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Published on 28 March 2016
Interview : Beate Klarsfeld
By Igal Avidan, published on the Jewish Chronicle March 17, 2016
Veteran German Nazi-hunter Beate Klarsfeld has attacked the radical-right party Alternative for Germany (AfD), accusing it of inciting hatred of refugees.
On Sunday, the nationalistic, anti-Muslim AfD made unprecedented gains at local elections in three federal states.
According to its manifesto, the AfD wants to ban circumcisions, which cause "serious violations of fundamental rights such as the rights to physical integrity and self-determination of affected children".
Interviewed during a short visit to her home town of Berlin, Mrs Klarsfeld criticised the AfD for spreading fear of refugees and stoking prejudices.
She pointed out that the neo-Nazi NPD had called on its supporters in two federal states to give their first vote to the AfD and their second to their own party.
Mrs Klarsfeld, who is not Jewish, said: "When refugee centres in Germany go up in flames - at the hands of AfD supporters - then NPD fans are present as well. The groups are inseparable."
Together with her Jewish husband Serge, Mrs Klarsfeld has been hunting Second World War Nazis for decades. In 1968, she was sentenced to prison for openly slapping former German Chancellor Kurt Georg Kiesinger, who had been an active Nazi propagandist.
The Paris-based couple managed to bring to trial several prominent Nazis, such as Klaus Barbie and Kurtz Lischka.
They also demonstrated against Austrian president Kurt Waldheim, who hid his Nazi past; and went to Damascus to demand the extradition of Nazi war criminal Alois Brunner, responsible for the murder of 130,000 Jews in concentration camps, among them Serge Klarsfeld's father.
Recently, the Klarsfelds managed to block performances by antisemitic French "comedian" Dieudonné.
Mrs Klarsfeld said that French Jews are afraid of Islamists. "Sometimes their children are being harassed in public schools by Muslims, especially on the outskirts of Paris. Some parents have moved further into Paris, others moved their children to Jewish or even Catholic schools"... Read more.