In Berlin Christoph Heubner, Executive Vice President of the International Auschwitz Committee, commented on the current debate about the indifferent wait-and-see attitude towards the AfD by large sections of the German business community:
"They were survivors of the German concentration and extermination camps who, despite their horrific personal experiences and memories, as well as the murder of their families, made their way to Germany and offered to speak with young people in the country. Through this approach, the survivors helped Germany and its economy to find the way back into the international community of peoples, just a few years after the gas chambers of Auschwitz ceased the killings. Consequently, survivors are now not only extremely surprised but also greatly disappointed by the indifferent wait-and-see approach displayed by most of Germany’s commercial enterprises towards the deadly far-right ideology that is being spread by the AfD and is aggressively warping the fabric of German society. This party and its extreme right-wing ideology are seemingly becoming increasingly accepted by voters.
Some people may still prefer to pass off a German milk mogul’s sympathy for the AfD as the quirky whim of an eccentric. But this development is worrying, especially when reflecting on German history. The indifferent silence of a large section of Germany’s economic community towards these political developments is very disconcerting. What’s more, these shifts are being reflected within the factories themselves and are threatening both democracy and Germany as a business location. This is why the survivors of the Holocaust are all the more grateful to those members of management, of the works councils and the youth and trainees representatives, who speak out against far-right extremist positions, anti-Semitic conspiracy theories, racist slogans and xenophobic hatred in German factories, and also take a stand in the broader public sphere.
In these days especially, the workplace is a particular seedbed where despisers of democracy are becoming increasingly confident and aggressive. For this reason major sections of Germany’s economic sector need to stand up at last, and be more vocal with a clear and decisive stance."
