The reported attack on a Jewish restaurant in the eastern German city of Chemnitz has shocked the Jewish community in Germany. The government’s anti-Semitism commissioner has spoken of a “new quality” of offense.
A Jewish restaurant in Chemnitz was attacked by a group of neo-Nazis at the end of August, and criticized authorities for downplaying the seriousness of the situation in the city.
“The reports of the attack by neo-Nazis on the kosher restaurant “Schalom” in Chemnitz shocked me,” Josef Schuster, the president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, said in Berlin on September 9.
“I do not understand the attempts by some politicians and representatives of security authorities to whitewash the situation in Chemnitz,” he said, adding that “attempted reassurance and a lack of distance to right-wing populists plays right into the hands of such elements.”
“It is five past midnight,” Schuster said. “The obvious efforts of constitutional authorities to trivialize these incidents makes me have serious doubts about their work.”
Source: DW
