Published: 3 February 2022
Last updated: 4 March 2024
MATI SHEMOELOF: German lawmakers have introduced legislation that defines the false equation as a hate crime, as right-wing leader Florian Jäger has discovered
ABOUT A WEEK AGO, my family and I were leaving our house when we saw a convoy of people protesting against the possibility of mandated vaccinations in Germany. My partner immediately hurled loud insults at the protesters. But I was scared.
I knew that among the protesters there were; QAnon supporters (who articulate anti-Semitic sentiments relating to the pandemic), neo-Nazis, right-wing extremists who oppose immigration into Germany, and anti-Semites. I was silent and let the demonstration pass. I wasn’t going to make myself a target.
When I returned home, our street was littered with anti-vaccination flyers. On one, there was a picture of anti-vaxxers inside a concentration camp. It was my turn to get angry. In the past, these people have worn the yellow badge of the Jews. They saw themselves as sheep being led to the slaughter.
A leader of the anti-vaccine movement in Germany is Florian Jäger, who in 2015 founded a branch of the far-right party AfD in Dachau, the Bavarian city where the Nazis first established a concentration camp.
In a Facebook video, Jäger compares the situation of unvaccinated Germans during the pandemic to the persecution of Jews in Kristallnacht in 1938. Jäger accuses politicians, particularly Bavarian Prime Minister Markus Söder (of the Christian Socialist Union party), of using Nazi methods to incite "popular anger" against the unvaccinated. "However, this 'popular anger' did not break out as quickly as the National Socialist propaganda machine,” he says.
“According to a well-known pattern, a scapegoat is currently being sought for the catastrophic political failure of the governing body, and Söder has found him. It's the 'unvaccinated'."
He continues: "Let's talk about Markus Söder. He's not getting tired of blaming those who haven't been vaccinated. The unvaccinated person has just as little to blame for the pandemic as the Jews were for the economically desolate condition back then.”
Jäger's video ends with the words: “Let's break through that, let's resist, let's take to the streets."
After posting this video on January 12, German police rang Jäger’s doorbell in the Bavarian city of Olching. They brought with them a search warrant.
Through my reading on the Jäger case I learned authorities have acted to stop this false comparison between Jews and the anti-vaccine movement. If you portray yourself as a victim like the Jews in the Nazi state, you will face court.
A court verdict in Bavaria and a decision from the city of Karlsruhe, in southwest Germany, have made penalties more likely. Jäger has crossed the line and an investigation against the AfD politician has been launched by Bavaria’s chief public prosecutor, Andreas Franck.
Jäger has instrumentalised the Holocaust-to the anti-vaccination narrative. If this is found to constitute a criminal offence of hate speech under the Criminal Code, he will face a fine or imprisonment of up to five years.
The law in Germany states that: “Whosoever publicly or in a meeting approves of, denies or downplays an act committed under the rule of National Socialism of the kind indicated in Section 6 of the Code of International Criminal Law, in a manner capable of disturbing the public peace, shall be liable to imprisonment not exceeding five years or a fine.”
In German-speaking lands (Germany and Austria), anti-science sentiment, right-wing views and racism have been entwined since before Jews were accused of spreading the bubonic plague in the 14th century.
If those in the anti-vaccine movement had been educated about Jewish history in Germany, I doubt they would use the terrible trauma for their own ends. Their contempt frightens me.
I do not think that these ideas will disappear in Germany. That means the next time I encounter an anti-vaccination protest on my street, I will again be afraid.
At least, the law is targeting these sentiments and ideas. Finally, I wonder if the anti-vaxxers really believe they are treated like the Jews in Nazi Germany?
READ MORE
Anti-vaccine protesters bearing hate symbols spur outrage in Canada (Times of Israel)
German teens and young adults are interested in learning about the Holocaust — but they want new ways to do so (JTA)
Photo: Florian Jäger, from the AfD in Germany
