Holocaust survivors feel that today’s election result for the AfD in Germany is difficult to bear. It looks as if more than 13 per cent of the votes have been given to a party in which thickly woven threads of Nazi ideology are widespread and deep-rooted. In this situation the Auschwitz survivors consider it very important to remind people that 87 per cent of the electorate gave their votes to parties that are committed to democracy. It is with these people that they feel most deeply connected today.

Commenting on the election results Christoph Heubner, Executive Vice President of the International Auschwitz Committee said:

"German democracy is now facing its first serious test. All of those people who gave their supposed protest votes to the shady brown rabble-rousing strategists of the AfD will hopefully realise that this movement has nothing to offer other than an appeal to the baser instincts and antediluvian right-wing hunting scenarios. We are now hoping for a creative strong coalition of democrats who constantly reveal the hollow meaninglessness and impoverished arguments of the AfD in the Bundestag."