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ANTI-SEMITISM

Why a row has broken out over a German kindergarten name change proposal

A plan to drop the name Anne Frank from a German kindergarten sparked anger Monday, with critics saying it would send the "wrong signal" at a time of growing anti-Semitism.

Anne Frank
The entrance of the Anne Frank kindergarten in Tangerhütte, Saxony-Anhalt. Photo: picture alliance/dpa/dpa-Zentralbild | Peter Gercke

The kindergarten in the town of Tangerhuette proposed removing the name of the teenager, whose diary about hiding from the Nazis became a world-famous reminder of the horrors of the Holocaust.

A new name of “Weltendecker” (World Explorers) for the centre was suggested, with the preschool’s head reportedly saying this was because the story of the Jewish girl was hard for children to grasp.

Parents from an immigrant background would also struggle to understand its significance, the head told local newspaper the Volksstimme.

Local authorities in the eastern town said the proposal was part of a broader overhaul of the kindergarten, insisted no final decision had been taken on a new name, and “current public discussions” would be taken into account.

But the move sparked anger in a country still atoning for the slaughter of more than six million Jews by the Nazis, and as Germany faces a rise in anti-Semitic incidents amid the Israel-Hamas war.

READ ALSO: Germany’s Scholz joins call to ‘protect Jews’ amid rising anti-Semitism

The proposed name change sends “the wrong signal at a time of growing anti-Semitism,” said the Miteinander association, a group that fights anti-Semitism, racism and right-wing extremism in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt state.

“Now more than ever, there is a need for a high degree of sensitivity to the effect of such symbolic renamings.”

The International Auschwitz Committee, formed by survivors of the concentration camp of the same name, accused officials of making “foolish arguments” to justify the proposal.

“If one is willing to so casually erase one’s own history, especially in
these times of renewed anti-Semitism and right-wing extremism… it can only make one deeply concerned about the culture of remembrance in our country,” said the group’s Christoph Heubner.

Anne Frank, a teenager from Amsterdam, spent two years in hiding with her family in a secret annexe behind a canal-side house. After their hiding place was discovered, Anne died of typhus in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany, aged 15.

Since the outbreak of conflict in the Middle East, Germany has witnessed violence at some pro-Palestinian demonstrations while Molotov cocktails were thrown at a Berlin synagogue, without causing injuries or damage.

Member comments

  1. The claim that immigrants will struggle to understand is simply an insult- on the contrary- it is such an important part of this country’s history, we NEED to make sure immigrants will know and understand this story. Also- an insult to immigrants!

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ANTI-SEMITISM

Germany sees sharp rise in anti-Semitic acts

Anti-Semitic acts rose sharply in Germany last year, especially after war broke out between Israel and Hamas in Gaza in October, according to new figures released on Tuesday.

Germany sees sharp rise in anti-Semitic acts

The Federal Association of Research and Information Centres on Anti-Semitism (RIAS) documented 4,782 anti-Semitic “incidents” in 2023 – an increase of more than 80 per cent on the previous year.

More than half of the incidents – which included threats, physical attacks and vandalism – were registered after Palestinian militant group Hamas’s unprecedented October 7th attack on Israel, RIAS said.

Germany’s domestic intelligence agency last week also published figures showing a new record in anti-Semitic crimes in 2023.

A total of 5,164 crimes were recorded during the year, the agency said, compared with 2,641 in 2022.

Anti-Semitic crimes with a “religious-ideological motivation” jumped to 492 from just 33 the previous year, with the vast majority committed after October 7.

Felix Klein, the government’s commissioner for the fight against anti-Semitism, said the RIAS figures were “absolutely catastrophic”.

The Hamas attack had acted as an “accelerant” for anti-Semitism in Germany, he told a press conference in Berlin.

“Jewish life in Germany is under greater threat than it has ever been since the Federal Republic of Germany was founded,” he said.

The Hamas attack resulted in the deaths of 1,195 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 37,600 people, also mostly civilians, Gaza’s health ministry said.

Islamophobic incidents also increased dramatically in Germany last year, according to a separate report published on Monday.

The CLAIM alliance against Islamophobia said it had registered 1,926 attacks on Muslims in 2023, compared with just under 900 in 2023.

These included verbal abuse, discrimination, physical violence and damage to property.

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