With “unvaccinated” star on demo
Countries investigate because of Holocaust relativization
2/2/2022 1:31 am
Six million Jews died in the Nazi gas chambers. When opponents of vaccination present themselves as victims of the Corona policy with “unvaccinated” armbands, this at least shows a difficult historical oblivion. In several federal states, corresponding demonstrators are being investigated on suspicion of incitement to hatred.
In several federal states, the judiciary is taking action against demonstrators who wear the “Jewish star” with the word “unvaccinated” introduced by the Nazis as a compulsory indicator during protests against the Corona policy. The wearing of other symbols that relativize the Holocaust, as well as corresponding statements, should also be prosecuted. Various justice ministries are convinced that such behavior can constitute a criminal offense of hate speech, according to a survey by the German editorial network.
“Attaching the yellow star to oneself and associating this inhuman symbol of the murder of millions of Jewish fellow citizens with one’s own vaccination status is not only tasteless, but in my opinion it constitutes a criminal offense of hate speech,” said Bremen Justice Senator Claudia Schilling RND. It is therefore absolutely correct “that the Bremen public prosecutor’s office generally accepts the initial suspicion of incitement to hatred and investigates accordingly,” said the SPD politician. Similar procedures have already been initiated in other countries.
The Bavarian Ministry of Justice also points out that statements comparing state corona measures with the Holocaust could be prosecuted as incitement to hatred. Together with the Ministry of the Interior, an information letter was therefore sent to the Bavarian police associations, “in which they were asked to submit relevant cases to the responsible public prosecutor’s office to examine the initial suspicion of a crime,” it said when asked by the RND.
“Freedom of assembly is a great asset of our constitution. Everyone is allowed to express their opinion in Germany and demonstrate peacefully and without weapons,” said Bavaria’s Justice Minister Georg Eisenreich to the RND. “There must be no place for anti-Semitism in Germany,” he added. “We have a special responsibility towards people of the Jewish faith. It is our job to recognize, name and fight the hatred of Jews in our society. That is why we are taking decisive action against it.”
The public prosecutor’s offices in Hamburg and Saxony also consider the public display of “Jewish stars” with the inscription “unvaccinated” and the dissemination of statements relating to the Holocaust to be punishable, as spokesmen told the RND. According to the report, the justice ministries in North Rhine-Westphalia and Hesse consider it at least obvious that the criminal offense of incitement to hatred is fulfilled in such cases. When asked by the RND, several federal states referred to the independence of the judiciary and did not want to give their own assessment.