Never Again! - Now more than ever

This week brings with it a rather poignant and sombre anniversary. January 27th 2020 marked the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the concentration camp at Auschwitz. While it likely didn’t register for many if not most people in the western world, who went  about their daily lives like on any other day, it is still a potent reminder of the savagery that humanity is capable of, and a demonstration of just how thin the veneer of civilisation still is.

For modern Germans like me, Auschwitz, the Holocaust, the Second World War, and the Nazi era in general have been more or less constant “companions” for a lack of a better word since our school days. The phrase “Nie wieder” or “Never Again” has been seared into our national consciousness to a degree seemingly not present anywhere else. Flag-waving patriotism or military bravado are alien to the point of being incomprehensible for many people of my generation, and the memory of what happened appears to be omnipresent. As a nation, we have really taken up the mantle of responsibility, and seemingly learned our lesson, not recently, but ever since the Frankfurt Auschwitz trials of the 1960s.

And the world has taken note of this. When Frank-Walter Steinmeier, President of the Federal Republic of Germany, took to the podium at the memorial to the liberation of Auschwitz at the Yad Vashem memorial in Israel, he did so as the last in a long line of German leaders standing up to their responsibility as well as the responsibility of the German people. From Willy Brandt falling to his knees at the memorial of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, to Helmut Schmidt’s speech at Auschwitz, chancellor Helmut Kohl holding hands with French president Mitterand over the dead of Verdun, or President von Weizsäcker’s seminal speech to the Bundestag on the forty year anniversary of German capitulation,  German leaders have not shirked away, and in doing so reclaimed Germany’s place among the civilised nations of this planet. This was further cemented on January 23rd, when President Steinmeier gave a remarkable speech at Yad Vashem. Speaking in Hebrew and English, he reaffirmed Germany’s commitment to remembering the victim of this most horrible of all crimes, as well as Germany’s responsibility in keeping the memory alive. After all, as he so correctly pointed out, the perpetrators of this monstrosity were German, the aggressors in that horrible maelstrom of the Second World War were German, and even the silent supporters, the tagalongs, were all German.

And yet, as I look at the news coming out of my home country, I can’t help but ask myself whether that is enough. Sure, the holocaust and the war are a staple in German education and culture, but have we really learned as much as we should have? Are we taking the right steps? The political atmosphere in Germany is becoming increasingly febrile and polarised, with political extremes gaining momentum. We once again have a party in the German parliament that espouses openly racist and revisionist views, a party whose members despise democracy and the rule of law, and who is so drastically flouting the standards of a liberal democracy and even basic humanity that it is under surveillance by the Verfassungsschutz, Germany’s domestic intelligence service.

And yet, our political leadership appears to be unwilling to address this growing threat. Instead of calling out the supporters of neofascism, revisionism, and outright racism, politicians have for years downplayed their views as simply those of “concerned citizens” whose worries need to be taken seriously. Mind you that’s a statement from Angela Merkel herself, not from some third-rate parish pump politician. Instead of standing up to the spectres of our past, the conservative government of Angela Merkel has been hard at work legitimising them. Federal funding for programs designed to aid people who wish to leave neo-nazi or neo-fascist groups has been slashed, and conservative led state governments have done likewise. Instead, it is those who stand up against fascism who have found themselves being vilified, threatened, attacked, and even being set upon by police and law enforcement. This has gotten to the point where even in the face of the outright execution of a high-ranking politician in Angela Merkel’s own CDU party by a neofascist, and similarly motivated terrorist attacks in Halle and other places, leading politicians and commentators in Germany seem to be more focussed on going after the Antifa, which has become a favourite spectre on the right hand side of the political spectrum. Now just to make this absolutely clear, going after this nebulous, vague chimera called Antifa is much more important to conservatives than going after real-life terrorists who exist, have killed, and will kill again. Then again, Antifa activists burned some cars back during the G20 summit in Hamburg a few years back and damaging a car in Germany is worse than treason, I suppose. 

Granted, this is not a purely German phenomenon. Over the last few years, neofascists, white supremacists and racists have gathered momentum all over the world. Hungary, Poland, Austria, France, the UK, the United States, even Ireland has not been immune to this vile contagion. However, Germany of all nations should be standing strong and combating this rising tide of hatred. Yet, as far as I can see, the country is failing miserably in this regard, with the AfD firmly entrenched in parliament, and antisemitic and racist rhetoric and attacks on the rise. 

The Beith Shalom Synagogue in Speyer.

I still remember the excitement back in 2011, when my parents found out that an old unused monastic church near their home in Speyer was to be turned into a synagogue. My dad took it upon himself to document the conversion process and provide the newly formed Jewish community in Speyer with a compilation of these images on CD when the new synagogue was opened. For my parents, as for myself, the opening of this new synagogue seventy-three years after the destruction of the old one at the hand of the Nazis, was a joyous occasion, a sign that Germany had learned from its mistakes.

Looking back at this time from my point of view here in 2020, I have to wonder what legacy we’re really leaving for Jewish communities all over Germany. We may remember, as Frank-Walter Steinmeier rightfully pointed out, but are we remembering the right way? Are we really taking the lessons of our gruesome past to heart, or are we falling into some sort of ritualistic remembrance? Are we passing the right lessons on to the younger generations and giving the horrific events of the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s the proper place in our schools, or have we become too focused on providing the economy with educated but obedient drones? Finding the right answers to these questions will ultimately determine whether we Germans have proven ourselves worthy of the trust of our fellow Jewish citizens who have made a home in Germany. It will determine whether we are deserving of the trust that our European neighbours, our international partners, and the people of Israel have placed in our country. From my point of view, the answers to these questions are nowhere near as clear cut as I’d like them to be and as such, there is far more work ahead of us than many people realise. “Nie wieder” has for the last decades been a rallying cry for all those who have stood against the return of fascism, racism and nationalism to Germany. It is vital that we do not allow it to become an empty mantra. History would rightfully never forgive us.