Representatives of the churches also warn of growing hatred and anti-Semitism. In an article for “Kathpress”, the Linz diocesan bishop Manfred Scheuer denounced the increasing tendency to downplay or even deny the events of the Holocaust.
“It is unbearable to equate the current governments in Austria or in Europe with the Nazi regime, with dictatorship. It is completely unacceptable when there is shouting or writing about a repetition of the history of National Socialism in the present,” writes Scheuer – and asks: “How far is it from relativizing the Holocaust to repeating it?”
In view of repeated Nazi allusions to demonstrations by opponents of Corona measures, National Council President Wolfgang Sobotka (VP) wants to have a new criminal offense of anti-Semitism checked.
“If you do the Hitler salute today, it’s a punishable offence. But if someone wears the Star of David or marches at a demonstration with slogans like ‘We are the new Jews?’, that has no criminal consequences. Contempt for the victims of the Nazis regime must be a criminal offence,” demands Sobotka, according to the Kleiner Zeitung. The Jewish community in Vienna welcomes the initiative. “Especially in connection with the pandemic, we are seeing a significant increase in the downplaying of the Shoah and the spread of anti-Semitic conspiracy myths,” says IKG President Oskar Deutsch. EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen also condemned anti-Semitic excesses at Corona demos yesterday.
Numerous commemorative events are taking place in Austria today to mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
Source: Nachrichten
