Auschwitz survivors are following the planned demonstration of support this Wednesday in Berlin with keen interest and sympathy in view of the increasing threat of anti-Semitism in Germany.

During a stay in Oswiecim/Auschwitz Christoph Heubner, Executive Vice President of the International Auschwitz Committee said:

"Auschwitz survivors are reminding people that, not only in Germany, but in many European countries the threatening situations confronting Holocaust survivors have massively increased. This is not only causing a gnawing unease, it is also prompting the unsettling question whether a form of normal everyday life is still imaginable, desirable and possible for Jewish people and their families in European countries. For this reason the threat of anti-Semitism is again being spotlighted as a real danger at the present time. We are experiencing wave after wave of outrage against such discrimination.

Auschwitz survivors are also following the current process of urgently needed sensitization with keen interest and heartfelt support. But they are also insisting on reminding people that the situation relating to anti-Semitism in many European countries has evolved into an entirely new, and as yet incalculable, threatening scenario, due to the compounding of right-wing extremist and Islamic factors of hatred towards Jewish people. The situation is being worsened by the increasing indifference within society and the subtle spread of anti-Semitism in the political mainstream. Consequently, the present necessary wave of outrage now requires a broad-based analysis of the current situation in society and its many facets by representatives of politics, education and scientific study. This also represents a major challenge for the Federal Government’s new Anti-Semitism Commissioner. And following this analysis, the Auschwitz survivors expect real consequences at all political, educational and legal levels, so that the current expression of outrage should not simply become another ineffective isolated phenomenon."