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Anti-Semitic print on a T-shirt at a demonstration in Frankfurt: "Tasteless and deeply insulting"
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Boris Roessler / dpa
After numerous anti-Semitic incidents at Corona demos in Germany, Munich, among others, had banned the wearing of a yellow star as a protest sign.
Now in the neighboring country of the Czech Republic, anti-vaccination campaigners have also attracted attention at a rally with this symbol based on the »Jewish star« - and have caused outrage.
The Federation of Jewish Communities in the Czech Republic spoke of an exemplary relativization of the Holocaust and an abuse of a symbol that stands for the death and suffering of millions of people, as a spokesman said.
Israel's ambassador to Prague, Daniel Meron, tweeted: "The use of the yellow Star of David in an anti-vaccination protest is a shame and an insult to the memory of the victims of the Holocaust."
More than 80,000 Jews from Bohemia and Moravia murdered in German concentration camps
Last Friday, several demonstrators on Wenceslas Square in Prague had carried the »Jewish stars« introduced by the National Socialists with the inscription »Unvaccinated«.
Politicians also joined in the criticism.
"Every free citizen has the right to protest - but this form is tasteless and deeply insulting," wrote the chairman of the liberal opposition party ODS, Petr Fiala.
The Czech Christian Democratic politician Jan Bartošek was also outraged.
Jews were persecuted, but anti-vaccination campaigners were free to refrain from vaccination without any consequences.
During the National Socialist occupation in World War II, Jews in today's Czech Republic had to wear a »Jewish star«.
According to historians, more than 80,000 Jews from Bohemia and Moravia were murdered in German concentration and extermination camps.
In Germany, too, there was outrage about the connection between numerous anti-corona demonstrators and right-wing extremists and anti-Semites.
According to a report by the RIAS Federal Association, the Anti-Semitism Research and Information Center (RIAS) registered incidents at more than 120 rallies in the first half of 2020 alone.
However, due to the large number of demos and their distribution across the whole country, the experts assume a high number of unreported cases.
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