The below article from today's Deutsche Welle (translated by Fousesquawk) gives a sobering report on the dramatic increase in anti-Semitic incidents in Berlin for 2023, most of which occurred after October 7. And it is not just Berlin. Jews all over Germany feel threatened.
According to the article, the Hamas terror attack on October 7 sparked a dramatic surge in incidents, especially in Berlin, with the highest number of Muslims and Palestinians in Germany. In addition, there have been reports of anti-Semitic remarks by visitors to the Buchenwald concentration camp memorial site (outside Weimar) and its satellite camp, Mittelbau-Dora. These incidents generally involve indigenous Germans.
Comment: I genuinely feel in my heart that Germany wants to protect its Jewish citizens. Yes, they have a small minority of disaffected neo-Nazi, German youth. Yet, the major problem, as everyone knows, is imported. Germany and the rest of the civilized world (including the US) must step up its efforts to protect its Jewish citizens from these violent thugs.
https://www.dw.com/de/gewalt-und-angst-berlins-juden-in-sorge/a-69150259
Violence and fear-Berlin's Jews are worried
Christoph Strack
One hour ago (5-22.2024)
Jewish experts in Berlin again sound the alarm: Anti-Semitism is increasing rapidly, and the fear of the Jewish population is growing. And they warn of worse developments.
Caption: Constantly guarded by police. Jewish community in Berlin
Anna Chernyak Segal reports matter-of-factly, yet full of concern: She tells of the attempted arson attempts with two Molotov cocktails at her synagogue in mid-October last year and the attack on a young member of the community a few weeks ago at the Berlin Gesundbrunnen. The young man was "physically attacked and (subjected to) anti-Semitic insults," and he suffered "broken bones and massive emotional and mental damage".
Those are two of the anti-Semitic attacks against the Orthodox Jewish community "Kahal Adass Jisroel" on the Brunnenstrasse (street) in Berlin, which has made it into the news nationwide.
Insults on the Metro
And community manager, Segal describes many other incidents. From her reports, she speaks of fearful concerns for safety. There are verbal attacks on the streets or on public transport, such as the insults of "child killer", hostility on the Internet, anti-Semitic markings on residences and house doors, torn down mezuzahs, the small containers that religious Jews decorate the doors of their homes with. "We are experiencing a greatly heightened threat situation for Jewish life," she says. "We never could have imagined that."
Segal is one of those affected who spoke at the presentation of the annual report for 2023 from the "Anti-Semitism Research and Information Center" in Berlin (RIAS-Berlin). What the statistics list, in sober and yet so terrifying numbers, brings it to life. In 2023, RIAS-Berlin recorded 1270 Anti-Semitic incidents in the German capital city. That is the highest number since the founding of the establishment in 2015 and signifies an increase, compared to the previous year, 2022, of almost 50%.
"October 7, 2023 represents a turning point," says the project manager of RIAS-Berlin, Julia Kopp. Since then, anti-Semitism is "clearly more present" than before in Berlin. From October 7, the first day of the murderous attack by the terror organization, Hamas, to the end of the year, there was an average of about 10 anti-Semitic incidents per day. This included both criminal and non-criminal incidents.
Kopp explains how Jewish life in the city has long since changed. Jews would take care not to be recognized by Jewish symbols. Some would even flee from an especially threatened location to move to another part of the city.
"Traumatized and injured"
Kopp points out the Jewish restaurant, DoDa's Deli, long-based with a clientele in Berlin-Friedrichshain. Soon after the start of the Hamas terror, the shop sign was destroyed, and then there were more and more threats and warnings not to frequent the deli. "The operators feel themselves forced to leave the district," she explains. Soon, DoDa's Deli hopes to try a new start in West Berlin's Wilmersdorf (district). For Sigmount Koenigsberg, the anti-Semitism officer of the Berlin Jewish Community, the report shows, "how a large part of the Jewish community in Berlin is traumatized and injured".
Caption: A pro-Palestinian demonstration in Berlin mid-May
The situation in Berlin, the city with the biggest Muslim and also the biggest Palestinian community in Germany, is no exception. That was made clear the same day by the 2023 annual report of the RIAS Center in Hesse State. There also, since October 7, the numbers exploded. More than 60% of the 528 documented incidents occurred in the last three months of the year.
And the previous day, experts from the "Association of Counseling Centers for (those ) Affected by Right-wing, Racist, and Anti-Semitic Violence" (VBRG) reported to journalists in Berlin. There, historian Jens-Christian Wagner, leader of the Institute for Memorials of Buchenwald and Mittelbau-Dora in Thuringia, referred to incidents or anti-Israel remarks, even intimidation of memorial employees. As to the question of whether the perpetrators in such cases are also from pro-Palestinian, Muslim circles, he says as a rule, they are "native German"-Germans without any migration background. Jews and Israeli citizens are concerned for their safety and physical integrity in all parts of Germany. Especially in Berlin.
Doubt and frustration
At any rate, most feel protected and looked after by the police. In addition, there is no criticism of the conduct of security forces at anti-Israel demonstrations. And yet, the doubts and frustration as described by Segal, come through, how rocks shattered the window panes of a Jewish family from her community. The rocks were reportedly thrown by children from a Muslim family in the neighborhood.
Caption: Samuel Salzkorn, Anna Chernyak Segal, Julia Kopp, Sigmount Königsberg (from left to right).
The advice from police officials is reportedly: "Get out of this area. We cannot do a thing." According to the managing director, such news would have a devastating effect on members of the community. Those responsible would "ask and beg" that those affected would be prepared to report such incidents. But not everyone does this.
Thus far, there have been many individual incidents, including "chance encounters in everyday life'", as Julia Kopp says. Because they happen by chance, for those affected, it is "so hard to protect themselves from them." But given the great militancy of the words and actors, the experts fear an increase in attacks and an escalation of violence. The contact person for the State of Berlin State on anti-Semitism, Samuel Salzborn, points to the vehemence of individual protest events and fears further aggression. He even speaks of a "development that potentially takes on pre-terrorist structures."
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