Germany’s Ambassador to the United States, Emily Haber, warned that the EU must do more to fight the epidemic of anti-Semitism that is once again plaguing Europe.
Speaking during a recent webinar hosted by Michael Brenner, the director of American University’s Center for Israel Studies, Huber said that with the rise of online neo-Nazi conspiracy theories and Holocaust denial, Germany has a “special responsibility” to take action.
She said that while the German government has made an effort to combat anti-Semitism, Jew hatred is still increasing in her country. Last year, there were nearly 2,300 hate crimes, with 55 violent incidents, recorded against the German Jewish community. A huge increase from previous years.
Shockingly, only five suspects were taken in for questioning by police and no arrest warrants were made.
“Obviously, if anti-Semitic discourse is inching toward the mainstream, then we will have to have a very big toolbox in order to confront it. And if you want to confront it, we must work together internationally,” Huber said.
Huber said that Germany should not be used by scholars as an example of how to confront past evil acts. She said that the country’s awakening to what it had done during the Holocaust was a gradual and bumpy process, especially with the differing realities of West and East Germany, pre-reunification.
“There’s a general sense that Germany has done a lot to confront its Nazi past and crimes against humanity, to atone to the extent that is even possible,” she said. “But there is no template for confronting one’s history.”
She explained that the cultures of West and East Germany were very different.
“In eastern Germany, for example, it felt that it had no link, no direct responsibility for Nazi crimes outside of traditional anti-fascism. Confronting that history began only after 1989.”
In 1989, the Berlin Wall fell and in 1990, the two countries reunified into one Germany.
“This is something that takes place over a long time, and it constantly changes,” she said, referring to the newly unified Germany’s gradual confrontation of its responsibility for the Holocaust.
During Germany’s time in the EU presidency in 2020, which rotates every six months, they tried to make Holocaust denial a crime throughout the EU, with a potential prison term of one to three years. The motion failed after several countries objected and 200 historians said that the proposed law would harm free speech. Holocaust denial, and related actions, has been a criminal offence in Germany since 1985.
“At the end of our presidency, we established a consensus among all 27 member states on mainstreaming the fight against anti-Semitism. We also partnered with other international organizations, and set up a global force against Holocaust distortion,” she said.