Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez
Spain's Prime Minister Pedro SanchezREUTERS/Jon Nazca

In a letter to Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, the Simon Wiesenthal Centre Director for International Relations, Dr. Shimon Samuels, expressed shock at a brief prepared by the Spanish State Prosecutor claiming that incitement against Nazis can be considered a hate crime.

In his letter, Dr. Samuels expressed his dismay in learning “about a brief prepared by the State Prosecutor (Circular 7/2019 on the Signs to Recognize Hate Crime...).”

“This claims that ‘incitement to hatred against Nazis’ can be considered as ‘a hate crime,’” he wrote.

The Prosecution argued: “The origin of the hate crime is related to the protection of vulnerable communities” and that “an aggression against a person of Nazi ideology or incitement to hatred towards such a group can be included in this type of crime.”

Dr. Samuels questioned: “Should we expect the imprisonment of Auschwitz survivors for having incited hatred of the Nazis?”

The Centre urged the Prime Minister “to take appropriate measures, on this International Holocaust Commemoration Day, against those who would desecrate memory and banalize Nazi atrocities.”

This is “a sick joke, a slap at all Holocaust survivors, just like the claim that the Nazis could never forgive the Jews for forcing them to build Auschwitz,” concluded Samuels.