Ahead of the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, Holocaust survivor Eva Umlauf criticized Germany’s memory culture and the designated Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU). Speaking to the “Spiegel” she said, “I can no longer bear these Germans who constantly pity themselves for their war experiences.” Many Germans engage in a “perpetrator-victim inversion” she argued, because they often forget that the atrocities committed by the Nazis were the reason why Germany was bombarded in the first place. Due to their tendency to avoid confronting the past, Umlauf believes that many Germans today are politically naive: “They seem to me often unable to see what is coming.” She also criticized the CDU’s joint declaration with the AfD in the Bundestag at the end of January, stating, “If someone like Merz does such a thing, then he must simply lack a sense of history. And if he believes the AfD is not as dangerous as it actually is.” Umlauf views the high approval ratings for the AfD in East Germany critically, arguing that people who lived in the DDR should know what the Soviet Union was capable of. She believes that if they remembered the many people who died on the Berlin Wall and the many children who had to be taken into care due to their parents being sent to prison, they would not choose the AfD and complain about their situation. The 82-year-old Umlauf lives in Munich as a physician and psychotherapist. She survived the concentration camp Auschwitz as a child.
Holocaust Survivor Slams Merz for Ignorance Amid Rising AfD Support
