The Holocaust survivors are not surprised by the fact that Herr Gauland’s political twists and turns are clearly retracing Hitler’s tracks and that his worldview is digging deep into the stockpile of Nazi propaganda.

The survivors are extremely pleased to see that open public and political debates are taking place following Gauland’s most recent pronouncements. They hope that these discussions will help to strengthen the dispute with the representatives of the AfD and consequently unmask them as well as their intentions to turn democratic society into a laughing stock and destroy it by nurturing the most primitive instincts.

During a visit to Munich Christoph Heubner, the Executive Vice President of the International Auschwitz Committee said:

"Auschwitz survivors are very well acquainted with Gauland’s strategy from their personal life experiences during the Nazi years: stigmatizing people and describing them as rootless entities and as aliens within ethnic society, and then mobilizing a “healthy national attitude” against them. Others were defamed and persecuted as “rootless cosmopolitans”. This is why Gauland’s pronouncements are reviving images before their eyes, images that ended in Auschwitz for them and their families. Despite the positive aspect that, as the weeks progress, the perfidious character of the AfD’s world view is becoming increasingly clear to anyone who is interested, it is nevertheless crucial that all democrats now recognize the AfD for what it is."