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Pompeo voices concern over German kippa warning to Jews

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Friday voiced concern over a warning to Jews by a German official about the dangers of wearing the kippa skullcap in Germany in the face of rising anti-Semitic attacks.

Published: 31 May 2019 13:14 CEST
Pompeo voices concern over German kippa warning to Jews
A man wearing a kippa in Rhineland Palatinate. Photo: DPA

The German government's commissioner on anti-Semitism Felix Klein sparked alarm when he said in a recent interview that he “cannot advise Jews to wear the kippa everywhere all the time in Germany”.

READ ALSO: Germany changes course on warning against wearing kippa

Pompeo expressed his disquiet over the warning during a visit to Berlin on Friday.

“We were concerned to see Jews discouraged from wearing the yarmulke in public out of safety concerns.

“None of us should shrink in the face of prejudice,” he said at a press conference.

Germany, like other Western countries, has watched with alarm as anti-Semitic and other racist hate speech and violence rose in recent years while the political climate has coarsened and grown more polarised.

READ ALSO: Germany sees extremely alarming rise in racist and anti Semitic hate crime

Israel's President Reuven Rivlin has voiced shock at Klein's warning, calling it a “capitulation to anti-Semitism”. 

Chancellor Angela Merkel's spokesman subsequently stepped in to stress that it was the job of the state to ensure that “anyone can go anywhere in our country in full security wearing a kippa”.

Anti-Semitic crimes were up by 20 percent in Germany last year, according to interior ministry data which blamed nine out of 10 cases on the extreme right.

The arrival in parliament of the far-right AfD party, whose leaders openly question Germany's culture of atonement for World War II atrocities, has also contributed to the change in atmosphere.

The Central Council of Jews in Germany has already issued several warnings about wearing the kippa in public.

In one prominent case last year, a 19-year-old Syrian man was convicted for assault after lashing out with his belt at an Israeli man wearing a Jewish skullcap while shouting “yahudi”, Jew in Arabic.

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Friday telephoned Jewish council president Josef Schuster over the issue and issued a statement stressing that it was the “job of the state to protect our Jewish fellow citizens and to intervene where necessary”.

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POLICE

Outrage in Germany after remains of neo-Nazi buried in empty Jewish grave

The burial of a known neo-Nazi's ashes in the former grave of a Jewish musical scholar has sparked outrage in Germany, and prompted Berlin's anti-Semitism official to file a criminal complaint.

Published: 13 October 2021 12:35 CEST
Jewish scholar Max Friedlaender's grave stone in Stahnsdorf, just outside Berlin, on October 12th.
Jewish scholar Max Friedlaender's grave stone in Stahnsdorf, just outside Berlin, on October 12th. Photo: picture alliance/dpa/dpa-Zentralbild | Jens Kalaene

The remains of the neo-Nazi were buried at the grave of Max Friedlaender in Stahnsdorf, just outside Berlin, with several figures from the extreme-right scene in attendance at the funeral on Friday.

Samuel Salzborn, anti-Semitism official for Berlin, said late Tuesday that he had filed a criminal complaint because “the intention here is obvious – the right-wing extremists deliberately chose a Jewish grave to disturb the peace of the dead by burying a Holocaust denier there”.

He added that “it must now be quickly examined how quickly the Holocaust denier can be reburied in order to no longer disturb the dignified memory of Max Friedlaender”.

Friedlaender died in 1934 – when Adolf Hitler was already in power – and was buried in the graveyard as his religion was given as ‘Protestant’ in the burial registration slip

His grave was cleared upon expiration in 1980 and opened up for new burials, under common practice for plots after a certain amount of time has passed.

Friedlaender’s gravestone however remains standing as the entire cemetery is protected under monument conservative rules.

‘Mistake’

The Protestant Church managing the graveyard voiced dismay at the incident.

In a statement, it said it had accepted the request for burial at the empty grave because “everyone has a right for a final resting place”.

“Nevertheless, the choice of the former grave of Max Friedlaender is a mistake. We are looking into this mistake now,” the church said in a statement.

At the funeral, a black cloth was laid over Friedlaender’s tombstone while wreathes and ribbons bearing the Nazi-era iron cross symbol were laid on the grave for the neo-Nazi Henry Hafenmayer.

Prominent Holocaust denier Horst Mahler, who has been convicted for incitement, was among dozens at the funeral.

Police deployed at the funeral were able to arrest a fugitive from the far-right scene there, German media reported.

Several war graves stand at the cemetery at Stahnsdorf, and these sites are known in far-right circles, the Protestant church administrating the graveyard admitted.

It added that it has worked closely with police to hinder several neo-Nazi marches there in recent years.

READ ALSO: German hotel workers probed after singer’s anti-Semitism complaint

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