FRANKFURT: As the world remembers Auschwitz, the German far right has pushed back against the country’s tradition of Holocaust remembrance, now with backing from US tech billionaire Elon Musk.

“I think there’s too much of a focus on past guilt and we need to move beyond that,” the ally of US President Donald Trump told an Alternative for Germany (AfD) rally in video discussion at the weekend.

“Children should not be guilty for the sins of their great grandparents,” he told supporters of the AfD, an anti-immigration party he has strongly supported ahead of February 23 elections.

Musk’s comments flew in the face of those made by Chancellor Olaf Scholz to mark 80 years since the liberation of the extermination camp in what was Nazi-occupied Poland and on the “civilisational rupture” of the Holocaust.

“Every single person in our country bears responsibility, regardless of their own family history, regardless of the religion or birthplace of their parents or grandparents,” Scholz said in a speech.

Musk’s comments were all the more divisive as they came ahead of Monday’s 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, where more than one million Jewish people and over 100,000 others died between 1940 and 1945. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, whose country is hosting commemorations, was quick to criticise slogans made at Saturday’s rally, although he did not mention Musk by name.

“The words we heard from the main actors of the AfD rally about ‘Great Germany’ and ‘the need to forget German guilt for Nazi crimes’ sounded all too familiar and ominous,” the Polish leader wrote on X. “Especially only hours before the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz”.

Scholz, who went to Poland for the anniversary events, responded to Tusk’s message: “I couldn’t agree more, dear Donald.”

‘Historical amnesia’

Remembrance of the Nazis’ genocide of Jews and other atrocities has for decades been a central feature of German politics and society as the country seeks to atone for its past.

Schoolchildren are taught about the Holocaust and German political leaders frequently declare “never again”. But the AfD, now polling in second place on around 20 percent, has long courted controversy by calling for Germany to stop focusing on atoning for its World War II crimes, including the genocide of six million European Jews.

One of its former leaders, Alexander Gauland, once notoriously described the Nazi era as just “a speck of bird poo” in German history. Last year Bjoern Hoecke, one of the AfD’s most radical leaders, was convicted and fined twice for using a banned Nazi slogan, “Alles fuer Deutschland” (Everything for Germany).

Despite its popularity, the AfD is unlikely to enter government after the February 23 polls, as all mainstream parties have ruled out working with it. And many Germans remain fiercely opposed to the party. Tens of thousands rallied in cities across the country on Saturday against the far right.

Nevertheless the German political establishment is increasingly worried that the far right’s views are gaining traction.

Published in Dawn, January 28th, 2025

“Our culture of remembrance is facing fundamental challenges,” Culture Minister Claudia Roth said Monday. “Disinformation, conspiracy theories and hate speech can now spread almost without limit in important social media,” she said.