German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier has expressed regret over the announcement of two Bundesverdienstkreuz recipients returning their orders in protest against the AfD’s increased influence in the German parliament. A spokesperson for Steinmeier told the Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland (RND) that the President would be “very sorry” to see the return of the orders and would invite the two individuals to a meeting.
Holocaust survivor Albrecht Weinberg and photographer Luigi Toscano had announced their decision to return their respective Bundesverdienstkreuz orders, citing the AfD’s increased influence in the German parliament as the reason for their protest. They had told the RND that they wanted to express their discontent with the development.
In response, the President’s office highlighted the achievements of the two individuals, noting that Steinmeier had awarded the Holocaust survivor Albrecht Weinberg the Verdienstorden in 2017 for his personal efforts in educating schoolchildren about the Nazi atrocities. The President had also awarded Toscano in 2021 for his globally recognized portraits of Holocaust survivors, which he said kept the memory of the Holocaust alive.
The President’s office also referred to Steinmeier’s speech in the Bundestag’s Gedenkstunde for the victims of National Socialism, in which he emphasized that the Shoah was an integral part of Germany’s identity and that there was no end to the responsibility of remembering the past.
The International Auschwitz Committee showed understanding for the decision of the order recipients, with its Executive Vice President, Christoph Heubner, stating that the view of the survivors on Germany was darkening. “They ask themselves why the leader of a major conservative party, which has so far respected the lessons of history and the dignity and life’s work of Holocaust survivors, now finds the cooperation with a party that wants to discard the lessons of history and the dignity and life’s work of Holocaust survivors acceptable” Heubner said.
Weinberg, a 99-year-old survivor of the Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen concentration camps, told the RND that he had felt a great honor when he received the Bundesverdienstkreuz in 2017, but now he no longer wanted to keep it.
Toscano, known for his project “Lest we forget” and public exhibitions of portraits of survivors, said that democratic parties were “forcing a majority with votes from right-wing extremists for a pure power demonstration” and that this was a betrayal of democracy. He could not and would not explain to Holocaust survivors that a party that would soon govern Germany was cooperating with right-wing extremists in parliament.