German Holocaust remembrance under fire from Musk-backed far right – World

As the world remembers Auschwitz, the extreme German right has rejected the tradition of the country’s holocaust memory, now with the support of the billionaire of American technology Elon Musk.

“I think there is too much focus on past guilt and we have to go beyond that,” said the ally of the president of the United States, Donald Trump, an alternative for Germany (AFD) in a video discussion over the weekend.

“Children should not be guilty for the sins of their great -grandparents,” an anti -immigration party that he has supported heavily before the elections of February 23 told supporters.

Musk’s comments faced the facts by Foreign Minister Olaf Scholz to mark 80 years since the release of the extermination field in what was Poland occupied by the Nazis and in the “civilizational rupture” of the Holocaust.

“Each person in our country has responsibility, regardless of their own family history, regardless of religion or the birthplace of their parents or grandparents,” Scholz said in a speech.

Musk’s comments were even more divisive, since they were ahead of the 80th anniversary of Auschwitz’s liberation, where more than one million Jewish people and more than 100,000 others died between 1940 and 1945.

The Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, whose country is organizing commemorations, quickly criticized the slogans made in Saturday’s rally, although he did not mention Musk by name.

“The words we hear from the main actors in the middle of the AFD about ‘Great Germany’ and ‘The need to forget German guilt for Nazis crimes’ sounded too familiar and sinister,” wrote the Polish leader in X. “Especially Hours before the anniversary of Auschwitz’s liberation. “

Scholz, who went to Poland for anniversary events, responded to Tusk’s message: “I could not agree more, dear Donald.”

‘Historical Amnesia’

The memory of the genocide of Jews and other atrocities of the Nazis has been a central characteristic of German politics and society, since the country seeks to atone for its past. Schoolchildren are taught about Holocaust and German political leaders often declare “never again.”

But the AFD, now surveyed second in around 20 percent, has long courted the controversy by asking Germany to stop focusing on atone for its crimes from World War II, including the genocide of six million European Jews.

One of its former leaders, Alexander Gauland, once notoriously described the Nazi era as “a bird’s peanut motorcycle” in German history.

Last year, Bjoern Hoecke, one of the most radical leaders of the AFD, was condemned and fined twice for using a forbidden Nazi slogan “,”, “”Alles forutschland“(Everything for Germany).

Despite its popularity, it is unlikely that the AFD enters the government after the surveys of February 23, since all conventional parties have ruled out working with him and many Germans remain fiercely opposite to the party. Tens of thousands recovered in cities throughout the country on Saturday against the extreme right.

However, the German political establishment is increasingly concerned that the opinions of the extreme right are gaining ground.

“Our memory culture faces fundamental challenges,” Culture Minister Claudia Roth said on Monday. “Disinformation, conspiracy theories and hate speech can now extend almost without limit on important social networks,” he said.

“This is even more worrying since there is currently a relativization that advances quickly and deliberately pursued historical amnesia in the use of terms and gestures that historically associate” the Nazi era, he said.

‘Talk to the survivors’

The central advice of Jews in Germany is concerned that there are less witnesses with a connection with the Nazi era, and requested initiatives to increase visits to “Nazi crimes” sites.

Last week, the president of the group, Josef Schuster, criticized the “propaganda fury” against the culture of memory. “The parliamentary arm of this propaganda, the AFD, already has a seat in the regional parliaments and the Bundestag,” he lamented.

Speaking in Auschwitz on Monday, said German president Frank-Walter Steinmeier AFP: “I don’t think Musk is waiting for my advice. But my conviction remains, there is no end point to our responsibility.

“What happened here, in this place and in many other fields during the Nazi tyranny, is part of our history and, therefore, also part of our identity with which we must deal with,” he added.

“For those who think they can draw a line underneath, I recommend that you come here and talk to the survivors. “



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