This weekend the “NRW appeal for an AfD ban” starts in North Rhine-Westphalia. The initiative wants to collect 100,000 signatures from North Rhine-Westphalia by July and thus persuade the state parliament and state government to advocate a ban on the AfD with the Federal Council. In addition to over 50 initiatives from almost 29 cities, the supporters of the appeal also include Leon Weintraub, who survived the Holocaust and several concentration camps.
According to Weintraub, defending yourself against the enemies of democracy – and therefore also against the AfD – is the decisive lesson from the Holocaust. In this open letter, the 100-year-old addresses the state parliament and the state government in North Rhine-Westphalia:
The Nazi crimes did not begin in Auschwitz. They began with exclusion, humiliation and contempt for Jews and other minorities.
Leon Weintraub
At the beginning there is always language.
The Nazi crimes did not begin in Auschwitz. They began with exclusion, humiliation and contempt for Jews and other minorities.
For over five bitter years, I experienced firsthand the consequences that can arise when people are degraded, despised and humiliated. I suffered during the ’12 year 1000 Year Reich’; over four years in the ghetto in Litzmannstadt, then in Auschwitz and three other concentration camps. A very large part of my family was murdered.
Please don’t listen to the calls of the right and, above all, take seriously what they say. They mean what they say!
Today it is the AfD (I am convinced: ‘NO’ alternative for Germany!) that uses its contemptuous language to attack minorities who do not fit into their ethnic-nationalist worldview.
Our job as democrats is to defend ourselves against this. We must not leave the field to the enemies of the rule of law and democracy.
The mothers and fathers of the Basic Law were aware of this and so they created the possibility of banning a party, albeit with high hurdles. If “Never again is now” is to have any meaning, then a liberal democracy must defend itself against its enemies. That is the crucial lesson from history, from the Holocaust!
That is why I unreservedly and passionately support the demands of AfD ban now.
I demand: Initiate a ban on the AfD.
History will thank you.
Dr. Leon Weintraub