A 99-year-old Holocaust survivor has returned his federal order of merit to the German president in protest over MPs passing an anti-immigration motion in parliament with the support of the far-right Alternative für Deutschland party. Albrecht Weinberg, who lost his parents at Auschwitz, said he was “horrified” by the proposal that aims to turn migrants and asylum seekers away from the German border.
Weinberg compared the motion to the Nazi party’s rise to power in 1933, saying that the conservatives’ decision to use the AfD to pass the motion reminded him of how Hitler came to power through legitimate means. He had decided to hand back his medal “very spontaneously” after being upset by the voting in the Bundestag.
Former Chancellor Angela Merkel criticized Friedrich Merz’s decision not to cooperate with the AfD, saying it breached Germany’s taboo against associating mainstream parties with far-right populists. Other survivors, including Eva Umlauf and Luigi Toscano, have also returned their orders of merit in protest.
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jan/30/albrecht-weinberg-auschwitz-survivor-return-german-honour-over-afd-vote-role