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The president of the International Auschwitz Committee on Friday called for proceedings to ban the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) “before it’s too late.”<\/p>\n
Eva Umlauf, who survived the Nazi death camp, made the demand in an open letter to Hendrik W\u00fcst, the conservative premier of Germany’s most populous state, who has revived calls for the AfD to face proceedings over its anti-constitutional views.<\/p>\n
“In May, you were at Auschwitz for the first time, at that very place where I was almost murdered as a little girl,” Umlauf wrote in the letter, which was published the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper.<\/p>\n
At the site, she recalled that W\u00fcst said: “Remembrance without consequences remains a mere gesture.”<\/p>\n
Umlauf urged the North Rhine-Westphalia premier to follow up his words with action.<\/p>\n
“Initiate proceedings to ban the AfD. Now, before it’s too late,” the Jewish leader wrote.<\/p>\n
In the wake of the AfD’s resounding victory in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt, W\u00fcst has called for a working group made up of federal and state representatives to examine whether the far-right party should be banned by the Federal Constitutional Court.<\/p>\n
Umlauf made clear that she was not saying history is repeating itself. “But what is happening today brings back the worst memories for me.”<\/p>\n
She cited the AfD’s plans in Saxony-Anhalt to teach refugee children in segregated classes and to remove children with disabilities from mainstream classes as reasons for her concern.<\/p>\n
The 83-year-old also described the party’s plans for “remigration” as unconstitutional. The term is widely used in far-right circles to refer to large-scale deportations.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n