German Chancellor Friedrich Merz warned Friday that Muslim immigrants who refuse to accept Germany's historical responsibility for the Holocaust should leave the country, declaring that the obligation to acknowledge the Nazi genocide extends to everyone living in Germany.
Speaking at a reception in Berlin for Jewish athletes participating in the Maccabiah, the international Jewish sporting competition held every four years in Israel, Merz addressed concerns about growing antisemitism and threats facing Germany's Jewish community.
"This historical responsibility of our country applies just as much to those who come here to Germany from Islamic countries," Merz stated, as quoted by the dpa news agency. "And anyone who fails to abide by this must leave our country."
His remarks followed an account from a basketball coach who told the Chancellor that Jewish athletes were afraid to wear their red Maccabi training jackets, which feature the Star of David, in public because they feared being attacked.
Responding to those concerns, Merz recalled a landmark 1985 address to the Bundestag by former German President Richard von Weizsäcker, delivered on the 40th anniversary of the end of World War II.
In that speech, von Weizsäcker addressed Germany's responsibility for Nazi atrocities and the systematic murder of millions of Jews.
"The young people are not responsible for what happened back then. But they are responsible for what becomes of it in history."
Merz said he considered the former president's words an enduring principle that must guide German society.
"And that applies to German society as a whole. And I would add, given the current circumstances: that also applies to immigrants who come to Germany," he said, referring to antisemitic offenses committed by Muslim migrants.
The Chancellor's warning came against the backdrop of persistently high levels of antisemitism in Germany.
According to figures published by the antisemitism monitoring organization RIAS, 8,725 antisemitic incidents were documented across the country in 2025, compared with 8,627 in 2024 and 2,480 in 2022.
The 2025 figures included 178 physical assaults and 257 incidents involving threats. Antisemitic incidents connected to Israel accounted for 68% of the total.
Concerns over the safety of Germany's Jewish community were also underscored last month by the sentencing of two men involved in an Iranian-directed plot to assassinate prominent Jewish and pro-Israel figures.
A court in Hamburg sentenced a Danish citizen to eight and a half years in prison for preparing deadly attacks against public figures, including Volker Beck, president of the German-Israeli Society, and Josef Schuster, president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany.
An Afghan national convicted of participating in the same conspiracy received a four-and-a-half-year prison sentence.