Der 7. Oktober 2023 hat mich sprachlos gemacht. Die Verbrechen der Hamas an Jüdinnen und Juden, an Kindern und Alten, an Großeltern, haben mich geschockt. Ich habe in meinem journalistischen Leben das KZ Auschwitz besucht, zwei Mal, habe Treblinka gesehen, Theresienstadt, Mauthausen, Dachau, ich habe über die Verbrechen der Nazis an Juden gelesen, wie sie Kleinkinder in elektrisch geladene Zäune geworfen oder sie einfach ins Gas geschickt haben, wie die SS reihenweise Männer mit Genickschuss erledigten, schwangeren Frauen durch den Bauch schossen. Ich habe über die November-Pogrome in Deutschland am 9. November 1938 gelesen. Ich habe über den Verbrecher Hans Frank gelesen, über Adolf Eichmann. Darüber, dass die Nazis sechs Millionen Jüdinnen und Juden in wenigen Jahren ermordeten, vergasten, verprügelten, verhungern ließen.
Mich hat es immer stumm gemacht, appetitlos für mindestens einen Tag. Ich hätte nie für möglich gehalten, dass Jahrzehnte später Juden in Deutschland wieder in Angst und Schrecken leben müssten, nie hätte ich für möglich gehalten, dass Verbrechen der Hamas an Jüdinnen und Juden in Deutschland gut geheißen, dass sie, wie in Neukölln geschehen, bejubelt worden wären. Wie kommt jemand dazu, die Morde der Hamas an Juden zu relativieren, nach dem Motto: die Massaker sind zu verurteilen, aber auch verständlich? Warum sind wir nicht einmal in der Lage, einfach zu schweigen, mit Demut der Morde zu gedenken, Mitgefühl zu zeigen? Niemand hat ein Recht, einen anderen umzubringen, niemand hat ein Recht, Menschen die Köpfe abzuschlagen, Kinder vor den Augen ihrer Eltern zu töten, Frauen zu vergewaltigen, Leichen zu schänden. Ich hätte auch nie gedacht, dass eine offen fremdenfeindliche Partei wie die AfD, in Teilen antisemitisch, von so vielen Deutschen gewählt würde, dass eine solche Partei in allen Parlamenten sitzt. Ich hätte nie für möglich gehalten, dass eine Partei wie die Freien Wähler in Bayern, die in eine heftige Debatte geriet wegen eines ekelhaften antisemitischen Flugblatts, sogar noch an Zuspruch gewinnen würde.
A friend of mine just called me to talk to me about it. Don’t you see that it’s their own fault? I interrupted him and asked him if he was German and knew German history, the years 1933 to 1945, listing all the crimes against humanity, it would fill a book. And you come to me with the crimes of the Israelis against Palestinians. No and no again. To make the perpetrators of Hamas innocent for what they did on October 7th, murder and manslaughter. And we, the Germans, who are responsible for the collapse of civilization under the Nazis, we explain to the world that it’s not all that bad because the Israelis are not innocent. I don’t care who puts this stuff into the world, whether left-wing or otherwise. I think it’s wrong, instinctive.
I find the discussion disgusting, even outrageous. I understand that Chancellor Olaf Scholz emphasizes that he stands on Israel’s side, and I think it’s right. “Palestinians and Muslims cannot be equated per se with the terrorist organization Hamas,” said television journalist Dunja Hayali, adding: “There is a difference.” I know the suffering that the Palestinians have suffered and are suffering. But this must not lead to leaving the Jews alone with their worries and fears in Germany. To put the Hamas massacre into perspective. Soon it will be November 9th again, when they will think of their synagogues, which were set on fire in 1938 by the Nazis and their friends and sympathizers. Many Germans had looked on or looked away, hardly anyone helped the Jews, occasionally they did one or two even applauded. Culture of remembrance is something we talk about again and again, every now and then, when Jews are attacked here, when anti-Semitic slogans spread. We must never forget what happened then.
The massacre on October 7th did not take place in a vacuum. The Israelis had themselves to blame for the genocidal pogroms. Doesn’t anyone who talks like that notice how shocked the Germans of the Jewish faith in the country are? Did no one feel the rug being pulled out from under their feet? Have you never heard of the fact that Jews here often pack at least one suitcase with the most necessary things so that they can quickly escape in an emergency? But where, that is the question today, since Israel has been attacked by Hamas, a terrorist organization whose program has manifested the destruction of the State of Israel? I read that the blame lies with the apartheid system. It sounds as if to those who say this, the deaths of Israeli civilians are not worth a word of pity or regret.
The Jewish world is in deep mourning and a state of shock. Israel, the refuge for every Jew in the world should the need arise. Will this guarantee be in jeopardy on October 7th? Don’t we notice how our Jewish fellow citizens are trembling? That they are afraid to wear the yarmulke, afraid for their children going to school. Who will protect them when it matters most? In times like these, you think again of the Shoah, the Holocaust, the images of children and elderly people being killed, the smell of burned bodies, the blood on the streets, all of this had happened before. As a German, born in World War II, who knows the crimes of Nazi Germany against millions of Jews from books and visits to concentration camps, I am ashamed when Jews are afraid again in Germany.
The October 7 massacre, the slaughter of 1,400 people, is a crime against humanity. Committed by Hamas, a terrorist organization that was then celebrated as a liberation organization by Turkish President Erdogan. Disgusting, Mr. President. Anyone who openly shows joy at the crime proves their own inhumanity. Israel’s tragedy on October 7th requires our compassion and solidarity; the Jews in Germany must not feel left alone. The protection of Jewish life is part of the Federal Republic’s raison d’état. Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier reminded us of this. Also as a reminder to all of us.
Image source: Gary Todd, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
