Merkel calls threats, attacks against Jews in Germany ‘disgrace’

Chancellor Angela Merkel said Monday it was a “disgrace” that Jews in Germany faced insults, threats or violence, as she marked 70 years since the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp. Merkel joined survivors of the former camp, created by Nazi Germany in southern Poland, for a somber event ahead of Tuesday’s anniversary, and said the fact that synagogues and Jewish institutions had to be guarded by police was like a “stain on our country”. She also referred to the deadly attacks earlier this month in Paris, in which 17 people were killed, including four Jews. Calling Islamic terrorism and anti-Semitism the “two big evils of our time” she stressed the unity of people of different faiths.

If European Jews can no longer feel safe none of us can feel safe.

Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier on the deadly attack on a kosher supermarket in Paris