On January 27, 1945, the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp was liberated. The sight that confronted the soldiers of the Red Army at that time remains incomprehensible to this day. Auschwitz became the symbol of the inhumane atrocities and crimes against humanity that were the Shoah.
The industrial genocide perpetrated by the National Socialists aimed at the annihilation of European Jewry. Eighty-one years later, Jewish life thrives in Europe, in Germany. The fact that there are now over 100 vibrant Jewish communities here is thanks to a relatively small group of people.
On January 27th, we as a society commemorate the victims of National Socialism. We remember six million murdered Jews, half a million Sinti and Roma, people with disabilities, the sick, homosexuals, those on the margins of society, Jehovah's Witnesses, forced laborers, and political resistance fighters who were murdered. We also remember all those who survived the Nazi terror.
The survivors refused to let their homeland be taken from them
It was these survivors who, in 1945, made a decision whose significance cannot be overstated to this day. Standing amidst the ruins of their former lives, they resolved to believe in a Jewish future in Germany. They were survivors who returned despite the exclusion, disenfranchisement, and dehumanization they had suffered. They refused to let their homeland be taken from them.
It was these survivors who bravely claimed their place in Germany. They didn't want to lead a shadowy existence on the margins of this society, but rather to stand visibly at its center.
Despite sometimes considerable resistance, these survivors shaped our culture of remembrance and were the driving force behind Germany's democratic renewal. We are aware today that this renewal, the democratic culture of our country, was never a given.
Anti-Semitism is a bridging ideology for extremists
For we stand today at a turning point. Time is relentless, and the survivors of Nazi terror are passing away, while Jew-hatred has returned to the streets of Germany. For more than two years, it has been seizing public space, openly showing its ugly face. Antisemitism is becoming increasingly uninhibited and, in its radicalization, is gaining social acceptance – even in the heart of our society.
Antisemitism has a pernicious characteristic: it serves as a bridging ideology for right-wing extremists, left-wing extremists, and Islamists alike. Because all these enemies of our open society have firmly embedded hatred of Jews into their worldview, antisemitism acts as a seismograph for social developments. The situation of Jews in Germany reflects the state of our democracy.
The values of liberal democracy are on the defensive. The number of people willing to succumb to the temptations of autocracy increases every year. The foundations of liberal democracies are crumbling – worldwide, including in Germany. In our country, the enemies of open society are gaining strength, while – and because – the memory of the past is fading.
One in three people can't make sense of "Auschwitz"
This year, the World Jewish Congress is once again launching the "We Remember" campaign, a global effort to commemorate the victims of the Holocaust. This campaign is immensely important, yet we must ask ourselves: What does it truly mean when we, as a society, say, "we remember"?
When we commemorate the victims of National Socialism on this January 27th, this ritual passes by at least one in eight young people in Germany without leaving a trace. Current studies show that one in eight 18 to 29-year-olds has never even heard of the Holocaust. When we gather to mark the liberation of Auschwitz, almost one in three young people in Germany cannot make sense of the term "Auschwitz" because they cannot name a single Nazi camp. Every year, the number of those who demand an end to our remembrance, who want to forget, grows .
This is far more than just a failure of our education system. It is a symptom of the ongoing development we are witnessing in our country: the stripping of our memory of any real meaning and the increasing erosion of our democratic foundations go hand in hand.
The key to combating autocracy lies in the culture of remembrance
Even now, considerable forces are at work that seek to push us, as a Jewish community, out of public life and deprive us of the visibility that the survivors of Nazi terror had fought for. These forces will grow stronger if we, as a society, fail to stop these threatening developments.
The Basic Law of the Federal Republic of Germany is the historical antithesis to the terror of National Socialism. The Basic Law shapes our democratic identity. It transcends political affiliation, providing a sense of identity for the upright democrats of our country. That our Basic Law was able to come into force was never a given. It was the achievement of a generation of survivors who have now definitively passed away, leaving behind a legacy of great legacy.
If we want to defend our democratic culture against autocratic machinations and the temptations of unfreedom, we as a society must recognize that the key to this lies, even today, in a vibrant culture of remembrance. And neither of these can be politically mandated.
We owe it to the survivors of Nazi terror
One of my predecessors, Paul Spiegel, recognized this. He therefore spoke of the "uprising of the decent." That was in the year 2000. It is high time that upright democrats rise up again today and demonstrate civic courage. This civic courage, this personal commitment of each individual, is crucial against the erosion of the substance of our culture of remembrance and for the protection of our democracy from autocratic temptations.
We owe this commitment to the survivors of Nazi terror. We owe it to their faith in the future, a faith they never lost.
This editorial was originally published in German in t-online.
