「二度と繰り返さない」　独首相、ユダヤ人保護表明

【ベルリンＡＦＰ＝時事】ドイツのオラフ・ショルツ首相は９日、イスラエルとイスラム組織ハマスの一連の衝突を受けて反ユダヤ主義が高まっている事態は「国辱」だとし、ユダヤ人の保護を表明した。（写真は、１９３８年にドイツで起きたユダヤ人迫害事件「水晶の夜」から８５年目を迎えた日に、ベルリンのシナゴーグ〈ユダヤ教の会堂〉で行われた追悼式典で演説するオラフ・ショルツ首相）
　この日は１９３８年のユダヤ人迫害事件「水晶の夜」から８５年に当たり、ショルツ氏は、先月火炎瓶２本が投げ込まれたベルリンのシナゴーグ（ユダヤ教の会堂）で行われた追悼式典で演説した。「水晶の夜」事件は、第２次世界大戦中にナチス・ドイツによって欧州のユダヤ人約６００万人が犠牲になったホロコースト（ユダヤ人大量虐殺）の前兆となった。
　ショルツ氏は、「これは１９４５年以来、数十年にわたって（ドイツが）約束してきた『二度と繰り返さない』という誓いを守ることにほかならない」と主張。
　「二度と繰り返さない」とは、ナチスの残虐行為の記憶を生かし続け、「テロのプロパガンダ」を拒否し、そして国民と移民に対して等しく、多様性と尊重を要求・保証するドイツの「自由で民主的な秩序」を確実に重んじるようにさせることだと続けた。
　さらに、ドイツが過去に犯した罪の重さを考えると、国内における反ユダヤ主義の高まりは「国辱」であり、「憤慨し、深く恥じている」と述べた。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2023/11/13-16:01）

Chancellor Olaf Scholz pledged Thursday to protect Germany's Jews against a shameful upsurge in anti-Semitism in the wake of the Israel-Hamas war, on the anniversary of the Nazi Kristallnacht pogrom that began the Holocaust.
Speaking in a Berlin synagogue that assailants targeted with two Molotov cocktails last month, Scholz said: Essentially this is about keeping the promise given again and again in the decades since 1945...the promise 'never again'.
The German leader was addressing a ceremony on the 85th anniversary of the Night of Broken Glass or Kristallnacht, a spasm of orchestrated violence that ushered in the Nazi's slaughter of six million European Jews during World War II.
The chancellor said never again meant keeping the memory of Nazi atrocities alive, rejecting terror propaganda and ensuring that citizens and migrants alike respect Germany's free democratic order which demands and guarantees diversity and respect.
Scholz said rising anti-Jewish sentiment in Germany, given the weight of its historical crimes, was shameful for the country.
It outrages and shames me deeply, he said.
- 2,000 anti-Semitic incidents -
On November 9-10, 1938, Nazi thugs murdered at least 90 Jews, torched 1,400 synagogues across Germany and Austria and destroyed Jewish-owned shops and businesses.
The pretext for the coordinated action was the fatal shooting on November 7, 1938, of a German diplomat in Paris by a Polish Jewish student.
The Nazis rounded up and deported at least 30,000 Jews to concentration camps and made Jews pay compensation for the damage caused to property.
On October 7 this year, Hamas gunmen stormed across the border into Israel, killing 1,400 people, mostly civilians, in their homes, on the streets and at a rave party.
The deadliest attack since the founding of Israel led it to declare war on Hamas, with Israeli forces heavily bombarding Gaza and sending in ground troops with the aim of destroying the Islamist movement. The Hamas-run health ministry said more than 10,500 people, mostly civilians and many of them children, have been killed in the territory.
Some 2,000 incidents linked to the Israel-Hamas conflict have been reported so far in Germany, federal police said. Authorities have boosted security around Jewish institutions.
In October two men hurled Molotov cocktails at the Beth Zion synagogue in Berlin. No one was hurt, but the attack left many Jews in the capital rattled.
Pro-Palestinian rallies in Germany have in some cases gathered far-right and far-left extremists chanting anti-Israel and anti-Semitic slogans and sparked clashes with police.
Scholz, most of his cabinet and President Frank-Walter Steinmeier attended the ceremony at Beth Zion, which he noted had already been attacked and plundered on Kristallnacht.
They were joined by the president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, Josef Schuster, 102-year-old Holocaust survivor Margot Friedlaender and family members of Israelis held hostage by Hamas.
- 'A time of threats' -
Schuster warned that extremists felt emboldened to take their hatred and Holocaust denial onto Germany's streets and social media, leaving the country's 200,000-strong Jewish community feeling threatened.
There are parallels between the mentality of radical Islamists who want the extermination of Israel and the Jews, and those on the far right who despise our culture of Shoah remembrance.
However he said Germany's Jews were self-assured and standing together in a time of threats.
We will not be intimidated -- that is also one of the lessons of the historic pogrom experience from November 9, 1938.
Germany, still atoning for the Holocaust, has placed the protection of Israel at the heart of its foreign policy.
It has approved 10 times more in military gear exports to Israel so far this year, official data showed Wednesday, as Berlin said it was prioritising requests from the country after Hamas's deadly attack.