A Holocaust survivor has said he will return his federal order of merit award to Germany.
Albrecht Weinberg‘s decision comes after a parliamentary majority was secured with cooperation from the far-right for the first time since the Second World War.
The 99-year-old survived the Nazi death camps at Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen. He was first condemned to forced labour in 1939 – and was freed on 15 April 1945.
He saw his parents led to a gas chamber and 39 other members of his family were also killed during the Holocaust.
Mr Weinberg told AFP on Thursday: “I want to give it [the order of merit] back after the parties joined forces with the right-wing radicals.”
The so-called ‘influx limitation bill” would have brought an end to family reunions for migrants and given federal police more power to carry out deportations.
Although it was ultimately blocked – rejected with 350 votes against and 338 votes in support – a preliminary vote on Wednesday narrowly passed.
The Conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) opposition pushed through the non-binding motion with the help of Alternative for Germany (AfD), which German parties have always informally agreed never to work with.
The motion called for Germany to turn back more migrants at its border.
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For many, the CDU’s cooperation with the AfD represents breaking the taboo of working with the far-right.
The AfD, which is currently under state surveillance under suspicions of far-right extremism, has sparked controversy before for criticising Germany’s Holocaust remembrance commemorations.
Last Monday, the 80-year anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz was marked by politicians and world leaders.
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Other survivors follow suit
Commenting on the vote, another Auschwitz survivor, Eva Umlauf, 82, compared it to 1930s Germany before Hitler’s Nazis took power.
“We all know how German politicians once thought they could cooperate with Hitler and the Nazi party. Keep them in check,” she said in an open letter to the Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper.
“And in just a few years, our democracy became a dictatorship. Peace became war,” she said.
Luigi Toscano, a photographer whose project ‘Lest We Forget’ shares the stories of Holocaust survivors, also said he would return his order of merit.
“Yesterday, the CDU betrayed our democratic values with a resolution and the support of a party that is partly designated as right-wing extremist,” Toscano wrote in an Instagram post earlier this week.
Germany is due to hold a general election on 23 February, and the Christian Democratic Union (CDU)/Christian Social Union (CSU) bloc, currently polling at about 30%, is expected to win.
The CDU leader Freidrich Merz has proposed tightening migration controls in response to a series of recent high-profile killings by people with immigrant backgrounds.
