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Berlin's Governing Mayor Kai Wegner speaks into the microphone.
© Annette Riedl/dpa/archive image
People hold up protest posters, others lay flowers and light lights.
The wave of protests against right-wing extremists shows no sign of stopping - especially on Memorial Day for the victims of the Holocaust.
Frankfurt - Thousands of people demonstrated again against right-wing extremism in Brandenburg at the weekend.
According to police, around 4,500 people came together in the city center of Frankfurt (Oder).
The protests in many cities in Brandenburg coincided with the International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of the Holocaust on Saturday.
“Never again is now” was the motto at the memorial events.
People laid flowers and commemorated the atrocities of the National Socialists.
Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) promised decisive action by the state against “inhumane” plans by right-wing extremists.
“Less than 80 years after the end of the Hitler regime, plans are being made again to systematically discriminate and harass, disenfranchise and expel people based on their ancestry, their appearance, their origin or their political stance,” said Faeser on Saturday in the Ravensbrück memorial and memorial site in Fürstenberg/Havel.
“We have a responsibility not to allow this to happen.”
Commemorate with white roses
During the memorial event, Faeser and the director of the Ravensbrück Memorial and Memorial, Andrea Genest, threw white roses into Lake Schwedt.
The Interior Minister said: ““Never again” is not an empty phrase, it is the mission of all of us.” According to the city, around 500 people came together in Potsdam on Saturday and sent a signal against forgetting with bright lights in the darkness.
The victims of National Socialism were commemorated with numerous events across the country.
On January 27, 1945, Soviet troops liberated the survivors of the German Auschwitz extermination camp.
The Nazis murdered more than a million people there, mostly Jews.
The date has been celebrated as Holocaust Remembrance Day in Germany since 1996, and the United Nations proclaimed the date a day of remembrance in 2005.
Cities are sending signals against right-wing extremism
“For humanity and tolerance” and “No place for Nazis” could be read on posters held by demonstrators in Frankfurt (Oder).
A broad alliance from several institutions took part in the rally against right-wing extremism on Saturday.
Mayor René Wilke (Left) was also there.
Frankfurt (Oder) has shown that the city is fighting to preserve democracy and raising its voice against right-wing extremism, organizer Jan Augustyniak told the dpa.
“Hate and exclusion are not opinions that should be tolerated in a democracy,” said the Vice President of the European University Viadrina, Janine Nuyken, on the X platform (formerly Twitter).
She spoke at the demonstration.
People also took to the streets in protest against right-wing extremism in numerous other cities, including in Brandenburg/Havel, Lübben and Herzberg (Elster).
The wave of demonstrations was triggered by the announcement of a meeting of radical right-wingers on November 25th in Potsdam, in which AfD politicians and individual members of the CDU and the very conservative Values Union also took part.
The Austrian right-wing extremist Martin Sellner said he spoke about “remigration” at the meeting.
When right-wing extremists use this term, they usually mean that large numbers of people of foreign origin should leave the country - even under duress.
dpa