Germany: Protest after neo-Nazis buried in Jewish musicologist’s grave

Berlin | The burial of a neo-Nazi near Berlin at the tomb of Jewish musicologist Max Friedländer has caused an uproar in the German capital and prompted a complaint by the commissioner about anti-Semitism.

The urn containing the ashes of the neo-Nazis was buried on October 9 in the former cemetery of the world of music, located in the Protestant cemetery in Stansdorf, south of the German capital.

Although there is a tombstone for the musicologist, who died in 1934, this burial was approved by the Protestant religious authorities responsible for managing the cemetery, in the presence of several neo-Nazis, many of whom had already been convicted. Before the courts, according to media reports .. Germans.

During the funeral, a black veil hid the tombstone in front of which the portrait of the deceased was placed and several funeral wreaths, some decorated with an iron cross.

In the face of protest, the Bishop of the Evangelical Church of Berlin-Brandenburg, Christian Stapelin, admitted that “the burial of a denier in the tomb of Max Friedländer was a grave mistake and a horrific event in the light of our history.”

“We must immediately see what we can do” to reverse this situation, he added. However, the local evangelical church had initially given its consent to the burial, arguing that “everyone has the right to a final resting place”.

Berlin’s Commissioner for Combating Anti-Semitism, Samuel Salisborn, announced the filing of a complaint about this “disruption of the peace of the dead” and “defamation of the memory of the dead”.

“The intention here is clear: Right-wing extremists have deliberately chosen a Jewish grave in order to disturb the dead by burying those who deny there,” he attacked, calling for the new ballot box to be quickly removed. Nazism.