German man who said “Jews went to the slaughter like sheep” accused of pretending to be Jewish 

A German man who has allegedly used antisemitic tropes in public talks has been accused of pretending to be Jewish. 

Frank Borner, a retired teacher from the island of Fehmarn, has claimed to be working through the “Meet a Jew” programme. “Meet a Jew” is an initiative run by the Central Council of Jews in Germany whereby non-Jews meet members of the Jewish community to “prevent and debunk stereotypes, replacing them with actual experiences”.

According to the German publication Der Welt, which published an exposé on the inconsistencies in Mr Borner’s public talks, Mr Borner claimed that his family had “led a tranquil life” in Nazi Germany until 9th November 1938. 

He also allegedly claimed that his Jewish grandfather was initially sympathetic towards Hitler, whom he supposedly believed would bring stability to Germany following the First World War. 

According to the exposé, details such as the names of his relatives or the locations of events in his talks are often omitted or sometimes responded to by Mr Borner saying: “I don’t want to say that now.”

In one of his talks, Mr Borner reportedly claimed that Hollywood is “firmly in the Jewish grip”. 

In the same session, when talking about the Holocaust, he allegedly said: “Why did the Jews go through this? They were people with money, with international relations!”

When asked by an audience member about his relationship to Judaism, Mr Borner said, “I see myself as a political Jew by paying attention to where antisemitism appears in our society, even in very fine forms,” according to Der Welt. 

In 2020, a local German newspaper dedicated a feature to Mr Borner, where he wrote that he grew up in an Orthodox Jewish household and that his grandfather had committed suicide whilst in a concentration camp, among other details about his life. After the article was published, family members of Mr Borner reportedly came forward to dispute some of the so-called facts he had written about. 

In a statement, the Central Council of Jews in Germany, which denied that Mr Borner is part of the “Meet a Jew” initiative, said: “The damage done by such charlatans to such an important project is great.”

When contacted for comment by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Mr Borner said: “Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth: But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.”

He then later wrote to the news outlet to say: “In today’s Western democracy, Jewish people prey on other Jewish fellow human beings.” He also added that in Germany, his family had never belonged to an official Jewish denomination or community.

The revelation comes after a similar case earlier this summer, in which a prominent German critic of Israel who had claimed to be Jewish now admitted that he is not. 

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