‘In 2024, Jewish money is once again being confiscated by a German bank’. This is a headline that makes for uncomfortable reading in Berlin. It is part of a story currently making the rounds on social media and being described as a ‘worrying echo of history.’ But there is more to this story than meets the eye. And it goes right to the heart of Germany’s Holocaust dilemma.
The country responsible for arguably the biggest crime in history does not want to be seen as suppressing Jewish voices
The headline was thought up by the activist organisation Jewish Voice for Peace which says its account with a Berlin bank has been frozen – and not for the first time. The group claims that the German police ‘have been politically persecuting us as a Jewish organisation for some time,’ and that it ‘will not be intimidated by this… arbitrary, politically motivated freezing of our account, which is unacceptable in a democracy.’
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