In Berlin, Christoph Heubner, Executive Vice President of the International Auschwitz Committee, commented on the classification of the AfD as "right-wing extremist" by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution and the expectations of the new German government:
“The fact that on the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Europe from National Socialist terror, a party in Germany, of all places, has now been classified “right-wing extremist” by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, and that this party continues to fight and destroy democracy in Germany from within, leaves Holocaust survivors increasingly restless and most alarmed.
Following the presentation of this in-depth report by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, the AfD can no longer be perceived as a “normal” party competing in democratic discourse by anyone in Germany − both inside and outside parliament. All of the citizens who voted for this party and placed their trust in it now know who they are in league with and the responsibility they bear. The publication of these compiled facts has now made the infamous, long-standing German argument “I didn’t know anything” obsolete.
For survivors of the Holocaust, it is a now a question of credibility and the survival of German democracy. They are expecting the new government and the democratic parties in the Bundestag to listen to this wake-up call from the report by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution and to translate it into real consequences. So far, politicians have nothing substantial to show for themselves, apart from defiant rhetoric towards this right-wing extremist party, which for years has gathered and mollycoddled right-wing extremists and violent people of all persuasions.
Maybe it is time to give up the idea of thousands of lost sheep yearning for a kind shepherd to gently coax them back into the fold of mainstream parties. Perhaps it is time to admit that there is now a growing number of voters who have permanently lost sight of democracy and its diversity, and have settled into the simple black-and-white world of the far-right milieu with all its lies, ignorance and hatred of “the system”. And maybe it is time for politicians to once again focus on the vast majority of people in Germany who want to live in a democracy and to continue shaping it − unimpressed by the panic-mongering of ever increasing surveys constantly suggesting new record figures for the AfD.
Nevertheless, it is certainly high time that those responsible reflect on the real dangers that the founders of the Basic Law − all scarred by the horrors and terror of the Nazi years – seriously considered as possible threats to the future of democracy in Germany. Germany was liberated into democracy from the outside, definitely not with the aim of leaving the country wide-open once again to right-wing extremist rabble-rousers and gangs of thugs 80 years later.
The survivors of the Holocaust expect the new federal government to take a realistic view of the dangers threatening democracy in Germany and a realistic view of what survivors have achieved for democratic development through their conversations and encounters in Germany, especially with young people, and how many doors they have opened for Germany to return to the family of nations."
