German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier says that the fight against anti-Semitism is fundamental to democracy in Germany.
“I am infuriated and ashamed that Jews still cannot feel safe – in our country, of all places,” Steinmeier said at an official banquet in honour of Israeli President Isaac Herzog in Berlin in remarks supplied to dpa in advance of Sunday evening’s event.
“We Germans profess our unwavering support of Israel’s security and right to exist. We stand on your side,” Steinmeier emphasised.
Herzog was welcomed by Steinmeier on Sunday afternoon for a three-day visit.
“My country carries a responsibility for the crime against humanity of the Shoah that will not go away. The remembrance of what happened and of what can occur must be a warning for us for the present and the future, so that it does not happen again,” he said at the banquet, according to the transcript.
Part of the historical responsibility is that Germany “cannot be indifferent whenever anti-Semitism resurges,” Steinmeier said.
There can be only one response: “We cannot tolerate any form of anti-Semitism.”
He said that this was not only the responsibility of the German people to their own history and to the Jewish population living in the country.
Read the article by Jorg Blank in The Canberra Times.