Report: Jews in Berlin Forced to Consider — Is It Time to Leave Germany?
Segments of the Jewish population in Berlin are being forced to consider a question many once thought unthinkable in the wake of the atrocities committed by Adolf Hitler and his Nazi followers and the subsequent promises of “never again” — is it time to leave Germany?
Spiegel International reports testimonies from a host of Jews in the national capital worried about their futures and those of their families as a rising tide of antisemitism is seen once more to cast a shadow across the city.
The despair has arrived on the back of the Hamas terrorists attack that killed 1,400 people in Israel on October 7 and kidnapped around 220 more. The report summarizes the fears in a metropolis once known for its anti-Jewish hate and the records of history:
Berlin, of all places, the city from which Adolf Hitler ruled over Nazi Germany. When the Nazis came to power here, 160,000 Jews lived in the city, around a third of Germany’s total Jewish population. By the end of the war, only 1,500 remained – with the rest having been murdered in the Holocaust or driven to suicide or to flee abroad.
The Guardian reports Germany’s antisemitism commissioner has condemned the country’s recent increase in anti-Jewish violence, warning it risks transporting the country back to its “most horrific times.”
The remarks tap into a debate that has played out across Europe, and in particular in Germany and France – home to the E.U.’s largest Jewish and Muslim communities – as officials scramble to contain the spillover of tensions sparked by the Israel-Hamas war.
Participants of a poster campaign of the Young Forum of the German-Israeli Society hang up posters about the murdered and hostages of Hamas in Berlin-Friedrichshain. ((Christoph Soeder/dpa (Photo by Christoph Soeder/picture alliance via Getty Images)
“People are shocked to hear news of houses where Jews live being marked with a Star of David,” he told the outlet. “Because that, of course, rings a bell and brings us back to the most horrific times we had in this country.”
Recent weeks have seen Germany’s chancellor, Olaf Scholz, vow to take a “zero tolerance” approach to antisemitism, citing the responsibility towards Israel given Germany’s role as the perpetrator of the Holocaust, in which six million Jews were murdered.
Other national leaders have echoed those concerns.
In recent days Scholz has doubled down on the pledge, after assailants hurled two molotov cocktails at a synagogue in central Berlin and the Star of David was found daubed on the facades of several buildings where Jews live in Berlin.
The attacks have come even as German citizen Shani Louk has been confirmed as a victim of the horrific Hamas attack on October 7.
“Our history, our responsibility for the Holocaust makes it our duty in every moment to stand for the existence and security of Israel,” said Scholz.
Germany has the third-largest Jewish community in Europe, according to the interior ministry.
The Central Council of Jews in Germany puts the number of practising Jews in the country at around 100,000 and the number of synagogues at around 100.
Antisemitic acts have increased sharply in the country amid the latest turmoil in the Middle East, the Federal Association of Research and Information Centres on Anti-Semitism (RIAS) confirmed to AFP.
In the period from October 7 to 15, RIAS documented 202 antisemitic “incidents” compared with just 59 during the same week in 2022.
Sigmount Koenigsberg, a pointman on antisemitism for the city’s Jewish community, told the Rheinische Post newspaper the rise anti-Jewish incidents brought back painful memories of Nazi Germany.
“It is the first time since Nazi rule that this is happening again in Germany. It reminds my community very much of that terrible time,” he said.
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Antisemitism Rates Soar in London After Hamas Terrorist Attacks
Members of the Jewish community in London have been forced to lift security at synagogues, schools, and other community buildings in the wake of the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel.
The reason for the increased protection is simple; a corresponding rise in antisemitism rates reported across the UK capital.
There has been a 1,350 percent jump in hate crimes against Jewish people as the Middle East crisis goes on, the Metropolitan police have said, with no arrests so far in nine out of ten alleged offences.
The Guardian reports figures from the Met covering London show that 218 antisemitic offences were recorded from 1 October to 18 October this year, compared with 15 in the same period last year.
Pro-Palestinian protesters march through central London in support of the Palestinian population of Gaza on 21st October 2023 in London, United Kingdom. (Mark Kerrison/In Pictures via Getty Images)
Posters of Israelis kidnapped by Hamas have been put up around London’s West End, as the war rages between Israel and Hamas. Many have been later torn down by Palestinian supporters.( Vuk Valcic/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty)
“People feel vulnerable and people feel frightened, and right now the recorded incidents of anti-Semitism are a record,” said Raymond Simonson, chief executive of the JW3 arts, culture and entertainment venue in the north of the city.
“There’s never been this many incidents… in the UK as there have been in the last 20 days,” he told AFP.
“We’ve doubled our security. The Metropolitan Police have quadrupled their visits… to make sure we’re safe. It’s the only way we can do it,” he added.
More than 1,400 people, mainly civilians, were killed after Hamas terrorists stormed across the Gaza border on October 7 in the worst attacks in Israel’s history. Hamas visited mass rape, torture, and slaughter of civilians before retreating with hostages, as Breitbart News reported.
WATCH: UK-born Mother, Daughters Buried Together in Israel — Victims of Hamas Terror Oct. 7
Joel PollakAFP reports in the period since in London alone, where there have been several large-scale protests in support of Palestinians in Gaza, the Met said it had recorded 408 anti-Semitic offences between October 1 and 27.
That compares to just 28 in the same period last year, the force said on Friday, with several Jewish schools in London forced to shut temporarily.
Local synagogues and faith schools also called for more volunteers from members and parents to boost their security.
In Stamford Hill, a multicultural area of northeast London which is home to many Orthodox Jews, the local Shomrim (community safety group) has extended its patrol hours.
A security guard is seen working outside a synagogue in north London on October 13, 2023. The UK government announced Thursday £3 million of extra funding to help protect the Jewish community from antisemitic attacks, after a reported 400 percent spike in incidents since Hamas’s October 7 terror attacks on Israel. (DANIEL LEAL/AFP via Getty Images)
“There have been a number of low-level incidents,” said Shomrim chairman Rabbi Herschel Gluck, the AFP report sets out.
“But these low-level incidents, of course, have traumatised people to a much greater degree than the normal times,” he added.
“I think, in normal times, many people would not have reported these incidents. But in today’s atmosphere, these touch people a lot deeper,” he said.
Women Tear Down Posters of Israeli Kidnapping Victims in North London
UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and the Interior Minister Suella Braverman also met police and security chiefs on Monday to discuss “accelerated” terrorist risk to the UK that is being driven alongside the reports of a rise in antisemitism, as Breitbart News reported.
Top police officers and security services representatives convened with the politicians and discussions that could conceivably lead to the Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre increasing the national terrorism alert level.
It is presently at level three of five, ‘substantial, meaning an attack is “likely”. It could be boosted to ‘severe’, “an attack is highly likely”, or ‘critical’ meaning an attack is highly likely in the near future.
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