In Berlin Christoph Heubner, Executive Vice President of the International Auschwitz Committee, made a statement focussing on the decision of Rostock city council and the voting behaviour of its various groups concerning the planned performance by the singer Xavier Naidoo in the Hanseatic city:

“After many years of erratically rambling performances in the populist scene, Xavier Naidoo has meanwhile finished up in the camp of right-wing extremist conspiracy theorists and despisers of democracy, whose basic repertoire of messages always includes anti-Semitic hatred, the relativization and the denial of the Holocaust.

Naidoo has long since become established as a symbolic figure in this milieu, and each of his performances is celebrated as a victory over ‘the hated system’. The events surrounding the singer’s planned concert in Rostock are a prime example of how the far right ridicules the democratic state and its institutions, whenever democratic parties fail to act together against right-wing extremist and anti-Semitic forces.

It is unbearable for survivors of the Holocaust to witness how a singer, who blatantly spreads anti-Semitic clichés, can be provided with a public stage in an open-minded city. And it is equally unbearable for them to witness how the democratic groups in the city council are failing to take a joint stand or, as in the case of the Greens, abstain from voting for tactical purposes.

Especially in the present situation, where anti-Semitic sentiments are being increasingly stirred, and potentially violent, right-wing groups are actively targeting democracy, the survivors see this signal from Rostock as a grim reminder and a clear warning of their own horrific experiences.”