Auschwitz survivors are grateful for and enheartened by the many responses of outrage and support following the award of the Echo music prize to the anti-Semitic rap duo Kollegah / Farid Bang with their lyrics expressing contempt not only towards former Auschwitz prisoners. They are especially moved by the response of increasing numbers of artists who have returned their Echo awards in protest.

This particular Echo award is clearly spotlighting the subversive manipulation of young people by ignorant messages of hatred, violence and aggression from questionable role models, as well as demonstrating the extent to which we have gradually become accustomed to such unacceptable contents.

Speaking during a stay with German and Polish young people at the Auschwitz Memorial, Christoph Heubner, Executive Vice President of the International Auschwitz Committee said:

"It would nevertheless be quite wrong for Auschwitz survivors to continue focusing exclusively on the Echo award issue during the current debate. This hyper-commercialized disastrous event has made it very clear to us that it is a reflection of what is basically going wrong in our society and what we should have long since been addressing in view of the partial brutalization, the aggressiveness and militant hatred in song form. Where are society or the media industry responding, where are the legal specialists, authorities and watchdogs snoozing?

The hatred towards Jewish people that is also currently rampant in German schoolyards, the discrimination against other school students by kids who have been aggressively psyched up by media, is a very clear signal that it is high time for our society to think and act on a broad scale about this phenomenon. In particular, an analysis of the current situation needs to include the principle of zero tolerance which has long since been discarded in many contexts due to a sense of uncertainty, convenience and even complacency. If our society wants to live as a vibrant, steadfast and divers democracy built firmly on the basic law, then the scandal surrounding this Echo award will have to be an urgent and resounding key signal to stop simply accepting anti-Semitism, intolerance, hate-songs and their commercial promotion. If in future years Christians, Jews and Muslims wish to live peacefully together in Germany, it is now high time to defend our steadfast democracy and the clarity of the basic law, and to contemplate together which educational, media and political strategies need to be developed."