Holocaust-surviving wine grave warns Merz: Stay human!

Holocaust-surviving wine grave warns Merz: Stay human!

Lodz, Polen - Leon Weintraub, a 99-year-old Holocaust survivor, has practiced sharp criticism in an open letter to the CDU Chancellor Friedrich Merz. As ksta.de , Weintraub calls "urgent corrections" in German migration policy, but rejects the "unconstitutional and right-wing form", which is currently being discussed. The letter published in the "taz" refers to the failed "inflow limitation law", which was rejected in the Bundestag after it was passed by a Union application with the votes of the AfD.

Weintraub, who comes from a Jewish family in Lodz and survived Auschwitz-Birkenau, makes it clear in his letter that he appeals to Merz not to listen to the "calls of the right". He calls on the CDU politician to respect asylum law as a human right and to avert the right-wing radical parties. Wine robbery describes the rejected law as "misanthropic" and warns of xenophobia and social polarization.

Criticism of the influx limitation law

The influx limitation law is currently being discussed in public, in particular on the hostility to xenophobia expressed. taz.de reports that the Greens have removed two decisive terms from the law, which should be inserted again: "Control and limitation of the influx of foreigners". The current legal text only refers to the control of an unlimited influx. In addition, family reunification for people with subsidiary protection is to be ended until further notice, which is based on the need to integrate several million asylum seekers.

The law also stipulates that the federal police should receive powers in order to determine foreigners who are not entitled to residence. However, the proponents of the law emphasize that there is no space for racism or xenophobia and that no border closures are intended. Nevertheless, it becomes clear in the public debate that the law would hardly change the influx of asylum seekers.

reactions of survivors and contemporary witnesses

The political debate about migration policy has also affected other Holocaust survivors such as Albrecht Weinberg. Like tagesschau.de , Weinberg announced that he would return his Federal Cross of Merit to exertion the migration policy with votes from the AfD in the Bundestag. He described his decision as spontaneous and expressed his lack of understanding of how the approval of the Bundestag was the five-point plan of the Union.

The photographer Luigi Toscano also plans to return his honor from 2021. Together with Weinberg, he is considering either being received by the Federal President or throwing the awards in his mailbox. Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier has already announced that it would invite the two survivors for a conversation. The International Auschwitz Committee shows understanding for the decisions of the vineyard and Toscano, while the discussion about migration policy and the associated laws continue.

Weintraub himself, who studied medicine after the war in Göttingen and worked as a gynecologist in Warsaw, has been presenting lectures as a contemporary witness of the Nazi era for many years. These events are often organized by the Maximilian-Kolbe plant in Freiburg and serve to maintain the memory of the horrors of the Holocaust and to act as a warning against current social developments.