The latest news, that a Jewish restaurant was attacked and the owner threatened during the excessive right-wing extremist violence in Chemnitz, has caused Auschwitz survivors to ask urgent new questions concerning the safety of Jewish life in Germany. It has also awakened painful memories of the suffering and persecution they were forced to experience in German towns and cities. For the survivors, the fact that it was days before the police commented publicly on this act of violence is both inacceptable and scandalous. 

Commenting on these events, Christoph Heubner, Executive Vice President of the International Auschwitz Committee said:

"It is becoming dramatically clearer that those responsible with the police and the Office for the Protection of the Constitution have been taken by surprise and are overchallenged by the immensity and the potential explosiveness of right-wing and anti-Semitic violence. The question whether deliberate suppression and conscious playing down are contributing to this failure to respond rapidly is crucial not only for Auschwitz survivors, but also decisive for the wellbeing or otherwise of democracy in Germany. The Auschwitz survivors are an inherent part of the fabric of German society in a multitude of ways. They have trust and confidence in democracy in Germany. They are hoping that this trust will not be destroyed yet again."