victim commemoration
Since the AfD entered the Bundestag for the first time four and a half years ago, there has also been a special sense of urgency about the commemoration hours on January 27 of each year.
A feeling that history is never something past and finished
.
The idea that this democracy and this republic are not just there and will remain effortless.
But always wanting to be defended.
Exactly one year ago, Charlotte Knobloch gave a moving speech in the Bundestag.
The Holocaust survivor and former President of the Central Council of Jews in Germany said to the right-wing extremists among the AfD MPs: “You will continue to fight for your Germany and we will continue to fight for our Germany.
I tell you: you lost your fight 76 years ago
.«
On today's day of remembrance of the victims of National Socialism - 77 years ago, on January 27, 1945, the Red Army liberated people from the Auschwitz death camp -
Inge Auerbacher
will give the speech in the Bundestag as a survivor of the Shoah.
The 87-year-old New Yorker comes from Kippenheim on the edge of the Black Forest, survived the Theresienstadt concentration camp and emigrated to the USA with her parents after the war.
Her admonition to the younger ones:
»You always have a choice!«
Just as Therese, a former domestic worker of Auerbacher's grandparents, courageously decided in favor of the good in dark times: she provided Inge's family with food at great risk, hid private objects, like the photo albums.
Israel's Parliament Speaker
Mickey Levy
will speak next to Auerbacher, the commemoration begins at 10 a.m.
Holocaust memorial speaker Inge Auerbacher: "I didn't live for hate"
Not every right winger is allowed in
You certainly know the pictures from the balcony of the unvaccinated in the Bundestag, also mockingly called the “plague tribune”: Those right-wingers who no longer have access because of the 2G Plus regulation that applies to the plenary hall have to sit above the AfD parliamentary group.
However, since today's commemoration is not
a regular plenary session
, different rules apply.
And they say: Only vaccinated or recovered MPs are allowed to participate.
This also applies to the grandstands.
The AfD tried it before the Federal Constitutional Court with an urgent application against the regulation - but it was rejected.
There was no "serious disadvantage" for the deputies.
The right-wing vaccine refusers must stay outside.
In an interview with my colleague Katharina Horban, Felix Klein, the federal government's anti-Semitism commissioner, defended the regulation in the Bundestag: It was
"a self-chosen fate"
.
Everyone can be vaccinated, nobody is excluded.
The commemoration, says Klein, should actually be “a lesson for the AfD”.
However, he does not have the impression that Charlotte Knobloch's direct address last year "triggered a major discussion in the AfD".
Unfortunately not.
Anti-Semitism Commissioner Klein on Holocaust Remembrance: "We Must Defend Our Remembrance Culture"
5000 helmets against Putin
Define unfortunate symbol politics!
And here we are with Christine Lambrecht.
The SPD defense minister complied with a request from Ukraine and turned the fulfillment of this, well, not very complicated wish
into a grand gesture
.
At Kiev's request, Germany will deliver 5,000 military protective helmets to Ukraine, Lambrecht said.
Good thing.
But Lambrecht continued: This is a sign that Germany
is "very close to Ukraine's side
. "
Such a saying, in turn, seems like satire.
In the Kremlin they must be trembling because of the Bundeswehr helmets.
Hopefully they have made sure in the federal government that these things are not to be used as offensive weapons.
Seriously: No matter how you feel about possible German arms deliveries to Ukraine (I don't believe in it, as explained here yesterday): This minister's helmet rhetoric is counterproductive.
Nothing against the delivery of protective helmets, but that's fine too.
Let's not make it more than it is: a few thousand helmets.
In the Ukraine crisis, Germany looks like the
pseudo-giant from Jim Button
: from a distance it looks big;
as you get closer, it gets smaller and smaller.
US Response to Russia's Demands: Now it's Putin's turn
Winner of the day...
… are clawed frogs without hind legs
.
US researchers have succeeded in using a drug cocktail applied to the wound to stimulate the growth of new functional legs.
They were there within 18 months.
Clean.
Could this also work in humans?
Not clear.
Finally, in relation to the clawed frog, humans have larger and more complex limbs.
By the way: Before the frogs mentioned here became winners, they were losers.
Because their legs were amputated by the researchers who later made new ones for them.
The latest news from the night
Seven-day incidence exceeds 1000:
The Robert Koch Institute registered 188 more deaths related to the corona virus within 24 hours.
The number of new infections increases by 203,136 - and the seven-day incidence to 1017.4
Russia calls on Ukraine to engage in dialogue with separatists:
Russian and Ukrainian top diplomats spent around eight hours negotiating the Donbass conflict in Paris – that alone is seen as a success.
After all, a desired strengthening of the ceasefire was emphasized
Tesla reports record profit:
The group speaks of a “breakthrough year”: Tesla delivered more electric cars in 2021 than ever before.
CEO Elon Musk is getting significantly richer.
However, the global supply chain problems are causing concern
The SPIEGEL + recommendations for today
Housing shortage in big cities: How investors are changing social housing
United Internet boss Ralph Dommermuth: How a German billionaire wants to build his own 5G network
Lily Ebert, Holocaust survivor and TikTok star: "When I'm dead, it will all be history"
New exhibition in Vienna: The Strange Freud Complex by Salvador Dalí
I wish you a good start into the day.
Yours Sebastian Fischer