Thousands of people crowded the streets of the western German city of Bielefeld on Saturday to take part in a counterprotest against a neo-Nazi demonstration.
Officials estimated that over 10,000 people took part in the counterprotest, organized by Bielefeld’s “Alliance against the right” and which took place under the motto: “Fascism is not an opinion, it’s a crime.”
Some 230 people took part in the neo-Nazi march, which was organized by the extremist The Right (“Die Rechte”) party, to call for the release of Ursula Haverbeck, a 91-year-old Holocaust denier who has been sentenced several times.
Human chain around synagogue
The neo-Nazi demonstration sparked further anger from counterprotesters, as it took place on the 81st anniversary of Kristallnacht or the Night of Broken Glass, when Nazi Germany launched an anti-Jewish pogrom.
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“Holocaust denial is a crime. Approving a Nazi demonstration on November 9 is, too!” wrote one counterprotester.
The event, which took place from November 9–10 in 1938, was the start of the systematic mass murder of European Jews in the Holocaust.
Counterprotesters harshly criticized officials for granting the neo-Nazi group permission to demonstrate on the anniversary.
Demonstrators formed a human chain around Bielefeld’s synagogue and held a vigil there while the right-wing extremist protesters marched through the city.
Remembering Nazi crimes
Andrew Kuper, the president of the state parliament of North Rhine-Westphalia, said that the counterprotesters understood that November 9 is a day in Germany where “our entire nation remembers the crimes of the Nazis, shocked and ashamed.”
Over 1,000 police officers were present to keep the neo-Nazi protesters and counterdemonstrators separated
“That’s why we are standing on the side of our fellow Jewish citizens — and not on the side of those who think perhaps that the crimes of the Nazis are a ‘speck of bird shit’ or who would completely deny them,” Kuper said.
The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) has come under fire over remarks about the Holocaust, including from AfD co-leader Alexander Gauland, who dismissed Adolf Hitler and the Nazis’ rule as “bird shit in 1,000 years of successful German history.”
The march also comes after a gunman killed two people after trying to force his way into a synagogue in the eastern German city of Halle in early October.
Memorials to honor the victims of the anti-Jewish pogroms are taking place across Germany, while the country also celebrates the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, which took place on November 9, 1989.
rs/tj (dpa, epd)
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Looking back on Kristallnacht, the Nazis’ anti-Jewish pogroms
What happened on November 9-10, 1938?
Anti-Semitic mobs, led by SA paramilitaries, went on rampages throughout Nazi Germany. Synagogues like this one in the eastern city of Chemnitz and other Jewish-owned property were destroyed, and Jews were subject to public humiliation and arrested. According to official records, at least 91 Jews were killed — though the real death toll was likely much higher.
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Looking back on Kristallnacht, the Nazis’ anti-Jewish pogroms
What’s behind the name?
The street violence against German Jews is known by a variety of names. Berliners called it Kristallnacht, from which the English “Night of Broken Glass” is derived. It recalls the shards of shattered glass from the windows of synagogues, homes and Jewish-owned businesses. Nowadays, in German, it’s also common to speak of the “pogrom night” or the “November pogroms.”
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Looking back on Kristallnacht, the Nazis’ anti-Jewish pogroms
What was the official reason for the pogrom?
The event that provided the excuse for the violence was the murder of German diplomat Ernst vom Rath by Herschel Grynszpan, a 17-year-old Polish Jew. Vom Rath was shot at close range at the German Embassy in Paris on November 7, and died days later. Grynszpan wasn’t executed for the crime; no one knows whether he survived the Third Reich or died in a concentration camp.
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Looking back on Kristallnacht, the Nazis’ anti-Jewish pogroms
How did the violence start?
After vom Rath’s death, Adolf Hitler gave Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels permission to launch the pogrom. Violence had already broken out in some places, and Goebbels gave a speech indicating the Nazis would not quash any “spontaneous” protests against the Jews. The SS were instructed to allow “only such measures as do not entail any danger to German lives and property.”
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Looking back on Kristallnacht, the Nazis’ anti-Jewish pogroms
Was the violence an expression of popular anger?
No — that was just the official Nazi party line, but no one believed it. Constant references to “operations” and “measures” in Nazi documents clearly indicate the violence was planned ahead of time. It’s unclear what ordinary Germans thought of the mayhem. There is evidence of popular disapproval, but the fact that the couple in the left of this picture appear to be laughing also speaks volumes.
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Looking back on Kristallnacht, the Nazis’ anti-Jewish pogroms
What did the Nazis hope to gain?
In line with their racist ideology, the Nazis wanted to intimidate Jews into voluntarily leaving Germany. To this end, Jews were often paraded through the streets and humiliated, as seen in this image. Their persecutors were also motivated by economic interests. Jews fleeing the Third Reich were charged extortionate “emigration levies,” and their property was often confiscated.
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Looking back on Kristallnacht, the Nazis’ anti-Jewish pogroms
Did the pogrom serve the Nazis’ purpose?
After the widespread violence German Jews were under no illusions about Nazi intentions, and those who could left the country. But such naked aggression played badly in the foreign press and offended many Germans’ desire for order. Later, further anti-Jewish measures took more bureaucratic forms, such as the requirement that Jews wear a visible yellow Star of David stitched to their clothing.
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Looking back on Kristallnacht, the Nazis’ anti-Jewish pogroms
What was the immediate aftermath?
After the pogroms, the Nazi leadership instituted a whole raft of anti-Jewish measures, including a levy to help pay for the damage of November 9-10, 1938. The second-most powerful man in the Third Reich at the time, Hermann Göring, famously remarked: “I would not want to be a Jew in Germany.”
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Looking back on Kristallnacht, the Nazis’ anti-Jewish pogroms
What is Kristallnacht’s place in history?
In 1938, the beginning of what became known as the Holocaust was still two years away. But there is an obvious line of continuity from the pogrom to the mass murder of European Jews, in which the Nazi leadership would continue to develop and intensify their anti-Semitic hatred. In the words of one contemporary historian, the pogrom was a “prelude to genocide.”
Article source: https://www.dw.com/en/germany-thousands-protest-against-neo-nazi-march-on-kristallnacht-anniversary/a-51183121?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf