The German Foreign Minister stigmatized Sunday the “
anti-mask
”
demonstrators
who compare themselves to the victims of Nazism, accusing them of trivializing the Holocaust and “
making fun
” of the courage shown by the resistance fighters.
Read also: These French people who protest against the "health dictatorship"
During a rally on Saturday in Hanover of opponents of the restrictive measures imposed to fight against the epidemic of coronavirus, a young demonstrator had affirmed that she felt "
like Sophie Scholl
", a German student executed by the Nazis in 1943 for her role in resistance.
A video of his speech has been seen more than a million times on social networks, with many Internet users expressing their indignation at his comments.
“
Anyone today who compares to Sophie Scholl or Anne Frank doesn't care how much courage it took to stand up to the Nazis,
” Heiko Maas said in a tweet.
Such an attitude “
trivializes the Holocaust and reveals an inadmissible oblivion of history.
There is no connection between the protests (against the anti-coronavirus restrictions) and the resistance fighters.
No !
», Indignant the minister.
On the video, we can see a member of the security service interrupting the protester perched on a platform, and denouncing her remarks which amount to "
minimizing the Holocaust
".
"
I don't work for security to (hear) such nonsense,
" he exclaims before being escorted away.
The young woman, who introduced herself as Jana, 22, then bursts into tears and drops her microphone before leaving the stage.
Last week, an eleven-year-old girl addressed "
anti-mask
"
demonstrators
in Karlsruhe (West), comparing herself to the Jewish teenager Anne Frank because she had to celebrate her birthday in peace.
Anne Frank, whose diary she wrote while living in hiding in the Netherlands under Nazi occupation, was read by millions of people, perished in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in 1945.
Read also: Germany: thousands of "anti-masks" protest, the police deployed
The comparison with Anne Franck aroused indignant reactions.
The Karlsruhe police considered it "
inappropriate and in bad taste
".
Germany has long made it a point of honor to face up to its Nazi past and to recognize "
its eternal responsibility
" in the extermination of the Jews.
The far-right AfD party has in recent years challenged this culture of historical memory, with its leaders calling for an end to atoning for the crimes of Nazism.
The measures taken by the government to contain the epidemic have sparked large protests in Germany, bringing together radical left activists, conspiracyists and right-wing extremists.
Several hundred people gathered in Berlin on Sunday for a new protest against anti-Covid restrictions.
Germany has tightened restrictions since early November in an attempt to stem the second wave of contaminations: restaurants, bars, cultural venues and leisure centers have been forced to close while shops and schools have been allowed to remain open .
On Wednesday, Chancellor Angela Merkel and the sixteen lands will have to decide whether even more stringent measures must be adopted by Christmas.
Finance Minister Olaf Scholz told the Bild daily on Sunday that the current restrictions "
will probably have to be extended for a while
".
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