Perhaps no group is more alarmed by the increase in neo-Nazi terror and growing intolerance against "foreigners" in Germany than the survivors of the Holocaust. Now the Auschwitz-Komitee der Bundesrepublik Deutschland has published an open letter (pdf warning) to Chancellor Angela Merkel, President Christian Wulff and cabinet minister Kristina Schröder asserting that they have abdicated their responsibility to prosecute right-wing extremism in German society:
iIn großer Sorge wenden wir uns heute an Sie. Antisemitische, rassistische und neofaschistische Ideologie und Praxis finden Akzeptanz bis in die Mitte der Gesellschaft. Sie, die Regierenden, tragen Mitverantwortung an den "deutschen Zuständen" heute, an der Ökonomisierung des Denkens, an der Entsolidarisierung der Gesellschaft, und, daraus folgend, an der sozialen Spaltung, die Ängste schürt. Rassismus, Antisemitismus und Fremdenfeindlichkeit haben heute wieder Konjunktur in Deutschland.
(Deeply concerned, we turn to you today. Anti-Semitic, racist and neo-fascist ideology and practice are finding acceptance in the mainstream of society. You, our government leaders, bear responsibility for the "German situation" today, advancing the commodification of thought, the lack of solidarity of society, and, consequently, the social division, the fears. Racism, antisemitism and xenophobia in Germany are back in fashion today.)
What is especially grotesque is that some of the aging survivors of Hitler's death camps are themselves under surveillance for being "leftist extremists". 78-year old Ernst Grube survived Theresianstadt and has been active in labor and other progressive causes, but the Web site Bayern gegen Linksextremismus ("Bavaria against Left Extremism") lists Herr Grube as a potentially dangerous radical. Meanwhile, neo-Nazi organizations have been operating openly – often committing violent attacks on "foreigners" (mostly Africans and Muslims) – in Bavaria and other regions.
The committee singles out Kristina Schröder for special criticism, since the minister for family affairs has made the false equivalence of left-and right-wing extremism. Since the reunification more than 120 people have been killed by right-wing violence, while none have a been victims of "left-wing violence". Recently Frau Schröder called the mainstream socialist daily Neues Deutschland an "extremist" newspaper. There has been no similar condemnation of the völkisch-national weekly Junge Freiheit, which routinely promotes bigotry against "foreigners" (Fremde) in Germany and advances historical revisionism (a recent piece whitewashed the notorious Feme-Morde ("Vigilante Murders") in the Weimer Republic).
