Far-right politician ‘danced’ on Berlin Holocaust memorial

Holger Winterstein, a member of the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (Alternative for Germany) Party – known by its German acronym AfD – has been accused of ‘dancing’ on the country’s Holocaust memorial.

Ron Prosor, Israel’s ambassador to Germany, tweeted a photograph of Mr Winterstein on the Memorial, labelling the action ‘shameful’.

Mr Prosor said: “Mr. Winterstein, everyone is watching you dance while you bring shame on yourself and your party. Enjoy your shameful minute of fame because your name will soon be forgotten.

“The sanctified souls commemorated at the memorial will never be forgotten.”

AfD described Mr Winterstein’s behaviour as “extremely disrespectful.”

In the image posted on social media, Mr Winterstein was seen standing with outstretched arms and with one foot slightly raised on one of the stone slabs that form the memorial in Berlin for the six million Jews murdered by the Nazis.

Mr Winterstein is a representative of the party in Thuringia. In 2018, the party’s leader in the state, Bjoern Hoecke, said the Memorial was a “monument of shame” and called for Germany to perform a “180-degree turn” over how it remembered its past. A party tribunal rejected a bid to have him expelled.

Last year, a survey conducted by polling firm Forsa on behalf of the Central Council of Jews in Germany showed that almost a third (30%) of Germans agreed that Jews exploit German guilty over the Holocaust to “derive an advantage”. The figure rose to 59% of supporters of the AfD.

More than one in five (21%) respondents agreed with the suggestion that Israeli policies mirrored those of Nazi Germany, a direct reference to the International Definition of Antisemitism. This rose to 32% among AfD supporters.

Campaign Against Antisemitism reports on news and incidents relating to antisemitism in Germany, which have increased considerably.