Category: Aryan Nazi Supremacism

JTA reports from Germany:
— “New German Memorial Honors Nazis, Ignores Jews”
— “A controversy has erupted in a German town over a new memorial that critics say honors SS soldiers and ignores Jewish Holocaust victims.”
— “The interfaith German-Israel Society says the memorial to be unveiled Nov. 15 in Grossburgwedel, near Hannover, recognizes members of the notorious Blackshirts. But the mayor of Burgwedel, which has jurisdiction over Grossburgwedel, rejects the charge.”
— ” ‘We were accused of honoring SS members, and we are definitely not doing that,’ Mayor Hendrik Hoppenstedt told JTA.”
— “While five members of the SS blackshirts are among those named on the memorial, he said, they were never charged with any war crimes and are not receiving any special honor.”
— “The concept of dual remembrance is controversial in Germany.”
— “Towns and cities throughout Germany have war memorials, but Grossburgwedel had nothing for its World War II soldiers. When older residents of Grossburgwedel proposed the idea some years ago, Hoppenstedt said, the town decided to have two memorials: one for civilian victims, the other for military ones.”
— “Local Jewish leaders were consulted, and Michael Fuerst, head of the State Association of Jewish Communities in Lower Saxony, told the mayor that his organization did not want Jewish names included since the other stone might bear the names of SS members.”
— ” ‘There was no problem with simple soldiers, but the Jewish community could not accept there being SS and Gestapo there,’ Fuerst told JTA.”
— “Hoppenstedt said professional research was conducted to determine whether any of the soldiers ‘had any hints of war crimes in their files. We found nothing.’ ”
— “Clues that a sixth soldier had been in the SD, a so-called security service connected to the Gestapo, could not be confirmed. The decision was made not to excise any of the six names.”
— “Fuerst said the mayor informed him immediately once a decision had been made.”
— ” ‘I told the mayor that I respected him, but that the Jewish community still could not approve of having Jewish victims on one stone and SS people included on the other,’ Fuerst said, adding that a main square in Grossburgwedel is named after Jewish doctor Albert David, who took his life in 1941 when the Gestapo came to arrest him.”
— “Schweigmann-Greve in a statement last Friday said it was regrettable that local citizens, ‘given the choice of including members of Nazi organizations or Jewish citizens of Burgwedel, decided against including the Jews.'”

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