FRANKFURT: As the world remembers Auschwitz, the German far right has pushed back against the country’s tradition of Holocaust remembrance, now with backing from US tech billionaire Elon Musk.
“I think there’s too much of a focus on past guilt and we need to move beyond that,” the ally of US President Donald Trump told an Alternative for Germany (AfD) rally in a video discussion at the weekend.
“Children should not be guilty for the sins of their great grandparents,” he told supporters of the AfD, an anti-immigration party he has strongly supported ahead of February 23 elections.
Musk’s comments flew in the face of those made by Chancellor Olaf Scholz to mark 80 years since the liberation of the extermination camp in what was Nazi-occupied Poland and on the “civilizational rupture” of the Holocaust.
“Every single person in our country bears responsibility, regardless of their own family history, regardless of the religion or birthplace of their parents or grandparents,” Scholz said in a speech.
Musk’s comments were all the more divisive as they came ahead of Monday’s 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, where more than one million Jewish people and over 100,000 others died between 1940 and 1945.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, whose country is hosting commemorations, was quick to criticize slogans made at Saturday’s rally, although he did not mention Musk by name.
“The words we heard from the main actors of the AfD rally about ‘Great Germany’ and ‘the need to forget German guilt for Nazi crimes’ sounded all too familiar and ominous,” the Polish leader wrote on X.
“Especially only hours before the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.”
Scholz, who went to Poland for the anniversary events, responded to Tusk’s message: “I couldn’t agree more, dear Donald.”
German Holocaust remembrance under fire from far right
https://arab.news/m568r
German Holocaust remembrance under fire from far right
- US tech billionaire Elon Musk told AfD supporters that “children should not be guilty for the sins of their great grandparents"
- Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk criticizes slogans made at a far-right rally without mentioning Musk by name
MSF denounces denial of humanitarian access in South Sudan
- MSF is the only health provider to almost 400,000 people in the state
- “Patients will die if the government continues to block humanitarian and medical access in Jonglei,” said Hussein
NAIROBI: Doctors Without Borders (MSF) on Friday denounced restrictions on humanitarian access in South Sudan as fighting has intensified between rival factions over the past month.
Fighting erupted in Jonglei state, north of the capital Juba, in late December, in the latest clashes between factions loyal to President Salva Kiir and his long-time rival, Riek Machar, displacing at least 180,000 people according to the United Nations.
MSF is the only health provider to almost 400,000 people in the state, it said, saying the government has blocked humanitarian flights to the Lankien, Pieri, and Akobo areas, preventing them from supplying medicines and personnel as well as evacuating critical patients.
Its team in Pieri was forced to evacuate its facility on Thursday due to the imminent danger of armed conflict, it said in a statement, discharging patients and grabbing emergency kits as they fled the town with the local population.
“Patients will die if the government continues to block humanitarian and medical access in Jonglei,” said Abdalla Hussein, MSF desk manager for South Sudan in the statement.
“Imposing restrictions on humanitarian aid and preventing people from accessing health care is a crude political maneuver... This must stop immediately.”
On Thursday, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was “deeply concerned” by the violence in Jonglei, “which has caused many deaths, injuries and the reported displacement of 180,000 civilians.”
The government claimed this week it was “not at war” and that the security operation in Jonglei was a “necessary measure aimed at halting the advance of rebel forces.”
South Sudan is the world’s youngest country and has been beset by civil war, poverty and massive corruption since it was formed in 2011.
Supporters of Kiir and Machar fought a civil war from 2013 and 2018 that killed an estimated 400,000 people.
They subsequently formed a power-sharing government under a UN-backed peace deal, but it has been unraveling over the past year, with Machar jailed and put on trial for “crimes against humanity.”
