Activist put crimes into perspective
Last generation distances itself from Holocaust trivialization
08/15/2023, 07:40 am
British “Extinction Rebellion” founder Roger Hallam has repeatedly compared climate change to the Holocaust. The last generation is connected to the climate activist via an international network. Now the group finds clear words about the statements made by the British.
Last generation climate activists have distanced themselves from British activist Roger Hallam following media reports of internal disputes. At the request of the Funke media group, the group said in a written statement: “In all clarity: Roger Hallam’s statements are not our statements,” it says. “We don’t put human lives in relation to one another.”
The background is media reports, according to which there are heated arguments in the group of climate protection activists about how to deal with statements by the British Roger Hallam that relativize the Holocaust. Hallam is a co-founder of Extinction Rebellion and part of the A22 network, which connects climate activists in different countries.
In the past, Hallam has repeatedly made statements that downplay the Holocaust. For example, Hallam described him as “just another fuckery in human history.” He called climate change the “pipe through which gas flows into the gas chamber. It is just the mechanism by which one generation kills another”.
Anti-Semitism officer called for distancing
The last generation is also a member of A22 and connected to Hallam in this way. As several media reported over the weekend, some of the “last generation” activists are pushing for Hallam to move away.
In its statement, the group now wrote that the last generation is an independent campaign. Hallam is an advisor to the International Mobilization Group (IMG) and Just Stop Oil (JSO). With this and nine other campaigns, the last generation is in exchange as part of the A22 network. “The international suggestions and exchange rounds serve as inspiration for us and we always reflect on whether and how we use them for our campaign,” the statement continues. Often the Last Generation provides tips, advice and suggestions to other campaigns in the network.
The federal government’s anti-Semitism commissioner, Felix Klein, had previously demanded that the activists clearly distance themselves from anti-Semitic ideas. “Any trivialization of the Holocaust is clearly anti-Semitic,” Klein told the Funke newspapers. “Accordingly, comparisons of the industrially planned annihilation of millions of Jews in murder factories with the threats of man-made climate change are also unacceptable.”
In Germany in particular, the fight against anti-Semitism must be one of the basic values for all those who are politically active. “In this sense, I also expect from those responsible for the ‘last generation’ an unequivocal attitude and a clear distancing from any anti-Semitic ideas.”