Merz calls rising antisemitism Germany's ‘moment of truth’ on Kristallnacht anniversary

Merz calls rising antisemitism Germany's ‘moment of truth’ on Kristallnacht anniversary.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz warned on Monday that his country faces a historic test of its promise to protect Jewish life, saying antisemitism has become “omnipresent” 88 years after the Nazi pogrom known as Kristallnacht.

Merz spoke at Munich's Ohel Jakob synagogue, which opened on Nov. 9, 2006, to replace the city's main synagogue destroyed by the Nazis in 1938. The ceremony marked both the pogrom anniversary and the synagogue's 20th year. He described the “horrifying sight” of kindergartens and synagogues protected by bulletproof glass and armed police, according to Reuters.

“We see and hear it on our streets, in our towns and cities,” Merz said, adding that this was “the moment of truth for the ‘Never again’ that we utter so often.” German business daily Handelsblatt reported that he said antisemitism is sometimes disguised as anti-colonial struggle or criticism of Israel, and that he called on everyone living in Germany, whether born there, naturalized or seeking refuge, to oppose it.

The chancellor pledged that his government would do everything in its power to protect Jewish life at home and abroad, and restated Germany's support for Israel as part of its historical responsibility. Bavarian leader Markus Söder and state parliament president Ilse Aigner also attended.

The numbers behind the warning are stark. The monitoring group RIAS recorded 8,725 antisemitic incidents in Germany last year, more than three times the 2022 figure, or about 24 a day, Reuters reported. Incidents have surged since the Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and the war in Gaza that followed.

Elsewhere, President Frank-Walter Steinmeier marked the anniversary at the former Buchenwald concentration camp, saying Germans must stand up to hatred of Jews “regardless of whether it originates from the political fringes on the right and left, from the centre of society or from Islamism,” according to the German news agency dpa. Nov. 9 is also the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, which Berlin marked with its own commemorations.