Anti-Semitic Incidents Increase in Berlin

Anti-Semitic incidents in Berlin increased by 17 percent in the first half of 2021 compared to the same period last year. In a roughly 50-page report, the Research and Information Center on Anti-Semitism Berlin announced on Thursday that it recorded 522 anti-Semitic incidents, an average of almost three every day. There were 211 incidents just in May. That’s “more than in any other month since [the research center] began systematic documentation in 2015,” Welt noted (Trumpet translation throughout).

The research center reported 12 violent attacks; 22 cases of damaged property; 15 threats; 447 cases of “hurtful behavior,” such as statements and online comments; and 26 anti-Semitic mass letters. In 98 incidents, people were directly affected; 87 of those were Jewish, Israeli or “addressed as such.” Of the affected institutions, 252 of the 292 were also Jewish or Israeli.

Berlin’s anti-Semitism commissioner, Samuel Salzburg, indicated that incidents become more frequent when anti-Semites find excuses to justify their hatred. Hence we have seen a surge amid the pandemic and every time Israel is involved in a conflict. The Berlin research center attributed 251 cases to Israel-related anti-Semitism.

Anti-Semitism is becoming a part of the collective thinking in Germany.

A representative study commissioned by the Central Council of Jews revealed that 92 percent of Germans polled agreed with the statement, “I have nothing against Jews”; only 57 percent agreed with,”I have nothing against Zionists.” Many Germans question the Jews’ right to have their own state. That’s shocking considering Germany, two generations back, sought to eliminate all Jewish life. Twenty-one percent of Germans agree that “what Jews are doing to Palestinians today” is, in principle, “no different from what the National Socialists did to Jews.” “Israel is demonized and delegitimized by this statement, and the National Socialist extermination of Jews is implicitly trivialized,” Welt noted on November 10.

Germany just inaugurated a new government, but addressing these issues seems to be at the bottom of its priority list. Politico wrote: “One of the most striking features of the traffic-light coalition’s sales pitch is how much space it devotes to progressive causes. … The pact’s chapter on ‘queer life’ is nearly three times as long as the section on Jews, a fact that prompted raised eyebrows in some quarters given the recent surge in anti-Semitic attacks in Germany.”

Katja Hoyer, a German-British historian and expert in modern German history, noted in the Daily Mail concerning the new government: “I am also appalled at how little consideration is given to the rising threat to Germany’s Jewish communities. Anti-Semitic crime rose by 16 percent in 2020 alone. Numbers have increased dramatically since 2015, setting horrifying new records each year.”

Before the 1930s, the Jewish community in Germany had around 560,000 members. Since then, the community has shrunk to around 95,000. But the hatred for them has dramatically increased. In his article “Anti-Semitism: Why You Should Be Alarmed,” theTrumpet.com managing editor Brad Macdonald wrote:

Much like it is today, hatred toward Jews was politically fashionable and socially acceptable in Britain and the rest of Europe during the 1930s. Historian William Manchester noted this trend in his book The Last Lion. …

In Germany, the persecution of Jews had been adopted as state policy nearly a decade before the war began. By the mid-’30s, bullying Jews was virtually a national sport. Across the country, wrote Manchester, “motion picture theaters, shops and restaurants were displaying prominent signs reading ‘Juden unerwünscht’ (‘Jews not welcome’). Day-to-day existence was becoming increasingly difficult for non-Aryans. ‘Fur Juden kein zutritt’ (‘Jews not admitted’) placards hung outside grocery and butchers’ shops; they could not enter dairies to buy milk for their infants, or pharmacies to fill prescriptions, or hotels to find lodging. At every turn they were taunted ….”

This global anti-Semitism came with significant consequences. Because hatred of Jews was in style and enormously pervasive, Western leaders during the 1930s were largely blind to the apocalyptic destination of the raging anti-Semitic river. In this sense, the subliminal support given by British, European and American governments and society to Hitler’s anti-Jewish ideology and policies actually made the gas-chamber-style anti-Semitism of the 1940s inevitable!

History’s warning is thunderous and undeniable: Pre-World War ii trends in Britain, America and Europe show that anti-Semitism is a barometer of crisis!

The Bible reveals that Satan is the “god of this world” (2 Corinthians 4:4). Revelation 12:9 says that Satan has deceived the whole world. Ephesians 2:2 says that he works in the minds of people. If you believe the Bible, you have to accept these scriptures and the fact that they reveal that we live in an evil world that is about to get a lot worse.

But God allows this suffering and persecution to turn His people back to Him. Notice what is recorded in Hosea 6: “Come, and let us return unto the Lord: for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up” (verse 1). Soon the whole world will learn how it has been deceived by the devil and will come to this kind of repentance.

To learn more, read our article “The One Minority Society Loves to Hate.” It explains why Jews are persecuted more than any other minority and refers to other literature that can help you further understand the cause of this phenomenon and God’s plan to intervene in His time.