Holocaust memorial shelved
Steglitz council, in south-west Berlin, has caused a national
scandal and prompted the intervention of the Berlin senate by
voting to block the erection of a memorial to 1,600 Jews deported
to concentration camps from the area. Steglitz, whose wealthy
residents contained a disproportionately high number of nazi
supporters during the war, was the concentration camp
administrative centre.
Apparently, Steigliz council's Christian Democrat and Free
Liberal Democrat council only maintain its ruling majority
through an alliance with the Republikaner party. They joined
forces to veto the construction of the Holocaust memorial. The
Berlin Senate has said that it will take the council to court
unless it reverses the decision and goes ahead with the project
(Independent 23.4.94; Daily Telegraph 26.4.94 Jewish Chronicle
2.5.94).
Other anti-Semitic attacks
36 gravestones in a Jewish cemetery in Dresden were desecrated
on the Ascension Day holiday. A Jewish cemetery in Bad Dissngen
was also attacked. In the suburbs of Cologne, an extreme right-
wing group put out leaflets calling for the `hunting down' of a
well-known Jewish author living in the neighbourhood (Guardian
14.5.94 Taz 13.5.94).
Holocaust denial - a criminal offence
A new bill is to go before the German parliament making denial
of the Holocaust a criminal offence. Previously, in April, the
German Supreme Court has ruled that freedom of speech protection
does not extend to those who deny that the Holocaust happened.
The Supreme Court ruling came as a result of a case bought by the
far-Right National Democrat Party. In 1991, after the city
authorities in Munich had threatened to stop a rally if the
British historian David Irving denied the Holocaust happened, the
National Democratic Party's Gunter Deckert claimed that this
amounted to a violation of freedom of speech.
The decision was welcomed by the Jewish community who had
expressed alarm at an earlier ruling that maintained that the
denial of the Holocaust was only illegal if used to incite racial
hatred (Jewish Chronicle 29.4.94).
The new legislation will take the form of an amend