Jews could flee Germany on a ‘massive’ scale if nation does not halt rising anti-Semitism, minister warns

ONE in two Jewish people have considered fleeing Germany due to a rise in anti-Semitic attacks, the country's foreign minister warned today.

Heiko Maas said Jews could desert Germany in a "mass exodus" unless the racism is addressed.

Writing in Der Spiegel, on the eve of the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, Haas said that Jewish people were facing daily abuse in person and online and that the country needed to address its Nazi past.

“It doesn’t surprise me that nearly every second Jew in Germany has thought about leaving the country,

"We must urgently take countermeasures so that such thoughts don’t turn into bitter reality and it doesn’t come to a massive exodus of Jews from Germany.

“That people of Jewish faith no longer feel at home here is a real nightmare – and a disgrace, 75 years after the liberation of Auschwitz,” he wrote.

According to the minster, Germany will push for tougher legal consequences for anti-Semitic acts and for more EU nations to make Holocaust denial a crime - which is currently illegal in Germany, Belgium and Italy.

Berlin is also set to increase efforts against anti-Jewish hate speech and disinformation on social media.

That people of Jewish faith no longer feel at home here is a real nightmare – and a disgrace, 75 years after the liberation of Auschwitz.

Heiko Maas

Maas wrote that perpetrators should "feel the full force of the law across Europe."

In Halle, eastern Germany, a gunman tried but failed to storm a synagogue before killing a passer-by and a customer at a kebab shop last October.

The foreign minister wrote how that was a perfect example of how Jewish communities needed better protection throughout Europe.

Germany is set to contribute 500,000 euros (£420,000) to the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) this year, Maas said.

The diplomat stressed the importance of educating young people on the horrors of World War II which saw the killing of six million Jews.

According to a YouGov survey, 56 per cent of Germans were in favour of taking pupils to Auschwitz-Birkenau on school trips

Research had shown that a third of young Europeans know little to nothing about the Holocaust, he said.

Auschwitz-Birkenau was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps.

Operated by Nazi Germany near Oswiecim in occupied Poland during World War Two.

It was the central site in Adolf Hitler’s so-called "Final Solution" and the Holocaust. 

It is estimated that at least 1.3 million people were sent to Auschwitz, and 1.1 million died there.

They included 960,000 Jews, 74,000 non-Jewish Poles, 21,000 Roma people, 15,000 Soviet prisoners of war, and up to 15,000 other Europeans. 

Prisoners who were not gassed in chambers died of starvation, exhaustion, disease, individual executions and beatings, or were killed in medical experiments. 

Since 1947, the site houses a memorial and museum that also offers guided tours and an education centre.